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Cowes Week and the Solent: What Racing at Britain's Biggest Sailing Event Actually Demands
Cowes Week draws around 1,000 boats and 8,000 sailors to the Isle of Wight every August. The racing is on the Solent — a tidal channel whose competing water flows from both ends create one of the most tactically complex race environments in northern European sailing.
By ZealZag TeamHow to Crew Your First Offshore Race: Finding a Berth, What to Bring, and What to Expect
Offshore racing is one of the most logistically opaque sports to enter from outside. Boats do not advertise vacancies the way races take entries. Here is how to find a berth on a competitive offshore boat, what qualifications you need, what to pack, and what the first 24 hours at sea actually looks like.
By ZealZag TeamSailGP: How the Season Works and What It Looks Like From Trackside
SailGP launched in 2019 with a format designed to make professional sailing comprehensible and watchable from shore: nation-versus-nation fleet racing on identical F50 hydrofoiling catamarans at speeds exceeding 50 knots. The season visits a rotating set of city harbours, and the racing — fast, loud, and occasionally spectacular in its drama — is among the most accessible high-level sailing events to attend in person. Here is how the series is structured and what you actually see when you show up.
By ZealZag TeamThe Fastnet Race: Six Hundred Miles, a 1979 Storm, and the Safety Rules That Reshaped Offshore Racing
A lighthouse on a bare Atlantic rock 11 kilometres off the southwest tip of Ireland has been the waypoint of offshore sailing's most consequential race since 1925. The 1979 Fastnet disaster changed not just this race but the safety standards governing offshore competition globally.
By ZealZag TeamThe Vendée Globe: Solo, Non-Stop, Unassisted — and Still the Most Demanding Race in the World
The Vendée Globe starts and finishes in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France. Solo, non-stop, no assistance permitted. Approximately 24,000 nautical miles around three great capes. Since 1989 it has been the defining event in ocean sailing — not because of its prize money, but because of what it asks the person inside the boat.
By ZealZag TeamHow the Vendée Globe Became Solo Sailing's Most Important Race
The Vendée Globe is a solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation of the Earth: approximately 45,000 kilometres through the North Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, and back. No crew, no pit stops, no outside help. It has run every four years since 1989 and has reshaped what competitive sailing looks like — in boat design, in public attention, and in what the sport asks of its athletes.
By ZealZag TeamThe Vendée Globe: Why Sailing's Solo Circumnavigation Became the Sport's Definitive Test
Every four years, around 30 sailors leave Les Sables-d'Olonne alone on 60-foot monohulls and attempt to sail around the world without stopping or receiving outside assistance. The Vendée Globe is sailing's most demanding race. Understanding why it occupies that position requires understanding what solo non-stop circumnavigation actually involves.
By ZealZag TeamCowes Week: How to Race in the World's Oldest Annual Sailing Regatta
First sailed in 1826 under the flag of the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes Week has run every August since — making it the oldest continuously held sailing regatta in the world. In August 2026 it marks its bicentenary. Here's what the event is, how to compete, and what makes the Solent the most complex racing water in Britain.
By ZealZag TeamThe Vendée Globe's Strange Logic: Why Solo Non-Stop Round the World Works as a Sport
The Vendée Globe is a sailing race in the same way the Badwater Ultramarathon is a running race — technically accurate and fundamentally inadequate. Solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation of the world in a 60-foot foiling monohull. It has run every four years since 1989 and is the most watched sailing event on earth.
By ZealZag Team