One of offshore racing’s great adventures will return in 2025. The New York Yacht Club and the Royal Ocean Racing Club, in partnership with the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Storm Trysail Club, are proud to announce Transatlantic Race 2025, which will start from Newport, R.I., on June 18, 2025, and finish off Cowes, England.
The west-to-east Transatlantic Race was most recently run in 2011, 2015 and 2019. This slightly extended break has allowed the race to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the RORC as well as the next edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race and the return of the Admiral’s Cup.
“For the past few years, we have been fielding regular calls regarding the next iteration of this race,” says Commodore Paul M. Zabetakis, M.D., of the New York Yacht Club. “Crossing the Atlantic is a bucket-list achievement for many offshore sailors. The time and effort required to prepare for and compete in the race, the unpredictability of the North Atlantic Ocean, the tactical challenge presented by the Gulf Stream and the historic connection to the origins of offshore racing distinguish this competition from all other distance races.”
It was over drinks at the Union Club in New York City one night in October 1866 that the first Transatlantic Race came to be. Three proud yachtsmen—Pierre Lorillard, George Osgood, and James Gordon Bennett—each thought their yacht to be the fastest and decided the best way to settle the discussion would be a race from Sandy Hook, N.J., to the Needles, off the Western tip of the Isle of Wight. To make it interesting, they each put up $30,000 to go to the winner and then started on December 11, 1866. Bennett’s Henrietta won, six sailors were tragically lost in a storm and a new standard for offshore adventure was set.
The schedule of races has been sporadic in the years since, and the course has changed frequently. But the allure of racing from the United States to England hasn’t diminished.
The NOR for the Transatlantic Race 2025 is online and registration is currently open. An early registration discount is available for all boats that enter by September 1, 2024.
nyyc.org/2025-transatlantic-race
