Team ABN Amro’s first of two race Volvo Ocean Race yachts will be seen by the public for the first time tomorrow as it exits the wharf at Schaap Ship Care in Amsterdam for its journey by sea to Portimão, Portugal – the team camp for the next seven months.

This is the first Volvo 70 class yacht to hit the water in preparation of the Volvo Ocean Race, which starts from Galicia, Spain, in November 2005. It’s 10ft longer than its predecessors in the last Volvo Ocean Race and now also has a hydraulically operated canting keel. Designer Juan Kouyoumdjian and skipper Mike Sanderson think it could reach speeds of up to 40 knots during the race.

Transport starts in Lelystad, where Killian Bushe and his team of craftsmen built the hi-tech race yacht. Fixed to a pontoon, it will pass through Lelystad, the IJsselmeer, the Amsterdam Rhine Canal and the Waal before it arrives at the port of Rotterdam. On 30 December, it will be transferred to an ocean freighter and carried south to Portugal. The actual christening of the yacht takes place in Portimão on 17 January 2005.