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Latest News Links Volvo - 2011-12 Volvo promises great racing and thrilling viewing . . . Volvo - Spanish join with Emirates Team New Zealand for Volvo Race . . . Volvo - PUMA to take part in next Volvo Race . . . Back to latest Sailing News reports here . . . 2011-12 Volvo promises great racing and thrilling viewing . . . The 2011-12 Volvo Race gets a fresh look with a new format for the racing programme in the host cities, including the start city of Alicante, Spain and finish city of Galway, Ireland. For the first time, the Volvo Ocean Race will finish with an In-Port race in Galway. The iconic islands of the Azores in the Atlantic, Fernando de Noronha off the Brazilian coast and the Fastnet Rock, the southern most point of Ireland, all make an appearance on the course.  Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Knut Frostad, promises a reduction in the time the teams are onshore and the time they have between the In-Port race and the Leg start. Plus more entertainment for the local public with a long weekend of great racing and thrilling viewing. The Pro-Am races will be first on the agenda for the in -port weekends, where the sheer power of the yachts and the onshore glamour of the race are showcased to the public and race guests. These races do not count to the teams’ overall points. The second day sees the Volvo Ocean Race teams battle it out in two In-Port races, which count to their overall scores. The short course of the In-Port races and the proximity to the stopover harbours and beaches, will allow the public to watch the exciting racing up close, as the teams push the yachts to the limits trying to gain the important extra points. The finale to the long weekend is the Leg start, where the teams say farewell to the host city and begin the offshore battle to the next destination. There will be no scoring gates in this edition of the race but the fleet will still pass round some famous islands on their course round the world. Due to increasing pirate attacks and hijacking off the coast of Somalia, the fleet will sail around an exclusion zone, which will be added to this area nearer race time to help reduce the risk to the yachts. On Leg 8 from Lisbon, Portugal to Lorient, France the fleet heads offshore again for a 1,940 nautical mile leg, rounding the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores before heading back towards the northwest coast of France. The Fastnet Rock is the last landmark the sailors will sail around before their final sprint up the west coast of Ireland, to the finish in Galway. The race will visit eight stopover ports on five continents and race through four oceans, in under nine months. The Volvo Open 70’s will cover over 39,270 nautical miles racing around the globe. Spanish join with Emirates Team New Zealand for Volvo Race . . . Camper, the Spanish-based inter-national footwear brand, announced today that it will compete in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2011-12. The campaign will be run by Emirates Team New Zealand. The yacht will be called Camper and will carry the burgees of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and the Real Club Náutico de Palma.  For Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said the team has the capacity to integrate a Volvo Ocean Race campaign with its commitments to the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas, the Audi MedCup 2010 and the next America’s Cup. “There is some certainty in the America’s Cup following BMW Oracle Racing’s defeat of Alinghi. It’s apparent that with the timing of the America’s Cup, either 2013 or 2014, ETNZ can comfortably integrate a Volvo campaign into its operations. Grant Dalton said a Volvo Ocean Race campaign was a natural fit for the team. “Our objective was always to diversify, once the team had re-established its credentials, as a means of keeping our people busy, focused and creative. “With Louis Vuitton, the team started the Louis Vuitton Trophy, Dean Barker and the team campaigned successfully on the Audi MedCup TP52 circuit last year and now we have a Volvo Ocean Race campaign to organise from scratch. “The team has no shortage of experience with the Volvo Ocean Race and the Whitbread before it. It’s no secret that I have never lost my enthusiasm for racing around the world.” Camper is a family-owned company which started making shoes on the Spanish island of Majorca in 1877. Today Camper operates directly 320 stores and “shop-in-shop” locations in 42 countries and distributes its products through 2800 independent retailers. PUMA to take part in next Volvo Race . . . PUMA announced it will participate in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 after finishing second overall in the 2008-09 race, which ended in June 2009. The PUMA Ocean Racing team will once again be under the leadership of skipper Ken Read. Skipper Ken Read, considered to be one of the world’s most accomplished racers, was in charge of PUMA Ocean Racing and at the helm of PUMA’s il mostro throughout the entire Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09. The US-born Read has twice helmed America’s Cup programmes in 2000 and 2003, was named United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year twice and has 46 World, North American and National Championships to his credit. The next Volvo Ocean Race will start in the Spanish port of Alicante in the autumn of 2011 and finish in Galway, Ireland during the summer of 2012. The course will include stopovers in Cape Town (South Africa), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Sanya (China), Auckland (New Zealand), Itajai (Brazil), Miami (USA), Lisbon (Portugal) and Lorient (France). |
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