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With New Zealand’s reputation cemented as one of the world’s most-serene yet adventurous destinations, New Zealand will open its borders to visitors again with air and sea borders opening from 1 August, allowing tourists to once again explore and enjoy on…
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The nature of the boats and the men who have sailed them over the past 130 years always made 18-footer racing unique in the sailing/yachting world and one of the unique parts of the sport has been the gambling which has gone hand-in-hand with the sport…
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A U.S. Coast Guard MH-60T helo rescued crewmembers on the 39-foot sailboat Calypso located 80 miles south of Montauk, NY. After the boat was dismasted when allegedly hit by a rogue wave on May 8, the rescue team battled heavy seas that night in hoisting the injured sailors to safety, with all four men brought to shore and transported for medical attention…
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Even the dome of light glowing above the city behind us had disappeared as if swallowed in a gulp by Noah’s whale. The moon was absent. Not a star twinkled overhead. The night was so dark we could have been floating in a pot of black ink. The only artificial lights to be seen were those of the fore and aft running lights and the barely illuminated compass on the cabintrunk. Bioluminescent microorganisms stirred by our passing, shone faintly in our wake. Waves hissed as they swept past underneath us, lifting our stout, New England-made 30ft cutter, Kluane, (an Athabaska name meaning “big fish”) to heights impossible to judge in the dark. The troughs we slid down into seemed bottomless.
Less than two hours had passed since we’d weighed anchor a little after 0300 in South Florida’s Palm Beach inlet. Already we were in the Gulf Stream. This was the first ocean crossing for my wife and me, and our anxiety level was high. All was black with no demarcation between sky and water. Ahead was only darkness.
We are creatures of the light. Dark frightens, disorients, distorts. Few comforting words are said about it. The dark and our inexperience magnified every worry. Our anxieties increased by orders of magnitude.
A halyard jammed. In the dark, it couldn’t be freed. We had no choice but to lash the mainsail to the mast still halfway up. A freighter charged down on us. We crossed its stern, rocking in its wake. A quarter-mile is too close, especially after dark. The Loran (soon to be replaced by GPS, thank goodness!) crashed. Below, trying to reprogram it, I became seasick to the point of incapacity. I ceded all authority to my wife. “Sit down in the corner, and don’t get sick in the cockpit,” was her command…
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When SailGP was established in 2018, the global sports league had a five year plan for all teams to be independently funded. The initial investment by billionaire Larry Ellison was to get the ball rolling, but the clock was started for teams to put up or be replaced.
Entering the third season in 2022, four of the ten teams are self-funded: Canada, Denmark, and Great Britain, and Switzerland. While the progress for the other six teams is not known, it appears the Japanese team is trailing the field.
Despite being runner-up in the first two season championships, Nathan Outteridge’s Japan SailGP Team has lost its ride as racing gets under May 14-15 in Bermuda…
SailGP information – Bermuda details – Season 3 scoreboard – Facebook
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Over the weekend 7th & 8th of May, the WASZP class headed to Oban in the stunning West highlands of Scotland – the furthest north in the UK the class has ventured. Two local boats were joined by boats from Dalgety and Derwent…
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Paul Goodison returned to the International Moth circuit with victory in the Balardi Cup on Lake Garda…
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I have taken a look at some of the Naval architects, the designers behind the current list of boats entered in the Global Solo Challenge. I appreciate that the final start list is yet to be completed and that some sailors are yet to decide on which boat to use, so I have concentrated on some of the more well-known and revered designers. This article is about Groupe Finot & Finot-Conq.
Groupe Finot & Finot-Conq
Jean Marie Finot is a Frenchman, who became passionate about design and architecture after seeing the French rebuilding efforts following the devastation suffered by his home region, the mountainous Vosges region, during World War II.
