500 days to go and eight entries for the Global Ocean Race

With the crossing of the 500 days-to-go barrier until the start of the Global Ocean Race 2014-15, eight teams from six different countries have already registered their full intention to be on the start line in The Solent on Sunday 21st September 2014. At this point the UK and USA are fielding the most entries. British skipper, Ned Collier-Wakefield of Team Concise has entered the double-handed division with the team’s new Forty 1 Design Class40 and fellow Briton and round-the-world veteran from the GOR 2008-09, David Thomson, is also signed-up for the double-handed class. The USA currently has two entries for the solo division with Joe Harris and his Akilaria RC2 Class40 Gryphon Solo 2Bodacious Dream. lining up for the start alongside Dave Rearick planning to race aboard the Kiwi 40FC Class40

Two teams from the GOR 2011-12 will be returning to the event in 2014 with unstoppable Dutch skipper Nico Budel making his third bid for a circumnavigation in the solo division of the GOR 2014-15 and Phillippa Hutton-Squire, the first South African woman to skipper a round-the-world race boat taking third place in the GOR 2011-12, back to compete again in the double-handed division.

Austria will have a strong presence in the double-handed class with Gottfried Poessl of racing team and GOR Race Partner, Celox Sailing, entering their Akilaria RC2 GustBuster and another entry from the Southern Hemisphere, solo round-the-world yachtsman Graham Dalton, will be on the start line with his Verdier-designed Class40, Dalton Yachting – a boat which placed second in the inaugural GOR 2008-09.

A third British team will be announced mid-next week. The Global Ocean Race 2014-15 Leg 1 start will be hosted within the PSP Southampton Boat Show 2014 and the finish will be hosted at Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, in May 2015. Stopovers in Cape Town, South Africa, and Charleston, USA, are already confirmed and the Australasian and South American stopover ports are scheduled to be announced shortly.

“At this stage we are delighted to see the race and its entrants shaping up strongly. This is already an eclectic and truly international fleet which is, of course, the very essence of the event,” said Julian Mounter, Chairman of the Global Ocean Race. “With further entries in each division anticipated during the next six months the stage is set for a solid event at every level,” he concluded.