Volvo Ocean Race Totally Explained

Everything about Volvo Ocean Race totally explained

Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race) is a yacht race around the world, held every four years - until upcoming edition which will start after just 3-year break. It's named after its sponsor, Volvo. Though the route is changed to accommodate various ports of call, the race typically departs Europe in September. The general route runs south through the Atlantic Ocean, around the tip of Africa, and then around the Southern Ocean. The worst weather conditions are usually encountered in this leg, where waves sometimes top 100 feet (30 m) and winds can reach 60 knots (110 km/h). Competitors eventually round Cape Horn and turn back into the Atlantic for the trip back to England. The route generally covers in excess of 28,000 statute miles (45,000 km) over open ocean.
In 1972 England's Whitbread company and the British Royal Naval Sailing Association agreed to sponsor a globe-circling regatta, which would be called the "Whitbread Round the World Race". The race has been greatly modified in the ensuing thirty odd years, but remains true to its original goal: A test of will, courage and skill against the best (or more accurately, worst) nature has to offer. Along with the Vendée Globe, VELUX 5 Oceans Race and Global Challenge, the Whitbread (now Volvo Ocean Race) is the ultimate sailing adventure.

Volvo Ocean Race/ Whitbread Round the World Race

Edition	Winner	Starters	Start	Finish	No. of legs
2008- 09	TBD	7 confirmed	Alicante, Spain	St.Petersburg, Russia
2005- 06	ABN AMRO One	7	Vigo, Spain	Gothenburg, Sweden	9
2001- 02	Illbruck Challenge	8	Southampton, England	Kiel, Germany	10
1997- 98	EF Language	10	Southampton, England	Southampton, England	9
1993- 94	NZ Endeavour	14	Southampton, England	Southampton, England	6
1989- 90	Steinlager 2		Southampton, England	Southampton, England	6
1985- 86	L'Esprit d'Equipe	15	Southampton, England	Portsmouth, England	4
1981- 82	Flyer	29	Southampton, England	Portsmouth, England	4
1977- 78	Flyer	15	Southampton, England	Southampton, England	4
1973- 74	Sayula II	17	Portsmouth, England	Portsmouth, England	4

Whitbread 1973 to 1974

The first race started off from Portsmouth, England on September 8, 1973. Seventeen yachts of various sizes and shapes took part. During the race three sailors were swept over board and died: Paul Waterhouse, Dominique Guillet and Bernie Hosking. Waterhouse and Guillet were never to be seen again.

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner	Skipper
1	Portsmouth, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Great Britain II	Chay Blyth
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Sydney, Australia	Pen Duick VI	Éric Tabarly
3	Sydney, Australia	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Great Britain II	Chay Blyth
4	Rio de Janeiro	Portsmouth, England	Great Britain II	Chay Blyth

The smaller Mexican yacht Sayula II, skippered by Ramon Carlin, won the overall race in a handicapped time of 133 days 13 hours; actual time was 152 days(External Link

). Taking handicapping into account, the Sayula would have won the second leg.

Whitbread 1977 to 1978

On August 27, 1977, 15 boats started out from Southampton under gale force winds and driving rain.

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner elapsed time	Leg winner corrected time
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Flyer	Flyer
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Heath's Condor	33 Export
3	Auckland, New Zealand	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Great Britain II	Gauloise II
4	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Southampton, England	Heath's Condor	Gauloise II

Flyer a Sparkman & Stephens designed yacht skippered by Cornelius van Rietschoten won the race. All 15 boats finished the 26,780 nautical mile (50,000 km) race.

Whitbread 1981 to 1982

On August 8, 1981, 29 boats started out from Southampton.

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner elapsed time	Leg winner corrected time
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Flyer	Kriter IX
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Flyer	Ceramco NZ
3	Auckland, New Zealand	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Flyer	Mor Bihan
4	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Portsmouth, England	Flyer	Ceramco NZ

Flyer, a German Frers designed maxi skippered by Cornelius van Rietschoten (a.k.a Conny van Rietschoten), winner of the 1977 to 1978 race, won the race. Unusually, Flyer won both on line honours AND on handicap. Only 20 finished the race out of the 29 that started it.

Whitbread 1985 to 1986

On September 28, 1985, 15 boats started out from Southampton.

