Volvo Ocean Race

As part of the anti-piracy measures introduced for Leg 2 from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi and Leg 3 to Sanya, China the boats will enter a ‘Stealth Zone’ on their way to the secret safe haven port.

Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race

Race organisers have introduced a series of security measures because of the threat of pirates operating in a vast area off the coast of Somalia.

The boats are currently heading towards a safe haven port, where they will be loaded onto a ship for transportation through the worst affected waters and on to a point off the Sharjah coast, where they will resume racing to Abu Dhabi.

For reasons of security, the identity of the loading port is not being disclosed, which is why the Stealth Zone has been implemented.

While the fleet is in the Stealth Zone, race fans will still be able to follow the teams’ progress relative to each other via the official website race tracker, although individual boats’ headings will be distorted and the weather layer will be disabled.

Media Crew Members will send back multimedia content as normal and the race editorial team will continue to post stories on the website every day.

The race App will not display any information other than the ranking while the boats are in the Stealth Zone in the first stage of Leg 2 and the second stage of Leg 3 but will function normally for the sprint sections in and out of Abu Dhabi.

Related stories:

August 18 2011: Piracy threat forces race route change

August 22 2011: Skippers assess strategy after course change

December 8 2011: Anti piracy plan revealed