Volvo Race 2008-09 mark the 10th anniversary of one of the world's greatest sailing events. During the nine months of the 2008-09 Volvo, which starts in Alicante, Spain in October 2008 and concludes in St Petersburg, Russia, during late June 2009, the teams will sail over 37,000 nautical miles of the world’s most treacherous seas via Cape Town, Kochi, Singapore, Qingdao, around Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway, Goteborg and Stockholm.

The class of racing yachts used for the race from 2005-2006 are the Volvo Open 70 or Volvo Ocean 70 made from glass fibres, aramid fibres or carbon fibres. Apart from offshore leg races, there are in-port races in some of the ports such as Alicante, Singapore, Qingdao, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway and Stockholm.  If the weather is favourable, the Race Committee may decide to run two in-port races during the day.

Inport Race  

In- port racing takes place at one particular port. The race course is very short and is always close to the shore and may last less than an hour.
The start sequence is 10 minute warning (sound signal) - 5 minutes preparatory (sound signal) - 1 minute (sound signal) – START.