It was not the homecoming he wanted, but PUMA skipper Ken Read put on a brave face when il mostro returned to Boston this evening.

"I just think everybody is happy to be here in what we call home," he said. "Eleven days short of one year ago, this boat was christened by Salma Hayek at the Institute of Contemporary Art next door to us right now. In our Boston to Boston journey round the world since then, we have sailed exactly 48,182 miles on il mostro.

"Great to be back."

The huge number of hollering spectators, native to the city of PUMA's headquarters, suggested it was a welcome arrival. But the slow shake of Read's head a few minutes later suggested there was something else on his mind.

He admitted before the leg began that he was desperately keen to win this of all stages, hoping the victory that had until then eluded his team would come in the town where it all began.

But they were the fourth fastest boat to complete the 4,900-nautical mile course from Rio de Janeiro. The fact they did not win is no huge surprise; his team have proven themselves to be superb contenders in this race, taking podiums at 11 of the 14 scoring opportunities before this leg, but they have never won a leg, in-port race or scoring gate.

And in a cruel twist of fate they ultimately recorded their second-worst result of the race. The fourth place finish, coupled with a fourth at the Fernando de Noronha scoring gate, was only fractionally better than a second leg showing where they suffered serious damage.

"It was an exciting leg, but the result is not what we wanted," explained Sidney Gavignet. "We worked very hard, but fourth does not help us."

Of course the numbers do not paint a fair or totally accurate picture. As recently as the final morning they held third before becoming becalmed, allowing Telefonica Blue to pass. And the fact their position changed almost 40 times from sched-to-sched tells how close the racing was after 15 days of sailing. But Read admitted luck was rarely on their side.

"It wasn't from lack of effort," he said. "It was one of those legs where nothing seemed to go our way. I wish I could say it was effort, or the boat, or the sails, but we just kept tripping over little problems that we didn't trip over on legs past."

"We sailed well but it just didn't really go our way," added Rob Greenhalgh.

The closeness of the racing, which enabled Blue to overtake PUMA this morning, shocked Read. "We were third," he said. "We rounded the first part of the whale exclusion zone one boat length ahead of Telefonica Blue after 4000-plus miles. Ridiculous. We blast reached across for eight hours or so within a hundred yards of each other. And then the wind crapped out. They tacked first, we tacked, they got a little puff and next thing you know they were literally on the horizon. It kind of summed up the leg to be honest with you."

Read, like all the guys involved in this race, is deeply competitive. He has repeatedly rejected claims that his team is out of the running to win overall, but, in finishing fourth, his team has slipped to third overall, 13.5 points adrift of Ericsson 4.

The American has not yet lost hope of overturning the table, but he is realistic of his chances.

"We're not going to stop, that's for sure," he said. "We're not helping ourselves out. Ericsson 4 is going to have to make a pretty big error to not have a couple of coronation legs at the end. They don't make mistakes. When it gets windy they have a gear that nobody else has just now. And you know it's coming and there's nothing you can do about it. I give them a lot of credit. Believe me, there are a lot of teams trying to beat them up and they don't let you do it. So congratulations."

Read's team received their fair share of those on Sunday night, but not in the context they wanted.

By Riath Al-Samarrai  www.volvooceanrace.org

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Last Updated ( Monday, 27 April 2009 )