Indeed Finot reports that he was first interested in architecture and building houses rather than Naval Architecture, which he went on to think of as a hobby rather than a serious profession…
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The first Bermuda Lorient – Pure Ocean Challenge, is under way with the attempted record breaking crossing expected to take under 13 days. The boat left from St George’s, Bermuda, passing the starting line at 21h48 BST on Friday 6th May…
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Perfectly played by Sam Manuard abord Bureau Valleee at the start of the IMOCA Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race. However, it is Charlie Dalin on Apivia who has the lead after two days…
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December 2023, the southern end of Port Phillip Bay will come to life, with Sorrento Sailing & Couta Boat Club set to host the International WASZP Games (Worlds)…
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Tom Slingsby’s Australian crew commenced training on the Great Sound in Bermuda today, with newest and youngest team member Natasha Bryant getting behind the wheel of the F50…
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SailGP returns with the 2022/23 Season 3 opener . . . Bermuda Sail Grand Prix presented by Hamilton Princess over the weekend of 14 and 15 May…
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Since the launch of the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011, it had been the vision to celebrate the accomplishments of USA sailors in a physical building. That happens May 10 with the opening of The Sailing Museum in Newport, RI. Visitors can explore the sport of sailing in over 8,000 sq ft of interactive exhibit space. Details: thesailingmuseum.org.
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The International Maxi Association’s 2022 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge had a successful start with the Real Club Nautico de Palma’s traditional season opener, Palmavela concluding…
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In March a big blue shipping container filled with sabots from Tasmania made the long journey to Teralba, Lake Macquarie, for the 58th Australian National Sabot Championship…
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There was a Gurd ‘Ole Texas shoot-out on the bay on Saturday, as the Beacon Group A-Class Catamaran Worlds drew to its finale!
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iQFOiL history was written by 15-year-old Harry Joyner from Australia as he foiled through the first-ever tack on his iQFOiL equipment live in front of his coach’s camera…
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Nathan Outteridge’s Japan team. The Runner-up in both Season 1 and 2 is sidelined for the first three events of the season due to the lack of a boat for the start of the season…
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Joining the fleet for the first time in Portugal is the Swiss crew of Black Star Sailing Team. For owner Christian Zuerrer this will not only be his first time racing an RC44, but also his first time racing in the Cascais…
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It came down to the final race for the A-Class Open World title, with Ravi Parent USA finishing two points ahead of Jakub Surowiec POL to claim the overall victory…
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The Wally Cento Galateia retains an unbeaten record at the 18th edition of PalmaVela and after three races leads the IRC-IMA Maxi fleet by six points with two days of racing to go…
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Antigua (May 5, 2022) – After the lay day yesterday, Antigua Sailing Week was blessed today with solid trade winds of 15-18 knots, just north of east for Locman Italy Women’s Day, with squall activity raising the tempo but all 15 classes completed their full program of races.
“A great spectacle today,” Race Officer Neil Andrew commented. “Six OCS, including four in one class (CSA 5) and one boat OCS in both races! All boats returned to start correctly.” Class winners are emerging after four days of racing and tomorrow two more races are scheduled to conclude the series at Antigua Sailing Week.
The penultimate race day at Antigua Sailing Week celebrated women on the water, noting how female participation at Antigua Sailing Week was on the rise and this year with 70% of the fleet have women crew. Six boats are skippered by women: Susan Glenny on Olympia’s Tigress; Katy Campbell on Panacea X; Lyssandra Barbieri on Hatha Maris; Melanie Rensing on KH+P Nolde; Alice Martin on Jack Tai II/Painkiller and Jocelyn Mclaren on Belafonte…
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90 years ago, just as now, the UK was being gripped by a financial crisis. A group of sailors based in Central London had been looking for a new one design dinghy to replace their collection of disparate boats that they raced on Regent’s Park Lake…
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Turkish and Indonesian authorities are reporting the remarkable rescue of a captain 66 hours after he went overboard from a large bulk carrier in the Java Sea. Other than sunburns and possibly some dehydration, the captain is in good health and preparations are underway to bring him home to Turkey.
