The Volvo Ocean Race: The Sport of Racing in the Ocean
The sport of sailing is an extremely popular one all over the world. There seems to be something about watching people in a yacht, pulling on ropes and lowering sails that fascinates people. The Volvo Ocean Race is an around-the-world yacht race that takes
place every three years and features some of the most talented yachtsmen from all over. The race, which is a huge test of strength, determination and sailing skills, has a worldwide television audience and is a firm favourite amongst sailing fans. It follows
on from very old sailing traditions and tries to keep them alive. In the next few years this race is likely to become even more popular.
The history of this interesting sport is long and varied. It all started in 1972, when two companies decided to sponsor a round-the-world sailing race. The Whitbread Company and the British Royal Naval Sailing Association agreed upon a route and called the
new race the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. The inaugural race took place, after a lot of preparation, in 1973 and it featured 17 yachts and 163 crew members. Over 3000 spectator boats were on hand to watch the historic start. This first race started
from Portsmouth in the United Kingdom on the 8th of September, 1973. It seemed that this very interesting event, even in the early 70s, had a large following because of the unique nature of the racing and the route that the yachts would take.
The route that was taken during the race was a nod to the history of sailing. In the 19th Century, boats called square riggers were used to transport cargo all around the world. These special boats would follow a long path that would take them
round the world and the route they took was emulated by the Whitbread Race.
In 2001, the race was bought by Volvo and it was renamed to become the Volvo Ocean Race. The car company has been using the race as a marketing tool for a number of years now and there are even three stopover points in the race that correspond to the company’s
three largest car markets in Europe. Those three stopover points are Germany, France and Sweden.
This race is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, the yachts that are used are special Volvo designed ones called the Volvo Open 70 class of yacht. These yachts have an overall length of 21.5 metres and also have a 175 metres squared mainsail. The
Volvo 70 also uses a Canting keel which is a keel that is able to cant transversely up to 40 degrees. The large boats can be made out of fibre glass, carbon fibre and also out of the exotic sounding aramid fibres.
The other interesting thing about this ocean race is the fact that there is no cash prize awarded for winning the competition. Only Waterford Crystal trophies are presented to the winners of each individual leg of the race. So the question to be asked here
is that why do people take part in something this daunting and arduous if they are only going to get a crystal trophy in the end? It seems that the act of racing and controlling the large yachts all around the world is prize enough and people do it simply
for the love of sailing and the thrill they get just from taking part.
The final very interesting aspect of this race is the fact that it is able to attract a worldwide television audience of 2 billion viewers. The excitement and thrilling racing that takes place seems to strike just the right chord with fans of sailing and
they watch it in droves. The way the crew members deal with the fluctuating weather conditions and the storms they face along the way, make for compelling viewing.
In the next few years, this interesting race is just going to grow in popularity and a whole new generation of young viewers will start to appreciate the exciting ocean racing that takes place.
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