ABU DHABI // The organisers of the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race have revealed the logistical complexities of making sure the race village was open on time to welcome competitors.
The yachts began arriving in the capital on December 13 after completing the second leg of the race from Cape Town in South Africa.
They will stay here until January 3, before setting sail for Sanya in China.
But containers with all the equipment for the race village on the Corniche Breakwater have taken a different route, being shipped directly from the starting point in Alicante, Spain and bypassing entirely the South African stop-off.
Because the racing yachts are much quicker than any transport ship, there are two different sets of components for the race villages.
These then leapfrog each other, from port to port, to ensure the racing village is ready for the yachts when they make a stop.
Sean Bradley, the marketing director at logistics company Gulf Agency Company, said route one started in Alicante and the next stop was Abu Dhabi, while route two began in Cape Town and bypassed the capital on its way to China.
“The boats go faster than any container vessel. So by the time they pack up, and they completely remove all of the pavilions from Alicante, they will not be able to catch up with the racing boats before Cape Town,” he said.
“So they have to have two different sets of equipment and they basically leapfrog each other around the world for nine months, until they reach Gothenburg at the end of June in 2015.”
In total there are 240 containers of material used to construct the race village pavilions, with half of these being set up in each stopoff at a time.
The process of building a single pavilion in the village takes about 10 to 12 days, Mr Bradley said.
“Some of the pavilions and race villages are different sizes, they take a little bit of a different time to put up and then take down again.
“We have to have the material arrive almost exactly the same time according to the schedule. It will then come by container to the race village and then they will take them out of the containers and start to build the pavilions,” he said.
The Volvo pavilion has to arrive first, because it is the biggest and the most difficult to construct.
“It’s very futuristic. It has got fibre optic cables, a fantastic light show inside and it’s almost like a small advanced cinema,” said Mr Bradley.
“It has got a stage where they do some shows and I think that they can hold more than 300 people in this pavilion.”
Mr Bradley said once the competitors sail out of Abu Dhabi, the equipment will be shipped out to Auckland in New Zealand for the fourth stopover of the race.
“The first air freight containers will depart immediately after the race boats on January 3, and within three and a half days 60 per cent of the race village will leave for Auckland by sea freight.”
Lukas Jonsson, an on-ground team manager for the race, said: “Between our travelling colleagues from specialist yachting and sailing events experts GAC Pindar and our colleagues at GAC Abu Dhabi, we had 11 permanent staff working round-the-clock to make sure the whole operation was completed without a glitch and we’re proud that our efforts ensured that the Abu Dhabi race village opened on time.”
The 12th round-the-world race started in Alicante on October 11 and will finish in Gothenburg, Sweden in June next year.
aalkhoori@thenational.ae