Just moments after PUMA claimed their fist leg victory and Telefónica completed one of the greatest sporting comebacks, the sailors talked on the dock:
PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG skipper Ken Read:
"We've never seen such an amazing welcome. I don't know who all these people are but they seem to know us so I'm looking forward to getting to know them. I've never done such a tough offshore leg in my life. We ran out of food a day and a half ago so we haven't eaten for a day and a half. It's been pretty intense. Our hearts go out to the crews who have suffered damage. We know what that's like and it's even worse when it's in a place like the Southern Ocean.
I’ve never seen more people at a sailing event ever. It’s a little overwhelming actually.
There hasn’t been a lot of sleep, I’ll tell you that. I don’t remember the last time I actually laid down as well as most of the guys on the boat. Telefónica just had this unbelievable weather window and just kept roaring in. Even in the last 10 hours of the race they all but passed us twice, but no one quit on this boat. It was a really cool atmosphere on the boat actually, everyone knew it was going to be light and weird and kind of relished it. I’m very proud of the boys for hanging in there.
They did a last desperate hook out to sea to try to find something and about halfway through that we realised it was time to smile a little bit, it wasn’t until then, about 15 minutes before the race ended, it was a good feeling.
The boat builders, designers and engineers, especially the shore team, those guys are the unsung heroes they don’t get a lot of credit and they deserve very much equal billing often, especially in a leg like this.
You know what, we had a strategy we talked about it a lot as a group, how we were going to approach our leg, what were our priorities, and we stayed true to that and I’m very proud of that. And we got lucky, it’s easy to sit here and toot your horn on how you sailed your boat but that one wave that we were almost airborne on if it had been two seconds later maybe we would have been airborne, you just don’t know.
When Groupama dropped their rig I sent Franck a message, if he wants to go to our friendly little island we know all the contact numbers, we know how to get them in touch. That was terrible. We had a good dog fight going with those guys and they were sailing really well. We felt bad for them, because we know exactly how they felt. It was just lucky they were 50 miles from land.
Our intentions have always been to do things like this. It’s been great we’ve been on the podium quite often, but it’s been disappointing that we haven’t won a leg so far, and we think we deserve this leg win, we’re proud of it and we’re going to celebrate it for a bit then we’re going to get back to it for a bit and then we’re going to get back to work because there’s a lot more sailing to be done.
PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG navigator Tom Addis:
"It was an epic finish. It was fantastic. It went on and on. Telefónica had a glamour run but it’s just a shame Groupama couldn’t have been finishing a couple of boat lengths behind us. Tough break for them. We rounded Cape Horn and we knew we had a pretty tough run up the coast but Telefónica just came up behind us without a hitch and it was really close at the end. You get that though.
It was an all-round leg. There’s the Southern Ocean which is full-on preservation mode but once you’re round the corner there’s lots of tactical stuff, lots of light air, so it’s a good one to win for that reason.
We’ve got a lot of experience on this boat – guys like Brad and Tony just keep the boat together. Knowing when to push and when not to is a big thing. We were probably the first boat to back off and I think that shows. Sometimes you’re not racing anywhere near 100 per cent but that’s fine because you’re not fast when you’re broken."
Team Telefónica skipper Iker Martínez:
"Just to be here at all is fantastic because it didn't look like that would be possible for a long time. Every leg has proven that you don't only need the best sailing team, but also the best shore crew and we have that, as they proved again. We're very tired and the boat will be very tired too. It needs a lot of work. The shore crew will be very busy.
Four days ago we were not thinking about this at all. It was pretty amazing that we were able to catch these guys. The weather was perfect for us so we were very lucky in that sense. Everyone was dreaming about having a chance and at the end we got that chance. The PUMA guys were doing a great job and they won, so congratulations to them.
You can imagine though that we’re very happy – this result is very important to us for the overall race. I’m super happy because the shore crew did a fantastic job helping us to fix the boat in a very short period of time. It was a very important leg for us. I’m very sorry for the Groupama guys because dismasting is something that shouldn’t happen to anyone. I just hope they’re going to come back soon. Now we just have to have rest and repair our boat because she did a very hard job and had a very good leg and helped us a lot."
