Ari Huusela brings Vendee Globe to a close
Ari Huusela, the last skipper to cross the finish line of the ninth Vendee Globe, was given a huge warm welcome as he sailed into Les Sables d’Olonne to complete the dream he has held for 22 years since he…
Offshore
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.
2021 Brisbane to Keppel and Brisbane to Hamilton Island Yacht Races
After the cancellation of Hamilton Island Race Week last year, interest is building in the northern regattas for 2021 at Airlie Beach, Hamilton Island and Magnetic Island. To entice more owners to head north, Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron is running…
Portugal brings its charm to hosting The Ocean Race Europe in June
Following the Race start from Lorient, France, at the end of May, the inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe will stop in Cascais, bringing the top international offshore racing teams in the world to Portugal. Located 30km west of…
Lorient, France will host the start of The Ocean Race Europe
The French city of Lorient in Brittany has been appointed as the starting point for The Ocean Race Europe. The port, in the heart of the renowned ‘Bretagne Sailing Valley’, will host the start for both the IMOCA and VO65…
2021: Year 1 of the Quentin Vlamynck and Arkema 4 duo
2021 will undoubtedly be a year of discovery for Quentin Vlamynck, the promising young skipper of Arkema 4, a new trimaran of the Ocean Fifty class launched a few months ago. Under the guidance of his mentor Lalou Roucayrol still, Quentin…
‘Fighting Spirit’ Alexia Barrier finishes 24th in the Vendée Globe on TSE – 4myplanet
On a perfect Sunday morning, 28th February, at 06 23 44 hrs UTC French skipper Alexia Barrier crossed the finish line of the ninth Vendée Globe off Les Sables d’Olonne to finish her race in 24th position of the 33…
Lion-hearted Sam Davies completes her Vendee Globe
Forced to abandon her race on 5 December following a violent collision with a floating object south of Cape Town two days earlier, Sam Davies has sailed back into Les Sables d’Olonne in beautiful spring sunshine to complete an inspirational…
Two to come while non-ranked sailors still finishing
Franco German skipper Isabelle Joschke was rewarded with beautiful spring sunshine and a big, warm and affectionate welcome back to the Les Sables d’Olonne channel today after completing her solo circumnavigation without a final Vendée Globe ranking. Joshcke was forced out of…
How well are big waves depicted in movies?
Disaster movies that include monster waves are a sure fire box office winner; from the Poseidon Adventure to Perfect Storm to Day After Tomorrow. Some of them are good, some of them are bad; remember Pierce Brosnan kite surfing down…
Manuel Cousin home 23rd in Vendée Globe
'You have to live your dreams, not dream your life away' – was the maxim that drove Manuel Cousin to leave his life as an executive selling forklift trucks to major accounts with Toyota, to move from his native Normandy…
11th Hour Racing Team's IMOCA 60 boat build
11th Hour Racing Team began planning the build of its new IMOCA 60 in June 2019, before the team had even announced its plans to be entering a team in the world's longest sporting event – The Ocean Race 2022-23….
Vendee Globe feature on SBS today
Those fans who missed catching seeing the action of the 2020 Vendee Globe can get their fill in an hour-long feature of the highlights on SBS TV at 3.30pm today. The Vendee Globe, which starts and ends in Les Sables-d’Olonne,…
Solo Tasman Challenge 2022 is open for entries
Sitting around at home with nothing to do? The trans-Tasman Challenge has opened its website for entries for the next race in 2022. The idea of holding a yacht race across the Tasman sea to Mooloolaba originated in the late…
Aussie applies for Global Solo Challenge 2023
Two years away a new solo sailing circumnavigation race will be heading off. The organisers for this race have intentionally restricted certain parameters to make the race as affordable and as competitive as possible. Global Solo Challenge offer the ultimate…
OceanWatch Survey: Bushfire impacts on aquatic environments
The Australian bushfires of 2019-2020 were unprecedented in size and severity, however still very little is understood about how bushfires have affected (and continue to affect) aquatic environments and the people who rely on them. OceanWatch Australia is currently collecting…
Vendee Globe: First female finisher Clarisse Cremer breaks solo non-stop monohull world record
Following a prudent, careful passage across a boisterous Bay of Biscay, negotiating one last stormy low pressure, a triumphant Clarisse Cremer became the first woman to cross the finish line of the ninth Vendée Globe at 15:44:25 hrs UTC, to…
Vendee's first woman to finish ahead of female record
Clarisse Crémer, the 31 year old French skipper of Banque Populaire X, should cross the finish line of the Vendée Globe shortly to finish in 12th place. For the prodigious skipper who seven years ago had not even sailed her first…
Tough conditions as more Vendee boats approach the finish
Sunday has scarcely been a day of rest on the Vendée Globe even if it is the first day since last Tuesday that Les Sables d’Olonne has not welcomed a finisher across the line and into the famous channel. Preparations…
A human life was saved. End of story – Vendee Globe
“There are two winners in this Vendée Globe,” smiled Yannick Bestaven sportingly as he warmly greeted Charlie Dalin, the French skipper who hours earlier had broken the finish line of the solo round the world race in first place. Granted…
Charlie Dalin first to finish the Vendee Globe
After an immaculately executed race, at 19h 35m 47s UTC this evening, after 80 days 6hrs 15mins 47secs since the start on Sunday 8th November, French skipper Charlie Dalin emerged from a damp, misty Bay of Biscay to break the finish…
Louis Burton (Bureau Vallee 2) second across the finish line in Vendee Globe
Louis Burton, the popular hard driving 35-year-old French skipper of Bureau Vallee 2, crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe in second position, emerging from the inky darkness on his yellow hulled IMOCA to break the line at 23.45hrs 12mins…
Boris Herrmann reports on his collision with a fishing boat in the Vendee Globe
Shortly before the finish of the Vendee Globe Race, things took a dramatic turn for German sailor Boris Herrmann. His vessel, Seaexplorer – Yacht Club de Monaco collided with a fishing trawler 85 nautical miles from the finish line in…
Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ IV) wins the Vendée Globe
Yannick Bestaven, the 48-year-old French skipper of Maître Coq IV, is the overall winner of the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe. Although he actually took the gun for third place off Les Sables d’Olonne, France at 03hrs 19mins 46…
After 80 days of racing, Vendee Globe could be won by minutes
With something less than 24 hours until the first solo sailor finishes the Vendée Globe off Les Sables d’Olonne Wednesday night, even the most advanced modern weather routing programmes operated by some of the finest minds in ocean racing cannot…
Palanad 3 wins the 2021 RORC Transatlantic Race Trophy
Congratulations to Olivier Magre and his crew on French Class40 Palanad 3 as the overall winner of the 2021 RORC Transatlantic Race. Palanad 3 has posted the best elapsed time under IRC to win the RORC Transatlantic Race Trophy. Palanad…
Three boats to finish Vendee Globe within four hours on Wednesday?
