Abu Dhabi Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 Stopover Announcement

Rule 26 were commissioned by a well-known yacht racing management team to provide boat and clothing branding services for the announcement of the Abu Dhabi stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race in 2011/12.

Consultancy:
Rule 26 provided a consultancy service to the client, advising on what could and couldn’t be achieved within the timescale, whilst also ensuring the project remained confidential prior to the launch, to protect the value of the Emirates brand. The final product choices were a complete hull colour change, large battle flags, full mainsail branding, strategic cockpit and hull graphics and two colour branding on a range of technical clothing.

From artwork sign off, this needed to be produced and fitted on site in Abu Dhabi in exactly six days

Graphics:
Changing the colour of a 64ft racing yacht, with a freeboard of over 1.8 metres is no easy task, but with designs and artwork completed, including the accurate sizing of 5 metre logos for the hull and 15 metre logos for the mainsail, the production task began.

In-house, Rule 26 used a 1200mm wide format cutter to cut the graphics for the mainsail out of colour matched Avery 700 polymeric vinyl. In six panels of over 5 metres each, it was essential that the cut was accurate and sized correctly. The 5 metre long, all white hull logos, were also cut on the wide format cutter in one piece each to ensure that fitting took the minimal time possible.

The two 4 metre long digitally printed battle flags were produced and manufactured in less than 24 hours, whilst all the cockpit and deck graphics were colour matched and digitally printed onto polymeric vinyl. As the digitally printed graphics were only temporary, and to ensure that production time was cut to the bare minimum, these graphics were not laminated.

Clothing:
For a busy week of corporate sailing in the Gulf following the announcement, over 700 garments, including Jackets, Gilets, Fast-Dri T-Shirts, Shorts and Rucksacks were required.

To be branded in a two colour logo, it was decided that to ensure the best quality and colour on the garments, we would use a specialist superflex material.
Using our fabrics knowledge gleaned from, among other projects, the Green Dragon Team in the last Volvo Ocean Race, the flex was computer cut and registered directly on the garment, then pressed at very specific temperatures to ensure perfect adhesion, without damaging the integrity of the fabric. The result was a vibrant and colourfast corporate logo.

Shipping
Changing the colour of the hull required over 80 metres of 1220mm Avery 800 Cast vinyl to be transported to the fitting site in Abu Dhabi. In total 60 kg of graphics were packed and transported as hold baggage on the flight out to Abu Dhabi by the Rule 26 Team. Thirty six boxes of branded clothing were also prepared for shipping, by the clients carrier, in two runs designed to first equip the on-site crew and then the corporate guests.

Arriving in Abu Dhabi at 9pm on the Wednesday night, fitting began in earnest at 8am on Thursday morning. The client team had helpfully arranged at short notice to have full scaffolding erected around the boat. This enabled the Rule 26 Fitting Team to have full access to the top sides of the hull at all times. In temperatures of up to 35 degrees during the day, and cold moist air during the night, the conditions were challenging, but all the graphics including the wrap, hull graphics, mainsail and jib branding were completed by close of play on Saturday afternoon.

The boat changed colour and was re-branded in 45 hours, and was on location on a specially constructed pontoon at the Emirates Palace Hotel on Sunday, as the team prepared to fly home.