November 2, 2008
PUMA finishes Leg One of Volvo Ocean Race in second place
Cape Town welcomes il mostro
– At 19:44 local (17:44 GMT) the PUMA Ocean Racing team
crossed the finish line to take second place in the first leg of the Volvo
Ocean Race 2008-9. After 23 days at sea and a tough 6,500 nautical miles,
Skipper Ken Read and his crew were welcomed by crowds of thousands at the
V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa.
Sailing their final few miles through table Bay as the sun was setting,
PUMA’s il mostro was greeted with fireworks and champagne on the dock. The
eleven crew stepped onto terra firma for the first time since the Volvo
Ocean Race start in Spain a month ago, thrilled to be reunited with their
families.
Having spent much of the leg locked in a match race with Ericsson 4, PUMA
sailed a solid leg. Skipper Ken Read was pleased with their performance,
meanwhile conscious that this is a ten leg race and there’s a long way to
go yet. He commented: “Seeing that there was no such thing as PUMA Ocean
Racing just over a year and a half ago, second place is great. I am very
proud of our sailors and our team as a whole, from the boat builders and
the design team, to the office staff. Getting here is pretty emotional,
arriving here and seeing the family, a really nice welcome by Cape Town.”
“We’re very, very happy with our first leg and it’s a big relief to be
here, knowing we have a great boat. I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights
over the last year imagining what 37,000 miles of sailing round the world
on a slow boat would be like. And we don’t have a slow boat. So now we’re
in a boat race. And we’re good at boat racing. The guys on this boat were
chosen because we’re good at it. So in this race, don’t count out the PUMA
il mostro team, that’s for sure.”
“We had a few little issues; we had our primary water maker go down off
Brazil - that was a little nerve-wracking. We actually talked about going
into Brazil for a while, but Casey, using a bilge pump, put together a new
water maker. We had a couple of little hydraulic problems, keel issues,
but structurally, we think, the boats in good shape. We felt we were
pushing hard, but clearly we have another gear shift we have to go to be
up there with Ericsson 4. And we’re not going to stop until we find it.”
The Volvo Ocean Race is made up of ten legs, finishing in June 2009 in St.
Petersburg, Russia. Leg Two to India starts from Cape Town on Saturday 15
th November.
By joining the race, PUMA has entered a new premium category and is the
only Sportslifestyle company to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race
2008-09. For more information about the race, team and the PUMA Sailing
collections, please visit www.pumaoceanracing.com
For more information on Puma Ocean Racing, please contact:
Bridgid Murphy or Kate Fairclough
PUMA Ocean Racing
Tel: +1 978 996 5155 or +44 7827 277 517
bridgid.murphy@puma.com or kate.fairclough@puma.com
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