BEIJING (AP) — China has launched Team Sanya as its 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race entry, with veteran sailor Mike Sanderson at its helm.
The 40-year-old from New Zealand is a two-time winner of the race, which this year starts in October at Alicante, Spain, and will cover just under 40,000 nautical miles before finishing the following July at Galway, Ireland.
Sanderson said the entry had the opportunity to put China among elite sailing nations, adding China tends to “not to do things by halves and there’s now a huge wave of momentum in sailing.”
A joint Chinese-Irish entry, Green Dragon, contested a previous edition of the 38-year-old race for monohulls in 2008-09, but Team Sanya is chiefly backed by the Chinese government.
