The 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race was a yacht race held between 4 October 2008 and 27 June 2009, the tenth edition of the round the world

Volvo Ocean Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...

. The eight participating boats made ten stops in nine countries around the world. The first offshore leg of the 2008–09 Race started in

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

, Spain, on 11 October 2008, with the in-port race having been held seven days earlier. A total of ten legs created the route, with seven in-port (IP) races held at various cities around the world. Unlike previous editions, the route crossed the

Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, long and from wide, between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pa ...

at the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago is the archipelago between Mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, and is also called Insulindia or the Indo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based ...

, instead of

Cape Leeuwin Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia. Description A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders ...

south of Australia. The boats covered in the course of their journey. The

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of the 2008–09 race was Knut Frostad. On 15 June 2009, '' Ericsson 4'', skippered by Torben Grael, finished third on leg 9 from Marstrand to Stockholm, Sweden. With their third-place finish, they were able to secure overall victory. ''Ericsson 4'' covered the of the race in a time of 127 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes, 21 seconds. Ericsson 4 completed the race with 114 ½ points, whilst Puma ended with 105 ½. Principal race officer, Bill O'Hara, described the

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

race as a "memorable" port but

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

was the best.

Participants

Budgets

Ericsson's budgets were €50 million, whilst Puma's budget was approximately €20 million. By comparison, the joint Irish and Chinese team, Green Dragon, received €8 million from the Irish government and €4 million from China.

Team websites

Ericsson Racing TeamEquipo TelefonicaGreen Dragon Racing Team

Puma Ocean RacingTeam Delta LloydTeam Russia

Route

Summary

The route also included seven ‘scoring gates’ (at Fernando de Noronha,

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

, Pulau Weh, Indonesia, Latitude 36S,

Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

, Fernando de Noronha and St John's, Newfoundland). Yachts scored 'half-points' at these gates, the same as for the in port races. VOR2008 Telefonica Blue

Stopovers

Cape Town

Ericsson 4 won leg one of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town in South Africa in a time of 21 days, 17 hours and 54 minutes.

Kochi

The second leg of began on 15 November 2008, with the sailors avoiding pirates off the coast of

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

on their way to India.

Singapore

Telefonica Blue won leg three of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from

, India, to Singapore in Singapore. Puma Ocean Racing finished in second place, whilst Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4 finished in third and fourth places respectively. The race was described as very close, with the top four boats finishing the race within twenty minutes of each other. The race took ten days to complete, ending on 22 December 2008.

Qingdao

Telefonica Blue won leg four of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from Singapore in Singapore to Qingdao, China. Puma Ocean Racing finished in second place, whilst Ericsson 4 finished in third place. Telefonica Black, Ericsson 3 and Delta Lloyd all withdrew to sail to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

for repairs. The leg lasted from 18 January until 29 January 2009.

Rio de Janeiro

Ericsson 3 won leg five, the longest leg at , of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from Qingdao in China to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, in a time of 40 days and five hours, arriving on 26 March 2009. The teams left for Boston in the United States on leg five, which began on 11 April 2009.

Boston

The boats arrived in Boston in late April, with an in port race on 9 May. Leg 6 was won by Ericsson 4 at 21:05 GMT, 26 April 2009 after 15 days, 10 hours and 31 minutes of sailing

Galway

Ericsson 4 won leg seven of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from Boston in the United States to Galway, crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a time of seven days, 10 hours, 33 minutes and 51 seconds. Puma Ocean Racing finished in second place, one hour behind. Green Dragon finished in third position, whilst Telefonica Blue finished in fourth place. Fáilte Ireland West sponsored the two-week Galway Stopover. It was expected that 140,000 people would visit Galway during the Stopover but the final total significantly outnumbered half a million, with some early reports suggesting that over 600,000 people had come to Galway to view the boats. €43 million was the economic total predicted for Galway from the events but the final total was anticipated to be over €80 million. Figures released the following November suggested the total was just under €56 million. The atmosphere and support in Galway was described positively. At least 50,000 people watched the seven yachts leave Galway on Leg 8 of the race. Irish President

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer, academic, author, and former politician who served as the president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. McAleese was first elected as president in 1997, ...

made a public speech before the sailors took off, noting their "extraordinary skill and resilience" which had "inspired all of us". Liu Biwei, China's ambassador to Ireland, spoke of how he favoured the Irish-Chinese pairing, and the fleet received several blessings. The sailors reported of the enjoyment they had in Galway, with Puma skipper Ken Read describing it as "the best stopover I have ever been involved with" saying he would return the following year after enjoying his time on the

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

course and declaring that there was "something about Ireland and myself that seem to like each other". Galway is expected to compete again for a stopover during the next race, with other Irish destinations such as

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

and

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expected to compete also.

Marstrand

Ericsson 4 won leg eight of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from Galway to Marstrand in Sweden in a time of 12 hours and 57 minutes, their third consecutive victory and fifth overall Puma finished in second place and Green Dragon finished in third place. It was Green Dragon's second successive podium finish and, although they finished third, they had led for most of the race. The boats left Galway Bay, journeying southward along the west coast of Ireland. They then travelled in a south-easterly direction across the Irish Sea to south England, moving in an eastwards direction up the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. The teams then travelled up into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

until arrival at the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

Stockholm

Puma won leg nine of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from Marstrand to Stockholm in Sweden, their first win in the race. The third place for Ericsson 4 was enough for the team to also win the overall race at this point, leading to comparisons with the victor of the previous race, Mike Sanderson and ABN AMRO One, who won at the end of leg seven in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, England, in 2006.

Saint Petersburg

Telefonica Black won the last leg of the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race from Stockholm to Saint Petersburg, covering the in a time of 1 day, 12 hours and 41 minutes. Puma Ocean Racing had led the race for most of the way. Ericsson 4, finished in third place.

Stealth play

This race featured "Stealth play", a tactic that allowed a crew to hide its position from its competitors for a period of 12 hours. It was designed to add a tactical dimension to the race, whereby a team might opt to make a break from the fleet without the rest of the competitors knowing what they are doing and where they are on the race track. The ploy can first be used on leg one, leg two, leg five, leg six and leg seven. If it is not used on one leg, it cannot be accumulated for use on a following leg.

Leg Results

In-Port Race Results

Overall Results

;Notes – Telefónica Blue were penalised 3 points from their overall score for a rudder change after Leg 4.
– Telefónica Black were penalised 3 points from their overall score for a rudder change after Leg 1.

Records

During Leg 1 "Ericsson 4", skippered by Torben Grael, broke the monohull 24 hour distance record when he sailed , an average of .WSSRC – 24 Hour Distance Records
/ref>

Pictures

File:Volvo Ocean Race 2009b.jpg, ''Ericsson 3'' and ''Ericsson 4'' File:Volvo Ocean Race 2009d.jpg, ''Puma'' and ''Green Dragon'' File:Volvo Ocean Race 2009e.jpg, ''Delta Lloyd'' File:Volvo Ocean Race 2009f.jpg, ''Telefonica Black''

References

History of Galway (city) Sport in Galway (city)