Regattas

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.

If you thought the new Puma il mostro was wild looking from a graphic-design standpoint, Team Russia’s new steed is currently the heavy-weight champ of “different” from a design perspective. The boat, designed by UK-based designer Rob Humphreys and built by Green Marine (also in the UK), features distinctive spray rails on its bow section; long chines that run from the

By Kimball LivingstonAnd now he stands alone. With a crossing time of 12 days, 11 hours, , Lock Peyron won an unprecedented 3rd solo transatlantic race on Saturday, bringing Gitana Eighty across the finish line of the Artemis Transat with seven hours to spare over his nearest rival—and that was after diverting to pick up Vincent Riou from his imperiled

This year’s Artemis Transat Race will go down in the record books as a race that no one wanted to lead: If you did, chances were good that you might face the woes of Michel Desjoyeaux, Seb Josse, and Vincent Riou, all of whom were doing well; all of whom were forced to retire due to either collision with marine life (Desjoyeaux and Riou) or gear failure (Josse). Now the race has taken a brighter

He had the resume, the credibility, and the talent. What he hadn’t expected was the whale. French superstar sailor Michel Desjoyeaux, skipper of the IMOCA 60 Foncia, and an early favorite to win the Artemis Transat race—he commanded a spot on the leader board early on—had an unexpected encounter with a whale on May 15 (Day 5 of the race), and was forced to retire.