Yachting: Dramatic finish to leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race

After 16 days at sea and more than 5000 nautical miles Team New Zealand's Camper has been squeezed out of first place by just one minute and 57 seconds in a thrilling finish to stage one of leg two.

The final 24 hours came down to an intense match race between Camper and Telefonica, with the boats sailing in sight of each other and often only 100 metres apart. The lead was exchanged several times in a back and forth battle but Camper held the advantage for much of the last day.

However, Telefonica came through in the closing stages, grabbing the definitive lead with just eight nautical miles remaining.

The draining close-quarters battle left the crew exhausted, having had little sleep for days on end, but there was no chance for rest with everyone on deck to coax the maximum speed out of the boat.

Camper skipper Chris Nicholson said it has been an epic leg.

"In a way I'm disappointed in the result because we led for the majority of this race. We had an amazing battle with Telefonica these last few days and then we got rolled about an hour from the finish by one rogue cloud.

"Occasionally the sport can throw that up at you. Telefonica sailed a fantastic race from start to finish. They were there to take the opportunities in the end and congratulations to them.

"This was a seriously tough race and overall I thought we operated really well as crew and a team. We've certainly came out of this leg much more battle-hardened and ready to move things up a notch.

"We've got some work to do there. We've got a few ideas, and we certainly learned a lot about our boat in regards to that and we got better as we went on."

Camper takes 20 points provisionally for second place in the first of a two-stage, 5,430 nautical mile leg to from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi. The overall leaderboard sees Telefonica top with 61 points, followed by Camper on 54.

But the results remain provisional with Camper protesting an incident towards the end of the race in which Telefonica failed to respond as required by race rules to a luffing manoeuvre from Camper and forced the New Zealand boat to bear away to avoid a collision. The protest will now be heard by the international jury in Abu Dhabi.

The finish line was set at an undisclosed destination to protect the six-boat fleet from pirate activity. The boats will now be shipped to a point off the Sharjah coastline in the northern United Arab Emirates for a short day-long sprint to Abu Dhabi in early January for the second stage of the leg.