#VOR - Record-breaking British yachtswoman Dee Caffari has confirmed her membership of Team SCA competing in this year's Volvo Ocean Race.

Writing on her website on Monday 17 March, the offshore specialist broke her radio silence since the New Year, saying she "had a lot of ground to cover" as one of the last women selected via the team's trials in Lanzarote, "especially compared to the girls that had been training as part of the team for the past year."

But now that the honorary Royal Navy commander and non-stop round-the-world record holder is officially part of the all-women squad preparing for October's first in-port races, she says its time to "move onto the next phase of training", putting in the miles on the new VOR 65 yacht with greater intensity.

In other VOR news, French sailing stalwart Charles Caudrelier has been named skipper of China's Dongfeng Race Team.

Instrumental to the success of Groupama in the last Volvo Ocean Race, the 40-year-old has called his appointment "a key step as a sailor and as a man".

Commenting on the challenges of leading the first all-Chinese crewed team in VOR history, Caudrelier said: “I’ve seen it on my skipper and friend Franck Cammas in the last race: being a skipper is a huge responsibility and it’s demanding from a human point of view. 

"But I’ve learned from my past experiences and I want to take these skills further.”

The VOR website has more on the story HERE.

#vor – Sail into a Volvo garage next weekend and you could win a family holiday to Spain for the start of the Volvo Ocean Race next October.

The great prize for sailors is part of a Volvo promotion from February 21-23 at dealerships nationwide where the long standing supporter of Irish sailing (Volvo sponsors Ireland's biggest regatta in Dun Laoghaire) is displaying its 2014 range with the XC90, the V40 and the S60.

Eagle eyed sailors may already have spotted the prize advertised in the national press at the weekend and online. More here. 

Alicante will be the focus of world sailing attention from October 4 when the round the world race starts. One lucky Irish family will get the chance to wave on sole Irish sailor in the race, Justin Slattery from Cork who is competing for a second time as bowman on Abu Dhabi Racing.

Along with the race itself there is also the chance to see Spanish castles, take in the history and climb mountains, the beaches are the main draw for millions who flock to the region in search of sun and sea.

#VOR - Three months after China's Dongfeng Race Team was confirmed as an entrant in the upcoming 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, the first eight members of the team's training squad have been named following a tough selection process.

Ying Kit Cheng, Xue Liu, Yiran Zhang, Liang Wu, Jin Hao Chen, Jiru Wolf Yang, Sheng Shen and Ming Liu made the cut from a 20-strong group put through what the VOR website called "a challenging series of tests" at Sanya's Serenity Marina.

Next for this 'elite eight' will be a week of fitness and sea survival training, including a test race from Hong Kong to Sanya to assess their boat-handling skills.

But there's no guarantee that all of these names will end up on the final team that sets sail on their VOR 65 from Alicante this coming October, marking China's third challenge of the round-the-world yachting endeavour.

And another group of candidates will have the opportunity to prove their mettle in a second round of trials on 8-9 February.

The VOR website has more on this story HERE.

#VOR - Among the future plans for Galway as part of the masterplan for the city's port submitted last week is the intention to bring back the Volvo Ocean Race for the third time, as the Irish Independent reports.

Galway harbour master Capt Brian Sheridan says 2020 would be the earliest that Galway could bid for a stopover place in the event that it previously hosted in 2009 and 2012, the latter reportedly generating some €60 million for the local economy and attracting a global audience of over 1 billion.

What's more, Galway Harbour Company chief Eamon Bradshaw has intimated that the idea of integrating the harbour with the city, which lies at the heart of the masterplan, only took off with the first visit of the round-the-world yacht race to the City of the Tribes.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the new harbour development scheme will see land reclined from Galway Bay to provide much needed berthing space for expansion, as well new projects like a proposed "mii Sydney Opera House" that would host VOR-related events should the next bid be successful.

#VOR - Yachting World's Matt Sheahan has given a glowing review to the new one-design VOR 65 that will make up the fleet in the next Volvo Ocean Race.

"On the face of it the new Volvo Ocean 65 is another high performance, beamy, angular offshore racer," he writes for the official Volvo Ocean Race website.

"But there is a great deal more to her than just this, particularly behind the scenes and under her skin."

Sheahan - who recently gave the keynote speech at this year's ICRA Conference - notes the boat's improved safety features, including better shelter for crew.

That has the added effect of optimum shelter for interviews, which should make the 2014-15 edition of the round-the-world yacht race an even more direct experience for fans following their favourite boat's fortunes.

