MATTHEW SHEAHAN PREVIEWS THE OCEAN RACE, THE LATEST INCARNATION OF THE CREWED ROUND THE WORLD CONTEST
It’s been a long wait for the next fully crewed lap of the planet since the last one finished in 2018, but finally The Ocean Race will start from Alicante on 15 January. The total fleet is expected to comprise 11 boats in two classes, including the VO65 onedesigns from the previous two events and a fleet of five fully crewed IMOCA 60s.
Compared to the previous race around the world under former sponsors Volvo, there have been several key changes. The course now has fewer stopovers and some significantly longer ocean legs. But the most recent alteration is that not all the boats are going all the way round.
While the IMOCA 60s will complete a full lap of the planet, including seven legs to finish in Genoa, Italy, the VO65s will sail just the first and last two legs in what the organisers have called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup.
A new trophy will be awarded to the VO65 team which accumulates the best score across three legs of the race; Alicante, Spain, to Cape Verde; Aarhus, Denmark, to The Hague, the Netherlands; and The Hague to the overall finish in Genoa, Italy.
The VO65 and IMOCA 60 fleets will both compete in the in-port races scheduled in those cities, although points scored in the in-port racing will only come into play for the overall trophy in the event of a tie-break.
IMOCAS GO CREWED
The last two years have been particularly difficult for the organisers. Finding a title sponsor has proved elusive, while enticing existing IMOCA 60 teams to consider reconfiguring their boats for a fully crewed round the world race has been challenging. The biggest hurdle has been the global pandemic and the year long postponement that was required. This not only created a huge level of uncertainty for the organisation and teams alike, but the delay presented a potential clash between
The Ocean Race and the single-handed French classic, the Route du Rhum, in which 38 IMOCA 60s took part.
Even with the will to do so, competing in both races was always going to be difficult for teams given the short time frame between the Route du Rhum finish in Guadeloupe and the start of The Ocean Race just a few weeks later. Getting the boat back across the Atlantic and correctly configured for a full crew was seen by many as being ambitious at the least.
However, four of the five-boat fleet, including three of the newest IMOCA 60s – Paul Meilhat’s Biothe
