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 VIGO, Spain (AP) - King Juan Carlos signaled the start of the seven-month Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday, the first time the 22-year-old around-the-world event started outside England.
The first leg takes the yachts 7,365 miles to Cape Town, South Africa. The full race finishes in June at Goteborg, Sweden, after about 36,000 miles of sailing.
Sweden's Ericsson, winner of the in-port race a week ago, and the Disney-sponsored Pirates of the Caribbean led the seven multimillion-dollar yachts from port. They were accompanied by hundreds of small craft and watched from shore by about 70,000 spectators. A rough first day of open ocean racing was predicted, with winds most likely to reach about 35 mph.
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