Meanwhile, Sheahan is particularly impressed with the carbon fibre hull, which achieves "a robust structure without piling on the pounds" and makes the VOR 65 "a tougher beast all round".

The VOR website has much more, including some stunning new photos of the vessel, right HERE.

#VOR - Volvo Ocean Race bosses have announced the fourth team confirmed for the next edition of the round-the-world yachting challenge that sets sail in less than a year.

Netherlands-based Team Brunel will return to the competition after two previous entries - this time led by skipper Bouwe Bekking, a veteran of six previous Volvo Ocean Races.

And according to the VOR website, the 12th edition of the race in 2014-15 will be a "chance to put the record straight" for Bekking, who has twice finished runner-up in the event that's seen three Dutch winners in its 40-year history.

It will also see him match Roger Nilson's record for the most VOR appearances.

“A Dutch-speaking team in the Volvo Ocean Race again – we owe this to our heritage and the future sailing generations to come. But above all it’s the best sailing in the world," said Bekking at the announcement in Amsterdam earlier today (3 December).

Team Bunuel is the latest addition to the entry list that already includes the returning Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, the all-women Team SCA and the Chinese contingent Team Dongfeng, who have just held the pull-down test for their VOR 65 one-design ahead of their first sailings later this week.

#VOR - It's been confirmed that a Chinese team will race in the 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The new Team Dongfeng, backed by automaker Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle and run by international events and marketing firm OC Sport, will set sail with the rest of the fleet from Alicante in the 2014-15 race.

It also marks the third entry for China in the round-the-world yachting challenge, following the Discover Ireland-backed Team Sanya in the last edition of the VOR that concluded in Galway in exciting fashion, and the joint Chinese-Irish entry Green Dragon in the 2008-09 race.

Headed by team director and VOR veteran Bruno Dubois, Team Dongfeng is expected to be more than just a nominal Chinese entry, with plans for a significant number of Chinese sailors among its final race crew.

They will follow in the wake of Chinese sailing pioneers Guo Chuan, who crewed Green Dragon in 2008-09, and Team Sanya's 'Tiger' Teng Jianghe in last year's race - not to mention success for Chinese sailing at the London Olympics with gold in the women's Laser Radial for sailor of the year Xu Lijia, despite Ireland's own Annalise Murphy's stellar performance in the buildup to the medal race.

“Our priority is the recruitment and training of the Chinese sailors," said Dubois. "This is very clearly the biggest challenge we have – to condense many years of experience of the average Volvo Ocean Race crew into just 10 months.

“But equally this process is at the heart of the project, we want to leave a real legacy that will both motivate the Chinese to want to embrace the sport of sailing, and be able to develop the talent so that, ultimately, a future campaign could be 100% Chinese.”

Team Dongfeng will surely receive a warm welcome when the fleet visits the Chinese port of Sanya, returning as a stopover in the 2014-15 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race after its debut on the calendar in the last running.

#VOR - Last weekend we got a closer look at the Volvo Ocean Race's new one-design VOR 65 - and now the first team to sail the vessel a year ahead of the next race start have given it their seal of approval.

The VOR website reports comments from the all-women Team SCA's Annie Lush, Sam Davies and Liz Wardley, who gave their first impressions of sailing the brand new yacht late last month.

“It’s quite different from the Volvo Open 70 PUMA that we’ve been training on [before now]. I like it,” said Lush, who competed in the London Olympics last year in the new Elliott 6m class.

“For a one-design boat, it’s everything you could hope for," said Wardley, while Vendée Globe veteran Davies noted the "real challenge for everybody to learn how to sail this new boat, to really see what she can do and how she’s going to look after us."

#VOR - The official Volvo Ocean Race website concludes its video series Building the Future with a detailed look at the first completed VOR 65 racing yacht.

The culmination of 12 months' hard work, with components manufactured in various locations across Europe and the United States - plus masts all the way from New Zealand - the first two finished boats were recently put together for their first tests in Southampton.

The video above sees Rick Deppe join Nick Bice to take in the biggest changes on deck for the crews that will race the new one-design fleet come October 2014.

And below you can see the all-women Team SCA take their delivered VOR 65 for a long-awaited test sail:

#VOR - After last week's long-awaited debut on the water of the new one-design VOR 65 that will make up the fleet in the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, Boatyard manager and Team Sanya veteran Nick Bice talks through the process behind getting the first completed vessel ready for delivery.

According to Bice, it's a near week-long process from getting the boat on its appendages to fitting the mast, prepping for launch, putting the structure to the test and finally sailing on the open water.

Now the boat is in the hands of the all-woman Team SCA who've been champing at the bit to put her through her paces with just a year to go before the first in-port race.