Cardiff Replaces Cowes As Extreme 40 Venue
Cardiff has won its bid to stage the UK leg of the Extreme Sailing Series for the next three years – replacing previous hosts Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.
The Welsh city made a successful £725,000 bid to win the event, and is the first time the hosting rights have been put up for tender.
Cowes has hosted the Extreme 40 event for the past five years but has never paid organisers, OC ThirdPole, a staging fee.
Racing will take place in Cardiff Bay with the first event set to take place shortly after the Olympic Games in August this year and the contract set to run until 2014.
Cowes Week organisers said they were hoping to continue with some Extreme 40 exhibition racing in August but in the absence of a local authority bid to match the Cardiff offer, they are now focusing on a return to racing among traditional Cowes fleets.
Cardiff is the last venue to be announced for the Extreme Sailing Series in 2012 after Muscat in Oman, Istanbul, Porto in Portugal, Nice, Trapani, Brazil and Qingdao were unveiled as hosts last year.
