Swedish boat pulls into Boston first in Volvo

The genial spring weather gave a deceptive picture of the privations 70 sailors have put up with in their marathon race that has taken them from Europe to South Africa, China, and South America.

Boston is the only North American stop on the 37,000-mile trek.

In glassy seas off the finish line, Sweden's Ericsson 4 crawled slowly toward a win in Leg 6, and an increase in its overall lead.

Well within sight came the second Swedish boat, Ericsson 3, as the two staged a relatively close finish after the 4,700-mile jaunt from Rio de Janeiro.

Puma, the Boston-based US entry skippered by three-time America's Cup skipper Ken Read - once a member of the Ericsson team - finished fourth, which dropped it into third place in the overall standings by a half-point.

In third place for the Boston leg was Telefonica Blue, a Spanish entry that led the leg briefly, and took over second place from Puma. As the breeze rose from the north less than 10 miles from the finish, Telefonica Blue closed to within 350 yards of Ericsson 3.

Yesterday's winner, Ericsson 4, with legendary Portuguese skipper Torben Grael, sailed slowly into a platoon of spectator craft and circling news helicopters before completing the last few miles to the finish line just off Fan Pier in South Boston.

Ghosting along at less than 10 knots with bowman Ryan Godfrey perched in the rigging 100 feet up to spot wind lines on the water, Ericsson 4 did find a bit more wind as it approached the harbor and heeled slightly, accelerating to about 12 knots.

As Ericsson 4 turned down the channel into President Roads, then swung south to Fan Pier, huge crowds lined the jetty and walkways around Volvo Village, built on Fan Pier for race events taking place the next two weeks.

Grael, five-time Olympic medalist and an America's Cup veteran tactician, said that the leg was in question all the way from Rio.

"I think our guys did a great job pushing the boat," said Grael. "When we came out of the trade winds we had our first opportunity, our first key moment.

"We had to go through a cold front, and as we came out of it [navigator Jules Salter] did a fantastic job in our position. We got the lead there, but it wasn't easy to hold. It was a big fight all the way.

"Then the air went light and [Ericsson 3] began to catch up. We could see them closing by eye. There was nothing we could do because the wind was filling from behind."

Boats in the race are Volvo Open 70s, state-of-the-art racing machines. They are capable of speeds that can cover nearly 600 miles in a 24-hour period. In fact, the 600-mile day is a barrier that many racers believe could be broken in the next leg to Galway, Ireland.

Having evolved from the original world-rounding Whitbread race, the Volvo race began a decade ago and has an alumni list - Dennis Conner, Chris Dickson, Paul Cayard, Grant Dalton, and the late Sir Peter Blake - that reads more like sailing's Hall of Fame,

The present Volvo race makes 11 stops, having started in Alicante, Spain, last October for the first leg to Cape Town, South Africa, a 6,500-mile trip. From there, the fleet made a 4,500-mile run to Kochi, India, 1,950 miles to Singapore, and 2,500 miles to Qingdao, China. That set up the longest stretch of the race, a 12,300-mile run to Rio, then 4,700 miles to Boston. On May 15, the fleet races to Galway, then Goteborg, Sweden, then to Stockholm, and a final leg to St. Petersburg, Russia, for a finish around June 27.