Across the Atlantic and Into a New Age

The skyline of New York will provide the grandest of backdrops, although the real stage lies beyond the harbour, where six foiling IMOCA yachts will turn eastwards and begin a fast, exposed passage across one of the most restless stretches of ocean on the planet.

The inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic represents far more than another transatlantic contest because it introduces a new point-to-point format, two previously unraced IMOCA yachts and a mandatory 50-50 crew rule requiring every boat to carry two women and two men within its four-person racing crew.

Each team will also carry an On Board Reporter, whose responsibility is to record life inside these violent, noisy offshore machines without contributing to the sailing of the boat. Live video, daily reports and material transmitted from sea will bring supporters closer to the sailors as the fleet crosses the North Atlantic.

The ceremonial departure programme takes place in New York on 1 September 2026, with the official Ocean Race schedule now listing the offshore race start for 2 September. The first boats are expected in Lorient around 8 or 9 September, depending upon the route selected and the weather systems moving across the ocean.

Six Teams Facing One Ocean

The fleet brings together Team Malizia of Germany, Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing from the United States, Frances United by the Ocean, Japans DMG MORI Sailing Team, Switzerlands Embrace The Challenge and the New Zealand-flagged MSIG Europe.

That international spread reflects the changing geography of professional offshore sailing. France remains the spiritual and technical centre of the IMOCA world, yet the class now attracts campaigns, sponsors and sailors from across Europe, Asia, Oceania and North America.

Two new-generation boats will be racing for the first time, with Team Malizia and DMG MORI Sailing Team introducing yachts that have yet to be measured against a competitive fleet across an ocean. Their potential may be considerable, although a transatlantic race leaves little time for the gentle discovery of weaknesses.

A new IMOCA carries thousands of design decisions into its first race, including hull shape, foil geometry, mast position, ballast distribution, cockpit protection and sail selection. Simulations can predict performance, while structural testing can expose obvious problems, yet only the open sea reveals how the complete machine behaves when driven continuously through changing conditions.

Reliability will therefore matter as much as outright speed. A boat capable of sailing half a knot faster may surrender its advantage through damaged equipment, an electrical failure or a foil-control problem that cannot be repaired easily offshore.

The North Atlantic Examination

The west-to-east course should allow the fleet to exploit the prevailing movement of North Atlantic weather systems, particularly if the sailors can position themselves correctly around the depressions travelling towards Europe.

A favourable system could produce exceptional reaching conditions, allowing the IMOCA yachts to lift onto their foils and maintain speeds above 25 knots for long periods. An unfavourable ridge of high pressure could create the opposite experience, leaving crews searching for narrow corridors of wind while their rivals escape hundreds of miles away.

The current IMOCA 24-hour distance record stands at 640.91 nautical miles, achieved by Holcim-PRB during The Ocean Race in May 2023. That extraordinary run produced an average speed of more than 26 knots and demonstrated what a fully crewed IMOCA can achieve when its sailors, sea state and weather system align.

The Ocean Race Atlantic presents another opportunity to challenge that mark, although record pace cannot become the only objective. A skipper must decide whether pushing the boat harder is justified when the finish remains several days away and the structure is absorbing repeated impacts.

Fully crewed racing allows manoeuvres to be completed more quickly than in the solo events for which IMOCA yachts were originally developed. Four sailors can drive harder, change sails earlier and respond more aggressively to tactical opportunities, yet greater speed also produces greater loads.

Sleep will be brief, food will be functional and the noise inside the carbon hulls will make genuine rest difficult. Every foil impact, sheet adjustment and wave striking the bow travels through the structure, creating a relentless soundtrack that follows the sailors across the ocean.

Francesca Clapcich Returns as a Skipper

Francesca Clapcich brings one of the strongest personal stories to the start. The Italian-born sailor represented her country at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games before building an extensive career in offshore and international yacht racing.

She was part of the victorious 11th Hour Racing Team during the 2022-23 edition of The Ocean Race, when the American campaign survived a complicated circumnavigation and a dramatic final-leg collision to secure the overall trophy.

Clapcich now leads a US-flagged campaign carrying her own name, bringing together the American home start and the French offshore community where much of modern IMOCA racing is based. A departure beneath the New York skyline carries particular significance for a team supported by 11th Hour Racing and followed by a substantial American audience.

Her expectation of a fast passage is supported by the time of year and the performance of the latest boats. Late-summer North Atlantic conditions can create powerful downwind and reaching opportunities, although tropical weather, cold fronts and rapidly developing depressions can complicate the route.

Meilhat Points Towards Sailing Valley

Paul Meilhat arrives with the confidence of having led his team to victory in The Ocean Race Europe during the previous summer. As co-skipper of United by the Ocean, he will be racing towards familiar waters and a finish deeply embedded within French offshore culture.

