Volvo Ocean Race – Facts and Figures
©Oskar Kihlborg Volvo Ocean Race
The Racetrack
- 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
- Extreme temperatures vary between -12o and +50o Celsius (Dodging icebergs, ocean debris and whales)
- Wind speeds of zero to 70 knots (No wind in the Doldrums to 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)
- 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
- Seven in-port races (Worth half points towards the overall total)
- Seven scoring gates (From rounding Fernando de Noronha off 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)
The Ports
- 11 Stopovers
- 10 Countries (Ranging from Spain to India to Russia)
- 2.8 million visitors to all stopovers total, during 2005-2006 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.
The Boat – Volvo Open 70
- Seven boats racing
- Height of the mast: 31.5m or 103.3ft (above water)
- Overall boat length: 21.5m or 70.5ft
- Placed upright, the boat would be 1m taller than the height of the Sistine Chapel or two double decker buses
- Space: Two metres of space per person (Equivalent to living in a phone box made of carbon fibre)
- Speed: The Volvo Open 70 can exceed speeds of 30 knots
- 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 media specialist)
- The bulb on the end of the keel weighs 5,600kg or just over three Volvo V70’s – the counterweight produced equates to 75 people sitting on the side of the boat.
The Crew
- 11 crew (Each day, a crew member climbs the mast to check for damage – 9 storeys up)
- One media specialist (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 litres/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 on a massive 5,000 calories a day. (Double the daily average for a man)
One Prize
- A maximum points score of 119 (By winning every leg, every in port race and reaching every scoring gate first!)
- The Fighting Finish Trophy – made by Waterford Crystal (representing the close racing that everyone hopes for and fashioned from a solid block of crystal, with over 100 hours of work in sculpting of the final shape, it weighs 7.5kg)
