News, race results plus editorial coverage from the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Vendée Globe, The Ocean Race, ARC, Fastnet, Transpac, Ocean Globe Race, Global Solo Challenge and Offshore Yachting from around the world.
8am this morning saw skippers and navigators gathered for the compulsory pre race briefing. Nick McGuigan and Donald Fraser took the participants through the all important safety briefing before Fraser revealed the up to date weather forecast. Whilst there are…
By Grand Prix ocean racing standards she’s an old girl, and there’s no denying she’s had a few makeovers during the past decade, but Bob Oatley’s 30-metre long supermaxi, Wild Oats XI, was leaving no doubt today that when it…
Will the 70th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race have been decided between lunch and tea today? That’s the conclusion that one might well draw from the huge difference in the performance of the Hamilton Island supermaxi Wild…
The forecast for the 70th Sydney-Hobart Race is generally benign for most of the fleet, with winds not expected to exceed 30 knots until Monday night, when a cold front crosses Tasmania. Andrew Treloar from the Bureau of Meteorology told…
America’s Cup winning skipper Jimmy Spithill could well be the most overqualified grinder you’ll see in action in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Rolex Sydney Hobart start line today. “He’s been a wonderful team player and literally in the…
To reef or not to reef, that was the question during the pre-start of the 2014 Rolex Sydney-Hobart. Wild Oats had one in, as did Ragamuffin and Rio 100 but Comanche and Perpetual Loyal thought they could carry full main…
Just over three hours into the 2014 Rolex Sydney-Hobart, the two Australian 100ft super-maxis Perpetual Loyal and Ragamuffin were leading the race for line honours by 3nm from pre-race favourites Comanche and Wild Oats XI. The US-owned Comanche showed a…
The Fork in the Road may not be the biggest boat in the National Pies Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race, but she is a hot favourite to record her fourth line honours victory in the 285 nautical mile race starting…
After five hours of the 2014 Rolex Sydney-Hobart, less than four nautical miles separates the four leaders. Comanche and Wild Oats have closed on the shoreline and on the race leaders Perpetual Loyal and Ragamuffin. Just after 6pm on Boxing…
Chicken pies, the gooseneck and the voodoo stick were the last items to be ticked off today in Wild Oats XI’s preparation for a record-breaking bid in the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, which starts on Sydney Harbour at 1pm today….
Tony Cable just keeps going on. Last year he finished his 48th Sydney Hobart, setting a record for the number of races by an individual – this year it is number 49 – 49 not out, just one off the…
In its early days, ocean racing was a very blokey thing – hard sailing and hard drinking – back to the wife and kids on a Sunday night after a weekend offshore – so it is an interesting fact that…
Clipper Ventures Australia is on the hunt for Australians looking to push their limits and take on the challenge of a lifetime, the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Australians have an impressive history in the world's longest ocean race…
There’s a sense among the crews competing for a win in the inaugural Corinthian Division of the Rolex Sydney Hobart that it’s levelling a playing field that has been uneven for a while under the handicap system. “In theory, the…
Boats from northern yacht clubs have yet to win a Launceston to Hobart race since it began seven years ago but Tamar Yacht Club vice commodore John Joyce is confident the four boats contesting this coming weekend’s race are good…
There are two ways you can get to Hobart, there is the wet way – cold, noisy, perched on the rail dreaming of the next Mars bar – and there’s the Swan way, dry in the cockpit, savouring the aromas…
Sailors in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart should watch what they eat on Christmas day or they may well watch Christmas dinner all over again on Boxing Day. At the Christmas Eve briefing at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia…
Sydney Hobart yacht race record holder, Wild Oats XI, is the centre of an intense repair effort on the eve of the big race after suffering damage during her most recent training run. The sleek supermaxi, owned by Bob Oatley…
Loick Peyron has won … everything in sailing possibly. He is the fastest sailor around the world, he took over a 103 foot tri two months before this year's Route du Rhum and beat his round the world 130 foot…
ALICANTE, Spain, December 22 – Team Vestas Wind’s stranded Volvo Ocean 65 boat has been retrieved from a remote reef in the Indian Ocean and on Monday was heading on a round-trip via Mauritius and Malaysia back to Europe. After…
Online entry for the Sydney to Mooloolaba Yacht Race, which starts on Sydney Harbour on Friday 27th March 2015, is now open. The race is being organised by Middle Harbour Yacht Club (MHYC) in partnership with Mooloolaba Yacht Club (MYC)….