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner elapsed time	Leg winner corrected time
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	UBS Switzerland	L'Esprit d'Equipe
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Atlantic Privateer	Philips Innovator
3	Auckland, New Zealand	Punte del Este, Uruguay	UBS Switzerland	L'Esprit d'Equipe
4	Punta del Este, Uruguay	Portsmouth, England	UBS Switzerland	L'Esprit d'Equipe

L'Esprit d'Equipe skippered by Lionel Péan won the race in a corrected time of 111 days 23 hours. Phillips Innovator was second, and Fazer Finland third. (UBS Switzerland was named first on elapsed time, with Lion New Zealand as runner-up. Drum (carrying owner/pop star Simon Le Bon) finished just a breath behind.)

Whitbread 1989 to 1990

1989 to 1990 Overall final standings

Pos	Boat	Nat	Skipper	LOA/Des	Aggregate
1	Steinlager 2	New Zealand	Peter Blake (NZ)	84' Ketch	128 d 9 h
2	Fisher & Paykel NZ	New Zealand	Grant Dalton (NZ)	82' Ketch	129 d 21 h
3	Merit	Switzerland	Pierre Fehlmann (F)	80' Sloop	130 d 10 h
4	Rothmans	UK	Lawrie Smith (GB)	80' Sloop	131 d 4 h
5	The Card	Sweden	Roger Nilson/Ann Lippens (S)	80' Ketch	135 d 7 h
18	Maiden	UK	Tracy Edwards (GB)	58' Sloop	167 d 3 h
21	La Poste	France	Daniel Mallé (F)	51' Sloop	181 d 22 h

The race was run with several classes (for size of boat). This race featured the first all-woman crew on Tracy Edwards' Maiden. Although in a much smaller boat than many of their male counterparts the ladies fared well—claiming two leg victories in class. The tradition of the Whitbread including an all-female crew remains to this day.
The boat Creighton's Naturally suffered a serious broach on leg 2, at about 3 in the morning. Crew members Anthony (Tony) Philips and Bart van den Dwey were swept over board. They were both pulled back on deck. Van den Dwey successfully resuscitated, but, after three hours of trying, crewmembers were unable to revive Philips. A few days later, by radio agreement with relatives ashore, Philips was buried at sea(External Link

). 1989 to 1990 Leg winners

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner	Skipper
1	Southampton, England	Punta del Este, Uruguay	Steinlager 2	Peter Blake (NZ)
2	Punta del Este, Uruguay	Fremantle, Australia	Steinlager 2	Peter Blake (NZ)
3	Fremantle, Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	Steinlager 2	Peter Blake (NZ)
4	Auckland, New Zealand	Punta del Este, Uruguay	Steinlager 2	Peter Blake (NZ)
5	Punta del Este, Uruguay	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Steinlager 2	Peter Blake (NZ)
6	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Southampton, England	Steinlager 2	Peter Blake (NZ)

Steinlager 2 skippered by Peter Blake won the race easily. For the first time since 1981 to 1982 (when the race comprised just four legs), the victor won every leg (albeit closely chased by both Grant Dalton's Fisher & Paykel NZ and Pierre Fehlmann's Merit entries). The vast difference in speed and capability of the many different boats involved in the 1989 to 1990 race lead to the creation of a committee to examine the commission of a Whitbread class boat for use in future races. Many of the Maxi yachts in this years race were nearly twice the size (LOA) of the smallest, and carried well over twice the sail area. The net result of this was that many of the smaller boats finished the longer legs more than ten days after the leg winner. In the overall results, the last finisher was some 52 days behind Blake's Steinlager 2 128 day aggregate time. In addition, the expense of the big yachts was getting to be too much—even for the well funded teams like Steinlager, Rothmans and Merit. Eventually, the new class would be called the W60—but its gestation wouldn't be quick or lack controversy.

Whitbread 1993 to 1994

The 1993 to 1994 Whitbread was run to "mixed class" rules (as with prior races). New for the 93/4 race was a purpose built Whitbread boat—the W60. As with previous years a handicap was applied to different boats based on their race rating. The competitors were none too keen or running both Maxis and W60's together. The two competing classes battled throughout with protest flags always at the ready. Many entrants wanted the old maxis banned for this year, however owing to concerns over whether enough new boats would be ready (not to mention the large investments the Maxi owners had made in previous years), several Maxis were allowed to compete in the 1993 to 1994 race. The W60 skippers almost unanimously insisted they were in a 'completely different boat race', to the fury of Grant Dalton skippering a maxi. Dalton conceded afterwards however that the race should only have one class in future, to avoid similar squabbles. 1993 to 1994 Final Standings

