ALICANTE – The 14th edition of The Ocean Race will soon leave this Spanish resort boasting two fleets and a new trophy. Five foiling IMOCA-60 and six VO65 racers are participating, racing in separate divisions.
The new Ocean Race V065 Sprint Cup is a trophy for the V065 team scoring best in three legs: Alicante to Cabo Verde; Aarhus, Denmark, to The Hague, Netherlands and from The Hague to Genoa, Italy.
“This new trophy will enable a new generation of sailors, along with some familiar faces, to gain some valuable experience in The Ocean Race,” says Ocean Race Director Phil Lawrence.
“We’re looking forward to racing in three incredible legs against top-level competition,” says Jelmer van Beek, 27, skipper of Team JAJO, the Dutch entry. “It promises to be an incredible battle.” The yacht has a crew of five, four men and a woman.
Jajo stands for Janssen de Jong Group, a Dutch construction company. With subsidiaries in the Caribbean and Poland, it is active in new construction, maintenance, restoration, renovation and redevelopment. CEO Ivo van der Mark calls The Ocean Race “a wonderful platform with and toward our relations fits perfectly with our own circular ambitions.”
Team Jajo’s VO65 has already gone around the globe twice in the Volvo Ocean Race as Team Brunel. Huisfit, the refit unit of Dutch superyacht builder Royal Huisman, has refitted the 20m racer for the upcoming round-the-world.
“This will be the third Ocean Race for this yacht,” says Team Jajo Director Gideon Messink. “To get her in top condition, a refit was essential.”
The Ocean Race has been held every three or four years since 1973 for monohulled yachts. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World after its initiating sponsor, the British brewer Whitbread, it became the Volvo Ocean Race after Swedish car maker Volvo took up the sponsorship in 2001.
In 2019, it was renamed The Ocean Race. The seven-leg, 2023-24 race is open to fully-crewed 19.8m V065 and 20m IMOCA60 class boats. The start in Alicante is scheduled for Jan.15.
The first racing for The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup is the In-port race in Alicante on Jan. 8, followed by the first offshore stage in the Alicante- Cabo Verde leg that starts Jan. 15. The other stops: Cape Town (S. Africa), Itajai (Brazil), Newport, RI (USA), Aarhus (Denmark), The Hague (Netherlands) and Genoa (Italy).
Between the finish of Leg 1 and the start of Leg 6, Team JAJO and other VO65 racers will visit the Caribbean, where Team Jajo plans to take part in the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
