The 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race will provide 24-hour television coverage from the competing yachts for the first time, according to the sailing series’ chief executive Knut Frostad.
The new carbon-fibre Volvo Ocean 65 class yachts, built for the 12th edition of the race starting in October, have been designed around enhanced media coverage.
“They are all the same but very high tech and I think the fact that we have built them around television is exciting,” Frostad told the Reuters news agency. “We have incorporated microphones and television cameras all over the boat and we have a media person on board but that's the great thing because it makes it interesting to follow.”
Frostad said the previous edition of the Ocean Race, in 2011-12, was broadcast in 111 countries. All five of the boats for the 2014-15 Race will be fitted with five fixed camera points and two uplinks, including a satellite transmitter.
“We will hear everything they say, see everything they do… it is ‘Big Brother’ but the only difference is this is real and ‘Big Brother’ is not,” Frostad added, referring to the reality television programme.
The 2014-15 Ocean Race will commence in Alicante, Spain on October 4 and will finish in Gothenburg, Sweden on June 27, 2015.