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A new year begins, and with it a new leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18. On Tuesday 2nd January 2018, the seven boats of the fleet will line up on the start line in Melbourne (Australia) for Leg four…
Stuff.co.nz An America's Cup guru is predicting the new monohulls to break the 50-knot barrier for the first time and says they are so radical that teams will struggle to come up with the right training platform. Australian Grant Simmer,…
The Telegraph (UK). By Henry Bodkin. The memory of thousands of Cornish people who were kidnapped and sold into slavery has been “culturally erased”, campaigners have said. Academics are trying to revive knowledge about pirates from the Barbary coast in…
Matt Allen’s new TP52 Ichi Ban has been declared the overall winner of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2017 – and Allen, the president of Australian Sailing, can hardly believe it. “It hasn’t sunk…
If you had to pick an ideal race finish from a spectator’s point of view this was it. Just after 5.30am this morning the sun was rising on a warm balmy morning and turning the sky a crimson hue. On…
In an even fleet of 11 identical 70-footers in the Clipper Race fleet of the Rolex Sydney Hobart, Wendy Tuck is amazing – today she brought Sanya Serenity Coast and its huge crew of amateurs across the finish line at…
Some of the top names in sailing are joining the Volvo Ocean Race with teams beginning to announce crew changes ahead of Leg 4 from Melbourne to Hong Kong, starting on January 2, 2018. On Friday, Dongfeng Race Team announced…
The Fork in the Road has taken line honours in the Riversdale Estate WInes Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race, crossing the finish just after six o’çlock this evening. This is the sixth line honours victory for skipper Gary Smith who,…
In 1971, American sailor Jim Kilroy sailed his 23-metre yawl Kialoa II to line honours victory in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. For Hobartians, it added an exotic element to one of the key calendar events of their lives: an…
Fremantle turned on another brisk day today with breezes at the upper limit allowed by 420 class rules. The result was predictable, with many crews struggling to cope with the fresh conditions and big waves. “We are happy about the…
Hong Kong proudly welcomes the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 (VOR) to Asia’s world city for the first time. As one of 12 VOR Host Cities, a Hong Kong Stopover from January 17 to 31 features a Race Village and…
This morning at 7.00am, only 10 yachts remain at sea in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Rolex Sydney Hobart, with all expected ashore in time to ring in the New Year in what has been one of the fastest…
On a day when wild weather forced the abandonment of the practice race for the 420 Worlds, the wild theme continued at a boisterous and friendly welcome and opening ceremony. More than 300 sailors, plus support crews and coaching staff,…
When he stepped aboard his new V70 Wizard with his brother Peter just days before the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart, American David Askew had never stepped onto one of these legendary ocean warhorses before. Now he has seen…
Mark Richards has steered the Oatley family’s Wild Oats XI to her ninth Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours victory after a protracted battle with Jim Cooney’s LDV Comanche on Tasmania’s River Derwent this evening, reclaiming the race record Anthony Bell’s…
“We‘re the best light air boat and this race was anything but. We really needed a two-night race,” was how Black Jack skipper Mark Bradford summed up their race after finishing third across the line and an hour inside the…
Olympic sailor and world dinghy champion Gary Smith has steered race record holder The Fork in the Road to a commanding position in the Riversdale Estate Wines Launceston to Hobart yacht race. The Bakewell-White 45 hit the front of the fleet…
All was quiet this morning at Hobart’s famous Constitution Dock, seven big boats home, five inside last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart race record, last year’s overall winner, Wizard (then sailing as Giacomo) and Wild Oats X, the little sister of…
Matt Allen docked his brand new TP52 at Kings Pier at 9.00am this morning, acknowledging he will now have to play the waiting game to see if his Ichi Ban (No 1 in Japanese) is indeed No. 1 in the…
The weather was perfect for the start of the Pantaenius Newport to Coffs Coast Yacht Race 2017. A 15 knot east north easterly breeze, a clear sunny sky and a low swell greeted the fleet at the start line between…
All seven boats in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet have now finished in Melbourne, with team AkzoNobel ghosting through Port Phillip Bay in near calm conditions to cross the line just before 10:30am on Thursday morning (local time). It was…
Melbourne turned on ideal sailing conditions for the start – a warm sunny day with 15-20 Northerly winds at the race start time (2:30pm yesterday afternoon). A sea breeze was threatening to develop during the afternoon. Charles Meredith's Chris White…
Though overall honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race may have eluded them this time, there is a mutual respect among the skippers of the gun fleet of 50-footers for the battle in which they engaged. For it is in…
It was the decision that most sailors had been expecting, but it has left a bitter taste in the mouths of Mark Richards and his crew on Wild Oats XI. After crossing the finish line first in the 2017 Rolex…
As expected, Jim Cooney’s LDV Comanche is leading the line honours race on the first morning of the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart, making the most of a strong north-easterly wind in Bass Strait and well ahead of the race record…
Fifth place in Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race went to Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag who managed to hold off Turn the Tide on Plastic, for the second consecutive leg. Skipper David Witt steered Scallywag across the Melbourne finish line…
The 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race has its first retirement, the German TP52 Rockall, which suffered a broken rudder 60 nm south of Eden this morning and is making for Eden, apparently with police assistance. No further details are…
A grandstand finish is looming as the two leading contenders for line honours in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race do battle off the east coast of Tasmania. And, the signs are that the yacht that leads the fleet…
A third place finish into Melbourne on Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race has Vestas 11th Hour Racing on equal points for second place on the overall leaderboard. Leg 3 was a difficult challenge for the Volvo Ocean Race…
Sailors in the 420 Nationals sailed out of Fremantle Sailing Club had their first taste of the “Fremantle Doctor” the famous south westerly sea breeze which brings cooling sea air over the city during hot summer afternoons. Gusts peaked at…
There was excitement and controversy at the start of the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart as the four 100ft super maxis led the fleet out of the harbour. In the light (10 knot) easterly, the pace during the pre-start was much…
The four supermaxis racing for line honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart yacht race, which starts tomorrow, are destined to enjoy a belated Christmas present – a sleigh ride to Hobart, and probably a race record time for the first…
It is just three days to the start of the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart, so of course it is time for the bar-room pundits to start speculating about who will take out Australian yachting’s most prized trophy, the Tattersall Cup…
With just over 400 nautical miles to go to the finishing line off Melbourne, MAPFRE is on a final push to draw first blood on the double-point scoring Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race. Before they can add to…
David Aplin, the new owner/skipper of Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race contender Team Whistler, has no plans about taking the helm during next week’s long offshore race. “I’ve been the mastman on Whistler and other yachts for years and that’s…
Comfy she is not – in her 40 foot hull Imalizard boasts no floor, no shower, no windows, no table other than a small chart table and even that, in these days of electronic charts, is barely used, while sails…
When the knife-like bow of the supermaxi, Wild Oats XI, carves across the start line in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day the 20-man crew will have an astonishing 301 starts in the classic to their credit….
Dongfeng Race Team opted to try one last trick in an eleventh-hour bid to overhaul Leg 3 leaders MAPFRE on Friday as they went into stealth mode. The decision by skipper Charles Caudrelier and navigator Pascal Bidégorry means Dongfeng will…
After two days of racing, the 420 Nationals are dominated by Spanish competitors, who currently hold down the top three places on the leader board, followed by two French crews and one from New Zealand. The top Australian crew is…
MAPFRE extended their lead over rivals Dongfeng Race Team on Thursday as Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race entered its closing stages. While the finish line isn't quite in sight, the most physical element of the battle is in…
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