Grant Dalton’s Merit Cup was first across the finish line in the final leg of the Whitbread Round the World yacht race Sunday, while Paul Cayard’s EF Language already had won the overall title.
Dalton’s second-stage win put his team ahead of Swedish Match in the final standings, 698 points to 689. Cayard’s crew won the title with 836 points.
The event took eight months and 31,600 miles of racing. The yachts started from Southampton last Sept. 21.
Cayard, who finished 20 minutes behind Merit Cup for second place in the final leg, had clinched the overall title by the time the fleet arrived on the French coast last week.
As EF Language crossed the line Sunday, Cayard shook the hand of navigator Mark Rudiger and the crew waved to the huge crowd that gathered at the Ocean Village Yacht Club.
“As you are coming toward the finish line, to see all the boats out there is exciting,” he said. “But it’s not like winning the NBA championship–you can’t run around and go crazy.”
