Thursday, 12 Sep 2013
Volvo Ocean Race Unveils Daunting Route For 2014-15 Edition
[Source:Volvo Ocean Race]
Alicante, Spain – The Volvo Ocean Race has unveiled the full route for the 12th edition of sailing's premier round-the-world race, to take place in 2014-15. The route will take in 10 cities in 10 countries – Spain, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, China, New Zealand, Brazil, United States, Portugal, France and Sweden – and will require the teams to cover almost 40,000 nautical miles over nearly nine months of racing.
The total course distance will be 39,379 nautical miles. The Race will start on October 4 2014, day of the first In-Port Race in Alicante, and finish almost nine months later with a final In-Port Race on June 27 2015 in Gothenburg, the Swedish home of Volvo.
The start of the race will see the brand new Volvo Ocean 65 racing boats sail from Alicante in Spain to Cape Town in South Africa over 6,487 nm. From there, the teams will sail to Abu Dhabi (6,125 nm) before heading to Sanya in China (4,670 nm).
As in the last race, the boats will sail from Sanya to Auckland, New Zealand (5,264 nm). From the City of Sails they will leave for Itajaí in Brazil (6,776 nm) before going north to Newport, Rhode Island in the United States (5,010 nm). The teams will then cross the Atlantic to Lisbon (2,800 nm) and stop in Lorient (647 nm) before the final run to the finish around the British Isles to Gothenburg (1,600 nm)."This route has never really been part of any ocean race any time before," said Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad. "And when you have that element there's a new strategy, there's a new route, there's new weather, there's new challenges for the sailors. That is exciting, not only for us but for the sailors because no-one can claim they've done this before."
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