#The ocean race

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It’s called the “longest-swim problem”: If you had to drop someone at the place in the ocean farthest from any speck of land—the remotest spot on Earth—where would that place be? The answer, proposed only a few decades ago, is a location in the South Pacific with the coordinates 48°52.5291ʹS 123°23.5116ʹW: the “oceanic point of inaccessibility,” to use the formal name. It doesn’t get many visitors. But one morning last year, I met several people who had just come from there.

They had been sailing a 60-foot foiling boat, the Mālama, in the Ocean Race, a round-the-world yachting competition, and had passed near that very spot, halfway between New Zealand and South America. Now, two months later, they had paused briefly in Newport, Rhode Island, before tackling the final stretch across the Atlantic. (And the Mālama would win the race.) I spoke with some members of the five-person crew before going out with them for a sail on Narragansett Bay. When I asked about their experience at the oceanic pole of inaccessibility, they all brought up the weather.

With a test pilot’s understatement, the crew described the conditions as “significant” or “strong” or “noteworthy” (or, once, “incredibly noteworthy”). The Southern Ocean, which girds the planet in the latitudes above Antarctica and below the other continents, has the worst weather in the world because its waters circulate without any landmass to slow them down. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the most powerful on Earth, a conveyor belt that never stops and that in recent years has been moving faster. These are the waters that tossed Roald Amundsen and Ernest Shackleton. The winds are cold and brutal. Waves reach 60 or 70 feet. In a second, a racing boat’s speed can drop from 30 knots to five, then jump back to 30. You may have to ride out these conditions, slammed and jammed, for five days, 10 days, trimming sails from inside a tiny sealed cockpit, unable to stand up fully all that time. To sleep, you strap yourself into a harness. You may wake up bruised.

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Even Yachting World gets it wrong sometimes…

Only Pete competed for Team Brunel in the Ocean Race, while Blair was on Team Mapfre.

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Serious Ocean Racers doing Serious Ocean Racing 😜

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On board Mirpuri Foundation. The Ocean Race.

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Ulysse Nardin unveils a new Limited-Edition Chronograph to celebrate the legendary Ocean Race and its environmental commitments.

May 19, 2023 (Newport, RI, United States) – After four months of racing at sea – starting in Alicante (Spain) in January and stopping off at Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), Cape Town (South Africa) and Itajaí (Brazil) – The Ocean Race crews docked in Newport, RI (USA). To celebrate this mileston, the brand launches the Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver Chronograph Continue reading Untitled

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The Ocean Race and IOC/UNESCO: contributing towards the science we need for the ocean we want || The Ocean Race

In the lead up to the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference, The Ocean Race - the round-the-world race often described as the toughest test of a team in sport and now an ongoing platform for making a meaningful difference to ocean health - today shared the impact of the data collected by teams and sailors through the race’s science on board programme. This vital data is shared with scientists striving to understand the complexities of the ocean and improving climate and ocean science and helping to inform policy and meteorological reports.

The Ocean Race team brought the spirit of ocean racing to over 100 participants in a satellite event co-organised with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO), the only UN body responsible for supporting global ocean science and services. The event gathered representatives from the world of science, research, sailing and policy at the Barcelona Maritime Museum and included panels entitled: 'Offshore Racing and Science' and 'Understanding our Ocean'.

Full Article Here…

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La asociación de hoteleros APHA y The Ocean Race aúnan esfuerzos por el turismo en Alicante

La Asociación Provincial de Hoteles de Alicante APHA y The Ocean Race han firmado un acuerdo de colaboración por el que se comprometen a trabajar conjuntamente para fomentar el turismo en la ciudad de Alicante y emprender acciones de promoción conjuntas. Este nuevo vínculo entre la asociación turística y la vuelta al mundo abre la puerta a interesantes sinergias para ambas organizaciones y…

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Governador acompanha encerramento da The Ocean Race em Itajaí

A partida dos veleiros, que competem pela The Ocean Race, da cidade de Itajaí rumo a Newport (EUA) neste domingo, 23, foi acompanhada pelo governador Jorginho Mello. Também estavam presentes o secretário de Estado do Turismo, Evandro Neiva, a secretária adjunta, Catiane Seif, e o presidente da The Ocean Race, Richard Brisius. Durante 26 dias, Itajaí foi a casa da maior regata transoceânica do…

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The sea attempts to claim its own.

Fiáin inniú / wild today

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Interview with Liz Wardley, 2 December 2023

This was really such an incredible experience, I'm mutuals with offshore sailor Liz Wardley on LinkedIn and we'd talked in DMs a few times and met IRL at the Ocean Race Newport stopover in 2018 and accidentally when Maiden was at Mystic Seaport last year. I worked up the courage to ask her if she'd be interested in being interviewed for this blog while I'm home on sabbatical this winter and she said yes! We had some trouble working out the time difference because Liz is currently in the Canary Islands getting ready to leave for the World's Toughest Row, a 3000-mile transatlantic rowing race to Antigua, on 12 December. But she took almost an hour to chat with me about childhood jungle adventures, the lucky moment that got her into the Ocean Race, pesto, rubber duckies, and what she has over Jimmy Spithill.

Timestamps:

0:54: Early Days

5:10: The Sydney-Hobart Race

15:32: The Volvo Ocean Race 2001, Amer Sports Two

20:07: Offshore sailing in France

26:03: VOR 2014, Team SCA

29:40: VOR 2017, Turn the Tide on Plastic

32:25: Liz in lockdown

34:44: The Maiden Project

36:30: The Ocean Race 2023, WindWhisper

41:37: The World's Toughest Row

47:06: (Not) Getting Philosophical

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Awwwwwwweeeee.

Live Ovean and Pete and Blair’s teamwork over the years.

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That foredeck life

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The Ocean Race: 11th Hour Racing Team wins the legendary round-the-world race!