This Monday evening, Team Malizia’s skipper Boris Herrmann crossed the Equator and returned to the Northern Hemisphere, ticking off one of the last milestones along the Vendée Globe race course.
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Charlie Dalin wins Vendée Globe 2024-25
(January 14, 2025; Day 66) – After one long, cold final night fighting through light winds off the Brittany coast, Charlie Dalin, the French skipper of MACIF Santé Prévoyance, crossed the Vendée Globe finish line this morning at 07:24 UTC to take victory.
Dalin has been the most regular and consistent leader of the solo non stop race around the world, heading the fleet for a total of 42 days, including an unbroken run since December 30, taking victory in the tenth running of this iconic offshore test.
By winning in an incredible time of 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds, Dalin smashed the previous record set in 2016-17 by Armel Le Cléac’h (74 days and 3 hours) by an incredible 9 days, 8 hours, 12 minutes and 57 seconds.
The 40-year-old skipper, who grew up in Le Havre in the north of France, achieved the pinnacle result of his career after leading the 2020-21 race at the finish, but dropping to second after Yannick Bestaven received redress time for his part in the rescue of Kevin Escoffier.
“I am the happiest man in the world today, for sure,” shared Dalin. “With the team I have been working for four years on this edition, building this new boat, preparing this boat and upgrading the boat and now it is done.
“When I crossed the finish line, I felt things I never ever felt before, definitely the best finish line crossing of my career. By far… there was so much emotion, I am so really happy to be back in Les Sables d’Olonne after 66 days of ultra fast sailing, I am just really happy.”
Following his finish, Dalin will have to wait for the tide to rise early this afternoon before ascending the legendary Les Sables d’Olonne channel, to step on to land for the first time since leaving Les Sables d’Olonne on start day, November 10, and to now fully savour his incredible victory.
Knowing well that any kind of mishap or accident could still happen, it still took Dalin some considerable composure to live through the final nervous hours of his race while making a long descent from the Point of Brittany to Les Sables d’Olonne in light airs.
Even if the final miles of his course allowed him to sail through his home waters, off Concarneau and the Glenans islands, enjoying a fly-by from France’s Marine Nationale, seeing coaches from his race training group, Dalin had to remain cool and focused until his finish gun sounded this morning off Les Sables d’Olonne’s famous Nouch Sud finish line.
While Dalin covered the theoretical course of 23,905 miles at an average speed of 15.37 knots, his actual course of 27,668 miles translates to an average speed of 17.79 knots.
Race updates – Tracker – Ranking – Arrival times – Facebook
Attrition:
Nov. 15: Maxime Sorel (FRA), V and B – Monbana – Mayenne, ankle injury, mast damage
Dec. 4: Louis Burton (FRA), Bureau Vallée, rigging failure
Dec. 15: Pip Hare (GBR), Medallia, dismasted
Dec. 16: Szabolcs Weöres (HUN), New Europe, broken D2 shroud
Dec. 30: Yannick Bestaven (FRA), Maître CoQ V, steerage damage
Jan. 12: Éric Bellion (FRA), STAND AS ONE – Altavia, broken J2 forestay pin
The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers started the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, previously held the record for the 24,300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.
Source: VG2024, SSN
Vendée Globe 11th January Update
Benefiting from being slightly further west than Vendée Globe leader, Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance), Yoann Richomme has remained slightly faster and so has continued to shave a few more miles off his deficit to the leader.
505 Pre-Worlds at Adelaide overall
Day 2 of the Sir James Hardy 505 pre-worlds brought picture perfect conditions for a day at the beach. It also brought pretty good sailing conditions. The courses were two-lap windward leewards…
Sydney Hobart triumph and tragedies, Vendee Globe
Looking back, 2024 has been year that can be metaphorically bookended by mighty Ultims and tiny Alma Globe 5.80s…
Vendee Globe: Richomme passes Cape Horn
Vendee Globe have advised in the latest update that at 2327hrs UTC on Dec 23 that Yoann Richomme was the first Vendee Globe competitor to round Cape Horn…
Only USA entry in Rolex Sydney Hobart
The 2024 Sydney Hobart Race extends 628-nautical miles from Sydney Harbour to Hobart, the state capital of Tasmania. The start on December 26 takes place in the heart of the Australian summer, with 105 yachts set to take on the 79th edition. Kimball Livingston reports on one of the entrants for the NY Times:
A slow epiphany brought Ron Epstein and his boat to Australia as the only U.S. entry in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, starting Thursday (Dec. 26).
