Push the boat out in Abu Dhabi this New Year
Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) has launched a global competition to name the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team’s state-of-the-art Volvo Open 70 yacht, currently being built in Italy to contest the 2011/2012 Volvo Ocean Race.
The competition winner will ‘sail away’ with a luxury, New Year’s holiday for two in the UAE capital, valued at around £12,000! They will celebrate the New Year in style, as Abu Dhabi welcomes the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to its shores to host the third leg of the gruelling, round-the-world sailing race.
The competition - running on the newly-launched team and host port stopover website abudhabivolvooceanrace.ae - carries a prize which features two business-class (Pearl) return tickets on Etihad Airways*, named ‘The World’s Leading Airline’ in the 2010 World Travel Awards; a seven-night stay at the Volvo Ocean Race official Hotel Partner, The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort – the iconic luxurious brand’s first Middle East property on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi opening on November 1, 2011; and tickets to a New Year’s Eve headline concert.
“We are looking for a name which reflects the Volvo Ocean Race campaign, which has taken Abu Dhabi into international yachting history books while leveraging our rich maritime history in a modern context,” said HE Mubarak Al Muhairi, Director General, ADTA.
“Of course, the winner also gets to share the moment when the race flotilla sails into its first Middle East host destination in its 37-year history. I can promise it will be a truly memorable experience.”
Abu Dhabi’s new Volvo Open 70 racing yacht has been designed by the USA’s Farr Design and is currently being built by PERSICO S.p.A. in Italy. It is expected to be one of the most revolutionary and technologically advanced race yachts ever and could give Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing a competitive advantage in the race, which begins in Spain this October.
To keep fans up-to-date, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s new dual-language website is a one-stop information resource on the team’s progress including real-time blogs, crew insights and Twitter feeds to all the latest news, videos, images and downloads.
The site is also a definitive guide to all things watersports in Abu Dhabi, allowing visitors to click through and find out what’s going on, how to book and what to look out for – from marina berthing to wakeboarding lessons.
The 2011/2012 Volvo Ocean Race will end in Galway, Ireland, in summer next year, completing a nine-leg, multi-destination route which takes it past six continents and through some of the world’s most treacherous seas.
Competing teams will be in the UAE capital from January 1-14 2012 after they complete a punishing leg from Cape Town. The Volvo Open 70 racing yacht is sailed by professional athletes, who race around the world with the prevailing winds.
The naming contest’s deadline is June 25.
*Terms & conditions apply.