This year The Course History
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T H E R A C E
This year The Course History |
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11 June 1960
From an idea proposed by Blondie Hasler in 1956 and supported by the Slocum Society, the race became a reality in June 1960. Organised from the very beginning by the Royal Western Yacht Club of England, only four boats came to the line on the 11th June although there were 115 interested applicants and 8 entries. Jean Lacombe started late on the 14th. 1960 was the only race in which no multihulled yachts started and also the only race to finish at New York rather than Newport. |
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| Sponsored by the Observer newspaper, who also presented a handsome trophy, the race became known as the OSTAR or Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race. No one had ever raced across the Atlantic single-handed before and this experimental nature of the race, which was to remain, is most clearly shown in the widely differing routes of the competitors. Hasler took an extreme northern route to sail around the top of depressions heading east and gain favourable winds. Chichester and Lewis preferred to stay close to the Great Circle route. Lacombe sailed the Azores route and Howells a combination of the rhumb line and southern routes. An indicator of how things would continue was the clear advantage of boat length. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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