The Qualifying Series for Fridays Medal Races in Oman were concluded yesterday with two races. —– In the 49ers, Ganapathy Kelapanda Chengappa/Varun Ashok Thakkar IND will most probably clinch the Asian Olympic berth, leading Akira Sakai/Russell Williams Aylsworth HKG by 17 points. In 4th place, Benjamin Talbot Daniel/Alex Burger RSA have already secured the African Olympic starting slot. —– The decision in the 49ersFX will be made between Chen Shasha/Ye Jin CHN and Molly Highfield/Sandy Wing Chi Choi HKG, 3 points behind. —– In the Lasers Radial, Nethra Kumanan IND goes into the Medal Race 3 points ahead of Emma Savelon NED. —– In the Lasers Standard, Ryan Lo Jun Han SGP won both races again yesterday and is the premature winner with a 34-point lead. —– With a 17-point lead, Natthapong Phonoppharat THA should be able to take the victory in the RS:X windsurfers. —– Amanda Ng Ling Kai HKG is 3 points ahead, good enough to win the womens windsurfing category, as there are only 2 competitors left in the race. —– All rankings. The report of the day has not yet been published on the event website.

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

With a cloud of uncertainty still looming over the 2020 – now 2021 – Tokyo Olympic Games due to the Coronavirus, many are already looking towards the 2024 Games in Paris as the next time that the best athletes in the world can get together and compete in a safe and inclusive environment. Generally relegated to sailing small dinghies that are the recipient of little to no media coverage in the United States, the excitement surrounding the first inclusion of proper offshore keelboat racing is palpable.

Sailing roughly 10-meter keelboats up and down the coast with two adults onboard is, generally speaking, much more relatable to the average adult sailor when compared to donning a wetsuit and racing a dinghy, skiff or foiling beach cat around the harbor. Combining this upcoming revolution in Olympic sailing with the pandemic itself and other shifts in the marketplace for new boat builds, doublehanded sailing has been booming as of late, as evidenced by huge increases in participation numbers for many of the offshore classics…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

The Charleston Ocean Racing Association (CORA), a volunteer run, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1967 to foster a passion for sailing in Charleston harbor and offshore waters as a premier racing destination in the Southeast.

As part of that mission, CORA has organized the inaugural Military Salute Regatta for June 26 in Charleston, South Carolina. Active military and veterans will be the star crewmembers aboard racing and non-racing sailboats for this event which aims to honor all active military and veterans that served for the USA and get them involved in sail racing…

The Santa Cruz surfing and sailing communities lost a long time friend when Jim Foley died yesterday after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jim was the consummate waterman, an outstanding surfer and board shaper, sailor, boat designer, and builder who was always enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge and experience with any one who was interested.

Jim began his surfing career on rubber surf mats in 1950. By 1953 he and his father, Chuck, were building surfboards out of wood planks. Early on Jim was experimenting with shapes, materials, and construction methods. He was also experimenting with fin designs.

Jim realized the importance of a lightweight surfboard for best wave riding performance and in 1956 started gluing together Styrofoam insulation boards 2 feet wide, 4 inches thick, and 8 feet long. He coated these early boards with watered down Weldwood glue and covered the board with polyester resin. Jim’s early boards were cheap and easy to build, so much so that he could experiment with practically any shape to try out, sometimes 3 or 4 boards in a day…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

In profile, the Oceanis Yacht 54 is a handsome, purposeful-­looking craft. (Jon Whittle)

The executives, design team, and craftsmen at the sailing division of Groupe Beneteau have made some interesting, innovative, and even surprising decisions ever since a regime change took place in the marine conglomerate’s upper-management ranks a couple of years back. This was clear from last year’s launching of Beneteau’s First Yacht 53, a sleek and powerful performance cruiser with the contemporary lines evident in the latest offerings from the top European naval architects. Now the company is continuing its ongoing design evolution with its latest dedicated cruising boat, the Oceanis Yacht 54. We tested the boat this past fall on a gorgeous day on Chesapeake Bay with a Beneteau team that couldn’t have been more excited about its potential, and deservedly so. It’s a rangy, clever, impressive yacht…

Read more on Cruising World

After a one-year Corona break without any major series, World Rankings have been published again in March for the first time since long, but with the different travel and domestic restrictions in force around the world, the significance is relative. Please find hereafter a summary on the best North American ranks: —– Lasers: Charlie Buckingham, Newport Beach, CA, 2nd Standard; Sarah Douglas, CAN, 21st Radial; Paige Railey, St. Petersburg, FL, 28th Radial; —– Finn: Tom Ramshaw, CAN, 5th; Luke Muller, Ft. Pierce, FL, 34th; —– 470: Stuart McNay, Providence, RI and David Hughes, Ithaca, NY, 22nd men; Nikki Barnes, St. Thomas, USVI and Lara Dallman-Weiss, Shoreview, MI, 26th women; —– 49ers: Andrew Mollerus, Ithaca, NY and Ian MacDiarmid, Delray Beach, FL, 20th; Stephanie Roble, East Troy, WI and Maggie Shea, Wilmette, IL, 9th FX; —– Nacra 17: Riley Gibbs, Long Beach, CA and Anna Weis, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 17th; —– RS:X: Pedro Pascual, Miami, FL, 39th men; Farrah Hall, Annapolis, MD, 50th women. —– All ranking lists.

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

Pretty great see almost all of the Vendee Globe female skippers get together. Sailor Chicks of the Mountain! Read on.

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

Avoiding collision requires visibility which is hard in the fog, and once was a whole lot harder before pinpoint navigation tools. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and provides good stories… here’s one of them:

From Robert Boynton:
This was a while ago during a SSS Farallon Race starting on San Francisco Bay. I was already anxious as I always am before a solo ocean race when I left the dock for the starting line. Once cleared of the breakwater I was soon deep into a heavy fog.

It being just dawn, I picked up a light that I thought was Alcatraz and headed for it thinking to pass it to port. As I approached the light I eventually realized I was heading straight for rocks as the light was not Alcatraz but Point Blunt on Angel Island that I had to pass to starboard. As I was fairly close to the rocks, this mistake amped my anxiety even further…

Read more on Scuttlebutt

Between catamaran sailboats flying by the St. Pete Pier and doublehanded teams taking off around Tampa Bay for the North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race, St. Petersburg delivered another stellar day of sailboat racing for all the teams competing in the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta St. Petersburg.

Former St. Petersburg YC commodore Harvey Ford and co-owner Tom Mistele took line honors on board their J/112e Silver Surfer for the North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race. “Just perfect conditions out there today,” says Ford. “Clear skies and 15 to 18 knots from northeast. Tom mostly drove the boat and I scurried around to fix and adjust things.”

For the doublehanded challenge, today’s 17.5-mile course sent teams around eight navigational marks in Tampa Bay, which included a lot of close reaching and one fetch leg. Silver Surfer decided against using a spinnaker because in these conditions, according to Ford, “Getting the kite up is easy; it’s when it has to come down is when it separates the men from the disasters.”

Racing is being held on April 2-4.

Series information – St. Pete details – Results – Facebook

Considered North America’s largest sailing regatta series, the 2021 National Offshore One Design (NOOD) schedule will host five national events and one international championship in the Caribbean.

2021 Schedule
February 12-14 – St. Petersburg, FL (Revised: April 2-4)
March 19-21 – San Diego, CA
April 30-May 2 – Annapolis, MD
June 11-13 – Chicago, IL
July 22-25 – Marblehead, MA
TBD – Caribbean

Read more on Scuttlebutt