The next Volvo Ocean Race African stop over?

Comment:

Driving into work yesterday,the news on the radio told me the fact that the organisers of the next Volvo Ocean Race,in 2012 I assume? will be again sponsered by Volvo,good news indeed,excepting that the sponser as decided to have less stop overs in that race and from the way I heard the news report,have cities actually bid on them? For the continent of Africa,both the city of Cape Town and Durban were mentioned,both are fine cities and both have a good yachting background but I seriously doubt that the organisers have even begun to think this through enough, the possible change from the Mother City in the Cape to Durban a thousand miles to the North East, is it at all workable?

While not all yachting manufacture is done in the Cape Town area,the vast majority of production is,names like North Sails,Quantum,Sparcraft,Southern Spars,Lewmar,Harken,Anderson,come to mind,the first four have their main manufacturing facilities here,the rest have their main stocking outlets here,to underline this,we have seen boat yards in Durban actually re locate production to Cape Town,such is the high cost of service delivery from one city to the other.

I can only imagine complete chaos,when a 70ft maxi race yacht arrives in Durban and requires a set of sails or spars serviced or repaired,while small service lofts and work shops do exist in Durban,they could never cope with the massive influx of work that requires doing,given the very small window of time from when the first yacht arrives and if your a late arrival,you have then got no chance of service prior to departure?

I think the idea of a Durban stop over at the expense of Cape Town needs a serious re-think.

Roy

two days after posting this blog:

A trade contact informs me that it is only the City of Cape Town that charges Volvo to use the harbour facilities,interesting?