The Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) is an east-to-west yacht race across the North Atlantic, generally held quadrennially since 1960. Running from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island, it was the first single-handed ocean yacht race. It is organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club, and it was originally sponsored by The Observer, being known as The Observer Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race. Due to changes in sponsorship, it has been known as the CSTAR, Europe 1 STAR, and the Europe 1 New Man STAR.
After the 2000 edition, the race was split by the RWYC, with one event, the OSTAR ("Original STAR"), involving amateurs and young sailors, using smaller boats, and the other, The Transat, dedicated for professionals.
History The Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race was conceived by Herbert "Blondie" Hasler in 1956. The whole idea of a single-handed ocean yacht race was a revolutionary concept at the time, as the idea was thought to be extremely impractical; but this was especially true given the adverse conditions of their proposed route — a westward crossing of the north Atlantic Ocean, against the prevailing winds.
Hasler sought sponsorship for a race, but by 1959, no-one had been prepared to back the race. Finally, though, The Observer newspaper provided sponsorship, and in 1960, under the management of the Royal Western Yacht Club of England, the Observer Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race, or OSTAR, was on.All the Single handed Transatlantic Race history , from Team WoodbaseHistory — 11 June 1960 , from Team Woodbase
The first run of the race was a great success; since then, it has run every four years, and has become firmly established as one of the major events on the yachting calendar. The name of the event has changed several times due to changes in main sponsor; it has been known as the CSTAR, Europe 1 STAR, and the Europe 1 New Man STAR. The professional event has been run as The Transat from 2004, while the race smaller boats is run as the OSTAR. Throughout its history, however, the essentials of the race have remained the same. It has also become known as a test-bed for new innovations in yacht racing; many new ideas started out in "the STAR".
The 2020 races were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The race
The course of the race is westwards against the prevailing winds of the north Atlantic over a distance of around . The first edition of the race was from Plymouth United Kingdom to New York City; the editions from 1964 to 2000 were sailed from Plymouth to Newport, Rhode Island; the 2004 event sailed from Plymouth to Boston, Massachusetts.Peyron Repeats STAR Triumph , from Sailing WorldRecords Tumble in Classic Transat Race , from the official web site
The actual course steered is the decision of the individual skipper, and the result of the race can hinge on the chosen route:The Race — The Course , from Team Woodbase Rhumb line The shortest route on paper — i.e. on a Mercator projection chart — is a route which steers a constant compass course, known as the rhumb line route; this is 2,902 nautical miles. This lies between 40 degrees and 50 degrees north, and avoids the most severe weather. Great circle The actual shortest route is the great circle route, which is . This goes significantly farther north; sailors following this route frequently encounter fog and icebergs. Northern route It is sometimes possible to avoid headwinds by following a far northern route, north of the great circle and above the track followed by depressions. This is a longer way, though, at , and places the sailor in greater danger of encountering ice. Azores route A "softer" option can be to sail south, close to the Azores, and across the Atlantic along a more southerly latitude. This route can offer calmer reaching winds, but is longer at ; the light and variable winds can also lead to slow progress. Trade wind route The most "natural" way to cross the Atlantic westward is to sail south to the trade winds, and then west across the ocean. However, this is the longest route of all, at .
This variety of routes is one of the factors which makes an east-to-west north Atlantic crossing interesting, as different skippers try different strategies against each other. In practice, though, the winning route is usually somewhere between the great circle and the rhumb line.
The OSTAR Edition
The OSTAR, 1960 The Observer Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race of 1960 was a milestone in sailing, being the first single-handed ocean yacht race. One hundred and fifteen people expressed an interest in the race, and there were eight entries, of whom five actually took part. Only four were at the starting line on June 11, however, as Jean Lacombe arrived late and started three days after the others. All of the boats were monohulls; this was to be the only edition of the race without multihulls. It was also the only edition of the race sailed from Plymouth to New York City.
The skippers tried a variety of routing strategies. Hasler chose the northern route, to avoid the depressions; Chichester and Lewis stayed closer to the great circle; Lacombe and Howells chose more southerly routes. Hasler sailed his junk-rigged Jester; Chichester had by far the longest boat, his Gipsy Moth III, and this was reflected in the results:
Pos.SkipperBoatClassTime 1 Gipsy Moth IIIMono-4040 days 12 hours 30 min 2 JesterMono-2648 days 12 hours 02 min 3 Cardinal VertueMono-2555 days 00 hours 50 min 4 EiraMono-2562 days 05 hours 50 min 5 Cap HornMono-21.574 days ?? hours ?? min
The race had a huge impact on ocean sailing, and in particular solo sailing. Hasler's wind-vane self-steering gear revolutionised short-handed sailing, and his other major innovation — using a junk rig for safer and more manageable shorthanded sailing — influenced many subsequent sailors.The Golden Globe Race, by Barry Pickthall, from boats.comFinding Beauty in a Junk, by Michelle Potter
The OSTAR, 1964 Thirteen competitors started the next edition of the race in 1964, which by now was firmly established on the racing scene. All of the five original competitors entered, and all five improved their original times; but the show was stolen by French naval officer Éric Tabarly, who entered a custom-built plywood ketch, Pen Duick II. 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. It is also noteworthy that Tabarly and Jean Lacombe were the only French entrants in this race; Tabarly's success was instrumental in popularising the sport in France, the country which in future years would come to dominate it.
