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SEB leaves Amer wooden spoon

Sweden's SEB: Hopefully we have done our work carrying the wooden spoon

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Team SEB has moved up from last to sixth position in the fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race in the waters outside Brazil.

The Swedish boat has passed on the wooden spoon – an award for the last place position – to Amer Sports Too.

SEB skipper Gurra Krantz said: "Evidently we have had difficulties adjusting to our new mast and new main sail. We are taking shifts, working hard to learn how to perfectly trim the new rig and getting the boat speed going again."

The two Amer Sports boats have been passing the wooden spoon between them for this fifth leg but Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One still lies in second place in the overall race, behind Germany's Illbruck.

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Amer Sports One Dutch co-skipper Bouwe Bekking said: "Currently there are eleven very black clouds onboard the fine vessel Amer Sports One and not to forget the one severe thunderstorm in the person of Dalts [Grant Dalton].

"This is a red page in Grant Dalton's round - the - world racing career. A very painful 24 hours, first getting dumped by the leaders and then getting overtaken by the boats behind us."

Although the current conditions are preferred to the sub-zero conditions of the Southern Ocean, the crews are finding it difficult to adjust to the sweltering heat, which is ranging between 31 and 35 degrees.

Amer Sports Two skipper Lisa McDonald likened it to a "long, hot, sticky, revolting day at the office. The air conditioner is broken, the drinks cooler is empty and warm, humidity is stifling and of course the lift is broken as well so you have to carry everything up and down stairs a hundred times ... and to make matters worse, the competition has just struck a deal and launched out ahead of you in a flash."

The lead has changed many times with Tyco, Illbruck and ASSA ABLOY each enjoying their turn at the head of the pack. Tyco is the current leader.

Djuice, currently in the fifth position, has discovered an apparently failsafe - but spiritually taxing - way of getting itself out of a windless zone.

Skipper Knut Frostad explains: "Confessing the most horrible things you have done onboard, with both hands on deck (if you lie, you jinx the boat forever), is the best way to get one extra knot of wind speed.

"Obviously we don't want to use all the confession s right away, as it could be very little wind closer to the equator. However, I am starting to realise that this crew has a history I never even dreamt of, so we probably have enough to cross the Doldrums several times."

The Volvo Ocean fleet is headed for Miami and right now the boats are jockeying for the tactically correct position for rounding the northeast cape of Brazil, before entering the becalmed Doldrums areas surrounding the Equator.

"Hopefully we have done our work carrying the wooden spoon and we would be disappointed if we had to carry it any further to Miami," SEB's Gareth Cooke said.

Volvo Ocean Race Overall standings after four legs: