Volvo Group and Volvo Cars, co-owners of the famous circumnavigation for the past 20 years, have sold it to Atlant Ocean Racing of Richard Brisius, Johan Salén and Jan Litborn. Rumors about the sale of VOR have been circulating since April. Then it was reported that there were several candidates.
Rumor has it that the second class of yachts to be circumnavigated could be a redesigned IMOCA 60 - at least the class association has already expressed its agreement to include VOR on the event calendar.
Atlant Ocean Racing has all the necessary resources to host the Volvo Ocean Race in 2021, said Johan Salen. This is largely due to the fact that Volvo Cars will remain the sponsor of the next round-the-world season.
The 2017-2018 Volvo Ocean Race, which is currently underway, will finish as planned in The Hague on June 30.
Brizius and Salen were appointed president and co-president of the Volvo Ocean Race in November 2017 following the unexpected departure of Mark Turner, who had served in the position for just four months.
They have a wealth of experience in circumnavigating what has been called «the Everest for sailors»: first as crew members, then as team managers. Two of the VOR teams Salen and Brizius managed to lead to victory - EF Language in 1998-1999 and Ericsson 4 in 2008-2009. In 2014-2015, Brizius and Salen managed Team SCA, the first all-female crew in circumnavigation history.
