Australian sailor Nicko Brennan has finished the 3,100-mile second leg of the Transat 6.50 Charente-Maritime-Bahia (Mini Transat) in fourth place.

Brennan – former Global Challenge Round the World crewmember aboardTeam Stelmar I- sailed an extremely impressive race from Madeira to Brazil keeping most of the race favourites in his wake and retaining, on average, third place for the majority of the leg. He completed the course in 18 days, 2 hours, 10 minutes, 31 seconds.

SailingRafiki(419) the now relatively old Prototype (originally built, and owned by Nick Bubb, and then Phil Sharp) Brennan managed to hold off some of the newer generation designs. Interestingly Sharp who sailed the boat in the 2005 edition of the race also had a spectacular second leg in this boat and finished fourth overall.

But it’s not the first time Brennan, from Sydney, has proved himself in this ultra competitive fleet, last year he finished 7th in the Azores and Back, and earlier this year notched up a seventh place in the epically-windy Transgascogne Race from a 70 boat fleet. See previous story from start here.