|
The top yacht race named ''Volvo Ocean Race'' since 2000, will start with an inport race in Sanxenxo, Galicia, Spain on November 5th. Following this inport race, where His Majesty King of Spain Juan Carlos I. will be one of the on board competitors, on November 12nd the fleet will leave Vigo port for the first leg of the race.
The race track will continue to follow the traditional route of the old clipper ships, sailing around the world with the prevailing winds and will have nine legs visiting famous ports including Cape Town, Melbourne, New York and Rio De Janeiro.
An exciting new feature introduced for this event is a number of scoring gates and pit stops around the world, where the fleet will be able to score points, which will count towards the final score.
The preparations for 2005-2006 edition of the race are going on. There are 6 boats 6 teams confirmed so far from Nederlands(2) , Australia, Spain, Sweden and Brasil and this number will increase as the start day will come closer.
It was at a sailor's gathering in 1971 that the discussion turned to thoughts of staging the ultimate race around the world -- a trip of nearly 27,000 miles. It would be a race that pushed the endurance of the crews and boats to the outer limits as they navigated around the world, a race that would be considered the Mt. Everest of ocean racing. But who would sponsor it? Everybody believed that even to try such a race was folly. At that time, fewer than ten private yachts had rounded Cape Horn in one piece. Moreover such a race already had been tried, and had ended badly. In 1967, ''The Sunday Times'' of London had put up money to sponsor what it called The Golden Globe Race. Eight boats entered, but only one finished. The others either gave up after near catastrophic equipment failures, capsized, or sank. One crewman became so despondent, he committed suicide. Under those circumstances, organizing such a race was as difficult as organising a mission to Mars.
After some years Royal Navy Sailing Association, brough the idea of organising a round the world ocean race up. The corporate giant Whitbread, whose roots in British commerce reached back to 1742, signed the contract with RNSA and became the sponsor of the race. Finally on 8 September, 17 boats, carrying 167 crew members hoisting sails in a blizzard of colour, jockeyed to the starting line in Portsmouth Harbour for the first edition of this heroic race.
With the 1997-1998 edition of the race, the name Whitbread, was replaced with Volvo and since 2000-2001 edition, this great race has been called Volvo Ocean Race .
For more information visit www.volvooceanrace.org .
