It’s taken a long time to get the latest fully crewed around the world race off the ground, but finally The Ocean Race will start from Alicante on 15 January 2023 five years after the last race was run (then the Volvo Ocean Race). The total fleet is expected to comprise 11 boats in two classes, including the VO65 one-designs from the previous two events and a fleet of five fully crewed IMOCA 60s.

It has been a long, hard slog to get the event up and running again with the Covid 19 pandemic taking it’s toll, but there have been many other challenges too. A reflection of the difficulty in getting the race underway is the change from the initial promise of two fleets sailing around the world down to a single fleet of 5 IMOCA 60s taking on the full course whereas the VO65s will sail just the first and last two legs in what the organisers have called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup.

Despite this disappointing outcome, racing fans will be excited by the thought of seeing five fully-crewed IMOCA 60s racing around the world, particularly when they take on a mammoth Southern Ocean leg of 12,750 miles from Cape Town, South Africa, to Itajai, Brazil passing south of all three Great Capes.

The 5 fully crewed IMOCA 60s will make a full lap of the planet. Photo: Sailing Energy / The Ocean Race

How to follow The Ocean Race

The Ocean Race website will be providing key content for 2022-23 edition including latest news and analysis, videos and photos from the yachts (each IMOCA 60 has a dedicated reporter onboard) and a full racing section featuring the offshore race tracker, rankings and scoreboard.

Each leg start and finish will be covered live by Warner Bros. Discovery and shown on Eurosport platforms, including Eurosport.com. Outside of Europe, and depending on the territory, you may be able to access live coverage via YouTube.com/theoceanrace.

At 1200 UTC every day during the offshore legs, there will be a programme called The Race Report – a two-minute quick fix that tells the story of the previous 24 hours in the Race.

During the offshore legs, Niall Myant-Best will host The Ocean Race Show, a longer format programme that takes a deeper dive into the stories at sea. This too will be available on the race website YouTube and The Ocean Race Facebook channels.

You can also catch all the latest The Ocean Race content on our The Ocean Race homepage.

You can also find additional updates from the teams on their own websites and social channels. [LINK: teams landing page]

Fans watching the prize giving for the first The Ocean Race in port race in Alicante. Photo: Sailing Energy / The Ocean Race

The Ocean Race Streaming & Broadcast TV

Warner Bros. Discovery is The Ocean Race’s live broadcast and news distribution partner and fans will be able to watch live coverage from every leg of the Ocean Race 2022-23 with Eurosport and Discovery+, including:

– Eurosport TV channels
Live coverage of leg starts, the Grand Finale arrivals in Genova, as well as the In Port racing in Alicante and Genova

– Eurosport player and on Discovery+
Streaming live coverage of all leg starts and finishes as well as every in-port race

– Eurosport linear channels (free to air locally), Eurosport player and Discovery+
A highlight show summing up the action on each of the offshore legs (two shows for the five-week third leg from South Africa to Brazil)

– Eurosport.com
Regular feature-length shows about life on board The Ocean Race boats will be available throughout the six months of the race

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