Volvo Fleet Leaves Gothenburg For Tense Last Leg

The Volvo Ocean Race set off on the last leg of its round-the-world odyssey on Thursday with three boats effectively tied for the lead.

Gothenburg, Sweden, June 21 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jun, 2018 ) :The Volvo Ocean Race set off on the last leg of its round-the-world odyssey on Thursday with three boats effectively tied for the lead.

The 700-kilometre "sprint" to the Hague starts with Spanish boat Mapfre and the Dutch Team Brunel tied on 65 points. Chinese entry Dongfeng is a point behind but, unless it finishes more than 20 hours behind Brunel, will collect an additional bonus point for best overall elapsed time.

American boat Vestas led the fleet out of the harbour, closely followed by Dongfeng with Brunel and Mapfre at the back of the seven-strong pack. The boats are expected to take three days to reach the finish line.

"We will have to give everything, so that's what we will do," said Dongfeng's French skipper Charles Caudrelier. "We will try to be more active. We will take our rests on the deck and not inside the boat. We will be adjusting the boat all the time. It is going to be a long in-shore day race, there's no time for dreaming." The race has been sailed 12 times and no Chinese or Spanish team has ever won.

"We will have quite variable conditions, we will have some wind at the beginning and it may be calmer at the end," said Joan Vila, one of the Mapfre crew. "There will be some headwind and a lot of forbidden areas because of the oil rigs. There's a lot of work to do."