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Latest News: 2023 McIntyre Ocean Globe Prize giving!
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The Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is a fully crewed retro race in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race. It marks the 50th anniversary of the original event.
It’s an eight-month adventure around the world for ordinary sailors on normal yachts. Racing ocean-going GRP production yachts designed before 1988, there will be no computers, no satellites, no GPS, and no high-tech materials. Sextants, team spirit and raw determination alone in the great traditions of ocean racing are allowed on this truly human endeavor. These will be real heroes pushing each other to the limit and beyond – in a real race!
Following the success of the 2018 Golden Globe Race , the concept of retro, fully crewed, traditional ocean racing around the globe has returned.
Don McIntyre – 8 minutes on ‘Who What How When Where and Why of the OGR’
Yesterday and Today
The 1968 sunday times golden globe race was the first ever around-the-world yacht race..
It was an adventure to determine who could be the first to circumnavigate the globe solo, nonstop without assistance. Nine sailors started, only one finished. It was an epic tale won by the least expected to win – Sir Robin Knox-Johnston in the 32ft timber ketch Suhaili . He established a world record in the same year that footsteps first appeared on the surface of the Moon. A few years later, the British yachting establishment organised the first ever fully crewed yacht race around the world. With backing from Whitbread Breweries and following in the wake of the great clipper ships, the legend that became known simply as ‘The Whitbread’ was born in 1973.
18 yachts lined up for the start on a sunny Saturday morning in Portsmouth England on 8 September 1973. Two more would join for later legs. It was an adventure, a family affair even, in yachts from 45ft to 74ft.
The race would take them first to Cape Town, South Africa and on to Sydney Australia, before heading deep south around the infamous Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro and finally back up to Portsmouth – 27,000 miles later. A total of 324 crew were involved. Sadly, three would never return; lost overboard during Southern Ocean storms. Five yachts retired and three were dismasted. This race was also won by the least expected to win; a family crew with friends, sailing a standard production Swan 65 yacht, Sayula II , skippered by Mexican Ramón Carlin.
It was a fantastic race. A true adventure filled with real stories of human endeavour, colour and challenges on the high seas.
For the next 20 years the adventure continued with a Whitbread Round the World Race staged every four years. Sailors of all levels, ages and backgrounds were able to follow their dreams. They signed on and circumnavigated the globe – in a race.
Yachts became steadily faster, and costs began to climb. The fifth edition in 1989 saw one entry spend £6million in an unsuccessful bid to win. The 6th edition in 1993 brought huge change and sadly the end for most sailors hoping to be part of this ultimate challenge. By then, the Whitbread Race had evolved into a fully professional event. In the words of the organisers, it was now the Formula 1 of Grand Prix ocean yacht racing. Ordinary sailors with their dreams could only spectate.
A growing international audience, advancing technology and huge budgets led eventually to Volvo taking over the race. They transformed the event into a nautical extravaganza of stunning proportions with elite sailors that we have all grown to respect. Peak athletes all, sailing a few grand prix, state of the art, one-design yachts, driven by computers, all with comprehensive shore support ready to pick up the pieces. These spectacular Volvo yachts left the clipper ships in their wake in every sense!
Today, these high budget boats chase records across the planet to dazzle at race villages and big budget spectacles. Currently in a state of transition, the newly renamed Ocean Race is stepping up again, reinventing itself in exciting ways with IMOCA 60 yachts sailed by just five elite crew and autopilots now helming for the first time.
On the 50th anniversary of the original Whitbread Round the World Race, McIntyre Adventure (organisers of the Golden Globe Race ) and the Globe Yacht Club are proud to announce, that after 30 years of spectating, ordinary yacht club sailors and owners everywhere, once again have a chance to race around the globe! We are going back to that first great Whitbread Race and sailing like it’s 1973. The Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is for sailors with a dream and a sense of adventure – pure and simple! Is it YOU?
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About the race
The Clipper Race is one of the biggest challenges of the natural world and an endurance test like no other.
With no previous sailing experience necessary, before signing up for the intensive training programme, it’s a record-breaking 40,000 nautical mile race around the world on a 70-foot ocean racing yacht. The next edition will be the Clipper 2025-26 Race and will begin in late summer 2025. The route is divided into eight legs and between 13 and 16 individual races including six ocean crossings. You can choose to complete the full circumnavigation or select one or multiple legs.
The brainchild of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world, the first Clipper Race took place in 1996. Since then, almost 6,000 Race Crew from all walks of life and more than 60 nations have trained and raced in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race; the only race in the world where the organisers supply a fleet of identical racing yachts (eleven), each with a fully qualified skipper and first mate to safely guide the crew. Crew complete four levels of intense ocean racer training before they compete. Mother Nature does not distinguish between female and male, professional or novice. There is nowhere to hide - if Mother Nature throws down the gauntlet, you must be ready to face the same challenges as the pro racer. Navigate the Atlantic Tradewinds and Doldrums en route to South America, endure the epic Roaring Forties, experience Indian Ocean sunsets, face the mountainous seas of the mighty Pacific - and bond with an international crew creating lifelong memories before returning victorious.
Seize the moment, unleash the adventure.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is the only event of its type. Anyone, even if they have never stepped on a boat before, can join the adventure.
History of the Race
Since the first Clipper Race crew left Plymouth in October 1996 on board eight 60-foot yachts, the race’s increase in size is almost immeasurable.
Today more than 5,000 people and three generations of Clipper Race ocean racing fleets have competed in what is known to be the world’s toughest ocean racing challenge.
The route of each edition of the race is unique, often formed by Host Ports around the globe. In the race’s twenty five year history, more than fifty cities have played host to the Clipper Race.
Click here to further explore the history of the race.
The third generation of one-design Clipper Race yachts debuted in the Clipper 2013-14 Race, proving to be faster and more dynamic than previous Clipper Race yachts.
The eleven 70-foot yachts make up world’s largest matched fleet of ocean racing yachts. Designed by renowned naval architect Tony Castro, they are the shining jewel in the Clipper Race crown, perfectly adapted to this gruelling sailing challenge.
Click here to learn more about the Clipper 70s.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
Over 50 years have gone by since Sir Robin Knox-Johnston made history by becoming the first man to sail solo and non-stop around the globe in 1968-69.
One of nine sailors to compete in the Times Golden Globe Race, Sir Robin set off from Falmouth, with no sponsorship, on 14 June 1968. With his yacht Suhaili packed to the gunwales with supplies he set off on a voyage that was to last just over ten months. He arrived back in Falmouth after 312 days at sea, on 22 April 1969, securing his place in the history books.
Sir Robin wanted everyone to have the opportunity to experience the challenge and sheer exhilaration of ocean racing because there are far more flags of success on the top of Mount Everest than on the high seas.
Among many other races, in 2007 Sir Robin has circumnavigated again in the VELUX 5 OCEANS race at the age of 68. In addition, Sir Robin competed in the 10th anniversary edition of the Route de Rhum race which started in St Malo, France, on 2 November 2014, and finished at the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
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