Round (extreme land sports) The World 2008 Yachting Race
No commentsBy Roger Munns
This autumn’s 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race begins this October in Spain, with participants sailing the world and testing their skill against the most challenging conditions in sailing.
Formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race is now sponsored by Volvo, which has organized the event since they took over the 2001-2002 race. Upon Volvo’s involvement, three additional stopovers were added to the race in Sweden, France and Germany. Not surprisingly, these are Volvo’s three biggest markets for car sales on the European mainland. Additional changes in the point system were made to ensure that the race maintained a level of competitiveness throughout all legs.
Traditionally the Volvo Ocean Race has departed from a location in Europe some time in September. This year, however, the planned departure date is October 11, 2008, starting from Alicante, on Spain’s Costa Blanca.
This is one of two major changes that have occurred for the upcoming race. The yachts had always departed from somewhere in the United Kingdom up until the last race, which was the first to begin the race from elsewhere in Europe. Secondly, a new yacht design was introduced. The Volvo 70 is a lighter boat design with more sail area.
Until the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race, the event had traditionally been scheduled every four years. This year’s race will begin after a break of only three years. The route has changed many times and in various ways since the beginning of the race over thirty years ago. Beginning in Spain, the customary path heads south through the Atlantic, down around the southern tip of Africa, around the Southern ocean and back to England. Brand new additions will be a stopover in India at the major port of Kochi, and, also for the first time in Asia, at a port in Singapore where the second in-port event will be held. The race route will include one stop in North America in Boston, Massachusetts. The race will finish off in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Despite the many changes, a central objective remains at the heart of this and other sailing competitions: a matchless adventure and an exercise in sailing skill against the odds of nature.
Ericsson Racing Team, which has two yachts enlisted as challengers in the Volvo Ocean Race, has transported their boats and sailing crew to the Canary Islands. The crew have trained in Puerto Calero, on the island of Lanzarote, which offers ideal sailing conditions.
Lanzarote maintains relatively constant temperatures and sees low annual rainfall. Few days are lost to weather related problems due to this environment, which offers the premium atmosphere for technical improvements and beneficial training. In addition to these benefits, the winds are good and steady in the Canary Islands due to the north-east trade winds, which also bring cooler air in the summers to Lanzarote.
Atmospheric benefits are not the only plusses of Puerto Calero for the sailing crews. The marina has good hotels within strolling distance for the crews.
Like Volvo’s addition of certain ports within their sales arena, Ericsson’s presence in the race is similar, to improve sales and reach customers around the world. Ericsson is a communications company based in Sweden, providing technology and support for a variety of telecommunication and data communication systems. New stops added along the route will allow these and all involved companies to expand their customer bases in the Middle East, China and India.
More details about Lanzarote including hotels are available via yourlanzarote.net
The Lanzarote travel guide includes flight times from European airports and other flights to Lanzarote news.
Villa holiday companies who deal with Lanzarote villa holidays feature and at the other end of the holiday league they also have cheap Lanzarote hotels
Engadin St. Moritz: From Ski Area To Stimulating Sports
By Roberto Garabelli
St. Moritz, again, lies in the Engadin Valley accessible through the Maloja Pass and is thus overshadowed by the Bernina massif rising to 4000 meters. Engadin St. Moritz itself lies near the western edge of the St. Moritz Lake with two distinct districts-the Bad and the Dorf-the former more spread out through the Engadin Valley and the latter built terrace-style on a hillside with more tourist related venues. St. Moritz hosted the ‘28 and ‘48 Winter Olympics and later (and in 1934) played host to the ‘74 and ‘03 Alpine Skiing World Championships.
The Engadin Valley has two parts as well, the upper and lower, respectively. The whole valley continues from Martina near Austria to the Maloja Pass. The Valley, moreover, follows the Inn River to Austria. The area is entirely surrounded by rising mountains, dually protecting it from incoming weather streams and making for a long and snowy ski season. Engadin St. Moritz houses around 6,000 residents and employs roughly half this during the high skiing season.
The Engadin St. Moritz ski area located in the upper section has a lot of ski facts to recount, as the area is so well maintained and offers substantial skiing pistes. The ski resort is around 1700 meters and skiing is made possible up to over 3,000-plus meters. With a longer season than lower ski resorts, Engadin St. Moritz Swiss ski resort gives a means of approach to over 350 km of downhill slopes, 24 ski lifts and around 90 individual paths. There’s an additional 32 snow cannons (260 total) keeping 65,000 hourly skiers riding up 55 lifts and zooming downhill constantly.
There’s skiing for all members of the family as nearly 230 runs break down as such: There are a near 60 beginner runs, 36 advanced runs and over 135 intermediate runs. It’s easy to see that Engadin St. Moritz Swiss ski resort beckons intermediate skiers while the beginners and advanced skiers on each side of the spectrum have plenty to keep them busy.
For the advanced skiers, you’ll have enough black runs to paint the day dark at Diavolezza and Lagalb and Piz Noir. If you’re more of a middle level skier, then you’ll keep the adrenaline rushing in the Hahensee run from Corvatsch to St. Moritz Bad. Beginners can test their steps at Celerina where nursery slopes and bunny hills and moguls for all. Likewise, the snowboarders will have access to one snowboard park; however, the snowboard park area receives rave reviews so one may well be more than enough.
Engadin St. Moritz Swiss ski area has more to offer your ski holiday than riding down the powdery mountains. In fact, there are activities here not found in other ski resorts. Take, for instance, snow golfing. Snow golfing is a part of the winter sports event and started in 1979 with nutso golf fanatics. Presently, however, there are over 2000 participants competing in the annual golf tourney. Not so nutty anymore.
Another lone activity proffered at Engadin St. Moritz is kitesailing (aka snowkiting). Since ‘91, kitesailing has been held on the first weekend of March bringing together a myriad of beginners and experts flying high and jumping buttes over the frozen Lake Bianco. Engadin St. Moritz offers winter hiking, snowshoe treks, sledding, curling, bobsledding, cresta, cross-country skiing, sky diving, hang gliding, cricket, Nordic walking, horseback riding, ice skating and other precarious sports.
Within St. Moritz proper, you’ll find plenty of hotels to fit your class and style. Each hotel offers some modern services with assorted luxuries and spa accessibility. Rooms can vary from CHF300 and lower. The Kempinski Grand Hotel Des Bains, Hotel Monopol, La Margna Swiss Quality Hotel, Hauser Swiss Quality Hotel, Hotel Waldhaus Am See, Soldanella and Hotel Stille Sporthotel offer various amenities at more or less affordable prices. Plus, you’ll be close or in town with ski accessibility at the foot of your door.
O.B.S. company is currently working on Swiss project, Engadin St. Moritz ski resort. It represents Engadin St. Moritz cheap hotels and possible vacation activities in Switzerland.
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Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
