Good start for second leg of Defi Atlantique
It was exactly 3 pm yesterday when the 10 Class40s taking part in the Défi Atlantique left the port of Horta on the way to La Rochelle 1,300 miles away. The 32* sailors setting out in a crews of two…
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.
The RORC and the RYA go double-handed
World Sailing's landmark decision to select a Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat event for the 2024 Olympics and the recent announcement to hold an Offshore World Championship for mixed double-handed sailing in October 2020 has encouraged the RYA and Royal…
IMOCA Series: Alan Roura and La Fabrique, the fabric of success
Alan Roura’s second campaign for the Vendée Globe is characterised by a huge leap forward. Twelfth in the 2016-2017 race aboard one of the oldest IMOCAs in the fleet, the Swiss sailor has been sailing since then with a foiler…
François Gabart on the subject of Brest Atlantiques: “We have emerged much stronger!”
François Gabart and his co-skipper will endeavour to win the first Brest Atlantiques race on the MACIF trimaran, which sets sail on 3 November 2019. It is a non-stop course running south from Brest in a loop and crossing the…
Experts support Nicolas Troussel’s Vendee Globe campaign
Greg Evrard (team director, former director of North Sails France), Juan Kouyoumdjian (naval architect) and Michel Desjoyeaux (double champion of the Vendée Globe and building manager) are henceforth supporting the skipper Nicolas Troussel, who will take the helm a brand…
Boris Herrmann’s sporting and environmental ambitions
In 2020, Boris Herrmann will become the first German to compete in the Vendée Globe, which he is preparing for, feeling full of confidence, while remaining methodical. After earning fifth place in the Route du Rhum, Boris may take the…
L30 adopted for World Sailing's Offshore World Championship
World Sailing has announced that the L30, a 30-foot one design keelboat, has been selected as the supplied equipment for World Sailing's Offshore World Championship from 2020. The L30 is a light, modern, one-design boat with racing at its core,…
Transpac 50 offers new Storm Trysail Club Team Trophy
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Board of the Transpacific Yacht Club, organizers of this year's 2225-mile Transpac 50 race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, has accepted an offer from the Storm Trysail Club to award a new team scoring trophy: the Storm…
New foiler design with 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart in mind
Twelve months work and investment from a highly experienced Australian group has led to the development of a 15.2m fully foiling design intended for the 2019 RSHYR. Performance predictions for the design suggest that, in certain conditions, it is capable…
Fastest yacht in the Southern Hemisphere to complete in the 2019 Brisbane to Gladstone Race
The 2019 Brisbane to Gladstone Multihull Yacht Race has something the 2019 Sydney to Hobart won’t have – the trimaran Beau Geste. She is a 70 foot (21.2m) trimaran weighing in at nearly 7000Kgs. Karl Kwok bought the MOD70 designed…
Bermuda 1000 Race – 18 IMOCAS to compete
The first event on the IMOCA Globe Series calendar for 2019, the Bermuda 1000 Race, will set sail from Douarnenez in Brittany at 1300 hours local time on Wednesday 8th May; on the program is a 2000 nautical mile solo…
Open60AAL Innovation Yachts launches
Finally, after five months of optimization and preparation, Norbert Sedlacek and the Innovation Yachts team are proud to announce the launching of their Open60AAL Innovation Yachts, to take place on Tuesday 26 March, starting from 8am in commercial harbour of…
The Ocean Race enters new era with global launch
The Ocean Race revealed its new brand identity and confirmed two entries during an online launch event hosted in Alicante, Spain. Formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race (1973 to 1997) and the Volvo Ocean Race (2001 to…
Istvan Kopar secures fourth place in the Golden Globe Race
American Hungarian solo yachtsman Istvan Kopar finally reached the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne, France at 13:58 UTC today to take fourth place in the 2018 Golden Globe Race. “This is the happiest day of my life…And this [Les…
Rolex Fastnet Race's most complete pantheon of offshore race boats
The most impressive collection of offshore racing hardware from across the globe is set to gather off Cowes for the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race on 3 August. Following the 340 available places in the IRC fleet selling…
Mod70 enters inaugural Lendlease Brisbane to Hamilton Yacht Race
Entries continue to flow in for the Inaugural Lendlease Brisbane to Hamilton Island Yacht Race starting on Friday 02 August 2019, with a variety of vessels already looking forward to racing north through the Capricorn Channel in what will be…
Istvan Kopar due to reach Les Sables d'Olonne finish on 21st March
Day 260: At 04:00 UTC today, American/Hungarian Istvan Kopar and his Tradewind 35 yacht Puffin was within 250 miles of the finish line and expected to reach Les Sables d'Olonne around 09:00 UTC on Thursday 21st March. Kopar was making 5.1…
Clipper Race: Ambassadors chosen to represent Zhuhai
Eighteen adventurers, including a professor, an engineer and a student, have been chosen to represent the city of Zhuhai in China as ocean racers in the Clipper 2019-20 Round the World Yacht Race. The candidates, who went through a tough…
Vendee Globe: Childhood dreams become reality for newcomers
Among the newcomers to the IMOCA class, Maxime Sorel and Clément Giraud come from different backgrounds, but share the same dream – they wish to take part in the 2020 Vendée Globe. We found out more about their two projects….
Around the globe, can't we just get along?
