Welsh Government
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Extreme Sailing comes to Welsh shores for third year
The award-winning and 'ISAF Special Event' world tour will celebrate its eighth year on the international sailing calendar with eight iconic Host Venues spanning three continents, over eleven months and nine elite level teams representing seven nations, who will compete to win the coveted Extreme Sailing Series trophy.
Cardiff Bay is one of the eight iconic host venues for the 3rd year running. Cardiff will feature alongside the two brand new Host Venues – Saint Petersburg and Sydney. The event was held for the first time in Cardiff Bay in 2012, and returned for 2013 and again in 2014 with support from the Welsh Government. Last year, it’s estimated that during the 4 day event 120,000 people visited the Bay.
The annual UK leg will take the fleet of high-performance catamarans to Cardiff Bay over the UK August bank holiday weekend, 22-25 August.
The Extreme Sailing Series™ (ESS) is the most competitive, entertaining, and exciting annual inshore sailing product the sport has ever seen and attracts the World’s best sailors from a range of disciplines, including the Olympics, America’s Cup and ocean racing.
Minister for the Economy, Science and Transport, Edwina Hart, said:
“We look forward to welcoming Extreme Sailing back to Wales for a third year. The event has provided Cardiff with a global position alongside other premium venues such as Singapore, Istanbul, Nice and Boston and has given us the opportunity to promote Cardiff Bay internationally as a world class sailing and water sports venue and to promote Cardiff and Wales as an attractive and diverse visitor destination. We also look forward to welcoming the Volvo Ocean Race in 2017.”
Executive Chairman of OC Sport, Mark Turner, commented:
“2014 is the eighth year of this the original Stadium Racing circuit, and significantly our fourth as a world tour. We’ve added two commercially important markets for our stakeholders, and retained six existing venues as well as all the teams from 2013 – we continue on an upward curve with this event which is delivering elite level top class sporting action, as well as strong commercial return on investment for all its stakeholders. That combination remains number one priority for us with this event.”
