With less than one week to go before the start of The Ocean Race Europe, the countdown is well and truly on with members of our sailing team coming together in Concarneau, France. The next week will be spent making final preparations before all competing teams make their way to Lorient, ahead of the start next Saturday, May 29.
For the first time since the 2019 Transat Jacques Vabre, we'll be lining up against other IMOCA 60 teams, but this time in a fully crewed configuration, putting nearly two years of crewed training to the test. Charlie Enright, Justine Mettraux, Simon Fisher, Pascal Bidégorry, and Amory Ross make up the five-strong sailing crew.
The racing action kicks off Friday, May 28, with a short coastal sprint around Ile de Groix, before the fleet depart for Cascais, Portugal on Saturday at 13:30 CEST.
About The Ocean Race Europe
The inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe starts on May 29, 2021 from Lorient, France and finishes in Genova, Italy on June 19th, with stops in Cascais, Portugal, and Alicante, Spain along the way.
The Europe race is a new event, designed to showcase top-flight, fully-crewed, competitive ocean racing featuring the best international teams, with race coverage on Eurosport, as well as The Ocean Race digital platforms.
The Ocean Race Europe will engage with European citizens to enhance the ambitious green transition and showcase the power of Digital Transformation.
The Ocean Race Europe sees 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. Two coastal races in Cascais and Genoa offer bonus points to the top three finishers.
There will be winners and prizes in each class for The Ocean Race Europe.
Scoring
All the offshore legs will be scored equally using the high points scoring system where the winners in each class receive points equal to the number of entries, second place receive points equal to the number of entries minus one, and so on down the rankings.
The coastal races offer bonus points for the top three finishers in each class, with the winner awarded three points, second place earns two points and the third place finisher collecting a single point.
The final overall rankings will be determined based on the overall points totals for the teams, with the winner being the team with the highest points total. Ties are broken in favour of the team with the better result in the last Offshore Leg or Coastal race sailed.
Racing with Purpose
The work started by the award-winning sustainability programme of the 2017-18 Race continues as part of The Ocean Race Europe and beyond. The Racing with Purpose programme includes advocacy, science, learning and sustainable event excellence.
The inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe in 2021 leads off a ten-year calendar of racing activity that includes confirmed editions of the iconic, fully-crewed, around the world event - The Ocean Race - every four years, beginning in 2022-23.
Safety
The Ocean Race Europe will put the health of the sailors, teams and public as a top priority and respect all COVID19 regulations in each city visited.
The Ocean Race Europe Teams
VO65 class
AmberSail (LTU)
Austrian Ocean Race Project (AUT)
Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team (POR)
Sailing Poland (POL)
Viva Mexico (MEX)
Team Childhood 1 (SWE / NED)
AkzoNobel Ocean Racing (NED)
IMOCA class
11th Hour Racing Team (USA)
CORUM L'Epargne (FRA)
LinkedOut (FRA)
Offshore Team Germany (GER)
Bureau Vallée (FRA)