Dubai sails into world yacht race reckoning

RACE HOPE: Dubai could become a port of call for the Volvo World Race. (Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race)

Dubai could become a port of call for the world’s biggest sailing race as the emirate seeks to raise its international sporting profile.

The organisers of the 37,000 mile-long Volvo Ocean Race are mulling a plan to include Dubai in the famous round-the-world yacht voyage as a potential stopover between the existing race ports of Cape Town in South Africa and Cochin in India.

“I think Dubai would be great for the race - especially because it has all of the infrastructure and the hotels,” said Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad in an interview in Cape Town.

The UAE is aiming to raise its international sporting profile with Formula One coming to Abu Dhabi next year while Dubai prepares to host the culmination of the European Golf Tour in 2009. Dubai is investing billions of dollars in developing new marinas and extending its coastline to attract more tourists.

But the emirate could face competition from Bahrain, Qatar and Abu Dhabi as potential host ports for the next Volvo Ocean Race in 2011.

An international tender for ports hoping to participate in the next race will be issued by the end of December according to Frostad, who has taken part in the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race four times, twice as skipper.

“We have a big process underway for the next event which is getting into the final stage and is managed by us and Boston Consulting Group. We will be starting discussions actively with ports for the next race soon and we have given ourselves an eighteen month window to finish the process,” he said.

Frostad disclosed that there had already been discussions with some Dubai-based parties prior to the start of this year’s race, but that they did not yield a successful outcome in the timeframe required.

“The most important thing is that the right people in Dubai are talking to us – whoever they are,” he said.

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