Royal Yacht Squadron confirm their representative as Challenger of Record for the 38th America’s Cup…

Read more on Sail Web

The United States SailGP Team has no shortage of swagger, but their racing performance has not kept pace. Their recent calamity of incorrectly pressing the wing invert button caused sufficient damage to keep them from racing. Only Germany has caused more havoc, with league penalty points putting both teams at the bottom of the Season 5 leaderboard.

The sailing league is now moving to the USA for an event in Los Angeles on March 15-16, and Bill Canfield hopes the nation can get behind the home team. Yes, he is related to the team helm, but he has other reasons too:

Without stating the obvious, I’m a huge fan of SailGP – especially the American team. Taylor Canfield and Mike Buckley quickly saw the power of SailGP and on their own put together a group of US citizens to not only buy the American franchise, but also have built up US sponsorship to support their effort.

From day one, they have pledged to succeed with only American sailors and refused to waiver on this goal. Yes, there have been failures, but they do have two podium finishes from the 11 events they’ve had the team.

Read more on Scuttlebutt

As the Port of Barcelona reveals losses from hosting the 37th America’s Cup, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown wants to play a role in bringing the America’s Cup back to the New Zealand city if he’s elected for a second term, but says there’s no chance of that happening without a bed night visitor levy.

Brown confirmed he will stand for a second term later this year and already had talks with those involved in deciding where the next America’s Cup will be, probably in 2027. Brown wants it to be in Auckland and bringing it back would add to his legacy as the city’s mayor.

However, he doesn’t want to Aucklanders to pay extra money in their rates to make this happen, which is why he’s pushing so hard for a bed night levy, which would add 2.5% to 3% onto the bills of people staying in Auckland’s hotels. The Kiwi defender had stated that the venue for the 38th America’s Cup would be confirmed in June 2025. – Full report

Details: https://www.americascup.com/

Defender New Zealand will work with the Challenger of Record from Great Britain to organize the 38th America’s Cup. Anticipated to be held in 2027, the two teams have agreed on some details with the venue to be confirmed by June 2025 after Barcelona declined hosting another edition.

Read more on Scuttlebutt

A swing keel that performs better than the fixed keel? C’mon. Well, when you go to the super-accomplished Marc Lombard Yacht Design Group, like, what do you expect? The tale about the coming to be of the Wauquiez 55 is bold and forthright…

Read more on Sail-World

After a decade or so’s absence the International Moth Class association is returning to the Dinghy Show. Exhibiting under the theme ‘Race the best’ the class aim to dispel some of the misconceptions…

Read more on Sail-World

For 2025, the Royal Ocean Racing Club celebrates both its own centenary and that of the Rolex Fastnet Race, the race upon which it was founded…

Read more on Sail-World

The Great Britain SailGP Team claimed their inaugural 2025 Season victory at the third stage held February 8-9 Sunday in Sydney, Australia. The win was also a first for driver Dylan Fletcher after a hard-fought three-boat showdown against the Canada SailGP Team, who finished second, and hometown favorites, Australia in third.

Much of the Final saw Fletcher jostle for first with the man he replaced at the start of the season – Canadian driver and double Olympic gold medalist, Giles Scott. The Canadians had a healthy lead going into the final upwind leg, but gave away too much leverage to the Brits that benefited from a shift to make the pass and hold on to the finish.

“Personally it’s massive where we’ve come – from the start of SailGP in 2019, where I began my journey,” said Fletcher. “To return and win here is amazing. I’m just really proud of the whole team and how they’ve included me.”

After dominating the 7-race qualifying stage, Australia SailGP Team driver Tom Slingsby could only watch after fouling the Canadians before the start. “We’ve been sailing so well as a team, and have a lot to be proud of. I’m just sorry to the fans. I think everyone thought we were a shoe in, but it didn’t quite go our way and that’s sport.”

The Rolex SailGP 2025 Season leaderboard was impacted by a practice incident between Brazil and Germany, along with an unforced error by USA that prevented them from racing. Emirates Great Britain has stretched their overall lead with the league now on the move to the USA for events in Los Angeles (March 15-16) and San Francisco (March 22-23).

Read more on Scuttlebutt

There were huge crowds, maybe the biggest yet, as four skippers finished the Vendée Globe on Sunday. Kojiro Shiraishi finished 24th, Violette Dorange 25th, Louis Duc 26th and Sébastien Marsset 27th and they all received a rapturous welcome…

Read more on Sail-World

The #1 iQFOiL International Games in Lanzarote came to an exciting conclusion on Sunday with the Medal Series crowning Johan Søe (DEN 37) and Emma Wilson (GBR 7) as the first champions of the 2025 season.

