It's Official - Black and Blue Telefonica launch

by Media PR on 11 Sep 2008
Next Tuesday, 16 September, the two new boats built by the Spanish team, Telefonica for the next Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 - Blue Telefonica and Telefonica Black - will be officially launched in the Race Village at Alicante, in front of the Telefonica building.

It was last June 5 when they brought the hull of Telefonica Black' from New Zealand by plane, while the twin brother, Telefonica blue, came over on the 30th in the same month to Valencia.

Since that time, they have not stopped working on them, not a single day: tuning, reviewing materials, structure and stability tests, daily workouts, testing, training offshore and primarily the 2,000-mile qualification for the second generation Volvo Open 70s.

Those 2,000 miles tested the skills of the crews and vessels in navigation offshore, while at the beginning of August it was the turn of the inshore navigation, thanks to the participation of Blue Telefonica and Telefonica Black in the Cup Sailing del Rey.

On September 16, the Spanish representative in the Volvo Race will stage a live one day special, as important as the official launch of its two boats. The countdown has begun.

Crew Lists

Telefónica Black:
Fernando Echávarri
Roger Nilson
Santiago Lange
Gonzalo Araujo
Maciel Cicchette
Javier de la Plaza
David Vera
Antonio Cuervas-Mons
Jaime Arbones
Michael Pammenter

Telefónica Blue:
Bouwe Bekking
Íker Martínez
Simon Fisher
Jonathan Swain
Laurent Pages
Jordi Calafat
Xabi Fernández
Pablo Arrarte
Pepe Ribes
Daryl Wislang

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 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 Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, visiting 11 ports over nine months, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier ocean yacht race for professional racing crews.