It’s the middle of the night in Itajaí and the Race Village is closed. There is no wind, no music, no visitor. A red boat slowly emerges from the darkness. After breaking its mast in the middle of Leg 5, after stopping in Ushuaia, Argentina, and delivering the boat under jury rig all the way to Brazil, Dongfeng Race Team has finally arrived. Its mast is a bit shor...
You won’t find an America’s Cup sailor with the depth and breadth of experience of Loïck Peyron. From his fully-crewed assaults on the round the world record, to his various monohull and multihull solo exploits, Peyron is a sailor who has done it all. Now in his second campaign with Artemis Racing, he is nominally listed as a ‘designer’. But the French legend is much ...
The America’s Cup has ushered in a new era this week with the transition to a smaller class of boat. The process of this transition has attracted a lot of attention and we wanted to clarify what’s happened, and BAR’s position on it. The rule change to introduce a new class of boat was passed by a majority vote of the Competitor Forum, comprising the six teams currentl...
In a statement on its official webpage, Team Luna Rossa has announced their withdrawal from the 35th America's Cup. This follows yesterday's vote by the participating teams to introduce a new class for AC35—a wing-sailed, foiling catamaran between 45 and 50 feet. The rule changes were passed by a majority vote of the Competitor Forum, comprising the six teams that were, ...
The America’s Cup teams have agreed to make changes aimed at significantly reducing costs for the 2017 America’s Cup. Central to these changes is the introduction of an exciting new America’s Cup Class - a wing-sailed, foiling catamaran between 45 and 50 feet. “The move to the new America's Cup Class is a major step forward for the America’s Cup,” said Commercial C...
Red-eye flights, containers full of sails and gear, housing rentals—these are just some of the seemingly overwhelming logistics that out-of-town racers contend with in preparation for faraway events. For those who make the pilgrimage to Race Week, however, the rewards far outweigh the challenges. “It’s the best part of our crew’s summer,” says Bill Liberty, tactician an...
Bill Sweetser has enjoyed tremendous success racing his J/109 Rush, winning Key West Race Week and earning Boat of the Week honors at the Larchmont NOOD, among many impressive accomplishments. However, one coveted victory has somehow eluded the Annapolis skipper: the J/109 North American title. Rush has been in contention on many occasions, but for one reason or another ...
The Team Vestas Wind In-Port Race is always a crowd pleaser. It’s the only time we get to see these teams in a close-quarter battle for supremacy. For the sailors, however, it’s less about the points (the final scores of the In-Port series will only apply to tie-break situations in the overall race results) and more about looking good in front of the crowds. That, and th...
Dreaming of blue water cruising? World Cruising Club, best known for the annual ARC – Atlantic Rally for Cruisers – has joined forces with leading offshore yacht broker Berthon International, to host the Bluewater Open Boat Weekend. The event takes place at Berthon’s Lymington UK base on 16-17 May 2015. Register in advance (see below) and the event is free to attend: ...
The starting gun goes off. There are a few boats directly ahead, and the disturbed air from those boats is palpable. There are also boats to windward, preventing you from tacking to port without making a huge duck to cross their transoms. Stay here and it’s game over. You need to find a port-tack exit lane, but what’s the best way to get there, and when’s the best time t...
I recently had the opportunity to race the J/70 Fall Brawl in Annapolis, Md., with a few younger guys: Wilson Stout and Colin Kirby. They’re both Old Dominion alum like myself, and very good sailors. After the last race, as we were sailing in, I asked their opinion of the weekend and what they learned. As the wheels were turning I could see Wilson and Colin thinking abou...
The 2014 RC44 Championship Tour has seen the 13-strong fleet compete in five events across three continents, with the finale held November 19th-23rd on the Gulf of Oman. The tour, which consists of both fleet racing and match racing, held events in Cascais, Portugal, Marstrand, Sweden and Sotogrande, Spain before arriving in Muscat, Oman. Defending fleet champions, Te...