In a sea of impressive boats preparing for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, a little 33-year-old S&S34 is turning heads. With her rich blue hull, sparkling white deck and faultless stainless steel…
Just a few days out from Boxing Day and the buzz around the docks of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is that Ray Roberts is looking like a very good bet to win this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart. He…
There’s no doubt the returned soldiers aboard Spirit of Mateship and Southern Excellence II are the kind of blokes you want around if things went horribly wrong – and for that matter, you want them for the good stuff too…
Yesterday saw competitors for the Tassie Trio of races attend the compulsory pre-race briefing session. Discussion ranged across a variety of safety and procedural issues but was also the first indication of the likely weather. On the 26th December for…
Bridgetown, Barbados (21 December, 2014): The arrival of the first overseas yachts into Bridgetown, including British VO70 Monster Project marks the start of the countdown of the 2015 Mount Gay Round Barbados Race Series, which is taking place from 16-24…
When Andrew Treloar from the Bureau of Meteorology delivered his long-range forecast for the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race this morning, it was all bad news for the five 100ft super-maxis. According to Treloar, a pre-frontal trough that will pass over Sydney…
Warwick Sherman never really wanted to do the Rolex Sydney Hobart. He’d done plenty of ocean racing, but bashing his way across Bass Strait to get to Tasmania just didn’t grab him. Perversely, all that changed when he was diagnosed…
The 2014 Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race will have special significance for Melbourne yachtsman Richard Gates – culminating a return to yachting after a break of 30 years and sailing back to where he grew up. Gates, a Melbourne-based senior…
ALICANTE, Spain, December 19 – Iker Martínez (ESP) is stepping down for the next leg as skipper of MAPFRE in the Volvo Ocean Race to concentrate on a pre-arranged commitment to prepare for the 2016 Rio Olympics. His best friend…
ALICANTE, Spain, December 19 – Volvo Cars has underlined its commitment to the Volvo Ocean Race as part of a radical new marketing strategy that was unveiled earlier this week. The company has backed the race and been joint owner of…
The Cruising Club of America (CCA) has confirmed that its 2014 Rod Stephens Trophy for Outstanding Seamanship will be awarded to Sean McCarter, skipper of the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race Northern Irish entry Derry-Londonderry-Doire. The award is…
Ocean sailors are daft; why else would you think it a good idea to take a modern ocean racing yacht around the world on her own bottom to compete in lots and lots of races, some thousands of miles long?…
Hundreds of Australian sailors spend their lives trying to win the Tattersall’s Cup and the Rolex watch that goes with it; year after year they declare in Hobart that this was their last Rolex Sydney Hobart – definitely – for…
When reading reports or listening to commentary of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race, you will hear key waypoints being passed. Here's what RSH navigators tick off as they head south. Montague Island The island is off the NSW south coast, 155…
Australia’s premier ocean race has always had an international flavour; Captain Illingworth, who started the whole Sydney Hobart thing was, after all, an Englishman. In the heyday of the great aluminium maxis, legendary boats like Nirvana, Kialoa and Condor of…
Financial guru Paul Clitheroe calls all his boats Balance; as in balance sheet, balanced portfolio, bank balance and balance in life. This year he graduated from racing a Beneteau 45, a displacement, more or less family friendly cruiser/racer to a…
With the recent launching of Rambler 88, George David (New York, N.Y./Newport, R.I.) is eyeing the next Les Voiles de St. Barth – scheduled for its sixth edition April 13-18, 2015 – as an early and critical step in getting…
If you'll be sitting in front of the television screen on Boxing Day, wishing you were on board one of the 118 yachts heading south in the great race… you could easily do so in 2015. The Clipper Round the…
With the early weather outlook for next week’s Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race indicating it will be a sometimes torrid all-round test over the 628 nautical miles, the highly experienced crew of race record holder Wild Oats XI is feeling comfortable but…
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