If a yacht race finishes, but no-one sees it – does it finish?
The piracy threat to the Volvo Ocean Race means that the boats will be picked up and transported into the Gulf by cargo ship. So just like the Black Pearl, the boats vanished from media view and crossed a fantasy finishing line.
“Telefonica” reportedly won the leg. The reports said:
At 17:57 GMT the Spanish team “Telefónica” set a new landmark in sailing history by taking their second consecutive offshore victory in this round the world regatta divided into legs: the Volvo Ocean Race.
With skipper Iker Martínez driving, the boat crossed the finishing line with a lead of just one minute 57 seconds over New Zealand team “Camper”.
The Spanish crew crossed the finishing line after fifteen days and five hours of intense racing. This new win for “Telefónica” strengthens the lead gained in Cape Town (South Africa). The Spanish boat also increases its lead at the top of the scoreboard from three to seven points, with “Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand” in second place.
The first and second placed entries are now heading for the safe mooring point where they will wait for the cargo ship that will transport them to the starting point of the second part of this second leg. The regatta will resume in the Persian Gulf, on the Sharjah coast.
Meanwhile…
Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team won the IWC Schaffhausen Speed Record Challenge trophy.
The French team led the race for three days but eventually had to settle for fourth place after becoming snared by the Doldrums.
Although Leg 2 isn’t over yet, Groupama’s 24-hour run of 478.28 nautical miles up to 0910 UTC on December 21 is good enough to hand them the award for this leg because the next part of the leg to Abu Dhabi should not last 24 hours. The next best run was by PUMA who recorded 465.17 nm up to 0210 UTC on December 22.
A trophy is awarded at the end of each leg to the team recording the greatest distance over a 24-hour period by the Volvo Ocean Race’s Official Timekeeper IWC Schaffhausen.
Coldplay will perform a concert in Abu Dhabi on NYE as part of the Volvo Ocean Race stopover there.
