At a press conference in Madrid today, it was confirmed that Spain's two-boat assault on the Volvo Ocean Race will be backed by Telefonica, the Spanish telecommunications giant and parent company of movistar. The campaign is also supported by a raft of additional sponsors and is backed by the Valencian government and the Spanish Sailing Federation.
The campaign will again be spearheaded by Pedro Campos as CEO, while Bouwe Bekking, skipper of the Spanish entry movistar in the previous race, returns as Sports and Technical Director. Spanish Olympians, Iker MartÌnez and Fernando Ech·varri among the principal members of the sailing team, which will be based in the start port of Alicante.
Both boats, designed under an exclusive deal with Farr Yacht Design, will be differentiated by hull colour and named TelefÛnica Blue and TelefÛnica Black.
The 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain on 4 October 2008, it will for the first time, take in ports in Asia. Spanning some 39,000 nautical miles, stopping at around 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.
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