Il mostro, PUMA’s Volvo Ocean Race sailing yacht, finished their maiden Volvo Ocean Race, “the Everest of Sailing”, in second place on 27 June 2009 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

click the picture for a bigger view of that amazing picture

The Volvo Ocean Race is a 37,000 nautical mile (68,524 km) round the world adventure and is one of the world’s toughest sporting events.

PUMA’s eye-catching sailing yacht “il mostro”, the innovative PUMA Sailing Collections, the innovative marketing initiatives launched at the numerous stop-over ports, PUMA City and the successful performance of the PUMA Ocean Racing Crew generated extensive media coverage that more than offset PUMA’s investment in the Volvo Ocean Race.

PUMA used the 11 port destinations of the Race to activate complex onshore marketing strategies. PUMA used every single race location – Alicante, Cape Town, Cochin in India, Singapore, Qingdao in China, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway in Ireland, Marstrand in Sweden, Stockholm and finally St. Petersburg – to not only position PUMA as a Sailing brand, but to convey PUMA’s overall brand message, creating visibility for other PUMA categories through media and star-studded events. Such activities have set a new marketing benchmark in the growing sport of sailing. At the same time, while the sport of sailing is often perceived to be very exclusive, PUMA aimed to break down this misconception. The PUMA Ocean Racing campaign has successfully begun to broaden the sports’ audiences, with an inclusive, fun outlook on the sport.

The Volvo Ocean Race was the perfect platform to launch the PUMA Sailing performance and lifestyle collections and reach new target consumers. PUMA launched a full range of nautical inspired apparel, footwear and accessories, from offshore sailing gear to onshore lifestyle fashion.

One of the readers of this blog, a certain Paul Kaye commented on the start, and the finish, of the Volvo Oean Race this year. Kif that!

Awesome eh. I got suckered into some Sailing Performance Gear yesterday as well. Check out my Posterous account to see what I mean.

Posterous is a great way to have a mini-blog, with pictures & videos. So, keep checking my Posterous account for updates on some more intimate pictures about what’s going on in my movements. Its quite similar to my Twitter account, but instead of 140 characters, its pictures and sounds.

Bye!

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This report from the Puma Il Mostro boat in the Volvo Ocean Race .

…”It seems that as the temperature drops, the size of squid increases, so does the intensity of its ink, thus increasing the overall mess on the deck! Last night’s suicide attacker was just one, rather large, inky squid, who landed just aft of the cockpit next to the starboard tiller! That means he managed to cross the cockpit in mid-air. Lucky I was not out there at the time! I thought getting walloped in the face by a flying fish was bad enough, but I dread to imagine getting “squidded” in the face….. must be a bit like getting pooed on by a seagull in Lorient.”

Just a normal day on the ocean I guess. Flying squids and seagulls that poo in bucketloads.

Still not convinced?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHuPb1h1Fj0]

WTFY?! Thats a little much for a lycra wearing dude like myself.

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Please click the picture for its true size. You HAVE to see how beautiful this experience was.

So I was lucky enough to crack the nod at a very select group of people who got on Puma Yachts and followed Il Mostro, Puma’s entry into the Volvo Ocean Race 2008, out into the ocean as the official race relaunched in Cape Town this past weekend.

Puma Decked out with 5FM to host a killer function with breki, a trip on the boats for that once in a lifetime chance to get real close to the action as the boats whipped out on their way up to India. (more…)

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If you have been asleep for the last 2 weeks, Volvo Ocean Race is in Slaapstad. A bunch of lunatics are visiting the city you might be calling “home”, all disguised as yachtspeople taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race.

I can only imagine the pain, suffering and ability to deal with a constant flow of seaspray in the eyes is rewarding, builds character and sailing across the world is a “once in a lifetime experience”. Ja.

Sure. (more…)

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