Volvo Race starts this weekend
Gruelling ocean race to kick off with six identical boats and 37,000nm to travelThe Volvo Ocean Race kicks off this weekend and while there isn’t an official Australian entry, there is a spattering of very experienced Aussie sailors aboard the six competing boats.
Not the least of these great sailors from Down Under is skipper of Team Vestas Chris Nicholson who has competed in four previous Volvo Ocean Races, plus two Olympic Games, and has won six World Championships in the 49er and 505 classes.
Certainly Chris and his team will be one to watch after the gun goes off in Alicante, Spain on Saturday night (AEST). Another one to watch will be the all-female team aboard Team SCA led by the super-experienced Sam Davies. Sam is a renowned single-handed sailor who came fourth in the Vendee Globe race in 2008.
This year the boats are all one-design 66-footers called Volvo Ocean 65s. They are all built to the Volvo Ocean 65 Class Rules and therefore the race should come down to tactics and crew skill not just who has the most modern boat.
The race course will take the adventurous sailors to 11 ports and they’ll cover over 37,000 nautical miles.
The first leg of the race will take the boats to Cape Town, then leg two goes to Abu Dhabi and then leg three is on to Sanya in China.
Unfortunately, the race will not be stopping in Australia but will by-pass us for a stopover in Auckland with the boats estimated to be there around February 27. The in-port race will be held there on March 14 with the boats scheduled to leave on leg 5 on March 15. It’s then that they will embark on the longest leg of the race which will take them into the Southern Ocean, around Cape Horn and up the coast to Itajai, Brazil – a total distance of some 6776 nautical miles in some of the most treacherous ocean sailing conditions in the world.
The yachts will then race to Newport, RI, then to Lisbon, Lorient then on to the finish in Gothenburg, Sweden.
We will be bringing you periodic updates as the race unwinds but to get the latest you can go to www.volvooceanrace.com
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