Ocean Race 2027 to finish on Red Sea for the first time

Ocean Race 2027 to finish on Red Sea for the first time

The Grand Finale of The Ocean Race 2027 will finish at Saudi Arabia's newly opened AMAALA Yacht Club, marking the fleet's first ever race across Red Sea waters.

The Ocean Race has confirmed its 2027 Grand Finale will finish at AMAALA on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, the first time in the race's history that the fleet will race across Red Sea waters. The 15th edition of the fully-crewed, round-the-world IMOCA race starts from Alicante, Spain in January 2027 and is regarded as one of the toughest team tests in sailing.

A first for the fleet

The route takes the foiling IMOCA fleet out of the Mediterranean, down the Atlantic, into the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn before heading back to Europe via the Americas. The penultimate leg finishes in the Mediterranean off Port Said, Egypt, where the fleet assembles to transit the Suez Canal together before the final leg, roughly 135 nautical miles, to the finish line off AMAALA.

"This final leg in the northern part of the Red Sea will make for a thrilling conclusion to the around the world race, with a short, final leg in reliable sea breeze conditions to the finish at AMAALA," said Johan Salén, director of The Ocean Race.

A venue ready to receive them

The timing lines up. AMAALA Yacht Club, the marina that will host the fleet's arrival, officially began operations this month. It offers 119 berths with capacity for motor and sailing yachts up to 130m, according to AMAALA's own figures, and sits roughly 200 nautical miles from the Suez Canal, the same stretch of water the fleet will transit on its way to the finish.

Red Sea Global group CEO John Pagano called the marina "a truly global yachting destination" at its opening. For race organisers, having a functioning, purpose built superyacht marina already open a year out from the finish removes one of the bigger question marks around a genuinely new venue.

Amaala Yacht Club

AMAALA Yacht Club has opened on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, a new 119-berth superyacht marina positioned as a Caribbean winter rival.

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Sport with a conservation angle

The Red Sea leg isn't purely a scenic choice. The Ocean Race has built its identity around ocean health advocacy, and Red Sea Global has committed to ocean science and ocean literacy programmes with the race in the build up to 2027, aimed at engaging young people in the region with coral reef conservation. The fleet will finish across waters known for their reef biodiversity, giving the race's environmental message a genuinely new backdrop.

The broad route and key stopover dates for The Ocean Race 2027 are now confirmed, although some of the finer details around individual stopovers are still being worked through. The race begins in Alicante in January and reaches AMAALA for its Grand Finale in early July.

With the route now taking shape, AMAALA represents more than a new name on the calendar. The Red Sea will host racing in The Ocean Race for the first time, with the fleet's round the world journey ending there in July.