Five Extreme 40s are in the final stages of preparation for the prologue to the 2008 iShares Cup in Valencia.
It was a late night for the crew of Volvo Ocean Race as they completed the final stages of the build of their Extreme 40 ready for three days of warm-up before the start of the iShares Cup in Lugano, Switzerland on 28 May.
Volvo Ocean Race will line up at 1300 CEST in the waters off the home of the America’s Cup against iShares, Holmatro and two boats from America’s Cup winners Alinghi. Alinghi White, which will compete in the iShares Cup, will be skippered by American Ed Baird, racing alongside Alinghi Black.
Mark van Gelderen, sailing this weekend with Volvo Ocean Race, was looking forward to the off. “We are all itching to go. It will be a great start to the season and we are all looking forward to seeing Alinghi sailing their boats. Alinghi are the unknown. We know they have been training hard, putting in a lot of hours but no other team has sailed against them. It will be great to see what the competition will be like.”
We’ll be following the racing closely over the next three days to see who’s on form, so watch out for updates.