“I’m not the poster child of who should be doing this,” he said.
Growing up sailing casually with family in Southern California, Epstein, a patent attorney, carried on the tradition when he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, bought a J/133 yacht and sailed with family and friends. He shared the experience of sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge, looping around Alcatraz or lazily drifting past the downtown towers.
Competition was not on his mind, Epstein said, until a guest said that his 43 footer was as much a race boat as a cruiser. “I told him, ‘I don’t think so. Look at all that wood down below.’”
That one comment, however, sparked two years of cautious experimenting as Epstein discovered that he could succeed at racing, and that he liked it, and that he might like it even more with a boat that did not have all that wood down below. – Full report
Event details: https://rolexsydneyhobart.com
Sydney Hobart – Tasman in 20 hours
Four days out from the big race is always a perilous time to be making weather predictions. The advanced computer models we have today do make it more approachable than ever, however…
Abandoning a perfectly good boat
by Peter Swanson, Loose Cannon
The sailing world was abuzz with skepticism recently as the U.S. Coast Guard reported rescuing three men in a sailboat that wasn’t sinking. Why? According to the Coast Guard, they were experiencing up to 20-knot winds and 10-foot seas and feared the boat would capsize.1
On December 12, the trio abandoned a 2005 Beneteau Oceanis 523 that was 150 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras—sails furled, a $225,000 purchase left to drift toward Scotland.
The wind and seas were as reported by the Coast Guard at the time of rescue.
“Capsizing seems unlikely in those stated conditions, but we weren’t there,” wrote Tad Roberts, a Canadian naval architect. “Cape Hatteras in December is too late in the year. Big, fat, snap-rolling boat with short crew, the one experienced person gets exhausted after four days, and they give up.” – Full report
Sailing (on purpose) into a hurricane
The 2024 hurricane season, predicted to be “above-normal,” began with the earliest-ever category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Hurricane Beryl, in early July, and ended with Rafael, the westernmost major November hurricane on record. Saildrone sailed into both.
“In a lot of ways, this was the most successful hurricane mission that we’ve ever had,” said Greg Foltz, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and one of the principal investigators on the mission.
In 2021, NOAA and Saildrone launched a multiyear mission to deploy Saildrone Explorer uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) into tropical storms and hurricanes to measure near-surface atmospheric and upper-ocean data to better understand how ocean-atmosphere interaction affects hurricane intensity and improve hurricane prediction models. – Full story
Cape Horn records set to tumble
At six weeks into the Vendée Globe, with the leading duo Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) and Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) set to round Cape Horn late tomorrow, fatigue is the constant, gnawing, universal presence..
The new SUNBEAM 29.1 GT: Less weight, more sport!
SUNBEAM Yachts is never satisfied with the status quo. This is also the case with the SUNBEAM 29.1. Based on the current SUNBEAM 29.1, a GT model has been developed that focuses even more on performance and sportiness.
Szabolcs Weöres retires from the Vendée Globe
Because of irreparable damage to the D2 shroud on his IMOCA, New Europe, Hungarian skipper Szabolcs Weöres has made the difficult decision to retire from Vendée Globe 2024-25…
Mini Globe Race, Vendee Globe, and US Sailing news
While the eyes of the sailing world are rightfully glued to the Southern Ocean-exploits of the ongoing Vendée Globe sailors (see below), another round-the-world race is beginning to capture my imagination…
Charlie Dalin at the gateway to the Pacific Ocean
On this 32nd day of racing, the skipper of MACIF Santé Prévoyance continues his express ride on the Vendée Globe after having engulfed the Cape of Good Hope / Cape Leeuwin section in 9 days and 22 hours. A record!
Eight Bells: Dan Delave
Dan Delave (68) passed away peacefully at his home in Long Beach, CA surrounded by friends and family on December 8, 2024 after a one year battle with cancer.
Dan’s journey on the water started with surfing and then later onto sailing where he was a test pilot for the Hobie tri-foiler and a competitor in many fleets including the F18 catamaran class. He was always looking to go faster and create friends, whether it was a new class on the starting line or through his proud leadership as Commodore of Alamitos Bay Yacht Club.
Most recently his passion was wing foiling that challenged him the most, and while getting old sucks, he ignored it being a young man’s sport. Dan was forever young at heart.
In his wake he left his loving wife Eileen, his brother and sister, extended family and many friends from a lifetime in and around the water. Sail on Dan!
Vendée Globe Twists and Turns, Thrills and Spills
I need to start with an admission… I’m addicted to the Vendée Globe. When I wake in the morning, I look at the tracker, and at each sched (it updates every four hours) I take a look…
19 classes set for Foiling Week Pensacola 2025
Excitement is building for the first-ever Foiling Week Pensacola 2025, the premier international foiling regatta and World Sailing Special Event, taking place in less than three months in Florida’s Panhandle…
Vendée Globe leaders racing storm
(December 5, 2024; Day 26) – The Vendée Globe story continues to be how the leaders in the Indian Ocean – Charlie Dalin and Sébastien Simon – are outrunning a monster low pressure system as they pass the Kerguelen Islands. While Louis Burton’s issue has proven race ending, Dalin and Simon are thriving where others dared not.
Dalin seemed to be almost enjoying his race which right now is not against his rivals but against the low pressure system. At the back of the center of the low there are ten metre waves and brutal 60 knots gusts, but if he and Simon can succeed in staying ahead of the worst of the voracious system, the gains will be significant.
“I am feeling a bit tired, I need to get a bit of rest,” admitted Dalin. “But apart from that I am all good. I am racing this monster of a low pressure. It is not going too bad and I am managing to keep up with my routing, which is good.
“I am in a pretty good place right now, making good progress towards the east, every little gain towards is pure gold, it means we will be caught by the low pressure further east which means I will have a smaller sea state and less strong winds, which is good. So I am fighting hard to stay ahead for as long as possible. I will get caught eventually that is for sure. But the later, the better.
“The GRIB files are working pretty well, at the moment regarding wind speed and direction and then I am looking at satellite imagery through Windy (weather forecasting website) and so I am monitoring the progress of these two weather systems in these two ways.”
He describes the process which brought him to decide to stay south and challenge the big system.
“It is true I was the south most boat at the time but nonetheless I still had an opportunity to shift north, but it would have cost me, it would probably have been more costly for me than the others. But in terms of decision making, I spent ten hours in front of the computer, running hundreds of routings, trying to work out what choice was good and for what reason.
“I still don’t know if it is a good choice. We will find out in a bit more than 24 hours. But it took me a long time to come up with this decision. And it has been fun, it has been fun to sail against this monster. I try not to watch “him” too much on Adrena (routing software program) because if you look too much you see the red arrows of 60kts and I say to myself ‘I don’t want to be there’. I am like a horse only looking forwards at the course with the blinkers on.
“I try to sail fast to the east, every metre is important. What is great is these fast foilers are letting us do new things which before you could do only with multihulls.”
Race updates – Tracker – Ranking – Facebook
Attrition:
Nov. 15: Maxime Sorel (FRA), V and B – Monbana – Mayenne – ankle injury, mast damage
Dec. 4: Louis Burton (FRA), Bureau Vallée – rigging failure
The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers started the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, holds the record for the 24,300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.
Source: VG2024, SSN
Dalin ready to face first violent southern storm
She has been making headlines in the Vendée Globe since the beginning of the week. The immense depression, 1,800 km long and high, is already beginning to cross the head of the fleet, sweeping the Indian Ocean with gusts of more than 40 knots…
SailGP, CBS Sports extend partnership
CBS Sports will have a record 54 hours of television coverage for the fifth season of the SailGP sports league set to air across its platforms during the 2024-25 season. The first event of the Season 5, which was held November 23-24, will be be broadcast on December 7 at 2:00pm ET.
“We are thrilled to make history with the largest-ever U.S. broadcast deal for SailGP as the appetite for the most exciting racing on water continues to grow in the U.S. market,” said Russell Coutts, SailGP CEP. “Coming off record-breaking audience figures from last season, CBS Sports’ expanded commitment to our league provides another proof point that SailGP is one of the world’s fastest growing sports and entertainment properties.”
Greg Trager, CBS Sports’ vice president of Programming added, “SailGP is high-octane, dynamic racing against the backdrop of the world’s most beautiful vistas. They have a growing fanbase and we look forward to welcoming them back for another exciting season.”
The 2025 SailGP schedule features three event in key United States markets – Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.
