“Aaahhhrrrrrrrrrr!!!” That’s pretty much what you would expect a pirate to say in a pirate movie, wouldn’t you? Well that’s my experience of Ireland so far!

Galway, or Gaillimh as it is written in Irish, is a community on the west coast of Ireland, approximately at the same latitude as Dublin. With no doubt what so ever I can say that I have never experienced such a Volvo Ocean Race atmosphere anywhere else… Sensational! Every pub/restaurant/shop/jewellery store/grocery store/etc… is paved with Volvo Ocean Race flags and banners!!! It is extraordinary! Not only does the whole city breathe Volvo Ocean Race, the boats were greeted by approximately 10 000 people upon arrival between 2am and 7am!!! Unbelievable!

The sailors have really enjoyed this stopover and it seems like everyone is getting a little anxious about the start of leg 8 coming up on Saturday the 6th. The general feeling is that noone wants to leave Galway… Furthermore, I think the stopover organisation have made a deal with the weather gods because the tropical heat, the intense sunshine, the lack of rain, and the pleasant breeze that we have been blessed with over the past weekend is unheard of for Ireland.

As you can tell I have nothing but good words to spare for this town and the past weekend! Last Sunday was the Pro-Am race and we got several of our guests and customers to experience how a Volvo Open 70 handles on the water! Nothing but smiling faces at the end of that day and I think that many of them still have not stopped smiling!!!

All in all a weekend to remember! For those of you who have not been in Galway yet I can strongly recommend a visit! If you can’t make it before the boats leave from here on Saturday, I think the only difference is that the average height of the masts in the harbour will be slightly lower… It feels like this city will ride the Volvo Ocean Race for many years to come!

Over and out!

/E

We have just now witnessed the start of the 7th leg of this race that is going to take the boats from one side of the Atlantic to the other…

Boston, the home of the Red Sox, the Bruins and the Celtics (depending on what sport your more into) has showed us a very pleasant side. A very intense inport race weekend with 2 warm-up sessions in the pavilion (a dinner and a breakfast the following day aiming to introduce our guests to the race and prepare them for what they should expect), a royal visit, many management representatives, a fundraising dinner organised by the Scouts and a lot of public!

Volvo Group of North America had a big bunch of guests and customers scheduled for that weekend and they all left with nothing but good memories of our brand and this race. All in all a very successful weekend for Volvo Group!

“After the rain comes the sun” (or the other way round…) and when everybody had left Boston we could breathe out for a couple of days and prepare for the restart weekend. Said and done, we are now packing down the pavilion and getting into Galway mode.

Some pictures of this stopover!

/E

Lots has happened since we last talked and I intend to summarize it all fairly quickly below.

The Rio stopover was spectacular like Rio always is… Not so much public visiting the race village, which was sad, but nevertheless a successful stopover. Volvo Group locally, through Solange Fusco, had a hectic schedule with activities and dinners and press conferences and stuff all during the inport race weekend and that all went well!

The inport race itself was won by Telefónica Blue which is good for us since we had 2 very prominent guests onboard: Marcelo Perpetuo, manager of a large mining company that uses Volvo Trucks and based in Rio de Janeiro, and Finn Johnsson, chairman of the board of AB Volvo.  All happy faces at the end of that race!!! Tommy Svensson, president of Volvo Group South America said: “we have just sold another 100 trucks by having Marcelo on the boat. Not to forget was the visit of HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden that helped Ericsson 4 in the inport race.

Then there was the slow week building up to the restart, and all of a sudden the boats were gone, heading towards the island of Fernando de Noronha and then Boston, USA.

So long…

/E

It has been an adventurous trip for our crews on the way from Qingdao over the Pacific, around Cape Horn and then the final stretch up the coast of Argentina and Brazil until reaching Rio. The first boat is approximately 3 days away and believe it or not but the leading boat is the only one that was not present at the start in Qingdao on February 14th, Ericsson 3!!! They are tightly followed by their sistership and Puma, with Green Dragon in 4th and Telefónica Blue in the back of the fleet.

The race village in Rio is now open for public and we are all getting ready to greet the boats at the arrivals! Very exciting times! Just reminding you that this is the longest leg in the history of the race!

I will be sure to keep you up to date on what happens during the stop and post it all here on the blog.

Here’s a picture of the Pavilion and it’s exterior product deck.

Ciao!

