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.
French solo skipper Paul Meilhat at the helm of SMA was crowned the unexpected winner of the IMOCA class in the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race today from Saint Malo in Brittany to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. The…
When he crossed the finish line in Pointe-à-Pitre at 0023hrs UTC last night, Paul Meilhat won the Route du Rhum in the IMOCA category, taking into account the 24-hour penalty given to Alex Thomson for starting his engine after running…
There has been a huge upset in the race between the IMOCAs, as comfortably leading the Route du Rhum and on his way to a clear victory, British sailor Alex Thomson ran aground last night at the foot of a…
The British yachtsman Alex Thomson stood on board his damaged yacht, Hugo Boss, moored to the quayside in Guadeloupe this morning and told the assembled media that he did not deserve to win the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe. Thomson had…
It is shortly after midnight in Europe that Alex Thomson is expected off Tête à l’Anglais island to the north of Basse-Terre. He will then have the tricky task of sailing around Guadeloupe. The skipper of Hugo Boss appears to…
An operation is under way to rescue Lalou Roucayrol, the French skipper who capsized 1,000 nautical miles east of Guadeloupe early yesterday morning (Wednesday). The plan to recover Roucayrol from the upturned Multi50, Arkema, will involve fellow Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe skipper…
Blessed with bright Caribbean sunshine and a 20-knot trade wind for the final passage around the island of Basse Terre, French solo skipper Armel Tripon today won the Multi50 class in the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe. The 43-year-old solo…
Following initial reports that Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss had grounded on rocks during the final miles of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe and while leading the IMOCA class, Race Direction has contacted the British skipper to check his status. They…
Plymouth City Council and the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) have confirmed that Plymouth will host the finish of the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race. Plymouth has marked the end of the biennial yacht race since its inception in 1925. Starting…
NEWPORT, R.I. – For Joe Mele, a 55-year-old retired doctor of internal medicine in New York City and fantastical stunt diver, ocean racing is about more than the competition. “I love the fact that it's not just a race, but…
It will soon be coming to an end for the leading IMOCA. Ruling supreme, Alex Thomson has kept a good lead over his closest rivals. Paul Meilhat, Vincent Riou and Yann Eliès are fighting it out to make it to…
Armel Tripon, the runaway leader in the Multi50 class, is hoping to be the third skipper to finish the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race from Saint Malo in Brittany to Pointe-à-Pitre in the French Caribbean. Tripon on…
Alex Thomson continues to extend his lead in the trade winds. Now less than 1000 miles from the finish in Pointe-à-Pitre, the British skipper seems well placed, even if Paul Meilhat, Vincent Riou and Yann Eliès will remain a threat…
Dateline 12:00 UTC 13.11.2018 – Les Sables d'Olonne, France Jean-Luc Van Den Heede may have to earn his passage around Cape Horn. The embattled French leader, nursing a damaged mast on his Rustler 36 Matmut after the yacht was pitchpoled…
The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria (ORCV) is pleased to announce it has partnered with Save the Children, the charity founded in 1919 whose vision is for children around the world to attain the right to survival, protection, development and…
The ninth day at sea in the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race saw the second capsize in this 11th edition of the four-yearly classic when a 50ft trimaran flipped over about 1,000 nautical miles east of Guadeloupe….
