Barcelona World Race rides again

Next event to start on 31 December 2010

The Barcelona World Race, two handed non-stop around the world in IMOCA Open 60s is to be held again, starting from Barcelona on 31 December, 2010. The Notice of Race will be published and the registration process will open on 18 June this year.

Alternating with the Vendée Globe - as the two round the world events in the official IMOCA calendar - but cleverly conflicting with not just the Velux 5 Oceans, but also the Route du Rhum - the organisers are keen to continue the doublehanded nature of the event that aims to bridge the poles that divide the solo Vendee Globe and the fully crewed Volvo Ocean Race.

Since the end of their first race in March 2008, the Barcelona World Race organisation has worked to develop sponsorship for the next event. Already the event has two main sponsors, 24 supporting partners, official suppliers and four institutional patrons. The race has kept its main sponsor, the Barcelona brewery and soft drinks company Estrella Damm, while Renault Spain, supporting partner in the first edition, has increased its backing and has been promoted to joint sponsor for this second race.

Such backing has given the organisers confidence to start working on the third event - to start on 31 December, 2014 (when it will still conflict with the Route du Rhum and the Velux 5 Oceans).

The 2007 Barcelona World Race was contested by nine boats and 18 skippers from six different nations. In an audit of the media generated by the event it was calculated that in all mediums of communication, it produced a return of 45 million Euros, with a 277 million strong TV audience, 400 hours of TV (25 of which were news) broadcasted internationally. More than 5,000 articles were published in the written press and 200 activities and cultural events directly related with the race were organised. Over the 10 days before the start of the race more than 500,000 people visited the race village and watched the start from the waterfront. On 11 November 2007, 650 spectator boats in Barcelona and more than 200 in Sitges, the first mark of the race, gathered to watch the start.

The Barcelona World Race has been created by OC Events and FNOB (Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona - Barcelona Foundation for Ocean Sailing.) For this and future editions, FNOB is now the exclusive organiser of the race and OC Events will operate in a consultancy capacity, in particular by marketing the event on an international scale.

The organisation has also announced that it is to help teams with a financial, logistic and communication support package allowing them to cut the cost of their campaigns by up to 20%. The details of this support package will be announced in the 'pre-Notice of Race', to be published on Thursday 18 June.

Official Partners:
JOHNSON&JOHNSON - MC NEIL - ARBORA AUSONIA - BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM - CLINICAS VITALDENT - COLA CAO - LA PIARA - ANETO - HIPERCOR - CONDIS - DANONE - LECHE PASCUAL - LACTALIS - GROUPAMA - AXA - LIBERTY SEGURO - CEPSA

Official Suppliers:
GRAMONA - GALERIA DEL COLECCIONISTA - PANINI - DECATHLON - PEROX FARMA - SILESTONE BY COSENTINO - MB 92 - MARINA PORT VELL

Institutional Patrons:
AJUNTAMENT DE BARCELONA - FIRA DE BARCELONA - CAMBRA D'INDUSTRIA, COMERÇ I NAVEGACIÓ DE BARCELONA - AUTORITAT PORTUÀRIA DE BARCELONA