Volvo yachts hoist sails on final open ocean leg

After a short postponement the last open ocean leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 got underway on Saturday, starting right off the race village at Fan Pier, Downtown Boston.

Some initial confusion about the time changes led to four boats racing half the first beat of the inshore course before turning back to restart 20 minutes later.

After the gun fired, the seven-strong fleet split immediately with PUMA (Ken Read/USA) looking really strong on port tack, followed by Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermdez/ESP), Telefnica Black (Fernando Echvarri/ESP) and Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA), while Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE), Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) and Telefnica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) opted for a starboard tack start.