The latest episode of the World Sailing show goes behind the scenes to look at the first weeks of testing ahead of the 2024 America’s Cup in Barcelona. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’s LEQ12 test boat is currently in Cagliari…

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Britain’s Dylan Fletcher is the 2022 International Moth World Champion. Fletcher finished the 13 race series with 17 pts after three final races on the final day of racing at the Yacht Club Argentina. Second was Massimo Contessi of Argentina with 27 pts and third Simone Salva of Italy with 36 pts. Francesco Bruni of…

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Five doublehanded Class40 teams are on the fifth leg of the Globe40 race which extends from Tahiti toward the Argentinean stopover of Ushuaia via the legendary yet feared Cape Horn. Located on southern Chile’s Hornos Island, at the southern tip of South America, Cape Horn’s reputation is in the news again.

Amid the trepidation that this mark of the course already offers the ten competitors, they now must absorb the news of how a rogue wave killed one person and injured four others on the 665-foot Viking Polaris along this same route.

The massive wave smashed into the Antarctic cruise ship during a storm, while sailing off the southernmost tip of South America, with a 62-year-old woman from the US hit by broken glass when a wave broke cabin windows while four other tourists sustained “non-life-threatening injuries” and were treated onboard.

The incident occurred November 29th while the expedition ship was sailing towards Ushuaia, which is the main starting point for expeditions to Antarctica. The ship suffered minor damage and was anchored off Ushuaia a day later with several windows smashed on the side.

A rogue wave is greater than twice the size of surrounding waves, according to the National Ocean Service, and come from directions other than prevailing winds and waves. Reports of rogue waves, which are considered rare, have described them as “walls of water.”

Launched in 2022 and is the newest ship in the company’s fleet, Viking Polaris was built specifically to explore the world’s most remote destinations and endure harsh conditions. Our thoughts go out to the Class40 sailors as they approach these same water on December 18-19.

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Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the Italian America’s Cup challenger capsized in 21-22kts winds after being caught in a rapidly building breeze and sea state. In Pensacola American Magic put another 75nm in their logbook foiling for 2hrs 43min…

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When the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 was one month from finishing, it was announced how the next edition of the race would start in 2021, under new ownership, without Volvo as a sponsor. It was a lot to take in, but the leadership was solid and the race remained iconic.

That all seems so long ago.

In July 2020, the pandemic postponed the start from the autumn of 2021 to October 2022. No title sponsor stepped forward, with the race awkwardly rebranded as The Ocean Race. The plan was to bring back the VO65s for a third time, but also heighten excitement with an IMOCA division.

The start got delayed again to January 2023, but also lacking was verifiable entries. The TEAMS link on the website had been more of a wish list, though the IMOCA fleet does now list five confirmed teams. As for the VO65s, some of the boats have been active since 2018, but no firm commitment to The Ocean Race.

That situation just took a weird turn with the introduction of the new The Ocean Race Sprint Cup. While the press release was full of promise, it now appears the VO65s may not be going around the world…

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Of the boats competing in the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race, Tapio Lehtinen was stunned that it was his Gaia 36 Asteria which sank. Yet that’s what happened 460 nautical miles SE from Port Elizabeth, in South Africa.

Lehtinen was successfully rescued, but remains at a loss for what failed on Asteria which was profiled in this report by Yachting World:

Sparkman and Stephens aficionado Tapio Lehtinen believes his Gaia 36 Asteria is the perfect vessel for the rigors of the Golden Globe Race, despite being the oldest yacht in the fleet having been built in 1965. Lehtinen completed the 2018 edition, the first ‘re-running’ of the famous solo non-stop race, in 5th place in the same boat, after being hampered by ineffective anti-fouling that resulted in massive underwater growth.

However, a bigger refit than anticipated meant Lehtinen was not able to fully realize his vision for the boat last time. He bought her in 2017 in Italy, but it was only after sailing home to Finland that significant delamination was discovered in the deck. Eventually the entire deck and coach roof was sliced off and used as a male mould for its replacement.

At the same time, the hull was stripped right back to a shell, with all furniture and bulkheads removed. Even the gelcoat and top 1mm of the hull laminate was ground away and then relaminated with Kevlar to improve impact resistance against collision with floating objects…

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Along with five confirmed IMOCA teams racing around the world, up to five VO65 teams will be on the starting line in Alicante, Spain in January, with an option to compete for a new trophy within The Ocean Race called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup…

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