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Volvo Ocean Race hopefuls set sail from Alicante
• 09 Oct 2008 •
 NOT since the America’s Cup has our part of Spain seen so much white-water action. On Saturday, October 11, eight international teams of the toughest and bravest yachtsmen and women on the planet will set sail from Alicante port for the start of the most grueling, but exhilarating sailing event, the Volvo Ocean Race. The largest-ever round-the-world sailing event, its participants will traverse waters that are not for the faint-hearted. Despite their talent and rigorous training, the crew are understandably nervous about what fate may hold in store for them as they cross the Cape of Good Hope, the Atlantic and the wide-open Pacific. For the first time in the Volvo Ocean Race’s 34-year history, it passes through Asia this year – from Alicante, the boatsmen head for Cape Town, then Kochi in India, Singapore, and Qingdao in China.
Next stop, after the roaring tempests of the Pacific, they sail all the way round Chile, Argentina and Brazil before docking in Rio de Janeiro. From here, the race heads for Boston, then crosses the Atlantic to Galway Bay, Southern Ireland, followed by Göteborg, Stockholm and lastly, St Petersburg. They will not reach their destination until the end of June, 2009 – a full distance of more than 37,000 nautical miles (nearly 69,000 kilometres) – the longest since the race began.
This is a far cry from the first-ever Volvo Ocean Race, which started out from Portsmouth in 1974 as the Whitbread Round the World Race, and returned to the Hampshire town after just five months on the water. But in the meantime, there has been plenty of action behind the scenes with Alicante port’s Volvo Ocean Race village open to the public and its restaurants, bars and shops selling souvenirs of the eight teams doing a roaring trade. More trade will be done en route, with the sponsors of each team drumming up business among clients around the globe during the course of the race.
Sponsors include Ericsson, whose headquarters in the Swedish capital is right next door to their two teams’ boat-yard and training ‘ground’; Telefónica, which has a ‘black’ team and a ‘blue’ team; Puma, from the USA and Delta Lloyd from Holland. They will also pit their skills against Team Russia and the Irish crew from the Green Dragon team. A first for Spain and, of course, for Alicante, the Volvo Ocean Race has already drawn in plenty of crowds and more are expected to flock to the port to watch the nail-biting start to the competition. They will see for themselves that, even as they set sail on the relatively millpond-calm waters of the Mediterranean, this is going to be the hardest test of their skills and endurance that sailors new to the challenge will have ever faced before. The Volvo Ocean Race has been dubbed ‘the Mount Everest of sailing’, and it is a game that anyone with a passion for the water and a fearless nature aspires to. But, like the ascent of the world’s highest and most challenging mountain, few have the guts to try. But we can rest assured that those who make it home and dry – even if they have not managed to meet their goal of breaking the world speed record – will be raring to give it another go next time and face the elements and unpredictable temper of the high seas once again. |  Return to Top
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