Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18

https://www.volvooceanrace.com

02.11.2015
Route 2017-18

The Volvo Ocean Race’s position
as a truly global, major sporting event has never been so apparent.

In the 2014-15 edition, our boats made 11 stops across five continents, with over 2.4 million visitors entering the Race Villages around the world.
There were the old favourites – Cape Town, Auckland, Lisbon – and some new experiences, such as Newport and The Hague.
Needless to say, the route was a great success, and that’s why we’ve already confirmed stopovers in the following cities for the 2017-18 edition:
Alicante, Spain –
Auckland, New Zealand – https://segel.de/reisefotos/neuseeland/aukland/index.html
Cape Town, South Africa- Reisefotos Südafrika
Newport, Rhode Island, USA – Reisefotos Neuengland
Cardiff, Wales Gothenburg, Sweden – Reisefotos u.a. Göteborg
Lisbon, Portugal – Reisefotos Spanien/Portugsal

Stay tuned for further updates and announcements – who knows, the Volvo Ocean Race might visit a town near you!

Zeitplan

Alicante Race Village opens – 11 October 2017
Alicante In-Port Race – 14 October 2017

Leg 1 Start – 22 October 2017
Lisbon In-Port Race – 28 October 2017

Leg 2 Start – 5 November 2017
Cape Town In-Port Race – 8 December 2017

Leg 3 Start – 10 December 2017

Melbourne Leg 4 Start – 2 January 2018
Hong Kong In-Port Race – 27 January 2018
Guangzhou In-Port Race – 4 February 2018

Leg 5 Start – 7 February 2018
Auckland In-Port Race – 10 March 2018

Leg 6 Start – 18 March 2018
Itajaí In-Port Race – 20 April 2018

Leg 7 Start – 22 April 2018
Newport In-Port Race – 19 May 2018

Leg 8 Start – 20 May 2018
Cardiff In-Port Race – 8 June 2018

Leg 9 Start – 10 June 2018
Gothenburg In-Port Race – 17 June 2018

Leg 10 Start – 21 June 2018
The Hague In-Port Race – 30 June 2018

October 21, 2016
The countdown is on
with one year to go before the start of the Volvo Ocean Race on October 22, 2017 The Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 will begin on Sunday, October 22 – in almost exactly one year’s time – when the starting gun is fired in Alicante and the teams set out to complete a total of 45,000 nautical miles of offshore racing, over a course that takes in 11 landmark cities in five continents over eight months (full story below)

David Ramos/Volvo Ocean Race Download Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race

ALICANTE, Spain – The Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 will begin on Sunday, October 22 – in almost exactly one year’s time – when the starting gun is fired in Alicante and the teams set out to complete a total of 45,000 nautical miles of offshore racing, over a course that takes in 11 landmark cities in five continents over eight months.
Organisers revealed the start dates for the first three legs of sailing’s longest and toughest adventure on Friday, rounding off a series of 10 major announcements on the future of the Race in the past two weeks.

The first official action of the 2017-18 edition will be the Alicante In-Port Race on Saturday, October 14 before the Volvo Ocean Race itself begins eight days later with Leg 1 – a 700-nautical mile sprint to Lisbon, Portugal. It will be the fourth-consecutive time that the event has started from its Home Port of Alicante.
After arriving in Lisbon, the boats will take part in the In-Port Race on Saturday, 28 October before the start of Leg 2 on Sunday, November 5.

That will see them battle it out over 7,000 nautical miles of the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Town, South Africa. The racing will take over three weeks to complete, and will mark the 11th occasion in 13 editions that the Volvo Ocean Race has visited the city.
The Cape Town In-Port Race will take place on Friday, December 8 and Leg 3 will begin two days later on Sunday, December 10.

The decision to tweak the format of race weekends at many of the stopovers by moving the In-Port Race from the Saturday to the Friday gives teams an extra 24 hours to prepare for the rigours of ocean racing to come.
“With just a year to go, the countdown to the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 has begun,” said Race CEO, Mark Turner.

“The sailors can look forward to an unforgettable send-off from Alicante, our Home Port, and the fact that they’ll be thrown into a high intensity sprint to Lisbon straight off will make Leg 1 especially exciting.
“Our Boatyard facility is based in Lisbon, and it will be very well known to teams who will use it as an Atlantic training base in the lead-up to the start.”

He continued: “Cape Town also has a special connection with the Race – our boats have been heading there since the very first edition, back in 1973 – so there will be a lot that is very familiar before the teams head towards the Southern Ocean, which is such an important focus for the Race.” The full route, including almost three times the amount of Southern Ocean sailing as in recent editions, was announced earlier this year.
The Race will announce the dates for the rest of the legs in the coming weeks.

In the last two weeks, the Volvo Ocean Race has made a series of key announcements around significant evolutions of the event, including a change in crew rules regarding women sailors, a new communicator that will allow the athletes to send social media updates from the oceans, the building of an eighth Volvo Ocean 65 to join the existing fleet, the introduction of bespoke new premium team bases to enhance the pit lane experience in the Race Villages and the use of M32 catamarans to increase the amount of guest sailing at each stopover. This week, news was about an intense period of pre-race qualification sailing that includes the Rolex Fastnet Race, Race Management announcing changes to the scoring system to encourage strategic risk-taking, all boats will be fitted with a hydropower generator as part of a €1 million re-fit, and an evolution of the Onboard Reporter concept to include potential rotation.

GOTHENBURG, Sweden – 3 February 2017
Legends Race to celebrate Volvo Ocean Race history in 2017-18

The Volvo Ocean Race will celebrate 45 years of history with a Legends Race on the final leg of the 2017-18 edition from Gothenburg to The Hague (full story below).
– The Volvo Ocean Race will celebrate 45 years of history with a Legends Race on the final leg of the 2017-18 edition from Gothenburg to The Hague.
Any yacht to have featured in the Whitbread Round the World Race or Volvo Ocean Race, dating back to 1973-74, will be welcome to join the 2018 Legends Race. The race will be run over the same course, and around the same time, as the closing leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18, which starts from Gothenburg on 21 June.

The announcement was made at the yacht racing seminar Meetingspot in Gothenburg and follows a hugely successful Legends Regatta that was held before the start of the 2011-12 race in Alicante and exhibitions at the both the Volvo Ocean Race Museum in Alicante and at the finish in Gothenburg in the last edition in 2014-15.
Among those participating at the seminar was Tracy Edwards MBE, who skippered the all-female Maiden team to two leg victories in their class in the 1989-90 race and is planning to reunite her crew and the boat for the 2018 race.
“Maiden was found in a sad state a few years ago in the Seychelles and since then I have been working very hard to get her back, restore her and get her back in her former glory again,” said Edwards.

“She will shortly be shipped back to the UK for a renovation program and our aim is the gather the original all-female crew from 1989-90 and compete in the new Legends Race 2018.”
The plan for the Legends Race is to include a Maxi class, a Volvo Ocean 60 class an Open class. Both Sweden and Holland have a proud history in the Volvo Ocean Race and a large number of fans who have followed the event through the years.
“The Legends Race will add a lot of excitement to the Stopover in Gothenburg because there are many fans in Sweden who are devoted to the history of the Volvo Ocean Race,” said Camilla Nyman, CEO of Gothenburg & Co, organisers of the stopover in Gothenburg. “We’ll be welcoming famous yachts and crews to the heart of Gothenburg and fans will get to see a lot of legendary yachts and familiar faces.”
Frank van der Peet, head of the team organising the finish of the race at The Hague, added: „Holland has a long and successful history with the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race so we are very enthusiastic about welcoming these magnificent and historic race boats to The Hague.”