In this modern era of nationalist fervour it would appear there is a growing discord between geographic neighbours Spain and Portugal in regard to who was the first person to circumnavigate the globe. The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is often…
Uku Randmaa claims third place in Golden Globe Race
Dateline: 10/3/2019 Les Sables d’Olonne, France Uku Randmaa crossed the Les Sables d’Olonne finish line at 09:00 UTC today to secure third place in Golden Globe Race. Thousands lined the river entrance to catch a glimpse of this quiet spoken…
Defi Atlantique – final stretch before departure
Part of the French Sailing Federation’s Class40 program, this new event, organised by Grand Pavois Organisation, will depart from Guadeloupe on Saturday 23 March. Crews (minimum of two people aboard) will arrive in Horta in the Azores, then in La…
Uku Randmaa survives last storm and expected to finish Golden Globe on Sunday
Third placed Estonian Uku Randmaa has survived his last storm – 50knot winds and vicious 5m high seas – on Tuesday. The winds have now receded but the leftover Atlantic swell remains as his Rustler 36 One and All heads…
No plan B for Thomas Ruyant: “I will be there at the start of the 2020 Vendée Globe”
Early this week, Thomas Ruyant visited the Persico yard in Bergamo (Italy) to see how work was going on his future IMOCA, a Verdier designed boat that is due to be transferred to Lorient in June before she is launched…
One year on, a beautiful Bunbury and Return Ocean Race
While many are still recovering from tragic events of the 2018 race, the 71st Bunbury and Return Ocean Race will be remembered as one that helped in the healing process for the offshore community in Western Australia. To commemorate the…
Golden Globe – Uku Randmaa now within 1200 miles of finish
Third placed Estonian sailor Uku Randmaa is hungry… hungry because he has caught no fish during the past week to supplement the last of his food stocks… hungry to finish… and hungry to see his young family after more than…
IMOCA Globe Series – Sébastien Simon in the transition phase of the handover
Things are starting to move for Sébastien Simon. On Tuesday 26th February, the IMOCA, PRB, was relaunched displaying the colours of her sponsors, Arkéa and Paprec. It is on this foiler the the winner of the last Solitaire du Figaro…
The Cape Horn Race – a true test of grit
The Cape Horn Race gives both professional and Corinthian sailors an equal chance of winning under IRC handicap, attracting entries from towns and yacht clubs… the race invites teams to participate in the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of discovery…
RORC Caribbean 600: Record and multihull line honours for Maserati
Giovanni Soldini skippered Maserati Multi 70 across the RORC Caribbean 600 finish line at 20:49:00 AST on Tuesday 19 February in an elapsed time of one day, 06 hours 49 minutes, taking Multihull line honours and setting a new Multihull…
RORC Caribbean 600 – Class40 fight to the finish
In the early hours of Thursday 21 February, after two and a half days and nights of intense competition and over 600 miles of racing, it all came down to just a few minutes. Catherine Pourre's French Class40 Eärendil won…
The Ocean Race – how sailors and organisers are preparing
The Ocean Race, the crewed round the world race with stopovers raced for the first time on IMOCAs with foils, will start in Alicante in October 2021. With just over two and a half years to go to the start,…
RORC Caribbean 600 – record for Maserati Multi 70 and Multihull line honours
Maserati Multi 70 skippered by Giovanni Soldini (ITA) crossed the finish line of the RORC Caribbean 600 at 20:49:00 AST on Tuesday 19 February 2019 in an elapsed time of 1 day, 06 hours 49 minutes and 00 seconds, taking…
More dramas in Golden Globe Race – broken tiller and penalty for weather routing
Third placed Estonian skipper Uku Randmaa has escaped disqualification from the Golden Globe race after breaching the strict rules forbidding outside assistance, but has been handed a 72-hour penalty for asking and receiving weather routing information during radio contact with…
RORC Caribbean 600 – monohull line honours for Wizard
David and Peter Askew (USA) racing their Volvo 70 Wizard have taken Monohull Line Honours in the RORC Caribbean 600 crossing the finish line on Wednesday 20 February at 07:08:44 AST in an elapsed time of 1d 19h 38m 44s….
Coppercoat is deemed fit for another two circumnavigations as the Clipper Race fleet prepares to again set off around the world
Coppercoat has just signed a contract confirming the company as the Official Antifoul Supplier for the next two editions of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in 2019-20 and 2021-22. This partnership both reflects and consolidates Coppercoat’s success in…
Maserati and Argo on course for record RORC Caribbean 600
Multi70 Maserati (ITA) and MOD70 Argo (USA) have been ripping up the RORC Caribbean 600 race track, blasting around the course at phenomenal pace and well over 30 knots of boat speed has been recorded on the YB Race Tracker….
Blast off for the RORC Caribbean 600
The 2019 RORC Caribbean 600 kicked off in spectacular conditions off the south coast of Antigua with the magnificent fleet starting the 600 mile non-stop offshore race in bright sunshine, full-on gusting tradewinds and two-metre high waves. The 11th edition…
Imoca Globe Series: Kojiro Shiraishi wants to finish the job in 2020
He was one of the stand-out figures in the 2016 Vendée Globe, and the first Asian competitor to take part in the headline event on the IMOCA circuit, but Kojiro Shiraishi was forced to retire after dismasting. The Japanese sailor…
Ichi Ban just misses record but takes double in maiden Adelaide-Lincoln Race
Australia's most in-form racing yacht has ticked another offshore win off the list with a line honours, and expected overall handicap win, in this year's Teakle Classic Adelaide to Port Lincoln Yacht Race. Matt Allen and his team on Ichi…
The 'little crazy' boat that could – Teakle Classic Adelaide-Lincoln
'A little bit crazy' is the Spanish translation for Poco Loco, the name of Dan Haynes' 30-foot racing yacht that neatly describes him and his crew. Skipper Haynes and his seven crew are getting set for the boat's first offshore…
