The upcoming edition of the Volvo Race, the gruelling round-the-world sailing event, will depart Alicante, Spain November 5, 2011 and arrive in Galway, Ireland around July 1, 2012.

Moreover, the 11th round of the race, which was first introduced in 1973 as the Whitbread race, will include nine legs and eight stopovers on five continents and covers 39, 270 nautical miles.

In the last version held in 2008-09, gained by Sweden’s Ericsson 4, also departed from Alicante in eastern Spain but it closed in St Petersburg in Russia after covering ten legs spread out over 37,000 nautical miles.

While talking to reporters, Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad said, “We have reduced the time the teams are onshore and the time they have between the in-port and the leg start.”

Further, he said, “Traditionally the teams would change their yachts from an offshore sailing mode to an inshore racing one and back again for the leg start. By bringing the two events together we lower the costs to them and their sponsors.”

According to him, more then 12 teams will take part in the 2011-12 editions compared to just eight teams in the last edition.