Vendée Globe Race watched from space with CLS
As the skippers race in the sometimes ferocious Southern Ocean close to Antarctica, the Vendée Globe is paying extra attention to look after the sailors’ safety…
Overboard in the mid-Atlantic
At 02:27 UTC on December 2, a crew member went overboard from Johannes Schwarz’s Ocean Breeze, a Volvo 70 competing in the in the 2024 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, an annual event from Gran Canaria to Saint Lucia.
Starting November 24, Ocean Breeze is one of 11 yachts in the IRC racing division of the rally which also included 45 entrants in the multihull division along with 83 cruising yachts. The rescue operation is being coordinated by MRCC Norfolk USA.
MRCC (Marine Rescue Coordination Centre) Norfolk issued an emergency alert to all shipping for assistance, and ARC yacht Leaps & Bounds 2 and motor vessel Project X are now involved in the search. Air cover is not possible due to the distance of the incident from land.
Event organizer World Cruising Club understands that the casualty was wearing an automatically inflatable lifejacket with a personal AIS beacon attached. Conditions on the course were reported to have squalls with 35 knot gusts and a base wind of 22-30 with big swell.
The casualty’s next of kin has been informed.
French start Jules Verne Trophy quest
With its crew of five men and one woman, the SVR-Lazartigue Trimaran, skippered by François Gabart, began its attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy this Saturday, the record for a crewed round-the-world trip, non-stop and without assistance.
Vendée Globe Race Saturday Update
Less than 9 miles separates the top three Vendée Globe competitors after 20 days of racing, while fourth-placed Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) is only 20 miles adrift of the leading trio as the fleet heads south and west into the roaring 40s.
Vendée Globe Race Friday Update
“I feel like I’ve been teleported here from the equator! It’s really impressive how quickly we have done this section to the Cape. I really have lose all sense of time and space.” Charlie Dalin today…
Vendée Globe Race Sunday Update
Anthony Marchand gives his take on the current situation in the South Atlantic and more generally on this tenth edition of the Vendée Globe…
SailGP: Day 1 Live – Dubai
Live mark by mark commentary from SailGP Dubai. Season 5 and first event gets underway in light winds and big rigs…
400 sailors to compete in Palamós Christmas Race
Just one month to go until the 48th edition of the Palamós Christmas Race, a benchmark regatta for both Olympic and dinghy sailing in the winter season, to be held in the waters of the Bay of Palamós (Girona)…
Call for Bids
The 49er and Nacra 17 Classes invite expressions of interest from host cities, sailing clubs, and organizations to bid…
New leader in the Vendée Globe
(November 21, 2024; Day 12) – Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) took over the lead of the Vendée Globe solo race round the world very early this morning benefiting from his position to the west of his rivals which include his teammate British sailor Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) who holds second place.
Ruyant was first to emerge from the Doldrums and after a spell at more than double the speed of his British counterpart is about 6.5 miles ahead this afternoon.
The other skipper to have made a notable gain is Pip Hare (Medallia) who has profited from her position to the west also and over recent days has worked her way up to 13th, reducing her deficit of 250 nautical miles yesterday morning to be about 80 miles behind the leading duo this afternoon.
Crucially for the British skipper her gains might now possibly give her a chance of hooking into the first low pressure in the South Atlantic along with the main peloton but the actual time window to catch this system are not very clear.
It is now the first time that Ruyant has led this, his third Vendée Globe. Four years ago he chased British skipper Alex Thomson across the Equator about 80 miles behind. Both gained an immediate jump on the fleet in the South Atlantic when they caught a low pressure in a scenario which very much mirrors this year’s, and indeed 2016-17 when Thomson and Armel Le Cléac’h escaped the pack.
Although he blitzed a new 24 hour solo monohull distance record yesterday morning Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) has not been able to wriggle out of the Doldrums as efficiently as the likes of Switzerland’s Justine Mettraux (TeamWork-Team Snef) who is up in fifth now less than 40 miles behind Ruyant.
“It seems that we are now out of the Doldrums. It looks like it because everything is stabilizing! We were in there for 24 hours. For 12 to 15 hours, we were in a bit of a tough spot. We were really stuck but we have already all seen much worse scenarios than this one,” Richomme said this morning,
He added, “I had 12-15 hours in the hard stuff yesterday afternoon. It was really slow. We didn’t make much progress but last night it was good. It was quite a nice Doldrums in the end. There was just a big squall that came through yesterday afternoon. By tomorrow morning, we will have crossed the equator: it will be my first solo. Apparently that’s quite something!
