A Directory of Planet-Lapping Ocean Races
There are so many ocean races going around the world it can make your head spin. While following Cole Brauer in the Global Solo Challenge, we were also following the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest, the Clipper Race, and the Ocean Globe Race. With all this ocean traffic we thought it was a good time to write it all down to help you, and us, try to keep track of them all. Though we’re sure there must be others.
Round-the-world racing has largely been dominated by the French. However, it all started with Great Britain’s Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s win in the original Golden Globe Race in 1968. Now there’s a full menu of races for almost any type of boat, from the extreme 100-ft singlehanded Ultim trimarans to the much more modest Cape George 36 raced by Kirsten Neuschäfer last year. Generally, all of these races track around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, and South America’s Cape Horn. The Clipper Race uses the Panama Canal.
Vendée Globe — Next Start Nov. 10.
The Vendée Globe Race is a singlehanded, nonstop, and unassisted round-the-world yacht race that follows a Clipper Route circumnavigation. The race is sailed in the now-extreme, foiling IMOCA 60 monohulls. The race starts and finishes in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, covering approximately 24,000 nautical miles. It has been run since 1989 and now takes place every four years. The 2024 edition will be the 10th annual, and all nine previous races have been won by French skippers. The most recent event was won by Yannick Bestaven aboard his IMOCA 60 Maître Coq IV. This is the big one, with 44 boats entered this year!
The Ocean Race — Next Start 2025.
The Ocean Race is the technologically evolved, fully-crewed race around the world descended from the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race. It was won in June 2023 by Charlie Enright and his crew from 11th Hour Racing aboard their IMOCA 60 Mālama. Enright became the 2023 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year for his winning performance.
The next edition of The Ocean Race Europe is scheduled to start on August 10, 2025, from Kiel, Germany.
Ocean Globe Race — Currently Underway.
Like The Ocean Race, the Ocean Globe Race is another round-the-world race descended from the original 1973 Whitbread Race. Unlike The Ocean Race, this is a fully-crewed retro race sailed in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race. The 2023/24 edition marks the 50th anniversary of the original event. The original race was won by the Mexican yacht Sayula II, a brand-new Swan 65 owned and skippered by Mexican captain Ramón Carlin. This year the Swan 65 Translated 9 is sailing with a crew trained by Paul Cayard. Tracy Edwards’ original boat Maiden is also in the race, again with an all-female crew.
The eight-month adventure is aimed at ordinary sailors on normal yachts. The race is in fiberglass production boats designed before 1988 and raced without computers, satellites, GPS or high-tech materials. They’re navigating with sextants for a truly traditional experience. The food was probably better in 1973.
Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest — Last Finisher March 13.
The Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest is a solo, nonstop round-the-world race for Ultim Class trimarans, which have a maximum length of 100 feet and a maximum beam of 75 feet. These boats are giants and are regularly sailing between 30 and 40 knots for 50+ straight days. This year was the inaugural race and had six starters and five finishers. It was won by Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, sailed by Charles Caudrelier, who finished on February 27 with a total elapsed time of 50 days, 19 hours, 07 minutes, and 47 seconds. That’s fast! The fastest-ever solo circumnavigation outside of a race was by François Gabart, who lapped the planet in 42 days and 16 hours aboard the 100-ft trimaran Macif.
Golden Globe Race — Next Start 2026.
Not to be confused with the Ocean Globe Race, the Golden Globe Race is a singlehanded (not fully-crewed) race around the world that limits competitors to sailboats and technology available when the first race was held, in 1968. That was the year Sir Robin Knox-Johnston won this inaugural race aboard Suhaili. In the 2023 edition, in addition to winning the race, South African sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer was awarded the Cruising Club of America’s Blue Water Medal in recognition of her 235-day solo circumnavigation aboard her Port Townsend, WA-built Cape George 36, Minnehaha. Neuschäfer was the first of only three finishers of the Golden Globe Race, which began with 17 competitors.
The next race will depart from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, on September 6, 2026, and sail solo, nonstop around the world, via the five Great Capes, and return to Les Sables-d’Olonne.
Global Solo Challenge — Currently Underway.
The Global Solo Challenge is a solo, nonstop reverse-handicap sailing race where competitors depart from A Coruña, Spain, and sail nearly 30,000 miles around the world, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. This race does not have the technology restrictions of the Golden Globe Race. Cole Brauer made history by becoming the first American woman to sail solo, nonstop around the world, taking second in the event while setting the record for a solo circumnavigation in a 40-ft sailboat.
Seattle sailor David Linger is racing his Class 40 Koloa Maoli. He stopped to repair his boom in Ushuaia, Argentina, and is now back underway with 4500 miles to go until the finish. Ronnie Simpson, aboard his Open 50 Shipyard Brewing, was rescued in the South Atlantic after being dismasted.
Clipper Round the World Race — Currently Underway.
This is the race we can all sign up for. The Clipper Round the World Race attracts a lot of Brits, but has competitors from all over the globe. The event is raced in identical 70-ft ocean-racing yachts. The 2023/24 race started in the UK in August 2023 and finishes in July. It covers approximately 40,000 miles, with many city stopovers making it the longest circumnavigation race. Richmond Yacht Club sailor John Arnold recently completed the leg from Fremantle around the south coast of Australia. The fleet is now headed up to Qingdao, China, for its next stopover before it resumes and heads to Seattle. The following leg will go from Seattle to the Panama Canal. If you don’t have a boat and are looking to race around the world, this is the one for you.
The Jules Verne Trophy is raced whenever someone wants to enter to break the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions on the size of the crew. You win by breaking the previous Jules Verne record of the round-the-world voyage under sail. The start is defined by an imaginary line between the Créac’h lighthouse on Ouessant (Ushant) Island, France, and the Lizard Lighthouse, UK. The record is now held by Francis Joyon aboard the trimaran IDEC Sport, which completed the course in 2017 in 40 days 23 hours 30 minutes 30 seconds! The record has had nine different title holders, with four of those records set in catamarans and five in trimarans. The last three have been trimarans.
We hope we have this straight, as we’ve been going around in circles trying to keep track of it all. It’s also good to remember that some people leisurely sail around the world for the fun of it. We have a fairly comprehensive list of almost 400 West Coast Circumnavigators who have mostly cruised around the world at their own pace.
What have we missed?
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