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 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 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.
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.
Rodion Mykhailovych Luka is a Ukrainian yachtsman, Merited Sports Master, silver medallist of the Olympic Games 2004, Class 49er World Champion 2005, European Champion, and Sportsman 2005 in Ukraine. In August 2015 Luka was elected as the President of the Sailing Federation of Ukraine.
Boris Herrmann is a German yachtsman and author competing mostly in offshore races in the IMOCA 60 class.
Pascal Bidegorry is a French sailor.
John Paul Kostecki is an American competitive sailor of Polish descent. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started his sailing career in the San Francisco Bay, California.
The Volvo Ocean 65 is a class of monohull racing yachts. It is the successor to the Volvo Open 70 yacht used in past editions of the Volvo Ocean Race. It was announced at a conference in Lorient, France, during a stopover in the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race. The yacht was used for the 2014–2015, the 2017–2018 and the 2023 editions. The 2014–2015 Volvo Ocean Race was the first one-design event.
Juan Kouyoumdjian is a naval architect. He has designed ocean racing yachts, three of which have won the Volvo Ocean Race. He studied at the University of Southampton doing an Engineering Degree in ship science degree specializing in Yacht and Small Craft. During his studies, he did an internship with Philippe Briand in La Rochelle. On graduating in June 1993 he went on to work for Philippe Briand in La Rochelle for two years to work on the America's Cup Class boats, then he started his own business in 1996.
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.
Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team is a Volvo Ocean 65 yacht. Under Chinese sponsorship she finished third in the 2014–15 Volvo Ocean Race skippered by Charles Caudrelier and then went on to win the 2017-2018 edition, which started in Alicante, Spain, and ended in The Hague, in the Netherlands.
Vestas 11th Hour Racing was a Volvo Ocean 65 class yacht team competing in the 2017–2018 Volvo Ocean Race. It was named after 11th Hour Racing, a program of The Schmidt Family Foundation and its then title sponsors: a wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S. After the COVID-19 pandemic disruption the team changed yacht class to IMOCA 60 and no longer had Vestas as a sponsor. It now competes in the 2023 The Ocean Race as 11th Hour Racing.
Neal McDonald is a British sailor who has competed in seven Volvo Ocean Races.
Yoann Richomme is a French navigator, sailor and yacht skipper. He is a double winner of the Solitaire du Figaro and won the 2018 and the 2022 Route du Rhum in the Class 40 category.
Kevin Escoffier is a French professional sailor born on 4 April 1980 in Saint-Malo, France and a resident of Lorient. He is an offshore sailor who has won the 2018 Volvo Ocean Race as a bowman onboard DongFeng. and competed in the 2020–2021 Vendée Globe aboard PRB. In 2022-23 he initially skippered Holcim-PRB in The Ocean Race, before leaving the team mired in a sexual harassment incident. He is a member of the yacht club SN Baie St. Malo
The Ocean Race 2022–23 was the 14th edition of the round-the-world The Ocean Race. It started in Alicante, Spain.
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 is designed for the Vendée Globe 2024, a solo tour of the world, but also participated in The Ocean Race 2023, a crewed tour of around the world. Its skipper is the German Boris Herrmann.
