Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing Worlds Announce Sponsorship Deal with Leeuwin Estate.

Premium Margaret River winery, Leeuwin Estate have announced a partnership with the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, extending their use of sailing as a mechanism to promote their products.

Leeuwin Estate Founder and Chairman Mr Denis Horgan is excited about the new partnership.

“Given our strong positioning in the global marketplace, we are delighted to have joined forces with Perth 2011, which truly is a world-class international sporting Event. Teaming with an Olympic qualifying Event of the international calibre of the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, complements our brand profile across Australia and internationally. Leeuwin Estate has enjoyed a previous association with sailing through our activities with the America’s Cup when it was held in Fremantle and our sponsorship of the sail training ship, The Leeuwin.”

“This is a great opportunity to retain our connection with the international sailing community. We plan to have a signature Perth 2011 wine available promoting our association with the World Championships, but this is just one element of what we have planned for the next two years.”

Acting Event Director Darren Beazley commented

“I am delighted that Denis Horgan and the dedicated team at Leeuwin Estate have signed on as the official wine partner to the World Championships. Leeuwin Estate is synonymous with Western Australia and is internationally renowned for producing wines that rank alongside the world’s finest, whilst also being recognised as a leader in wine tourism. Leeuwin’s quality products, combined with their well-established reputation in the wine and tourism industries, provided a perfect match to align with the World Championships, to be staged in Perth in December 2011.”

Volvo Ocean Race Route Confirmed.

The Volvo Ocean Race stopover ports are known, and now, so too are is the format and the race course. The offshore racing will be complemented by in-port races for the benefit of spectators and VIP guests, allowing sponsors to leverage their investment to the widest audience. As one sponsor said last year at the World Yacht Racing Forum “the business is done in the hospitality tent, not in the boat.”

The course and dates for the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 have now been officially announced. The racing format and stopover schedule features a number of innovations the most notable sees the event conclude with an In-Port race in the finish port of Galway. Importantly for sponsors and the media, the race will visit eight stopover ports on five continents and race through four oceans, in under nine months. This makes the Volvo Ocean Race one of the only truly global sailing properties with a physical footprint in the worlds largest and emerging markets.

Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad said there were two clear aims.

“Firstly we have reduced the time the teams are onshore and the time they have between the In-Port and the Leg Start. Traditionally the teams would change their yachts from an offshore sailing mode to an inshore racing one and back again for the Leg start. By bringing the two events together we lower the costs to them and their sponsors. We have also achieved more time for the shore crews to work on the yachts and subsequently the sailors get more time off.

“Secondly we can entertain the local public with the spectacle that is the Volvo Ocean Race on the water, for a long weekend of great racing and thrilling viewing. We hope by providing the local spectators with this on-the-water display, we will increase the public’s awareness and passion for the sport of sailing.”

The format of the stopovers goes like this:

• The Pro-Am races will be first on the agenda for the weekend, where the power of the Volvo Open 70s are showcased to the public and race guests.
• The second day sees the Volvo Ocean Race teams battle it out in two In-Port races, which count to their overall points tally. The short course of the In-Port races and the proximity to the stopover harbours and beaches, will allow the public to watch the racing up close.
• The finale to the long weekend is the Leg start.

The start and finish ports also have a revamped schedule. Alicante will have a week of festivals between the In-Port and Pro-Am race weekend and the start of Leg One to Cape Town. Galway will be the first finish city in the event’s history to stage an inshore race after the final leg.

There will be no scoring gates in this edition of the race but the fleet will still pass round some famous islands. On Leg One the fleet will pass the island of Fernando de Noronha, 200 nautical miles off the Brazilian coast as the first proper rounding mark of the race.

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.

On Leg Eight 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 catch sight of before their final sprint up the west coast of Ireland to Galway.

The Volvo Open 70′s will cover over 39,270 nautical miles racing around the globe.

Official Schedule – PDF

Itajaí Gets the South American Nod For the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race.

The Volvo Ocean Race route slow reveal continues, with the latest port being ‘officially’ announced by the organisers. While many have known that the city of Itajaí, in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina, would be the stopover for a few days, the non-embargoed news was confirmed today.

It was no surprise that Brazil, which has welcomed the fleet on six previous occasions dating back to 1973-74 when Rio De Janeiro began its long association with the race, would play host once again to the round the world race, though three countries and eight cities bid for the opportunity to host the 2011-12 fleet.

Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, and a team member of the 2005-06 Brasil 1 project, said:

“We are pleased to confirm Itajaí’s inclusion in our race around the world. After rounding Cape Horn, our racing teams will truly appreciate the warm welcome that Brazil is famous for, and it will be the perfect place for the crews to regain their strength after such a testing leg in the southern ocean.”

