Scoring

HOW DO YOU WIN THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE?

The event will continue to use a high scoring system i.e. in a 12-boat competition, 12 points will be awarded to the winner of each leg, the overall winner being the team with the most points at the end of the race.

All legs will count with no discards allowed. On the long ocean legs, the gates will offer half points. The same system of 'half points' will be used for the in port racing, accounting for approximately 20% of the total points on offer.

The exact scoring details, taken from the Notice of Race are as follows:

SCORING

For each Leg, each Boat will receive points equal to the number of entries at the start of the Race less the number of Boats placed above her on that Leg, amended when appropriate by penalties or redress awarded by the International Jury.

For each In Port Race and scoring waypoint, Boats will receive points equal to half the number of entries at the start of the Race less half the number of Boats placed above her in that race or at that scoring waypoint, amended when appropriate by penalties or redress awarded by the International Jury. Points scored at scoring waypoints count only toward the overall score and do not affect Leg places.

STEALTHPLAY

StealthPlay, a new tactical initiative for the 2008-09 race, gives the crews one opportunity on each of the longer legs to have their location hidden from position reports and the public for 12 hours.

In order to deploy a StealthPlay, a team must call Race Headquarters within 30 minutes of the position report being released. The play will last for the next 12 hours and the boat’s position will not be shown on the three scheduled reports normally released within that period. The boat will become visible again at the next position report after that period, or when the vessel is within 250 nm of the finish (whichever occurs first).

Race Headquarters in the UK will continue to monitor each boat’s progress every 15 minutes for safety reasons, but this information is not made public until the StealthPlay is over.

Position reporting times will be every three hours at 1000, 1300, 1600, 1900, 2200 throughout the duration of each offshore leg of the race. Position reports are circulated among the fleet as well as being published on the home page and Race Data Centre along with other technical data.