Even more than most offshore races, the Volvo Ocean Race requires that crews be at the top of the game from the moment the gun fires until they cross the finish line—and this is especially true of the 6,487-mile opening leg from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town.
In 2014-15, the sailors not only have to deal with an all-new boat and new stopover ports, there has also been a major change to the way the event is scored. What follows is a brief guide to the nuts and bolts of the 2014-15 VOR, so you’ll be able to follow the action out on the water that much better.
Morning starts early for 29-year-old Charlie Enright, a native of Bristol, Rhode Island, who is skippering Team Alvimedica in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race. The lights flick on at 0600, an iPhone is tapped and a torrent of email begins before the young skipper is vertical.
A thin Spanish breeze skitters over the northwestern Mediterranean as evening slowly fades into night’s cooler comforts. Ashore in beautiful Barcelona, the evening’s bustle is reflected in the myriad lights that are sparking to life, but aboard the IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss, U.S. sailor Ryan Breymaier and his Spanish teammate Pepe Ribes are living by the time-honored ocean-racing adage that “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”
A 2011 graduate of Old Dominion University, Wisconsin native Stephanie Roble has leveraged a stint with the Chicago Match Racing Center to become the third-ranked women’s match racer in the world. She also recently turned pro, sailing aboard boats like the Melges 20 and J/70. In June, Roble and crew Janel Zarkowsky, Maggie Shea and Lara Dallman-Weisstook took third at the Women’s Match Racing World Championships in Ireland.
In an impressive display of match racing ability in blustery conditions, USVI native Taylor Canfield and Team US One successfully defended their Chicago Match Cup title against current series leader Ian Williams and team GAC Pindar, of Great Britain.
Help out a great cause and have a great time while you’re at it, racing sailboats and rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in the sport as part of the Offshore Sailing School’s 50th anniversary Celebrity Pro-Am Regatta.
2014 Pacific Cup? There’s an App for That
This year’s Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race was a wild one from the very start—which was postponed 21 hours to allow Tropical Storm Bertha, a low-pressure system packing 50-knot gusts, to pass through before the fleet jumped off.
Veteran offshore racer Joe Harris and co-skipper Patrick O’Connor took first overall in the fourth annual Atlantic Cup, a doublehanded offshore/inshore series from Charleston, SC, to Newport, RI, aboard Harris’s Class 40 GryphonSolo2.
Rather than shoot from Portsmouth to Newport all in one go, as has been my past practice when heading south for the winter, I wanted
The call for all sailors to attend a special weather briefing felt ominous. Soulemate and more than 100 other boats and their crews were gathered
This year’s winners at the annual DAME Design Awards, announced this week at the METS marine trade show in Amsterdam, include multiple new products for
Pulling together 700 strangers of all ages and sailing abilities from 40 countries and in one month teaching them to race 11 big sailboats around
Here’s my advice: Get on your boat right now and take a cruise to Fernandina Beach, Florida. Not only is this a great destination for
Tanks in sailboats are a pain. Frequently they must take on weird shapes to fit the odd spaces where they live, they’re often hard to
Jeanneau brings a catamaran design brief to the monohull market with the new Jeanneau Yachts 55. The cockpit layout is unconventional, with twin helms moved
The Jeanneau Yachts 55 has an intriguing layout both below and on deck, including unique gull-wing doors to separate guest cabins, a luxurious owner’s suite
For more multihull reviews and stories, subscribe for free to Multihull Power & Sail at sailmagazine.com/multihull The Paris 2024 Olympics are right around the corner,
Cruising sailors headed for the Bahamas may want to take note of a Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) rally that culminates with the third annual
