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Volvo Ocean race to pass through Lisbon Lisbon will be one of the stopover locations for the 2011/2012 Volvo Ocean Race, one of the most gruelling offshore circum-navigation regattas in the world. The Portuguese capital will be the finish of the transatlantic leg of the next race in the summer of 2012, according to Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad. The official announcement of Lisbon hosting the event was made during a press conference, held at the ‘Padrão dos Descobrimentos’ monument, in Lisbon, in the presence of Lisbon Council and businessman João Lagos. It was Mr. Lagos who negotiated for Lisbon to be a stopover location for the world renowned sailing event, winning its bid over 80 cities that were also interested in being the stopover location. The first stage will be the same as in the 2008/2009 event, with the sailboats departing from Alicante en route to Cape Town, this being the only officially confirmed stage so far. The Lisbon stopover will take place in 2012, with the yachts arriving from their transatlantic trip, either from Brazil or the United States of America, and heading towards France or Ireland. The definitive calendar will be made public by the end of this month. Being such a high profile event, Lisbon will have to invest a considerable amount as the Volvo Ocean Race attracts thousands of people, the reason for the event taking place in Lisbon and not in Cascais. On arrival at the capital city, the yachts will undergo repairs as well as participate in a local regatta. With a large amount of space required to harbour these state-of-the-art vessels, Lisbon Council will be restarting the renovation of the Docapesca area, in front of the Pedrouços river, between Lisbon and Algés. It had been planned for a complete facelift in 2004, when the Americas Cup was meant to stopover in Lisbon, but the event was then moved to Valencia and the project was abandoned.
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