Story highlights
Race billed as "one of hardest things"
13th edition begins on October 14
It’s no secret that the Volvo Ocean Race is one of the most grueling challenges in world sport.
Sailing’s premier around-the-world race pits the best professional crews against each other through some of the most inhospitable seas on the planet.
While many consider the solo, nonstop Vendee Globe to be sailing’s most brutal discipline, Volvo Ocean Race boss Mark Turner believes the need for 24/7 team work makes his race all the more challenging.
“To win the Volvo Ocean Race has to be one of the hardest things to do in sport,” Turner told CNN’s MainSail show.
“In the sport of sailing, I don’t think it’s got an equivalent.
“Sailing has lots of great races and some of them are just as tough.
“But to keep a crew of people together, all performing at 100% … is what is extraordinary about the race.
“(It’s) relentless – the physical, the mental pressure. It’s an extraordinarily difficult thing to do, to keep it together, and you have to keep it together right to the very end to win.”
READ: Could you survive on four hours sleep and a chocolate bar?
READ: Female sailors to take around-the-world race by storm?
The 13th edition of the event, which began in 1973 as the Whitbread Round-the-World Race, is expected to feature eight entries.
It will begin with an in-port race in Alicante, Spain on October 14 before the fleet sets sail for Lisbon, Portugal on the first of 10 legs.
Stopovers include Cape Town, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Auckland, Itajai in Brazil, Newport, Cardiff and Gothenburg.
The race is set to finish in The Netherlands eight months later.
“The particular thing about the Volvo Ocean Race is that it’s raced at 110%, 24 hours a day – every minute matters,” Turner said.
“The gaps between the boats are so small, you never know when it’s that one minute you gain or lose is going to be the thing that decides it – and that is that relentless pressure.
Visit cnn.com/sailing for more news and videos
“That’s what makes the Volvo Ocean Race so unique.”
