Cheshire-based design consultancy, Mather & Co has designed a new visitor attraction at the headquarters of the Volvo Ocean Race in Spain.

The race headquarters in the starting port of Alicante comprise the organisers' main offices, an operations room - which acts as the nerve centre coordinating satellite navigation and communications throughout the event - and now the new visitor attraction/museum. Prior to its involvement with the attraction, Mather & Co. helped with the theming and graphic enhancements of the offices and advised on design concepts for the operations room.

Elements of the exhibition trace the history of the event as well as its environmental challenges and technological developments down the years. The design also focuses on the human element of the race, with the creation of an immersive environment using high level projections seeking to recreate 'life on deck' conditions for the sailors as well as capturing the emotion of their homecoming after nine months at sea.

Described as the 'Everest of Sailing', the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race started in Alicante last October. It covers more than 39,000 nautical miles of the world's most treacherous seas via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, and Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajaí and Miami and then across the Atlantic to Lisbon and Lorient. It is scheduled to end in Galway, Ireland in July.

The museum was opened on 19 June by Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race and the President of the Municipality of Valenciana.