The Irish-sponsored boat, the Green Dragon, in Boston Harbor.

The 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race, one of the world's most formidable extreme nautical adventures, has come into the port of Boston.

The Race marks the competition's 35th year and will once again test the mettle of its competitors as they circumnavigate the globe while offering the world a unique celebration at each of its eleven international stopover ports. Formerly called the Whitbread Round the World Race, the event officially began in 1973 and runs every three years.

Spanning 37,000 nautical miles and more than 2,600 hours of extreme sailing, it's an around-the-world ocean marathon that started as the ultimate challenge for 80 individuals aboard eight professional sailing machines. After enduring unfathomable conditions, extreme sea states, demanding physical teamwork and unforeseen dangers during the first four legs of the race, only six teams (and 60 sailors) remain.

The race began last October in Alicante, Spain in October 2008 and concludes in St. Petersburg, Russia in June 2009. To date, the boats visited Capetown, South Africa; Kochi, India, Singapore, Qingdao, China, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The first boat arrived in Boston on Sunday, April 26, and all seven remaining boats will be here through Saturday, May 16. Then, it's on to Galway, Ireland. Marstrand, Sweden, and Stockholm, Sweden, as well as a return to Alicante and a finish in St. Petersburg, Russia.

This sixth leg has brought competitors, sports enthusiasts and the international sailing community to Boston, which is the sole North American port-of-call. The vital waterfront area is a critical component of Boston's history and its future. Fan Pier, located at the center of the waterfront landscape and emerging city hotspot will serve as host venue for the Volvo Ocean Race at Fan Pier Boston Stopover.

On the South Bosotn waterfront between the Moakley Federal Cour House and Anthony's Pier 4, Fan Pier is a development project of Boston's own Joe Fallon and his Boston-based development firm, The Fallon Company. Fallon has the unique opportunity to activate the waterfront by hosting the Volvo Ocean Race at Fan Pier. With Race stakeholders - including Boston-based PUMA North America, which has a significant interest in the Race as one of the eight competing syndicates - Fan Pier offers an exceptional Race experience and plans to build out a Race Village in keeping with the magnitude of this international event.

Three weeks of local events and activities are now underway, among them a points-scoring In-Port Race, which will be held in Boston's Outer Harbor and will count toward the overall rankings of the competition, and a Pro-Am Race to be orchestrated near Fan Pier and Rowe's Wharf the day following the in-port race. The Pro-Am race, which takes place in each host city, is not a points-scoring race and is tailored to suit each venue, making it a close-to-shore spectator event. Every boat in the Volvo fleet will take part, and will be sailed by half its race crew, with the remainder of the on-water crew consisting of specially invited guests and event sponsors. Additionally, Fan Pier will be the official site of numerous sponsor-driven events, cause-driven initiatives, educational

Adding an extra dimension to the competition are specific ties to Ireland, with an Irish-sponsored boat, the Green Dragon, and a seventh leg heading off to Galway Bay in mid-month. After the first six legs, the boat is in fifth place overall, and skipper Ian Walker and his crew crossed the finish line off Boston Monday afternoon, April 27 after a challenging leg from Rio. It was a sunny afternoon which marked the completion of 15 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes and 10 seconds at sea for the crew, as the boat sailed across the line to take seventh place with the spinnaker flying.
The team were greeted by local well wishers who came out to see the Dragon into port, and also by Maurice Keller from Good Food Ireland who presented the crew with a well deserved Green Dragon Buttie; an organic Irish fillet beef, topped with sea salt, West Cork Country relish and freshly baked bread!
Speaking on the dockside skipper Ian Walker said "We don't give up until the other boats have crossed the finishing line. There's always hope. I just had a chat with the lads at the end and I said, ‘a lot of crews wouldn't still be together after the tough last leg, running out of food and the problems we've had to overcome, and then this leg...' But I think the fact that we're all here, we're all smiling that speaks volumes. You have to get the technical aspect right as well as the personnel and all of the different ingredients and we have a lot of ingredients right in this programme and we still have plenty of race left in us!"

The crew will now be focused on some rest and relaxation in Boston, and on the next leg from Boston to Galway, a 2,500 mile dash across the Atlantic, Green Dragon's trimmer Phil Harmer said on the dock, "We've been talking about the Irish connection here and obviously the Boston Celtics - I like the basketball so I'm going to the basketball tomorrow night so I'm excited about that. Galway is going to be massive, it's going to be probably one of the tougher legs of the race as well which suits us - our boat suits the ocean rather then the passage racing and coming into Galway is going to be something else as well, so everyone is really excited about that part of the race". Talking on the leg he said, "If we lost miles then we'd try that bit harder to gain it back. It was good, it was a good team effort. There are six other good boats out there, we'll move on and get ready for the next leg and we'll be fine. We'll be back out there and challenging for first again."

The teams will have some time in Boston ahead of the In Port race on 9 May. The start of leg seven, on 16 May, will take the fleet 2,550 nm back across the Atlantic and into Galway, Ireland. For Green Dragon preparing for Galway essentially starts here in Boston, the team will be involved with events with the local Irish community and are already looking ahead to coming back to their home port. It will mark a complete circumnavigation for the boat and team who left Galway nine months ago. Ian Walker commented, "I'm up to speed on everything that is going on in Galway, Jamie Boag our CEO is there at the moment, he emailed this morning he was positively brimming with excitement about everything that is going on there, I think the Galway stopover starts here for us in many respects and one of our aims is to make that one of the best and most fun stopovers of the race."

More details at www.volvooceanraceatfanpierboston.com