3rd leg of Volvo Ocean Race starts from Cochin

by Volvo media on 13 Dec 2008
The third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, a step into the unknown, began in 7 knots of NW breeze in Cochin this morning. As the fleet embarked on its 1950nm passage to Singapore, it was PUMA who had eked out a slight advantage soon after the gun.

A downwind start and stately slow progress for the Volvo fleet.

At the favoured pin end, Green Dragon got off to the best start with Telefonica Black and Team Russia close on her heels.

PUMA, Telefonica Blue and Ericsson 4 crossed the start at the committee boat end and made their way to the middle of the course. Within 10 minutes they had overhauled the quick starters and formed the leading group.

Behind them a squabble was already developing between Delta Lloyd and Ericsson 3, and half an hour after the gun, Team Russia had dropped to the tail, suffering in these light conditions.

At 11:10 GMT today, two miles separated the fleet from first to last and the whole fleet was just four miles off the coast. Closest inshore was Team Russia and furthest offshore was Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP).

The order was:

Puma (Ken Read/USA)
Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA)
Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED)
Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE)
Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP)
Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP)
Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR)
Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT)