Highly decorated sailing veteran, British Olympian Neal McDonald, is to taking the helm as Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Performance Director in the team’s second bid for Volvo Ocean Race glory next year. Emirati star, 24-year-old Adil Khalid, has re-signed as an Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing crew member under the leadership of skipper Ian Walker.
“I am lucky enough to have raced round the world six times and I hope to use my experience to ensure Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing wins this next race. With any offshore race, the next one is full of many varied challenges, some of which will not even be obvious at the start of the campaign. The solutions to each will inevitably involve a series of complex compromises. Getting the right balance in each of these compromises will be a huge part of winning this next race. Particularly with a one design boat playing centre stage in the 2014-15 race, the biggest challenge will be to get the best out of the entire team at all the critical stages of the campaign. Getting the right personnel and planning the campaign properly from the start appear to be the most important parts to getting it right.
“After the last race it was clear to me that, at my stage in life, I was not going to do another Volvo campaign that involved me as a sailor in a manner that I had before. I had never given up on the possibility of getting involved in a more behind the scenes role. When Ian Walker started talking to me I was excited to hear more as I see Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing having a real chance of winning this race.”
Adil Khalid
“Taking part in my first Volvo Ocean Race campaign was a dream, now with a second chance at it, I want to make winning the reality. We are already so much further ahead in this campaign than before and I feel that I have learnt so much, yet have much more to prove. For us, winning the race is the only goal, so we can make everyone at home proud and continue inspiring the many young Arab sailors to reach for the stars, showing them that anything is possible with determination and hard work.”
Guy Barron
“I think as a professional sailor with a wealth of experience across most of the major regattas, I bring a vast amount of knowledge to Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. I understand what sailors need and what makes a boat go fast. I also know how a team works and how it needs to be motivated.
“The biggest challenge for the shore team will be to make sure the boat doesn’t break down and the sailing team can push her hard and fast. With the new one design, this is going to be a big challenge. We haven’t seen a boat hit the water yet so I will need to learn all about how they will perform and then put together a team that can best support our sailing guys and who can work efficiently with Volvo Ocean Race to streamline our overall offering.”
11th Hour Racing Team has won The Ocean Race 2022-23, the world’s longest and toughest team sporting event - the first time a US team has won in the 50-year history of the Race.
The next edition of The Ocean Race, scheduled to start from Alicante, Spain in October 2021, will visit 10 international cities, including the start port and the Grand Finale finish in Genoa, Italy in the summer of 2022.
The latest edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain in October 2017 and finished in The Hague in the Netherlands in June 2018, will be remembered as the closest in race history, as well as a record-breaking event on many levels.
Dongfeng Race Team has won the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 in the closest finish in race history.
Skipper Charles Caudrelier led his team to victory on the final leg of the race, a 970-mile sprint from Gothenburg, Sweden to The Hague.
Incredibly, it marked the first leg win for the team — it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Charlie Enright’s Vestas 11th Hour Racing showed great patience and sailed a clean race for a victory in the Gothenburg In-Port Race on Sunday.
But it was Xabi Fernández’s MAPFRE team who rode a third place finish on Sunday to win the overall In-Port Race Series, sailing 11 points clear of their closest pursuers, Dongfeng Race Team.
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The scientific research, using data collected by Race team ‘Turn the Tide on Plastic’, identified over three million micro plastic particles per square kilometre of ocean.
The sub-surface data on micro plastic pollution levels was collected using a state-of-the-art instrument on board their Volvo Ocean 65 racing yacht.
Kingfisher plc, spécialiste international de la grande distribution, a annoncé aujourd’hui à Londres lors du London Boat Show, que le sponsoring d’Ellen MacArthur était reconduit pour une période de 5 ans.
To every New Zealander on the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, to be the first Kiwi into Auckland rates extremely high in their list of achievements for this leg. Grant Dalton from Amer Sports One when asked how important for him personally to lead into Auckland, said in Hobart, "As important as any other Kiwi in this race, won the last two and I (…)
Depuis samedi 29 décembre dernier, le maxi-catamaran Orange a largué les amarres du chantier de La Ciotat et réalise actuellement ses premiers essais en mer. La phase de préparation à terre est désormais terminée et s’est effectuée grâce au travail et à la complicité d’une équipe composée de vingt personnes réunies autour d’Alain Gabbay et sous (…)
Du mini au 50 pieds, en passant par une aventure extraordinaire à bord d’un catamaran hors normes, l’anglais Alex Bennett est passé en deux années de la filière école à la filière professionnelle. Il vient d’ailleurs d’acheter le monocoque jaune de 50 pieds Aqua Quorum pour s’aligner sur la Transat Jacques Vabre et préparer la Route du Rhum 2002.
A quarante-trois ans, il n’est déjà pas commun de se lancer dans un projet de Mini-Transat, course qui a fait sa réputation sur la révélation des jeunes talents. A cet âge, ce sont soit des coureurs expérimentés qui viennent se frotter aux jeunes aux dents longues, ou des amateurs passionnés qui viennent réaliser un rêve : traverser (…)
Benoît Petit s’était entraîné tout l’hiver avec la ferme intention de participer à La Solitaire du Figaro. Mais faute de budget, il n’avait pu prendre part aux régates du début de saison du championnat de France des Solitaires. Les problèmes de dos de Yann Elies, skipper officiel du Figaro Generali, ont poussé ce dernier à laisser la barre à (…)
Un an après sa deuxième place dans la Transat AG2R en double avec Gildas Morvan, Bertrand De Broc a trouvé un partenaire financier pour revenir régater dans le circuit de multicoques de 60 pieds.
Premier à Hobart, le voilier suédois était aussi le premier à quitter la ville de Tasmanie et mettre le cap sur Auckland, terme de la troisième étape de la Volvo Ocean Race.
Assa Abloy timed her finish to perfection to win line honours in the 57th CYCA Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race when she slipped across the finish line in full view of a huge crowd on a busy Saturday morning at just before 10 am local time.