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This month's edition of Shirley Robertson's Sailing Podcast comes from the Spanish port of Alicante, long time home to the Ocean Race, as the fourteenth edition of this famous round the world adventure gets underway with a dramatic new look.

On what is the fiftieth anniversary of what was originally called the Whitbread Round The World Race, then became famous as the Volvo Ocean Race and is now being sailed as simply The Ocean Race, Shirley Robertson presents her podcast from the start of the thirty two thousand nautical mile odyssey.  In this edition she talks to skippers and crew members from each of the five foiling IMOCA entrants, and catches up with Ocean Race Co-President, Johan Salen, to talk thorough the class changes, and the future of the Race.

Now being sailed in the IMOCA class, the superfast foiling monohulls more familiar to Vendee Globe fans, much of the dockside chat was over sailing these solo-orientated speed machines with a crew, and how sailing from the almost fully covered cockpits was a huge departure for this race.

In Part 1 of this two part podcast, Robertson talks all things Ocean Race with three of the five IMOCA teams taking on the challenge, including Charlie Enright of '11th Hour Racing'....:

"It almost requires a more natural sailor, because you are trying to do it with less feedback, if that makes sense, so it's more seat of the pants, it's more feeling, it's really unique to be sailing inside and down below."

From 'Holcim PRB', French offshore skipper Kevin Escoffier is also in PArt 1..:

 "You have to discover new ways of feeling it, the vibration, the sounds of the foils...anybody who has sailed a dinghy will know, if they close their eyes, they will feel the boat."

Part 1 also includes guest appearances from  The Ocean Race race village with one time winner of the Volvo Ocean Race,  Ian Walker, and Team SCA Volvo skipper Sam Davies.  Episode 1 then wraps up with two time Ocean Race sailor Annie Lush of 'Guyot environnment'  discussing the differences between this edition of the race and her two previous editions.

This edition of The Ocean Race is a fascinating new era - in Part 2 of this podcast,  Robertson talks with Co-President of the Race, Johan Salen, two time Volvo Ocean Race sailor Annie Lush, British offshore sailor Will Harris of Team Malizia and to IMOCA regular, Route du Rhum winner Paul Meilhat, skippering 'Biotherm'. 

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website - www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact [email protected]. 

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