Vuelta a España a Vela, Round Spain Race- 49er Champs enter IMOCA 60

by Vuelta a España a Vela on 8 Jun 2010 This coming Saturday, 12th June at 12 noon, the start of the Vuelta a España a Vela, round Spain race, is scheduled to take place off the historic port of Hondarribia.

With a strong Spanish and international field, the race will provide daily television action and updates with images from on board the boats as well as action filmed from the water. Interest has heightened today with the news that Movistar will support the team of Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez in their first major venture into the world of IMOCA Open 60 racing. The duo have been training hard on their IMOCA 60 footer which won the last Vendée Globe and plan to race round the world as a duo in this winter’s Barcelona World Race.

Movistar have extended their sailing sponsorship programme to support the past Olympic 49er champions Íker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez on the Vuelta a España a Vela, as the duo build up to competing on the upcoming Barcelona World Race. Over the course of the race the duo will have six different sailors with them including Michel Desjoyeaux. France’s double Vendée Globe winner will sail the race’s longest stage, the 830 miles Leg 4 from Sanxenxo to Calpe.

Movistar’s team director and veteran of seven round Spain races, Pedro Campos will sail on some of the legs: 'It is a return after 20 year to a Round Spain race course I have fond memories of seven triumphs in and so I am really looking forward to it.' Campos said at the launch of their Vuelta a España a Vela programme today.

Vuelta a España a Vela Schedule

12th of June. Hondarribia – Cabo Higuer - Santander, 90 nautical miles
14th of June. Santander – Gijón, 100 nautical miles
16th of June. Gijón – Sanxenxo, 220 nautical miles
20th of June. Sanxenxo - Calpe, 830 nautical miles
26th of June. Calpe - Palma, 140 nautical miles
28th of June. Palma de Mallorca - Cabo de Creus- Barcelona, 350 nautical miles

TV coverage of the race in Spain will be built around a nightly ten minutes round up programmes, screened during prime ti e on Teledeporte which provides a package for the nightly news programmes. Independent broadcasters such as TV3, Channel 9, South Channel, TVG, IB3 and ETB also will show a weekly summary of ten minutes.

To ensure the production is of the highest quality and excitement captured as well as possible the TV team will have three cameras on the water, one on a TV catamaran which will follow the fleet for the entire route. The starts and finishes in each port will be covered by two additional cameras on fast RIB’s. And each racing IMOCA Open 60 will have at least one on-board camera. Live videoconferences will be broadcast on the internet on www.vueltaespanavela.com.

The site will also provide regular updates as well as multimedia reports. Starts and finishes will be covered as live and live tracking around the course will be updated every 30 minutes.