New Ericsson VO70 leaves Stockholm

To go to the team's training base in the Canary Islands

The construction of Ericsson Racing Team's first boat for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 is now complete. With less than 300 days remaining to the race start in Alicante, Spain, Ericsson 3 left the shipyard in Kista on 13 December to be transported to the training base in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

"It's almost six months since we began building the boat and we're all proud of what we've achieved now that she's leaving Kista," says Killian Bushe, who has been responsible for the construction. "It's been a lot of hard work, but also very rewarding and stimulating, not least because we've had more than 9,000 visitors to the shipyard."

The boat left Kista by truck late on the evening of 13 December, bound for Frihamnen in Stockholm, and then loaded onto a cargo ship headed towards Lanzarote, where she is expected to arrive late December. The transportation of the 21.5m long by 6m wide hull, weighing some six tons, through central Stockholm required a lot of planning.

Ericsson already has two VO70 boats in the water. That includes the boat that Ericsson sailed with in the last Volvo Ocean Race, now used for customer activities, and the boat that won the last race under the name of ABN AMRO One, now used for testing and training. These two are now named Ericsson 1 and Ericsson 2. The team has set up its training base in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, which offers excellent training conditions and facilities.

"It's very important for the team to start the two boat testing. And it's going to be very exciting," says Brazilian skipper Torben Grael.