The Volvo Ocean Race ended in Kiel, Germany yesterday with two of the races underachievers enjoying their best results and illbruck holding on to beat Assa Abbloy and claim overall victory.
The leg was characterised by light winds and difficult navigational hazards. Of the navigational hazards the biggest was the island of Anholt, roughly half way through the leg. Leading the fleet as they approached the island SEB, News Corp and Tyco chose to pass to the west of the island. This proved to be their undoing. The rest of the fleet took the other option and while they sailed on SEB Tyco and News Corp found themselves becalmed and with a foul tide pushing them in the wrong direction. The three spent four hours under anchor as the rest of the fleet sailed on and it was in these four hours that their race, and chance of third place overall was lost.
Meanwhile the races biggest under performer, djuice, in a turn up for the books led overall race leader illbruck all the way into Kiel. Banking on the light conditions and needing a good result to save some face the djuice team sailed with three crew and a heap of gear off the boat. The move paid off and they were able to hold off illbruck until the finish. This result also catapulted them ahead of SEB in the overall standings leaving the unlucky green boat second to last overall.
With Assa Abbloy unable to put the required five boats between her and illbruck the race favourites were able to hold on for their expected victory. Assa finished second overall but it would have been a much closer result had she been on the pace earlier in the race. Certainly by the end she looked like the quickest boat in the fleet.
Finishing fifth behind the girls on Amer Sports Too was enough for Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One to secure the third and final podium place in the race although Dalton did have to make good on an earlier promise that he would shove a pineapple up his butt should the girls ever beat him once back on dry land! Helped in no small part by his direct opposition being stranded on the wrong side of Anholt island Amer One was able to sailed a conservative second half of the leg into Kiel knowing that her rivals were dead and buried, worried only about where the pineapple would have to be buried later!
The positions for leg 9 and the final overall positions in the race are as follows:
| Yacht Name |
Position Leg 9 |
Position Overall |
Points |
| illbruck |
2 |
1 |
61 |
| Assa Abbloy |
3 |
2 |
55 |
| Amer Sports One |
5 |
3 |
44 |
| Team Tyco |
6 |
4 |
42 |
| News Corp |
7 |
5 |
41 |
| djuice Dragons |
1 |
6 |
33 |
| SEB |
8 |
7 |
32 |
| Amer Sports Too |
4 |
8 |
16 |