Lorient is commonly described as Sailing Valley because the surrounding region contains an extraordinary concentration of IMOCA teams, boatyards, sailmakers, designers, electronics specialists and professional sailors.

Finishing there carries a different atmosphere from arriving in an unfamiliar host city. Many of the sailors will be returning to their home training base, while technical teams, families and rival campaigns will already understand what the boats have endured.

Meilhats career stretches from Olympic-class sailing to victory in the 2018 Route du Rhum, establishing him as one of Frances most versatile offshore competitors. His tactical experience should become particularly valuable during the final approach to Brittany, where coastal effects and tidal decisions could still overturn the order established in open water.

Fifty Years of Ocean Racing History

The Ocean Race traces its origins to the Whitbread Round the World Race, which first departed Portsmouth in September 1973. Seventeen boats started that pioneering circumnavigation, heading south towards Cape Town before continuing to Sydney and Rio de Janeiro.

Ramon Carlins Swan 65 Sayula II won the inaugural race on corrected time, creating one of offshore sailings enduring stories. The Mexican businessman had limited ocean-racing experience when he assembled his international crew, yet the yacht survived the Southern Ocean and returned to Portsmouth as the unexpected victor.

The Whitbread developed rapidly from an adventurous collection of production yachts and privately funded campaigns into a professional contest featuring purpose-built ocean racers. Peter Blake became one of its defining figures, competing in five editions before winning every leg of the 1989-90 race aboard the enormous maxi Steinlager 2.

The race became the Volvo Ocean Race in 2001 and continued evolving through the VO60, VO70 and one-design VO65 eras. Crews grew smaller, boats became faster and communications transformed the relationship between sailors and spectators.

The event adopted The Ocean Race name before the 2022-23 edition, when IMOCA yachts competed alongside the VO65 fleet. Charlie Enrights 11th Hour Racing Team became the first IMOCA winner of the round-the-world event, while the new foiling generation demonstrated extraordinary speed across the Southern Ocean.

The 2026 Atlantic race marks the first direct point-to-point course in the events history rather than a leg within a full circumnavigation or multi-stage competition. That distinction gives the race an experimental quality while preserving a heritage reaching back more than half a century.

A New Rule With Wider Importance

The mandatory two-women, two-men crew structure represents one of the events most significant developments. Offshore sailing has produced outstanding female competitors for decades, including Tracy Edwards, who led the first all-female Whitbread crew aboard Maiden in 1989-90.

Ellen MacArthur, Dee Caffari, Sam Davies, Annie Lush, Justine Mettraux and Clapcich have since demonstrated their ability at the highest levels of solo and fully crewed competition. Opportunities have not always developed at the same speed as achievement, leaving many women competing for fewer professional positions.

The Ocean Race Atlantic removes that uncertainty by building equal representation into the sailing rule. Every team must select talent from a broader field, creating visible opportunities without separating male and female sailors into different competitions.

Performance will remain the only useful measure once the fleet begins racing. Weather systems will not recognise gender, while a difficult sail change or tactical decision will demand the same technical ability from everyone aboard.

Racing for More Than the Trophy

Each yacht will collect ocean and climate information during the crossing, continuing The Ocean Races established contribution to scientific research from regions that are difficult and expensive for conventional research vessels to monitor regularly.

Teams will also compete in the Racing for the Ocean Teams Challenge, which assesses sustainability, inclusion and wider environmental performance alongside the sporting contest.

Programmes in New York and Lorient will introduce visitors to sailing, ocean health and marine science, linking the spectacle of high-speed racing with the condition of the water beneath the boats.

Such initiatives must produce measurable value if they are to carry weight beyond attractive language. Data collection, public education and more sustainable event operations offer practical tests of whether a professional race can reduce its impact while contributing useful knowledge.

A Short Race With Lasting Consequences

The Ocean Race Atlantic may last little more than a week, although its influence could extend far beyond the Lorient finish. Fully crewed IMOCA racing remains relatively young, leaving teams, designers and organisers to discover how these boats should develop alongside their established solo role.

New yachts will reveal their first strengths and weaknesses, experienced teams will test unfamiliar crew combinations and the mandatory gender balance will demonstrate what becomes possible when opportunity is written into the structure of a competition.

The North Atlantic will remain indifferent to those ambitions. It will offer fast lanes and closed doors, punishing crews that push too hard while rewarding those prepared to recognise when restraint creates greater speed.

Six boats will leave New York carrying some of the most advanced technology in offshore sailing. What happens before Lorient will still depend upon ancient abilities: reading the sky, trusting shipmates and knowing how much pressure a boat and its people can withstand.