Sunday, January 01, 2012

Volvo Ocean Race - Abu Dhabi Destination Village

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Abu Dhabi!


Armed with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G DX lens, I joined about 20-30 other people to have a walkabout at the Destination Village on New Year's Day 2012 morning.




Excerpt from Wikipedia ... The Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race) is a yacht race around the world, held every three years. It is named after its current owner, Volvo. At this moment the Netherlands holds the record of three wins with the Dutch skipper Conny van Rietschoten being the only skipper to win the race twice.

Though the route is changed to accommodate various ports of call, the race typically departs Europe in October, and in recent editions has had either 9 or 10 legs, with in-port races at many of the stopover cities. The last completed edition of the race started in Alicante, Spain, on October 11, 2008.

During the nine months of the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain in October 2011 and concludes in Galway, Ireland, in early July 2012, the teams are scheduled to sail over 39,000 nmi (72,000 km) of the world’s most treacherous seas via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajaí, Miami, Lisbon, and Lorient.




More shots around the village, its a big place that Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) has set-up, and it allows free entry for the public to see the race for themselves.




More info from Wikipedia about this single-make series ... The Volvo Open 70 (sometimes referred to as a Volvo Ocean 70) is the current class of racing yachts designed for the Volvo Ocean Race. It was first used in the 2005-2006 race (replacing the Volvo Ocean 60 yachts which were first used in 1993) and use a Canting keel which is capable of canting transversely up to an angle of 40 degrees. According to the VO70 rule, the yachts can be made from glass fibres, aramid fibres, or carbon fibres.






More close-ups, including that of the underside, looks rather spartan!






Team Abu Dhabi - Go Azzam !





Puma, along with HSBC, Camper, IWC were key sponsors.





Emirati band :-)



A couple more shots as I was leaving ...



GPS coordinates :-)






As you leave ... a reminder of Abu Dhabi's marinetime heritage.

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