SAILING VOLVO OCEAN RACE:IN BRIGHT sunshine and with the grace of a cool breeze, Ian Walker and the Green Dragon team arrived into Boston yesterday evening (Irish time) in seventh and last place, thus fulfilling the skipper's pre-start prediction that the leg would be their toughest yet.

Overall race leader Torben Grael on Ericsson 4 cemented his conquest of the fleet with a first place in the 5,200-mile leg from Brazil, but even this was no certainty as his team-mate rival Magnus Olsen on Ericsson 3 recovered sufficiently from badly-cracked ribs to sail up on the Brazilian even in the last hour of the leg, prompting the five-time Olympian to nervously glance over his shoulder all the way to the line.

“We just started this leg with very realistic expectations that this wasn’t going to be a leg for us and if we had anything better than last then it would be a good result,” said watch-leader Damian Foxall yesterday. “We came last therefore I’m not disappointed.”

Offshore sailing is all about doing your best, first or last, and keep plugging away, he said.

Green Dragon navigator Ian Moore from Carrickfergus admitted he was glad leg six was over. “I’ve tried to think back to a time when I was ever last in any offshore race or any yacht race and I can’t remember – its not a great feeling.

“Mentally it was horrible, watching the competition slip away.”