The Ocean Race

After a trial by fire start to the race and only a brief stop for limited fixes, the five IMOCA 60 crews in The Ocean Race set off for Cape Town, South Africa, early on January 25. Despite arriving somewhat battered in Cabo Verde, an African island nation west of Senegal, the ...read more

Even with—and sometimes because of—recent changes to the format, The Ocean Race is still the heart and soul of offshore racing, in my opinion. You could certainly make a case for the intensity of solo sailors lapping the planet in the Vendée Globe, but there's something ...read more

It’s been a long five years since the conclusion of the 2018 Volvo Ocean Race, and a lot more than the event’s name has changed. Here’s everything you need to know about this season’s premier ocean race before it kicks off on January 15. The Route Throughout every iteration of ...read more

The 2023 Ocean Race intends to be one of the world’s first climate positive sporting events, offsetting more greenhouse gasses than are produced. The two-fold effort means cutting emissions by 75 percent and investing in ocean projects that sequester carbon and restore ocean ...read more

After a few uncertain years waiting to see how the Volvo Ocean Race would be reincarnated as The Ocean Race, the pieces are starting to fall into place. Early decisions, like the addition of IMOCA 60s as the race’s main fleet, surprised many, but by and large, spectators are ...read more

The Ocean Race will get underway early in 2023 after a five-year hiatus and a number of changes to the race’s formula, most notably the introduction of the IMOCA 60 as the race’s main class, while the VO65 fleet will be for emerging teams with a specified number of younger ...read more

The Ocean Race Europe, a new event in offshore sailing, will include Alicante as one of four stopover cities. This European offshoot of the former Volvo Ocean Race will include the biggest change to the racing rules under the new title—fully crewed IMOCA 60s will join the ...read more

The next fully crewed round-the-world race will be one for the ages, says Brian Hancock In its near-50-year history The Ocean Race, the original fully-crewed around-the-world yacht race, has hit the reset button a few times—notably, when original sponsor Whitbread pulled the ...read more

The most recent edition of the Volvo Ocean Race ended with one of the most exciting finishes in the race’s long history. It all came down to the last few hours of the final leg of the race from Gothenburg, Sweden, to The Hague when the three leading teams—Spain’s Mapfre, China’s ...read more

July 2018 ...read more

After a series of pitched battles that led to some of the closest-ever race finishes in ocean racing history, the grand finale of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race was a publicist’s dream: three teams started the race’s last leg from Gothenburg, Sweden to The Hague, Netherlands, on ...read more

Forty-five thousand miles of hardcore ocean racing culminated in a breathtaking final winner-take-all 970-mile sprint from Gothenburg, Sweden to the finish at The Hague on Sunday. With Dongfeng Racing Team, Spanish entry Mapfre and Holland’s own Team Brunel all tied on points ...read more

After racing over 44,000 miles round the world and battling their way past the world’s great capes, including the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, it’s all come down to the final 700-mile leg from Gothenburg, Sweden, to the Hague. Brunel, Mapfre, Dongfeng: going into the ...read more

After winning three of the last four legs in the Volvo Ocean Race (and coming in second in the fourth), Dutch-flagged Brunel is now tied for first overall with Spanish-flagged Mapfre and Chinese-flagged Dongfeng following the completion of Leg 10 from Cardiff, Wales, to ...read more

It’s looking to be a case of feast or famine for the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean fleet as it continues the epic struggle that has been Leg 10, with it having been all famine thus far. Painful is the only word to describe the light-air start in Cardiff, Wales, on June 10, as the 11-boat ...read more

Before the start of Leg 9 from Newport, Rhode Island, to Cardiff, Wales, Dutch-flagged Team Brunel skipper Bouwe Bekking described it as a “must win” for his crew after finishing first and second in the previous two legs. Well, win it they did, and in the process, they not only ...read more

Last week during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Newport, Rhode Island, we had a chance to catch up with AkzoNobel team manager Gilles Chiorri for a guided tour of a Volvo Ocean 65 One-Design. May 2018 ...read more

A champion in both the America’s Cup and the Olympics, New Zealander Peter Burling, a member of Team Brunel, recently spoke with SAIL magazine about the pros and cons of sailing a one-design boat again as part of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race.  May 2018 ...read more

After days of rain, calms and fog, the Volvo Ocean Race Race fleet enjoyed perfect sailing conditions for the start of Leg 9 in Newport, Rhode Island, on Sunday. It then promptly plunged back into yet more fog as it headed offshore toward the finish in Cardiff, Wales, a little ...read more

Earlier this week, SAIL had a chance to catch up with Vestas 11th Hour Racing co-captains Mark Towill and Charlie Enright during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Newport, Rhode Island, to get their take on racing back to the States and how they’ve applied what they learned ...read more

The Volvo Ocean Race stopovers are a chance for sailors to rest between grueling legs of the race and for fans to enjoy seeing their favorite boats in person. Behind the scenes of the festivities, however, Nick Bice and his team of expert riggers, boatbuilders, sailmakers and ...read more

For a number of years now, the Volvo Ocean Race has been synonymous with photo finishes at the conclusion of thousands of miles of racing. Still, even by VOR standards, Tuesday’s Leg 8 finish in Newport, Rhode Island, was an extraordinary one: with Spain’s Mapfre not only ...read more

. May 2018 ...read more

. Despite the usual tactical and strategic challenges that are part and parcel of sailing up the coast of Brazil in the South Atlantic, a mercifully swift doldrums passage and strong northeast trade winds have the Volvo Ocean Race rocketing toward a finish in Newport as soon as ...read more

. May 2018 ...read more

It’s a very different kind of sailing from what the fleet experienced in the course of a windy Leg 7, as the Volvo Ocean Race wends its way north from Brazil to Newport, Rhode Island. As expected, the St. Helena High, which dominates the weather in the South Atlantic, has made ...read more

. April 2018 ...read more

With the boats now crossing the finish line in Itajaí, Brazil, it only seems right that we take a moment to stop and think about the tragedy that was Leg 7, and what it means for the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race in general. The VOR is, of course, an event that prides itself on its ...read more

. April 2018 ...read more

It was the evening of May 6, 2015, and the Volvo Ocean Race was coming to town—eventually. As the sun went down over a placid Atlantic, Chinese-flagged Dongfeng and eventual overall race winner Abu Dhabi were locked in battle, chasing zephyrs literally a stone’s throw away from ...read more

“This is the worst situation you can imagine happening to your team,” said Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag team manager Tim Newton late last March, and he wasn’t exaggerating. Mere hours earlier, he’d been informed by skipper David Witt that crewman John Fisher of Southampton, England, ...read more

British sailor John Fisher, from Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, is now presumed to have been lost at sea after going overboard yesterday afternoon in rough weather. While no details have been released on exactly what happened, the team was apparently battling big seas and 35-plus ...read more

Brunel reports in from where it is currently battling snow squalls and big seas in the heart of the Southern Ocean as part of the Volvo Ocean Race. For the latest, click here.  March 2018 ...read more