1 Bigger than sport The Volvo Ocean Race is a challenge bigger than sport. It is the world’s longest and toughest sporting event, with best sailors on the planet battling the elements, as well as each other, in a test of teamwork, skill and individual endurance. As a sailor, the deprivations you experience on the Volvo Ocean Race are too many and too varied to list exhaustively, but include: lack of sleep, physical over-exertion, fear and psychological trauma, no fresh food, no privacy, no escape. Sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race requires total commitment. This isn’t a situation where you can dip your toe into the water to test the temperature before jumping in. Once the race starts, it means you’ve signed on for nine months and 45,000 nautical miles of the closest, toughest competition in sport. There’s no prize money for the winners. You take this on to measure yourself, to see where you stand when things get very diffcult — and it always gets diffcult. But for the victors, there is the ultimate satis- faction of lifting the Volvo Ocean Race trophy and having their name etched in history alongside the very few to have fulflled their dream by overcoming one of the toughest challenges in all of sport. The following Race Report has been produced to share the impact of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race, the closest edition in the 45-year history of the event. The purpose of the Race Report is to align the perceived, measured and real results of the Volvo Ocean Race for stakeholders. The report summarises key fndings from the global research programme for the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race conducted by SMG Insight. It provides a description of the key assets and activations and the values generated by the race. The report shares objective, verifed data relating to media and social media, television, and digital outputs, and measures value generated. The report provides business examples from partners and stakeholders, detailing how their association with the race was benefcial and had a measurable impact in creating value. Data detailed in this Race Report was collected between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2018 by SMG Insight and the Volvo Ocean Race. 2 A global race track Volvo Ocean Race Volvo Guangzhou CHN Gothenburg SWE Cardiff GBR Hong Kong SAR CHN Newport USA Lisbon POR Itajaí BRA Cape TownCape TownRSA Auckland NZL Melbourne AUS The Hague NED 3 Guangzhou CHN Gothenburg SWE Cardiff GBR Hong Kong SAR CHN Newport USA Lisbon POR Itajaí BRA Cape TownCape TownRSA Auckland NZL Melbourne AUS The Hague NED Volvo Ocean Race 4 5 Story of the Race 4 Race in Numbers 18 Index Our Stakeholders 28 Volvo Ocean Race Family 30 Volvo 34 Guest Experience 48 Guest Experience 50 Guest Programme 52 Guest On Board Programme 62 Awards Night 68 Pre and Post Race Activation 70 Storytelling platform 72 Our Tools 74 Television 80 Online News 86 Print 90 Social Media 94 Race Platforms 104 Media Services 110 Race Village 120 Race Village Experience 122 Reaching the public 128 Internal engagement 132 Sustainability 138 Sustainability 140 The Academy 150 More than just a race 152 In the Race Villages 154 Volunteers 156 Teams 158 Team overview 160 Dongfeng Race Team 162 Team MAPFRE 164 Team Brunel 166 team AkzoNobel 168 Vestas 11th Hour Racing 170 Turn the Tide on Plastic 172 Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag 174 Host Cities 178 Alicante 180 Lisbon 182 Cape Town 183 Melbourne 184 Hong Kong 185 Guangzhou 186 Auckland 187 Itajaí 188 Newport 189 Cardiff 190 Gothenburg 191 ‘Fly-by’ Aarhus 192 The Hague 194 In the events world 196 Benchmarking 198 Since 1973 200 History 202 Innovation 204 Race Headquarters 206 Date methodology 216 6 Volvo Ocean Race Volvo Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 The last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race was the closest in history, with seven teams giving everything and battling for victory all the way around the world. Incredibly, after 45,000 miles around the planet, victory came down to a lastgasp sprint into The ague. s the fnal leg began, three teams were tied in a dead heat for the overall honours - all with a chance of lifting the trophy. While Dongfeng Race Team was ultimately the overall winner, six of the seven teams would claim victory on at least one leg, while team koobel set a new hour distance record, marking a ftting end to the Volvo Ocean Race era… 7 Volvo Ocean Race Volvo Photo: Ainhoa Sánchez / Volvo Ocean Race 8 Volvo Ocean Race Volvo Story of the Race In the end it came down to three crews tied on the same But this Volvo Ocean Race was about far more than a global points after eight months of gruelling, challenging, thrilling sporting spectacular followed by millions, both at the 12 and exceptionally competitive racing, as they set