Regattas

Don’t write off Olympic windsurfing just yet. A firestorm of opposition to the International Sailing Federation’s decision to dump the event in favor of kiteboarding at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro makes it highly likely that there will be another vote.

French sailor Alain Thébault is taking speed sailing to a whole new level, with an eye toward setting a new Pacific offshore sailing record aboard his hydrofoil l’Hydroptère DCNS—the same boat that set a world speed record of 51.36 knots over 500 meters back in 2009.

With the increased emphasis on “extreme” pro racing—including wing-sailed carbon-fiber cats, gigantic oceangoing multihulls and Volvo 70s leaving arrow-straight wakes across the Southern Ocean—many might consider the idea of an inshore displacement monohull circuit to be a nonstarter.

Outside of one-design racing, it’s rare that an offshore race has more than a handful of boats from the same builder or designer. However, this year’s Vic-Maui race saw an influx of Beneteaus making the trek from Victoria, British Columbia, to Hawaii.

Ten yachts crewed by non-professional sailors returned from their 40,000-mile journey of 15 races to greetings from thousands of fans in Southampton, UK, on Sunday, July 22.

Everyone loves a Sunfish. Many of us who grew up sailing have fond memories of our first adventures on these small, single-handed sailboats, and may have even started competing on them.

Ian Williams of Great Britain’s team GAC Pindar beat out Australian Estate Master Sailing Team’s Jordan Reece 3-0 on July 15 to win the 2012 Chicago Match Cup—the fourth stop on this year’s Alpari World Match Racing Tour.

Team Sanya had a run of bad luck in the Volvo Ocean Race. Really bad luck. Sanya Lan, skippered by Australian Mike Sanderson, is a VOR veteran, yet in this race it seemed like she spent nearly as much time out of the water being fixed as she did in it.

Since the first modern Olympics in 1869, American sailors have won more medals (59) than any other nation, with Great Britain (50) coming in second. Americans were unstoppable until the 1992 Barcelona games, but the competition has become a lot tougher since then. Here are some of the stronger sailors the U.S. sailing team will face, excluding Britain’s almighty Team GBR.