Acknowledging that winning a stop on the Volvo Ocean Race is about more than just sailing. Santa Catarina, which has received a clutch of national awards for the best tourist destination in Brazil, will use the race to demonstrate its ability to organise large-scale events.

Frostad added:

“The proposal from Itajaí also had strong and positive support from local, regional and central government. This was a key consideration. Itajaí has a strong reputation for boat building. It is important for the sailors who have been through the southern ocean on a very long leg to Brazil to know that support is in place. Itajaí has a great venue which can be transformed into an excellent Race Village for us. And, it’s a beautiful place. I am confident the sailors, sponsors, media, guests and international visitors coming to Itajai for the stopover will have a great experience.”

The American stop has already been leaked, but the Volvo Ocean Race organisers will wait until they have milked all the media they can out of this announcement before officially revealing the next stop.

Sanya Announced as Volvo Ocean Race Stopover.

Another leg of the Volvo Ocean Race announced by race organisers, and no real surprise that the global event will return to China. A statement issued today says:

Sanya, the southernmost city on the golden coast of Hainan Province, China, has won the bid to host the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12. Building on the success of the Qingdao stopover during the 2008-09 event, the resort city of Sanya will be the finish of leg three, which starts from Abu Dhabi.

As the 2011-12 route takes shape, the port of Sanya is now confirmed as the only stopover in Asia. Other ports on the course include the start in Alicante, where the Volvo Ocean Race now has its base, stopovers in Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Lisbon, Lorient and the finish in Galway. The entire route for this classic round the world race will be revealed by the end of March, when details on scoring, leg lengths and other details will be confirmed.

Speaking of the selection of Sanya as Asia’s only port of call, Mr Liu Gang, Deputy Director of the China Water Sports Administration Centre said, “The wonderful memories from the last edition of the race when it visited Qingdao remain fresh in our minds and I would like to congratulate Sanya for being chosen as the new stopover”.

The Vice Mayor of Sanya, Li Baiqing, echoed Mr Liu Gang’s comments and said, “Sanya is honoured to be the only stopover in Asia for the next race. The city will relish the chance to show its charm to the Volvo Ocean Race visitors from around the world”. He also confirmed that Hainan would showcase its achievements and development potential and try to capture the world’s attention during the event.

“The race was held very successfully in Qingdao and has inspired a passion among many Chinese people. It is with great pleasure that we are able to confirm that China will once again be part of the route for 2011-12 and it will be an honour to take the event to Sanya,” commented Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Knut Frostad.

Sanya on the southern tip of Hainan, the only tropical island province in China, features golden sandy beaches and enjoys a good year-round climate. The Sanya Municipal Government will use the Volvo Ocean Race as part of its plans to develop the city into a top international tourism destination. It already has an excellent transport system, which will be integral to the building of a new high-level marina.

Craic in Volvo Secret Stopover Schedule? Galway Final Stop in 2012?

Organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race have created their own kind of ‘March Madness’, by choosing to reveal the stopovers for the next edition of the round-the-world one by one throughout the month.

Last week, the French press ignored the embargo date for the news that Lorient would be the second European stop and set tongues wagging about how the French stopover may scuttle any chance for Galway to host the race. Some commentators have speculated that the clever PR folks in Alicante have been carefully using the leaks to keep the race announcements in the news, but whatever the strategy, there are a lot of people waiting for the route to be revealed.

Both the Irish Times and the Galway Advertiser are today predicting that rather than lose a stop on the race, Galway will in fact host the finish of the race. The Advertiser is more cautious of the two outlets saying:

To secure the finish of the race would have been thought to have been beyond the wildest dreams of the Galway backers, but in the past few days, it has become a strong possibility…

The paper quotes ‘Let’s Do It Galway’ Chairman John Killeen:

“To compare it to a game of rugby, we are 10 points up with 10 minutes to go. We are nearly there, but not yet, and while I am reasonably confident, there are always pitfalls. The Volvo officials are keeping their cards close to their chest on this one, but the official announcement is expected next Tuesday.”

The Irish Times is more confident, with the headline : “Cowen to detail Volvo race’s Galway finish,” then says;

“Cowen is expected to confirm this week that the next Volvo around the world yacht race will finish in Galway in 2012. Mr Cowen is expected to make the announcement in Dublin, when he will explain that the race festival will be an “all-island” affair.”

The economic benefit of the previous stopover in Galway is well known and the Government has committed €4 million towards the new bid. The Irish Times also reports that the Green Dragon will compete – she will be given a new keel, its sails will also be modified, and all this work will be carried out in Ireland, John Killeen of Let’s Do It Galway has confirmed.

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