Ari Huusela (born 28 October 1962) is a professional Finnish

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

and amateur offshore single-handed sailor. He has flown 25,000 hours and (before

Vendée Globe --> The Vendée Globe is a single-handed (solo) non-stop round the world yacht race. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. It is named after the Département of Vendée, in France, w ...

) has sailed over 50,000 nautical miles. He is a participant in the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe race, a quadrennial competition in which participants attempt to sail around the world single-handed and non-stop. He is the first person from the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...

to have participated and finished this race.

Education and career as an airline pilot

Huusela studied in a

vocational school A vocational school is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational education or technical skills required to complete the tasks ...

, to be an aviation mechanic, and while doing that he worked as an intern with Finnaviation, where he also was able to work after graduation. At the same time, Huusela studied to get his pilot's licence. Graduating as a mechanic was just an intermediate stage, as he was aiming to become a professional aircraft pilot. He received his licence in 1982. While aboard a Finnair

DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

, a friendly airline captain saw his enthusiasm and helped him to get to practice, flying with the Finnair Flying Club Piper PA-28 Cherokee Arrow, and after that Huusela got a job flying freight with RV-Aviation. Later he also flew with

Airlift An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distanc ...

and

Karair Karair was an airline from Finland. Initially having offered scheduled passenger flights, the company became a subsidiary of Finnair, mainly operating on holiday charter routes. History Originally called Karhumäki Airways, the company was fo ...

, until he was admitted to the Finnair Aviation School in

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

, to study to become a first officer. He has since flown the following aircraft: Saab 340 (as first officer, 1990–1997),

(as first officer, 1997–2000, as captain 2001–2003),

ATR ATR may refer to: Medicine * Acute transfusion reaction * Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related, a protein involved in DNA damage repair Science and mathematics * Advanced Test Reactor, nuclear research reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, ...

(as captain, 2000–2001),

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

(as captain, 2003–2008), Airbus A330 and

A340 The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 quadjet in parallel with ...

(as captain, 2008–2016). He has since been a captain with Finnair's Airbus A350 -aircraft on the

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n routes.

Sailing career

Ari Huusela started to sail only in 1986, at the age of 24, and he has now sailed competitively for more than 30 years. He won the Finnish championship of sailing in the open sea in 1997. In 1999, Huusela participated for the first time in the Trans-Atlantic

Mini Transat 6.50 Mini Transat 6.50 also known by a number of alternatives Mini, Class Mini, Transat 650 is a development measurement controlled offshore sailing primarily used for racing in the Mini Transat Race hence the name. Background History The Classe Min ...

race with his 6.5 meter boat ''Pomi''. He was the best of the Nordic participants, finishing 13th in the race. In the autumn of 2007, he participated in the race for a second time, and managed to finish it again. In 2007, the Transat 6,50 race started from

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and continued via

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

to Salvador da Bahia in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Only two Finns have ever been able to participate in Classe Mini transantlantic races, Reima Alander in 1997 and Ari Huusela in 1999 and 2007. In 2014, Huusela was the first participant from the Nordic countries to finish the

Route du Rhum The Route du Rhum is a transatlantic single-handed yacht race, which takes place every four years in November. The course is between Saint Malo, Brittany, Metropolitan France and Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, overseas France. The first competiti ...

single-handed sailing race from

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

, France, to

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

, with his boat ''Neste Oil''. He raced in the class RHUM . In 2017, Huusela bought his IMOCA known before as ''Aviva'' (Owen Clarke Design 2007). In 2018, he became the first person from the Nordic countries to have participated and finished in the Imoca Globe Series race. The race was the Route du Rhum 2018. In the spring of 2019, Huusela did the Imoca Globe Series Bermudes 1000 Race (2 000 nautical miles). In the autumn of 2019, Huusela again made Nordic sailing history when he captained his boat, IMOCA ''Ariel II'', to the finish line of the legendary coffee race Transat Jacques Vabre. A double-handed race co-skippered by Irishman Mikey Ferguson. In 2020, Huusela became the first Nordic skipper to participate in the legendary

race around the world alone, non-stop. His boat is the same one he used in the Route du Rhum 2018, i.e. ''Aviva'', but renamed ''Stark'' before the Vendée Globe. Huusela crossed the finish line of the iconic race after 116 days 18 hours 15 minutes on March 5, 2021.

Single-handed races across the Atlantic

^a Note: Double-handed, co-skipper: Mikey Ferguson. ''Ariel II'' is the same boat with which Huusela now participates in the Vendée Globe race, only now renamed ''Stark'' after his main sponsor.

In Vendée Globe

References

External links

Ari Huusela’s home pagesVendée Globe home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huusela, Ari 1962 births Living people IMOCA 60 class sailors Finnish Vendee Globe sailors 2020 Vendee Globe sailors Vendée Globe finishers Single-handed circumnavigating sailors