Dubai: Carlos Carreiras, the mayor of Portuguese town Cascais, the training base of Volvo Ocean Race side Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s (Ador) yacht Azzam has pledged his support to the team.
“Azzam’s brightly coloured sails on the bay have become a familiar part of the Cascais landscape,” said Carreiras. “When you take on the world’s oceans again you will take the good wishes of the Cascais people along with you. We will be following you all the way around the world.”
Ador first used Cascais as a training base ahead of the 2011/12 season and have returned ahead of the 2014/15 campaign, which kicks off in Alicante, Spain, in October.
“We come to Cascais for two reasons,” said Walker. “Firstly, because Cascais has ideal sailing conditions for a team training for the Volvo Ocean Race. We are able to start training the moment we leave the marina and that saves us lots of valuable time each day.
“The other reason we came back here is the warmth of the welcome we knew we would receive. The people and businesses here could not have been more helpful and we haven’t lacked for anything since we arrived.”
The forthcoming edition of the 39,000 mile race will be in identical boats, meaning the team that learns how to sail the new design quickest will have a the advantage come race time.
“It’s all going to be about who can understand their boats best,” Walker explained, “That means hours and hours of testing different sail combinations and boat setups and Cascais is the perfect place to do that effectively.”
Mayor Carreiras listened intently as Walker and Khalid explained the Abu Dhabi yacht’s new features and even tried his hand at grinding on Azzam’s three pedestal winches.
“Even tied to the dock it’s a lot of work,” said Carreiras. “I can’t even imagine what it must be like to do this on the open ocean.”
Ador’s training period in Cascais will end in June when the sailing crew will leave on a 3,000 mile training run across the Atlantic to Newport, Rhode Island in the USA.
When they return to Portugal it will be to nearby Lisbon in 12 months time at the end of the seventh race leg from Newport. In the last race Walker’s team sailed a brilliant leg to be first into Lisbon.
Mayor Carreiras said he is confident that next year a large Cascais contingent would be waiting to welcome the crew back to Portugal in first place again.
“Watching you win the seventh leg of the last race was thrilling and I hope you will do that again,” he said. “This time though you have to go one better and win the whole race. Good luck and fair winds — all of Cascais is behind you.”