“I’ve crossed it three times racing. It will be almost a formality. My team must have provided me with a small bottle of champagne. I have to see what day they had planned it for me because I haven’t eaten much since the beginning and I’m on day 5’s food bag. I’m 4-5 days behind. In the South Atlantic, it could be very fast, without being very violent.
“The situation allows us to cut across the South Atlantic fairly quickly. We could pass the Cape of Good Hope, which would put us back in slightly better timings compared to the reference times, which wouldn’t be bad. It’s a good prospect. It will work for a lot of people. We will break with the group behind of course but the whole group in front risks leaving with it.”
Ruyant’s gain may stabilize as Goodchild should initially have a faster angle to the wind and the sailor from the North of France is converging back east to his team-mate who sails his previous, older generation boat on which he finished sixth on the last Vendée Globe.
But the biggest gain has been to Hare, who enthused this morning, “I had quite a good night which I was kind of not expecting so much, I can’t touch the others on speed at reaching angles, I just can’t stay with any boats 2020 and newer I just can’t touch them in a straight line. So I need to take the opportunities to ‘think’ my way up the ranks, and I think last night was pretty good for me.
“Being in the west is the better option and yesterday all day I was really, really vigilant with clouds. I had a satellite image up all the time. It is incredible how accurate it is on my computer screen and then it would pop up on the radar and then I could skirt my way around things. And so I think that really helped me. I am feeling pretty good and am about to have a cup of tea this morning, which is often short lived as all hell will likely break loose.
“All I need to do is keep in touch, keep in touch as long as I can and then when there is an opportunity to ‘think’ my way through things I will give it my best shot. But I am feeling pretty pleased this morning, it is good!”
Not quite the same story from the winner of the last race, La Rochelle’s Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ V). “The Doldrums were intense, with quite a few squalls and very unstable winds, both in strength and direction, but they were relatively short lived. What was good was that there were several of us who saw each other at the AIS, which allowed us to understand a little bit what was happening, now I almost feel like it’s a new start!”
Next up? Crossing the equator tonight. From then on it is very much a drag race down the South Atlantic in the SE’ly trade winds, all the time eyes on the prize, a depression that they could catch a little to the north of Rio de Janeiro. The low pressure would be ideal to let them put the foot down and go full throttle to the south of the African continent.
If this scenario plays out it would similar to the system which propelled Alex Thomson and Armel Le Cléach’ to the Kerguelen Islands at full speed during the 2016-2017 edition. “It’s a good prospect. It will be a chance for a whole group of people but it will cause a real break with the group behind,” analyzed Richomme.
Meantime the entire fleet, with the exception of Oliver Heer (Tut Gut), Denis Van Weynbergh (D’Ieteren Group), Jingkun Xu (Singchain Team Haikou) and Szabolcs Weöres (New Europe) who also burned his hand yesterday while heating water, will only be out of the Doldrums in in about 36 hours.
Race updates – Tracker – Ranking – Facebook
Attrition:
Nov. 15: Maxime Sorel (FRA), V and B – Monbana – Mayenne – ankle injury, mast damage
The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers started the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, holds the record for the 24,300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.
Source: VG2024, SSN
America’s Cup competitor dies at 27
The 8-person crew on the AC75 for the 37th America’s Cup had four people sailing the boat, and four people on cycles to power the systems. The cyclors were mostly not known within the sailing community, having excelled outside of the sport, but tragedy has brought to life a unique contributor in the 2024 competition:
Austin Regier, a national champion rower for the University of Washington men’s rowing team who went on to compete in the America’s Cup, died in a free-diving accident in the Philippines on Friday (Nov. 15). Regier was 27.
Regier spent most of the past year in Barcelona, Spain, training for the America’s Cup competition and was on a six-week trip to Southeast Asia before planning to come back to Seattle.
Regier, often described as kind, engaging and humble, made friends everywhere he went, said his parents, Monte and Christie Regier.
“The easy thing would have been to go to Barcelona, do the America’s Cup and not engage in anything,” Monte said. “The first thing he did when he got there was go find a (church) youth group to get involved in and start talking with kids.” – Full report
New record set in Vendée Globe
Nicolas Lunven, the skipper of the IMOCA Holcim-PRB, broke the outright solo monohull 24-hour record on the second day of the 2024-25 Vendée Globe. Opting for a more westerly route than the fleet, he covered 546.60 nautical miles in 24 hours (pending official ratification).
