The Volvo Ocean Race

By Author: muchosol
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The Volvo Ocean Race is a sailing regatta in which participate 6 professional crews. It takes place every three years and makes its tour once around the world. It has started in autumn in Europe, passes the Atlantic Ocean, goes around Africa, crosses the South Pacific to America and from there back again to Europe. This year it has started in Alicante where visitors can stay at villas in Denia.

The “village” of the Ocean Race at the harbour of Alicante opened on 14 October. The following weeks, until the 5 of November, there was a wide range of activities for people of all ages. Visitors had free admission. The types of activities had to do with sea, sailing and the race and were absolutely entertaining, transforming the harbour of Alicante into a wonderful place of culture and fun. Among these 40 activities offered was for example the Museum of the Volvo Ocean Race with a permanent and a temporary exhibition. In this ...
... way the opportunity was given to experience the work going on in the control centre of the regatta. On monitors the float will be supervised during 24 hours per day until its arrival in Galway in July 2012.

Furthermore there was an ample program of concerts offered. Among them was the Rolling-Stones tribute concert or the Flamenco singer José Mercé who performed on 22 Ocotber. During the concerts it is also possible to stay at accommodations in Calpe. The Real Club Náutico Calpe organizes two activities of the races. Most of the concerts were for free sponsored by the community of Valencia.

Apart from the events everything is focused on the challenges on the water. On 29 of October they started with the coastal-regatta “in-ort o costera” in Alicante. It was fast, tactical and worth seeing and went along the coast in which the leader of the race was chosen. On 30 of October the regatta “Pro-Am” took place: It was similar to the previous but that time invited guests were on board. From the 1 to 5 November the “Legends Regatta and Reunion” was held: a first reunion with all the sailing-challenge participants who have played an important role during the 38 years of regatta history. Finally, on 5 of November the participants sailed to the first stage of the race connecting Alicante with Cape Town and a distance of 6 500 nautical miles (12,038 km) was covered.

Due to the extreme weather conditions this regatta is considered to be one of the hardest challenges in sailing. The Volvo Ocean Race 2011 – 2012 started on 5 November at the harbour of Alicante and will finish on 1 July 2012 at the harbour of Galway (Ireland). There are 9 different stages to be done: Alicante, Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, Itajaí, Miami, Lisbon, Lorient, Galway. It is the first time that it crosses the Middle East (Abu Dhabi). The race takes about 9 months. The actual positions are: on its peak PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG followed by Team Telefónica, CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, and Groupama sailing team at the last postion. Soon after leaving Alicante, the teams Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and the Chinese Team Sanya were unfortunately obliged to retire from Leg 1 owing to serious damage of the bow of their boat. Now efficient works are undertaken to fix the boat to get to Cape town and to be ready for the in-port racing and the start of Leg 2 to Abu Dhabi. Between Cape Town and the PUMA Ocean Racing team there is a distance of 3600 nm today on 16 of November.