Efter att ha seglat 45,000 sjömil runt jorden, var det inför sista benet fortfarande tre lag som kunde ta hem titeln, och det var inte för än de sista skälvande minuterna som det blev klart att Charles Caudreliers Dongfeng Race Team skulle står som segrare före MAPFRE och Brunel.

Under racets 45-åriga historia har vi aldrig sett en så tight avslutning, segermarginalen blev, efter 126 dagars tävling, tillslut bara 16 minuter.

Men det var inte bara på Vattnet tävlingen slog rekord…

VOR 2017-2018: siffra för siffra

• 23 female sailors in the race - the most ever - including three who sailed with the Dongfeng Race Team and became the first women to win the race
• 2.5 million people visited the 12 Race Villages (+4% over previous race)
• 94,200 corporate guests (+26%) attended functions during the race period including over 6,500 participants in the Guest On Board programme
• Over 3,300 hours of television broadcasting generated €429-million in publicity value (+46%)
• There was a cumulative TV news audience of 2.2 billion (+45%)
• 194 hours of live coverage was produced
• 1.9 billion social media impressions, including 200 million video views
• 13.7 million social media likes
• Over 400,000 comments on Instagram posts
• Over 1 million comments on race content on Twitter and 9 million retweets
• The average viewing time per video on YouTube was over 9 minutes
• The average Facebook post reached 398,000 users
• The most popular social media video was viewed over 23-million times
• Social media publicity value was €71-million
• 71,000 online articles (+10%) and 7,500 (+4%) print stories generated €95-million in publicity value
• www.volvooceanrace.com hosted 174 million page views (+72%) with visitors spending an average of over 4:20 (+149%) on the site
• The official app was downloaded over 537,000 times (+38%)
• The official race tracker hosted 111 million unique sessions (+186%)
• The digital TV (OTT) audience was 342 million, generating €67.8-million in publicity value
• Over 4,300 media accredited to cover the race (+4%)
• From its base in Lisbon, Portugal, The Boatyard provided a 15-week, 6,000+ man-hour refit to each of the seven one-design VO65 race boats ahead of the start, preparing the fleet for the closest race in history
• Hosting the race start in Alicante contributed €96-million to the Spanish economy and generated 1,696 full-time equivalent jobs

Tävlingen satte också en ny standard för hur ett internationellt sportevenemang kan integrera hållbarhetsfrågor som ett kärnvärde. Bland annat lyckades man, genom att ta avstånd från allt användande av engångsartiklar i plast på de olika stoppen, undvika användandet av 388,000 plastflaskor och 114,000 barn var med på ett utbildningsprogram inom hållbarhet.