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. They take place on the same Open 60 monohulls and will mean resources and ‘media visibility’ will be fought for.

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 Vendee 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.