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 Fastnet Race is a biennial offshore yacht race organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) of the United Kingdom with the assistance of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes and the City of Cherbourg in France.
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.
Alex Thomson is a British yachtsman.
The Transat Jacques Vabre is a yachting race that follows the historic coffee trading route between France and Brazil. It is named after a French brand of coffee.
Boris Herrmann is a German yachtsman and author competing mostly in offshore races in the IMOCA 60 class.
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.
Brian Thompson is a British yachtsman. He was the first Briton to twice break the speed record for sailing around the world, and the first to sail non-stop around the world four times. He is highly successful offshore racer on all types of high-performance yachts, from 21-foot Mini Transat racers to 140-foot Maxi Trimarans.
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 singlehanded in the 30 metre Trimaran Macif.
Alex Pella is a Spanish yachtsman. In 2014 he became the first and only Spanish to win a transoceanic single-handed race, the Route du Rhum. Alex Pella made history once again, on 26 January 2017, when he broke, with the rest of the team, the absolute round-the-world speed sailing record, known as the Jules Verne Trophy., aboard the sophisticated maxi-multihull IDEC 3. They circumnavigated the planet in 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds.
The International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA) is the governing body of the IMOCA class. Its main task is to design the class regulations for the ocean racing yachts IMOCA 60 and organising single-handed regattas. It was established in 1991. IMOCA has been a member of World Sailing (governing body of international sailing sport) since 1999.
Phil Sharp is a British yachtsman. He was born in Jersey, educated at Victoria College Jersey and qualified from Imperial College London with an MSc in Mechanical Engineering. Sharp holds World Speed Sailing Records. and Guinness World Records for the Cowes-to-Dinard monohull under 60 ft singlehanded, and crewed around Britain and Ireland under 40 ft.
Ari Huusela is a professional Finnish pilot and amateur offshore single-handed sailor. He has flown 25,000 hours and has sailed over 50,000 nautical miles.
Miranda Merron is a British female sailor born on 2 July 1969. She is an offshore sailor having extensively competed with highlights including a Jules Verne Trophy attempt with Tracey Edwards on Royal Sunalliance and the completing the 2020–2021 Vendée Globe.
Richard Tolkien is a British corporate finance adviser, director and trustee and experienced adventure sailor who grew up in Devon. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Totnes, and Exeter College, Oxford (1974–1977), where he won the Webb Medley prize and graduated with a first in PPE. He joined HM Treasury that year and worked for the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the private office from 1979 to 1982.
Passage records have been sanctioned, since 1972, by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).
The Route du Rhum is a single person transatlantic race the 2022 race was the 12th edition and had six classes with 138 boats taking part. The events status as a qualification for event for the Vendee Globe lead to the largest most competitive fleet of IMOCA 60 class yachts gathered todate. In his first attempt at the race Charles Caudrelier took line honours in a new race record time on the Maxi Multihull Edmond de Rothschild in six days, 19 hours and 47 minutes.
The Transat is a transatlantic yacht race first held in 2004 as a spin-off for professional sailors from the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race which is limited to amateurs since.
