Volvo Ocean Race Adds Legends Regatta to 2011 Programme.
The Volvo Ocean Race has become one of the most professionally organised and successful yacht racing events in the world, but the commercialisation of the race has not pleased everyone. There will always be some who like to get nostalgic about the past and reminisce about how it was better when it was ‘The Whitbread’.
When the Volvo Ocean Race moved from the UK to Alicante this year, there was a sense that the Spanish city had a more visionary idea about how the Race could fit into the fabric of a community. Recognising the importance of the event’s past, organisers and the city that will host the start of the next race, have announced a Volvo Ocean Race Legends Regatta.
The event will bring together competitors and yachts from the 37-year history of the race in the first ever official reunion. The Volvo Ocean Race Legends Regatta will slot between the Alicante In-Port Race and the Pro-Am Race the previous weekend and the start of leg one on Saturday 5 November with a full Legends racing schedule.
The announcement was made at the official inauguration of the Volvo Ocean Race Headquarters by the President of the Generalitat Valenciana, President Francisco Camps. He said:
“This is another example of how the Volvo Ocean Race will provide entertainment for the local people of Alicante and the Valencian region and will help attract even more Spanish and international tourists.”
Many well-known competitors from the 10 previous races are looking forward to the event next year.
“Count me in,” – Skip Novak, whose history includes skippering rock star Simon Le Bon’s entry Drum in the 1985-86 race, and putting together the first Russian entry, Fazisi in 1989-90.
“It sounds great. Count on me.” – Magnus Olsson, a six-race veteran will certainly be there.
“It sounds exciting. Lovely idea and looking forward to it,” – Kiwi race winner Mike Sanderson.
“Great, I’ll be there,” – former winner Grant Dalton, who will also have his Volvo Open 70 Camper on the start line for the 11th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.
More Volvo Ocean Race News...
Puma’s New Who’s Who For Volvo Ocean Race Campaign.
April 30, 2010 by admin
Filed under Appointments, Spain, USA, Volvo 70
Ken Read, skipper of PUMA Ocean Racing has announced his core crew and management team for the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012. The team is leaving Alicante, Spain to bring il mostro, PUMA Ocean Racing’s boat that secured a 2nd place finish in the last Volvo Ocean Race, back to Newport, Rhode Island where the team will immediately start training for the next race. il mostro will serve as the team’s training boat until a new boat, which will compete in the 2011-12 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, is completed.
PUMA has named Juan Yacht Design, of Valencia, Spain as the lead boat designer of the new PUMA Ocean Racing yacht. Juan Kouyoumdjian’s designs have a perfect record in the VOR since the inception of the Volvo Open 70 Rule. They are credited with designing the 2006 VOR winner, ABN AMRO 1 and the 2009 VOR winner, Ericsson 4.
Ken read said:
“The decision to go with Juan to design PUMA’s new boat was a major step forward for the program, and set in motion a number of key hires that have formed the nucleus of the team.”
Two new key members of the team include multiple Volvo Ocean Race winners, Brad Jackson and Tony Mutter. Each sailor was integral to the winning teams in both the 2006 and 2009 races.
Jackson is a three-time winner of the VOR and will serve as design coordinator for PUMA Ocean Racing, mixing the sailing team’s input with Juan Kouyoumdjian’s creative and technical expertise.
Mutter is a two-time VOR winner and will run the aero program, working closely with Steve Calder of North Sails and mast designer, Scott Ferguson.
While sailing, Tony and Brad will also serve as watch captains. Returning from PUMA’s 2009 campaign is bowman and systems manager Casey Smith.
“When the boat breaks offshore Casey has to fix it, so having him be part of design process with the build team early on will save us a lot with durability down the road,” explained Read. Rob Greenhalgh also rejoins the PUMA crew after being a late but welcomed addition in the last race. Returning shore-team members include: Kimo Worthington, General Manager, and Tim Hacket, who will serve as the Shore Team Manager.
New sailing team members include navigator Tom Addis (Telefonica Blue Co-Navigator), Jono Swain (Telefonica Blue watch captain) and Andrew Lewis (Rambler trimmer and ABN AMRO 2 tactician).
“The decisions we make now are the ones that will create success in this race, and having this team of veterans involved early certainly increases our chances to make proper decisions,” said Read of the team assembled so far. “Not only do we have a team that can sail a boat fast, but we have a team that understands what it takes to compete in a race like the Volvo. Great attitudes, great skills, which hopefully increases our chances for success.”
Cumulatively, the management and sailing team for PUMA Ocean Racing shares a level of success difficult to match with 20 Volvo Ocean Race entries and 14 America’s Cup editions. Collectively, the core team holds eight 24-hour mono hull speed records. PUMA will also be the official supplier of all Volvo Ocean Race merchandise.
