12.11.2010
VELUX 5 OCEANS SOLO ROUND THE WORLD YACHT RACE SAILS INTO CAPE TOWN
table Mountain to provide stunning backdrop for the 30,000-mile race’s first stopover
The VELUX 5 OCEANS has landed in Cape Town! In just a few days the city will welcome the first of the five ocean racers as they cross the finish line of the first sprint. Cape Town will be home to the VELUX 5 OCEANS until the race restarts again on December 12.
After nearly a month at sea in challenging weather conditions what better place to greet the skippers than Cape Town? The Mother City of South Africa, Cape Town occupies one of the world's most stunning locations. Surrounded by beautiful golden sand beaches and sprawling vineyards, the city is watched over by the iconic table Mountain, its most famous landmark.
The V&A Waterfront will form the heart of the VELUX 5 OCEANS activities. With up to 100,000 visitors each day, the V&A Waterfront a historic landmark and one of South Africa’s most popular cultural destinations. The five impressive 60ft ocean racing yachts will be berthed in the north harbour where the public will be able to get a close up view of them and also chat to their skippers about their voyages from France  and the challenges that await them ahead.
Long before the Dutch took a fancy to the Cape Peninsula in the 17th century, the land around Cape Town was home to the Khoisan people who valued the spiritual power of the mountains and their life-providing water. While the European immigrants, and the slaves they brought here, have all shaped the physical environment of South Africa's third-largest city, table Mountain - now protected within a national park that covers some 75 per cent of the peninsula - reindexs at Cape Town's heart. Under the Khoisan name of Hoerikwaggo - meaning 'Mountain in the Sea' - the national park is promoting a new series of trails that will allow visitors, for the first time, to sleep on the mountain top while hiking a world-class trail from Cape Point to the City Bowl.
Complementing the mountain's natural beauty is Cape Town's eye-catching way with design and colour in everything from the brightly painted façades of the Bo-Kaap and the Victorian bathing chalets of Muizenberg, to the contemporary Afro-chic décor of the many excellent guesthouses, restaurants and bars.
The city is crammed with galleries displaying amazing artworks and shops selling wonderfully inventive craftwork. It's also getting a reputation as the fashion nexus of South Africa. This creativity seems to spring naturally from the city's multiethnic population, proof of South Africa's status as the rainbow nation and a visual record of the country's tumultuous recorded history of over 350 years.
Run by Clipper Ventures PLC, the VELUX 5 OCEANS is the longest running solo round the world race, and has 28 years of rich heritage as the BOC Challenge and then the Around Alone. This edition features five ocean sprints over nine months. The race set off from La Rochelle on October 17 bound for Cape Town. The race will then take in Wellington in New Zealand, Salvador in Brazil and Charleston in the US before returning back across the Atlantic to France.
Coming soon: we take a look at the exciting programme of events planned for the VELUX 5 OCEANS Cape Town stopover plus how you can get involved in start of the second ocean sprint of the VELUX 5 OCEANS – it’s going to be a real spectacle!
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