Projo Sports Blog

Built in Rhode Island for Puma Ocean Racing, il mostro - The Monster - had an impressive start of the Volvo Ocean Race around the world today.(Oct. 11)

With Newport skipper Ken Read at the helm, The Monster was in second place at the first mark off Allicante, Spain.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, visiting 11 ports over nine months, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier ocean yacht race for professional racing crews.

"Today is very special for us," said Read before the start. "It's the end of two years of incredible preparation and hard work to bring us to where we are right now. It's not the perfect Spanish weather we expected for the start of the race, but it's time for us to get out of here.

"I can't say enough about this whole team, everyone involved in the PUMA Ocean Racing team as well as all the folks at PUMA, they have been magic to work with. I hope we can put on a good show out there. We just need to get through the night, and then we'll have a nice ride down to Cape Town. We're looking forward to seeing you there."

The Volvo Ocean Race is made up of 10 legs, finishing in June 2009 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The fleet is expected to finish the first leg of the race, about 6,500 nautical miles, in Cape Town, South Africa around Nov. 3.

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