On the evening of January 25th, sailors involved in the Barcelona World Race were chasing the leader Virbac-Paprec 3 south toward the Cape of Good Hope. Virbac-Paprec 3 had opened up its lead on the #2 boat Fonica, skippered by Michel Desjoyeaux and Francois Gabart, from 5 miles to over 40 miles, although a big high pressure system was working into their path,
The new wing-sailed AC45 was debuted over the weekend in Aucklands Viaduct Harbor, with the 45-foot carbon fiber catamaran poised to kick off the Americas Cup World Series, starting in 2011. With the ability to reach speeds close to 30kts, the AC45 is designed as a practice boat for Americas Cup teams in anticipation of close racing on the larger 72-foot catamarans in the final
Inaugural Best Around the Buoys Team WINS PHRF 1 at Key West Race Week! Congratulations to the Best Around the Buoys crew aboard the J/111 Kontiki V, overall winners of PHRF 1 at Key West 2011!
After four grueling days battling light winds and contrary currents in the Mediterranean, the entire 14-boat Barcelona World Race fleet is now out on the open Atlantic and headed south, with American Ryan Breymaier and his teammate, Boris Herrmann, aboard the Open 60 Neutrogena in sixth
The Boston Yacht Club and Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron have published the official notice of race for the biennial Marblehead-to-Halifax Ocean Race, set to start July 10, 2011.The 363-mile classic takes place every other year (alternating with the Newport-Bermuda Race) and regularly fields more than 125 boats in five classes, attracting everything from family cruising boats to some of
Disappointing winds and a strong westerly current have wrecked havoc on the entrants of this years Barcelona World Race, as the 14 boats struggled to get out of the Straits of Gibraltar and into the North Atlantic. Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron managed to win the 540-mile first leg with a time of 3 days, 7 hours and 55 minutes on the evening of January 3rd, while other contenders
Belgian sailor Christophe Bullens has withdrawn from the 28th VELUX 5 OCEANS after a broken mast track thwarted his latest attempt to set sail from Cape Town, South Africa.The setback was the latest in a long list of technical difficulties for the 49-year-old solo sailor. His troubles began before the races start, when his first Eco 60, Five Oceans of Smiles, was dismasted en
Back in the early 1960s, Americas Cup veteran and long-time one-design proponent Cornelius Corny Shields decided that the cadets at the various maritime academies in this country needed quality sail training if they were to become truly competent seamen.He hired Sparkman & Stephens to design the 30-foot Shields, one of the most striking one-design racers ever, with its long overhangs,
Australian skipper Geoff Boettcher, owner of the Reichel/Pugh 51 Secret Mens Business 3.5, has won the 2010 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, taking the Tattersalls Cup, which goes to the fastest boat in the fleet on corrected time.The 2010 race, one of the roughest in recent memory, was Boettchers 22nd Sydney Hobart. Nineteen out of the 87 boats that started had to withdraw due to
Twenty hours after the 100-footer Wild Oats XI was first to cross the finish line in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, she has been declared the official line-honors winner after being cleared of a protest lodged by the race committee.Wild Oats XI completed the 628-course from Sydney Harbor to Hobart, Tasmania, in 2 days 7 hours and 37 minutes, in the process surviving one of
As a classic-boat sailor, I’ve long held that simpler is the better. I still think this is true: a simpler boat is cheaper, she has
Although the 1903 defender of the America’s Cup, Reliance, was deemed a “racing freak”—the boat pushed design rules to their limit and couldn’t be beaten,
Three tips on managing the madness First-time charterers and first-time sailors aren’t at all the same thing. One group may struggle with beginner chartering issues,
Even the dome of light glowing above the city behind us had disappeared as if swallowed in a gulp by Noah’s whale. The moon was
Every year, countless parents find themselves navigating the do’s and don’ts of enrolling their children in a summer learn-to-sail program for the first time. While
Some thoughts on a couple of recent developments on the U.S. racing scene that are more than a little at odds. To start with, congratulations
The 52 Super Series is widely considered one of the top circuits in the world for monohulls, and in this era of rapid change, the
“Keep it simple, sailor,” was always our mantra. Aboard our 1985 Niagara 35, Plaintiff’s Rest, my partner, Phillip, and I didn’t have heat, AC, a
February 2, 2019. Somewhere near mid-Atlantic, on passage aboard the Swan 48, Isbjørn, from Gran Canaria to Antigua, from my personal logbook: “Something clicked for