The crew aboard the bulk carrier Quorn (178,000 dwt) reportedly discovered that the captain, Erhan Seçkal (age 40) was missing on May 2 and immediately began a search of the ship. They could not locate him in his cabin or in the common areas. Crew members told the rescue services that they believed the captain might have gone overboard as they could not locate him anywhere on the 958-foot vessel. They threw lift jackets into the sea and began a search in an area approximately 30 miles north of Bali.
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Hosted by the MYA Scottish District at Castle Semple Loch, there were 65 entries comprising 57 from the UK and eight overseas (four from Sweden and one each from Ireland, Norway, Turkey and the USA)…
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The weather was perfect, dry and warm with a clean north-easterly running straight down the weed free lake. This was champagne conditions for the 22 hardy ILCA sailors signed up to compete…
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Each one design class defines what it wants to be through its regulations. Some allow full freedom for development, while others have strict mandates on permitted equipment. But regardless of the restrictions, it is generally advised to prepare the boat to those limits.
The Snipe Class is somewhere in the middle, and like most classes, relies on its members to maintain the boundaries. In this report by Snipe sailor and rules expert Antonio Bari, he calls out a failure in this oversight:
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to participate in the 2022 Snipe Master Europeans. A great event, very well organized and managed by the Real Club Nautico de Valencia and T10 Sailing, with more than 100 boats on the water and an exciting onshore program.
Forced to stay at home, I daily searched for results, images or videos, but while searching I also found something not exactly complying with our rules.
I am referring to the GPS tracks published on Strava by several participants (and, unpleasantly, by two of the top finishers) showing their race track on the course…
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INEOS BRITANIA recently delivered their Americas Cup race boat “Britannia II” skippered by Sir Ben Ainslies in the 36th Americas Cup Auckland 2021 to the Classic Boat Museum in Cowes…
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We knew that today was going to be hard going. Only the Classic fleet raced today in Houston at the Beacon Group 2022 A-Class Cat Worlds, and the planned 3 races were curtailed to 2…
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As much as we love IOR, it is sometimes flat-out embarrassing how ridiculous some of the boats looked. Here is your Ridiculous Boat of the Week photo.
Do you have a shot of boat that looks particularly ridiculous? Send in a good one, and we’ll send you an SA polyester shirt if we publish it!
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The time has almost come for the International Melges 24 Fleet to get back out on the water…
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HM Coastguard, the RNLI and Dorset Police are continuing the search for David Haw…
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The Merlin Rocket class headed to Rock Sailing & Waterski Club for their inaugural Craftinsure Silver Tiller event, round 7 of the 2022 series…
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The interesting thing, when you talk to Kevin Escoffier about his new boat – due to be launched on May 7th in Lorient in the iconic colours of PRB – is the element of continuity in his thinking…
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Ravi Parent of the USA is the new Open Championship leader, the discard allowing him to drop his opening race 10th place, to count a 1, 1, 1, 2 score for 5 points…
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The 52 Super Series is widely considered one of the top circuits in the world for monohulls, and in this era of rapid change, the TP52—or TransPacific 52—has managed to stay the series’ boat of choice for 10 years. Not only that, but as the class marks its 20th anniversary the boats it has produced remain as relevant today as the year they first came out.
The Super Series was born in 2012 when class sponsorship from Audi and the MedCup circuit ended, leaving owners in Europe without racing opportunities. Veteran U.S. sailor Doug DeVos, the Roemmers family and Niklas Zennström all conspired to keep the class alive, because for them, the boats were the perfect combination of technology, speed, power and reasonably sized crews—not to mention they’re great to sail. To this day, the 52 Super Series is primarily a regatta of boatowners. They’re the ones who sustain it, the ones for whom the two fundamental pillars of sailing fast and having fun remain the same as ever…
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SailGP’s rapid global expansion continues with the addition of Singapore to its Season 3 calendar, as the iconic city-state plays host to Asia’s first Sail Grand Prix on January 14-15, 2023…
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Sadly, we heard that Reg Bratt had peacefully passed away yesterday, just two months short of his 104th birthday. He was an avid supporter of Speed Week, either with one of his clever dinghy designs or even as one of the early thinkers about foiling…
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