Newport given ‘exclusive’ window to secure next Volvo race stopover

R.I. SENATE President M. Teresa Paiva Weed addresses the crowd at the opening ceremony for the Volvo Ocean Race Newport Race Village on May 5. 

 / COURTESY DAN NERNEY/SAIL NEWPORT/VOLVO OCEAN RACE
R.I. SENATE President M. Teresa Paiva Weed addresses the crowd at the opening ceremony for the Volvo Ocean Race Newport Race Village on May 5. / COURTESY DAN NERNEY/SAIL NEWPORT/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

(Updated 12:03 p.m.) NEWPORT – Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad said that Newport has been awarded an “exclusive” two-month negotiating window to secure the North American stopover in the 2017-2018 edition of the global race.

Newport was the only North American stopover for the race, which left Sunday for leg 7 to Lisbon, Portugal.

More than 125,000 visitors were estimated at the Race Village at Fort Adams State Park during the 12-day period that the race was in Newport. The number exceeded expectations as the city hoped to draw between 60,000 and 80,000 people.

Some 13,000 people lined the shores of Fort Adams State Park. Unaccounted for were the thousands of fans in the spectator fleet of 500. Still more were at Castle Hill and Brenton Point State Park in Newport and Fort Wetherill in Jamestown.

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“We’re just blown away by the final visitor number,” Brad Read, executive director of Sail Newport, said. “We had 14,000 people each day on the first weekend and a high of 20,000 on Saturday this weekend. We expect to bring the race back, but building on that excitement and enthusiasm will secure it.”

Frostad noted the enthusiasm of local residents.

“I’ve been to an American stopover seven times now and can’t recall anything as good as this,” Frostad said of Newport. “It’s a fantastic achievement, and it’s our ambition to return to Newport.”

Frostad said it took many years for the race to visit Newport (this is the 12th edition of the race), and that strong commitment from governing officials was a key to its return.

“Hosting a stopover is a joint venture,” Frostad said. “We bring a show to the city and the city has to bring infrastructure and together we make the stopover. A good stopover has to do with enthusiasm and commitment from the government. It’s very much about the commitment of the government and the delivery partner, which in this case is Sail Newport. The state government, local government, governor and senator have all committed what they can to make the next stopover successful.”

Six ports already have been confirmed for the 2017-2018 race: Alicante, Spain (which will host the race start for the fourth consecutive edition); Cape Town, South Africa; Auckland, New Zealand; Lisbon, Portugal; Cardiff, Wales; and Gothenburg, Sweden – where the current race will end in June.

Frostad said the final route will be announced in January.

As the six boats sail the 2,800-nautical mile leg to Portugal, they will face comparatively light winds before harsher conditions and the Gulf Stream make their presence felt.
There are also ocean debris, whales, shipping and wildly fluctuating weather to contend with in the North Atlantic, according to information from the Volvo.
This leg of the 38,000 nautical mile journey is considered the most treacherous. It is where Dutch sailor Hans Horrevoets drowned after being swept overboard from ABN AMRO TWO during the 2005-2006 edition of the Volvo.
In the same race, Movistar sunk mid-Atlantic on the same leg and the crew had to be rescued by Horrevoets’ boat.

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