An ambitious proposal to have a Bermuda team compete in the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race appears to have fallen through, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Kevin Dallas, the Bermuda Tourism Authority chief executive, has confirmed that there were discussions about Bermuda taking part in the annual event featuring some of the world’s top sailors — a proposal that he said is now off the table.

“The Bermuda Tourism Authority was involved in a conversation regarding resources for a Bermuda team in the next Volvo Ocean Race,” Dallas said.

“To the best of our knowledge, that conversation is not proceeding. There will be no Bermuda team in the next Volvo Ocean Race.”

It had been hoped that a Bermuda team could be involved in the Volvo Ocean Race to build on Team BDA’s success at the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup last month, as well as the momentum generated by the 35th America’s Cup, which the island hosted. Team BDA, skippered by MacKenzie Cooper, finished eighth in the final of the Youth America’s Cup.

Originally known as the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world and typically departs from Europe in October.

Recent editions of the Volvo Ocean Race consisted of either nine or ten legs with in-port races being staged at stopover cities.

Each of the entries has a sailing team consisting of nine professional crew who race day and night for more than 20 days at a time on some of the legs.

The crew members are required to be more than sailors with some having been trained in medical response, sail-making, diesel-engine repair, electronics and hydraulics.

Teams compete in the Volvo Ocean 65, a high-performance one-design racing yacht created by Farr Yacht Design and built by a consortium of four European boatyards. Led by skipper Ian Walker, one of Britain’s most successful sailors, United Arab Emirates entry Azzam won the previous Volvo Ocean Race held between 2014 and 15.

During that cycle the team also won the in-port race series and set a 24-hour distance record of 550.82 nautical miles while approaching Cape Horn, a rocky headland on Hornos Island, in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego archipelago.

The Netherlands holds the record for the wins (three), with Dutchman Conny van Rietschoten the only skipper to win the race twice.

After the next edition, the Volvo Ocean Race will switch from a three-year to a two-year cycle, a change that will provide more continuity and more commercial value for professional sailing teams, sponsors and host cities. The next edition starts on October 22 from Alicante, Spain, and will finish at the end of June next year in The Hague, Netherlands.