Plans were unveiled for the world’s largest floating solar power and energy storage system. At a cost estimated at $2 billion, the system will be developed by Singapore’s Sunseap Group in cooperation with Badan Pengusahaan Batam (BP Batam) operators of a free trade zone in Indonesia and installed at Batam Island.

Under an MOU between the two organizations, Sunseap will develop the floating photovoltaic system (FPV) and ESS energy storage system. The FPV is projected to have a capacity of 2.2 GWp and span around 1600 hectares, making it the largest FPV in the world to date…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

McConaghy is delighted to confirm that hull #1 of their MC75 model is now in build.

Designed to offer contemporary on-water living with an apartment-like style, the MC75 is lightweight, eco-friendly, and, as with all models in the McConaghy Multihull range, fully customizable.

The progressive exterior lines follow those of other models in the Multihull series, with an appealing flybridge that can be ranged forward in a more aggressive styling or extended aft for a sweeping, sleeker look.

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

As US Sailing seeks to use the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics as an opportunity for the sport, so does national federation Australian Sailing with the announcement by the International Olympic Committee that Brisbane will host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.

The Olympics will return to Australia for the first time since Sydney 2000, where tens of thousands of sailing fans lined the foreshore to celebrate two Australian sailing gold medals.

“This is a landmark moment in Australian sporting history,” said Australian Sailing President Daniel Belcher. “We are incredibly thankful to the work done by the bid team at the Australian Olympic Committee, and the support shown for the bid by the State and Federal Governments…

Read more on Scuttlebutt

West Coast sailors are familiar with the TP 52 Badpak,  a moderately successful early example of the failed Pac 52 class. That boat was sold, making way for a new Badpak, a Botin 56 that was thought to be a TP 52 “killer”.  Like all these boats, stacked with the best sailors money can buy, they embarked on this year’s Transpac.

The “old” Badpak became Warrior Won, and has so far put up better results under new ownership. That brings us to today’s snapshot of Warrior Won (in blue) ahead of Badpak (in red) on both corrected and elapsed time, with about 1,000 miles to go.

Now we know shit changes all the time out there, and perhaps this result will not stand, but damn, that’s gotta hurt. We imagine there is at least one really grumpy prick on BP who ain’t much fun to be around right about now…

But hey, good times, right?

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

The Rolex public relations machine is cranking up its publicity for the Fastnet Race, run by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. They have good reason to be pleased with the 400+ entries the event has attracted. The race begins off Cowes in the UK on August 8 and finishes at the new destination of Cherbourg in France.

But what the pre-race promotion hasn’t emphasized is the potential difficulties posed by the persistent Coronavirus. When a race starts in one country and ends in another things can get tricky.

The UK has just dropped all restrictions relating to COVID despite still registering 50,000 new infections per day. Crazy, but true. Meanwhile, France is maintaining a more cautious policy that places quite strict obligations on foreigners arriving in the country…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

The J/111 fleet lines up for a start at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Annapolis, the class’s North American Championship. (Paul Todd/)

When the race committee hoisted its AP-over-A on the morning of the first day of racing at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in Annapolis, there was a collective sigh across the Annapolis YC’s dry sail lot. Yes, everyone was anxious to go racing after a year of tiptoe racing through the pandemic, but not everyone was keen to scuff off the rust in a 30-knot gale.

So, with coffees in hand, crews tinkered and mingled with friends. A few teams eventually sneaked out to practice in the harbor, but most of Rob Ruhlman’s crew went golfing instead. There was no good reason to go out and practice on their J/111, flogging sails and crew before their big-deal North American Championship. They hadn’t sailed since January, at the class’s winter championship in Key West, but they’d be ready, Ruhlman reasoned. Feeling ready and being ready, however, are two different things.

The one wrinkle they weren’t prepared for was the race committee’s use of a rolling three-minute starting sequence the following morning when starting signals finally got underway. The short countdown caught Ruhlman’s team off guard in the morning’s first race. Twenty-knot gusts only fueled the confusion.

“We had trouble getting used to the three-minute-start thing,” Ruhlman says. “I get it in Lasers, but with 37-footers?”

Without a good start in this class, Ruhlman says, it’s nearly impossible to get to the front. This would, of course, account for his Spaceman Spiff being sixth (of seven boats) in the first race of the regatta. Rust in the boathandling cog of the machine didn’t help.

“These boats are so even, and there are all top-notch guys that travel,” he says, “so there’s no room for mistakes.”

Peter Wagner’s team on Skeleton Key, trained in the big breeze of their ­hometown San Francisco Bay, were ­confident in the day’s chaotic blow and won the first races comfortably. They were able to get off the starting line clean and control their own race, Wagner says.

“That was pretty important because, with the shifts, things were changing quickly, and we had to be able to react to the changes as they happened.”

By the final race of the day, however, Ruhlman’s crew was in its groove. Their score line trended upward, with a second to close the day. Skeleton Key had its first stumble, hung out on the wrong side of a windshift and finishing fourth. “We got stuck a little too far left and couldn’t quite find a shift to come back,” Wagner says. “Our friends on Spaceman Spiff face-planted us at a critical moment, bouncing us back left and sealing our doom. That was a good move by them.”

Jose Fuentes’ Etchells Caramba won six of eight races, sailing in memory of past crewmember Geoff Ewenson. (Paul Todd/)

That fourth also narrowed the series to mere points between the top three boats, with Spaceman Spiff lurking in fourth…

Read more on Sailing World

The Finn, the Men’s Heavyweight Dinghy event, is the oldest boat at the Olympic Games, making its debut at the 1952 edition when Denmark’s four-time Olympic Champion Paul Elvstrom won the event in Helsinki. But that run comes to an end at the Tokyo Olympics as the event did not fit into the reconfigured sailing program for Paris 2024.

For the past two decades, Great Britain has won this event at every Games since 2000 when Iain Percy took gold on Sydney Harbour. Sir Ben Ainslie won three consecutive gold medals from 2004 to 2012 before passing on the baton to Giles Scott who won in Rio 2016. While Scott was the clear favorite for the last Games, this time the Briton really has his work cut out if he’s to defend the title…

Tokyo 2020 details – Race information – Entry list – How to watch

Read more on Scuttlebutt