St. Pete, Clearwater named sole North American stop for 30,000-mile global sailing competition

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The world’s premier offshore sailing competition is headed to the Bay Area.

Organizers of The Ocean Race announced Wednesday that St. Petersburg has been selected as the only race port in North America for the 2027 edition of the 30,000-mile sailing challenge around the world.

"The Ocean Race is maybe the most iconic, toughest in all of the sailing world," Steve Grimes, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater chief marketing officer, said. "I've heard it described as the Mount Everest of sailing, where you quite literally are racing right the way around the world over many months."

The backstory:

The competition is a fully crewed offshore sailing race that leaves from Alicante, Spain on Jan. 17, 2027. St. Pete is stop four out of less than 10, scheduled for May 4 through May 16, 2027.

"The St. Petersburg area has had a long history of sailing," Grimes said. "I think this really quite literally puts us on the map as a marquee sailing destination. The best thing about this is they sought us out. The Ocean Race people were looking to come to this part of the country. They came and scouted the area and fell in love with particularly the St. Pete area and the waterfront there."

The stops will allow the sailors to rest and repair their boats.

"The around the world race is a massive journey," Mirko Groeschner, director of host cities and marketing for The Ocean Race, said. "So, these sailors are on the boat non-stop sailing for a number of consecutive days. So, the leg from Itajaí in Brazil up to St. Pete, Clearwater will take about three weeks. So, three weeks, imagine that, three weeks, constant racing, constant battling with wind and waves, changing directions all the time, not much sleep."

The 60-foot foiling sailboats will be docked at the waterfront by the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

"There's lots to still be done. We've been working closely with USF and the St. Pete Yacht Club. The boats themselves will be based in the basin down by USF. There will be activations up near the Yacht Club, in the parks in St. Pete. Lots of details are still to be worked out exactly how much is built where, but you can imagine it's going to take over large portions of St. Pete for a couple of weeks," Grimes said.

Ocean Live Park, a race village, will be based at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club along the downtown waterfront in partnership with USF. There, the public can go to several free events like team boat viewings, sailing and ocean-themed exhibits, STEM and ocean science programming and more.

Big picture view:

Race officials say they plan to also partner with USF to help highlight the importance of protecting ocean ecosystems and advancing scientific understanding of the seas.

"This is more than just a race to bring people to the destination and a race watch on TV," Brian Lowack, the president and CEO of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, said at Wednesday’s tourist development council meeting. "This is the research, the sustainability aspects, the connections to what's going on down at USF and the College of Marine Sciences, the research hub down there. This is a pretty incredible event." 

Race officials and local officials say the impact of the 12-day event will be massive.

"We're the pinnacle of team offshore yachting in the world. So, our race typically attracts many, many thousands of people that come, see the boats, see the sailors. It's a big spectacle. We'll put up a stage and a big screen, and so people can really experience offshore sailing. So, we expect actually a few hundred thousand people in St. Pete," Groeschner said. "Tampa Bay is well known in the world of sports for everything that's going on there, so we expect a good crowd interested in top sports to attend the race, the rivals, the import races, the import races as well as the leg start. The hotels are going to be full. The restaurants are full, lots of sailing fans of the U.S. are welcomed, and I think it's going to be a big spectacle."

Local perspective:

Groeschner said they’ll showcase boats in speed runs in the St. Pete, Clearwater area. He said there will also be celebrations and awarding of prizes for that leg of the race.

"It's going to have a huge impact on our hotels and our restaurants. We just saw a couple of weeks ago the impact that the St. Pete Grand Prix has on the community. This is going to be similar, but over a 12-day period instead," Grimes said.

Grimes said they hope to bring the events throughout Pinellas County.

"We'd love to see these yachts race up and down from, you know, Pass-a-Grille to Pier 60 or something like that. So, we've been talking to the organizers about, you know, how we can make this truly a county-wide event," Grimes said.

They’re still figuring out where they’ll sail for events while they’re in town.

"We’ll come in and talk to the local authorities and identify the places where we can sail, because one is for sure, and I saw that during the Grand Prix already, you guys have the best beaches in the Americas, and we want to get the white sandy beaches as well for people to watch on television when the boats are doing the import races," Groeschner said.

Following the Florida leg, the fleet will sail under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge toward Cascais, Portugal before eventually concluding the race in the Red Sea.

What's next:

While the 2027 event marks a milestone for the city, local officials are already looking toward the future. Though The Ocean Race typically operates on a four-year cycle, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater representatives said they hope to establish the region as a recurring fixture on the international sailing calendar. Groeschner is hopeful too.

"We hope that we can create a lot of interest also in the offshore community to form a strong American team for the next competition. Our offshore sailing event is not just a boat race. It also involves a lot of technology development, design development, boat building, sail-making, the telemetry, the comms technology needs to be built. So, there's a lot in there and we hope to set the foundation then for longer, wider engagement in Florida with our event, and hope to come back many, many editions," Groeschner said.

The Ocean Race has been around since 1973. The 2027 race will be the 15th edition.