Official opening of the race village in April 3, 2012

• Volvo Ocean Race
  • What is the Volvo Ocean Race
  • History
  • Boats - Volvo Open 70
  • Teams
  • Route
  • How to get
• Itajaí
  • Know Santa Catarina
  • Photo Gallery
  • 10 Things to do in Costa Verde & Mar
  • Projects to Itajaí
  • Weather
• Itajaí Stopover
  • Stopover
  • Expo Nautica Brazil
  • Committee
  • Race Village
• Press
  • Photo Gallery
  • Download photos and videos
  • News
• Schedule
• Sponsors
• Contact

What is the Volvo Ocean Race

Carried out every three years, the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) has become one of the most demanding collective sporting events. Courageous sailing enthusiasts use the most powerful and efficient state of the art nautical technology to cross the five continents of the globe, overcoming limits and challenging the forces of the waters. The interaction of man and nature and respect for it are the main driving force behind this arduous and exciting test.

VOR

The competition is a mixture of sporting competition and adventure to the extreme, and it brings together glamour on land with drama and resistance at sea. The competitors will pass through temperature variations from -5 to +40 degrees Celsius and they can only take one change of clothes. They will practically deliver their life into the hands of the skipper and the boat, besides going hungry and having little time to sleep. So, the VOR is certainly one of the main sailing competitions on the global circuit.

The 11th edition (2011-12) begins August 29 in Alicante (Spain) and will then pass on to Cape Town (South Africa), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Sanya (China),  Auckland (New Zealand), Itajaí (Brazil), Miami (USA), Lisbon (Portugal), Lorient (France), finalizing on July 8 in Galway (Ireland). The competition will take nine months, and the six teams of 11 crew members will sail more than 39,000 nautical miles.
Under the command of Knut Frostad (CEO) and Jack Lloyd (director of the boat race) is a team of 50 people at the VOR headquarters, undertaking its preparation. The team increases to approximately 100 people when the race commences, given that the volume of work during the test is greater. For realization of the event the team is also joined by: 250 volunteers, 100 operators, 120 people on the event pavilion staff, between 50 and 100 exhibitors, 150 ex-sailors and 80 sailors.

Starting in October 2011 and ending in summer 2012, the Volvo Ocean Race is sponsored by IWC Schaffhausen and Thrane & Thrane, with partners including the City of Abu Dhabi, BCG, DHL and Inmarsa, and suppliers Ericsson, Puma, Volvo It and Volvo Penta.

About Volvo

For decades Volvo has been working with the manufacture of automobiles and vehicles with great energy efficiency and less environmental impact. Therefore, the three central values of the company – Quality, Safety and Respect for the Environment – are part of the daily routine of the corporation and its employees.
Bring together the three pillars when working as a team, planning and a desire to face challenges – qualities also valued by Volvo – and you have the perfect combination with the objectives of Sailing. In this manner, the partnership with the largest circumnavigation competition is nothing new. The inspiring history of the performance of individuals and teams who, thanks to their passion, energy and persistence, scaled “the Mount Everest of Sailing” is reflected in the perfection of the day-to-day world we live in at Volvo.
It is with great satisfaction that Volvo is, for the fourth time, at the front of this exciting journey at high sea. We wish all competitors good luck. To the fans, welcome to exploring our worlds!
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Curiosities

A Volvo Ocean Race is a monotype boat race, i.e. there is only one model of boat participating (VO 70).

Besides having variations in the route in different editions, the race always begins in Europe.

Holland has the greatest record of three victories in the competition and the local athlete Conny van Rietschoten is the only navigator to win the race twice. Brazil has had only one boat in the Volvo Ocean Race, in 2005/2006. Commanded by Torben Grael, champion of the last edition, the Brasil 1 won a bronze medal.

The official website was introduced for the first time in the 1997 edition. At the time, the position of the boats was updated every 6 hours. Today, the numbers are almost in real time and the position is verified every 20 minutes.

Each boar has ten video cameras, which must render an obligatory 20 minutes of weekly recordings.

Before the race, the boats undergo rigorous testing as required by the organization. This is the so called inversion test. The objective is to verify if the VO 70 has the capacity to return to its original position in the case of an accident during any stage of the test.

Greater numbers of spectators in the 2008-9 edition:

• Alicante (Race Village): 937,000
• Cochin, India: 811,677
• Qingdao, China: 363,700
• Galway, Ireland: 420,000
• Stockholm, Sweden: 737,000
• Largest amount of spectators per day: 24,399

Visit the official race website