Her ballast is iron in the long keel and her stern a flat transom. Large tanks and good sea berths, says an owner; not as close-winded as a modern fin-keeler, surprisingly quick on a reach, and the mizzen staysail a real secret weapon.
Six Biscays have started the Golden Globe, four hulls between them. In 2018 none of her three finished, two after wind vane failures and one dismasted after a roll near Île Amsterdam; in 2022 both finished, Clara first over the line after a repair stop in Chile, and Nuri third.
One hull has now started three times: Métier Intérim of 2018, the first Biscay 36 ketch built, became Nuri in 2022 and is IE Charge in 2026, the only ketch in the fleet, under Louis Kerdelhué, a skipper of twenty-one.
Of the five past starts, three passed the Cape of Good Hope, two went round Cape Horn and two finished.
One started: ended early.
Two started: both finished.
About 1,200 miles north-west of Cape Horn on 27 Jan 2023, after a deep depression with 40 knots and 6–7 m confused seas, a knockdown broke the solid alloy casting at the head of the Hydrovane, tore the sprayhood and ripped off a handrail; Simon Curwen carried component spares but not that casting, so the vane could not be repaired at sea. Leading the race, Clara went on under storm jib and lashed tiller to Puerto Montt, Chile (arrived 8 Feb, left about 13 Feb), which moved her to Chichester class; she was still first home at Les Sables-d’Olonne on 27 Apr 2023.
Three started: all three ended early.
In a Southern Ocean storm near Île Amsterdam, with gusts to 70 knots and 12 m seas, an early knockdown broke the mizzen; Gregor McGuckin then ran downwind under bare poles towing warps, and a huge cross sea rolled the boat through 360°, which took the main mast and the windvane. McGuckin built a jury rig from a spinnaker pole and hand-steered for three days toward the injured Abhilash Tomy, the engine unusable on contaminated fuel; once the French patrol vessel Osiris had Tomy aboard, McGuckin asked for a controlled evacuation and left the boat on 24 Sep.
Windvane trouble from the start forced a stop at Marina Rubicón, Lanzarote, on Sunday 15 Jul to fix the self-steering, which put the boat in Chichester class; the race director called it partly mechanical but more a decision to stop, regroup and think, and Antoine Cousot set out again at 17:00 on 17 Jul. The self-steering problems continued and, with shoulder and ankle injuries added, the skipper announced on Wednesday 22 Aug a diversion to Trindade island to rest and repair the vane before going on to Rio de Janeiro; with the boat already in Chichester class, the race ruled on 24 Aug that this second stop would end the race on arrival in port.
A weld on the Beaufort windvane self-steering broke after the Lanzarote gate; Nabil Amra chose to beat back upwind in 35-knot winds to Tenerife rather than run for an African port, violently ill and without sleep for four days, and on reaching Tenerife overnight announced the retirement.
In 8 kt of wind and more, where she and the other designs have twenty legs or more each, her largest gain is on a close reach in 20–25 kt, +26%, and her largest loss, running in 8–12 kt, −11%.
| Wind | upwind 0–60° | close reach 60–90° | reaching 90–130° | broad reach 130–160° | running 160–180° | Legs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 738 | ||||||
| 852 | ||||||
| 1,055 | ||||||
| 680 | ||||||
| 485 | ||||||
| – | 216 |
What the record and the figures support, point by point, and what they weigh against her.
Two of her five past starts finished. In 2022 Clara led most of the race and crossed the line first after her stop in Chile, and Nuri was third. In the race director’s account the Biscay 36 was thought a has-been beside the Rustler 36s until Simon Curwen, with a very simple refit and very good racing sails, made her go very quick.
“Surprisingly quick on a reach”, and “the mizzen staysail is a real secret weapon”, says an owner. Nuri’s mizzen stayed up in heavy weather in 2022 and took a second reef at Hobart.
Reaching, like for like, her boats measured +5% against the other designs.
“Large tanks and good sea-berths”, a generous galley and a big chart table over the quarter berth, a deep and well-protected cockpit. Nuri’s companionway was fitted with an inches-thick submarine door.
A flat transom on which every make of wind vane mounts the standard way; Clara’s mount held even when the vane’s own head casting broke.
In 2018 two of her three boats retired after wind vane failures. One carried a make that three entrants had bought, and all three broke: too small for a big powerful boat, in the race director’s words. In 2022 Clara’s Hydrovane casting fractured in a knockdown twelve hundred miles from Cape Horn and cost her the race. In 2026 IE Charge sailed with a loose vane from the first days, and carries a replacement.
Iron in the keel of a hull of the nineteen-seventies: osmosis, pitting steel tanks and leaks at the mizzen chainplates are the survey’s list, and no stability figures were ever published for her.
The race’s own skipper pages disagree on her waterline and her sail. Louis Kerdelhué’s, Michael Guggenberger’s and Antoine Cousot’s, all three for the one hull, print 8.30 m and 62 m²; Gregor McGuckin’s and Nabil Amra’s print 8.23 m and 52.95 m², as does SailWiki; Simon Curwen’s prints 8.23 m and leaves the sail to be confirmed. Yachting Monthly gives 8.22 m.
The figures on this page take 8.23 m and 53.0 m²: sail area to displacement 14.6, 13th of 17, and displacement to length 356, 10th of 17. On the other pages’ figures both would move.
Her printed displacement is 7,112 kg; an owner put her at eight to eight and a half tons in cruising trim with full tanks, and sailboat-cruising.com prints 8,382 kg. No two interiors are the same: what one Biscay weighs and carries is what her survey says.
