Hound Starts Her Third Transatlantic

Watching Hound start the 2025 Transatlantic Race yesterday, my mind wandered back to her first two ocean crossings from west to east. In 1991, she sailed all the way to what was then known as Leningrad, USSR. In 2004, she made landfalls in Ireland, Spain, and Portugal before returning to the Caribbean for the winter.

How would a US-flagged sailing vessel be received today in what’s now St. Petersburg, Russia? We’re not about to find out, so instead here are three quick stats to show what’s different about the boat and crew this time around:

1. She’s racing hard against 10 other boats

2. She has more than double the crew to feed 

3. She can relay daily messages, and we are able to track her progress in (almost) real time

And then there are the aspects of ocean crossings that are refreshingly timeless: both boat and crew have to deal with whatever the ocean throws at them, relying only on each other. As the Transatlantic Race website puts it, “The west-to-east route tests sailors with the unpredictability of the North Atlantic, serving up everything from gales and fog to high-pressure systems and subtly shifting wind patterns.”

Hound may not be heading as far east as Russia, but she’s still making history (again) this time; I’m pretty sure she’s the only Aage Nielsen design ever to compete in The Transatlantic Race, which has been taking place since 1866. 

Back in 2004, one of Hound’s crew said that he didn’t want that passage to end; “We just got into this wonderful groove of reading and sleeping and sailing. The closer we got to land, the less we wanted to get there.” I won’t be surprised if Hound’s 2025 team expresses similarly bittersweet feelings at the finish, even after weeks away from their busy lives.

Want to learn more? Follow @houndsailingteam or visit the Transatlantic Race website. And of course there will be lots more detail in The Heart of Hound!