The Skippers'Council, one of the ruling bodies of the Port Varna yacht club, decided to enter the international racing scene and George was elected to participate in the OSTAR (The Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race) in its fifth edition, in 1976. Here we should underline that Capt. Georgi Georgiev had never sailed in the Atlantic, that his boat - the 9-metre Cor Caroli was not specially designed and built for the race, and that he crossed the ocean virtulally without the help of any electronic devices and even without ¯ autopliot (his failed on the second day after the start). The only other competitor who managed without autopilot was the winner - the legendary Frenchman Eric Tabarly. OSTAR '76 was to be rememebered with several unique features. First of all, in 1976 the biggest ever fleet entered the race: 197 were the entries, 125 boats and their skippers qualified.

G. Georgiev with F.Kastro

Second, the biggest ever yacht to be sailed singlehandedly appeared in Plymouth - the 72-metre Club Mediterrane, skipperd by the OSTAR '72 winner Alain Colas. And third, the largest fleet was hit by the worst ever weather in the whole history of the race. Only 73 of the 125 boats managed to reach Newport, Rhode Island, two yachtsmen fell victims to the Atlantic, many more were injured, several boats were sunk.

Captain Georgiev managed to finish 37th overall and 21st in his class Jester (83 entries of boats of up to 11,58 metre length overal - LOA). Only five boats of the same LOA as Cor Caroli were faster than the Bulgarian entry, while 20 longer boats saw her stern. Nevertheless, Captain Georgiev, whilst proud to be the first Bulgarian to cross the Atlantic singlehandedly, was dissapointed, as well, because, as he was to state later "If we had entered better equiped boat, we could've crossed the Pond in 30 days." (Cor Caroli crossed the ocean in 36 days).

In Bulgaria this first achievement at the ocean racing scene was met with enthusiasm and the small country was to have three more OSTAR competitors in 1980, 1984 and 1988, and thre pairs of TWOSTAR crews in 1986 and 1990.