Facebook

Login

Support Sailonline

If you haven't already - join the SAILONLINE YACHT CLUB!

Please also consider making a donation - all amounts are greatly appreciated!

Board » General Discussion » OCEAN CHAMPIONSHIP RACES

I think it is useful to define some "rules" to make the “Ocean Championship Races” more competitive and able to offer more opportunities to follow alternative routes.

Assuming that there must be courses between a “Point A and a Point B” without intermediate buoys, the discussion mainly concerns the "rules" regarding duration time, distance and boat.

I invite you to express your opinion regarding these topics of discussion:

- Ocean Race Duration Time

- Start/Finish Distance

- Presence of Natural Obstacles near the Start and Finish Line

- Suggestions about Favorite Boats for Ocean Races

I personally believe that:
- To have more interesting and competitive Ocean races, it's essential that the duration is approximately three weeks.
With NOAA 16-day gribs you can calculate routes to the finish line and, consequently, everyone follows more or less the same route.
If the grib stops a week before the expected arrival, it becomes interesting to study the evolution of the weather to identify the right WP to face the last week of the race.

- Be at least 4,000/4,500 nm long, (obviously from A to B without intermediate buoys).

- Any natural obstacles don't create problems, unless they are close to the start and finish lines.

- No favorite boats, it is only important that performance boat is adequate to the distance and the time of 20/25 days expected to complete the race.

FW all.
Carlo ALberto
Hi, here my 5 cents.
I agree that duration should not be less than 3 weeks so to avoid getting full routing from the very beginning until finish line. This might come from the mix between boat, lenght and average winds. I like races where we have to take bold decisions on which route to take and where we have multiple routes possible. I believe landmasses well placed are very helpful on forcing decisions on which direction to take. The last Christmas2Christmas was e nice case where we had to take a decision right at the start, mine was wrong and wrong and wrong but I liked the race. Also the Melbourne to Osaka with the Solomon in the middle forced us to take decisions on which canal to take (here I made a good mistake that sent me on the right way).
Would be also interesting to have 2 or more boats possible for the same race. This might also result in races with boats spread around with, hopefully, strong fights for winning the race until the end.
Most important: THANK YOU to all the people designing the races and taking care of all the other aspects. We can improve but there is a solid work done in the background! Sometimes races might not be perfect but the work done is huge and I am always happy to race in SOL.
BV,
ITA210

Please login to post a reply.

Races

Next Race: 00d 00h 00m


Current Races:

Carib Rum Run 2026


Ahoy, ye landlubbers and seasoned salts! Welcome back to Sailonline’s legendary Carib Rum Run, perfectly timed to kick off on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, 19 September!

This year, we command the magnificent Falkun—the ultimate high-tech superyacht modeled after the iconic Maltese Falcon. This 1759nm slalom takes us through the Caribbean’s rum islands to plunder barrels from local distilleries and deliver them to the rum-parched sands of Cancun.

Join SYC before the finish to disguise yer boat with a pirate name for this race only. Hoist the sails, sharpen yer cutlasses, and plot your winning course!
Race #2060
INFO by brainaid.de
Falkun PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SYC
Race starts: Sep 19th 05:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Isle of Mull TIMED Race 2026

Welcome to the west coast of Scotland for an 80 nm race around the Isle of Mull. Mull is home to castles, distilleries, and the Highland Games. The race begins just north of Oban in the shadow of Dunstaffnage Castle and after rounding the island finishes down the coast at Crinan. The Twister 28 with its classic long keel is the boat for this race.
This is a TIMEDrace so you may RE-REGISTER HEREto try again after finishing a run. You will have two weeks to test your skill and decision making after the race opens.
Race #2057
INFOby brainaid.de
PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking:
TRQ3 - TRCH - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Saturday,
26 September at 23:00 UTC
Race starts: Sep 13th 12:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Cross the Convergence 2026 - Cocos to Sagar Island


Kapil Muni, incarnation of Lord Vishnu, founder of the Samkhya school of philosophy, disturbed from his meditation, in his wrath reduced the 60,000 sons of Sagar to ashes, as they dug the earth to retrieve the sacrificial horse that Lord Indra, the king of the Gods, stole off Sagar, thus creating the Sagara (ocean). Aeons later, Bhagiratha, a descendant of Sagara, asked Ganga to cleanse the ashes of the 60,000 princes, and her resultant torrential fall from heaven created the great river and where it met the ocean, the princes’ souls were washed and raised to heaven and Gangasagar (Sagar Island) was formed. So, let us join the pilgrimages to Kapi Muni’s Temple (see above) and race 2400nm from Cocos Island deep in the Sagara thence, in rather rapid Rapido 60s.
Race #1987
INFOby brainaid.de
Rapido 60PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: CCZ - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Saturday,
September 26 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Sep 11th 18:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Shearwater - Rio de la Plata to Irish Sea 2026

Welcome to the fourth leg of our MIG series. This time we're racing the Sooty Shearwater on their migration from the breeding grounds in South America to the northern Atlantic. This is also part of our Ocean Championship, and as such the third race of OCQ3 2026. This race will be sailed in our Gunboat 90. Race #2055
INFO by brainaid.de
GunBoat 90 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking:
OCQ3 - OCCH - SYC - MIG
RACE CLOSE: Thursday,
October 1 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Sep 02nd 11:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Go to race archive

SYC Ranking

  1. Sailonline Yacht Club Member KaSToR
  2. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CriticalHippo
  3. Sailonline Yacht Club Member WRmirekd
  4. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rafa
  5. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Panpyc
  6. Sailonline Yacht Club Member cdhinman
  7. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rthinman
  8. Sailonline Yacht Club Member BRENTGRAY
  9. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Sax747
  10. Sailonline Yacht Club Member vida

View full list

Series

Mobile Client

SYC members have the benefit of access to our mobile/lightweight web client!

The mobile client