Friday, October 3, 2008

2008-09 AsianYachting Grand Prix Championships gets underway in October

After a couple months break the racing action resumes with the China Coast Raceweek (10 - 12 October) and closely followed by the HK to Vietnam Race starting on 15th October. Both events score points towards the annual 2008-09 AsianYachting Grand Prix Championships and competitors will be looking to get an early points advantage before they make their way across the South China Sea for the SE Asian regattas. The beginning of the season always sees the boat owners full of confidence that the changes made during the break will produce the extra knot of boatspeed they have been looking for. Allot of time and effort has gone into planning individual racing campaigns that will run over the next nine months. The Top of the Gulf Regatta (April 30 to 4th May) is a new inclusion this year and organisers are offering all sorts of incentives to attract the racers to the shores of Pattaya before the season ending and now renamed Sawadee.com Regatta Samui on 1st - 6th June. Follow the progress throughout the season at: http://asianyachting.com/news/AYGP08-09.htm

2008-09 VOR sets sail for the blue yonder

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 starts on the 4-5th October, when eight Volvo Open 70s begin adding points to the leaderboard at the start line off Alicante for the first in-port and pro-am races, prior to the race start of the first leg to Cape Town on October 11. Volvo Ocean Race TV launched earlier this year, will show video content including news, features, on-board footage and interviews when the boats are at sea. Also live coverage of all in-port races. Frostad adds, "And now, with the Media Crew Member on board, our 'embedded reporters', we now have the ability to play to our strengths in capturing every ounce of the action, the sheer speed of the Volvo Open 70s, as well as the emotional highs and lows endured by the guys on board." More info at: http://www.volvooceanrace.org
Asian Stopover Dates
Leg 2 Capetown to Cochin Start: 15 Nov 2008, 4,450 Nm ETA: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 Leg 3 Cochin to Singapore Start: 13 Dec 2008, 1,950 Nm ETA: Tue 23 Dec 2008 In-port race 10-11th January 2009 Leg 4 Singapore to Qingdao Start: 18 January 2009, 2,500 Nm ETA: Fri 30 January 2009 Leg 5 Qingdao to Rio De Janeiro Start: 14 Feb 2009, 12,300 Nm ETA: Fri 20 March 2009

Eight entries & Media Crew Members
Delta Lloyd (Ger O’Rourke) Sander Pluijm NED
Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael) Guy Salter GBR
Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander) Gustav Morin SWE
Green Dragon (Ian Walker) Guo Chuan CHN
Puma Ocean Racing (Ken Read) Rick Deppe GBR
Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp) Mark Covell GBR
Telefonica Black (Fernando Echavarri) Mikel Pasabant ESP
Telefonica Blue (Bouwe Bekking) Gabriele Olivo ITA