Cruising is a maritime activity that involves staying aboard a watercraft for extended periods of time when the vessel is traveling on water at a steady speed. Cruising generally refers to leisurely trips on yachts and luxury cruiseships, with durations varying from day-trips to months-long round-the-world voyages.
Yacht racing is a sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marked by buoys or other fixed navigational devices or racing longer distances across open water from point-to-point. It can involve a series of races with buoy racing or multiple legs when point-to-point racing.
The Vendée Globe is a single-handed (solo) non-stop round the world yacht race. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. It is named after the Département of Vendée, in France, where the race starts and ends. The Vendée Globe is considered an extreme quest of individual endurance and the ultimate test in ocean racing.
The sport and practice of single-handed sailing or solo sailing is sailing with only one crewmember. The term usually refers to ocean and long-distance sailing and is used in competitive sailing and among cruisers.
The IMOCA, is a 60ft development class monohull sailing yacht governed by the International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA). The class pinnacle event are single or two person ocean races, such as the Route du Rhum and the Vendée Globe and this has been intimately linked to design development within the class. The class is recognised by World Sailing.
Mike Golding is an English yachtsman, born in Great Yarmouth and educated at Reading Blue Coat School. He is one of the few yachtsmen to have raced round the world non-stop in both directions. He held the solo record for sailing round the world westabout between 1994 and 2000.
A chartplotter is a device used in marine navigation that integrates GPS data with an electronic navigational chart (ENC).
Alex Thomson is a British yachtsman.
A sailing yacht, is a leisure craft that uses sails as its primary means of propulsion. A yacht may be a sail or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, so the term applies here to sailing vessels that have a cabin with amenities that accommodate overnight use. To be termed a "yacht", as opposed to a "boat", such a vessel is likely to be at least 33 feet (10 m) in length and have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities. Sailboats that do not accommodate overnight use or are smaller than 30 feet (9.1 m) are not universally called yachts. Sailing yachts in excess of 130 feet (40 m) are generally considered to be superyachts.
Navico is a marine electronics company providing navigation, marine instruments and fish finding equipment to both the recreational and commercial marine sectors.
Bruce Schwab is an American sailor and ocean racer. He circumnavigated the globe twice on his Open 60 racing yacht OceanPlanet becoming the 240th and then the 254th solo sailor to do so. Schwab is the first American to officially complete the famous Vendée Globe Race (2004–2005).
Marine electronics refers to electronics devices designed and classed for use in the marine environment on board ships and yachts where even a small amount of salt water can destroy some electronics devices. Therefore, the majority of these types of devices are either water resistant or waterproof.
Boris Herrmann is a German yachtsman and author competing mostly in offshore races in the IMOCA 60 class.
Stowe Marine is a developer and manufacturer of advanced instrumentation systems for racing and cruising sailing yachts.
The first around the world sailing record for circumnavigation of the world can be attributed to the surviving crew of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, including the last captain Juan Sebastián Elcano who completed their journey in 1522.
François Gabart is a French professional offshore yacht racer who won the 2012-13 Vendée Globe in 78 days 2 hours 16 minutes, setting a new race record. In 2017 he set the speed record for sailing around the globe, in 42 days 16 hours 40 minutes and 35 seconds, finishing on 17 December. He was sailing solo in the 30 metre Trimaran Macif.
Dídac Costa is a yachtsman who competes in ocean racing. He was the first Catalan and the second Spanish yachtsman to finish the Vendée Globe, the non-stop solo round-the-world sailing world race. He was the first Spanish yachtsman to complete the two IMOCA 60 class round-the-world yacht races: solo in the 2016–2017 Vendée Globe and double-handed at the Barcelona World Race 2014–15. He is the protagonist of the feature documentary Open Ocean (2021), which chronicles his 2016-17 and 2020-21 Vendée Globe campaigns.
The C&C Custom 67 is a Canadian sailboat, that was designed by Robert W. Ball of C&C Yachts and was launched and named Archangel in September 1980. She remains the largest pleasure boat commission ever received by C&C, and epitomized a trend within C&C during the later 1970s and early 1980s toward more cruising-oriented designs under George Cuthbertson's direction, a trend best illustrated by the development of the Landfall series.
The 2020–2021 Vendée Globe was a non-stop round the world yacht race for IMOCA 60 class yachts crewed by only one person. It was the ninth edition of the race, which started and finished in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France. The race began on 8 November 2020, with the first finishers completing the course on 27 January 2021 with the 25th and final yacht to complete the race arrived on 5 March 2021.
The Global Solo Challenge is a single-handed (solo) non-stop round the world yacht race. The race was founded by Marco Nannini. The Second edition will be 2027-2028, starting and finishing in Vigo, Galicia, Spain.
