World Sailing and The Ocean Race confirm partnership

World Sailing has confirmed the 2021-22 and 2025-26 editions of The Ocean Race, the global sailing event that is the toughest test of a team in sport, have received World Sailing Special Event status.

Special Event status ensures that World Sailing, the world governing body of the sport, formally recognizes and sanctions the event.

The Ocean Race is one of six sanctioned World Sailing Special Events, and the exclusive team-based around the world race. Other events currently include SailGP, World Match Racing Tour, PWA World Tour, Star Sailors League, and the Global Kitesports Association’s freestyle world tours.

The next two editions of The Ocean Race will be held under World Sailing’s Racing Rules of Sailing and Regulations, with World Sailing administering the anti-doping rules and supporting the World Sailing Race Officials overseeing the event. Furthermore, World Sailing will support The Ocean Race with promotional and marketing activities.

“The Ocean Race has a proven tradition towards encouraging youth participation and mixed crews and we are pleased to continue our work with World Sailing to ensure the Race will continue to hold a leadership position in these initiatives, as well as ocean health and sustainability,” said Phil Lawrence, Race Director of The Ocean Race.

The Ocean Race puts sustainability at the core of the event and its award-winning sustainability programme, in collaboration with Premier Partner 11th Hour Racing and with the support of Official Partner Bluewater, has been widely recognized as setting the standard in the industry.

World Sailing have set ambitious plans as part of Sustainability Agenda 2030, which outlines the sport’s contribution to global sustainability. The Ocean Race has committed to deliver the requirements of World Sailing’s Special Event Sustainability Charter. This will see The Ocean Race working towards aligning the next two editions with the key principles of Sustainability Agenda 2030 and expanding an already successful sustainability programme.

Event details – Route – Teams – Facebook

The Ocean Race (formerly The Volvo Ocean Race), scheduled to start in 2021, will be raced in two classes of boats: the high-performance, foiling, IMOCA 60 class and the one-design VO65 class which has been used for the last two editions of the race. Entries in the IMOCA 60 class will compete for The Ocean Race trophy, while those racing the VO65s will chase the Ocean Challenge Trophy.

The Ocean Race is scheduled to start from its home port in Alicante, Spain in Q4 of 2021 and finish in Genoa, Italy in June of 2022. The full Race Route, to be confirmed in 2019, had previously revealed there would be up to nine stopover ports. Here’s what has been confirmed so far:

• Alicante, Spain: This historic Mediterranean port will host the start for the fifth consecutive edition in the autumn of 2021.

• Aarhus, Denmark: The course comes to the east coast of the Jutland peninsula during the spring of 2022, following a popular ‘Fly-By’ of the city during the final leg of the 2017-18 edition of the Race. Details.

• The Hague, Netherlands: This city along the North Sea coast will welcome the race for a third consecutive time, first coming as a ‘pitstop’ on the final leg of the 2014-15 edition and as the final finish port for the 2017-18 race. Details.

• Cabo Verde: More accustomed to having offshore teams sail by, or stop for repair, this archipelago of ten volcanic islands in the central Atlantic Ocean will become just the second African venue the race has ever visited and the first West African nation to host the event. Details.

• Genoa, Italy: As the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, this first-time race host is Italy’s largest sea port yet remains full of grandeur as the gateway to the Riviera while offering weighty architectural heritage. Details.

Announced Entries:
• IMOCA – Team Malizia (GER)- Boris Herrmann (GER)
• VO65 – Racing For The Planet (POR)
• IMOCA – Paul Meilhat (FRA)
• IMOCA – 11th Hour Racing (USA) – Charlie Enright & Mark Towill (USA)

Source: The Ocean Race