VIDEO NEWS RELEASE– CURTAIN TO RISE ON WIDE-OPEN FIELD IN VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2011-12
Alicante, Spain, 28 October 2011 – The 11th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race bursts into life Saturday when, at 1200 GMT/UTC (1400 local time) the six world class professional sailing teams do battle for the first time in the Iberdrola In-Port Race in Alicante, Spain.
The six teams, who for many months have been meticulously preparing their state-of-the-art, multi-million-euro racing yachts, will line up for real in a quickfire sprint, their first chance to put points on the scoreboard in the 39,000 nautical mile race around the world.
The course for the in-port race will be set close to the Race Village and adjacent Postiguet Beach, to give crowds a grandstand view of the fast and furious action.
The first of the 10 in-port races takes place one week before the boats set off November 5 on the first of nine ocean legs, a 20-day, 6,500 nautical mile passage from Alicante to Cape Town, South Africa. From there, they will visit Abu Dhabi (UAE), Sanya (China), Auckland (New Zealand), Itajaí (Brazil), Miami (USA), Lorient (France) and Lisbon (Portugal) before the finish in Galway (Ireland) in July.
The six teams taking part are Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, Groupama sailing team, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG, Team Sanya and Team Telefónica.
The fleet is the most competitive the race has ever seen with all six teams closely matched and fully funded.
Sanya skipper Mike Sanderson is the only sailor competing this time to havepreviously led a team to victory in the Volvo Ocean Race (ABN AMRO ONE in 2005-06). Having finished second in the last race in 2008-09, PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by multiple world champion and America’s Cup veteran Ken Read from Newport, Rhode Island, are expected to mount another strong challenge.
British double Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker is back for his second campaign as skipper, this time with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. Telefónica are led by Spain’s Iker Martínez, an Olympic gold and silver medallist with Xabi Fernández, who is part of his crew here.
CAMPER is skippered by multiple Olympian and three-time Volvo Ocean Race veteran, Australian Chris Nicholson. Groupama sailing team, the first French entry in the Volvo Ocean race since Eric Tabarly’s La Poste in 1993, are led by Franck Cammas, a multihull record breaker and one of his country’s best known sportsmen.
During their marathon race around the world, the 11-man crews – 10 sailors and one embedded Media Crew Member – will have to deal with mountainous seas, extremes of temperature and hurricane force winds as well as having to negotiate some of the planet’s most hazardous commercial shipping lanes.
The escalating threat of piracy in the Indian Ocean forced the race organisers to redraw the course for the second and third legs. Now, on the way from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi, the teams will race to a ‘safe haven’ port, before being transported to a re-start venue to complete the leg in a sprint to the finish in Abu Dhabi. The process will be reversed for the third leg from Abu Dhabi to Sanya, China.
The Iberdrola In-Port Race will take around an hour to complete. Racing will be streamed live at and will be accompanied by a live blog of the action.
HD live coverage for desktop browsers will also be available through the New Livestream platform, which includes video, photos, audio and text updates, at
For a breakdown of the Volvo Ocean Race scoring system click here
VNR–ALICANTE RACE VILLAGE OPENS DOORS TO VOLVO OCEAN RACE FESTIVAL
SHOTLIST
00:00-00:05SLATE
00:05-00:18General Views – Port of Alicante
00:18-00:32General Views – Racing Boats
00:32-00:51General Views – Sailors Preparations
00:52-01:01General Views – Fleet shots, practice race
01:01-01:34Quote –Jack Lloyd, Race Director, Volvo Ocean Race
“We want to bring the race to the people. In the past, we’ve been miles off-shore, now we are trying to bring the race as close as we can. Here in Alicante is a perfect place for us to trial that with the beaches.”
“If you you think of the boats, dimension-wise, as almost identical to the America’s Cup boats from the ’05, ’07 America’s Cup. They sailed with 17 people and these guys are sailing with 10. Same size sails. Admittedly the boat is a tenth-ton lighter, but it’sthe same dimensions-pretty much.”
01:34-01:53Quote – Phil Harmer, Groupama sailing team
“when you look through all of the fleet, there is some great guys, there’s Olympics medals everywhere and obviously CAMPER being with Team New Zealand – they are going to be really good. Obviously Telefonica is going to be good as well being locals as well, so… it’s going to be close no matter what – off-shore and in-shore. Off-shore its going to be close and in-shore as well.”
01:50-01:55END SLATE
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For media information on the Volvo Ocean Race, please contact:
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The Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12
- The next Volvo Ocean Race will start in the Spanish port of Alicante in October 2011 and finish in Galway, Ireland in July 2012.
- The course will include stopovers in Cape Town (South Africa), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Sanya (China), Auckland (New Zealand), Itajai (Brazil), Miami (USA), Lisbon (Portugal) and Lorient (France).
- The first 27,000 nautical-mile race first took place 38 years ago (as the Whitbread Round the World Race 1973-74), testing the crews against some of the most ferocious elements that man can encounter.
- The 2011-12 race will be the 11th edition and cover 39,000 nautical miles.
- The design of the boat is regulated and the boat is built for speed.