Volvo Ocean Race - Change to Leg 3 and Asian stopovers announced

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 29 Jun 2016 Volvo Ocean Race organisers have announced a change to the route posted on the Official Noticeboard, and the effect is to have the fleet sail the almost the complete length of the Southern Ocean from Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn.

The fleet will now spend three times the amount of time in the Southern Ocean than enjoyed in the previous two editions of the race.

In an international media conference, CEO Mark Turner said they expected all seven existing boats to race in the 2017-18 event. They were in the final stages of discussion with one new team to build a new boat, with a new sponsor, which would bring the fleet to eight boats. 'There is a very positive sponsorship underway on that, at present,' he commented.

However he emphasised that there was little cost difference between taking one of the refitted boats and doing a new build.



Turner said that he expected the first team announcement in a few days, and by the European Autumn VOR management expected that there would be three or four teams announced. 'I don't expect to be leaving boats on the dock', a reference to the possibility that all available boats may not be taken up by teams.

'We are a long way ahead of where we were for the last race,' Turner said.

In terms of team budgets, Turner said that the costs had reduced significantly with the move to a one design, and in the upcoming edition of the race it would be quite possible to do the race with a budget that was in single millions (Euros) and be very competitive.

On Tuesday, the Notice of Race posted on the Official Noticeboard originally showed a traditional Southern Ocean leg from Cape Town to Auckland, followed by a leg from Auckland to Hong Kong and then Hong Kong to Itajai.

That has course has now been reconfigured to include the longest ever Volvo Ocean Race leg from Cape Town to Hong Kong, keeping Australia to port. The revised Notice of Race with changed course is reproduced below.

The length of the new Leg 3 is 11900nm, just short of the 12,300nm length of the proposed Hong Kong to Itajai leg, but one that will be exceptionally challenging, and still with the same issues of distance, extreme conditions and time on the water. The course change will reduce the overall round the world length by 1300nm.

The length and nature of Leg 3 will mean that it will carry bonus points relative to the other legs, particularly the short 700nm Leg 1 and the 520nm Leg 9.

However historically legs have taken longer to complete than expected meaning that stopover dates may have to be more flexible than previously for safety reasons and allowing the crews adequate time to recover, rather than frantically racing to make the next civic reception.

The more arduous length and routing of the seven or eight boat fleet may not facilitate the close finishes and little real damage (Team Vesatas Wind excepted) of the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean race.

Starting in Cape Town the fleet is again expected to be held up to the North of the Kerguelen Islands as a safety measure, and passing south of Cape Leeuwin off the SW coast of Australia, sailing across the Great Australian Bight. It is not clear whether the boats will pass through the Bass Strait or whether they will stay south of Tasmania, following the usual Southern Ocean route for Auckland. On the course graphic the fleet is shown as sailing through Bass Strait.

The fleet will then head up the Australian east coast with the course expected to take then to the east of the Solomon Islands, through the notorious Straits of Luzon which has given the fleet a serious pasting every time the fleet has passed through, before finishing the 11900nm leg in Hong Kong.

The fleet will transition to Guangzhou on the Chinese mainland, competing in the InPort Race, before returning to Hong Kong for the start of Leg 4 to Auckland, as they sail a near reciprocal course of the last half of Leg 3, as the fleet sails to Auckland.

The second half of the Southern Ocean portion of the race gets underway in Auckland, sailing the now usual leg around Cape Horn to finish in Itajai.

The revised course is currently:

Leg 1. Alicante, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal – approx 700 nm. Duration - 3 days
Leg 2. Lisbon, Portugal to Cape Town, South Africa leaving Fernando de Noronha Island to port – approx 7,000 nm. Duration - 22 days
Leg 3. Cape Town, South Africa to Hong Kong leaving Cape Leeuwin to port, Kerguelen Island to starboard – approx 11,900nm. Then transition to Guangzhou, China for the InPort Race. Duration - 37 - 40 days
Leg 4. Hong Kong to Auckland, New Zealand – approx 6,000 nm. Duration - 20 days
Leg 5. Auckland, New Zealand to Itajai, Brazil – approx 7,500 nm. Duration - 21 days
Leg 6. Itajai, Brazil to Newport, USA – approx 5,500 nm. Duration - 19 days
Leg 7. Newport, USA to Cardiff, UK – approx 3,300 nm. Duration - 8 days
Leg 8. Cardiff, the UK to Gothenburg, Sweden leaving possibly leaving Ireland to starboard, otherwise a more direct route, but is expected to pass north of Muckle Flugga is a small rocky island north of Unst in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, and further north, than Cape Horn extends into the Southern Ocean – approx 1,230 nm.
Leg 9. Gothenburg, Sweden to The Hague, Netherlands – approx 520 nm. Duration - 3 days

The Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 will consist of nine ocean Legs with an In-Port race scheduled in each Stopover. The total distance of the combined legs on the revised course has dropped from approximately 45,050 nm to 43750nm.