Spanish insurance firm Mapfre has granted its backing to the country’s challenge for the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, completing the fleet’s line-up of title sponsors with just over a week to go before the sailing event’s launch.
The Madrid-based company is already well known as leading supporters of sailing and confirmed its support of skipper Iker Martínez’s challengers today (Friday) ahead of the Race’s opening event, the Alicante in-port race on October 4.
Volvo Ocean Race chief executive Knut Frostad said: “We know this global company has a love of sailing and shares many common values with us, putting people at the heart of everything it does. It is backing a very strong crew which has already shown it will be competitive in what I believe will be another extremely closely contested race.”