Second leg of Velux 5 Oceans begins

Vanliew Rochelle

The five race boats of the Velux 5 Oceans Race are off. Last Friday, the racers started the second leg of the race, from Cape Town to Wellington, New Zealand, heading into the Southern Ocean for a wild and fast passage. It seems incredibly tough-minded to sail out into the Southern Ocean in December. But, of course, in the Southern Hemisphere it is now late spring, with summer on the way. Though even the summer the Southern Ocean doesn’t seem like anything but a rough place to go racing.

From the press release: The second sprint of the Velux 5 Oceans solo round the world yacht race got underway from Cape Town today bound for Wellington in New Zealand. With the iconic Table Mountain providing a stunning backdrop, the fleet of five international ocean racers crossed the start line beginning a gruelling 7,000 nautical mile sprint across the Southern Ocean through some of the worst weather conditions known to man.

The Velux 5 Oceans is the oldest single-handed round the world yacht race. Run every four years since 1982, the race is the longest and toughest event for any individual in any sport. The race is a series of five high-pressure ocean sprints within a marathon circumnavigation. The 30,000 route is La Rochelle to Cape Town, then onto Wellington, Salvador, South Carolina before finishing in La Rochelle

By Ocean Navigator