Abu Dhabi gör en storsatsning på Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12. Landet håller på för fullt att bygga upp sin turistindustri och som ett led i denna långsiktiga förändring ska de både delta som hamnstopp och bygga en egen båt som ska delta i själva racet med delvis inhemsk besättning. Båtliv följde undertecknandet av avtalet på plats.
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För Abu Dhabi, som är huvudstad i Förenade Arabemiraten, är detta något helt nytt. Det är även premiär för Volvo Ocean Race som organisation att besöka den Persiska Gulfen på det här sättet.
– Vår strävan är att utveckla tävlingen hela tiden. Nu har vi fem hamnar klara för nästa race, varav Abu Dhabi är en riktigt spännande nykomling, men vi kommer att ha totalt mellan 9 och elva hamnar, säger Knut Frostad, VD för Volvo Ocean Race.
Överenskommelsen om att ställa upp som hamn i kommande race undertecknades på måndagen i Abu Dhabi. Förutom organisatörerna för Volvo Ocean Race deltog en lång rad representanter för turistmyndigheterna i landet. Avtalet undertecknades av Knut Frostad och Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, som är ordförande för Abu Dhabis turistmynidghet.
Seglingarna utanför Abu Dhabi kan bli spännande. Det råder ofta ganska lätta och behagliga vindar i det här området, vilket i sig är utmanade för de extrema VO 70-båtarna.
www.volvooceanrace.com
Här är Volvo Ocean Races egen pressrelease om nyheten:
Abu Dhabi Marks Middle East’s Volvo Ocean Race Debut
Alicante, Spain – 15 March 2010 – An agreement signed in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi, today will see the Arabian Gulf’s emerging marine leisure hub become a host port for the 2010-12 race. A racing team from Abu Dhabi will also take its place on the start line of the race in Alicante, Spain in the autumn of next year.
“This event will take Abu Dhabi’s marine leisure proposition to the world and will enable us to demonstrate, first hand, our powerful credentials to a highly influential professional yachting audience,” said His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), the agreement’s co-signatory.
“Via the expansive international media coverage the race enjoys, Abu Dhabi’s name will ride high on another world-class sporting wave,” he added.
The agreement, signed between His Excellency Mubarak Al Muhairi, ADTA’s Director General and Knut Frostad, Volvo Ocean Race CEO, takes Abu Dhabi into global yachting history as the first Middle East port to host the event since its 1973 inception.
“We found in Abu Dhabi an incredible synergy,” said Frostad. “This destination has a long maritime history which it wishes to elevate to a new era while celebrating the achievements of the past. There was a willingness to meet our requirements, an understanding of the participants’ needs and an enthusiasm which simply stood out ahead of others.”
Team Abu Dhabi, a crew specially selected by ADTA will tackle the ‘Everest of Sailing’, in a newly designed boat, which will be built in the UAE capital by the Abu Dhabi Mar Group.
“It is our ambition to include a UAE national in the crew who will be our ocean ambassador representing the emirate’s long seafaring heritage,” said Al Muhairi. “The locally-constructed boat will also signal our potential as a new build and repair port, which will recall the heady days when vessels made on these shores set sail for months of pearling expeditions and proved to be among the sturdiest afloat.”
The new marina being built at Emirates Palace – the emirate’s signature hotel and among the world’s most opulent – will be the focal point of the host port.
Al Muhairi said Abu Dhabi, its fellow emirates and the wider Gulf is expected to get fully behind the event and to welcome the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to the region when the crews arrive in Abu Dhabi at the finish of leg two from Cape Town, South Africa.
“The Volvo Ocean Race is known for extreme levels of endurance and expertise – values which are synonymous with our own,” added Al Muhairi. “I believe the entire region will follow the teams’ progress and produce a welcome which will be truly deserving of the legendary Arabian hospitality.”
The Volvo Ocean Race traces its origins back to 1973 and is the world’s premier offshore sailing race. The Volvo Open 70 racing boat is sailed by professional athletes, who race around the world with the prevailing winds.
The remaining host ports will be revealed throughout March.
www.volvooceanrace.com
