Start times
Cape Town In-Port Race presented by V&A Waterfront - Friday 24 February 14:10 (Cape Town) / 12:10 (UTC) - Download the In-Port Race course map here
Leg 3 start - Sunday 26 February 14:10 (Cape Town) / 12:10 (UTC)
Download the leg start course map here
See the full event schedule on the Cape Town Host City Website.
No other stopover city is as closely associated with The Ocean Race as Cape Town South Africa, which has so far welcomed the around-the-world fleet in 11 of the race’s 13 editions – far more than any other host port. The 2022–23 race marks the eighth consecutive time that Cape Town has hosted a stopover.
Colloquially known as the ‘Mother City’, Cape Town is the largest city in the Western Cape Province. It is also the oldest and second largest city in South Africa and houses the seat of the country’s parliament.
Located on the southern end of the vast Table Bay, Cape Town is a busy seaport that attracts significant commercial shipping traffic. The city and surrounding region are also a major tourist attraction – particularly during the summer months (November to March), when the temperature averages around 25 degrees Celsius.
Synonymous with the city is its spectacular backdrop provided by the enormity of the flat-topped Table Mountain (1,085 metres) – often covered by a ‘table cloth’ of white cloud – which is flanked on either side by two other summits – the 669-metre Lion’s Head and the 1,000-metre Devil’s Peak.
Cape Town’s Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is a bustling area packed with stores, coffee shops, restaurants and pubs, as well as an aquarium, art and craft markets and world-class hotel and conference facilities.
As well as being situated within a unique and globally significant biodiversity hotspot Cape Town also suffers the effects of drought and coastal erosion. Sustainability has become entrenched in the city’s strategic planning and decision making policies – with a focus on resilience and digitalisation – and the government aims to increase the renewable share of the region’s energy mix to around 40 per cent by 2030.
For The Ocean Race sailors Cape Town is always a momentous location, acting as it does as the gateway to the notorious wilds off the Southern Ocean which await the crews once they pass Cape Point on the next leg of the race.
No doubt the sailors’ sense of anticipation will be even more heightened this time at the daunting prospect of taking on the race’s longest ever Southern Ocean leg – the 12,750-nautical mile (14,672-mile/23,613- kilometre) passage around the bottom of the world from Cape Town to Itajaí in Brazil.