Bouwee Bekking will participate in her eighth Volvo Ocean Race. Photo: Stefan Coppers

Bouwe Bekking, the most experienced regatist in the history of the Volvo Ocean Race, returns to be the pattern of the seventh team confirmed for the 2017-18 edition and give himself another opportunity to achieve the longed-for victory in which he will be his eighth attempt to achieve it.

No one has sailed as many miles on the Volvo Ocean Race as Bekking, who made his first appearance as a crew member at the Philips Innovator in the 1985-86 edition.

But more than three decades later, the Bekking obsession (now 54 years old) for winning the Volvo Ocean Race has only intensified.

The team's sponsors include Brunel, the Dutch project management, recruitment and consulting company, and its founder, Jan Brand. The Brunel team is already a veteran of the Volvo Ocean Race, as it first participated in the race in the 1996-98 edition.

The theme of the campaign for this edition 2017-18 is "Engineering the Future," an initiative of a consortium of Dutch companies including Brunel, Abel, Royal Huisman and EY.

"The team's goal is to speed up the next generation," Bekking said. "We win by gathering experience and talent, but also by creating opportunities for the next generation."

Brunel's founder Jan Brand added: "Together we are able to define new rules and possibilities for the future. The Brunel team wants to strengthen the new generations to take the helm"

Four months from the start of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18, the exit grill is almost full.

The other confirmed participants are the AkzoNobel team, patronized by Simeon Tespont, the Chinese team Dongfeng Race Team with Charles Caudrelier at the head, the MAPHRE with Spanish Xabi Fernández, the 11th Hour Racing with American Charlie Enright, the Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag team with experienced David Witt and Turn The Tide on Plastic with Dee Caffari.

Brunel's return means that for the first time in the history of the race, four major sponsors return for the second consecutive edition. As well as Brunel, the Vestas, Dongfeng and MAPHRE teams also repeat after having competed in 2014-15.

The race will begin in Alicante on October 22, with a maximum of eight Volvo Ocean 65 monotypes. Seven of them have undergone an extensive process of refurbishment after having participated in the previous race. The eighth boat is a new sailboat built for the AkzoNobel.

Bekking has been the subchampion in two previous editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, but victory has always escaped from his hands, though by very little.

He almost won his first race in 1985-86 when he finished second on board the Philips Innovator, capitalized by his compatriot Dirk Nauta.

In 1993-94 he was in the Winston, in 1997-98 returned with the Merit Cup and four years later he competed with the Amer Sports One.

His first chance to sail as a team pattern came to him in 2005- 06 with a move, a race that came to an end when he and his crew were forced to leave the ship in the Atlantic.

With great determination, he returned to take the Blue Telefonica to the podium in 2008-09, and was the team's patron in the last edition of 2014-15, in which they finished seconds.

"In 2014-15 we had a very good result, a result I'm proud of, but I think we can take even bigger steps, based on the experience we have sailing on the Volvo Ocean 65," he said earlier this year.

The 2017-18 edition will cover 45,000 nautical miles in a competition that will pass through 12 of the most important cities in the world to end in The Hague (Netherlands) at the end of June.