The Ocean Race will return to Cape Town for the 12th time as the most challenging offshore race in the sport comes to South Africa in the 2021-22 edition.
Cape Town has been an iconic stop in the race since the very first edition in 1973 and has hosted the fleet in all but two editions of the race. No other city has hosted the fleet more, and this will be the eighth consecutive stopover for Cape Town, which marks the gateway to the Southern Ocean legs of the race.
Cape Town is now one of two African stops for the race, joining Cabo Verde, which was announced as a host city earlier this year.
The Ocean Race is scheduled to start from its home port in Alicante, Spain in Q4 of 2021 and finish in Genoa, Italy in June of 2022. The full Race Route will be confirmed in the coming weeks. Cape Town joins Itajaí, Brazil, Aarhus, Denmark and The Hague in The Netherlands as confirmed host cities, along with Cabo Verde, which will be the first West African stop in the history of the Race.
“This is a very welcome announcement to make,” said Johan Salen, the Managing Director of The Ocean Race. “Our fans, our teams and sailors and all of our stakeholders always rate the Cape Town stopover as among their favourites.”