Sailing: Ocean Race and other round-the-world tours

While the four boats of The Ocean Race (round the world crewed and with a stopover that will end in Genoa at the end of June) rounded Cape Horn in the moonliest stage in the history of the tour with its 12,750 miles (23,613 km), another circumnavigation of the earth is coming to an end. The winner is the Dutch crew who won the Class 40 stage round-the-world tour, which left last year from the French port of Lorient. Another one is about to end: it is the solo and non-stop Golden Globe Race aboard boats built before 1988 and without electronic equipment as in the first edition which inspired it. In the lead (in the equatorial calm) the New Zealander Kirsten Neuschäfer, first of the 4 left in the race (out of the 13 that started on 4 September 2022 from Les Sables d’Olonne). Target from which the Neuschäfer is about 2900 miles away. The arrival of the Golden Globe Race and then that in Genoa (for the first time in the 50-year history of the regatta) of The Ocean Race with the party of The Grand Finale, will not mark the conclusion of the round-the-world season because others ” giros” are preparing to start and both in September.

Global Solo Challenge

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The first, the Global Solo Challenge, was conceived by the Italian entrepreneur and navigator Marco Nannini who, among other things, in addition to a world tour, finished second in 2009 at the OSTAR, the solo transatlantic crossing. The regulation of this solo round-the-world tour with boats between 9.67 meters and 16.75 meters in length is very particular. The boats will in fact be grouped into classes according to their rafting, as well as their length, the handicap of sailing which takes into account the length, the surface of the sails and a series of other parameters. The departure will be staggered. First starting from the Spanish port of La Coruña, on September 2nd, those with the lowest rafting, then the smallest and slowest. Then, over the course of three months, the slightly larger ones will leave in groups, and then the other classes will gradually increase in size. In the end it will therefore be a pursuit race and the winner will be whoever, no matter what class, returns first to A Coruña, via the Cape of Good Hope, south of Africa, via Cape Leeuwin, south Australia, and rounding Cape Horn south of mainland South America.

Idea

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Nannini’s idea met with great success. Entries close on 30 June and the enrollment fee is 7500 euros. There are currently 30 members, mostly French (6). Two Italians: Riccardo Tosetto with a 12-metre Class 40 and Alessandro Tosetti with a Vallicelli 65, just under 20 meters long. They are joined by the Frenchman who has been transplanted to Italy for years Patrick Phelipon with a boat of his own design and construction 11 meters long. Also in September, but on the 10th, the Ocean Globe Race starts, which is meant to be a tribute to Whitbread, the first crewed round-the-world regatta held in 1973 and from which The Ocean Race was born. The Ocean Globe Race will start from Europe (port to be defined) and is open in practice to boats built between the 70s and 80s by the Finnish shipyard Nautor (owned by the Florentine fashion entrepreneur Leonardo Ferragamo since 1998): the famous Swans. To these are added a few boats, all built in those years by a small number of other shipyards. And among the boats admitted there is also one built by the Grand Soleil shipyard in Forlì. The route has stops in Cape Town in South Africa, Auckland in New Zealand, Punta del Este in Uruguay and back to Europe. There are currently 18 boats registered, two Italian: Translated 9 by Marco Trombetti and Kanenas by Guido Del Gizzo. Translated 9 is co-skippered by Vittorio Maligni, companion of many adventures of Giovanni Soldini and holder with his son Nico (also on board), of the Atlantic crossing record on a 6-metre catamaran. The idea of ​​Trombetti, manager of a translation company, is to: “Prove that only people and not machines are capable of accomplishing great enterprises”. The crew, as required by the regulations, is made up of 70% of enthusiasts selected by Malingri over the course of a series of navigations in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and will take turns during the tour. 2024 is also full of laps. The year opens in January with the departure from Brest, in Normandy, of the Arkéa Ultim Challenge Brest, the tour of giant trimarans (32 meters long and 23 wide). At the moment, all the French big names who will compete aboard boats with masts over 30 meters are registered. Then on 10 November the tenth edition of the Vendée Globe starts from Les Sables d’Olonne, the solo non-stop and unassisted world tour born in 1989 and then won by Philippe Jeantot with a time of 109 days, 8 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 50 seconds. The winner of the last 2020-2021 edition, the French Yannick Bestaven, took 80 days and a handful of hours. The predictions are for an edition with record participation. In fact, there is talk of 40 boats on the starting line. In 2025, a new edition of The Ocean Race is planned, the crewed ride. In short, around the world there will always be someone who travels on a sailboat.