Kochi, Apr 5: The official Website of the world famous Volvo Ocean Race for its India stopover was recently launched in Kerala.

The official website 'volvoracecochin. com' was launched by Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) Chairman Cherian Philip in the presence of N Ramachandran, Chairman, Cochin Port Trust and Dr. V Venu, Secretary, Tourism, Government of Kerala.

It is for the first time in the 35-year history of the Race, regarded as the ultimate in ocean racing competition, that an Indian port has been chosen for the stopover.

Kochi will witness a ten-day visual extravaganza of the most exciting water sport action that India has ever witnessed between December 3 and 13 this year.

Apart from the world's fastest ocean racing yachts with state-of-the-art technology backup, the event will also attract hundreds of other luxury yachts and sailing vessels of different depiction.

The Race will commence its round-the-world marathon sailing in October 2008 and cover more than 39,000 nautical miles, visiting 11 ports across the world.

Starting from Alicante in Spain, it would stopover at Cape Town, Cochin, Singapore, Qingdao, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway, Goteborg and Stockholm, before reaching the finishing line at St. Petersburg.

The Race is the ultimate in world-class water-sporting competition on the extreme edge of adventure, drama and endurance.

Several high profile global corporate leaders as well as some of the world's topmost brands and business houses that sponsor the competition boats and teams, will gather at Cochin during the stopover period to cheer their respective race teams.

The stopover will enable the global corporate sponsors to hold networking conclaves with leaders of Commerce and Industry of the host country at the stopover ports.

The Kochi stopover is an opportunity to showcase India as an emerging economic giant while highlighting the country's business potential as well as its tourism potential.

The Race and the stopover events would be extensively covered in electronic, print and news media across the world, ranging from newspapers to lifestyle and glamour magazines.

Port sponsor and co-sponsors for the India stopover event will be finalised by the Cochin Port Trust and the Kerala Tourism shortly through a bidding process. (ANI)