/E

I brought this up because the 5 boats sailing towards Rio are approaching the moment that Bon JOvi would describe as: “Oh, we’re half way there…” Ericsson 4, who fyi is back in the lead, have roughly 6700 nm to the finish of leg 5′s total 12 300 nm.

Currently the leaderboard looks like this:

- Ericsson 4

- Puma

- Telefónica Blue

- Green Dragon

- Ericsson 3, who chose a completely different route to the others…

I’m off to visit my best friend in Italy now, I’ll keep you posted!

/E

P.S.

Delta Lloyd on the cargo ship to Rio…

Now you probably think: “So what about when you grow up?” or ”How old are you?” or ” What does that have to do with the Volvo Group?”.

Truth is I have always (and probably always will) seen myself as a child! I like to know that I’m still on the way to become who I am supposed to be: Edward Persson! Who he is? No clue, as I told you I am trying to find out (In other words this particular post has nothing to do with the Volvo Group )

One of the sailors onboard Ericsson 3, Martin Krite, is studying to become a priest when he is not racing the oceans on a wind driven bullet that is the Volvo Open 70! Roger Nilsson, navigator onboard Telefónica Black, is a doctor! I like to hear that these sailors are not just competitive machines fighting King Neptune all around the globe but they actually have a life outside of the sailing world bubble as well. Once again I end up thinking of one word that has become important in the corporate culture of the Volvo Group; diversity.

On these philosophical thoughts I leave you to your own quests for identity and satisfaction!

Peace Out!

/E

VOlvo however is involved as sponsors in many different activities around the world. Many of them sports events but also on a cultural level with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Opera in Gothenburg. Those are not what I wanted to talk to you about today though… Tomorrow is the start of the Göteborg Horse Show 2009!

Volvo is a sponsor of this event and the department dealing with this is Volvo Event Management Sweden, which I happen to be part of. Yet another reason to be proud of this company!!!

See below some pictures from last years horse show. Notice how well represented we are in the actual sporting aspect of it!

/E

VBC have had some form of activity in all the stopovers so far and what I have heard and experienced they have all been satisfactory. In Qingdao, I managed to get 2 of the sailors anxiously waiting to get onboard Ericsson 3 to join VBC Sweden at a dinner and sit down with them and tell them a little about the race and the sailing. Every one saw it as a win-win situation. The sailors got better food than they would have gotten at the base, and the VBC customers got an insider’s view on the race.

We are all aware of the prevailing economic times  but I hope that VBC gets the message out there that this is the ultimate platform to give customers an experience far from ordinary! “Hail to the busdrivers!”

/E

Line up for the start of leg 5 to Rio: Ericsson 4, Puma, Telefónica Blue, Green Dragon. 5 minutes before the start Telefónica Blue announced it was suspending racing?!?! What happened? they apparently hit something and damaged their keel. Back to shore, lift the boat up to assess the damage, make the necessary adjustments, then send her off with the rest of the fleet. In the mean time however, Ericsson 3 managed to cut the finish line of leg 4 and collect their valuable 4 points only to board the docks, change some sails, pack the food supplies and head off towards Brazil with the others just 8 hours after the others started leg 5.

After 16 hours of frenetic work on the keel and bulb, Telefónica Blue finally sailed off to join the others on the longest leg the race has ever experienced…

Now, where’s the connection to the “fat lady”? Ericsson 3, somewhat the underdog of the race with all their penalties and misfortunes and crew changes, have nothing (almost) to lose in this leg and it only took them about 24 hours ’til they had overtaken Green Dragons 3rd place and chasing the leading duo… This leg promises some dramatic action so you better stay tuned!!!

All for now!

/E

At a press conference today in Qingdao, Green Dragon Team announced the backup of an additional sponsor to their syndicate: Berg Propulsion, an originally swedish company specialised in the production of propellers and shafts as well as service and after sales.

Now what’s the link between Green Dragon, Berg Propulsion and multiple nationalities? The CEO of Green Dragon, Jamie Boag, said that they are privileged since they feel like coming home to several ports throughout the race. Originally an Irish syndicate, they were backed up by some chinese companies in the shandong province, and now a propeller company from just outside of Gothenburg… “Home in Qingdao”, “home in Galway”, Home in Marstrand/Gothenburg”… Thus the multiple nationality talk

Tomorrow there’s an inport race to look forward to!!!

/Edward