Gothenburg (Swden) - Jules Verne\'s trip around the world may have taken 80 days but for the Brasil 1 it took 100 days. This Saturday, when the Brazilian sailboat, the first one ever to compete in this kind of regatta, moors in Gothenburg, Sweden, the final stop of the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race, the sailors will have spent exactly 100 days at sea, competing.

“This is an interesting number but the main thing is that we arrive in Sweden having fulfilled all our goals,” says skipper Torben Grael. “When we began the Brasil 1 project, just finishing on the podium was a goal in itself. We did that with a leg full of anticipation, we won a leg and we showed everybody the way we do things, our point of view,” says two-time Olympic champion, skipper Torben Grael.

The number of days at sea is the total of days it took to complete the nine legs and an average of three hours for each of the seven in-port races. It only includes the number of days that the boat was actually sailing during the second leg, when the Brazilians encountered serious problems with the deck and the loss of their mast. “After everything we went through, I don’t believe anybody imagined that we would get this far in such a good position,” remembers Grael.

Ranked third overall, the Brazilians still have a chance at finishing second overall. To take second place they have to finish four positions ahead of Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean. “We are not giving up the fight but it will be difficult. Their crew is very experienced and they certainly won’t give us much room,” says helmsman André Fonseca.

Spaniard Chuny Bermudez, runner-up in the last Volvo, compares this last leg to a cycling competition. “In the last stages of a cycling race, the most important thing is not to fall down and stay with the competition, because everything is almost sorted out. Of course we’ll fight as hard as we can for the win, but Pirates will surely cover every move we make. Paul Cayard already won this race and will not be easy to run away from him”.

Finishing his fifth Withbread/Volvo Ocean Race, Dutch navigator Marcel van Triest is sailing this last leg with his mission already accomplished. “Having won a leg, being second in the in-port races and achieving a podium position with one leg to go was a really good result for this project. To win this second place would be like putting a cherry on the sundae”.

After the final in-port race of this edition, the overall standing is as follows: 1.- ABN Amro 1 (HOL), 94 points; 2.- Pirates of the Caribbean (USA), 66; 3.- Brasil 1, 62; 4.- Ericsson (SWE), 2; 52,5 ABN Amro 5.- (HOL), 51.5; 6.- Movistar, 48; 7.- Brunel, 12.5.

The Brasil 1 is sponsored by VIVO, Motorola, QUALCOMM, HSBC, Embraer, ThyssenKrupp, NIVEA Sun, Ágora Senior Corretora de Valores and the Brazilian Government through Apex (Trade and Investment Promotion Agency), the Ministry of Industry, Development and Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Sports, with special support from Varig.