Official Fact Sheet

The Volvo Ocean Race was originally known as The Whitbread Round the World Race and was conceived over a pint of beer more than 30 years ago.
The first race left England in September 1973 and it has run every four years since. The next Volvo Ocean Race will be the tenth edition of the event and for the first time will be held three years after the previous event.

Race route covers a total of 37,000nm (Equivalent of travelling from London to Melbourne, four times).
Longest Leg — Qingdao to Rio — 12,300nm.
Shortest Leg — Stockholm to St Petersburg — 400nm (Equivalent to 153,846 XC90’s end to end).
ABN AMRO ONE, the winning boat in the 2005-06 race covered an average distance of 30,000 miles in 2339 hours at an average speed of 12.83 knots. The boat’s elapsed time was 97 days 11 hours 15 minutes and 39 seconds.
Record speeds: The World Sailing Speed Record for distance covered by a monohull within 24 hrs is held by a Volvo Open 70, ABN AMRO TWO, which covered 562.96 nautical miles during Leg 2 between Cape Town and Melbourne in 2006 with an average speed of 23.46 knots.
Extreme temperatures vary between -12o and +50o Celsius.
Wind speeds of zero to 70 knots (No wind in the Doldrums to the equivalent of 70 mph or Force 12 hurricane in the Southern Ocean).
Up to 35 days at sea between stopovers (With only one change of clothes).
Seven in-port races (Worth half points towards the overall total).
Seven scoring gates (From rounding Fernando de Noronha off the coast of Brazil twice, to St Johns off Newfoundland).
Five oceans (From the Baltic Sea to the Southern Ocean).
Four continents (Africa, Asia, Europe & the Americas).

11 Stopovers
10 Countries - Ranging from Spain to India to Russia.
2.8 million visitors to all stopovers total, during 2005-06 race.
200 forty foot containers required to transport all of the equipment needed around the globe.
1,000: the number of people travelling with the race at any one time. Moving from port to port, ahead of the boats is an entourage of journalists, news crews, families, guests, sponsors, additional boats, spare parts, logistical and shore crews.

Seven boats racing.
Height of the mast: 31.5m or 103.3ft above water. Equivalent to 19.5 Volvo XC90’s piled horizontally on top of each other or 6.5 Volvo XC90’s end for end.
Overall boat length: 21.5m or 70.5ft. Equivalent to 4.5 Volvo XC90’s parked nose to tail. Placed upright, the boat would be 1m taller than the height of the Sistine Chapel or two double-decker buses.
Space: Two meters of space per person. Equivalent to living in a phone box made of carbon fiber.
Speed: The Volvo Open 70 can exceed speeds of 30 knots. Equivalent of over 55 km/h in a Volvo XC90.
Sails: Largest spinnaker on a Volvo Open 70 is 500 m². Equivalent to two tennis courts in area.
Number of sails per boat for the race — 24.
Cameras — total of seven on board: five fixed — able to look forwards, backwards and through 360 degrees, includes one looking below deck. Two handheld to be operated by the onboard Crew Member.
The keel and bulb weighs 6,400kg (min) - 7,400kg (max) - or just over the weight of three Volvo V70’s — the counterweight produced by the canting keel equates to 70 people sitting on the side of the boat.

11 crew (Each day, a crew member climbs the mast to check for damage — 9 stories up).
One Media Crew Member onboard to capture all of the action and drama.
Various sailing roles onboard, from skipper to navigator, from bowman to medic, from sail maker to engineer.
Food: Crews live off freeze-dried food re-hydrated with desalinated seawater. Crews have reported losing up to 25 pounds or 11kg on one leg alone.
Water: none for showering, 50 liters/day desalinated for cooking and drinking.
Vitamins: some crew members consume over 20 vitamin pills each day in order to maintain a sound level of health.
Calories: Sailors will need to take in a massive 5,000 calories a day. Double the daily average for a man.

A maximum points score of 140. By winning every leg, every in port race and reaching every scoring gate first!
The Fighting Finish Trophy — made by Waterford Crystal which represents the close racing that everyone hopes for and is made from a solid block of crystal, with over 100 hours of work in sculpting of the final shape, it weighs 7.5kg.