circumnavigation

There are as many ways around the world as there are boats and wills to do it.

The first Oyster Rally’s participants set sail from Antigua in January of 2013, but Oyster is looking forward to its second event, slated for 2016-2017 with 15 yachts already scheduled to take part.

Exploring the world on a long-range cruiser is the dream of many. Few will live that dream, at least in the way that the 26 yachts participating in the Oyster World Rally are. The journey began in Antigua in early January. We received a report from the Oyster team, after the fleet made it across the Panama Canal and into the Pacific.

If there were any doubt that the owner of Percheron—the second Darwin 86 from Cantiere delle Marche (CdM)—really intended to use his expedition yacht for long-range cruising, there should not be any now. Percheron was launched in time for the 2012 Cannes Boat Show where I had a chance to get aboard. It was mid-September and she was already raring to go.

Even considering all means of transportation, the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar is the first vehicle to successfully circumnavigate the globe solely using solar energy. After more than 19 months, the largest solar-powered ship ever built crossed the finish line in Hercule Harbour in Monaco May 4. The journey of 32,286 miles took the vessel and its crew through all the oceans and touched every continent.