From : Volvo Ocean Race
PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG skipper Ken Read:
"We've never seen such an amazing welcome. I don't know who all these people are but they seem to know us so I'm looking forward to getting to know them. I've never done such a tough offshore leg in my life. We ran out of food a day and a half ago so we haven't eaten for a day and a half. It's been pretty intense. Our hearts go out to the crews who have suffered damage. We know what that's like and it's even worse when it's in a place like the Southern Ocean.
I’ve never seen more people at a sailing event ever. It’s a little overwhelming actually.
There hasn’t been a lot of sleep, I’ll tell you that. I don’t remember the last time I actually laid down as well as most of the guys on the boat. Telefónica just had this unbelievable weather window and just kept roaring in. Even in the last 10 hours of the race they all but passed us twice, but no one quit on this boat. It was a really cool atmosphere on the boat actually, everyone knew it was going to be light and weird and kind of relished it. I’m very proud of the boys for hanging in there.
They did a last desperate hook out to sea to try to find something and about halfway through that we realised it was time to smile a little bit, it wasn’t until then, about 15 minutes before the race ended, it was a good feeling.
The boat builders, designers and engineers, especially the shore team, those guys are the unsung heroes they don’t get a lot of credit and they deserve very much equal billing often, especially in a leg like this.
You know what, we had a strategy we talked about it a lot as a group, how we were going to approach our leg, what were our priorities, and we stayed true to that and I’m very proud of that. And we got lucky, it’s easy to sit here and toot your horn on how you sailed your boat but that one wave that we were almost airborne on if it had been two seconds later maybe we would have been airborne, you just don’t know.
When Groupama dropped their rig I sent Franck a message, if he wants to go to our friendly little island we know all the contact numbers, we know how to get them in touch. That was terrible. We had a good dog fight going with those guys and they were sailing really well. We felt bad for them, because we know exactly how they felt. It was just lucky they were 50 miles from land.
Our intentions have always been to do things like this. It’s been great we’ve been on the podium quite often, but it’s been disappointing that we haven’t won a leg so far, and we think we deserve this leg win, we’re proud of it and we’re going to celebrate it for a bit then we’re going to get back to it for a bit and then we’re going to get back to work because there’s a lot more sailing to be done.
PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG navigator Tom Addis:
"It was an epic finish. It was fantastic. It went on and on. Telefónica had a glamour run but it’s just a shame Groupama couldn’t have been finishing a couple of boat lengths behind us. Tough break for them. We rounded Cape Horn and we knew we had a pretty tough run up the coast but Telefónica just came up behind us without a hitch and it was really close at the end. You get that though.
It was an all-round leg. There’s the Southern Ocean which is full-on preservation mode but once you’re round the corner there’s lots of tactical stuff, lots of light air, so it’s a good one to win for that reason.
We’ve got a lot of experience on this boat – guys like Brad and Tony just keep the boat together. Knowing when to push and when not to is a big thing. We were probably the first boat to back off and I think that shows. Sometimes you’re not racing anywhere near 100 per cent but that’s fine because you’re not fast when you’re broken."
Team Telefónica skipper Iker Martínez:
"Just to be here at all is fantastic because it didn't look like that would be possible for a long time. Every leg has proven that you don't only need the best sailing team, but also the best shore crew and we have that, as they proved again. We're very tired and the boat will be very tired too. It needs a lot of work. The shore crew will be very busy.
Four days ago we were not thinking about this at all. It was pretty amazing that we were able to catch these guys. The weather was perfect for us so we were very lucky in that sense. Everyone was dreaming about having a chance and at the end we got that chance. The PUMA guys were doing a great job and they won, so congratulations to them.
You can imagine though that we’re very happy – this result is very important to us for the overall race. I’m super happy because the shore crew did a fantastic job helping us to fix the boat in a very short period of time. It was a very important leg for us. I’m very sorry for the Groupama guys because dismasting is something that shouldn’t happen to anyone. I just hope they’re going to come back soon. Now we just have to have rest and repair our boat because she did a very hard job and had a very good leg and helped us a lot."
From : Volvo Ocean Race
