Saturday saw the departure of the Volvo Ocean Race for Marstrand, Sweden after two fantastic weeks in Galway. Estimates as to the total attendance vary from 420,000 to 600,000 during the course of the stopover, far exceeding the original expectations of 140,000. The success of the event seems to have surprised everyone (and may have had something to do with the brilliant weather we’ve had) and the Chinese-Irish entry has certainly stepped up in terms of race showing since.
The fleet blasted out of Galway Bay on Saturday, and we duly followed, see the gallery below – some shots are from the in port race the previous week and some are from the fleet departure (the RIB got some great use over the two weeks). Green Dragon appeared to take the lead initially, but later conceded first place to Ericsson 4. Click on the photos to embiggen….
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