Volvo Ocean Race Move to Alicante Part of Growing Sports Tourism Trend.
Sports Tourism is going to be big. You might think that sports tourism is quite big now, but in fact, despite the number of room nights and the value of resturant bills that can be attributed to fans visiting a destination to watch their favourite team or partake in the atmosphere of a major event, the sector hasn’t really been taken very seriously.
While some governments around the world realise the importance of attracting major events to their destinations, there is a disconnect between the marketing and the delivery via tourism businesses. Some governments though are more savvy than others. This site has many examples of major sailing events being used to drive the tourism economies of places like Oman, Andalucia or the Vendee Region of France.
The stakes are high and the destinations that are willing to invest heavily over long periods of time will win out. Take the relocation of the Volvo Ocean Race to Alicante for example… the following is an article from the Volvo Ocean Race website:
‘La Volvo’ had arrived before it even set up its new permanent home on the Mediterranean coast of Spain in Alicante.
In what turned out to be a kid of trial marriage, the start of the 2008-09 race proved to be an instant success with the locals who immediately gave a name to the teams, the boats and the race management.
They called it simply ‘La Volvo’ and the name stuck even when the race was not there, or other events ranging from regattas like the TP52 circuit, or pop concerts, or even horse shows.
After over a decade being housed in Whiteley, just off the M27 motorway running between Southampton and Portsmouth on England’s south coast, what was always a global race is changing culture, and location.
The migration south has been a highly-complex plan involving the race organisation, the city of Alicante and the regional government of Valencia.
Put simply, the race not only has a third consecutive start port in Spain, the whole management of the race, including the all-important operations room, which maintains 24-hour contact with the fleet when it is at sea, is moving home.
The development means a permanent new facet to the waterfront heart of the city, and that has to fit into the plan for the region of Valencia.
The third constituent of the complex is the development of a museum and interactive exhibition centre, which should be a major new tourist attraction in its own right.
In addition, the side of the marina, which was the pre-start pit lane in 2008, will now be available as permanent homes for the teams pre- 2011.
Co-ordinating the move for what will also change from Volvo Event Management UK to Volvo Ocean Race, S.L.U. meant ensuring continuity of all race operations up until 28 November when the previous HQ was returned to the landlords.
One of the advantages for the race has been the close links with the logistical knowledge bank of Volvo’s world base in Sweden and the long-standing presence and business knowledge of Volvo Cars and the truck and bus businesses in Spain.
The big emergency generator on the Whiteley site is unlikely to be put on the back of a removal lorry. And the number of people has gone from a race-on-tour high of up to 80 down to a tickover – even if that tickover rate is still about 10,000 revs a minute – before building back up.
But the four rigid inflatables will travel with the team along with the former Pirates of the Caribbean Volvo Open 70, which, for the time being, will be on permanent display. There will also be the move of the three television edit suites and the radio production room.
What will change will be the whole style in which a safety-based, technology-driven race management organisation draws in the general public.
One of the features of the 2008-09 race start was the number of people who extended their evening and weekend strolls, el paseo, down to the village, the family occasion it became, the school party destination that was so popular.
AYRE Challenge Presents Its Volvo Ocean Race Project
AYRE Challenge has presented its project to take part in the next three editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, all of which will start in the Spanish port of Alicante.
The presentation of this 10-year-long project and milestone in Spanish yacht racing took place in Denia, a city that has strong ties with AYRE Challenge. Two years ago, the Spanish team presented its challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup representing the Real Club Náutico de Denia (Royal Yacht Club of Denia).
The city of Denia also belongs to the province of Alicante, starting point of the next three editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, highlighting AYRE’s firm commitment to participate in all of them.
Knut Frostad, Volvo Ocean Race CEO, expressed his satisfaction with the firm intention of AYRE Challenge:
“We are very happy that teams such as AYRE present their firm intention to take part in our competition, proving the sport and commercial appeal of the Volvo Ocean Race as a platform with international reach and impact” and pointed out that “AYRE Challenge is a project with a long-term commitment that will guarantee its participation in at least 2 editions”.
Pedro Perelló, founder and CEO of AYRE Challenge, outlined the main lines of action of the team:
“AYRE Challenge was born as a new reference in yacht racing on a national and international level, based on 3 fundamental foundations. It will be a winning project, spanning various yacht classes and various aspects (sport, cultural and social).” Perelló wanted to highlight that the team opted for the VOR as the first important sailing event in which to kick off the AYRE project mainly because of “its international reach, its international values and positioning, its prestige, and the solidity it provides to our sponsors”. Regarding AYRE Challenge’s participation, “the key of the project is the ability to have continuity in time in order to break away from the usual cycles in yacht racing and for that reason the team commits to participate in the next 3 VOR editions that will start in Alicante in 2011, 2014 and 2017″.