After 24,300 nautical miles and more than 80 days of racing around the world, victory or a place on the podium on this ninth edition of the Vendée Globe might go down to the final layline, picking and sailing the…
Dice tumbling as Vendee Globe hits 1000nm to go mark
Less than 1000 nautical miles to the finish of the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe in Les Sables d’Olonne and it is still too close to call, not least as the Saint Malo maverick Louis Burton seized the race…
The Maxi Edmond de Rothschild abandons her Jules Verne Trophy record attempt
Indian Ocean, Friday, January 22, 2021 – Sailing in the Indian Ocean since yesterday afternoon and their passage of the longitude of Cape Agulhas, the men of Gitana Team were positioned at 48°28 south at 11:00 UTC with a lead…
Vendee Globe – all quiet on the Western front?
The relative silence from among the Vendée Globe leaders speaks volumes. Increasingly background activities are pared back to only what is necessary as the solo skippers devote all their energies to weather strategy, keeping fast and managing their energy reserves…
Seven days until the finish of the Vendee Globe
The race at the front of the Vendée Globe is electrifying. None of the eight previous editions has ever witnessed a race finish as open and intense. Right now the leading skippers are trying to get their heads around a…
Only 260nm separates the top nine sailors in the Vendee Globe
The Vendée Globe remains wide open. A leading group of nine skippers form the vanguard with a slight advantage for two skippers, Charlie Dalin and Louis Burton. The skipper of Bureau Vallée 2 continues his more westerly route and all…
Green Dragon and Palanad 3 scorch into Antigua
ANTIGUA, W.I. January 19, 2021 – Johannes Schwarz’s Volvo 70 Green Dragon crossed the finish line of the 7th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race at 04:53 UTC in an elapsed time of 9 days, 18 hours, 53 mins and…
Fast Burton and consistent Dalin battle northwards in the Trade Winds
With less than two weeks – perhaps even just ten days – until the finish of what is set to be the closest ever edition of the Vendée Globe it is still impossible to predict which three skippers will finish…
Rayon Vert takes multihull Line Honours in RORC Transatlantic Race
ANTIGUA, W.I. January 18, 2021 – Oren Nataf’s Multi50 Trimaran Rayon Vert, skippered by Alex Pella crossed the finish line of the 7th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race at 13:33 UTC in an elapsed time of 9 days, 3…
Vendee Globe – Burton and Dalin lead the North Atlantic climb
The Doldrums did not give up the Vendée Globe leaders as easily as was initially predicted but first placed Charlie Dalin (Apivia) appears to have skirted round the worst of a dynamic cloud system and emerged this afternoon with his…
Vendee Globe – Dalin and Burton match up
Today passing Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, there are no options in terms of strategy and choices on the northwards climb up the Atlantic for the tightly matched Vendée Globe leaders. But the conditions are difficult and tiring. The E’ly tradewinds…
2021 RORC Caribbean 600 is cancelled
LONDON, 13 January 2021: After much discussion internally and after consultation with the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, it was decided that the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) had no option but to cancel the RORC Caribbean 600 due to…
Vendee Globe – a drag race to Recife and beyond
With nothing more than a handful of small miles separating them, the leaders of the Vendée Globe are engaged on a straight head-to-head speed test which may yet prove decisive, and which may finally show the ultimate value of a…
Rolex Fastnet Race entry numbers smash all records
Like tickets to Glastonbury, registration opened on the dot of 1000 UTC today for this summer’s Rolex Fastnet Race and speedily sold out. Within an hour an unprecedented 400 boats had entered the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship event, which…
Vendee Globe – the road from Rio
After 65 days racing and over 23,000 nautical miles sailed on the course, the Vendée Globe in effect restarted off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil today with the five top boats regrouping within 26 miles of each other in terms of…
