While the Vendee Globe is recognised as a true test of offshore sailing skill and stamina, the event has only one start and one end. This is great for the Vendee Region, but limits the commercial opportunities of the race. One of the reasons that the Volvo Ocean Race is increasingly successful, is the stopover format that allows for multiple starts and multiple finishes with the bonus for sponsors and partners to activate in multiple markets.

The same format applies to the VELUX 5 OCEANS race, which has announced the dates of the starts in the 2010/11 edition of the race. The race will start and end in the French port of La Rochelle and visit Cape Town in South Africa, Wellington in New Zealand, Salvador in Brazil and Charleston in the USA.

• Ocean Sprint 1: La Rochelle to Cape Town – 7,500 nautical miles. Start date: October 17
• Ocean Sprint 2: Cape Town to Wellington – 7,000 nautical miles. Start date: December 12
• Ocean Sprint 3: Wellington to Salvador – 7,400 nautical miles. Start date: February 6
• Ocean Sprint 4: Salvador to Charleston – 4,000 nautical miles. Start date: April 10
• Ocean Sprint 5: Charleston to La Rochelle – 3,600 nautical miles. Start date: May 14

While adding stopovers and time to the race adds cost, sponsors can activate campaigns in a wider variety of markets than a n0n-stop race.

VELUX 5 OCEANS race director David Adams said:

For sponsors, there are opportunities for international media, hospitality and promotions in some of the world’s most spectacular harbour cities. For spectators, there are more opportunities to meet the inspirational skippers at the various ports, and to watch the spectacular Sprint starts and finishes, whether ‘live’ or via the media or internet.”

“The VELUX 5 OCEANS race management team is working with our city partners to deliver high quality stopovers for skippers, providing world class services, global media coverage and reducing costs as much as possible across the board.”

More VELUX 5 OCEANS News…

We are used to great things from the Volvo Ocean Race. The professionalism with which the organisers operate the event is a fantastic example that all rights holders in the business of sailing should be looking to as best practise. So perhaps it is because we associate the Volvo Ocean Race team with such high standards that we were a little disappointed with yesterday’s announcement of the new route for 2011-2012.

The announcement had been built up as a significant event, and given the importance of the race route to teams, sponsors, the media and other stakeholders, many were expecting the race to confirm all stops for the 2011-2012 event. Instead, the Volvo Ocean Race announced just one.

The PR hype was such, that even people closely connected with the race believed that the entire route would be announced. The marketing machine announced that the statement would be made in multiple languages, including Chinese, increasing speculation about the ports that would be part of the next race. Early on Monday, the race used its social media accounts to further increase the tension by delaying the scheduled announcement to 15:00 CET.

In the end, the news was leaked via Twitter about an hour before it appeared on the official Volvo Ocean Race website. The news that Cape Town, South Africa would make its eighth appearance as a stopover port. The PR hype had worked, we were eagerly awaiting big news only to be told via the official release that:

This marks the beginning of the port announcement process with the rest of the course due to be revealed before the end of March.

Why have one news story when you can have up to eight? Why let ports that have been involved before get lost in a release that may contain new and controversial venues? Why appear like a capable solid event with multiple global venues when you can start whispers like “do they have any other ports confirmed?”

And so to the news. Cape Town will be the first stop on the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race.

CEO Knut Frostad said in the official statement:

“We have received port bids from many different cities, each with their own cultures, specialities and challenges. We have taken our time to evaluate carefully over 80 bids from ports around the world who wanted to host the event, before making our decisions. As we continue to improve and lift the bar for our stopovers, it is great to have Cape Town onboard sharing the same vision and ambitions.”

Bruce Parker-Forsyth, CEO of The Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town Stopover and Worldsport, the project management company behind the last four stopovers:

“We are delighted that after a year of negotiations, Cape Town has once again been selected as the first port of call in this prestigious ocean race. As the past few stopovers have proved, the race is a superb platform to achieve business tourism and sporting objectives for Cape Town and the Western Cape.”

To be clear, the Volvo Ocean race have said that the next announcement will only include European stops including the final port. We will need to wait until the end of March until we know about stops in Asia, Australasia or the Americas.

