CAPE TOWN Dec 22 (Reuters) – French team Groupama vanished off the public radar on Thursday as they led the Volvo Ocean Race fleet into an anti-piracy stealth zone.
The fleet will be hidden in the zone, which is one of several security measures introduced to protect competitors from pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.
The main pack, including U.S.-based Puma in second place, Spain’s Telefonica in third and New Zealand/Spanish entry Camper in fourth, were due to reach the zone by Thursday night.
The exact location of the boats will continue to be masked, but their positions relative to each other will be updated until they reach a secret Indian Ocean ‘safe haven’ port in around a week’s time.
An armed ship will then be used to transport the yachts through the area where pirates are most active and on to Sharjah, where teams will resume racing and finish at Abu Dhabi in the New Year.
The race, in which the teams cover more then 39,000 nautical miles (72,000 kms), finishes in Galway in July.
(Editing by John Mehaffey)
This article was posted by Neptune Maritime Security via af.reuters.com. MaritimeSecurity.Asia in cooperation with www.neptunemaritimesecurity.com
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