Ocean racing… who’d do it?

With four British sailors taking on the Vendée Globe – a solo, non-stop race around the world – I’ve been thinking about how ocean racing began, and how it’s all changed.

As a sailor of 14ft dinghies, who likes an enjoyable but not too stressful sail, I choose my conditions carefully: Force 4 for an exciting sail; Force 5 and I know it will be wet with the chance of a capsize.

So I have great admiration for the men and women who choose to sail our planet’s oceans solo or with a crew, trying to be the oldest, youngest or fastest, travelling with the winds or against them but always rushing towards the low pressure systems to go ever quicker.

Nowadays they sail