St. Pete-Clearwater, Fla., will serve as the North American stopover of The Ocean Race 2027, race organizers announced Wednesday, with Sail Newport confirming it chose not to pursue the bid.

Sail Newport, Rhode Island’s Public Sailing Center — which hosted the race in 2015 and 2018 under the Volvo Ocean Race name and again in 2023 as The Ocean Race — decided in late 2024 not to pursue the 2027 edition following a review of its nonprofit mission, community priorities, and the financial demands of hosting the event.

“We are proud of the legacy we’ve built with The Ocean Race, but we are also mindful of our responsibility to host a financially sustainable event for the city and state,” said Brad Read, Sail Newport’s executive director. “Declining to bid for the 2027 edition has allowed us to focus our energy and resources on initiatives that directly serve these goals.”

Sail Newport’s mission centers on public access to sailing, sustainability, and marine education.

“Newport had an immensely successful experience with the race, and we fully support the St. Pete team in making this a wonderful event,” Read added.

The Ocean Race also announced a new transatlantic leg for the 2027 edition, departing from St. Pete-Clearwater and arriving in Cascais, Portugal — the first time in the event’s 54-year history that Florida’s Gulf Coast will serve as a race departure port. The crossing spans approximately 4,500 nautical miles of open Atlantic Ocean.

“The Ocean Race has always been defined by the cities and communities that embrace it,” said Richard Brisius, Race Chairman of The Ocean Race. “Florida has welcomed this race five times before; now it does so in a way that will bring the event to a whole new audience on the Gulf Coast.”

The race will be based at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, along the downtown waterfront, from May 4-16, 2027. The University of South Florida, home to one of the nation’s leading marine science programs, is among the event’s supporters.

The 15th edition of The Ocean Race departs Alicante, Spain, on Jan. 17, 2027. The fleet will travel to Auckland, New Zealand; then Itajaí, Brazil; before heading north to St. Pete-Clearwater. The race will also finish on the Red Sea for the first time, concluding at AMAALA.

The edition will again feature foiling IMOCA 60 race boats and will require each team to include at least one female sailor at all times.

Charlie Enright, the Bristol, R.I., skipper who won the 2023 edition with Newport-based 11th Hour Racing and now serves as CEO of US Sailing, called the new leg “a fantastic initiative.” “St. Pete-Clearwater is a sailing and sporting community with real energy,” Enright said, “and launching a transatlantic leg from the Gulf Coast is going to be something special.”

Newport hosted the race three consecutive times. The 2015 and 2018 stopovers drew more than 200,000 visitors to Fort Adams State Park and generated tens of millions of dollars in economic impact for Rhode Island, according to state officials. The 2023 stopover, co-hosted by Sail Newport, the State of Rhode Island and 11th Hour Racing, included a nine-day public festival and ocean education programming for thousands of students.

For more information on The Ocean Race 2027, visit theoceanrace.com.