By RICHARD BRADDELL
The Wellington economy could be more than $10 million better off after the British Telecom Global Challenge yacht race stops over in January.
The race, which involves a dozen 22m yachts all built to the same specification, set out from Southampton yesterday with Wellington scheduled as halfway-point "pit stop" on the round-the-world journey.
The yachts will spend a month in Wellington, and more than 500 crew, race supporters and officials are expected to be in the city.
Mayor Mark Blumsky estimated that the last BT Challenge two years ago was worth more than $10 million to his city.
Wellington replaced Hobart as the mid-point for the race, which has been run since 1992, because of its superior infrastructure and because of the "red carpet" treatment the visiting organisers received.
The race, which is billed as the world's toughest, is a test of personal endurance for the mostly amateur crews who, for the privilege of entering, have to pay, or find a sponsor willing to pay, the £25,000 entry fee.
While braving notoriously difficult seas in areas such as Cape Horn and the Southern Ocean, the sailors have the added challenge of sailing the "wrong way," or against prevailing currents and winds.
For British Telecom, the race is one of the largest "relationship marketing" campaigns in the world.
Rhoda Holmes, who is BT's alliance director at Clear Communications, said senior company officials from British Telecom would visit New Zealand to meet Government officials and corporate customers while the yachts were in Wellington.
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