Will North America care about 2027 race?

It was the Whitbread Round the World Race when initiated in 1973, and became the Volvo Ocean Race in 2001 after a sponsor change. But rising campaign costs shrank the fleet, and for the last edition in 2023 was simply The Ocean Race.

Regardless, this round the world race for crewed teams has held our attention for 14 editions, with images and stories off the boat accentuating the adventure. Having stopovers in the USA and the first-ever victory by a USA flagged-team in 2023 helped too.

But will North America care about this race when it begins again in 2027?

The shift to the IMOCA boat has brought in the French specialists with less name recognition beyond their circle, and with likely no entry from the continent to contend for the title, will the adventure remain captivating?

Seeking to stay in the headlines, The Ocean Race Atlantic 2026 will start on September 2 in New York, USA and finish in Barcelona, Spain, and The Ocean Race Europe 2025 just concluded its second edition. Antoine Mermod, the President of the IMOCA Class, is optimistic for the future.

“The Ocean Race Europe was a huge event in every way,” he said. “Sportingwise, it was fantastic because it was seven weeks of intense battles on the sea in many different settings – the Baltic, the North Sea, the Channel, the Atlantic, the Alboran Sea, the Mediterranean and finally the Adriatic.

“This has never happened before in such a short time and the competitors were some of the best offshore sailors within the IMOCA Class, so that made it a huge sporting challenge at a very high level.

“For the non-sailor, it was also fantastic because we had six stopovers in great locations with a lot of activation at each one, with commercial partners involved. There were parties and inshore sailing and the atmosphere was superb, especially with the finish at Boka Bay, so really this event was about enjoyment both on the sea and on shore.”

The race saw a dominant performance by French skipper Paul Meilhat and his crew on Biotherm who won four of the five legs, the coastal race at Boka Bay and collected maximum points at four of the mid-leg Bonus Scoring Gates. Mermod says Meilhat and his team enjoyed the fruits of having prepared thoroughly.

“It was not just one thing that they focused on, they tried to work on all the different aspects of this race,” he said. “They had the boat, they had one of the best crews, they were 100% from the first second of the race, their shore team was completely focused and ready and they knew what they were doing after taking part in the last edition of The Ocean Race. Sometimes nothing else can happen except winning, and Biotherm reached that dynamic so congratulations to them.”

Mermod was also impressed with the way both Ambrogio Beccaria’s Allagrande MAPEI Racing and Team Holcim-PRB, skippered by Rosalin Kuiper, came back from the serious crash immediately after the start at Kiel. This, he said, was a testament to both teams’ resilience and particularly the skills and commitment of their shore crews.

“These IMOCA teams have the best shore teams in the world and they have this ability to come back from serious setbacks – they are prepared for that,” he said.

Mermod highlighted the role of shore teams in general in an event where they play a much bigger role than in single-handed or double-handed IMOCA races.

“When you are doing the Route du Rhum or the Vendée Globe, the shore team prepares for the race and then the skipper takes over,”he said. “In an event with stopovers, it’s really different – the whole team is doing the race, not just the sailing team. The shore team is part of the race and lives the rhythm of it, which makes for something very different in terms of the challenge.”

The Ocean Race Europe provided a powerful billboard for commercial partners working with IMOCA teams and visits some of the biggest economies in Europe, among them Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Italy. And beyond the commercial opportunity, he was also impressed by the engagement of fans, who came to the stopover ports in their thousands, and who clearly knew a lot about the race and the sailors involved.

“You have the business and the markets you want to work with but also, when you can feel that the fans are happy that you are coming, that makes for something very special for the event,” he said.

Each team in the race sailed with four on board plus an On-Board Reporter or OBR, and there was a strong international flavor to the crews taking part, with five of the seven teams led by skippers from outside France. Each team also featured female sailors with Team Malizia, for example, sailing every leg with two female sailors and a female OBR.

“IMOCA is a mixed Class, sailing is a mixed sport and it was a strength having mixed teams because the feeling is that men and women are very complimentary when it comes to achieving performance,” said Mermod.

“And in terms of the international element, this was a race organized mostly outside France and that means it was well-suited to international teams. But we can see, more and more, that we have an international fleet and international skippers within the IMOCA circuit and that is very positive.”

The hope is that more IMOCA teams will have watched The Ocean Race Europe unfold and consider an entry in The Ocean Race Atlantic in 2027 and The Ocean Race in 2027. Mermod is hoping a fleet of 8 to 12 IMOCAs will be on the startline for The Ocean Race in January 2027.

“Single-handed in the Vendée Globe is the goal of most of the teams in IMOCA, but doing it with stops and with crew and a team is something great as well,” he said. “The more people and the more teams involved in such a race the better – it’s a chance to live one of the best adventures in sailing!”

Source: Scuttlebutt, IMOCA (Ed Gorman)