Newport, Miami Only Two Ports Remaining for North American VOR Stopover Bid

Puma's il mostro takes off from Narragansett Bay prior to setting sail in the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)

NEWPORT, R.I. – It’s down to two. Bidding for the 2011-12 installment of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) has reached its final stage – with Newport left competing only against Miami for rights to the sole North American stopover of this epic round-the-world sailing competition.

In a posting on popular boating Web site RIYachting.com, Sail Newport Executive Director Brad Read said reported that Friday, Jan. 29 was the deadline for ports interested in hosting a stopover of the VOR to send a signed “Host Port Contract” to Volvo Event Management.

The Host Port Contract details the commitments expected of a host city, and does not secure a stopover. But it does get you closer to achieving that end.

“Nine months of effort negotiating these requirements has led us to today,” Read wrote. “Hours of pouring over the 100 pages of port requirements, rights and benefits that the stopover entails.”

According to Read, WayPoint Rhode Island, the non-profit corporation set up specifically for ushering through the VOR bid, submitted the contract to Volvo Event Management late last month. Joining in the effort are the City of Newport, the State of Rhode Island, Newport Shipyard and what Read described as “dozens of advisers and friends.”

“We have hit every deadline and have negotiated this contract in an attempt to bring the largest event to Newport since the LPGA Women’s US Open,” Read said.

Newport was asked by Volvo to bid on the North American stopover back in the spring of 2009, just as the race was heading into a Boston.  Initially there were six bidding ports that were in play.  But at the end of the line, only Newport and Miami remain.

Puma's il mosto arrives in the early morning hours at the Newport Shipyard back in 2008. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)

No stranger to the VOR, Newport was home to Team Puma during the run-up to last year’s race; its training and race boats both berthed out of the Newport Shipyard. But that’s not all.

“Obviously, I had a tie-in to the race with Kenny,” Read said, referring to his brother who skippered the PUMA racing team to a stellar second place finish in last year’s VOR.

It was during that more than year-long process that Brad says he became aware of not only the day-to-day requirements the race had on its participants, but also the massive coordination required on the part of the host city. Like the responsibilities that fall upon a host city for the Olympics, there’s a lot that goes into hosting a VOR.

“A lot of people don’t know, but we were very involved in turning out volunteers for the Boston stopover,” Read said. Bearing witness to that undertaking, he added, was eye-opening. Knowing what was required, Read admitted in an interview on Wednesday, that he was a bit wary of pushing full bore into the VOR sweepstakes. But those concerns were quickly washed away.

“The first call that came in was from Dr. Robin Wallace (chair of the state yachting commission and one of the bay’s most respected regatta organizers),” Read said. “The first call I made out, was to Eli Dana (of the Newport Shipyard).”

Their enthusiasm, he said was the first assurance he received that yes, Newport could in fact pull off a VOR stopover.

Newport's experience with the VOR may not have ended after this farewell ceremony back in 2008. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)

According to Read, over the course of the last year, officials from Volvo Event Management have visited the city on three separate occasions. The first, he said happened during the Boston stopover last spring. A second visit followed in August, and a third in October. Each, Read said, served to reinforce the resolve of the organizers and apparently helped convince race managers to include Newport on their short list.

Now, Read believes that Newport will be well prepared for the stopover if it comes, and sees a huge upside for the entire area.

Scheduled for sometime in May of 2012, the stopover could generate conservatively, $20 million for the local economy, with estimates upwards of $50 million on the high end.

Likening the event to “a Ryder Cup combined with a jazz festival that goes on for two weeks,” Read has been making the rounds with his skipper brother to rally the community behind the possibility of becoming a VOR port. And the more he looks, the more in the way of complementing factors he sees.

Pointing to the plethora of yacht clubs who have become rather proficient at race organization, Read said that in many respects, hosting the VOR could come quite naturally to Newport. “We’re good at race management,” he said. From the New York Yacht Club to Ida Lewis, Sail Newport, and the scores of knowledgeble volunteers from which to draw on, you’d be hard pressed to find a better abled community to host such an event than the oft-proclaimed “Sailing Capitol of the World.”

From an event management perspective, Read said that there again, Newport has been building its pedigree. “The amount of festival productions that go on around here is amazing,” Read said. From the Newport Yachting Center to the folk and jazz festivals, Newport has a proven ability to manage and put on successful events at almost break-neck speed throughout the summer. Read said he hopes to draw on the knowledge of event planning industry in the run up to the stopover.

And as you would hope from a local perspective, Read noted that the group has already received upwards of $500,000 in commitments from local businesses that could help significantly defray the upfront costs for the stopover should the bid come through.

“It’s been amazing,” he said of the early support.

Adding to the synergy, is the city’s moves to improve its waterside facilities. Projects like the Ann Street Pier improvements and the Perrotti Park expansion will help organizers lure in events like the VOR in the future. According to Read, looking at the harbor as not only a beautiful feature to the city, but a major economic engine, is critical to the success of the area’s yachting and boating industry. Improvements to the city’s infrastructure, he said, “need to be embraced on a town-wide basis.”

That investment aside, WayPort’s application doesn’t include any financial commitment from the city or the state. And Read said that was purposeful, given the current economic climate.

Volvo is expected to make their decision on a final route for the 2011-12 race on March 31.

Other ports of call will also be announced that day – with stopovers expected in South America, the Middle East, China, the South Pacific and Europe.

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