The best time to check in on the Volvo Ocean Race is when you’re feeling warm and comfortable. Then you can really appreciate the thrill and high-speed misery — howling winds, topographical waves sweeping the decks, and an unceasing effort to keep the sailboats from flying apart.
You can track their progress in real time on the Internet and watch uploaded videos from the boats that show just how much of a pounding the crews are taking. The race is contemporary in other ways too. In January, the boats — each of them 70 feet long with 100-foot masts — were hoisted aboard ships so they would not have to sail through a high-piracy zone on their way to Abu Dhabi. Their rigging is meant to balance strength and lightness.
With luck, the race will end around the fourth of July in Galway, Ireland, after passing through Miami in mid-May. So far Team Telefonica (the boats are named after their sponsors) holds the lead. The top speed is 41.5 knots — nearly 48 miles an hour — recorded as the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing boat surfed down the face of a monstrous wave. — Excerpts from The New York Times editorial