Read more on Sail-World

Gippsland Lakes provided wonderful racing for the 2.4mR fleet with Peter Russell enjoying the “lake-like” challenge for a perfect score of 8 wins…

Read more on Sail-World

The Classic Yacht Owners Association developed the CRF (Classic Rating Formula) as a measurement rating system to serve their racing schedule in the New England region. CYOA Technical Committee Chair Jim Taylor provides an update for the 2025 season:

At the end of each Classic season, the CYOA Technical Committee does an in-depth review of the year’s racing, with a primary focus on how accurately CRF ratings reflected real world performance over the full range of boat sizes and types and in a variety of conditions. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, the weather gods failed to provide much wind for much of the season, so the amount of good data on which to base this analysis was limited.

A quite different measure of success might be that the number of certificates issued in 2024 increased by almost 8% from 2023 and was the third highest in the ‘CRF MkII’ era. Even more encouraging is the fact that the number of discrete boats entering an event was almost the same as the number of certificates issued. All of this suggests that owners felt that their CRF 2024 rating reflected reality well enough to give them a fair chance on the race course.

At the same time, despite all these positive developments, the cold hard facts are that accurately rating boats as diverse as those in the CYOA fleet is a tall order, so even if CRF 2024 did well, there is always room for improvement. Toward that end, the Technical Committee does plan on some changes to CRF 2024 that they hope will provide even better racing under CRF 2025.

In recent years it has been observed that boats in the Classic division have had a hard time competing in fleet scoring against their close cousins racing in Vintage. The reasons for this have been puzzling, however, as these two Divisions generally share quite similar characteristics; their overall hull proportions are similar, they both have full keels with attached rudders, and they share similar performance parameters.

To learn more, a Live Zoom Chat will be held on February 20 at 6:30pm ET.

Read more on Scuttlebutt

The 2025 DN World and North American Championship have been confirmed for February 2-8 on Lake Winnebago at Fond du Lac, WI. Over 100 competitors are registered representing Canada, Estonia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the USA, with the field including seven former DN World Champions who have collectively won 28 DN World Championship titles. – Details

Read more on Scuttlebutt

Expect the unexpected is an epithet which is never far from front of mind for the solo skippers on the Vendée Globe…

Read more on Sail-World

It could not have gone much worse for the USA team at the New Zealand SailGP  on January 18-19 in Auckland, New Zealand. They finished last.

While Italy and Brazil finished 6th and 9th, respectively, in their second-ever event, the USA languished at the bottom in their 10th competition.

USA helm Taylor Canfield’s team struggled with Auckland’s unstable sea state and recorded 7-6-10-10-9-8-9 fleet racing results. Noted SailGP broadcast commentator Emily Nagel, the U.S. team “didn’t just come last” but “got beaten by Canada.”

The Canadians were unable race on the second day of the event due to the injury of flight controller Billy Gooderham. The team finished in 11th overall, one spot ahead of the United States.

After the U.S. finished third overall in the Season 5 opener, commentator Stevie Morrison observed how that was “light winds and four crew on the boat. They’ve come to Auckland and it’s six on the boat, big crew and fast, foiling sailing and they’ve finished last.”

Canfield said the team would be “going back to the drawing board in the big breeze conditions. We’ve got to be heads out and looking for intersections around the track because it’s tight and everyone is going so fast, so things are changing quickly. It’s a bit of a shame, but we still know we’ve got more in the tank and we’ve got to keep on pushing.”

The next event is on February 8-9 in Sydney, Australia.

Auckland Final Results
1. Australia, 5-1-2-2-1-2-10-(1), 64 points
2. Spain, 2-4-4-8-5-3-3-(2), 57 points
3. Great Britain, 1-2-9-4-2-4-6-(3), 57 points
4. New Zealand, 4-8-6-1-4-6-2, 46 points
5. Denmark, 6-5-5-5-8-1-1, 44 points
6. Italy, 3-3-7-7-3-9-8, 37 points
7. Switzerland, 11-10-1-3-10-10-4, 28 points
8. Germany, 8-11-11-9-6-7-5, 20 points
9. Brazil, 10-9-8-11-7-5-7, 20 points
10. Canada, 9-7-3-6-11-11-11, 19 points
11. USA, 7-6-10-10-9-8-9, 18 points
Note: France did not take part due to a wingsail issue.

