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.
A maxi yacht usually refers to a racing yacht of at least 21 metres (70 ft) in length.
Cowes Week is one of the longest-running regular regattas in the world. With 40 daily sailing races, around 500 boats, and 2500 competitors ranging from Olympic and world-class professionals to weekend sailors, it is the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world. Having started in 1826, the event is held in August each year on the Solent, and is run by Cowes Week Limited in the small town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
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.
Jolie Brise is a gaff-rigged pilot cutter built and launched by the Albert Paumelle Yard in Le Havre in 1913 to a design by Alexandre Pâris. After a short career as a pilot boat, owing to steam replacing sail, she became a fishing boat, a racing yacht and a sail training vessel.
The Admiral's Cup was an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing.
The International Offshore Rule (IOR) was a measurement rule for racing sailboats. The IOR evolved from the Cruising Club of America (CCA) rule for racer/cruisers and the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) rule.
The 1979 Fastnet Race was the 28th Royal Ocean Racing Club's Fastnet Race, a yachting race held generally every two years since 1925 on a 605-nautical-mile course from Cowes direct to the Fastnet Rock and then to Plymouth via south of the Isles of Scilly. In 1979, it was the climax of the five-race Admiral's Cup competition, as it had been since 1957.
The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club is a watersports organisation based at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.
International Rating Certificate (IRC) is a system of handicapping sailboats and yachts for the purpose of racing. It is managed by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) in the United Kingdom through their dedicated Rating Office, and the Union Nationale pour la Course au Large (UNCL) in France.
The London Corinthian Sailing Club is based on the river Thames at Hammersmith. Its activities include Dinghy sailing and racing on the river, and yachting in the Solent and further afield, as well as an active social side including 'Club Nights' every Tuesday evening.
The Junior Offshore Group (JOG) is a UK based yacht club that organises offshore yacht races in the UK using IRC handicap system. The upper IRC limit for JOG is currently set at 1.200 and there is no lower limit as long as yachts comply with the relevant World Sailing Organisation Special Regulations category. Aimed at smaller yachts, though the size of the smallest yacht keeps getting bigger as the years go by.
Tiamat is a 40-foot racing yacht that sails out of Dublin Bay, Ireland under the burgee of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club.
The Brewin Dolphin Commodores’ Cup is a biennial amateur team sailing regatta first held in 1992. The competition is organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club consists of a number of events held in the oceans of the Solent, the English Channel and the Isle of Wight. Each team consists of three boats, two of them rated between 1.020 and 1.230 using the IRC rating system and one boat rated above 1.150. As a Corinthian (amateur) event, the boats rated between 1.020 and 1.230 can only have one Category 3 sailor and the boat rated above 1.150 may only have two. The most recent competition was held in 2014 from the 19th to the 26th of July and was won by Ireland.
The Union Nationale pour la Course au Large, also called UNCL, was a French yacht club.
The Transpac 52 (TP52) is a class of yacht used for competitive 52 Super Series yacht racing, and the Audi MedCup previously, besides the world championship of the class. The class is recognised by the International Sailing Federation which entitles the class to hold an Official World Championships.
Groupama 4 is a Volvo Open 70 yacht designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian. She won the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race skippered by Franck Cammas.
Handicap forms for sailing vessels in sailing races have varied throughout history, and they also vary by country, and by sailing organisation. Sailing handicap standards exist internationally, nationally, and within individual sailing clubs.
Passage records have been sanctioned, since 1972, by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).
The 2023 Fastnet Race, sponsored by Rolex and hosted by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in Cowes, was the 50th running of the Fastnet Race. It begins off the Royal Yacht Squadron start line at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in England at 1 pm on 22nd July 2023, before leaving the Solent through the Needles Channel as it follows the southern coastline of England westward down the English Channel, before rounding Land's End. After crossing the Celtic Sea, the race rounds the Fastnet Rock off the southwest coast of Ireland. Returning on a largely reciprocal eastward course, the race rounds the Isles of Scilly before crossing the finish line in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France.
