Volvo Ocean Race

The eXtreme 40 Series – Alicante Grand Prix at the Volvo Ocean Race village kicked off on Monday with an action-packed day of racing under the bright Alicante sun.

Eight boats, shifty breezes, Delta Lloyd the last in the water and collisions and chaos at the rounding marks. The first round of Volvo Open 70 model boat racing in Alicante was eerily reminiscent of the real thing.

The return to the water of Team Russia and Delta Lloyd is put on hold while the shore crews carry out repairs to hull damage following their collision during the in-port racing series in Alicante yesterday.

News of today's historic annoucement of the next race that the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race will start in 2011 has received widespread approval from skippers and teams involved in current campaigns.

The next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race was confirmed today for 2011-12. The announcement was made at a press conference in Alicante by CEO Knut Frostad and President and CEO of Volvo Group Leif Johannsen.

The Telefonica team had cause for double celebration in their home port of Alicante. Bouwe Bekking's Telefonica Blue scored two in-port race victories to take the overall points lead while Telefonica Black stands second.

After finishing in a lowly sixth place in the opening in-port race in Alicante, Ken Read and his crew on PUMA threw caution to the wind and hoisted their Code Zero in the second contest. The decision paid handsomely.

Follow the race with our race blog, tune to live coverage on Volvo Ocean Race.TV or listen to live radio coverage from our team of experts on the water. Also available in Spanish on www.volvooceanrace.es.

The first in-port race series of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 starts in Alicante today. A change of racing format with a tighter course will test the mettle of the crews and possibly even the patience of the umpires.

Team Delta Lloyd skipper Ger O'Rourke has revealed that he would not sail on all of the offshore legs as the final crew line-up was officially announced during a busy round of media events yesterday.