Wind and cash drive extreme ocean yacht racing

There is no cash prize for sailors in the world's most dangerous yachting adventure, but brands and countries pouring millions into the Volvo Ocean Race want to open markets as much as mainsails. In the last race in 2008-2009, the average value generated by media coverage of the race for a team's main sponsor was $54 million, organisers estimated. They said the race costs about 55 million euros ($75 million) to run. "The race has proven to be a powerful platform since 1973," when it started as the Whitbread Round the World Race, said David Hassett, commercial director of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, one of six teams that cast off from Spain on Saturday. The Abu Dhabi yacht, under British Olympic skipper Ian Walker, bears the name of the rich desert kingdom on its sails as it crosses the continents, reflecting its bid for prominence as a sporting resort, Hassett said. It is the first Middle East entry in the race and the first time the 39,000-mile event will have stopped over in the region, opening a lucrative new front for an extreme sport with marginal but growing media exposure. "It has always attracted big brands. A race that goes around the world for nine months creates an awful lot of media value for those who participate. It offers the ability to engage major clients and markets," Hassett told AFP. Chief among these, he cites Abu Dhabi and China, another country new to the race. Team Sanya is named after the southern Chinese holiday resort whose tourism board, in partnership with Ireland's, is backing it. The Abu Dhabi team has just one Emirati sailor, Adil Khalid, 23, in its 11-man crew, while Sanya has one Chinese yachtsman, "Tiger" Teng Jiang He, 37. But as stakeholders, the two places were also made stopover destinations for the fleet. Ireland, which lays on a party at the end of the race in Galway in July, profited hugely from doing so for the last edition in 2009. The country' s farming and marine minister Simon Coveney said the economic benefits of the race for Ireland were second only to those of hosting golf's Ryder Cup and the Six Nations rugby tournament. "More than 40,000 foreign visitors came to Galway last time," in the 2009 race. "It was worth more than 50 million euros to the Irish economy. That's something we could do with at the moment," he said. "Some people see it as an elitist sport, which I don't," Coveney, himself a keen sailor, told AFP. "In Galway, it brought sailing to everyone." Most teams keep secret the amount of money they spend to race the yachts, but race organisers said the average cost of a race campaign was 15 to 18 million euros, with the Volvo Open 70 yacht costing up to six million to build. The 2008-2009 race saw teams for the first time include a "media crew member", crouching on deck full-time to film the adventure for viewers around the world -- an extra responsibility for the skipper, but a much-needed bonus for sponsors. "We're not in the most flush of economies at the moment. We understand the game," said the skipper of the Sanya yacht, New Zealander Mike Sanderson. "I don't think we'd be here today if it hadn't been introduced in the last race. It's a very important member of the crew. Possibly the most important." With big brands such as Volvo, Puma, outdoor clothing brand Camper and Spanish telecom firm Telefonica stamped on the yachts' 30-metre (100-foot) sails, sailors and investors alike see a chance to raise the profile of the sport. "The Whitbread Race 20 years ago was much more amateur. Now it is fully professional," Walker told AFP on the Alicante quayside before Saturday's departure. "There are major brand sponsors and I think that the organisers are also doing a much better job of promoting the race internationally," he added. "Everything has stepped up a level."