Up the far canal in a yacht
We all have a dream. We wanted to circumnavigate the world and part of that dream was to go through the French canals in our own yacht. In 2009 we finally found the yacht we were looking for in New…
All News
The latest news from the world of yachting and sailing including yacht & dinghy reviews, cruising and destination information plus the latest boating gear as well as inshore and offshore racing updates and regatta schedules. All things Sailing, Sail Racing, Sailboats and more.
What use are a yacht's polar plot for cruising?
These days you will often find published in boat brochures and boat tests, a diagram showing the performance of a particular boat. The diagram is called a polar plot and a typical one is shown in figure 1. Understanding how…
Cadet World’s coaches Blog #10 – Australia shares silverware
The Cadet World Championship is done and dusted – it was sailed in trying conditions on and off the water and the Australian team performed well and shared a large slice of the silverware. We had our last race as…
Australia finishes on podium at Aarhus Denmark Test Event
The Men’s RS:X at the Hempel Sailing World Championships Aarhus Denmark 2018 Test Event whetted the appetite for the battles to come here in a year’s time. On a day of light airs, there was drama all the way to…
Oman Air ahead in Hamburg Extreme Series
Oman Air maintained its lead in Hamburg while Red Bull Sailing Team climbed from bottom of the table to second after seven nail-biting races on the penultimate day of Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 5, Hamburg, presented by Land Rover. Four…
Dutch team wins Women's Match Racing in Lysekil
Dutch Olympian Renée Groeneveld and her crew have won the Lysekil Women’s Match, beating Pauline Courtois, FRA, 3 – 1 in Saturday’s final on the second stop on the 2017 WIM Series. “My crew did a very good job today,…
Mission Impossible at RC44 Marstrand Worlds?
With just one day remaining of the RC44 Marstrand World Championship, can Team Nika be caught for the world title? Ask any professional sailor what hopes they have for a week of competition, and generally it's to be in with…
Perfect day opens Airlie Beach Race Week
Day 1 at Airlie Beach Race Week Festival of Sailing hosted by Whitsunday Sailing Club got off to a fabulous start – lots of sun and a light breeze for entrants to ease into the competition. Sailing in light airs,…
Bronenosec's young guns hit their mark
Day two of the RC44 Marstrand World Championship was far too fickle and tricky for any single team to dominate, but the best performers of the day were both Russian crews. Bronenosec Sailing Team won the first heat of the…
Double win for Oman Air on testing day in Hamburg
In tough conditions on the River Elbe, Oman Air out-sailed its rivals to gain a six-point lead, with the rest of the fleet separated by a narrow two-point margin, after the first day of scoring racing at the Extreme Sailing…
France claims Fastnet Challenge Cup for third consecutive time
For a third time running, the Rolex Fastnet Race has been a story of French domination, Le Tricolor flying on this occasion from the top spot in IRC 1, 2, 3 and 4, the Class40 and IMOCA 60, the Two…
MAPFRE wins qualifying sprint from Plymouth to Saint-Malo
Xabi Fernández and his in-form MAPFRE team claimed their second victory in Leg Zero qualifying with another commanding performance in the build-up to the Volvo Ocean Race. MAPFRE had a lead of seven nautical miles when they crossed the finish…
Cadet Worlds coach's blog #9 – Another mixed day for Australia
Three races were sailed in a light nor’easter of 3-5 knots – this was a new direction we hadn't done much sailing in – and in contrast, this breeze had a one way tendency with the left hand side of…
Airlie Beach Race Week Day 2 – first time lucky
Mark Skelton forsook the Barbados and the 2017 OK Dinghy World Championship just so he could finally attend Airlie Beach Race Week – and so far it has paid in spades – two wins from two races. Skelton, who finished…
Peter Burling joins Team Brunel for Volvo Ocean Race
Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup winning helmsman Peter Burling has joined Team Brunel for the 2017-18 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race – and he’s already out sailing with his new teammates in pre-race qualifying. The signing of the…
Light winds and strong tide thwart Hamburg extreme Series opener
Mother Nature refused to play ball on the opening day of Extreme Sailing Series Act 5, Hamburg, resulting in no scoring races being completed. Conditions in the German venue are predicted to improve from tomorrow. Light winds versus strong tide…
Rolex Fastnet Race: To the wire in IRC Three
IRC Three went to wire this afternoon in the Rolex Fastnet Race between two French JPK 10.80s. Coming into the finish, Timeline of past class winner Marc Alperovitch seem to be the victor, but when Arnaud Delamare and Eric Mordret's…
Things go right for Nika on day one of RC44 in Marstrand
Sometimes success is about being in the right place at the right time, and that's exactly what launched Team Nika into the lead on day one of the RC44 Marstrand World Championship in Sweden. Things fell into place beautifully for…
Cadet Worlds coach's blog #8 – two Aussie crews in the top 10
Coach's Blog #8 Well 8 races completed and our regatta is 2/3 of the way through. It was nice to get back out on the water to race and enjoy the sailing challenges. We had our best wind for the…
Four quarter finalists decided at WIM Series Lysekil
In bright sunshine and shifty westerly winds, the round-robin stage of the Lysekil Women’s Match concluded Thursday afternoon. Trine Palludan of the Royal Danish Yacht Club took nine matches to win it. “Now we appreciate getting a little rest before…
