(Reuters) - The finale of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18, will be held in The Hague, Tom Touber, the race's outgoing Dutch Chief Operating Officer, told a news conference on Wednesday.
The event, launched 42 years ago as the Whitbread (LON:WTB) Round the World Race, is commonly regarded as ocean racing's toughest challenge.
The last race, which covered 38,739 nautical miles and visited every continent, took nine months to complete and finished in June. The next one is scheduled to start from Alicante in 2017.
"Today is a great day for sailing in general, but even more so for the Netherlands... It will be the party of a lifetime," Touber said.
The Hague was a host port for the first time during the last edition of the race in 2015. About 150,000 people showed up at Scheveningen harbour for what was one of the most successful pit-stops during the event.
The Dutch stopover will be preceded by a midsummer stopover in Volvo's home city of Gothenburg.