Regattas

How do you spot a happy European sailor?The Caribbean tan.How do you spot a happy American sailor?Surely you have my drift.When it’s overcoat weather in St. Tropez or Green Bay, it’s time for Martinique. St. Barts. St. Lucia. Key West. Any place from Florida south. And if you’re looking to race, no problem. The 7,000 isles, reefs, and cays of the

The start of a new year often brings about big changes: a new diet, a new destination, and a new attitude. But for US Sailing, 2009 means the start of a new edition of The Racing Rules of Sailing, the legislating guidebook that gets a facelift every four years. The new edition for 2009-2012 includes some major amendments that will have sailors rethinking their race strategy. Dave Perry,

Sunday screaming Sunday — It was only a burst, so kitesailor Alexandre Caizergues’s official 500-meter speedsailing record is safe for now at 50.57 knots, but the big French trimaran, l’Hydroptre hit a speed peak of 61 knots in the Med on Sunday morning, and there is no way that’s anything but fast under sail. It’s a first.You had

I admit that I was skeptical about racing on a big catamaran for a day at Antigua Sailing Week. My previous cat experience was limited, and I wasn’t expecting much. I’d seen the fleet of exotic-looking Gunboats—three GB48s and three GB62s—dockside on day one of this annual regatta. With their synthetic-fiber halyards strung from Marstrom carbon-fiber rigs and their chisel-like bows practically

I admit that I was skeptical about racing on a big catamaran for a day at Antigua Sailing Week. My previous cat experience was limited, and I wasn’t expecting much. I’d seen the fleet of exotic-looking Gunboats—three GB48s and three GB62s—dockside on day one of this annual regatta. With their synthetic-fiber halyards strung from Marstrom carbon-fiber rigs and their chisel-like bows practically

While everybody loves charismatic megafauna, whales occupy a special spot in the heart and imagination, especially amongst sailors. Watching these graceful creatures breach, swim, and dive is one of the true magic shows of offshore sailing, so it comes as little surprise that saving whales is popular everywhere from Washington D.C., to myriad yacht clubs worldwide, to even Team Russia’s

Call him Torben Grael. That’s his name.Or call him Torben Grail . He has the golden touch, and now as skipper of Ericsson 4 he has won two of two legs of the Volvo Ocean Race. The five-time Olympic medalist (two gold) was also tactician for the Luna Rossa challenge for the 2007 America’s Cup.He and his crew brought Ericsson 4 across the leg-two finish line at Cochin,

Leg Two, a pleasant jaunt north through the tropics to exotic India? At some point, part of the way, maybe. Not now. The Volvo Ocean Race fleet left Cape Town last weekend and deliberately worked into the path of a series of low pressure systems to blast them east toward their scoring gate.For some, it’s been an overachievement.A broken boom on Green Dragon. Plus a broken

The unnamed enthusiasts who are circulating news that rating increases for composite standing rigging aboard boats sailing under IRC are going to be removed next year are engaging in wishful thinking. At least according to IRC manager Jenny Howells.“While it is true that the IRC Technical Committee is looking at the rating cost of composite standing rigging,” says Howells, “It is unlikely

Just a few days after it started off the coast of France, the Vendee Globe solo round-the-world race is already living up to its reputation as the ultimate test of sailors and equipment.Battered by huge seas and strong winds in the Bay of Biscay, nine of the 30 starters have either retired or been forced back to the French port of Les Sables d’Olonne for repairs.The race started in