Profiles

British Olympian Ben Ainslie, just days after competing in AC class racing in Valencia, has been named ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year at the 2008 ISAF General Assembly in the Spanish capital of Madrid. Ainslie won his third gold medal at the Qingdao Olympiad (he also has a silver in the Laser) with an overwhelmingly confident win in the Finn dinghy. Ainslie, 31, is the first

Thirty years after the first Singlehanded Transpacific Race, there’s a grassroots, run-what-you-brung, let’s-celebrate-life spirit still thriving in West Coast shorthanded sailing. You won’t find any French celebrity sailors with million-euro budgets. Nobody’s out to beat the world; they’re out to beat their friends. But if you’re thinking pushover, you haven’t met those friends. Let’s pick just

Thirty years after the first Singlehanded Transpacific Race, there’s a grassroots, run-what-you-brung, let’s-celebrate-life spirit still thriving in West Coast shorthanded sailing. You won’t find any French celebrity sailors with million-euro budgets. Nobody’s out to beat the world; they’re out to beat their friends. But if you’re thinking pushover, you haven’t met those friends. Let’s pick just

Good nutrition can provide a performance edgeBy Carol M. BareutherThe optimal diet for a racing sailor depends on the kind of sailing being done and whether it requires more brainpower or brawn. Still, there are certain basic nutrition principles that apply to all competitors. Before the Regatta Carbohydrates are your body’s primary fuel and should

It’s November 9, 1999, and you’re sailing aboard USA-53, Young America, in the second round robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Conditions are a little breezy, maybe 18-20 knots of air with fairly large seas off Auckland, New Zealand. The boat seems capable and the crew is 100-percent dialed-in. But then a curious thing happens: In the midst of a tack, while pushed up by the

On Thursday, July 17, 2008, Mark Rudiger passed away from lymphoma. He was 53 years old. Rudiger had battled the cancer for 4 years, and he had been doing well in his fight until the tide sadly changed a few months ago. Rudiger was a legend in offshore racing and navigating circles, having navigated 14 Transpac races and two Volvo Ocean Races, the later being the

If you’ve ever been caught out Laser sailing in a serious squall, you have a taste of what it’s like to be completely self-sufficient in an over-canvassed boat, with the safety net of land feeling like an untrustworthy mirage. Now imagine that you’re alone in the middle of the North Atlantic, with land nothing more than a week-old memory, on a wildly powerful IMOCA Open 60.

Zach Railey has seen a few things, going this far with the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. For one, he saw every journalist’s slamdunk brother-sister story of the year go up in smoke when world female Sailor of the Year Paige Railey did not make the team. For another, he went from high-place finishes in lead-up regattas to tanking the Finn class worlds. But there’s a reason why this 23-year-old

A Q&A with Lou Varney, the brains behind Harken’s Pro-Trim Traveler and Rigtune Pro and winner of this year’s SAIL FKP Eureka! AwardBy David SchmidtWhat is your professional background?I was originally a boatbuilder, and then I became a mast maker and a designer of high-end Grand Prix raceboat masts. What led you to think up the Pro Trim?I have

Francis Joyon completed his solo round-the-world voyage in 57 days, 13 hours 34 minutes, smashing Ellen MacArthur’s existing record by 14 days. The IDEC trimaran crossed the finish line off Brest on Sunday, January 20 at 00:39:58 French time, making Joyon for a second time the fastest solo yachtsman around the world. For more, follow the link to Kimball Livingston’s blog entry on