The Volvo Ocean Race may not be well known in the U.S.

It is worth knowing.

It’s the greatest race in the world.

Nothing else involves sailboats circling the planet as fast as they possibly can be driven.

The sailors will touch every continent except Antarctica and Australia. They will sail over every ocean except the Arctic. And they will do it in incredibly fast, dangerously fragile 65-metre boats.

The 66 sailors, 12 women and 54 men, in seven boats, will brave doldrums, high seas, typhoons, icebergs, scorching sun, perhaps even hunger in their lap of the Earth.

And the race began today.

The seven identically prepared boats, set off from Alicante, Spain, in light air, on the 2014-15 route that includes Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, China; Auckland, Itajai, Brazil; Newport, Rhode Island; Lisbon, Lorient and the finish line at Gothenburg.

In their journeys, they will nearly tough Brazil before turning south to round the southern tip of Africa, sail up to the Arabian Peninsula and circle it to reach the UAE, then go south of India and through the debris-strewn Strait of Malacca, then north to China, back down to New Zealand, then across the frigid Southern Ocean and under the tip of South America, up the coast to Brazil, then through the Caribbean and up the U.S. east cost to Rhode Island, then through the north Atlantic (passing near where the Titanic lies) and over to Portugal, then up to France, through the Channel to the North Sea, into the Baltic and the finish in Sweden.

As the captain of the Abu Dhabi boat, Ian Walker, said. “No big deal. What’s the fuss?”

This is the most difficult competition in sports. It is punishing for everyone involved, who will make due on short sleep and short rations, be wet and cold for weeks at a time, try to fight off motion sickness and hope nothing, well, lethal happens in the process.

We at The National have been covering this fairly closely because Abu Dhabi again has a boat in the race, Azzam, and will be a stop, after the second leg. The fleet will be in port here for most of a month, and the local tourist agency hopes for visitors.

Here is the story on the start of the race, today. Navigate around the microsite, and check out the coverage.

We have a story about how dangerous it is. And then a sidebar focused on the travails of a particular boat, nine years ago, when a sailor died after being swept overboard, as recalled by a sailor now on the Azzam boat.

And a story handicapping the race, a tricky business considering the seven boats are nearly identical.

I love this race. If I were brave enough, I would like to have done it. If I could handle the misery of sailing in cramped conditions not appreciably better than Magellan’s men would have known 500 years ago … I would have done it.

It’s an amazing race, and we look forward to covering it all the way to Sweden.