Two decades after buying the Race from Whitbread, Volvo has now formally transferred ownership to the new group, led by Richard Brisius and Johan Salén.
The ownership change was announced before the finish of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 last year, and the full transaction has now been completed.
Atlant Ocean Racing Spain, led by Richard Brisius and Johan Salén, tookover the Volvo Ocean Race from Volvo Group and Volvo Cars, the co-owners of the event for the past 20 years.
The next edition of the race, scheduled for 2021, will be known as The Ocean Race with Volvo staying in the race family as a significant commercial partner.
Collaboration with the IMOCA Open 60 class means two types of boat will compete in the next race – the high-tech, foiling IMOCA 60s, and the one-design VO65s that produced such intensely close racing last time out. Both will be fully crewed.
The Notice of Race was published in December 2018 and the official entry period is now open.
The 2021-22 edition will begin from Alicante, Spain in the autumn of 2021 and will finish in Europe in early summer 2022. The host city procurement process for our stopovers is already well underway and the full route will be announced this summer.
In March a new brand identity will be releasd and more updates about the next race, including team, partner and sustainability programme news.