Pos	Boat	Nat	Skipper	Class	Aggregate
1	NZ Endeavour	New Zealand	Grant Dalton (NZ)	Maxi	120 d 5 h
2	Yamaha	Japan/NZL	Ross Field (NZ)	W60	120 d 14 h
3	Merit Cup	GBR	Pierre Fehlmann (F)	Maxi	121 d 2 h
4	Intrum Justitia	Europe	Roger Nilson (S) / Lawrie Smith (GB)	W60	121 d 5 h
5	Galicia 93 Pescanova	Spain	Javier de la Gandara (Esp)	W60	122 d 6 h
6	Winston	USA	Dennis Conner (USA) /Brad Butterworth (NZ)	W60	122 d 9 h
7	La Poste	France	Éric Tabarly (F)	Maxi	123 d 22 h
8	Tokio	Japan	Chris Dickson (NZ)	W60	128 d 16 h
9	Brooksfield	Italy	Guido Maisto (I)	W60	130 d 4 h
10	Hetman Sahaidachny	Ukr	Eugene Platon (Ukr)	W60	135 d 23 h
11	Reebok/Dolphin Youth	GBR	Mathew Humphries (GB)	W60	137 d 21 h
12	Heineken	USA	Dawn Riley (USA)	W60	138 d 16 h
13	Odessa	Ukr	Anatoly Verba (Ukr)	W60	158 d 4 h
NF	Fortuna	Esp	Lawrie Smith (GB)	Maxi	WD

Intrum Justitia was originally skippered by Roger Nilson, who was injured on the first leg.

Corrected time takes the boat's handicap into account

Leg Results:

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner	Skipper
1	Southampton, England	Punta del Este, Argentina	NZ Endeavour	Grant Dalton (NZ)
2	Punta del Este, Uruguay	Fremantle, Australia	Intrum Justitia	Lawrie Smith (GB)
3	Fremantle, Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	NZ Endeavour	Grant Dalton (NZ)
4	Auckland, New Zealand	Punta del Este, Uruguay	NZ Endeavour	Grant Dalton (NZ)
5	Punta del Este, Uruguay	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Yamaha	Ross Field (NZ)
6	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Southampton, England	Tokio	Chris Dickson (NZ)

Whitbread 1997 to 1998

Race run for the first time with all W60 boats and to a "points vs time" (instead of aggregate leg time) scoring system to enhance the value of the shorter race legs. Also, in an effort to attract additional media coverage, the Whitbread race committee divided the race into no less than 9 legs for the 1997 to 1998 race. Volvo had its first major association with the race in 1997 to 1998 by sponsoring the trophy (thus the race was officially known as the Whitbread 'round the world race for the Volvo Trophy) and some of the media coverage. For the first time running to W60-only specification, this year's Whitbread attracted just 10 entries—the fewest to date.
Overall results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Points
1	EF Language	Paul Cayard (USA)	836
2	Merit Cup	Grant Dalton (NZ)	698
3	Swedish Match	Gunnar Krantz (S)	689
4	Innovation Kvaerner	Knut Frostad (N)	633
5	Silk Cut	Lawrie Smith (GBR)	630
6	Chessie Racing	George Collins / John Kostecki (USA)	613
7	Toshiba	Dennis Conner (USA) / Paul Standbridge (NZ)*	528
8	Brunel Sunergy	Hans Bouscholte / Roy Heiner (NL)	415
9	EF Education	Christine Guillou (F)	275
dnf	America's Challenge	Ross Field (NZ)	58

Toshiba was originally skippered by Chris Dickson. Dickson was fired after Leg 1. Hans Bouscholte was also replaced by Roy Heiner after leg 1. America's Challenge syndicate withdrew prior to the start of leg two for financial reasons. Leg winners:

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner	Skipper
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	EF Language	Paul Cayard (USA)
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Fremantle, Australia	Swedish Match	Gunnar Krantz
3	Fremantle, Australia	Sydney, Australia	EF Language	Paul Cayard (USA)
4	Sydney, Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	Merit Cup	Grant Dalton (NZ)
5	Auckland, New Zealand	Sao Sebastiao, Brazil	EF Language	Paul Cayard (USA)
6	Sao Sebastiao, Brazil	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Silk Cut	Lawrie Smith (GB)
7	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Baltimore, Maryland	Brunel Sunergy	Roy Heiner (NL)
8	Annapolis, Maryland	La Rochelle, France	Toshiba	Paul Standbridge (NZ)
9	La Rochelle, France	Southampton, England	Merit Cup	Grant Dalton (NZ)

