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May 23, 2008

Newport's Read, Kirby get set for Volvo Ocean Race

By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer

They are almost always wet and cold. Sleep can be fleeting, meals are Spartan and, by all means, forget even the slightest comforts.

They face every danger the world's oceans can throw at them, including death.

Some of America's most accomplished sailors will get those conditions in heaps when PUMA Ocean Racing competes in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race. Covering 10 legs and 36,995 nautical miles, the VOR starts Oct. 11 in Alicante, Spain, and is scheduled to end in St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 27, 2009.

This is sailing at its extremes, whether it's crashing through monster waves peppered with icebergs in the frigid Southern Ocean or, just as insufferable, ghosting along through the blazing doldrums.

So why do it?

"If I answer that question, I might indict myself as one of the world's stupidest men," laughed bowman Jerry Kirby of Newport, R.I., a veteran of seven America's Cup campaigns who's now prepping for his third round-the-world race.

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Posted by Mike McDermott  at 1:35 PM | Permalink

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