The 2017–18 Volvo Ocean Race was the 13th edition of the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race. It started in Alicante, Spain, and concluded in The Hague, Netherlands. GAC Pindar provides logistic support for the race. At the stopovers, teams had premium bases for better fan interaction.
Volvo made a number of changes to this edition. Sailors were able to provide social media updates, new male/female ratios were introduced, Onboard Reporters rotated between teams, a new scoring system was used, the yachts were upgraded with Hydro generators for back-up power and all teams sailed the 2017 Fastnet Race.
During Leg 7 of the race, John Fisher, 47, a British citizen who lived in Adelaide, was swept overboard from Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag and lost at sea 1400 miles west of Cape Horn.
For the second edition running, the race was one-design, racing the Volvo Ocean 65. The VO65 was designed by Farr Yacht Design to be a cheaper and safer alternative to the ageing and expensive Volvo Open 70.
All Volvo 65's have undergone repairs and refits by The Boatyard. This ensured that all the yachts are the same. The estimated cost of the refit was 1 million euros per boat.
Despite an eighth boat being produced for this edition, only seven teams participated, as in the previous edition:
The full route for this edition was announced in June 2016, with the announcement of the addition of Melbourne in January 2017.
This edition of the race included "Leg 0", a set of 4 offshore races to help generate interest. They included the 2017 Round the Island Race, and the 2017 Fastnet Race.
Notes (134 sailing days for race winners and 10 In-port racing days):
As opposed to the previous edition, scoring was based on a high-points system, with the winner of every leg scoring one bonus point (7+1 bonus point for a win, 6 for second, 5 for third, etc.). The two Southern Ocean legs – from Cape Town to Melbourne, and Auckland to Itajaí, plus the North Atlantic leg near the end of the race, Newport to Cardiff – all scored double points. There was a bonus point for the first team to round Cape Horn in a nod to the historic significance of this turning point in the race. A further bonus point was awarded for the team with the best total elapsed time overall in the race. The In-Port Series didn't count in the overall points but remained the tiebreaker should teams be tied on points at the finish in The Hague.
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