John Ross-Duggan had a full career ahead of him when he won the Hobie 16 National Championship in 1977, during his third year of medical school. Eight months later, he broke his neck in a car accident and was paralyzed from the neck down. He was 23.After battling through months of therapy to finish medical school and his residency, Ross-Duggan got back to racing
It’s a regatta that has been around for decades, but since the Storm Trysail Club took it over, the Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta has grown from a fleet of 9 boats in 2001 to 35 boats in 2005 while cranking up enthusiasm from both the sailors and the skippers who loan out their boats. Thanks to the Larchmont Yacht Club and sponsors led by Prestige Toyota and UK-Halsey Sailmakers, there was
Local fan fave Magnus Holmberg and American match racer Ed Baird were feeling the heat this weekend in sunny Marstrand, Sweden. Holmberg, the architect of the Swedish Match Cup, had never won here. And it seemed high time for the guy, whose idea for a spectator-friendly match-racing regatta in Marstrand (in the mold of the Bermuda Gold Cup) has evolved over 12 years into the event on the
The locals have a saying, usually uttered as they gaze out upon a racecourse littered with victims, “Welcome to San Francisco Bay.”It wouldn’t be right to overplay this. Most of the 77 starters in the early races of the 2005 29er Worlds got through their races just fine, thank you. But there were enough casualties to inspire one voice, crackling over the race
FAST TIMESThe big boats in the hunt for the first-to-finish Barn Door trophy didn’t take long to establish a fast pace. On the first full day of racing, the maxZ86 Morning Glory led a five-boat pack, all of which beat the previous 24-hour distance record. Morning Glory, with Peter Isler navigating and Russell Coutts in the afterguard, covered 393 miles.
As far as we know, the first course racing for kites, anywhere, is taking place this year on the San Francisco cityfront. For years now kites have been a familiar, colorful feature in the waters off Crissy Field, which is located just inside the Golden Gate and right in the mouth of the wind funnel. The kite sailors do their going-fast bit, and they do their flying through the air bit, and for
Key West Race Week—presented by Nautica—is close at hand and people are already trailering south through snow or rain or both sequentially and wondering why they didn’t quit their jobs a week ago and just leave early. Entries are now at 295, including 84 in PHRF, and the Premiere Racing team has added a nice touch to the program (so far we’ve seen it only online) by running Displacement/Length
Olympic sailing launched on a low note—the 1896 races in Greece were cancelled for lack of wind—but there have been many high points since. Olympic sailors have created a wonderful legacy. By way of example, we tip our hats to the great …Paul Elvström for the longest Olympic “moment” ever. It’s been a show to watch, from the gritty determination that led him to
By Bruce Bingman, Technical Chair for PHRF on the ChesapeakeI think the real issue is what kind of racing do sailors want. The problem is that different sailors want different kinds and different levels of racing, but usually there are not enough boats in any one group to be able to offer a specific class and/or start. The USSAILING website offers information on “golf
SAIL’s deputy editor Josh Adams crewed aboard the 66-foot Zaraffa in the DaimlerChrysler North Atlantic Challenge, 3,600 miles from Newport, Rhode Island to Cuxhaven, Germany. Designed by Richel/Pugh and owned by Skip Sheldon of Shelburne, Vermont, Zaraffa went into this race as a favorite (she was the overall winner of the 2002 Newport-Bermuda) and was first to finish by a large
The Vendée Globe kicked off its 2020-2021 edition yesterday and the first 24 hours have led to excitement and disappointment in equal measure. The beloved French race
Click on the closed captioning, CC, for subtitles. Ahead of the start of the Vendée Globe, a panel of industry experts got together to discuss
The following story is part of SAIL magazine’s recent 50th-anniversary coverage. For more, click here. Watching a tropical sunset from the deck of a sailboat
Thanks to Covid-19, 2020 has been a year like no other. Human nature being what it is, though, sailors and the boatbuilding industry have continued
In a year full of drama, the America’s Cup has been matching the news cycle step for step, supplying their own fair share of scandal.
Following the latest national lockdown measures announced by French President Emmanuel Macron as part of the fight against Covid-19, the 2020-21 Vendée Globe Race Village
Just in time for a fresh class of Vendée Globe sailors to attempt their circumnavigations, The International Association of Cape Horners (IACH) has taken on
The following story is part of SAIL magazine’s recent 50th-anniversary coverage. For more, click here. I cannot say I have been reading SAIL magazine since the very
B&G’s HALO series of radars now includes the HALO20+ and the HALO20, a pair of compact radomes expressly designed for use aboard smaller sailboats. The
The Picton Castle is set to begin its eighth circumnavigation this spring under the command of Captain Daniel Moreland. A professional crew of 12 will
