NEWPORT – The City by the Sea will welcome the world’s top sailing racing teams in May 2023 as a stopover for the 14th Ocean Race.
Organizers on Monday announced that Newport will be a stopover from May 10, 2023, through the start of the race’s fifth leg scheduled for May 21, 2023. Newport is the lone North American stopover host city for the Ocean Race, which is scheduled to commence Jan. 15, 2023, in Alicante, Spain.
Sailing teams will sail to Newport from Itajai, Brazil, and then head out to Aarhus, Denmark, as part of the fifth leg, race organizers said.
Newport has hosted stopovers for the Ocean Race in 2015 and in 2018. The 14th edition of the race was initially scheduled to begin in October 2021, with Newport slated to host the stopover in late spring in 2022. But the race was postponed for a full year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2018, the race brought out 100,000 visitors to Newport. In 2015, more than 137,000 visited the race with an estimated economic impact of $47.7 million for the state.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
