23 May OSTAR and TWOSTAR remain in Plymouth

The Royal Western Yacht Club of England, the organizing authority of the OSTAR and TWOSTAR confirms that it will again run its transatlantic races in 2020 as it has done every four years since the first race in 1960.  These Races from Plymouth to Newport Rhode Island will continue to be sailed as originally envisaged by Cockleshell hero Blondie Hasler, a test of skipper and boat against the North Atlantic Ocean. The OSTAR and TWOSTAR events will be supported by Plymouth City Council as part of the Mayflower 400 celebrations.

In 2020 The Royal Western Yacht Club of England will also be celebrating sixty years in which the RWYC introduced and then developed the sport of Short-Handed Oceanic Racing.  The OSTAR (the Original Singlehanded Transatlantic Race), the two handed TWOSTAR, and the two handed Round Britain and Ireland Race all have international appeal.

Unfortunately the French organisers of the TRANSAT 2020 have now decided to start their race in Brest rather than Plymouth. This deprives the skippers and public of the opportunity to meet and share in the 60th anniversary of the OSTAR. The TRANSAT was first sailed in 2004 when the RWYC decided it could no longer afford the cost or responsibility of running a ‘Grand Prix’ type event for the larger, one-design, highly sponsored and professionally skippered boats.  The RWYC selected a commercial events organisation to run this part of the race while they continued to run the OSTAR,  for professional and  experienced skippers alike sailing any class of boat, as the Corinthian event envisaged by the original participants sixty years ago.