The Volvo Ocean Race is a race around the world, held every three years; the route is changed on each occasion to accommodate various ports of call. The race leaves from Europe in the Autumn, and in recent years has had either 9 or 10 legs, with in-port races at many of the stop over cities.The last route covered nearly 39,000 nautical miles and took over nine months to complete. You can learn more about the race history and get right up to date with this HD video: 



The worst weather conditions are usually encountered in the Southern Ocean where waves sometimes top 100 feet (30 m) and winds can reach 60 knots (110 km/h):



The boats are Volvo Open 70s with a crew of eleven and are constantly evolving, using ultra high technology and advanced materials. The budget for boats in the 2008-9 race was as high as 40 million Euros!

           
          Click on the computer model to see details of the boats.

If you would like to sail with the PUMA Ocean Racing team, you had better get used to being soaking wet for days at a time. Life on a Volvo 70 is not dry - but the sailing must go on! Again, try watching in HD and full screen:




                                          Back To Top