The Ocean Race 2027 – Auckland Stopover

Date: 20 February 2027 – 14 March 2027

Location: Auckland Viaduct Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand

Organizer: The Ocean Race

Auckland is the first stopover of The Ocean Race 2027, and the fleet will have earned it: the opening leg from Alicante is around 14,000 nautical miles, the longest in the race's history, with arrival anticipated around 20 February 2027. The race returns to a city with deep round-the-world racing history. Auckland hosted Whitbread and Volvo stopovers for decades, and the City of Sails treats an arriving offshore fleet as a civic event. The foiling IMOCA 60s, sailed by crews of four with at least one woman aboard, will be docked in the race village during the layover, with the boats open to view and in-port racing before the restart. What follows is another Southern Ocean monster: the leg from Auckland runs past Cape Horn to Itajaí in Brazil. For fans, this stopover is the best chance in the Southern Hemisphere to see the race up close.

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