The Ocean Race

Two fleets of boats will meet in Alicante, the Spanish seat of the regatta, during the Christmas holidays in 2022, before the departure of the first stage of the round the world tour, which will take place in mid-January 2023.

The departure date of the first stage of The Ocean Race 2022-23 has already been confirmed, and the IMOCA and VO65 fleets will cross the start line of the first stage on Sunday, January 15, 2023 from Alicante.

There will be competitive activity throughout 2022, and teams will develop their campaigns along the way with the prologue race, as well as with The Ocean Race Legends and sustainability and youth programs before they congregate in Alicante at the end of the year.

Later, in January, with the start of the first stage, the fleets will immerse themselves in one of the greatest challenges of sailing and the toughest team event in the world of sport: more than 31,000 nautical miles around the planet.

“This marks a change for The Ocean Race as we adapt to the challenges of this new world with a more compact and exciting route than ever before,” said Johan Salén, Managing Director of The Ocean Race.

“We are pleased to have been able to work with our partners in Alicante, which has been the home of the regatta since 2009, to agree on a departure date for the first stage that takes advantage of the Christmas and New Year holidays and also provides maximum opportunities for all parties involved in the week prior to departure, ”added Salén.

The first stage of the regatta will see both fleets compete for almost a week until they reach Cape Verde. It will be the first time that The Ocean Race stops in this archipelago on the African Atlantic coast.

From there, the regatta will continue to Cape Town (South Africa), before beginning the longest and most challenging stage in the history of the regatta: almost 13,000 nautical miles across the South Ocean passing through the three great capes (Cape of Good Hope , Cabo Leeuwin and Cabo de Hornos) before ending in Itajaí (Brazil).

The regatta will then go to Newport (Rhode Island – United States); Aarhus (Denmark); The Hague (Netherlands) and will have its Grand Final in the Mediterranean in Genoa (Italy) in the summer of 2023.

The dates of the stopovers in the different stages of the fourteenth edition of the regatta will be confirmed before the end of the year.