The Ocean Race, the round-the-world sailing race that began as the Whitbread and spent two decades under Volvo ownership, is moving its global headquarters to Porto. On 29 September, according to Lusa, the executive of Porto City Council approved the installation of the race’s global headquarters in the Kasa da Praia, a former tram substation on the seafront between Castelo do Queijo and Praia Internacional, together with the creation of a Museu dos Oceanos (Ocean Museum). The building will be the race’s global headquarters until 2040, Jornal de Notícias (JN) reported. The deal also moves the start: the race’s main round-the-world event will set off from Porto in the next three editions it covers, in 2031, 2035 and 2039, according to Lusa and Agenda Cultural do Porto. Until now the race has started from Alicante in Spain, where its current headquarters is; Alicante has hosted every start since 2008–09, according to Wikipedia’s race records.
The proposal passed with the votes of the mayor’s PSD/CDS/IL coalition and of Chega; the five Socialist (PS) councillors abstained, JN and Lusa reported. Mayor Pedro Duarte, elected on the PSD/CDS-PP/IL ticket, presented the deal in economic terms. “This project will be highly transformative because it puts the city at the centre as a hub linked to the blue economy, which is the economy of the future, to research and to the study of maritime issues,” he said, according to Lusa. “The return for the city will predictably be gigantic.” He said that in Alicante every euro invested had returned 11.
Alicante is the benchmark the mayor pointed to. According to Lusa, the race’s base there created more than 1,000 jobs, generated more than €33 million in tax revenue in Spain and drew more than 300,000 visits. Those are Spanish figures, built up over several editions; the reports of Porto’s decision do not include comparable projections for jobs, tax revenue or visitors in Porto, beyond the mayor’s expectation of a “gigantic” return.
What Porto and Turismo de Portugal are paying
The public money is spread over several components and runs to 2040. According to JN, total investment could exceed €70 million, roughly €22 million from the city and €48 million from Turismo de Portugal, the national tourism authority; Público headlined its report “Porto dá 22 milhões para ficar com Ocean Race até 2040” (Porto gives €22 million to keep the Ocean Race until 2040). The mayor said Turismo de Portugal will invest €48 million in the event, Lusa reported. Before the vote, the municipal proposal foresaw at least €12.025 million in direct municipal contributions tied to the events, according to Agenda Cultural do Porto, which notes that these multi-year amounts should not be confused with the cost of restoring the building.
The building itself is a smaller line. Adapting the Kasa da Praia will cost up to €3 million, and it is ceded to the race until 2040; until it is ready, the municipality has committed to providing a temporary headquarters from 1 September 2027, Agenda Cultural do Porto reported. The Ocean Museum is budgeted at about €4 million, and the city also plans works on the aquarium on Avenida do Brasil. The museum’s format has yet to be worked out; in Alicante, the race already runs a museum on its own history.
From tram substation to nightclub to race base
The Kasa da Praia was built in 1904 as substation no. 1 of Castelo do Queijo for the Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto, supplying power to the city’s electric trams. It was extended in 1911 and kept that role until 1974, later housed the Colégio Luso-Internacional do Porto, and reopened in 2015 as the Kasa da Praia restaurant and nightclub. Municipal documents say it has been vacant since 2021; JN says it closed in 2020. Three years ago its future was in doubt: a 2023 proposal in the Caminha–Espinho coastal programme (POC) had foreseen demolishing it, together with the nearby Edifício Transparente. In July 2026 the State transferred the building’s management to the municipality, according to Agenda Cultural do Porto, Lusa and JN.
The Swedish thread
The race was first sailed in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race, starting from Portsmouth on 8 September that year. Volvo Group and Volvo Cars, its co-owners for two decades, ran it as the Volvo Ocean Race from the 2001–02 edition and added stopovers in Volvo’s biggest European car markets, Sweden among them; Gothenburg was the finish port of the 2005–06 and 2014–15 races, according to Wikipedia’s race records. In 2018 Volvo sold the race to Atlant Ocean Racing Spain, led by Richard Brisius, Johan Salén and Jan Litborn, according to the Volvo Ocean Race’s announcement of the sale. Brisius and Salén had started as sailors in the 1989–90 race before managing two winning Swedish entries, EF Language (1997–98) and Ericsson 4 (2008–09), and later the all-female Team SCA; Volvo Cars agreed to stay on as a sponsor. Brisius, a Swede, also led Stockholm-Åre’s bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Portugal is not new to the race. Lisbon was a stopover in the 2011–12, 2014–15 and 2017–18 editions, according to Wikipedia’s race records. The next edition starts from Alicante in January 2027 and covers about 32,000 nautical miles, according to Agenda Cultural do Porto; Observador and Público reported in March that it will stop in Cascais. Closer to Porto, The Ocean Race Europe called at the Leixões cruise terminal in Matosinhos in August 2025, drawing about 20,000 visitors over two days, according to Agenda Cultural do Porto.
Why it matters for the corridor
For the Nordic–Portuguese corridor, the decision is a Portuguese public commitment — municipal and national tourism money, and a building whose management the State transferred to the city only in July — to a Spain-registered sports business with Swedish leadership that is relocating its global base to Porto. It does not by itself bring Nordic teams, sponsors or investment to the city, and the reports of the decision mention none. What it does create is a fixed point: a race with Swedish management and a long Volvo history will be headquartered in Porto until 2040, with three starts in the city along the way. The milestones to watch are the temporary base from 1 September 2027, the terms of Turismo de Portugal’s €48 million and the 2031 start. For the Nordic companies already operating in Portugal, it adds one more Nordic-led organisation with a long-term address in the north of the country.
Sources: Lusa via SAPO and O Jogo, “Kasa da Praia no Porto acolhe sede da Ocean Race até 2040” (29 September 2026); Jornal de Notícias, “Ocean Race vai ocupar antiga Kasa da Praia até 2040” (29 September 2026); Público, “Depois dos aviões, os barcos: Porto dá 22 milhões para ficar com Ocean Race até 2040” (29 September 2026); Agenda Cultural do Porto, “Kasa da Praia vai renascer como novo polo do oceano e sede da The Ocean Race no Porto” (30 September 2026); Volvo Ocean Race announcement via Marine Industry News, “New ownership for Volvo Ocean Race” (1 June 2018); Around the Rings; Observador and Público (18 March 2026); Wikipedia, “The Ocean Race” and the 2017–18 Volvo Ocean Race edition article.