Volvo Ocean Race

• About Volvo Ocean Race
• Calendar 2008-2009
• Eleven Stopovers
• Scoring
• Race History
• Environmental Initiative
• Links Volvo Ocean Race

Scoring

First to finish wins

The boat that is first to finish wins. It sounds simple and the point system that is used in the Volvo Ocean Race is nearly as simple. The race contains of 10 'legs' between stopover ports in different continents around the world. The overall winner being the team with the most points at the end of the race. All legs will count with no discards.

The number of points received for winning a leg is determined by the number of boats competing in the Volvo Ocean Race. So in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 there are 8 boats competing so the winner of each leg receives 8 points, second place gets 7 points, third place receives 6 points and so on. The last place gets one point.

In addition, on the long ocean legs, 'gates' will offer half points. So 4 points are given to the boat that comes first to the gate, 3.5 points to second, 3 points to third, 2.5 points to fourth and so on. The last boat receives half a point.
The same system of 'half-points' will be used for the in-port racing, accounting for approximately 20% of the total points on offer.

"You can hardly expect to win the whole competition unless you do reasonably well in the shorter In-Port races," says Lizzie Ward, Press officer for Volvo Ocean Race.

For more in-depth information about the scoring for the Volvo Ocean Race go to www.volvooceanrace.org