13 Apr 2010

Team NZ confirms

8:47 am on 13 April 2010

The Volvo Ocean Race organiser says Team New Zealand will take part in next year's Round the World race with a yacht sponsored by the Spanish footwear group Camper.

Team New Zealand's managing director, Grant Dalton, has competed six times and twice been part of the winning team, with Flyer in 1981-82 and New Zealand Endeavour in 1993-94.

And he was a close second on Fisher & Paykel in 1989-90 after an epic battle with the eventual winner, the late Sir Peter Blake on Steinlager 2.

The team's yacht, which will be known as Camper, is the fifth to be confirmed.

About 20 teams are in talks and organisers expect 10 to 12 will race, compared with eight in 2008-09.

The race, which Whitbread sponsored when it was launched in 1973, will start at the Spanish port of Alicante and finish in Galway, Ireland with a stop in Auckland early in 2012.