Dubai: The Puma Ocean Racing team will participate in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 after placing second overall in the 2008-2009 competition.
The race, known as the "Everest of sailing", begins in October 2011 in Alicante, Spain, and ends in Galway, Ireland, in June 2012.
The eight stopovers in between include Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya (China), Auckland, Itajaí (Brazil), Miami, Lisbon and Lorient (France). The Puma Ocean Racing team will once again be under the leadership of skipper Ken Read. Puma will also be the official supplier of all Volvo Ocean Race merchandise.
"We are proud of Puma Ocean Racing's success in the last Volvo Ocean Race and look forward to the adventures this next race will bring," said Jochen Zeitz, Puma AG Chairman and CEO.
"Both the team and the company hope to leverage the key lessons from the last VOR campaign in order to continue spreading the good will of the programme and Puma worldwide.
"The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the world's iconic sporting events. It proved to be an extremely successful marketing tool for us and an important launch pad for the sailing product category.
"We look forward to building the sailing category even more throughout the next race, as well as expanding into other forms of outdoor lifestyle ventures."
Team selection efforts are already underway and will likely include a number of sailors from Puma's 2008-2009 team, plus a mix of new and veteran talent from the professional racing world.
Read, who is considered to be one of the world's most accomplished racers, was in charge of Puma Ocean Racing and at the helm of Puma's Il Mostro throughout the entire Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009.
"This last race was an amazing journey for me personally and for our start-up company Puma Ocean Racing," said Read.
