The Ocean Race

Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race) is a yacht race around the world. Held every four years the race takes the competing yachts through some of the worst sailing conditions there are.

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.

Whitbread 1973-1974

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, never to be seen again.

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg Winner
1	Portsmouth, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Great Britain II
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Sydney, Australia	Pen Duick VI
3	Sydney, Australia	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Great Britain II
4	Rio de Janeiro	Portsmouth, England	Great Britain II

Sayula II skippered by Ramon Carlin won the overall race in a time of 133 days 13 hours.

Whitbread 1977-1978

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

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg Winner
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Flyer
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Heath's Condor
3	Auckland, New Zealand	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Great Britain II
4	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Southampton, England	Great Britain II

Flyer skippered by Cornelius van Rietschoten won the race. All 15 boats finished the 26,780 nautical mile race.

Whitbread 1981-1982

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

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg Winner
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Flyer
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Flyer
3	Auckland, New Zealand	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Flyer
4	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Portsmouth, England	Flyer

Flyer, the winner of the 1977-78 race again skippered by Cornelius van Rietschoten won the race. Only 20 finished the race out of the 29 that started it.

Whitbread 1985-1986

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

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg Winner
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	L'Esprit d'Equipe
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Atlantic Privateer
3	Auckland, New Zealand	Punte del Este, Argentina	UBS Switzerland
4	Punta del Este, Argentina	Portsmouth, England	L'Espirit 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 1989-1990

Steinlager 2 skippered by Peter Blake won the race in a time of 128 days 9 hours.

Whitbread 1993-1994

New Zealand Endeavour skippered by Grant Dalton won the race in a time of 120 days 5 hours.

Whitbread 1997-1998

EF Language skippered by Paul Cayard won the race.

Volvo Ocean Race 2001-2002

For the 2001-2002 race the sponsorship of the race being taken over by 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.

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
4	Hobart, Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	Shoebridge
5	Auckland, New Zealand	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Assa Abloy
6	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Miami, USA	Assa Abloy
7	Miami, USA	Baltimore, USA
8	Baltimore, USA	La Rochelle, France
9	La Rochelle, France	Gothenburg, Sweden
10	Goteborg, Sweden	Kiel, Germany

Illbruck Challenge skippered by John Kostecki won the race with 61 points.

The next Volvo Ocean Race will start in Europe in the autumn of 2005.

External Links

Volvo Ocean Race - Official site
Volvo Ocean Race - National Geographic