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The South Atlantic Race (formerly the Cape-to-Rio) is a yacht race from Cape Town to various destinations in South America. This has been primarily Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, although Punta del Este, Uruguay, and Salvador, Brazil, have all been chosen.
Following the success of Bruce Dalling and the yacht Voortrekker in the 1968 Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, [1] Admiral Hugo Biermann, then chairman of the Springbok Ocean Racing Trust, suggested that South Africa host an ocean race of its own. [2]
The South African Ocean Racing Trust (as the SAORT became known) selected the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro, who were willing to co-operate in the organising of the race and the race would be known as the Cape to Rio. The first race was organised for 1971, with the organisers anticipating at most 15 entries into the race. [2] However the race attracted a large amount of interest and 58 boats entered the 1971 race. [2]
Ocean Spirit won the first race on 8 February, after 23 days and 42 minutes.
The 11th race was held to Salvador in 2006. The 2009 race was held to Bahia.
The 12th edition was back to the original course, Cape to Rio, and was won on handicap by Gerry Hegie on the yacht City of Cape Town in 17 days, 12 minutes.
The 75 ft Zephyrus IV holds the record for the race to Salvador, at 12 days, 16 hours, 49 minutes and 41 seconds. [3]
The VOR70 Maserati of Giovanni Soldini set a new record for the race original course (Cape to Rio) in the 2014 race at 10 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 57 seconds [4] This was however significantly improved in the 2020 race, when the trimaran LoveWater, sponsored by JSE listed HomeChoice International Ltd and skippered by Capetonian Craig Sutherland, took line honors in 7 days, 20 hours, 24 minutes and 44 seconds. The crew was made up of six South Africans, a Frenchman and a Briton.
This race is the longest continent-to-continent yacht race in the southern hemisphere.
The total length of the race is around 5,800 kilometres (3,600 mi) across the Atlantic Ocean. After leaving Cape Town, participants head north-west towards the island of Ilha Trindade, and south-west from there towards South America. As they near the coast, skippers need to decide whether to take the longer route with stronger winds, or a more direct route with the chance for lighter winds.
Prizes are awarded to the first competitor across the line, new records being set, as well as the first three across the line in three handicap classes.
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 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is an annual 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 Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race (MHOR) is a biennial sailing race which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005. It runs between Marblehead, Massachusetts and Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is believed to be the longest running offshore ocean race in the world and is considered one of the pre-eminent ocean races of the North Atlantic.
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. After attracting just five entries in the 2010-11 race, the event has not been held since.
Alex Thomson is a British yachtsman.
Franck Cammas is a French yachtsman. He has lived in Brittany since his victory in the Challenge Espoir Crédit Agricole in 1994. After completing a two-year maths course for the ‘Grandes écoles’, as well as a piano academy, Franck Cammas finally opted for a career in sailing. In 1997, at the age of 24, he won the Solitaire du Figaro and a year later helmed his first trimaran christened Groupama. Despite his late entry into competition, he is one of the most talented and respected sailors in the Ocean Racing Multihull Association world.
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.
Bruce Tweeddale Dalling was a Springbok South African yachtsman, also advocate and farmer, best known for taking second place on elapsed time and first on corrected time for the monohull award in the 1968 Observer Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race.
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Wild Oats XI is a maxi yacht, most famous for being the former race record holder and a nine-times line honours winner of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Launched in 2005, she was owned by Bob Oatley and skippered by New South Wales Mark Richards, who founded Palm Beach Yachts Australia.
Cornelis "Conny" van Rietschoten was a Dutch yacht skipper who was the only skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Race twice.
Pascal Bidegorry is a French sailor.
Daedalus is a maxi-catamaran, that participated in numerous open-ocean races under various owners and names.
The first around the world sailing record for circumnavigation of the world was Juan Sebastián Elcano and the remaining members of Ferdinand Magellan's crew who completed their journey in 1522. The first solo record was set by Joshua Slocum in the Spray (1898).
The Parmelia Race, Plymouth to Perth, 1979 was a feature event of the Western Australian 150th Anniversary Celebrations, 1979. Competitors were invited to recreate the 1829 voyage of the merchant barque Parmelia bringing the first British settlers to the Swan River Colony. The race was organised by the Royal Perth Yacht Club of Western Australia and sponsored by The Parmelia Hilton International, Perth
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.
Thomas Coville is a French yacht racer.
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 the 26th of 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.
Voortrekker is a 50-foot (15 m) racing yacht that became famous for placing first on handicap in the 1968 Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race and for placing second in the 1982/83 BOC Challenge despite being 14 years old and considered obsolete.