This was to be the year in which several future trends were established. 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.History — 23 May 1964 , from Team Woodbase
Pos.SkipperBoatClassTime 1 Pen Duick IIMono-4427 days 03 hours 56 min 2 Gipsy Moth IIIMono-4029 days 23 hours 57 min 3 AkkaMono-3532 days 18 hours 08 min 4 Lively LadyMono-3636 days 17 hours 30 min 5 JesterMono-2637 days 22 hours 05 min 6 StardriftMono-3038 days 03 hours 23 min 7 Rehu MoanaCat-4038 days 12 hours 04 min 8 IlalaMono-3646 days 06 hours 26 min 9 GolifMono-2246 days 07 hours 05 min 10 Vanda CaeleaMono-2549 days 18 hours 45 min 11 Misty MillerCat-3053 days 00 hours 05 min 12 Ericht 2Mono-3160 days 11 hours 15 min 13 FolatreTri-3561 days 14 hours 04 min 14 Marco PoloMono-2863 days 13 hours 30 min RET Tammie NorieMono-40retired
The OSTAR, 1968 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.
Williams created another story by his use of the "shortcut" through the Nantucket Shoal. This dangerous route was supposed to be illegal, but due to an error the race instructions required skippers only to keep south of Nantucket, instead of Nantucket Light. Williams successfully navigated the treacherous route in a gale. Gales were a major feature of the race, with a large storm on the 11th of June, and Hurricane Brenda, both contributing to the large number of retired and abandoned boats. 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. Another was the first woman to have taken part, the West German Edith Baumann, aboard her 39-foot trimaran "Koala III".Foster, Lloyd (1989). OSTAR The full story of The Observer single-handed transtlantic and the two-handed round Britain races, p. 27. Haynes, Sparkford. .
Although won by a monohull, this race saw the multihulls firmly established on the scene. Thirteen of the thirty-five boats entered were multihulls, led by the controversial proa Cheers; many observers felt that a proa was entirely unsuitable for ocean sailing, but she made a fast time along the Azores route.History — 1 June 1968 , from Team Woodbase
Pos.SkipperBoatClassTime 1 Sir Thomas LiptonMono-5725 days 20 hours 33 min 2 Bruce Dalling (RSA) VoortrekkerMono-5026 days 13 hours 42 min 3 CheersProa-4027 days 00 hours 13 min 4 Spirit of Cutty SarkMono-5329 days 10 hours 17 min 5 Golden CockerelCat-42.531 days 16 hours 24 min 6 OpusMono-3234 days 08 hours 23 min 7 Gancia GirlTri-4234 days 13 hours 15 min 8 Myth of MalhamMono-40 36 days 01 hours 41 min 9 MaxineMono-34.5 37 days 13 hours 47 min 10 MaguelonneMono-35 38 days 09 hours 10 min 11 Dog WatchMono-27 38 days 12 hours 13 min 12 Sylvia IIMono-36 40 days 00 hours 16 min 13 FioneMono-20 40 days 14 hours 13 min 14 MexMono-37 41 days 10 hours 46 min 15 Rob RoyMono-32.5 42 days 03 hours 49 min 16 Startled FaunTri-33 45 days 10 hours 08 min 17 AmistadTri-25 47 days 18 hours 05 min 18 JesterMono-26 57 days 10 hours 40 min DSQ Goodwin IIMono-19.5 DSQ -- RET Pen Duick IVTri-67 RET -- RET CoilaTri-50 ABN -- RET San GiorgioCat-53 -- RET -- RET Atlantis IIIMono-26.5 -- RET -- RET WilecaMono-27 -- RET -- RET TamoureTri-26 -- RET -- RET Koala IIITri-39.5 -- ABN -- RET ZeevalkMono-39.5 -- RET -- RET White GhostTri-34 -- RET -- RET Aye-AyeMono 33 -- RET -- RET Guntar IIIMono-41 -- RET -- RET Ocean HighlanderCat-45 -- RET -- RET La DeliranteMono-36 -- RET -- ABN AmbrimaMono-37 -- ABN -- ABN YakshaTri-50 -- ABN -- RET RalphMono-58 -
The 17 non-finishers included Éric Tabarly on Pen Duick IV, and Alex Carozzo of Italy on San Giorgio. Carozzo went on to compete in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, the other major single-handed sailing event of the year.
The OSTAR, 1972 Tabarly's trimaran Pen Duick IV made a return to the race in 1972, sailed by Alain Colas, at the head of a strong French contingent; of the 55 entrants, 12 were French, and the top three finishers were all French.
The average boat size was increasing rapidly, as longer boats are capable of higher speeds. 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 13 (Friday the 13th), a three-masted schooner — a huge boat for a single-hander. However, the race was now dominated by the multihulls, with Colas winning on a trimaran and four of the top six finishers being multis.