7:24 PM Wed 16 Dec 2009 GMT
Team Finland has secured their third victory of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race, crossing the finish line in Geraldton, Western Australia, at 1210 local time (0410 GMT).
In what has been the closest race to date, Team Finland finished just 33 minutes ahead of Spirit of Australia, denying the Australian team the home port victory that they were so desperate to achieve. Third place went to Jamaica Lightning Bolt, with the Caribbean team beating Cape Breton Island across the line and claiming their second podium finish of Clipper 09-10.
Commenting on his third victory in four races, winning skipper, Eero Lehtinen, said, 'It's really nice to have finished first in this race since this is the last one for me as skipper of Team Finland. There was some very close racing with Spirit of Australia at the end and we knew they were pushing hard in order to win into their home port, which made us even more determined to take it away from them. Our victory has also been a bit of revenge as they beat us to the scoring gate.'
Eero, who will be will be handing over Team Finland to new skipper, Rob McInally, in Australia, was quick to praise the home team. 'Spirit of Australia has been an absolutely solid team and I have been very impressed with their performance. If there is anyone threatening Team Finland's position at the top of the overall leader board it's the Australian team,' he added.
Stepping onto Australian soil for the first time in two years, Spirit of Australia's skipper, Brendan Hall, said, 'I'm a little disappointed that we weren't able to catch Team Finland but elated with the reception we've received here, it's absolutely amazing!
'My crew has worked really hard and we've done our best. We can stand proud knowing that we've got three scoring gate points and by finishing in second place we have equalled Team Finland's point tally for this race. We've also achieved the goal we set for ourselves to be consistently on the podium, which is great.'
Crowds of supporters, friends and family lined the breakwater to see the finish and a strong wind, gusting 30 knots, kept the boats fully powered up right to the line.
The Southern Ocean leg, which started on 22 November from Cape Town, South Africa, has been a testing one for the novice crews, the 68-foot yachts surfing at speeds in excess of 20 knots down some serious ocean swell. The weather conditions have also been unpredictable, often catching the teams off guard as wind strengths suddenly increased to gale force without warning.
Emil Vartiainen, a 20-year-old student from Helsinki and round the world crew member on Team Finland, enjoyed his Southern Ocean experience, despite it not being quite what he was expecting. 'The Southern Ocean this time wasn't really what we had heard about,' he said. 'The winds were quite variable but we had some good spells when some big low pressures kicked in with some fast downwind sailing.'
As the fleet left the Southern Ocean and headed north towards Geraldton an area of high pressure caused the boats to concertina with some of the yachts so close that they passed within one nautical mile of each other. The final day of racing saw the leading seven teams separated by fewer than forty miles.
Cape Breton Island finished in fourth place, followed by Qingdao, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital and, Uniquely Singapore. California was the final boat to cross the line today in eighth place. Cork, Ireland and Hull & Humber are still making good progress to Western Australia following their collision on the start line in Cape Town.
Once ashore the crews will spend the next few days cleaning their boats and carrying out essential maintenance. The fleet will be berthed at the Batavia Coast Marina, Geraldton, for the duration of the stopover and lifted at various points for their mid-race refits. Once all the work is complete the crews will have time off to enjoy Christmas and New Year in Australia. The race will restart on Sunday 3 January when the boats will race up the Western Australian coast to Singapore and then on to Qingdao in China.
by Clipper Ventures
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