The Ocean Race: Conrad Colman announces entry for 2027 with a new boat
by Aotearoa Ocean Racing/Sail-World.com/nz 25 Mar 12:00 PDT
Conrad Colman / MS Amlin © Georgia Schofield / MS AMLIN
Top solo sailor, Conrad Colman (NZL/USA) has announced plans to move to the next level in the IMOCA 60ft class, and will compete in the 2027 edition of The Ocean Race, which stops over in his home town of Auckland.
After completing two Vendée Globe solo around the world races and four laps circumnavigating the planet, this is a coming home for the Kiwi sailor after becoming one of the fiercest competitors in France and Europe in recent years. Along with most competitors in the Vendee Globe, Colman and his family are based in France.
Colman was a stand-out in the Vendee Globe, backed by MS Amlin, a London-based global speciality insurer and reinsurer. MS Amlin finished as second daggerboarder, just 13 minutes behind six-race veteran Jean le Cam, sailing a new design in a fleet of 40 starters. The Vendee Globe and The Ocean Race are two major round the world races sailing the IMOCA - a restricted design class which is sailed singlehanded in the Vendee and then as a fully crewed race boat in The Ocean Race. In between the two events the IMOCAs can compete in various Trans Atlantic and Around Europe races.
Planning for 2027 The Ocean Race and 2028 Vendee Globe began well before the start of the 2024/5 Vendee Globe, and with a new foiling design, Aotearoa Ocean Racing will be in a strong position to run a two-boat campaign in the build up to both events.
That buildup program begins in a few weeks, when Aotearoa Ocean Racing have to decide between competing in the Ocean Race Europe, starting on August 10, 2025, from Kiel, Germany, and finishing in Boka Bay, Montenegro, or competing in the 100th anniversary of the classic Fastnet Race, starting late July 2025 from Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
Future Plan
In these races Colman will race his current IMOCA, but with five crew - the maximum allowed in The Ocean Race.
Joined by his co-founder and fellow kiwi Rowan Gyde, a marine business and diplomacy expert, the pair are currently building a formidable squad of New Zealand’s best offshore sailing talent, whilst also laying out clear pathways for youth, women and Maori involvement on water and on shore, the team says in a written statement.
“I grew up in Auckland idolising the ocean racing sailors that tore in and out of the city on their way to the ocean’s most remote reaches. I was inspired by their courage, thirst for adventure and because the Kiwis were inevitably holding the trophy at the end! Now I want to build a new Kiwi team to take on the challenge again, as a team and as a country,” says Conrad Colman, co-founder of Aotearoa Ocean Racing.
Plans are underway for a new foiling IMOCA boat to be designed and built with as much kiwi involvement as possible, with bases planned for New Zealand and France. On the water, Conrad has set the bar for the global IMOCA fleet and demonstrated his commitment to decarbonisation by completing his last two Vendée Globe campaigns without burning any fossil fuels.
Colman has been a pathfinder in Trans-Oceanic racing without carrying fossil fuel to power various sailing and onboard functions. In the 2016 Vendee Globe, he finished the race despite suffering an electrical fire being dismasted 800nm from the finish line, and being washed overboard in a Southern Ocean storm. For the 2024/5 Vendee Globe, he purchased a boat originally launched in 2007 as Groupe Bel; it was designed by the collaboration of VPLP and Guillaume Verdier. Over the years, the vessel underwent several name changes and was helmed by various skippers. Colman gave the boat a major refit, doing a lot of the work himself.
Known as the "Crazy Kiwi" from his exploits in the 2016 Vendee Globe, Colman became a well-followed competitor in the 2024 race particularly for his sailing performance in the latter half of the race where he improved ten places, and for his regular video contributions. He was one of the few competitor in the singlehanded race to use drone cameras - providing a new perspective for his fans.
His push with alternative energy generation has turned a lot of heads. During the refit of his IMOCA in 2023/24 the stanchions were moved inboard, to allow the bow to be ringed with solar panels. He was able to generate about double the power he required - a learning that can be extended to many shore based applications including domestic power generation.
"It’s a dream come true to work with Conrad and bring back a kiwi team to such an iconic event. This project is so much more than offshore sailing, we hope to inspire a generation of ecologically conscious sporting superstars," explained Rowan Gyde, co-founder Aotearoa Ocean Racing.
With the support of institutional partners across both nations, plans are afoot for further economic and cultural exchanges with marine, technology and decarbonisation-focused companies across both continents.
A loyal group of corporate sponsors has already pledged support, and the team is now actively seeking further expressions of interest from new partners and sponsors who share AOR's core values. They have 50% of the required backing committed.
Aotearoa Ocean Racing will soon name an elite sailing squad, its board of directors, and key corporate partners. The Ocean Race is considered the toughest race in all of sport, and Colman and his team say they are setting out to win it.
The bid has attracted support from outside the sailing world.
"As a keen fan of sailing I’ve been blown away by what Conrad has achieved in recent years and now launching Aotearoa Ocean Racing is the perfect way for him and Rowan to bring their expertise back to New Zealand," says Sean Fitzpatrick, former All Black captain and Chairman of the Laureus Sports Academy.
The Ocean Race starts in January 2027, and the Auckland stopover is scheduled for March 2027.
From the 2016 Vendee Globe
Contact: contact@aotearoaocean.racing
About the IMOCA 60:
The IMOCA 60 (International Monohull Open Class Association 60) is a high-performance, cutting-edge class of 60-foot (18.28 meter) monohull yachts used in premier offshore racing events like The Ocean Race and the Vendée Globe. It is a design restricted (box rule) class, with some components eg the mast coming from a single manufacturer. The concept of the class is that the boat can be owned by a team and raced in multiple events dependng on sponsor interest and other factors. The intention was to create a strong second hand/used boat market, so that a new team could purchase an existing IMOCA 60, modify it to suit their design thinking and budget. In practice the concept has worked well, with events like the Vendee Globe requiring entry number limitations (40 teams), and ivitations to compete bing offered to the teams that have done the most mles in qualificatin events. This policy resulted in a very low retirement rate from the 2024 Vendee Globe - meanig that for sponsors most of the fleet reached the finish. IMOCA60s hold the 24hr distance sailing speed record for singlehanded and crewed monohulls.
About the Ocean Race:
The Ocean Race 2027, the 15th edition of this renowned around-the-world sailing competition, is set to commence in January 2027 from its home port of Alicante, Spain. Originally known as the Whitbread Round the World Race, it was first sailed by a 17 boat fleet in 1973 on the classic four stop around the world course (Cape Town, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Southampton). The race then evolved into the Volvo Ocean Race with various classes of yacht being used, and the course extended with more stopovers going through the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Scandanavia. The VOR was purchased by The Ocean Race organisation who have transitioned the event from the VO65 one designs owned by the event to the fully crewed IMOCA 60s now used as the only boat in the 2027 race, which is also the 50th anniversary of the Whitbread Round the World Race.
The Volvo Ocean Race and now The Ocean Race pioneered the use of specialist on-board reporters whose sole function is to develop media content from the boats and transmit this back to the race centre in Alicante, Spain for distribution to the international media, and for use in daily shows on the event. A key part of this coverage has been the development of drone technology, which has enabled the capture of some spectacular video of the raceboats sailing/surfng at high speed in the Southern Ocean.
The 2027 edition of the race has so far only named three ports - start in Alicante, Spain (January 2027), mid-point - Auckland (March 2027) and Amaala - a tourism megaproject under construction in Saudi Arabia.