The Volvo Ocean Race has reported media figures which show a significant increase in the global audience that was exposed to the event in 2012 over the same figures from the previous staging of the race in 2009.
The embedding of a media crew member on each boat with the capacity to deliver online and HD digital video content was the single biggest factor in a 48 per cent increase in TV news audiences.
The amount of broadcast coverage increased by 42% overall but only by 16% in audience terms highlighting that the main benefit for occasional viewers was in news bulletins and for dedicated race fans in the online sphere.
The amount of online coverage doubled as a result of the richer content being produced.  The Race Tracker generated just short of 250 million page views, a seven fold increase on previously while the official You Tube Channel generated 8 million views.
Social media still has room for improvement in the sport with 200,000 fans on Facebook being only a small fraction of the larger general sporting properties but that is likely to climb the next time around.
The comparison to other sports is something that is important to sailing.
“The Volvo Ocean Race pulled in a total of 2.9 million spectators during the event,” said Volvo Ocean Race Chief Operating Officer Tom Touber. “To put that into perspective, the Euro 2012 soccer championship attracted 1.5 million.”
Those spectators were spread across all five continents with stops in Spain, South Africa, Abu Dhabi, China, New Zealand, Brazil, the United States, Portugal, France and the conclusion of the event in Galway last July
The 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race will start in Alicante in late 2014, with dozens of cities vying for Host Port status and the full route due to be announced in early 2013.
View all the latest news on the commercial side of Irish sport
Find out more about how Sport for Business can be of benefit to you
Subscribe today for the free Sport for Business daily news digest