The 2027 edition of The Ocean Race—the storied round-the-world crewed raced that has previously been sailed as the Whitbread and the Volvo Ocean Race—announced its new route will take the fleet of IMOCA 60 monohulls to North America with a May stopover in St. Petersburg, Florida.
This, race organizers say, will be the first time in the event’s 54-year history that Florida’s Gulf Coast will serve as a race port. Florida has hosted the fleet five times with stopovers in Fort Lauderdale in 1990, 1994 and 1998 and then Miami in 2002 and 2012. The St. Petersburg-Clearwater stopover, which has been in planning for several years, is scheduled for May 4 to 16, 2027.
As the race’s North American stopover ports have long served as essential transatlantic prep stops for the shore teams and activation hubs for team sponsors, fan and spectator engagement is now central to the global event. For the sole US stopover, organizers say, St. Petersburg YC will host the “Live Park” race village while the boats will be berthed at the University of South Florida, south of downtown St. Petersburg…