39 270 miles en 9 mois

L'équipe PUMA Ocean Racing soutenue par BERG s'est lancée dans la course Volvo Ocean Race autour du monde le 5 novembre 2011 d'Alicante en Espagne, et ce mardi, tôt dans la matinée, ils ont complété leur voyage. Le Mar Mostro de Puma a passé la ligne d'arrivée en troisième position à Galway en Irlande, le dernier port dans une série de 10 escales dans le monde entier, terminant ainsi l'étape 9 au départ de Lorient en France à 00:55:01 UTC/01:55:01 heure locale le 3 juillet. Puma a complété la course sur 550 miles nautiques en 1 jours, 13 heures, 51 minutes et 1 secondes. Le CAMPER avec son équipage Emirates de Nouvelle-Zélande a remporté la dernière étape suivi par Groupama en deuxième position.

With the results of Leg 9, the final standings of this year's Volvo Ocean Race are set. Groupama takes home the overall race trophy (currently with 250 points), CAMPER finishes second (226) and PUMA captures third place (220). Team Telefónica ends in fourth place, with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Team Sanya fifth and sixth, respectively. One more scoring opportunity remains - the In-Port Race on Saturday, July 7 in Galway.

"This leg basically sums up our whole regatta," said skipper Ken Read. "We're kind of the tough luck kids. We had a nice little lead with about four hours to go. We knew we would be sailing into lighter air, and sure enough that's what we did. As soon as we parked, everyone came zipping up from behind. It's happened so many times in this race. Yes it's a shame, but we give CAMPER and Groupama credit - they should be very proud and this is a time to congratulate them."

Leg 9 departed Lorient on Sunday, July 1, with PUMA 30 seconds back from leading Telefónica after the completion of the inshore loop. The fleet spread out, and on Monday morning, PUMA’s Mar Mostro pulled ahead. The PUMA crew led the fleet around Fastnet Rock and up the southern coast of Ireland before hitting lighter air.

"At the end of the day, we're ending up third overall. But, that's pretty good considering we were sitting in the middle of the ocean without a mast," Read said. "This is something we'll all remember for the rest of our lives."

PUMA has been on the podium the last 12 scoring opportunities in this year's race, including offshore legs and In-Port racing. Overall, PUMA has finished among the top three 16 times.

The Volvo Ocean Race started on November 5 in Alicante. The crews will have traveled 39,270 nautical miles around the world, stopping in 10 countries along the way.