- Yachting Monthly, “Biscay 36”, 9 Jul 2009 (the design, the yards, the sailing, the waterline)
- The Biscay 36 thread on the YBW forums, 17 Feb 2002 (an owner since 1995 on tanks, berths, her weight in cruising trim, the reach and the mizzen staysail), and sailboat-cruising.com (the production years, the displacement, the weak points)
- SailWiki, “Biscay 36” (twenty-nine built, iron ballast, and the dimensions from the original brochure)
- The race’s skipper pages for Louis Kerdelhué, Simon Curwen, Michael Guggenberger, Antoine Cousot, Gregor McGuckin and Nabil Amra, goldengloberace.com
- Yachting Monthly: “If I had a spare Hydrovane onboard I would still be in the race” (2023); the 2022 profile of Michael Guggenberger and the account of Nuri’s race (2023)
- Practical Boat Owner on Goldstar’s relaunch after her Falmouth refit, 10 May 2017
- The race’s daily broadcast of September 2026 (the director on the 2018 vanes, Simon Curwen’s 2022 race and the fleet’s only ketch; IE Charge’s vane)
- Notice of Race 2026: J.1.2 (the approved designs) and I.2.4 (seven entries per design)
- The figures: the race's skipper pages, the figure most of her hulls agree on: the pages of Gregor McGuckin, Nabil Amra and Simon Curwen, three hulls (10.95 m, 8.23 m, 3.28 m, 7,112 kg); the draft on McGuckin's, Amra's and IE Charge's pages (1.75 m), Curwen's printing 1.7 m; the sail area on McGuckin's and Amra's (570 sq ft, 52.95 m²), Curwen's printing none; the builders from the race's pages; the last year from Amra's page (Elle May, the last, 1990); ballast, the first year and the number built from sailboatdata's sheet, read through Boatsector and SailWiki (3,000 kg, 1974, 29). The waterline is 8.23 m on the race's pages for three hulls and on sailboatdata's sheet, and 27 ft (8.22 m) in Yachting Monthly; 8.30 m on the pages for IE Charge, one hull that has raced three times (Antoine Cousot, Michael Guggenberger, Louis Kerdelhué). The sail area is 570 sq ft (52.95 m²) on the pages for two hulls and on sailboatdata's sheet; 667 sq ft (62 m²) on IE Charge's. Yachting Monthly prints a draught of 1.62 m; sailboat-cruising.com ends the run in 1985.
Why her races ended:
- goldengloberace.com, “Breaking news: major windvane failure for GGR leader Simon Curwen on Howdens”, 27 Jan 2023
- Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: If I had a spare Hydrovane onboard I would still be in the race”, 8 Feb 2023
- goldengloberace.com, “GGR timeline 2022”
- Scuttlebutt Sailing News, “Golden Globe leader around Cape Horn”, 16 Feb 2023
- Yachting World, “Simon Curwen first finisher in Golden Globe Race (but can’t win overall)”, 27 Apr 2023
- Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: Plans to salvage Thuriya”, 27 Sep 2018
- YBW, “Golden Globe Race 2018: Abhilash Tomy rescued”, 24 Sep 2018
- Yachting Monthly, “Storm tactics from the Golden Globe Race: Gregor McGuckin”, 30 Oct 2019
- Scuttlebutt Sailing News, “Rescue underway in Golden Globe Race”, 23 Sep 2018
- Wikipedia, “2018 Golden Globe Race”
- goldengloberace.com, “Jean-Luc Van Den Heede first to round Cape of Good Hope”, 24 Aug 2018 (Cousot “announced on Wednesday that he was headed for the Island of Trinidade”; Cousot and Péché “will be forced to pull out of the Race on arrival in port”)
- goldengloberace.com, 2018 GGR timeline (24 Aug 2018 entry: “Philippe Péché and Antoine Cousot retire from the race”)
- Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: Péché retires while Jean-Luc Van Den Heede is the first to round the Cape of Good Hope”, 24 Aug 2018
- goldengloberace.com, “And Then There Were 12”, 18 Jul 2018
- goldengloberace.com, “Péché and Slats slug it out at the front”, 16 Jul 2018
- Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: 13 skippers left heading south”, 17 Jul 2018
The same hull in two races:
What the figures mean. Waterline: the longer, the faster a heavy hull can go. Hull speed: 1.34 × √waterline in feet, the old rule of thumb. Displacement to length: above 300 is heavy; every design here is but the OE 32. Sail area to displacement: under 16 is under-canvassed by modern lights. The middle line is the median of the designs that have the figure: seventeen, or fewer where a source does not give it. Lengths are printed to the centimetre and areas to a tenth of a square metre, whatever the source’s own precision, and the ratios are worked from the figures as printed here.
How she is measured. Every 4-hour leg with a model wind on which the boat was moving (0.2 kt and more): this race’s since the start, and each boat’s whole race in 2018 and 2022, to her finish or her retirement (what a boat sailed after she retired is not counted). A leg’s wind is the model wind at its two ends, averaged as vectors, so its speed is that of the mean wind (a few legs of 2018 and 2022 carry the wind at one end only). The past races have no ocean current, so all three are measured alike: speed over the ground, and the wind’s angle off the course made good. Like for like sets each leg against the other designs’ legs of the same race in the same 3 kt of wind and 15° of angle; the heat map and the polar set her median in each wind and angle, over all her legs there, against the other designs’ medians in the races she sailed, each race weighted by her legs in it. Every figure is a median, and each measures the boat as she was sailed: the sailor, her sails and the state of her hull are in it, a hull under barnacles too. More on the Method page.