Around-the-world regatta runs into giant seaweed flotilla

By JIMMY GOLEN
AP Sports Writer

A 5,000-mile-long flotilla of seaweed stretching from Africa to the Gulf of Mexico is slowing the boats in the around-the-world Ocean Race as they make their way from Brazil to Newport, Rhode Island. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is getting caught on the boats’ rudders, foils and keels, disrupting the finely tuned hydrodynamics the teams in the Ocean Race spend millions on so they can minimize drag and maximize speed. Sailors say they expect the giant patch to get thicker as they sail away from the doldrums off the South American coast on the 5,550-nautical-mile leg to New England. The Ocean Race is a six-month, 32,000 nautical mile circumnavigation that began in Spain and ends in Italy in early July.