Assa Abloy finishes second in nine month Volvo Ocean race

by Simon Keijzer on 10 Jun 2002 In a nail biting last leg ASSA ABLOY sailed across the finish line in third
place in front of thousands of German race fans in Kiel. djuice won the leg,
followed by illbruck. The last leg saw some exciting and extremely
frustrating moments for the multinational crew on ASSA ABLOY. The start was
not great but just after midnight things looked up with illbruck in fifth
place and ASSA ABLOY in second. But illbruck managed to fight back and
claimed second spot and the overall victory.

With this final result ASSA ABLOY is 2nd overall in the Volvo Ocean Race.
After almost nine months of racing around the globe through treacherous and
desolate oceans, dodging icebergs, or doldrums, the race winner is finally
decided. illbruck claims first place overall by showing great form from
start to finish. The ASSA ABLOY Racing Team ends successfully with a second
place overall. Third place is for the crew of Amer Sport One.

ASSA ABLOY challenged the German team for the last seven legs. After a good
start of the race but a disappointing result in leg one and two, Neal
McDonald and the crew climbed back up the leader board and nearly managed to
prevent race favourite illbruck from claiming overall victory. Since Sydney
ASSA ABLOY scored the best result of all teams.

ASSA ABLOY was one of the last teams announced and before last in the water.
The team started sail testing less than four months before the start in
Southampton. At that time Dutchman Roy Heiner was still skipper. In July
Neal McDonald joined the team followed by Magnus Olsson in August, being the
last of the twelve crewmembers to be announced.

The Project is unique in set up as it was initiated and led by an
experienced management group (former EF and Intrum Justitia) instead of a
skipper. This eventually led to a successful result on the water as well as
on the commercial side of the project for the ASSA ABLOY Racing Team and its
partners.

The same management group also replaced Roy Heiner by Neal McDonald after
the first leg in South Africa. The new team with McDonald in charge had a
promising start of leg 2 until closer to Australia where the team was too
eager and lost a few places rounding King Island finishing 6th. With a 6th
place overall the team started the new year winning the Sydney Hobart and
eventually the third leg. Ever since ASSA ABLOY outperformed the rest of the
fleet with two more wins in Miami (leg 5) and in Gothenburg (leg 8) and one
second and two thirds.

Skipper Neal McDonald. “We wanted to beat illbruck, but I am happy. Happy
with what we achieved but also that we were beaten by the better team. But I
was always confident we could pull off a great result. After leg two I knew
we had a good boat and the team was great. We just had to keep pushing for a
good result. And we did. We worked harder, al of us, not only the crew, but
the whole team and all our sponsors. That worked. It also proves that the
structure of the campaign was paying off. The way Atlant managed this and
Richard Brisius was running it worked very well.”

Tactician Chris Larson analysed: “When I joined the team they were in 6th
position and I knew it was possible and I was happy to contribute to that.
There was a lot of solidarity in the team and the boat was good. The turning
point was at Tasman Island when we pulled away and won the Sydney Hobart.
There the team knew we could do it and we did. It all came together. We are
on very good terms. It is a true melting pot of nationalities and thanks to
teamwork and effort from all of us we started working together well. ”

Navigator Mark ‘Rudi’ Rudiger looked tired, “It was one of my longest days
in my life. Happy this leg is over. This leg we were late to get it right. I
always knew finishing first was going to be hard. But I also knew we could
be second overall in the race. And we managed that and we believed in it and
pulled it off,” Rudiger analysed.

Trimmer Richard Mason was all smiles but summed it up, “We leave in turmoil
and arrive in style,” said the young New Zealander referring to the start
and the finish but also referring to the whole rave overall. “We were
fighting to the end that is good. Second place will do until next time.”