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 Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Race after Swedish automobile manufacturer Volvo took up the sponsorship, and in 2019 it was renamed The Ocean Race.
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is an annual oceanic yacht racing event hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, starting in Sydney, New South Wales, on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The race distance is approximately 630 nautical miles (1,170 km). The race is run in conjunction with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, and is widely considered to be one of the most difficult yacht races in the world.
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 Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) is an east-to-west yacht race across the North Atlantic. When inaugurated in 1960, it was the first single-handed ocean yacht race; it is run from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island in the United States, and has generally been held on a four yearly basis.
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.
Éric Marcel Guy Tabarly was a French naval officer and yachtsman. He developed a passion for offshore racing very early on and won several ocean races such as the Ostar in 1964 and 1976, ending English domination in this specialty. Several of his wins broke long standing records. He owed his successes to his exceptional mastery of sailing and of each one of his boats, to both physical and mental stamina and, in some cases, to technological improvements built into his boats. Through his victories, Tabarly inspired an entire generation of ocean racers and contributed to the development of nautical activities in France.
Kenneth Read is an American yachtsman who is considered one of the world's most accomplished and celebrated sailors. He was named United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year twice, and has won more than 50 world, North American, and national championships in a variety of classes, with eleven of those being World Championships titles in the J/24, Etchells 22 and yacht classes.
Cornelis "Conny" van Rietschoten was a Dutch yacht skipper who was the only skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Race twice.
Condor of Bermuda is a maxi yacht campaigning under the leadership and funding of London-based international businessman Bob Bell. Originally called Condor but renamed Heath's Condor for the 1977–78 Whitbread Round the World Race after Bell's association with Heath's Insurance Co (London). There is no link with former British prime minister Edward Heath of Morning Cloud yachting fame. Condor was then later renamed Condor of Bermuda, as government policy in the UK during the 1970s effectively exiled the financing of such a campaign by making the funding and domiciling of such an endeavour from the home countries a practical impossibility.
Pen Duick is the name best known for a series of ocean racing yachts sailed by French yachtsman Eric Tabarly. Meaning coal tit in Breton it was the name Tabarly's father gave to the 1898 Fife gaff cutter he purchased, and that his son learned to sail. He thereafter used the name for a series of successful racing yachts through the '60s and '70s.
Marc Pajot is a French sailor. He has been a crew member on Éric Tabarly’s boats.
Manureva was a custom-built racing trimaran famous for being the first oceangoing multihull racing sailboat, opening the path to the supremacy in speed of this kind of boat over monohulls. She won the 1972 Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, skippered by Alain Colas, and was lost at sea with Colas during the first "Route du Rhum" transatlantic solo race in 1978.
The Swan 65 is a large fibreglass fin+keeled masthead ketch- or sloop-rigged sailing yacht design, manufactured by Nautor's Swan. It was introduced as the new flagship of Nautor in 1973. At the time of its launch it was the largest glass reinforced plastic (GRP) constructed yacht in the market and because of its excellent racing history, one of the most famous Swan models ever built. The first 65-footers were delivered to owners in 1973, and the production continued until 1989 with 41 hulls built in total.
Maiden is a 58 foot (18 m) aluminium ocean racing yacht built in 1979, designed by Bruce Farr and raced by Pierre Fehlmann, Bertie Reed, Tracy Edwards and John Bankart. Edwards bought the yacht in 1987 to compete in the 1989–90 Whitbread Round the World Race with an all-female crew. The yacht achieved good results and broke records, leading to Edwards becoming the first female winner of the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy, changing the perception of women in ocean racing.
Yoann Richomme is a French navigator, sailor and yacht skipper. He has won the Solitaire du Figaro in 2016 and 2019 and the Route du Rhum in the Class 40 category in 2018 and 2022. In the Imoca class, he won the Retour à la Base 2023 and The Transat 2024.
Alexia Barrier is a French sailor who competed in the 2020–2021 Vendee Globe. Competing with the oldest boat in the fleet and only securing sufficient funding months before the start, she completed the race in 111 days, 17 hours, 03 minutes.
Philippe Poupon, is a French professional offshore yachtsman, born on 23 October 1954 in Quimper, France. He competed in the 1989–1990 Vendée Globe where he was rescued by Loick Peyron. He then went on to finish 3rd in the 1992–1993 Vendée Globe which is the pinnacle solo round-the-world race. He is one of the most successful sailors with three Figaro wins to his credit, winner of the Ostar, the Route du Rhum, the Route of Discovery, the record of the Atlantic. His early experience was as crew for Eric Tabarly onboard Pen Duick VI for the 1977–1978 Whitbread Round the World Race. Since 2009 he has embarked on his boat Fleur Australe on an expedition aimed at raising public awareness of the protection of the oceans.
Marie Tabarly is a French professional yacht sailor based in Lorient, France, in Brittany. She is the daughter of Éric Tabarly, who died while sailing in the Irish Sea in 1998. Marie originally had a career as an equine behaviourist but put it on hold after her horse got injured and decided to focus on sailing instead. She has a long history of sailing many different yachts from a young age, such as Geronimo, the French trimaran which has broken many records, such as with Olivier de Kersauson, for which she was named the godmother at its christening.
Paprec Arkéa (6) is an IMOCA 60 monohull sailing yacht, designed by Antoine Koch and Finot-Conqm built by Multiplast in France, and launched on 22 February 2023. It is designed for the Vendée Globe 2024, a non-stop, round the world solo race. Its skipper is the French offshore sailor Yoann Richomme.
