The Ocean Race returns to Cape Town

The Ocean Race will return to Cape Town for the 12th time as the most challenging crewed offshore race in the sport comes to South Africa in the 2021-22 edition.

Cape Town has been an iconic stop in the race since the very first edition in 1973 and has hosted the fleet in all but two editions of the race. No other city has hosted the fleet more, and this will be the eighth consecutive stopover for Cape Town, which marks the gateway to the southern latitude legs of the race.

“This is a very welcome announcement to make,” said Johan Salen, the Managing Director of The Ocean Race. “Our fans, our teams, and sailors and all of our stakeholders always rate the Cape Town stopover as among their favorites.

“Cape Town has such a strong history in The Ocean Race and as the jumping off point it is an ideal spot to prepare and take stock before heading into the challenging legs in the south that are at the heart of the race.”

The City of Cape Town also enthusiastically welcomed the return of The Ocean Race to the Mother City.

“Being one of the stops of this race, not only is the natural beauty of Cape Town on display but our City also provides the opportunity to highlight a parallel aspect: a highly-successful boat building industry creating thousands of jobs with a significant economic injection into the city – making Cape Town a suitable pit stop,” says Cape Town Executive Mayor Dan Plato.”

As before, the fleet will be hosted in the V&A Waterfront area of the city, under the shadow of the iconic Table Mountain.

Cape Town is now one of two African stops for the race, joining Cabo Verde, which was announced as a host city earlier this year.

The 14th edition of 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 will be confirmed in the coming weeks. Cape Town joins Itajaí, Brazil, Aarhus, Denmark and The Hague in The Netherlands as confirmed host cities, along with Cabo Verde, which will be the first West African stop in the history of the Race.

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.

While we wait for the full race route, organizers 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.

• Itajaí, Brazil: To the south of Rio de Janeiro, Itajaí was founded in the mid-19th century by German and Italian colonists, and is now the commercial centre and Atlantic port for an agricultural region drained by the Itajaí River and its tributaries. Details.

• Cape Town, South Africa: Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town, as the oldest urban area in South Africa, was developed by the United East India Company (VOC) as a supply station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East. Located at latitude 33.55° S, it’s approximately the same as Sydney and Buenos Aires and equivalent to Casablanca and Los Angeles in the northern hemisphere. 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