Volvo Ocean Race 2001 to 2002

For the 2001 to 2002 race the sponsorship of the race was taken over by Volvo and Volvo Cars. The race was renamed the Volvo Ocean Race. Stopovers were added in Germany, France, and Sweden being the Volvo's three biggest car markets in Europe. In addition the points system had been modified significantly in an effort to keep the race competitive until the final leg. The previous "points" race having been effectively won two full legs before the final gun. 2001 to 2002 overall final standings:

Pos	Boat	Nat	Skipper	Points
1	Illbruck Challenge	Germany	John Kostecki (USA)	61
2	ASSA ABLOY	Sweden	Neal Mcdonald (GB)	55
3	Amer Sports One	USA	Grant Dalton (NZ)	44
4	Team Tyco	Bermuda	Kevin Shoebridge (NZ)	42
5	News Corp	Australia	Jez Fanstone (Aus)	41
6	Djuice Dragons	Norway	Knut Frostad (N)	33
7	Team SEB	Sweden	Gunnar Krantz (S)	32
8	Amer Sports Too	USA	Lisa McDonald (US)	16

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Illbruck
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Sydney, Australia	Illbruck
3	Sydney, Australia	Hobart, Australia	Assa Abloy
4	Hobart, Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	Assa Abloy
5	Auckland, New Zealand	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Illbruck
6	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Miami, USA	Assa Abloy
7	Miami, USA	Baltimore, USA	Team News Corp
8	Baltimore, USA	La Rochelle, France	Illbruck
9	La Rochelle, France	Gothenburg, Sweden	Assa Abloy
10	Goteborg, Sweden	Kiel, Germany	Djuice Dragons

John Kostecki, who had co-skippered with George Collins on Chessie Racing in the 1997 to 1998 Whitbread to great effect, captained his first Volvo Ocean race winner in 2002. Assa Abloy's new composite mold technique proved very quick, but not quite quick enough, while long time Whitbread skipper Grant Dalton's two boat syndicate suffered badly from a lack of preparation time (the Amer boats were last in the water).
For Leg 3, yachts joined the iconic Australian Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race that begins on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day).

Volvo Ocean Race 2005 to 2006

Changes in the 2005-2006 race included the first time the race has started outside the United Kingdom, and the use of a new class of boat, the Volvo Open 70. The new boats are about 1,000 kg lighter than the VO 60s used in the previous race, have more sail area and include canting keels.
The 2005-2006 race is the first to not begin in the United Kingdom. The course, 31,000 nautical miles (57,000 km) long, will take eight months to complete, divided into nine legs. The first place finisher of each leg will get 7 points, the second place will get 6 points, etc. At seven of the stops in ports around the world, the competition will include relatively short one-day races in the vicinity of the harbor. The first place finisher of the in-port races will get 3.5 points, the second place finisher will get 3 points, etc. The in-port races will account for twenty percent of the overall points. This modification of the usual format was intended to make the race more visible for spectators and sponsors. Some of the legs are short, and finish in cities that are called "pit stops" designed to break up the longer legs into more manageable sections (and, of course, provide more media exposure). There will be no in-port races at the pit stops. There will also be 6 "gates" which are milestones along the way where boats can score points. Like in the in-port races, the first boat to cross a gate will get 3.5 points, the second 3 points, and so on. Hans Horrevoets, 32, of The Netherlands was swept overboard from ABN AMRO TWO and died on Leg 7, New York to Portsmouth (18 May 2006).
After the aft end of their keel pivot broke away from their hull in the night of the 20th May 2006, the crew of Movistar abandoned ship, unable to stop the flow of water into the hull. They transferred into ABN Amro Two, which had lost crew member Hans Horrevoets a couple of nights before after he was swept overboard.

