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.
Sir William Robert Patrick Knox-Johnston is a British sailor. In 1969, he became the first person to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe. Along with Sir Peter Blake, he won in 1994 the second Jules Verne Trophy, for which they were also given the ISAF World Sailor of the Year Awards. In 2007, at the age of 67, he set a record as the oldest yachtsman to complete a round the world solo voyage in the Velux 5 Oceans Race.
The Velux 5 Oceans Race was a round-the-world single-handed yacht race, sailed in stages, managed by Clipper Ventures since 2000. Its most recent name comes from its main sponsor Velux. Originally known as the BOC Challenge, for the title sponsor BOC, the first edition was in 1982. In the late 1990s the race was renamed the Around Alone. The 2010-11 race was the last to take place and attracted just five entries. The event has not been held since.
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.
The clipper route was derived from the Brouwer Route and was sailed by clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route, devised by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, reduced the time of a voyage between The Netherlands and Java, in the Dutch East Indies, from almost 12 months to about six months, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route.
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.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is a biennial sailing race that takes paying amateur crews on one or more legs of a circumnavigation of the globe in 11 specially-designed identical yachts owned by Clipper Ventures. Professional skippers and additional qualified persons (AQPs) lead each teams on the 10-month journey. All participants must complete a four-week training course before starting the race. The race was conceived in 1995 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and is run by Clipper Ventures plc. The race has been held every two years since 1996, although in 2004 there was not a race and biennial racing resumed in 2005.
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).
Boris Herrmann is a German yachtsman and author competing mostly in offshore races in the IMOCA 60 class.
Joanna "Asia" Pajkowska is a Polish sailor, with a rank of captain, a sea life guard, she sailed over 250,000 nautical miles, often in singlehanded or in two-handed races. She is one of the best-known sailors in Poland and one of the most experienced ocean sailors in the world. In 2018 she completed, as the first Polish female sailor, singlehanded non-stop circumnavigation.
Jessica Watson is an Australian sailor who was awarded the Order of Australia Medal after attempting a solo circumnavigation at the age of 16. Although her voyage did not meet the distance criterion of 21,600 nautical miles (40,000 km) for a circumnavigation, Watson was nevertheless named the 2011 Young Australian of the Year and awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2012 for "...service to sailing and to youth through the achievement of sailing solo and unassisted around the world [sic], and as a role model for young Australians". She currently resides in Melbourne. Netflix produced a film, True Spirit (2023), about Watson's voyage.
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.
The sport of sailing involves a variety of competitive sailing formats that are sanctioned through various sailing federations and yacht clubs. Racing disciplines include matches within a fleet of sailing craft, between a pair thereof or among teams. Additionally, there are specialized competitions that include setting speed records. Racing formats include both closed courses and point-to-point contests; they may be in sheltered waters, coast-wise or on the open ocean. Most competitions are held within defined classes or ratings that either entail one type of sailing craft to ensure a contest primarily of skill or rating the sailing craft to create classifications or handicaps.
Captain Dilip Donde is a retired Indian Naval officer and the first Indian to complete a solo, unassisted circumnavigation of the globe under sail. From April 2006 to May 2010 he planned and executed Project 'Sagar Parikrama' which involved constructing a sailboat in India and then sailing it around the world. He was the hundred and ninetieth person to complete the journey solo.
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.
Lisa Blair is an Australian solo sailor who holds multiple world records. She is also an advocate for climate change, which she promotes through her Climate Action Now project. She has written a book, Facing Fear, about her first attempt at circumnavigating Antarctica solo on her yacht Climate Action Now.
Malizia-Seaexplorer (3) or Team Malizia (3), is an IMOCA 60 monohull sailing yacht, designed by VPLP and Boris Herrmann and constructed by Multiplast in France and launched on 19 July 2022. It has been designed for the Vendée Globe 2024, a solo tour of the world, but also participated in The Ocean Race 2023, a crewed around-the-world tour. Its skipper is the German yatchsman Boris Herrmann.
Philippe Delamare (FRA)
Cole Brauer (USA)
Andrea Mura (ITA)
Kevin Le Poidevin (AUS)
William MacBrien (CAN)
Pavlin Nadvorni (BUL)
Édouard De Keyser (BEL)
Ari Känsäkoski (FIN)
Dafydd Hughes (WAL)
Juan Merediz (SPA)
