Sports
Volvo Ocean Race is On Its Way to Newport from Brazil
The home team, Team Alvimedica, is in the lead.
The following is via Sail Newport:
As the Volvo Ocean Race fleet left Brazil for Newport, RI today, led by American Team Alvimedica, race fans gathered @the Deck on Waites Wharf in Newport. Guests at the Heineken party watched what Rhode Island has been waiting and preparing two years for - the race headed to its only North American stopover in Newport.
The fleet of Volvo Ocean 65s are on their way to Newport for a twelve-day public celebration
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in the Ocean State May 5 - 17 at Fort Adams State Park. The event will include shore side activities, team compounds, concerts, entertainment, a marine Exploration Zone and racing within yards of the shore line.
Under a year ago, a young and inexperienced Team Alvimedica sailed out of Newport, RI on a Transatlantic training run to Europe to prepare for the start of the Volvo Ocean Race. Ten months later, skipper Charlie Enright, 30, of Bristol, RI, and his crew have logged more than 40,000 ocean miles and now have their sights set on winning the 5,000-mile leg to their homeport.
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In excruciatingly light conditions at the start in Itajai, Enright and crew eked out a narrow lead at the first mark in the team’s quest to be the first to Newport. Due to the light in shore breeze, the race committee changed a portion of the ln-shore loop to send the boats offshore more quickly in what will hopefully be more favorable racing. Alvimedica led the pack out of Itajai on their way home to the U.S.
“It will be very exciting to see family and friends and hopefully the massive crowds of people that await us,” Enright said before docking out. “The team is in a good place, we have been training in the right direction, and we’re poised to have a good leg.”
“I have been looking forward to this leg since the start. We feel really privileged
to do this race and in addition it comes to Newport, which makes it really special for me. The maritime industry is a big part of the economy in Rhode Island and I know everyone is looking forward to our arrival. I think there will be big crowds on the water and on the land when we get there. It’s a real homecoming.”
Enright is joined onboard by fellow Rhode Islander Nick Dana, 29, of Newport who is the boat captain and bowman. The team’s Onboard Reporter is Amory Ross, 30, of Newport. Team co-founder and watch captain is Mark Towill, 26, of Kanehoe, HI, who after his years at Brown University with Enright, calls Rhode Island his second home.
Amory Ross is excited to share the team’s stories and images over the next two weeks as the team races toward home. “There is something very romantic about sailing home. Any time you come home from a long trip, it’s always a good feeling to return home. It’s a story I am really looking forward to tell. To have the added incentive os sailing to Rhode Island is a very special thing.”
With Newport as the team’s official homeport, the team is certain to be pushing themselves to the limit to beat the fleet home. This is where the young team trained and set out from 10 months ago. The team has since logged about 40,000 miles and grown together as a team and steadily improved their performance since the start of the Volvo Ocean Race last October.
“It’s really a dream come true to be able to sail into Narragansett Bay as part of this race. Seeing the Newport Bridge from Rhode Island Sound will be pretty surreal. That will be the moment when it all kicks in for me. It’s a big moment for me - it’s where I grew up sailing - and it’ a big moment for our team. It’s where we did two transatlantics last summer and that’s where our team started coming together.”
Once the fleet arrives in Newport, a 12-day public celebration will be hosted by Sail Newport, Rhode Island’s Public Sailing Center, the State of Rhode Island, its Department of Environmental Management, The City of Newport and Discover Newport. Events will include entertainment, a marine Exploration Zone, kids’ activities, a food court, team compounds, Heineken Docks beer garden, sponsor pavilions, a theater, up-close viewing of the race boats during Pro-Am and In-Port racing and the Leg Start to Lisbon on May 17 all from Fort Adams State Park.
EDITOR’S NOTES
Team Alvimedica race crew for Leg 6: Alberto Bolzan, 32, (ITA); Nick Dana, 29, (Newport, RI, USA); Charlie Enright, 30, (Bristol, RI, USA); Ryan Houston, 32, (NZL); Sebastien Marsset, 30, (FRA); Will Oxley, 49, (AUS); Dave Swete, 30, (NZL); Mark Towill, 26, (Kanehoe, HI, USA); and OnBoard Reporter Amory Ross, 30, (Newport, RI, USA).
Team Alvimedica is the youngest entry in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015, the world’s toughest and longest sporting event. The crew is led by American skipper Charlie Enright, age 30. Alvimedica, the European based medical devices company, is the team’s owner. Founded in 2007, Alvimedica is a fast growing challenger in the global field of interventional cardiology, committed to developing minimally-invasive technologies. This is the team’s first entry in the extremely challenging 39,000-mile race that started October 11, 2014 from Alicante, Spain and features stopovers in 11 ports around the world.
In the United States, TV coverage continues on the NBC Sports Network AND OutsideTelevision. Check local listings.
Follow Team Alvimedica on:
www.facebook.com/TeamAlvimedica
www.volvooceanrace.com
Alvimedica high resolution photos are available: media.teamalvimedica.com
Contact: Jane Eagleson, Team Alvimedica, Head of Communications,
Sail Newport, 60 Fort Adams Dr., Newport, RI 02840/www.sailnewport.org
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