4 March 2012
Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon take second in Punta
The 33-year-old, Italian-Slovak skipper, Marco Nannini, and his 26-year-old Spanish co-skipper, Hugo Ramon, have taken second place in GOR Leg 3 with Class40 Financial Crisis, crossing the finish line in Punta del Este, Uruguay at 08:54:20 local (10:54:20 GMT) on Sunday, completing the 6,300-mile leg through the Pacific and South Atlantic in 35 days 08 hours 54 minutes and 20 seconds.
Passing the island of Isla de Lobos three miles off the Uruguayan coast at sunrise, Financial Crisis beat into the channel between the Puerto de Punta del Este and Isla Gorriti, crossing the finish line as the city began to wake-up to a flawless, cloudless Sunday. Escorted into the marina by two RIBs from the Yacht Club Punta del Este (YCPE), Nannini and Ramon were welcomed by a crowd of well-wishers including the YCPE’s Secretary, Pablo Elola.
With their second visit to the GOR podium following third place in Leg 1, Financial Crisis is up to second place overall on points following Leg 3: “Who would have thought?” laughed Marco Nannini as he stepped onto the concrete quay. “Financial Crisis second overall! It must be a joke?” he added. “We’re really very, very pleased.” Both skippers were on brilliant form as the champagne was sprayed over their Akilaria Class40. “Personally, I had moments when I thought that I don’t want to ever come back here,” recalls Nannini of the 5,000 miles the team spent in the Southern Ocean. “I know it only takes a few drinks afterwards and it’s all forgotten, but there were very tough moments,” he confirms. For Hugo Ramon, the closing stages of Leg 3 were torture: “Maybe the last 50 miles were the hardest for me,” he admits. “Looking back, being in the South was OK, but if you’re so close to land, you want to be on it and just looking at it is very painful!”
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