Sail Racing

Need to get up your mast in a hurry, but don’t have a rock-climbing harness or bosun’s chair handy? Luckily, a Swiss Seat, a jury-rigged harness, is your solution. You’ll only need about 15–20 feet of stout rope (sail ties work in a pinch, but you’ll need to sister a couple together to achieve the proper length).Start by folding the rope in half. Pass this bight in between your legs (from

Most modern sailboat races are run on windward-leeward courses designed to give racers the maximum number of chances to pass each other and to create lanes. While there’s little doubt that these “new” courses (until the mid-1990’s, most racecourses were triangular and featured more reaching) make for exciting racing, they do create a problem for drivers and trimmers, namely that it can be tiring

Given the harsh marine environment, balancing the need for strength against the bulimic tendencies of go-fast racing gear has never been easy. As this year’s fully crewed Volvo Ocean and the solo Vende Globe races have made clear, the old clich about the sea exploiting weaknesses is most relevant when you start racing high-strung thoroughbreds all the way around the

The Volvo Ocean Race has been in Boston since the leg winner, Ericsson 4 crossed the finishing line off of Fan Pier on Sunday, April 26. On Saturday, May 9, seven Volvo Open 70’s lined up for the in-port racing, held in the waters between Boston and Marblehead, MA. Sadly for the home team, Puma Ocean Racing, Telefonica Blue, a Spanish-flagged entry, walked away with the

The Volvo Ocean Race has been in Boston since the leg winner, Ericsson 4 crossed the finishing line off of Fan Pier on Sunday, April 26. On Saturday, May 9, seven Volvo Open 70’s lined up for the in-port racing, held in the waters between Boston and Marblehead, MA. Sadly for the home team, Puma Ocean Racing, Telefonica Blue, a Spanish-flagged entry, walked away with the

A solo-transatlantic journey is no easy undertaking, but try doing it without any crew at all. A group of students from ETH Zurich in Switzerland are currently testing a fully autonomous sailboat that’s theoretically able to reach any destination on its own. At just over 13 feet LOA and 1100 pounds, the Avalon robotic sailboat will be competing against 11 other

After the successful 2008 US SAILING’s Disabled Championship, it was evident that competitors wanted more top-level disabled sailing events. The American Yacht Club responded by organizing the inaugural Robie Pierce One Design Regatta. From June 5-7, 25 teams will compete in a fleet of donated Ideal 18s. Each boat will include two blind or disabled sailors and one able-bodied

First time participants in this year’s 360 mile Marblehead-Halifax Ocean Race, which gets underway from Marblehead, Massachusetts on July 5, will be getting a lot of help from the host Boston Yacht Club. To attract more entries, Boston’s event committee has come up with a Race Buddy program that pairs first-time skippers with those who have done the race one or more times. Newcomers will

Ken Read is self-described as the “luckiest man alive” as far as his current job, skipper of Puma Ocean Racing’s il mostro in this year Volvo Ocean Race. Currently, Read and il mostro are sitting in third place by a comfortable point margin (11 points), but more importantly they are locked in a death battle with Telefonica Blue for second place, with only a