Newport‘s Ken Read and the rest of the Puma/BERG Propulsion-sponsored crew aboard Mar Mostro leaped into medal contention on May 31 with an impressive third-place finish in the transatlantic leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. The team now sits in third place overall in the 39,000-mile yacht race around the world, with two legs and two in-port races remaining. The team that saw its mast come crashing to the deck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during Leg 1 and barely made the start of Leg 2 has staged a remarkable comeback, winning two of the last three legs. Read and crew took second in the 2008-09 edition of the race; if they were to bring home the top prize this time around they would be the only team in the race’s history to not complete a leg and still win overall honors.
The finish of the transatlantic leg in Lisbon, Portugal, was one of the most dramatic and closest ever staged, with the top two teams separated by only six minutes. Mar Mostro crossed the line less than two hours later, but the delta between the fourth- and fifth-placed team was even closer — just two minutes! Even team Sanya, which is racing with a boat left over from the last edition of the race, crossed the finish line only fourteen minutes behind the rest of the fleet.
The race resumes on June 9 with the in-port race, followed the next day by the start of Leg 8 to Lorient, France. The final leg, to Galway, Ireland, commences on July 1. The winner of each leg earns 30 points and the winner of each in-port race gains six points, so there’s plenty of space on the leaderboard for the Newport team to keep climbing!
Photos of Puma Crew Leaps into Contention in Volvo Ocean Race
