With just a year until the start of The Ocean Race 2027, the world’s top fully-crewed offshore sailing competition confirms a record-breaking opening leg that will take crews halfway around the world.
On 17 January 2027, the world’s best sailors will depart from Alicante, Spain, embarking on an unprecedented first leg that will take them to the other side of the planet to Auckland, New Zealand. It will be the longest opening leg in The Ocean Race’s 53-year history.
The extraordinary 14,000 nautical mile passage will set the tone for what is widely regarded as the toughest test of a team in sport.
“As it has for more than 50 years, The Ocean Race represents the pinnacle of professional offshore sailing,” said Richard Brisius, race chairman of The Ocean Race. “The 2027 edition raises the bar once again with a route that will challenge even the most accomplished sailors in our sport. The opening leg to Auckland is a statement of intent: this is offshore racing at its most extreme and most thrilling.”
Boris Herrmann, skipper of Team Malizia added: “This is an amazing way to start The Ocean Race: with an epic leg that takes us halfway around the world from Alicante to Auckland. For sailors, this is what we love, spending time at sea, racing against top competition and taking on big challenges. This is where you learn about yourself and your teammates and forge bonds that last a lifetime.”
The 2027 race features a global itinerary with four iconic stopover ports already announced and the full race route to be confirmed in the coming months.
The Race Start, for the sixth consecutive edition, will be in Alicante — the home of The Ocean Race — on 17 January 2027. Race crews will have to be at the top of their game right away with a route taking teams south down the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Southern Ocean and into the Pacific.
This will also be the 12th time the race has stopped in Auckland, the ‘City of Sails’ — home of race legends like Sir Peter Blake, Grant Dalton, Mike ‘Moose’ Sanderson and Peter Burling among many others.
“I’m super excited The Ocean Race is returning to Auckland and we will have an opportunity to see the best offshore sailors and teams up close again,” said Mike Sanderson, who has raced in the event four times and is the last Kiwi to lead a team to victory as skipper of ABN AMRO in the 2004-05 edition. “Racing into New Zealand was always a highlight of the event for us as sailors as we knew we were coming to a place with a deep connection to the sport.”
From Auckland, the race will return to Itajaí, Brazil as one of the most passionate stopover cities rejoins the race route, bringing The Ocean Race back to South America’s vibrant sailing community.
Subsequent stopovers in the USA and Europe will be announced in due course, before the fleet returns to race deep into the Mediterranean and transit through the Suez Canal building up to a Grand Finale sprint down to AMAALA on the Red Sea, making for a groundbreaking race finish.
The Ocean Race 2027 will see all teams include at least one female sailor in their crew at all times, reinforcing the race’s stated commitment to mixed-gender competition at the highest level of the sport.
And advances in technology mean the on-board reporters on each boat will have a constant connection with race headquarters in Alicante and fans throughout the racing. The OnboardLive system, which made its beta-test debut during last year’s The Ocean Race Europe, will ensure fans see more action in real-time than ever before, including all of the behind-the-scenes stories.
With less than one year until the starting gun fires in Alicante, excitement is building and the action is ramping up for the round-the-world race. But first, this summer, there is The Ocean Race Atlantic from New York to Europe.
