What is The Ocean Race?
Since 1973, The Ocean Race has provided the ultimate test of a team and a human adventure like no other. Over four decades it has kept an almost mythical hold over some of the greatest sailors and been the proving ground for the legends of our sport.
The Ocean Race is often described as the longest and toughest professional sporting event in the world, sailing’s toughest team challenge and one of the sport’s Big Three events, alongside the Olympic Games and America’s Cup.
To truly understand the race, though, it’s better to think of it in a way the athletes who take part will recognise immediately. Put simply, The Ocean Race is an obsession, and many of the world's best sailors have dedicated years, even decades of their lives trying to win it.
The Ocean Race features a communication platform able to reach hundreds of millions of people. The Mirpuri Foundation believes that if it is able to inspire other people, then these people will, in turn, inspire others.
If millions of people are conscious of the direction in which we should be going, and that we really need to change the course of the problems that affect our oceans, then the Mirpuri Foundation can have a huge impact by being the initiator of positive behavior with the power to reach a vast audience.
The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup
A new trophy was announced for the VO65 one design class in The Ocean Race 2022-23 and the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team was part of it. The new trophy was across three different legs of the race: Alicante, Spain to Cabo Verde; Aarhus, Denmark to The Hague, the Netherlands; and The Hague to Genova, Italy. VO65 teams participating for The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup will competed in the VO65 class in the In-port races scheduled in each city as well as the three stages of offshore racing from point to point.
The Ocean Race Europe
The inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe, started at the end of May 2021 from Lorient, France and finished in Genova, Italy in June, with stops in Cascais, Portugal, and Alicante, Spain along the way. The Europe race was a new event, designed to showcase top-flight, fully-crewed, competitive ocean racing featuring the best international teams.
The Ocean Race Europe engaged with European citizens to enhance the ambitious green transition and showcase the power of Digital Transformation.
The Ocean Race Europe saw crew members from all over the world racing in foiling IMOCA 60s and one-design VO65s racing from the North Atlantic coast of Europe into the Mediterranean Sea, with each offshore leg to be scored equally. There was also be two coastal races in Cascais and Genoa which award bonus points to the top three finishers.
The Mirpuri Foundation racing team, skippered by Yoann Richomme, was the winner of The Ocean Race Europe 2021.
Race History
Since 1973, The Ocean Race has provided the ultimate test of a team and is a human adventure like no other. Over four decades it has kept an almost mythical hold over some of the greatest sailors and been the proving ground that has made and broken the legends of our sport.
The Ocean Race is often described as the longest and toughest professional sporting event in the world, sailing’s toughest team challenge and one of the sport’s Big Three events, alongside the Olympic Games and America’s Cup.
For some of the world’s best sailors, the Ocean Race is an obsession, and they dedicate years, even decades of their lives trying to win it, because doing so ensures they will carve out a permanent legacy in the sport.
The race’s concept is simple: it’s an round-the-clock ocean marathon. Over 8 months, 45 000 nautical miles and 24 hours a day, the sport’s best sailors go up against each other crossing the world’s toughest waters, including the Southern Ocean. It is relentless and brutal: the importance of winning, the adventure of life on board, the transformative effect on the sailors – all of these combine to give the race a deep power and allure.
The race sits at the intersection of human adventure and world-class competition. Thanks to the work of the Onboard Reporters embedded in every team, fans are given a unique insight into just what it takes to win the race which takes place mostly away from the view of the public.
The Numbers
The Round the World Race in Numbers:
-Over 2.5 million people visited the Race Villages.
-23 female sailors in the race – the highest number ever.
-7 Ocean Summits all over the world focused on sustainability themes and the dangers of plastic.
-Over 2,050 speakers and participants at the Ocean Summits, among them governments, startups and large organizations.
-388,000 plastic bottles avoided in 12 stopovers.
-Over 114,000 children from 40 countries took part in the Education for Sustainability Program.
-30 scientific buoys collected data on ocean health and the climate.
-93% of the samples collected from the oceans registered the presence of microplastic particles.