A 31-boat fleet of Melges 24s met at the Davis Island YC in Tampa, Fla., Nov. 14-16, 2014 for their national championship. In the open class, Bora Gulari’s New England Ropes/West Marine Rigging went into the final day of racing on Sunday tied with Brian Porter’s Full Throttle. In the first race of the day, Porter was able to roll over Gulari after the start, forcing G...
Tall ships lovers are in for a treat in Belfast this summer, as up to 80 of these historic vessels will be moored in the city harbour from July 2-5. Visiting as part of the annual Tall Ships Races, the fleet will include 15-20 A-class vessels (more than 40m long) and a number of South American military vessels. Classic yacht fans will have four days to see the ship...
Boscombe beach is set to host the season opener of the British Thundercat racing championship this weekend (April 18-19). These 12ft inflatable speed machines will race between Boscombe and Bournemouth piers from 11:00 to 15:30. Thundercats are powered by 50hp outboard engines and piloted by a two-person team racing around a close-to-shore circuit, making them a sp...
Winning in the Gazelles class was the 44.9 metre sloop Visione, which also took overall regatta honors to win the coveted ‘Bucket’. P2 took a sixth in the race to fall behind Visione and runner-up Inoui in the overall standings. Visione's tactician Jens Christiansen comments on the race, saying, “The 10-11 knot winds suited us well. We were sailing very fast on the long ...
“I was in this cloud of birds and all I could hear was chirping—it was super trippy,” kiteboard world champion Johnny Heineken recalls of one of the first times he foiled on a kiteboard under the Golden Gate bridge—a bizarre experience in a silent world that spoke to the uniqueness of this kiteboarding progression. “On any other board I’d be pounding and slapping, worry...
San Francisco is a tough environment for sailing gear, says Oracle Team USA’s Shannon Falcone, who is in charge of developing every piece of technical clothing he and his teammates will don come September’s 34th Match. The water is cold, air temperatures swing dramatically, and 30-minute, sweat-inducing bursts are followed by long, chilling waits. Then there’s the critic...
The one overriding theme is to increase race participation, and in order to do that we need to allow a program to enter the race relatively late without a competitive disadvantage. We also need to allow teams to come in with a lower skill level or smaller physical stature, e.g., women and smaller individuals, and still have them feel competitive. Safety has been another...
Back in August 2012 the Volvo Ocean Race announced it had received its first entry for the 2014-‘15 edition of the race around the world in the shape of an all-female crew backed by Swedish global hygiene and forest company SCA. Since then Team SCA have not let the grass grow under their feet, and under the tutelage of team CEO Richard Brisius, the man responsible for t...
With the crew of Team Vestas Wind now safely on land, attention has turned to retrieving the stricken vessel, grounded on the Cargados Carajos Shoals (St Brandon), some 260 miles north east of Mauritius - and whether the Danish team will return to the race. “It is Vestas’ clear ambition to get Team Vestas Wind out sailing again,” said the sailing team’s CEO Morten Alb...
The change to a strict one-design for the 2014-’15 Volvo Ocean Race had one intended consequence: Anyone who came late to the race could still be competitive. Without the immense upfront investment into R&D, a team that could secure funding and assemble a crew would essentially be guaranteed entry. The latest beneficiary is Team Alvimedica, which announced its commitment...
In the old days of the Whitbread and the early Volvo Ocean Races boatspeed was the product of two things: the designer’s pen and the ability of a crew to move a hull efficiently through the water in all conditions. The switch to a one-design contest for the first time in this year’s Volvo Ocean Race has effectively removed the designer from the equation. The boats are as...
Volvo Ocean Race partner and official satellite communications provider Inmarsat will play a larger role in bringing the race to fans’ desktops and mobile devices. The 2014-’15 race will be Inmarsat’s fourth edition. Its satellite services underpin the work of the Onboard Reporters aboard the boats purpose-built with digital communications in mind. Inmarsat’s satellite ...