The course and schedule

Leg	Start	Finish	Nautical Miles
1	Vigo, Galicia, Spain on November 12, 2005	Cape Town, South Africa by December 2, 2005	6,400
2	Cape Town, South Africa on January 2, 2006	Melbourne, Australia by January 16, 2006	6,100
3	Melbourne, Australia on February 12, 2006	Wellington, New Zealand by February 16, 2006	1,450
4	Wellington, New Zealand on February 19, 2006	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by March 7, 2006	6,700
5	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on April 2, 2006	Baltimore/Annapolis, Maryland, USA by April 17, 2006	5,000
6	Baltimore/Annapolis, Maryland, USA on May 2, 2006	New York, NY, USA by May 8, 2006	400
7	New York, NY, USA on May 11, 2006	Portsmouth, UK by May 19, 2006	3,200
8	Portsmouth, UK on June 2, 2006	Rotterdam, Netherlands by June 7, 2006	1,500
9	Rotterdam, Netherlands on June 15, 2006	Gothenburg, Sweden by June 17, 2006	500

In-Port races	Date
Sanxenxo (Galicia)	5 November 2005
Cape Town (South Africa)	26 December 2005
Melbourne (Australia)	4 February 2006
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)	25 March 2006
Baltimore/Annapolis (USA)	29 April 2006
Portsmouth (UK)	29 May 2006
Rotterdam (Netherlands)	11 June 2006

Teams and crew

Boat	Sponsors	Designer	Builder	Skipper	Web Site	Points
ABN AMRO ONE	ABN AMRO	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Killian Bushe	Mike Sanderson	(External Link)	96.0
ABN AMRO TWO	ABN AMRO	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Killian Bushe	Sebastien Josse	(External Link)	58.5
Pirates of the Caribbean	Disney	Bruce Farr	Green Marine	Paul Cayard	(External Link)	73.0
movistar	movistar	Bruce Farr	Boatspeed	Bouwe Bekking	(External Link)	48.0
Brasil 1	Vivo, Brazil, Motorola, Qualcomm, NIVEA, etc.	Bruce Farr	ML Boatworks	Torben Grael	(External Link)	67.0
Ericsson Racing Team	Ericsson	Bruce Farr	Green Marine	Neal MacDonald	(External Link)	55.0
Brunel (formerly "ING Real Estate Brunel" and "Sunergy and Friends" and "Premier Challenge")	Sunergy (External Link), ING, Brunel	Don Jones	Hart Marine	Grant Wharington	(External Link)	15.5

The 2005/2006 race has tighter restrictions on the number of crewmembers allowed than previous runnings. In the rules, an all-male crew is restricted to ten, while a crew with at least 5 women could have eleven members, and an all-female crew, of which there are none in the race, could have twelve. The only woman who served as crew is Adrienne Cahalan of Brasil 1, who was replaced after the first leg. The skipper may nominate one additional person for the in-port races. Only one boat can be built per team (unless you sail both of them in the race, as ABN AMRO has done).

The boats

� See article: Volvo Open 70

There are several differences between the boats that have been built and are racing. The basic differences are whether they've 1 or two rudders, how wide the boats are (there are limits), whether they've 2 dagger boards or one canard with a trim tab (each appendage can only have one degree of movement, so it can not retract and have a trim tab), and whether or not they've a spinnaker pole.
   The ABN AMRO boats both have 2 rudders, both are pretty wide, have two dagger boards, and don't have spinnaker poles.
   The Farr designed boats (Brasil 1, Ericsson, movistar, and Pirates of the Caribbean) all have 1 rudder and two dagger boards, and are narrower than the other boats, but vary a little from Brasil 1 which is the narrowest to movistar, which is the widest Farr-designed boat. Pirates doesn't have a spinnaker pole.
   Brunel has 2 rudders, is pretty wide, and has a forward canard with a trim tab. However, Brunel didn't sail in leg 4 and 5, and the boat was modified to the configuration of the other boats: two retractable canards.

Volvo Ocean Race 2008 to 2009

The first offshore leg of Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 will start in Alicante, Spain, on October 11, 2008 (External Link

), with in-port race seven days earlier. Russian city of St.Petersburg will be finishing port in 10th edition of the race (External Link

). Seven boats are confirmed as entrants in 2008-2009 race: Ericsson Racing Team (2 boats), Alicante (2 boats), Puma Racing Team, Russian Challenge and Green Team, with more entries expected (External Link

). Russian Ocean Racing Club and Carbon Challenge have made provisional entries. This will be for the first time that the race will pass through Asia, with second in-port race of the 2008-2009 edition to be held in Singapore (External Link

). Volvo Ocean Race has moved forward with its plans to bring the 2008-09 event to India and it now looks likely that the major southwestern port of Kochi will be the stopover on the new race route through the Middle East and Asia(External Link

). Boston will be the only North American port of the race. The 2008-2009 race will be tracked using a Race Management System developed by UK company Cybit's maritime division (External Link

Further Information

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