At 17:44 GMT (1944 local time) today, PUMA, skippered by America's Ken Read, a first-time skipper in this event, crossed the finish line today in Cape Town to take second place in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race, after 22 days, five hours, 44 minutes and 50 seconds (22:05:44:50).

PUMA's three-point score for the in-port race in Alicante, plus the three points she notched up by rounding Fernando de Noronha in third place, added to the seven points she bagged for second place in this leg, secures second place overall for this team, but only by one point. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA) leads with 14 points.

On stepping ashore to a riotous welcome from a huge Cape Town crowd, Ken Read said "Seeing where we've come from - there was no such thing as PUMA Ocean Racing a year ago, second place is great. I am very proud of our sailors, our team as a whole, from the boat builders to the office staff."

Navigator Andrew Cape / AUS added, "It was a great race, with a great team. We are still learning, and for us this first leg was a learning experience. We had a good leg but Ericsson was lucky to ride that front all the way here. They made it look easy. It was tight out there, but that is what racing is about. No boats were mega fast or slow, it was a great race."

A consistent performance by Ken Read and his crew has seen PUMA very rarely out of the top three on a tough leg, which had all ranges of conditions. Not having had the opportunity to two-boat tune with other Volvo 70s prior to the start of the race, Read quickly attached PUMA to Ericsson 4 and, he says, benefitted hugely by racing, often in sight of, Ericsson 4.

"We like our boat, that hasn't changed," he said in the last hours of the leg. "We got faster thanks to a lot of sailing near other boats. We know there are teams better-polished out there and we need to get better to beat them, but we understand what it will take to win this race," he added.

As early as day three, as the fleet cleared Gibraltar and sailed out into the Atlantic, PUMA was surrounded by other boats and by day five, 15 October, PUMA and Ericsson 4 spent a sleepless night trying to shake each other off. "Honestly, I though the racing would be close, but this is ridiculous," said Read that day.

PUMA made a break from the rest of the fleet on day six, and gybed onto a westerly course shaking off Ericsson, but only briefly. Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE) filled Ericsson 4's place and the two-boat tuning continued as PUMA entered the oily stillness of the Doldrums.

At the scoring gate of Fernando de Noronha, day 13, PUMA rounded in third place and the top four boats were shoehorned together, their points on the leader board showing equal six. It was a nail-biting time for PUMA and the rest of the fleet as they prepared for the westerly gales forecast on day 17. Adding to the pressure was the closeness of their rival Ericsson 4 who was within four miles of the black cat. The gap closed to 100 metres on day 18, 28 October, as the tension grew.

Ericsson broke loose on day 19 and PUMA had to settle for second place, briefly playing her Stealth card on day 21 as she secretly gybed north in search of more wind. "We have an Ericsson 4 to kill and a fleet to keep away," wrote French watch captain Sidney Gavignet midway through the cat's StealthPlay. But although the crew pushed as hard as they dared, Ericsson 4 was long gone.

"Congratulations to Ericsson 4. They are the proof that 'pushing hard' now has an entirely new meaning," Ken Read wrote today as he drove PUMA towards the finish in Cape Town.

The next boat expected to finish will be Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE), at approximately 05:00 GMT tomorrow morning.

Leg One Finish Positions (Provisional)
(boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to leader)

1. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) FINISHED
2. PUMA USA (Ken Read / USA) FINISHED

Overall Leaderboard (Provisional)
1. Ericsson 4: 14 points
2. PUMA: 13 points

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Ken Read - skipper

I don't know where to start. I am so proud of our design team and our build team for putting together the boat. Honestly, I think all the guys on our boat have never pushed a boat that hard before.

Hats off to the Ericsson guys. They showed us clearly that there is might be another level that we need to get to. But, that said, I've never gone airborne off the waves before and lived to tell the tale. It's quite a comforting feeling, from here on, knowing how hard you can push. Now we can sit down as a group and figure out where that next speed button is. We are pretty comfortable with where we are at.

I thought we paced ourselves pretty well. It's pretty rare that we had to get guys completely out of their sleeping patterns. A couple of guys got pretty taxed in the windy stuff, because we were down to a smaller group of drivers. I think right now, most people are pretty refreshed. We are ready to go tomorrow. We're ready to go.

We had a few little issues. We had our primary water maker go down when we were off Brazil. That was a little nerve-racking. We actually talked about going into Brazil for a while, but Casey Smith put together a new water maker using a bilge pump. We had some hydraulic keel problems, but structurally we think that the boat is in really good shape.

Seeing where we've come from - there was no such thing as PUMA ocean Racing a year ago - so second place is great. I am very proud of our sailors, our team as a whole, from the boat builders to the office staff.

Andrew Cape - navigator

I haven't sailed into Cape Town for 11 years, it's a great place to arrive. It was a good leg all-in all. Happiness all round. There were bad conditions and most people got through it well. It's a good sign.

We still had a lot of light air in the Med, then the running and then a lot of reaching and then the hard stuff getting here, so it was mixed bag. Because we haven't two boat tested against a new boat, we were learning all the time. We've learnt a lot and I'm very happy with what we have learnt and where we ended up here.

Ericsson 4 did a good job to sail through us when it was windy, but we were finding our own way there, and we were happy with what we were doing. I guess we were second best, but all-in-all, happy.

It was a great race, with a great team. We are still learning, and for us this first leg was a learning experience. We had a good leg but Ericsson was lucky to ride that front all the way here. They made it look easy. It was tight out there, but that is what racing is about. No boats were mega fast or slow, it was a great race.

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.