Start date set for The Ocean Race

The start date for leg one of The Ocean Race 2022-23 has been confirmed with both IMOCA and VO65 fleets will be January 15, 2023 from Alicante on Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

Originally planned for October 2022, the start date was revised when the race course for the 14th edition was updated due to continuing complications involving the pandemic which removed legs stopping in China and New Zealand.

There will still be race activity throughout 2022, with teams building their campaigns towards prologue racing as well as with The Ocean Race Legends, sustainability, and youth programm ahead of the assembly period in Alicante late in Q4 of the year.

Then, in January, the start of leg one will see the fleets racing away on one of the greatest challenges in sailing and the toughest test of a team in sport – over 31,000 nautical miles around the planet.

“This marks a change for The Ocean Race, as we adjust to the challenges of this new world with a more compact and exciting race route than ever before,” said Johan Salén, Managing Director of The Ocean Race.

“We are pleased to have been able to work with our partners in Alicante, which has been the home of the Race since 2009, to agree on a start date for leg one that takes advantage of the Christmas and New Year holiday season and allows for maximum stakeholder opportunities in the week leading up to the start as well.”

The opening leg of the Race will see both fleets racing for nearly one week to a finish in Cabo Verde. It will be the very first time The Ocean Race has stopped in the African island chain.

From there the race proceeds to Cape Town, South Africa before starting the longest and most challenging leg in the history of the Race – nearly 13,000 nautical miles direct through the southern oceans and past the three great southern Capes (Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn) before a finish in Itajaí, Brazil.

The Race then goes to Newport, Rhode Island in the USA; Aarhus, Denmark; The Hague in The Netherlands; and on to a Grand Finale finish in the Mediterranean in Genova, Italy in the summer of 2023.

Stopover dates for the above stages of the Race will be confirmed before the end of the year.

Race details – Route – Teams – Facebook

The Ocean Race (formerly Volvo Ocean Race) 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 14th edition was originally planned for 2021-22 but was postponed one year due to the pandemic.

Source: The Ocean Race