The next Route du Rhum, the Barcelona World Race and the Velux 5 Oceans Race will take place at the same time. These three major events are tailored for single and double handed sailors (basically the same people). They take place on the same Open 60 monohulls. They will as a consequence inevitably take each others' resources and media visibility away from each other.
The organisers of the Velux 5 Oceans were the quickest at announcing the dates of their round the world event, back in October 2008. The start is scheduled on October 17, 2010. The Route du Rhum will start two weeks later, on October 31st whilst the two-handed Barcelona round the world race will start on 31 December, 2010.
Alternating with the Vendée Globe, the Barcelona World Race is one of just two official IMOCA 60 Ocean Racing World Championship round the world races.
Eighty six sailors have registered in the popular Route du Rhum and fourteen of them are registered in the Open 60 Class. However, some of them hint that they may participate in another of the three events…
In order to attract them, the organisers of both the Barcelona World Race and Velux 5 Oceans are developing support packages and incentive programs aimed at convincing them to compete in their event. The organisers of the Barcelona World Race 2010 have defined two clear objectives: set up the necessary resources to facilitate the funding of the skippers' campaigns and optimize the return on investment for their sponsors. A central element in this strategy will be the financial, logistic and communication support package set up to enable teams to cut the cost of their campaigns by up to 20%. Velux have done more or less the same, and announced a 500'000 Euros cash incentive for sailors competing in their event.
Schedule:
Velux 5 Oceans Round the world with stopovers on Open 60's October 17, 2010. Start: La Rochelle.
Route du Rhum Transatlantic race, for several Classes including the Open 60's October 31, 2010. Start: St-Malo.
Barcelona World Race Double-handed round the world race with no stopovers on Open 60's December 31, 2010. Start: Barcelona.
– World Yacht Racing Forum Newsletter
