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1981-82: Storm-Blasted but Still Going
The third Whitbread is also devoid of casualties, unless you count the Allowing for variations in hull and keel designs, the new class is intended to
boats. Of the 29 competing yachts, 21 arrive storm-damaged at the second increase safety and make scoring easier without stifling competition—but first it
race port, Cape Town, South Africa—one having been seized by an Ango- will have to prove itself in a mixed field.
lan gunboat and its crew detained for a week under suspicion of spying.
Twenty boats eventually complete the race. Of the 1993-94 race’s 15 entries, 10 are Whitbread 60-class boats. The Whit-
bread 60s prove comparatively sluggish in slight winds but speedy in the stron-
1985-86: Success Amid Recession gest gales and hard-wearing in the wickedest seas.
The 1985-86 field—15 boats—is down from 29 entrants in 1981-82, per-
haps due to the global economic downturn; the teams are already largely 1997-98: Leveling the Playing Field
corporate sponsored. All 15 entries finish the race. The seventh Whitbread is the first to limit entry to a single class of boat, the
Whitbread 60 (W60). The new regulations help raise the average team-sponsor-
1989-90: Adding Legs and Length ship outlay to around ten million U.S. dollars. Perhaps as a result, the race draws
The race committee adds two legs—and 5,000 nautical miles (5,750 statute ten boats, the smallest Whitbread field up to this point.
miles/9,260 kilometers)—to the already grueling course, largely due to
anti-apartheid pressure to avoid South Africa. The lower number of yachts and more even playing field result in no less excite-
ment—and the most media coverage yet.
On the course, which now begins and ends in Southampton, England,
calamity abounds. Six boats—of 23 competing—see crewmembers thrown Added to the television coverage is a near-constant Internet presence. Equipped
overboard during Leg 2; all are rescued. In Leg 3 a sailor is washed into with satellite technology, each crew sends regular e-mails, audio, and video to
the sea and retrieved an hour later but can’t be revived. In Leg 4 a yacht the official race Web site, allowing fans to follow the action as it happens. GPS
loses its keel and capsizes; its crew survives. (global positioning system) tracking reports the boats’ whereabouts with unprec-
edented accuracy and frequency.
The Whitbread begins to attract worldwide publicity, thanks in no small
part to its first all-female crew, skippered by Tracy Edwards.

1993-94: A New Class of Competitor
Before the 1993-94 race, the organizers, working with sailors and design-
ers, draw up specifications for a new class of boat intended specifically for
the Whitbread: the Whitbread 60 (today called the Volvo Ocean 60).

Course Title: Motion Graphics Project: The Volvo Ocean Race Student: Janet McPhatter Instructor: Prof. Russell Brown Term: May 2011