Five IMOCA will take the exit of the race back to the world while six VO65 are preparing for the new and intense Sprint competition (Photo Carlota Alonso)

Eleven ships meet this week in Alicante in the final preparation for the departure of The Ocean Race 2022-23 and the ground activity also gradually increases, with the opening of the Ocean Live Park, the free entrance Village on Saturday January 7.

This is the tenth edition of the mother of all the ocean races... of the World Tour with full crew and will be the first to present the IMOCA ships of latest technology, with foils and almost flying.

The VO65 fleet, which has already competed in two events around the world, will now take on a shorter challenge, competing for the first The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup, which has three stages of competition that match the 1, 6 and 7 stages of the world's return.

For the five IMOCA crews that are giving the final retouches before the start of the race, this is a key week, leading to the In-Port (coastal) race on January 8, before the great exit of stage one of The Ocean Race (from Alicante to Cape Verde) on January 15.

The starting line will include five powerful IMOCA class equipment

11th Hour Racing Team (USA); pattern Charlie Enright
Team Malizia (GER); patron Boris Herrmann
Team Holcim-PRB (SUI); pattern Kevin Escoffier
GUYOT environnement-Team Europe (FRA / GER); pattern Benjamin Dutreux
Biotherm Racing (FRA); pattern Paul Meilhat

It is a particularly busy time for the four IMOCA that competed on the November Ron Route. After the Mediterranean crossing in December, all these ships have gone through a process of reference and update to prepare for the full crew races, and then they must undergo a process of measurement.

For the 11th Hour Racing Team, the final preparation for the output was planned well in advance. The team arrived in Alicante just in time to receive the new year and is now finalizing the final details of the preparations.