It’s known today as The Ocean Race. Now, 50 years on from the inaugural edition of the first crewed round the world race – known then as The Whitbread – the latest edition is about to depart Alicante, Spain on a seven-leg, 32,000nm marathon that will culminate six months later with a Grand Finale in Genoa, Italy.
Although the race has started from Alicante before, this is the first time that it will have started and finished in the Med. Another first is a three-day ‘Pit-Stop’ at Cape Verde, breaking the opening dash south through the Atlantic into two legs and bringing new strategies into play, compounded by the later-than-usual January start date. There will also be the longest ever leg in the race’s history – a gruelling 12,750nm from Cape Town, South Africa to Itajaí, Brazil, skirting most of Antarctica and rounding all three iconic Capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn) in one go – a true Southern Ocean test and a nod to the race’s roots.
Overall though, it’s a shorter, simpler route – keeping budgets, logistics and environmental impact to a minimum – to when the race was last held in 2017-18, under the title of the Volvo Ocean Race. Then, seven teams competed in the one-design VO65; after a nine month, 45,000nm battle, just four points separated the top three, with Charles Caudrelier’s Dongfeng winning by just 16 minutes. Since then, ownership of the race has passed from Volvo Cars to Richard Brisius and Johan Salén, who have worked against the backdrop of the pandemic (the original schedule was for an October 2021 start) to deliver a race that promises evolution in technology, crew diversity and sustainability.
Foremost has been the introduction of a new development class –.
