What the bloody hell is... The Volvo Open Race?

Other / Richard Douglas / 18 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

Richard Douglas steps into his deck shoes, slings a salmon coloured crewneck over his shoulders and dons a Helly Hansen as he navigates the treacherous waters of an event conceived in a Portsmouth pub.

If you have been following my jaunt around what can only be described as the arse-end of world sport in recent weeks then this will be a blessed relief.

In contrast to the likes of pelota, floorball and handball there is no need for a long-winded explanation of rules and culture. The Whitbread Round the World yacht race is good enough definition in itself, though these days the event is actually known as the Volvo Ocean race.

This competition started as a bet in a Portsmouth pub but has grown into a huge global event. It has been held every four years since the early 1970s and it is estimated the current race will draw two billion television viewers worldwide.

The latest event started in Alicante, Spain on October 11, 2008 and will finish on June 27 in St Petersburg. In between it will cover 39,000 nautical miles.

For sponsorship reasons, the route this year has been adapted to take in stopovers in the Middle East and Asia. But it will also sail through treacherous waters in Cape Town, Kochi, Singapore, Qingdao, Cape Horn, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway, Goteborg and Stockholm

Right now, we are just over halfway with the eight boats heading north from Rio de Janiero to Boston, USA - a jaunt of 4,900 miles.

Each boat consists of around 11 crew members, each with different skills - including a medic, sailmaker, engineer and a media specialist. During the 'legs', they will sail day and night for up to 30 days at a stretch in the most trying conditions on water. This is a huge test of character and resolve. They live off freeze-dried food, will be dangerously sleep-deprived and typically have only one change of clothes on board between ports.

Just imagine your average sociology undergraduate and you'll be sailing down the right mental stream.

The vast, lonely leg races are split up by short, media-friendly in-port races. Scoring is simple and always the same, in an eight-boat race you get eight points for first and one for last. These are divided in half for the port events.

Ericsson 4 [1.11] have a handy lead at the moment. They are everyone's favourites to win and much has been made of the pre-competition training camp in Lanzarote given the gruelling nature of the competition.

They won the first two legs - Alicante to Cape Town, Cape Town to Kochi - they also triumphed in the races at Singapore and Qingdao, China. During the first of those skipper Torben Grael broke the monohull 24-hour distance record when he sailed 596.6 nautical miles at an average of 24.85 knots

Those wins have brought them 69.5 points which is a significant advantage over PUMA Ocean Racing on 59 and Telefonica Blue with 58.5.

The vastly-experienced Ken Read leads the Puma team [1.31]. He was the helmsman onboard two of Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes campaigns in the America's Cup. Bouwe Bekking is Sports and Technical Director and commander of Telefonica Blue boat. Last time he skippered the Movistar vessel, which sank. This time they are more competitive. The team won the legs from Kochi to Singapore and Singapore to Qingdao. They also picked up race wins in Alicante and Rio.

The only other team teams in contention are Ericsson 3 [1.31] and Green Dragon [1.31]. They latter is skippered by Ian Walker, who won silver for Britain at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics.

I could go into further depth but, if you have an interest here, the best thing is to follow the race yourself. The official site of the race is perhaps the most in-depth sporting web presence ever created. There is video, audio and e-mails direct from the boats updated almost every day. You can also track the progress of each leg via live maps. The port races are shown live on their online TV channel.

It's not overstating matters to say that this is a real benchmark in the coverage of online sport. If ever a website could spark interest in an event then it is this one.

What better way to study a market than to study the participants at close quarters while the contest is going on.

When you bet all you can ask for is up-to-date, regular information. With the Vovlo Ocean race there is no excuse for getting it wrong.

Over to you.