Lunven’s pace would surpass the same record set by Thomas Ruyant during the 2024 Retour à la Base event (539.58 nm/ 22.48 knot avg.).
This boat also holds the outright monohull 24-hour record, with skipper Kevin Escoffier and crew covering 640.48 nm in the 5th leg of The Ocean Race 2022-23, with an average speed of 26.68 knots.
Race updates – Tracker – Ranking – Facebook
The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers started the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, holds the record for the 24,300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.
Vendee Globe: Race favorite hits lead – Day 2
Race favorite Charlie Dalin has taken the lead of the Vendee Globe single handed non-stop around the world race, on the morning of Day 2.
Racing home from Europe
Racing yachts are meant to be raced, so rather than strapped to a shipping cradle for a trip to North America, the 2025 RORC Transatlantic Race departs from the Canary Islands on January 12 for the 3000nm course to Grenada, West Indies.
After competing in the 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Race in the central Mediterranean Sea, USA’s Bryon Ehrhart’s 88-foot Lucky will contend for monohull line and overal honours. The Juan K designed Lucky will have a stellar crew which includes navigator Juan Vila (ESP).
The Spaniard is one of the very few sailors to have won the Jules Verne Trophy, the Volvo Ocean Race, and the America’s Cup, yet this will be his first RORC Transatlantic Race.
“This is a race that I have always liked to do,” commented Vila. “I have done similar races in the past but a trade wind race in January across the Atlantic is very special for any navigator because it is always challenging; you have to adapt and use all your knowledge for this race. This is a very fast route across the Atlantic and Comanche’s record from 2022, at nearly 16 knots average, is very impressive.
“At the beginning of the race, we have to navigate through pretty much the whole Canary Islands, especially the lee of Tenerife. It is an early call in the race to decide whether to sail in the lee of islands or sail the extra distance to avoid them.
“In the open Atlantic, ideally for Lucky we will need broad reaching conditions; that is the boat’s fastest angle. Even with the huge improvement in satellite communications and accuracy of weather models, for forward planning you have to decide how long you can trust the weather model for.
“Maybe the routing is made because of a situation in the future which is not going to happen, or maybe the routing is not taking into account local affects; you have to adapt it. Local factors such as trade wind showers can be used to advantage to gain miles but they can be quite tricky. Overall, you have to make up your own mental picture of what is going to happen.
“The race starts in higher latitudes and goes to lower latitudes at the end, so transitions are very likely and dependent on how the Jet Stream is running. Getting the transitions right is where gains and losses can be made. The timing from where you jump from a North Atlantic type system to trade wind weather is crucial. If you delay too much the door closes, if you go too early, you might make a longer course.”
Details: https://www.rorctransatlantic.rorc.org/
The RORC Transatlantic Monohull Race Record was set by Comanche, skippered by Mitch Booth in 2022: 07 Days 22 Hrs 01 Mins 04 Secs.
18ft Skiff Sixt Spring Championship Race 4
Strong southerly winds, gusting to more than 30 knots, forced the cancellation of today’s Race 4 of the Sixt Spring 18 footer championship on Sydney Harbour…
10th Vendée Globe Underway!
The official start of the Vendée Globe took place today at 13:02. The skippers have now set off on the most famous and challenging of circumnavigations, with more than 24,000 nautical miles (45,000 km) to cover solo, non-stop, and without assistance.
Avoiding collision during Vendée Globe
Based on the nine past editions of the Vendée Globe, on average only 60% of competitors finish. Most retirements are due to technical issues, while some are either forced to pull out or continue badly crippled following collision damage.
But when the 2024-25 non-stop singlehanded round the world race departs Les Sables d’Olonne on November 10, 25 of the 40e IMOCAs competing will be equipped with state of the art equipment – SEA.AI – to help identify and avoid floating objects.
This will be the second edition of the Vendée Globe in which SEA.AI will be used on the IMOCAs…
18ft Skiff Sixt Spring Championship Race 3
Another impressive performance by the talented Rag & Famish Hotel 18ft skiff crew of Harry Price, Max Paul and Finn Rodowicz secured the team their second win of the series when they took out Race 2 of the Australian 18 Footers League’s Club Championship…
The oldest footage of bizarre wind-powered craft
Last week we looked at craft which chased the wind speed record. Whilst they did not always look conventional, they still had a certain sanity about them. Our video archive has uncovered some designs which are way more unusual… or even, plain silly…
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