34th Musket Cove Regatta – time running out to book
Sailors from around the Pacific and beyond are already signalling their intention to be part of the legendary Musket Cove Fiji Regatta, which will be staged from September 15-20 this year. Such is the interest in the colourful event, that…
Bumblebee V runs aground on way to Hamilton Island
The racing yacht Bumblebee V has run aground off Byron Bay on the north coast of NSW. She was being delivered to Hamilton Island Race Week by a professional crew when she hit a reef. The crew abandoned the stricken…
V and B prevails in the Class 40s as Trentesaux has a comfy ride
Aside from the Volvo Ocean Race seven, another tight competition in the Rolex Fastnet Race has been between the twenty-six Class40s racing. These boats are designed to a box rule created in France in the early 2000s. With more than…
WIM Series – Palludan keeps on winning in windy Lysekil
The wind, the spectators and finally also the sunshine, came to Lysekil Women’s Match, the 2nd event on the 2017 WIM Series, on Wednesday. Trine Palludan from the Royal Danish Yacht Club picked up another couple of matches, and is…
One year on from Rio 2016: Extreme Finn sailing – Finnally
There has been one question on the lips of the many thousands of Finn fans around the world since the Rio Olympics – ‘Where can we see footage of the incredible Finn racing on the courses outside the bay?’ Everyone…
Cadet Worlds coach's blog #7 – bizarre decisions
Coaches Blog #7 Well a nice short one today. Not a lot happened on the water, but a fair bit going on ashore. I went down to the club and attended the daily coaches briefing. It was quite fiery with…
Aussies dominate opening day at Aarhus Test Event
Day one of the Test Event began with clear skies and low wind speeds of around seven knots. The wind increased in the latter part of the day to 12 knots. Races were scheduled to start at 1200 hours but…
Dennis Conner's bold America's Cup predictions for Auckland 2021
Stuff.co.nz America's Cup great Dennis Conner predicts a “wonderful” regatta in Auckland sailed in foiling 60-foot sloops with no involvement from Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts, but the United States being represented by another billionaire. Conner, a four-time winner of…
Cullen and Rowan Hughes from Balmoral SC are new Mirror World Champions
Day 5 of the Gul Mirror Worlds, only one more race and the Cornish weather was a bit more like it with a moderate, but shifty wind and sunny intervals. The first attempt at getting Race 12 away failed when,…
NOR for 175th Festival of Sails published and entry open
The Notice of Race for the 175th Festival of Sails is now online and organiser Royal Geelong Yacht Club is ready to welcome entries for the significant anniversary edition of Victoria’s oldest sporting trophy. Download the Notice of Race here…
Rolex Fastnet Race: Rock-bound flotilla
Unchallenged, Concise 10 blazed into Plymouth this morning, first boat home in the 47th Rolex Fastnet Race. Tony Lawson's MOD70 trimaran crossed the finish line off Plymouth breakwater at 05:55:00 BST with a race time of 42 hours and 55…
Rambler 88 claims Fastnet monohull line honours
American George David's Rambler 88 arrived in Plymouth to claim monohull line honours. The silver maxi crossed the finish line off Plymouth breakwater at 22:14:21 BST in a time of 2 days 9 hours 34 minutes and 21 seconds. This…
Overseas boats among early entries for Sydney Hobart
Two-time America’s Cup challenger, Vincenzo Onorato, is among the seven early international contenders for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA) 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. From 1993, the Italian shipping magnate has branded his team and boats ‘Mascalzone…
Dongfeng wins knife-edge battle with MAPFRE in Rolex Fastnet Race
China’s Dongfeng Race Team edged out MAPFRE by just 56 seconds in a Rolex Fastnet Race thriller in the early hours of Wednesday, as an intense night of lead changes and fickle winds ended with the entire fleet separated by…
Fastnet Race – heavy traffic off Cornwall as Concise rounds the Rock
At 15:49:37 BST Tony Lawson's MOD70 trimaran Concise 10 became the first boat to round the Fastnet rock off southwest Ireland. At the time the next boat in the race, George David's Rambler 88 was 111 miles astern. However thanks…
SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week: Competitors prepare for a week of fun and sun
Entries for Townsville Yacht Club’s SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week have reached 65 and competitors are already gearing up for a week of sailing, soaking up sun and catching up with friends for the final northern regatta, held during the…
Aussies out in force at 2017 Aarhus Sailing Week
A strong contingent from the Australian Sailing Team will compete at this week’s 2017 Aarhus Sailing Week in Denmark, the test event for the 2018 Sailing World Championships to be held in Aarhus next August. Heading the charge for the…
Cadet Worlds Day 2 – coach's blog #6
In Australia we grow up on a diet of sea breezes and firm winds. We do race occasionally in extremely light airs but it is somewhat of a rarity and we are not as conditioned in them as other nationalities. …
Classic upwind start for record breaking Rolex Fastnet Race
The Solent laid on 'classic' conditions for the start of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's 47th Rolex Fastnet Race. In brilliant sunshine and with brisk westerly winds gusting up to 20 knots, the giant fleet tacked up the western Solent…
Rallies, rescues and rewards as 29er Worlds wrap
LONG BEACH, Calif., August 5, 2017 – It was last ditch efforts and comebacks on the race course this final day of racing at the 2017 Zhik 29er World Championship regatta at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. For a pair of…
