Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 begins on 4 October 2008 with an in-port race in the Spanish port of Alicante, before the fleet heads off into the Atlantic on a 6,500 nautical mile leg to Cape Town.

The longest leg in the race is the daunting fifth leg from the Chinese port of Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro.  Not only is it 12,300 nautical miles in length, the leg includes both an equator crossing and the rounding of the notorious Cape Horn.

The race will finish in Russia’s second largest city, St Petersburg on 27 June 2009 following a short dash across the Baltic Sea from Stockholm.

Leg	Start Port	Starting	End Port	Ending
1	Alicante*, Spain	11 Oct. 2008	Cape Town, South Africa	3 Nov. 2008
2	Cape Town, South Africa	15 Nov. 2008	Kochi, India	3 Dec. 2008
3	Kochi, India	13 Dec. 2008	Singapore*	23 Dec. 2008
4	Singapore*	18 Jan. 2009	Qingdao*, China	30 Jan. 2009
5	Qingdao*, China	14 Feb. 2009	Rio de Janeiro*, Brazil	20 Mar. 2009
6	Rio de Janeiro*, Brazil	11 Apr. 2009	Boston*, MA., USA	27 Apr. 2009
7	Boston*, MA., USA	16 May 2009	Galway*, Ireland	23 May 2009
8	Galway*, Ireland	6 June 2009	Gothenburg, Sweden	10 June 2009
9	Gothenburg, Sweden	14 June 2009	Stockholm*, Sweden	16 June 2009
10	Stockholm*, Sweden	25 June 2009	St. Petersburg, Russia	27 June 2009

*indicates stopover port featuring in-port racing.   

Scoring:

The winner of the Volvo Ocean Race is the team with the most points after ten completed legs.

Teams are awarded points for each of the ten legs of the race according to their finishing ranking on each leg.  The individual legs are the major point-scoring opportunities in the race.

In addition, teams can boost their points tallies through minor point-scoring opportunities.  These opportunities occur at scoring gates and in-port races.

Scoring gates are midpoints occurring on each of the longest legs of the race.

In-Port races take place within seven of the race’s stopover ports, creating close-knit fleet racing and giving the public and invited guests an opportunity to marvel at these magnificent boats from close up.

History

Founded in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race, the complexion of the Volvo Ocean Race has changed hugely throughout its 35 year history.

Initially pitting mostly amateur crews against each other in an odd mix of boat types, the race previously used a complicated handicapping system to generate its winner.  This often had the effect that a boat which might complete a race days after the apparent winner, would be declared winner.

Since the 1997-98 race, the competitors have been bound to a single boat class, initially the Volvo 60 and now, for only the second time, the thrilling Volvo Open 70 class.  An additional innovation of recent editions has been the addition of both short legs and in-port racing.  As well as testing the all round skill of crews, these innovations together with points scoring have negated the negative effect of gear failure or bad luck on the race’s outcome.

Winning skippers of the Volvo Ocean Race include illustrious names such as Sir Peter Blake, Paul Cayard, Grant Dalton and John Kostecki.

Historically the race has taken place on a four year cycle.  Following the 2008-09 race, the Volvo Ocean Race is scheduled to take place every three years.

Chronicle of the Volvo Ocean Race

Edition	Winner	Starting Port	Finishing Port
2008-09	?	Alicante, Spain	St. Petersburg, Russia
2005-06	ABN AMRO One	Vigo, Spain	Gothenburg, Sweden
2001-02	Illbruck Challenge	Southampton, England	Kiel, Germany
1997-98	EF Language	Southampton, England	Southampton, England
1993-94	NZ Endeavour	Southampton, England	Southampton, England
1989-90	Steinlager 2	Southampton, England	Southampton, England
1985-86	L'Esprit d'Equipe	Southampton, England	Portsmouth, England
1981-82	Flyer	Southampton, England	Portsmouth, England
1977-78	Flyer	Southampton, England	Southampton, England
1973-74	Sayula II	Portsmouth, England	Portsmouth, England

For complete information about the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 please visit www.volvooceanrace.org.