Regattas

After 84 days at sea, Frenchman Bernard Stamm and Swiss sailor Jean Le Cam have not only won the double-handed Barcelona World Race, but set a new record for the event, which was first established in 2007.

Few races have captured our imagination here at SAIL as much as the recently announced Race to Alaska (R2AK), which kicks off on June 4 in Port Townsend, Washington, and takes competitors to Ketchikan, Alaska, a distance of 750 miles, with a one-day pit stop in Victoria, British Columbia.

Equally impressive was Gannon Troutman—age 12 and believed to be the youngest skipper in the race’s history

Terry Hutchinson, 46, won his newest Rolex timepiece for his dominant performances as tactician in the Farr 40 class, the TP52 class and the RC44 class (as well as his success in the J/70 class as skipper)

Double-handed skippers Alex Thomson (UK) and Pepe Ribes (ESP), sailing aboard the IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss, suffered calamity when they were dismasted during the nonstop, around-the-globe Barcelona World Race (BWR) in January, 370 miles off the Brazilian coast.

Announced over the winter, the Offshore Youth Challenge Trophy has been specifically designed to bolster interest in offshore sailing amongst “juniors”  and seeks to match up greenhorn sailors with experienced salts to foster safe learning environments.

In the pantheon of Caribbean racing, St. Maarten’s Heineken Regatta is the standout. The BVI Spring Regatta, the Rolex-Regatta-as-was in the USVI (now the St. Thomas International Regatta), Antigua Sailing Week—these are all great events in their own right, but somehow the French/Dutch island of Sint Maarten/St. Martin has become home to the definitive Caribbean regatta.