This story originally appeared in Dutch on NOS.nl and has been translated to the best of our abilities. For the first time since the shipwreck, Team Vestas navigator Wouter Verbraak is telling his story. He was asleep, and woke up from the impact, when his boat became stranded on a reef in the Indian Ocean on the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. "My first reaction ...
The Triangle Race is a double-handed challenge open to cruiser and cruiser-racer monohull yachts of 25ft LOA or over, organised by the Royal Torbay Yacht Club. The event runs, on even-numbered years, from Torquay to Kinsale Southern Ireland to Tréguier Brittany and back to Torquay, a distance of at least 620 miles and lasting 12 days. At least 2 days are spent in each po...
In Italy, the 2014 champions are the crew Radman-Cioni on a Mattia, whilst the 2014 Worlds saw Gunnar Larsen and Ferdinand de West (Nacra) take victory, ahead of Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin Amiot (Phantom). Races which were hotly disputed every time, and which demonstrate that you can have fun while racing...
Once again this year, you will be able to see some of the most beautiful multihulls in ocean racing heritage sailing in the Golden Oldies Trophy, in the Mediterranean (at Port Camargue, from 29th May to 1st June 2014) and in the Atlantic (at Concarneau from 8th to 10th August) But the most recent multihulls are not established as part of this heritage, and continue the...
With less than 100 nm between the lead boat, Donfeng Race Team, and the last, Team SCA, leaving the wind shadow southwest of Sri Lanka was welcome relief. The teams are now duking it out in the Bay of Bengal, all aiming for the entrance of the Malacca Strait, three days to their east. Sanya is still 2,400nm and two weeks away.It took them nine days to leave Abu Dhabi, cr...
December 12, 2014 Quantum Key West Race Week 2015 will once again showcase the full spectrum of sailboat racing amid the beautiful setting of aqua-colored waters and warm sunshine. Many of the world’s best sailors will come to the Conch Republic for the 28th edition of Key West Race Week, being held Jan. 18-23. For the fourth consecutive year, Quantum Sail Design Group...
The hazy hours of a long-distance ocean race are filled with either spurts of intense focus or wandering reflections where our minds drift off across the horizon. I had plenty of both during the 2014 Newport to Bermuda. The race started on a beautiful summer day in June, with bright blue skies, a building sea breeze, and a flat sea ahead. Our first 100 miles of the 635-...
For the University of Washington Sailing Team, achieving varsity status is not at the top of the list. “It’s very complicated, and just doesn’t make sense to try to achieve in the near future,” says Kris Thompson the current captain of the team, “Looking at our goals at this point I think it’s in our best interest to look for new ways of fundraising.” The team receives ...
Since its introduction into the youth sailing community, two popular variations on the design have risen to the forefront of modern junior sailing. The Club 420 is possibly the most popular youth double-handed boats on the continent (closely followed by the Flying Junior, or FJ), and Collegiate 420 following suit as one of the most popular boats among collegiate program...
By living with a host family, learning a new language, training with a local team and racing at local and national regattas, sailors will gain new international friendships as well as understandings. Since it started last year, this summer’s exchange will truly embody the program’s intended meaning, as it will see American and Spanish sailors traveling to and from each ...
The Danish boat, skippered by Chris Nicholson, who led Team New Zealand's entry in the last edition of the round the world yacht race, ran aground a reef at Cargados Carajos Shoals during the stage from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi in November. The crew were forced to abandon the boat in darkness, and were rescued by local coastguard authorities the next day. The badly d...
We now know a lot more about the next edition of the America’s Cup. We already knew about the boats – 62-foot catamarans with rigid wing sails; we now know the place and date for this unique event... Some crazy rumors were doing the rounds about the destination for this 35th edition of the oldest sporting trophy still being contested, but as the announcement approached,...
