The series will follow the Volvo Ocean Race around the world with Grand Prix events in three venues: Singapore, Boston (USA) and Stockholm (Sweden).

The team line-up for yesterdays races included.

• Holmatro, with the only woman skipper in the Grand Prix Series – Carolijn Brouwer;
• TWINS, skippered by keelboat champion Erik Maris with a legendary French crew;
• Volvo Ocean Race, skippered by Brit cat specialist Hugh Styles.
• Delta Lloyd/Tommy Hilfiger
• Orange B, skippered by Aaron Mcintosh. There will also be a brand new
• Team Alicante 2008-09

Each boat carries one lucky non-participating crew member or the Grand Prix races too, making a fantastic corporate sailing experience. Then come and see the winners at the Amstel Happy Hour and Prizegiving at 18,30pm each evening. Up to 40 races are scheduled at each event and every result counts… and the end of the five-stage global series the winning team will take home a brand new VOLVO C30 car!

“It’s going to be a fantastic series,” said Herbert Dercksen, Chief Executive Officer of event organisers and eXtreme 40 builders TornadoSport. “It’s an honour to be associated with the Volvo Ocean Race for the second time, and this time we will be sailing in one of the best venues of the world at Port Darcena in Alicante for some action-packed, high adrenaline racing!”

DAY 1 RESULTS:

1st Alicante 2008-09 (3-5-2-3-1-4-1-3 ) 22 points 2nd Delta Lloyd/Tommy Hilfiger (1-3-3-2-3-3-2-6) 23 points 3rd OrangeB (2-4-1-6-4-2-5-4) 28 points 4th Twins (4-1-4-4-5-1-4-5) 28 points 5th Holmatro (5-2-6-1-2-5-6-2) 29 points 6th Volvo Ocean Race (6-7-5-5-6-6-3-1) 39 points

More at http://www.extreme40series.org/

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The decision has been welcomed by team principals who believe it gives certainty and continuity to the event and makes it easier for sponsors to commit.

“It’s essential to make this type of announcement now,” said Michael Woods, Team Russia’s CEO. “Certainty in any financial business environment is vital. For us to bring potential sponsors into the ports without knowing there is going to be a next race is a risk. Now we know there is another race it is worth the investment that we can bring potential sponsors to visit us later on.”

Jamie Boag, the CEO of Green Dragon, also believes the continuity will make the event more appealing to sponsors.

“One of the biggest problems that we have is the continuity, saying to somebody that ‘you have to put all these millions in and oh, by the way, if you hang around you can maybe do it in three years time’. Being able to go now and say they will be definitely something in three years time, makes life a lot easier.”

Tom Touber, the project manager of Team Delta Lloyd, was the director of shore operations at Team ABN AMRO in the last race hopes today’s news will help Delta Lloyd commit to the next race. He said: “This was a very, very positive announcement. This proves that Volvo is in very good cooperation with the syndicates.

Telefonica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking hopes a new set-up will see extra assistance given in the search for sponsors. “We have been struggling always to find sponsors,” he said. “You have to get the right contacts so you need professional people in charge to find a sponsor for a sailing team.

“I’m not the right person to find a sponsor. I hope they can put the right people in place and then they can just hire a team manager or a complete team to race the boats.”

Sponsors might also be impressed with some of the numbers the event has already clocked up. The headline figure is the number of visitors to the race village to date from the opening of day of Friday 19th September which has reached 500,000.

The highest daily total was yesterday for the in-port race when 62,000 people went through the turnstiles.

The international crew will be skippered by Ireland’s Ger O’Rourke, and the team will be made up from a mix of Dutch sailors and Ger O’Rourke’s current Chieftain Racing Team, which won the Fastnet Race.

On leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race, between Galway and Goteborg-Marstrand, the race course will include a rounding mark outside Rotterdam which will be bring the fleet into Dutch waters, giving the spectators from the Netherlands an opportunity to see something of the fleet as it passes by.

‘I am very excited that we have an eighth entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, and I am particularly pleased that the latest entry is Dutch. The Netherlands has played a big part in this event since the first race in 1973 and we are very pleased that we continue to attract entries from this country,’ said Volvo Ocean Race Chief Executive, Knut Frostad.