Issue date
After so many long months of preparation and planning, the action begins. Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race starts on Saturday 11 October (0100 Sunday NZDT) when the fleet of seven Volvo Ocean 65’s head out of Alicante to race over 6,847nm to Cape Town, South Africa.
Live coverage of the action from the start of Leg 1 will be streamed on the Volvo Ocean Race website here
The action for this edition of the Race began with last weekend's In-Port Race, which was won by Team Alvimedica, just five seconds ahead of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. It was a close-fought race, with the lead changing hands several times after a great start by China's Dongfeng Racing Team. Watch the replay of the In-Port Race here.
Kiwis in the Race
There is no Team New Zealand entry this time but there are five Kiwis aboard the fleet in this edition of the Race. They are:
Daryl Wislang in Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
Ryan Houston and Dave Swete in Team Alvimedica
Tony Rae and Rob Salthouse on Team Vestas Wind, skippered by Chris Nicholson (AUS). These three raced together in the last edition of the Race when Nicholson skippered Emirates Team New Zealand entry CAMPER, finishing second overall.
Join the Race
It’s time to race … from your armchair. The Virtual Volvo Ocean Race game is now live.
Test your sailing skills against the seven crews on Leg 1 and race from Alicante to Cape Town on your brand new Volvo Ocean 65.
Register for the game now and you will be ready to play when the Virtual Volvo Ocean Race starts this weekend.
Good luck to all you armchair sailors out there!
The Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15
The Race features nine Legs starting in Alicante (Spain) in October 2014 with Stopovers in Cape Town (South Africa), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Sanya (China), Auckland (New Zealand), Itajai (Brazil), Newport (USA), Lisbon (Portugal) and Lorient (France) with a brief pitstop in The Hague (Netherlands) before the finish in Gothenburg (Sweden) on 27 June 2015.
It requires the teams to cover 38,739 nautical miles - equivalent to 44,580 miles or 71,745 kms.
The Teams
Seven teams will contest the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15. They are:
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
Team Alvimedica
Team Brunel
Dongfeng Race Team
MAPFRE
Team SCA
Team Vestas Wind
Follow the Race
The organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 have made it easy to follow the build-up to the Start and then all the live action from the Race every minute of the day. There's live video streaming, a Race Tracker, blogs, daily updates on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in addition to global media coverage. Find all the links at www.volvooceanrace.com