Augusto Sanguinetti, gave a first brief overview of the project’s main technical and sports aspects:
“Our latest-generation VO70 boat will be built in the Region of Valencia in 2010 and according to our initial schedule the boatbuilder will be Richard Gillies”.
As far as boat design is concerned, the team is currently studying proposals from 2 designers of the highest international caliber and a decision will be taken before the end of 2009.
Team AYRE Challenge will rely on 2 active bases during the preparation and actual competition of the next VOR: The base in the Valencia Region will be the Team’s permanent one, housing its headquarters and used for both logistics and maintenance operations as well as for the organization of various events by the Team. The sports base, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, will be where the most important tests for the new boat development will take place.
The aim is to have 3 key persons in the sailing crew: the skipper and 2 watch captains. They will be the ones to decide and ultimately select the sailing crew that will compete in the next Volvo Ocean Race and in addition they will actively take part in the buildup and evolution of the Team.
Sanguinetti concluded that,
“we have 24 months ahead of us from today before the start of the next VOR and our objective is to make the most of our time in order to build a great team with the best preparation possible.”
The countdown towards the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race has just started for Team AYRE Challenge.
More Economic Impact Numbers from the Volvo Ocean Race.
The Volvo Ocean Race has released more figures from the most recent edition of the race. The latest report was undertaken by the Sports Business Group at Deloitte and focussed on the economic impact on host ports.
The report shows why regional governments and tourist boards are so keen to host a stopover of the race and the link between sport and tourism.
The study was carried out into the 2008-09 start in Alicante, in the Valenciana region, and the stopover ports of Singapore, Galway and Stockholm. The methodology involved research with key stakeholders including teams, organisers, partners, and the media, and extensive spectator research and economic impact modelling.
The highlights of the Deloitte report show a Euros 89.2 million (US $131 million) total economic impact for Alicante – a 46% increase on the 2005-06 start port in the Galicia region.
Galway generated Euros 55.8 million total impact – 30% above initial projections. There were 40,500 international visitors and 46,000 visitors from elsewhere in Ireland went to Galway.
Singapore produced a total economic impact of Euros 33 million, with a direct impact of Euros 20 million, more than what was generated by the UEFA Cup Final in Scotland in 2007 (Euros 18 million).
In Singapore there were 1,400 corporate hospitality visitors and 74,000 visitor nights.
The race delivered almost Euros 32 million in direct economic benefits to Stockholm, the largest element being spectator spending with Euros 1,000 expenditure per head for international visitors.
When indirect impact is included this rises to Euros 43 million. 16,000 visitors were involved in corporate activities in the race village, at least 2,300 of them were enjoying structured corporate hospitality programmes.
Additionally there was Euros 23 million of spending by race spectators and media from outside the local region.
The report also illustrates the fact that the race is reaching out beyond traditional sailing enthusiasts. Almost two thirds (63%) of the 1,256 spectators that were interviewed by Deloitte had no previous active interest in sailing.
“This means the Volvo Ocean Race has successfully attracted a large proportion of spectators not previously associated with the sport and thus is successfully broadening its fan base.”
An overwhelming 98.44% of the 321 local spectators that were interviewed thought that hosting the Volvo Ocean Race was a good thing for their cities, and over 85% agreed that hosting the Volvo Ocean Race made them feel more positively about their cities.
Hosting the race has had a positive influence towards future tourism, since 76% of the 455 international spectators interviewed said they were more likely to return to the hosting cities after their visit.
KEY FINDINGS
Economic impact
Alicante
- Euros 89.2 million (US$131m) – total economic impact, an increase of 46% over the previous start port in the Galician region
- 5,000 corporate visitors from teams and sponsors
- 85% hotel occupancy rates
Singapore
- Euros 20 million direct impact in Singapore (total economic impact Euros 33m) – more than the UEFA Cup Final in Scotland in 2007 (Euros 18m)
- 1,650 corporate guests
Galway
- Euros 55.8 million total impact – 30% above initial projections
- Euros 36.5 million of spending by race spectators from outside the local region
- 99% of international visitors would recommend Galway as a holiday destination
Stockholm
- Euros 32 million in direct economic benefits. Rises to Euros 42 million with indirect impact
- 16,000 visitors involved in corporate activities
- Euros 23 million of spending by race spectators and media from outside the local region
- Euros 1,000 expenditure per head for international visitors in Stockholm
