Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race
When inaugurated in 1960, it was the first single-handed ocean yacht race; it is run from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island in the United States, and has generally been held on a four yearly basis.
After the 2000 edition, the RWYC took the decision to split the race into two events, one using smaller boats and intended for amateurs and young sailors, the other for professionals.
The days of racers sailing the family boat were numbered following Tabarly's performance, for which he was awarded the Legion of Honour by president Charles de Gaulle.
Multihulls made their first appearance — sailing in the same class as the other boats; and the race featured the use of radio, for the first time, by several competitors who gave daily progress reports to their sponsors.
[4][6][11] The race was by now acquiring a reputation for pushing forward the technology of ocean sailing, and the 1968 edition featured the first use of computer-based weather routing.
A far cry from today's laptop-laden yachts, this consisted of a land-based mainframe computer, the English Electric KDF9, linked by radio to Geoffrey Williams in his boat Sir Thomas Lipton.
Although outside private routing advice of this kind is no longer permitted in most "unassisted" races, it is now routine for ocean sailors to do similar analyses using their on-board computers to process public weather information.
One casualty was Éric Tabarly, aboard his new trimaran Pen Duick IV, who collided with a cargo and sailed back to England with structural damage.
Carozzo went on to compete in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, the other major single-handed sailing event of the year.
A sign of the changing times was that the rules had a minimum size, to deter unsafe entries, but no maximum; and so the star of the monohull fleet was Vendredi Treize (Friday the 13th), a 128-foot (39 m) three-masted schooner — a huge boat for a single-hander.
However, the all-time size record for the race, and probably for any single-hander, was set by Alain Colas, sailing the 236-foot (72 m) four-masted schooner Club Mediterranée.
David Sandeman was later listed in the Guinness Book of Records as being the youngest person to single-handedly sail the Atlantic between Jersey, UK, and Rhode Island.
Yvon Fauconnier and Jean-Yves Terlain, two of the top favorites, lost their boats due to structural failure and were rescued by the same Soviet cargo ship.
A particularly sad story was that of Mike McMullen, whose wife Lizzie was electrocuted and killed while helping him to prepare Three Cheers for the race, just two days before the start.
Colas in Club Mediterranée was plagued by halyard problems; although 330 miles (531 km) in the lead, he was forced to pull into Halifax, Nova Scotia to make repairs, and was penalised 10% of his elapsed time (58 hours) for accepting help, which dropped him from second to fifth place.
The winner was American Phil Weld, in only his second OSTAR, whose trimaran Moxie was custom built to the 56-foot (17 m) limit; he set a new course record of 18 days.
The preponderance of larger boats, and particularly multihulls, left the smaller Jesters seriously outclassed; the highest-placed was Free Newspapers, sailed by John Chaundy, who finished in 29th place, with a time of 28 days.,[4][20][21] RWYC OSTAR Race Results - 1980 Dame Naomi James, who became the second lady to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly in 1977/78 was reunited with the Express Crusader (fitted out and renamed Kriter Lady) for the race.
Canadian skippers Mike Birch and Bob Lush were the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary Singlehanders, released in 1982.
This resulted in an upset at the finish — Philippe Poupon, sailing the 56-foot (17 m) trimaran Fleury Michon VI, arrived first with a time of 16 days 12 hours, and went to bed thinking that he had won.
But the race was awarded to Yvon Fauconnier, who finished 10 hours later but was given a 16-hour time allowance for rendering assistance to Philippe Jeantot, whose catamaran Credit Agricole had capsized.
Favourable weather made ideal conditions for a fast pace, and indeed Philippe Poupon's winning time set a new race record of 10 days, 9 hours and 10 minutes.
Mike Richey's original Jester, which had taken part in every edition of the race, was lost in heavy weather in the tail-end of the fleet.
The top five monohulls: The Europe 1 Star of 1992 saw the fleet beset by a full range of hazards — storms, icebergs, trawlers, fog and whales hit boats on the northern route, before they were finally becalmed off Newfoundland.
[4][25] The top ten finishers included two monohulls: Loïck Peyron, on the same trimaran Fujicolor II, for the 1996 edition of the race; and he led at the start, passing the Eddystone lighthouse at 28 knots (52 km/h).
[29] A surprising total of 24 Open 60 monohulls entered the race; most of these were using the event as a qualifying run for the 2000-2001 Vendée Globe starting later in the year.