Read the full story here…

While BMW ORACLE and GGYC woo America’s talk show hosts with their trimaran, AC Management today announced the entry list for the 33rd America’s Cup that includes 19 teams. All of the 32nd America’s Cup challengers have re-entered, bar one.

The wording of the statement below makes the maths seem a little strange, (you need to work with 23 as the starting number, not 21).

Aside from the Defender, Alinghi and the Challenger of Record, Desafío Español, a total of 21 teams presented a Notice of Entry and 17 were accepted. Three of the entered teams are pending minor details towards their official registration and have been granted an extension until January 15. Three other teams were denied entry as no further documentation beyond the Notice of Entry was received by the December 15 entry deadline. Carbon Challenge has withdrawn.

Many of the teams have been working together over the past few months at regular Competitor Meetings to amend the 33rd America’s Cup Protocol and to design the new class rule; this process is ongoing and will continue into the New Year with further meetings planned and a publication date for the class rule scheduled for the end of January.

Brad Butterworth, Alinghi team skipper, comments on a very exciting fleet:

“Having 19 teams from 12 countries entered for the 33rd America’s Cup is a clear expression of the huge worldwide interest in the competition. It’s fantastic to see such an international fleet with newcomers such as Russia. It is also significant that all but one of the teams from the previous edition have entered again. We will continue to work together with these challengers to make the 33rd America’s Cup a success, regardless of BMW Oracle’s decision to pursue their legal strategy to eliminate all challengers and force their way into an America’s Cup Match, something they have never achieved on the water.”

So who are the 19 teams? The List for the 33rd America’s Cup teams (in order of entry):

• Alinghi, Société Nautique de Genève (SUI) – Defender 
• Desafío Español, Club Náutico Español de Vela (ESP) – Challenger of Record 
• Shosholoza, Royal Cape Yacht Club (RSA) 
• TeamOrigin, Royal Thames Yacht Club (GBR) 
• Team New Zealand, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (NZL) 
• DCYC, Deutscher Challenger Yacht Club (GER) 
• Green Comm Challenge, Circolo di Vela Gargano (ITA) 
• Ayre Challenge, Real Club Náutico de Dénia (ESP) 
• Victory Challenge, Gamla Stans Yacht Skallskap (SWE) 
• Argo Challenge, Club Nautico Gaeta (ITA) 
• Mascalzone Latino, Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia (ITA) 
• Team French Spirit, Yacht Club de St Tropez (FRA) 
• Luna Rossa, Yacht Club Punta Ala (ITA) 
• Russia Team – Fiona, Yacht Club Seven Feet (RUS) 
• Joe Fly, Società Canottieri Lecco (ITA) 
• K-Challenge, Cercle de la Voile de Paris (FRA) 
• Greek Challenge, N.O.K. Poseidon – Nautical Club of Kalamata (GRC) 
• Dabliu Sail Project (ITA) 
• China Team, Qingdao International Yacht Club (CHN)

Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson has two boats in the current Volvo Ocean Race. It’s a large investment, and as with many sponsorships, not immediately obvious how sailing around the world relates to business goals.

For Ericsson, the choice of ocean racing was based on the level of technology and team work involved. The race is also a showcase for a robust multimedia platform and how it can help transform economies, particularly the emerging markets of Africa.

Henry Stenson, Vice President, Multimedia Solutions, said “we looked at activities we can get involved in to carry customers along, without them loosing focus on the services we provide.”

Ericsson has developed technologies that make it possible for fans and media to monitor the race even using their mobile phones by placing computers, cameras and internet facilities to transmit in real time. Stenson said: “With this technology you can see that it’s not just about sponsorship but about a comprehensive sales platform for our products”.

At the recent stopover in Capetown, Ericsson too the chance to use the Volvo Ocean race to target the emerging markets of Africa where technologies are making tremendous difference and transforming lives.

Initiatives include multimedia services and mobile innovation centres, energy saving solutions and the Millennium village initiatives. According to the company the initiatives are necessary because more than 90 percent of new mobile subscriber growth will be in emerging markets.

Ericsson is matching the sport and sales pitch with programs to help the market develop. Ericsson’s Head of Corporate Responsibility, Elaine Weidman said that the two millennium villages in Nigeria have shown that the rural dwellers are eager to join their counterparts in the developed worlds in the global village, adding that the political and economic environment of the country have also played major positive roles in keeping the dreams alive.