Volvo Ocean Race to start 11 October 2008 from Alicante, 5 teams already participating

The Volovo Ocean Race was officially presented in the opening day of the Barcelona International Boat Show. Glenn Bourke, the president of the round-the-wolrd race made public the definitive start day as well as provided a hint about the teams that will participate.

Glenn Bourke: "I'm happy to be able to announce the on 11 October 2008, Alicante will fire the gun for the start of the 2008/09 Volvo Ocean Race. The choice of this date was made purely for sport reasons; we need to look for the best wind patterns during the eight months of the race, throughout the whole course. The dat is already set, although it is possible there could be some small modification, not more than a week".

Concerning the number of teams that will participate, the Volvo Ocean Race president sounded optimistic: "In the previous edition, at this stage, we only had one participation. As of today, I'm proud to say we already have 5 teams; two of them have been officially announced - Ericsson and Mean Machine- and a Spanish project will be announced shortly".