After Francis Joyon’s victory in the Ultime category, the battle between the IMOCAs is in the spotlight. For behind Alex Thomson, the clear leader, Paul Meilhat, Vincent Riou and Yann Eliès have shown once again that in the Route du…
The deadline for standard entries to close in Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s (MHYC) annual Sydney Short Ocean Racing Championship (SSORC) has been extended to Friday 16 November, with late entries extended to midnight on Wednesday 21 November, allowing extra time…
At 4.00 pm (UTC+1) this Sunday, 11 November, François Gabart was still leading the Route du Rhum, with roughly 50 nautical miles to go before clearing the tête à l’Anglais and starting to go round the island, a last tactical…
After sailing just over 26 hours, with most of the time spent working upwind, CYCA Vice Commodore Noel Cornish and his team aboard St Jude have been declared the Overall Winner of the Cabbage Tree Island Race. “We are very pleased with…
In the closest finish since it was first staged in 1978, the French ocean racing veteran Francis Joyon won the 40th anniversary Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race from Saint Malo to Pointe-À-Pitre early this morning. In the clammy…
With less than 800 nautical miles to sail to the finish of the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race – from Saint Malo in Brittany to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe – the French sailor François Gabart is on course…
ith just a handful of boats left at sea, Noel Cornish’s St Jude has won the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 180 nautical mile Cabbage Tree Island Race – the big leveller before the Rolex Sydney Hobart in December –…
On the sixth day of racing in the Route du Rhum, British skipper Alex Thomson is still leading the fleet of IMOCAs, and in the trade winds, he is being chased by three skippers, Paul Meilhat, Vincent Riou and Yann…
On Friday, eleven IMOCAs are continuing to race towards Guadeloupe, but Yannick Bestaven has unfortunately been forced to retire, while Jérémie Beyou, Alexia Barrier, Fabrice Amedeo, Manuel Cousin and Romain Attanasio intend to set sail again after carrying out pit…
Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant’s 100-foot Comanche has surged to the finish line to capture line honours in the Cabbage Tree Island Race today. Comanche finished an hour and 20 minutes in front of Wild Oats XI, while Black Jack…
On Nov.6 at 0200hrs, French solo yachtsman Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, the current Golden Globe Race leader, rang GGR organisers to advise that his yacht Matmut had sustained mast damage, that all was OK, and that he intended to sail…
After five days of tough racing in the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race from Saint Malo to Pointe-à-Pitre in the French Caribbean, Britain’s Alex Thomson is in good spirits and looking to put the hammer down on…
The fourth race of the CYCA Blue Water Pointscore series is set to be a thriller with 39 extremely competitive entrants taking the line for the 19:00 start this Friday evening on Sydney Harbour. With three super-maxis competing this year,…
Out of the twenty IMOCA skippers who set sail four days ago from Saint-Malo, twelve are continuing on their way towards Pointe-à-Pitre after Yannick Bestaven set off again today from Cascais. While only two competitors have officially retired (Louis Burton…
Dateline 15:00 UTC 08.11.2018 – Hobart, Tasmania: Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, the embattled race leader struggling with a damaged mast sustained during a storm 1,900 miles west of Cape Horn, has decided to continue in the race back to Les Sables…
Way down south, more than 1,800 nautical miles southwest of Saint Malo, in the warmer climes and flatter seas west of the Canaries, François Gabart continues to blaze a trail to Guadeloupe chased by Francis Joyon. But as the days…
With such a big fleet now spread over a large area of ocean, skippers in the solo transatlantic Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe are beginning to experience wide variations in weather conditions after three very challenging days at sea. While there…
The first three days of the Route du Rhum certainly sorted out the boats. After the tough conditions yesterday which inflicted damage on Samantha Davies (Initiatives Cœur), Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq) and Fabrice Amedeo (Newrest – Art & Fenêtres), on…
The 2019 RORC Caribbean 600 is set to be a spectacular edition of the fantastic 600 nautical mile race around 11 Caribbean islands. Of the early entries, the largest yacht competing will be the 203ft schooner Athos, returning to the…
As she faced very rough seas in the depression sweeping the Bay of Biscay yesterday, Sam Davies diagnosed a delamination of the bottom of the hull of her 60ft monohull, Initiatives-Cœur. Given the expected weather conditions off the Iberian Peninsula…
At the end of the second day of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe an Atlantic storm that had been forecast at the start has been making itself felt across the whole fleet with one boat capsized, two dismasted and many…
After Isabelle Joschke’s boat was dismasted during the night, Romain Attanasio announced this lunchtime that he was turning back, as his sails have suffered a lot of damage. Still led by British stalwart, Alex Thomson, fourteen IMOCAs are continuing on…
Whilst facing a very rough seas in the depression sweeping the Bay of Biscay, Sam Davies informed her team on Tuesday, November 6 at 17:00 (French time) of troubling and persistent noises coming from the hull of her 60ft monohull…
With Alex Thomson leading the way and Jérémie Beyou suffering from some worrying steering damage, Marc Guillemot offers us his look as a specialist and gives us his personal analysis of the first day of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe…
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