Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi, which will once again be an important stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race between mid-December 2014 to January 3, 2015, is bidding to “achieve an aggressive target” and set itself apart as a watersports destination.
The Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team will once again be in the fray with Briton Ian Walker, who has two Olympic silver medals to his name as skipper, and one Emirati sailor to be part of the team.
Addressing a press conference almost 18 months before the event, Faisal Al Shaikh, Director of Events Bureau at TCA Abu Dhabi, said, “Last time the Volvo Ocean Race made its stop in Abu Dhabi, we generated a gross output of $47 million [Dh172 million], recorded 124,000 visitors to the Destination Village on the Corniche Break Water area and registered 32,000 hotel stays. Now we are starting early as we want more and we have set a more aggressive target.”
The route in the 2014-15 race will take in 10 cities in nine countries — Spain, Brazil, the UAE, China, New Zealand, United States, Portugal, France and Sweden — and will require the teams to cover 39,895 nautical miles — equivalent to 45,910 miles or 73,886 kilometres.
The event will start on October 4, 2014, the day of the first in-port race in Alicante, and finish with a final in-port race on June 27, 2015 in Gothenburg, the Swedish home of Volvo.
Design
The boats are expected to reach Abu Dhabi from Brazil around December 17 and will set sail to Sanya, China on January 3, 2015 after a pro-am race on January 1 and the in-port race on January 2.
Matthew Boucher, of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, said the race organisers had invested heavily to ensure that all boats were of one design. “The teams now need not go through trouble of designing their own boats and this will ensure that they now concentrate more on the competition,” he said.
The new one-design Volvo Ocean 65 is the boat that will be used for the next two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race.
“This year the route from Recife in Brazil to Abu Dhabi will be over a distance of 9,700 nautical miles and this will be the longest and most diverse of the legs in the 2014-15 edition, Al Shaikh said.
“The last time the stop-over was here we made history as we became the first Arabian destination [to have it]. We created waves marking Abu Dhabi as the leading watersports destination. Now we have again secured a premier date and this will help us to the maximum,” the TCA Abu Dhabi official said.
“We are working on some exciting inclusive packages and laying out an engaging experience for all the visitors. We also want to engage the local community with a city-wide activation of events.”
