11th Hour Racing named Impact Partner of The Ocean Race Atlantic 2026
by The Ocean Race 21 Dec 03:23 PST
Team Francesca © Yann Riou / polaRYSE
11th Hour Racing has been named the official Impact Partner of The Ocean Race Atlantic in 2026. This partnership builds on The Ocean Race and 11th Hour Racing's longstanding relationship to collaborate on initiatives that advance ocean science and literacy, sustainable event excellence, and equity and inclusion in offshore sailing.
11th Hour Racing has been a founding partner of The Ocean Race's award-winning sustainability program - Racing for the Ocean - and has worked with The Ocean Race for more than 10 years to promote advances in ocean health. This exciting new collaboration will leverage the high-profile platform of The Ocean Race Atlantic, which is set to kick off in September 2026. As part of this ongoing partnership, 11th Hour Racing will support initiatives like the new gender-balanced crew requirement, reflecting its commitment to equity and inclusivity in sailing.
For the first time in The Ocean Race, teams will be required to be gender balanced. While female sailors have competed throughout the 52-year history of the Race, including with all-female crews, The Ocean Race Atlantic marks the first time the race crews will be required to be equal - two women and two men - an initiative designed to promote and foster gender equity in offshore sailing.
"As we join forces again for The Ocean Race Atlantic, we're committed to setting a new benchmark for equity and access in offshore racing for women to compete with parity at the highest level of the sport," said Jeremy Pochman, Co-Founder and CEO of 11th Hour Racing.
The Impact partnership will also continue to further the multi-faceted work and success the two organizations have achieved in significantly contributing to ocean science, education, inclusion, and sustainable event practices.
"Our decade-long relationship with The Ocean Race has resulted in real, measurable impact," Pochman continued. "Together, we've pushed advances in onboard science equipment, expanded open-access ocean data, built an ocean literacy program that now reaches learners in 13 languages (with more on the way), and developed a sustainable event-operations blueprint that can serve as a model for major sporting events. These are clear examples of what collaboration can achieve. We are now seeking to emulate this success with gender equity in the sport."
"We have long championed creating opportunities for female sailors in The Ocean Race and over recent editions have had a number of rules and incentives to ensure a minimum number of women on board. But this is the first time we will have gender-balanced race crews on each and every boat, which we believe is a real step forward in terms of equal opportunity," said Richard Brisius, Race Chairman of The Ocean Race.
"We are very happy to have 11th Hour Racing join us again to share this opportunity to promote equity in our sport and to empower and enable our ongoing ocean science and literacy programmes as we are Racing for the Ocean during The Ocean Race Atlantic."
Kicking off in September 2026 from New York City, The Ocean Race Atlantic is a new transatlantic sailing race for the foiling, flying IMOCA class boats in their fully-crewed configuration. The event footprint in the start and finish venues will demonstrate sustainable event practices to ensure a positive impact and legacy on the local community.
"Working with 11th Hour Racing enables The Ocean Race to continue on our shared journey as leaders in pushing offshore racing towards a more equitable and sustainable future, on and off the water and most importantly continue to connect communities with the blue heart of our planet - the ocean," concluded Lucy Hunt, Ocean Impact Director of The Ocean Race.