Official Website Launched for the Volvo Ocean Race.

The official website 'www.volvoracecochin.com' was launched by Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) Chairman Cherian Philip in the presence of N Ramachandran, Chairman, Cochin Port Trust and Dr. V Venu, Secretary, Tourism, Government of Kerala.


It is for the first time in the 35-year history of the Race, regarded as the ultimate in ocean racing competition, that an Indian port has been chosen for the stopover..


Kochi will witness a ten-day visual extravaganza of the most exciting water sport action that India has ever witnessed between December 3 and 13 this year. Apart from the world's fastest ocean racing yachts with state-of-the-art technology backup, the event will also attract hundreds of other luxury yachts and sailing vessels of different depiction. The Race will commence its round-the-world marathon sailing in October 2008 and cover more than 39,000 nautical miles, visiting 11 ports across the world.


Starting from Alicante in Spain, it would stopover at Cape Town, Cochin, Singapore, Qingdao, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway, Goteborg and Stockholm, before reaching the finishing line at St. Petersburg. The Race is the ultimate in world-class water-sporting competition on the extreme edge of adventure, drama and endurance. The stopover will enable the global corporate sponsors to hold networking conclaves with leaders of Commerce and Industry of the host country at the stopover ports.


The Race and the stopover events would be extensively covered in electronic, print and news media across the world, ranging from newspapers to lifestyle and glamour magazines.Port sponsor and co-sponsors for the India stopover event will be finalised by the Cochin Port Trust and the Kerala Tourism shortly through a bidding process.. Read more...

Volvo drives into Mumbai's waters...

The Mumbai shores were graced by an interesting visitor in the longest of times, yesterday.

This beauty has come 51,000 kms across the oceans to romance with the sultry Mumbai waters.



And she gets her own team of strong and suave men wherever she goes. She is none other than the 16.5 tonne, Rs 27 crore Volvo VO70 open yacht, which guided Team Ericsson's to fifth place in one of the world's most gruelling events - the Ocean Race.

THE OCEAN RACE

India is among the new stops in the 11th edition of the Ocean Race and Kochi will play host to the event (covered on our site earlier) in December later this year to 9 month long race.

Such is the nature of the race that preparations of begin one year in advance. It is also heralded as the Formula 1 of sailing.

It will start on October 2008 and finish in the Baltic Sea by June end of 2009. The 11th edition boasts of 10 ocean legs, 7 inshore races and 7 pro-am races and also head to new destinations in Asia.

TEAM ERICSSON

As a prelude to the forthcoming action in India, Ericsson 1, the VO70 boat from the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race is currently docked off the Mumbai coast after visiting Kochi, where for the first time there will be a stop during the Volvo Ocean Race in December 2008.

Team Ericsson which has assembled a crack international team is the hot favorite.

THE CREW

The crew which is visiting India this time is the hospitality crew and not the actual racing crew that will be taking part in the race. Skippered by Brazilian legend Torben Grael who has won 4 Olympic medals besides 5 world championship gold, it also compromises of Ocean race winner Brad Jackson of New Zealand.
In an interaction with mediapersons on board the VO70, the promotional captain of the boat Thomas Blixt said that the team has been in training since October and there will be two teams from the Ericsson Racing Team which will take part in the Race, to begin in October 2008 and will reach Kochi in December 2008. ''We are taking part in the race to win and with a bit of luck we can surely be in the top three spots'', he added, while showing the media persons round the boat.


The seven member crew, comprising 3 Swedes, one Dane, one Englishman and a South African, also had an Indian naval officer, Abhilash Tommy on board, when they set sail for Kochi 3 days ago.

It also has an Olympic aspirant Sille Christensen, who claims to have grown up in a boat, since her parents were avid sailors. The 29 year-old had to eventually forego her trip to Beijing as it wasn't financially viable.

OCEAN RACE SIGNIFICANCE

Former Olypian Malav Shroff, feels the World Ocean Race will be a 'wake up call for Indian sport'. The 32-year-old, one of the Indian sailors to have made it to the Olympics, says, "We are not locally accustomed to world standards. This event will make people understand the enormity of fitness."

Hoping that this Volvo has a successful drive into the waters of Mumbai.

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