Sail Racing

New world champions were crowned in the Etchells class over the weekend, with the completion of racing on Lake Michigan out of Chicago Yacht Club. Here is a report from the race organizers:Bill Hardesty, Erik Shampain, Steve Hunt, and Jennifer Wilson of San Diego, California take their first Etchells World Championship title after ending the regatta with a strong 12th place finish

Amidst clouds of a very corporate-looking dry ice bonanza, Ericsson yesterday unveiled their second new Volvo Open 70. The new stead, designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian and built by Killian Bushe and his team in Ericsson headquarters, Kista, Stockholm, Sweden, is the fourth Volvo Open 70 penned by the brilliant Argentinean designer. As the team’s press release pointed out, the day was

Plans are being laid to launch an Ocean Racing World Cup in 2009. The effort is marketing-driven, on the European model rather than the American yacht club model, and as seen below, the Royal Ocean Racing Club is “lending its expertise.” We’re not sure whether this belongs under Racing News or Industry News (probably both). Here is what they’re telling SAIL:To date, Ocean Racing has

The 98-foot, cant-keel maxi, Speedboat, led the way to Bermuda, and that was built to be a line-honors contender, so there you go. But the 2008 Newport Bermuda Race had episodes of the slows, and that opened the door to time allowance wins by smaller boats. Here is the lineup of the high-end glory boats with Speedboat in the place of honor.And

If your mental satellite dish is tuned into the cold, scary, wet station known as the Volvo Ocean Race, these are heady times. Virtually every day there are new photos and reports of launchings, christenings, and first test sails. On the team end of things, each syndicate is rapidly closing the gap on their final list of sailors, and the Spanish-flagged Telefonica is no exception.

If you pay attention to national and international sailing news, you will have noticed:1. US SAILING, the national organizing body of competitive sailing in the USA, has made a strong push to require the skipper of any boat competing in any U.S. regatta to be a member of US SAILING.2. This was not popular.In many sports, membership in the governing body is mandatory. In some

Team Telefonica, the Spanish-flagged entry in the 2008/2009 Volvo Ocean Race, today unveiled their new Farr-designed Volvo Open 70, which they have dubbed Telefonica Black. The boat features splash rails on the bow sections. We’ve seen these same rails on Team Russia’s new boat, which carries the splash rails aft, where they run into the stern chines. From these images

Simply put, Mike Slade’s Farr-designed 30-meter super maxi ICAP Leopard is stunning. Her rig looms an imposing 155 feet above her deck, and her wide, powerful transom seems eager to get up and go. While everything aboard Leopard seems ready to charge, one thing that isn’t constantly on the verge of pouncing is the grinding team. Why? Because she doesn’t have

The Spanish-flagged Volvo Ocean Race team, Telefonica, this week announced the addition of two gold-medalist heavy hitters to their already-strong team of sailors. Spaniards Xabi Fernndez and Jordi Calafat — the former from Palma de Mallorca, the later from the Basque country — have signed on to sail under the leadership of Bouwe Bekking on the team’s Farr-designed VO70.