illbruck – John Kostechi in Auckland

by Race Head Quarters Press Office on 4 Jan 2002 ILLBRUCK– John Kostechi on the dockside after finishing fourth in Leg
Three of the Volvo Ocean Race

It was a tight race for us the whole leg. We were in sight of News Corp
and Tyco mainly the whole leg and it went right down to the last few
hundred metres. We are quite happy.

We had some tough breaks, the other teams sailed better than us, we made
some mistakes here and there and we deserved what we got. We are overall
leader at the moment so we’re happy.

We made some tactical errors going into Hobart and got caught in hole
there and then leaving Hobart we got behind Assa and Amer Sports One right
on the first day. We made some tactical and navigational errors there and
then coming in here we made a few mistakes as well. But we will live and
learn from it and we will be better next leg.

Great morale, we have a great team.

Not much damage, we have a broken spinnaker, but nothing really damage.

They (Tyco) are great sailors, they are local here, they know these waters
quite well. We were in a tight battle with News Corp. We gave them the
opportunity to make that move and you take those chances when you are
right behind the lead group.

We have good morale and we learnt a lot in this leg and I think we are
going to come back stronger than ever.