SailGP information – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 2 of 14 events)*
1. Great Britain, 17 points
2. New Zealand, 17 points
3. Australia, 16 points
4. Spain, 16 points
5. Denmark, 10 points
6. France, 10 points
7. United States, 8 points
8. Switzerland, 6 points
9. Germany, 6 points
10. Canada, 6 points
11. Italy, 5 points
12. Brazil, 3 point
* Ten of the 12 teams are privately owned, with the league having ownership of New Zealand and Spain.

Season 5 Schedule – 14 events
2024
November 23-24 – Dubai, UAE

2025
January 18-19 – Auckland, New Zealand
February 8-9 – Sydney, Australia
March 15-16 – Los Angeles, USA
March 22-23 – San Francisco, USA
May 3-4 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 7-8 – New York City, USA
July 19-20 – Portsmouth, Great Britain
August 16-17 – Sassnitz, Germany
September 6-7 – Taranto, Italy
September 20-21 – Geneva, Switzerland
October 4-5 – Andalucía – Cádiz, Spain
November 7-8 – Middle East *
November 29-30 – Grand Final – Abu Dhabi, UAE
* Venue to be announced

Format for Season 5:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event runs across two days.
• Five qualifying fleet races of approximately 15 minutes may be scheduled for each regatta.
• The top three teams from qualifying advance to a final race to be crowned event champion and earn the largest share of the prize purse (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $400,000.00 USD prize purse with winning team earning $200k at each event).
• The season ends with the Grand Final, which includes the Championship Final Race for the top three teams in the season standing with the winner claiming a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $2 million USD prize).
• The top team on points ahead of the three-boat Championship Final will get a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had a $350,000.00 prize).

For competition documents, click here.

Established in 2018, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric inshore racing among national teams in some of the iconic harbors around the globe.

Read more on Scuttlebutt

After Jérémie Beyou finished the Vendée Globe in fourth place, Paul Meilhat arrives in Les Sables d’Olonne soon after in fifth, with Nico Lunven sixth on Friday evening, and now Thomas Ruyant arriving in seventh early on Saturday morning.

Read more on Sail-World

Hall 15 at boot Düsseldorf has some really interesting small boats, so Mark Jardine took a look around to see what he could find…

Read more on Sail-World

Emerging relieved and happy out of a dark, windy night off Les Sables d’Olonne, Jérémie Beyou crossed the finish line of his fifth Vendée Globe this morning at 00:58 (UTC) to take fourth place from the record fleet of 40 starters…

Read more on Sail-World

If you believe everything you read, the news that Sir Ben Ainslie had been removed from the team he skippered to the 37th America’s Cup Finals came as a surprise. That’s the message coming from this update:

The British Challenger for the 38th America’s Cup, led by Sir Ben Ainslie, was astounded to read today’s statement from INEOS and Mercedes F1 regarding their planned challenge for the 38th America’s Cup. This plan raises significant legal and practical obstacles for them that will play out in the coming days and weeks.

Furthermore, Sir Ben Ainslie’s British America’s Cup team will be known as Athena Racing going forwards, aligning with the British Women’s and Youth America’s Cup team, the Athena Pathway.

How did we get here? It appears that when Ainslie partnered with INEOS Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe after the 2017 America’s Cup, Ainslie signed over the rights to the team. Ratcliffe wanted control, which appears to have included team assets, with Ainslie now an employee.

As to why Ainslie got fired, another guess is that Ratcliffe recognized the challenge in both leading a team and sailing on the team. But Ainslie probably wanted to win as a helm, so the split occurred. Will Ainslie now start his own team? That is implied by Athena Racing, but starting over at this level isn’t how you win the America’s Cup after losing three times.

Interestingly, the INEOS Britannia website – www.ineosbritannia.com – now jumps to the Athena Racing website – www.athenaracing.com. Apparently, Ainslie held on to that asset.

Details: https://www.americascup.com/

Defender New Zealand will work with the Challenger of Record from Great Britain to organize the 38th America’s Cup. Anticipated to be held in 2027, the two teams have agreed on some details with the venue to be confirmed by June 2025 after Barcelona declined hosting another edition.

Read more on Scuttlebutt

Vendée Globe Race – Conrad Colman – Life onboard MS Amlin : Day 73 & 74 – No shortage of solar energy on the Equator – but where’s the Black Line gone?

Read more on Sail-World