Offshore and solo: sailing around the world, alone and together.

Joshua Slocum, the first solo circumnavigation

Joshua Slocum, born in Wilmot, Nova Scotia, on 20 February 1844, was the first person to sail alone around the world. Yacht.de dates his voyage in the sloop Spray from Boston on 24 April 1895 to Newport, Rhode Island, on 27 June 1898; Britannica gives April 1895 and June 1898. The distance is given in different units: Britannica says 46,000 miles (74,000 km), while Yacht.de says 46,000 nautical miles. His book Sailing Alone Around the World appeared in 1899. In 1909 he left for the Caribbean and disappeared with Spray, and he was declared legally dead in 1924.

Chichester and the Golden Globe

Francis Chichester, aged 64, sailed Gipsy Moth IV from Plymouth on 27 August 1966 and stopped only once, at Sydney. Buckler's Hard puts the voyage at 226 days at sea, against a clipper-ship average of 230. Sources differ on the end of the trip: Wikipedia gives his return to Plymouth as 28 May 1967, while Buckler's Hard gives a return to Buckler's Hard on 17 September 1967, which may be a later homecoming. The same Buckler's Hard page gives the distance both as 29,360 and as 29,630 miles. He was knighted in July 1967 (Wikipedia).

The Sunday Times Golden Globe of 1968 to 1969 was the first solo, non-stop race around the world, and it was open to amateurs. Entrants had to start between 1 June and 31 October 1968, and nine set out. Only one finished: Robin Knox-Johnston, in the 32 ft Suhaili, who returned to Falmouth at 15:25 on 22 April 1969 after 312 days alone. His own site gives his departure as both 14 June and 15 June 1968. He gave his prize to Donald Crowhurst's family (Royal Museums Greenwich).

Wikipedia records what happened to some of the others. Bernard Moitessier rounded Cape Horn in Joshua on 5 February 1969, then quit the race and sailed on to Tahiti; his account became La Longue Route (The Long Way, 1973). Crowhurst left Teignmouth in the trimaran Teignmouth Electron on the last permitted day and sent false position reports while staying in the Atlantic; the boat was found drifting and empty on 10 July 1969, and Royal Museums Greenwich records that he took his own life. Nigel Tetley, believing he was racing Crowhurst, pushed his trimaran until it broke up.

The Golden Globe was revived for its 50th anniversary in 2018 and won by Jean-Luc Van Den Heede. South African Kirsten Neuschäfer won the 2022 to 2023 edition in Minnehaha, finishing at Les Sables d'Olonne on 27 April 2023, the first woman to win a solo round-the-world yacht race (Yachting Monthly).

Women's solo circumnavigations

Wikipedia credits Poland's Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz as the first woman to sail single-handed around the world with stops, in the sloop Mazurek between 1976 and 1978, narrowly ahead of New Zealand's Naomi James, who finished her own faster voyage on 8 June 1978. The article is inconsistent about her start and finish dates, so we could not confirm the details.

The Vendée Globe

The Vendée Globe is sailed solo, non-stop and without assistance; Royal Museums Greenwich gives 1989 as its founding year. Its organisers list every winner:

• The first race had 13 starters and 7 finishers. Ellen MacArthur was second in 2000-01.
• Desjoyeaux is the only two-time winner listed.
• 2016-17 was the first edition in which semi-foiling IMOCA 60s started (Yachting World).
• In 2020-21 Dalin finished first on the water, but Bestaven won on a time allowance for his part in rescuing Kevin Escoffier.
• In 2024-25 Dalin cut the race record by 9 d 8 h 12 min 57 s, and 32 of 40 starters finished, the lowest abandonment rate yet. Justine Mettraux set the women's record of 76 d 1 h 36 min 52 s, and Sébastien Simon the 24-hour record of 615.33 nautical miles.

Round-the-world records

Solo, outside the Vendée

Britannica records that Ellen MacArthur sailed solo and non-stop around the world in early 2005 in the 75 ft trimaran B&Q in 71 d 14 h 18 min 33 s, beating Francis Joyon's time, and that Joyon took the record back in 2008. Thomas Coville set a record of 49 d 3 h 4 min 28 s on 25 December 2016. François Gabart then set the solo record in the 30 m trimaran MACIF, starting off Ouessant on 4 November 2017 and finishing on 17 December: 42 d 16 h 40 min 35 s, 6 d 10 h 23 min 53 s faster than Coville, according to Sailing Scuttlebutt.

Crewed: the Jules Verne Trophy

Sodebo Ultim 3, a foiling Ultim trimaran, finished off Ouessant around 25 January 2026 and beat the 2017 time by about 12 h 44 min. Reports differ on the exact time: Latitude 38 gives 40 d 10 h 45 min 40 s in its text and 40:10:45:50 in its table, and Marine Business World gives 40 d 10 h 45 min 50 s. At last report the record was awaiting ratification by the WSSRC, the body that ratifies sailing speed records, and we found no confirmation of ratification as of October 2026, so treat it as pending.

Crewed racing: the Whitbread to The Ocean Race

The first Whitbread Round the World Race left Portsmouth on 8 September 1973. The race's own archive says 19 boats started; Wikipedia says 17. It ran in four legs, via Cape Town, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro, over 27,000 nautical miles by the archive's count (Wikipedia gives 27,500), and was won by Mexico's Sayula II, skippered by Ramón Carlín. Three sailors died during the race. Wikipedia reports that it was called the Whitbread until 2001, the Volvo Ocean Race after that, and The Ocean Race from 2019.

Winners listed by Wikipedia include Conny van Rietschoten (1977-78 and 1981-82), Peter Blake (Steinlager 2, 1989-90) and Torben Grael (Ericsson 4, 2008-09). Te Ara notes that Steinlager 2 took line and handicap honours on all six legs. IMOCA reports that the 2022-23 race was won by 11th Hour Racing Team, skippered by Charlie Enright, the first US winner, after a jury awarded redress points for a collision on the final leg that was not the team's fault. Later races are on our offshore races page.

The 1979 Fastnet

The Fastnet Race was first sailed in 1925, won by Jolie Brise, and has been run every two years by the Royal Ocean Racing Club since 1931 (Wikipedia). In 1979 a storm struck the 303-yacht fleet on 13 August. The RNLI records that only 86 boats finished, 194 retired, 75 were overturned and 25 sank or were abandoned. The death toll is given two ways: the RNLI says 15 competing sailors drowned and three rescuers also died, while Wikipedia gives 21 deaths, 15 competitors and six people on observer boats.

According to the RNLI, the RYA and RORC then commissioned a safety inquiry. Its results included crew pre-qualification for ocean races, mandatory VHF radios, required lifejackets and harnesses, more stable yacht designs, and advice not to abandon a yacht until it is clearly sinking. ORC strengthened the Offshore Special Regulations, with changes ratified in 1980. The 2025 edition was the 51st, with a record 444 starters, according to Rolex. For today's equipment, see life jackets and beacons and MOB gear.