Volvo Ocean Race: Second leg: Ships into the desert

The organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race have announced another stage destination. As in the previous edition, the race will once again be heading for Abu Dhabi. This means that the second leg has also been finalised: after the opening leg from Alicante in Spain to Recife on the north-east coast of Brazil, the race will head directly to the capital of the United Arab Emirates. At more than 8,000 nautical miles, this leg will be one of the longest in the history of the race. This time, Cape Town will remain on the port side. At the same time as the stage finish was announced, another team from Abu Dhabi was also announced, which will once again be led by two-time Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker from Great Britain. After the women's team "SCA" and an as yet unspecified team from Brazil, this would be the third participant.

In Abu Dhabi, the attention generated by the Volvo Ocean Race will be used to further develop the maritime infrastructure. "Our involvement in the Volvo Ocean Race has galvanised our people, who have a strong relationship with our maritime heritage," said His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority.

Head of organisation Knut Frostad left open how the piracy problem of the last edition will be solved: "It's still a long time until the race," said Frostad, "so we can't rule anything out yet. But at the moment it looks as if the entire route could be sailed." Last time, the yachts were transported from Cape Town by freighter for part of the route.

Abu Dhabi is the seventh port announced for the twelfth edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. In the middle section, the field will sail from Auckland in New Zealand via Itajaí in Brazil to Newport in the US state of Rhode Island for the first time. The last port of destination of the world regatta this time will be Gothenburg in Sweden. The ports that are still open with the lengths of the individual legs and the overall distance will be announced in the coming weeks.