"We went out there with one goal and one goal only today. To either get ourselves ahead of Telefonica Blue for the day, or finish within one place. What that would do is virtually lock up second place overall in the race. For the first time in our lives, getting on the podium wasn’t that important. Being within one place of Telefonica Blue was.”
“We knew it would be tough, as they [Telefonica Blue] have always been good in these In Port races, especially in that breeze. Sure enough they were great, but we equalled them. We succeeded today. Today goes down in history as one of the best ever days for the PUMA Ocean Racing team. Since we mathematically couldn’t win this race any more [as Ericsson 4 have] second overall is our ultimate goal. Today the team sailed spectacularly, the boat was going really fast. Rob Greenhalgh (GBR) did a great job tactically, especially a couple of really key moves. Our weather team also deserves a special mention, Ken Campbell and Will Oxley have been a massive help to our tactical crew onboard, helping us call the weather on the course. I couldn’t be happier with the entire team and the boat. Today was the ultimate success. Mission accomplished.”
“I think there were about a half a billion boats out there watching us! But they were the best behaved half a billion boats. I have sailed plenty of America’s Cup races and I have never seen a crowd that big before. It was pretty spectacular. Huge kudos to the whole of Stockholm for their massive support, we feel it, and it’s pretty inspirational."
- Ken Read