sail for the Race Villages where over 2.5 million visitors enjoyed the fnal sprint leg from Gothenburg to the fnish of the olvo experience in person, and online and through conventional Ocean Race 2017-18 at The Hague. media coverage in newspapers and on television and radio. Never in the history of the Volvo Ocean Race – or the This was also a race that took place against the backdrop Whitbread Round the World Race that preceded it – had the of the growing awareness of the environmental crisis facing scoreboard been so compellingly tight as the fully-crewed the world’s oceans, a cause the event took to its heart with global marathon reached its conclusion. a robust sustainability programme. This race had been marked by remarkably close competition The race embraced not only the new global battle to save with crews fnishing at the end of transoceanic legs within our oceans from the tide of plastic engulfng them, but also minutes of each other, while innovations in the scoring used its global presence at stopovers to help educate new system – with bonus points for leg wins and double points generations of schoolchildren about the challenge they for some of the most diffcult stages helped produce the face. The environmental theme continued with a strong cliff-hanger of a showdown in Holland. sustainability programme underpinning all aspects of the way the event was organised and run. The Chinese entry Dongfeng Race Team, skippered for the second successive time by Charles Caudrelier of France, In other areas the race demonstrated its readiness to the Spanish entry Team MAPFRE led by Xabi Fernández, embrace change and innovation, not least with its path- and the Dutch-sponsored Team Brunel skippered by Bouwe breaking new crew rules designed to encourage female Bekking on his eighth attempt to win the Volvo Ocean Race, sailors to take part in what is regarded as the unoffcial could all emerge triumphant. world championship of fully-crewed offshore racing. This Volvo Ocean Race featured not just a female skipper – in All each of them needed to do was ensure they beat their the form of ee affari of Great Britain at the helm of Turn other two rivals on the sprint to The Hague and the trophy the Tide on Plastic – but female sailors on every boat, who would be theirs. It would come down to the last tactical call in proved their worth alongside their male counterparts. the fnal hours of an epic sporting contest that had covered more than 45,000 nautical miles of the world oceans. This was also a race touched by tragedy with the loss Photo: Yann Riou / Volvo OceanRace Riou/Volvo Yann Photo: Volvo Ocean Race 9 10 overboard of Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag crewman John that demonstrated just how serious the problem of plastic isher in the outhern Pacifc Ocean and, prior to that, pollution has become. the death of a fsherman as a result of a collision between estas th our acing and a fshing boat on the approach The seventh team was another late entry, Sun Hung Kai/ to Hong Kong. Both losses will be remembered and have Scallywag, representing Hong Kong and sponsored by the Volvo Ocean Race Volvo resulted in future safety initiatives to minimise risk in the Hong Kong businessman Lee Seng Huang. Skippered by offshore racing environment. the irrepressible Australian David Witt, this was a crew that was aiming to have some fun on the global racecourse and For the fourth consecutive time, the Volvo Ocean Race perhaps pull off one or two surprise results against teams 2017-18 proudly started from its Spanish home in the that had been preparing for far longer. Mediterranean coastal town of Alicante. Thousands of local fans plus visitors from all over the sailing world turned out to watch Team P win the frst nPort ace of the series and then wave the eet off a week later on its great journey around the globe. The pre-race favourites were undoubtedly the Chinese- sponsored Dongfeng Race Team, back for a second attempt after fnishing third overall in and the very strong looking team assembled by Fernández on Team MAPFRE, bidding to become the frst panish boat to lift the olvo Ocean Race trophy after many years of trying. But it was not only about the two “red boats.” Bekking was back – albeit starting his campaign a bit later than he would have liked – leading a strong crew on Team Brunel that included the Kiwi Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup-winning skipper Peter Burling. Could he become the frst sailor in history to complete the big three and win at the Olympics, the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race? Two other strong contenders were the Dutch-sponsored team AkzoNobel, skippered by Simeon Tienpont and the Danish-American sponsored Vestas 11th Hour Racing, jointly skippered by Charlie Enright and Mark Towill, veterans of the Alvimedica campaign in 2014-15.