After two races in winds which topped 27kts in the gusts Quantum Racing lead the Royal Cup Scarlino 52 SUPER SERIES regatta…
Hobie 16 Worlds in Spain day 13
Similar to yesterday, racing for the final day of the semi-finals got under way shortly after 11:00 AM in the offshore breeze. The early race started off in 12 knots of breeze but, it didn’t hold. As the wind got lighter during the race it became shifty…
Formula Kite Europeans – Greek government stops on-water activity
The Tuesday weather forecast in western Greece was so apocalyptic that the government forbade any on-water activity, and that included the kiteboarders…
RC35 Championship series concludes at Largs
The 2022 Vantage Health and Life RC35 Championships is a wrap! Another very close season with tight racing in a great variety of locations and conditions…
death on the high seas
Not Sailing
Crimes like this don’t often happen on land. A 10-minute slow-motion slaughter captured by a cell phone camera shows a group of unarmed men at sea in an undisclosed location, possibly 15 of them, killed one by one by a semiautomatic weapon, after which the culprits pose for celebratory selfies.
This case shows the challenge of prosecuting crimes on the high seas. There were at least four ships on the scene, but no law required any of the dozens of witnesses to report the killings — and no one did. Law enforcement in the open ocean is limited, and jurisdiction is complicated. Authorities learned of the killings only when the video turned up on a cell phone left in a taxi in Fiji in 2014.
It’s still unclear who the victims were or why they were shot. An unknown number of similar killings take place each year — deckhands on the ship from which the video was shot later said they’d witnessed a similar slaughter a week before. Read on.
Global warming in 1939?
We have had some unusual weather here in So Cal this summer which some would say due to global warming, including extreme hot weather due to a hurricane coming from Mexico just missing the So Cal beaches. A reader sent this video to XS Sailing showing that the weather this summer was not new and had happened before… but worse. if you are a local of Newport Beach this story has some amazing history for the area.
Italy and Germany winners at final iQFoil event before 2022 Worlds
Over fifty competitors took part in event 4 of the iQFoil International Games, organised by the Circolo Surf Torbole…
Short list for World Sailor of the Year
World Sailing has advanced the finalists for the 2022 Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards.
The shortlist of sailors or crews, including world champions, Olympic medalists, and world record holders, represent the wide range of disciplines in the sport of sailing and will be voted on by World Sailing Member National Authorities (MNAs), the international sailing community, fans and the public to decide a male winner and a female winner.
Voting for the awards will open on September 27, alongside voting for the World Sailing 11th Hour Sustainability Awards.
The Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards are recognized as the highest award a sailor can receive in recognition of their outstanding achievements by the world of sailing. This year’s awards will be presented during the World Sailing Awards on October 25 in Abu Dhabi.
The winners will have their name engraved on the iconic marble and silver trophy depicting the globe and crowned with five silver spinnakers representing the continents, as well as a custom Rolex timepiece to mark the occasion.
The 2022 Rolex World Sailor of the Year finalists are:
Female category:
• Helene Noesmoen (FRA)
• Odile Van Aanholt & Annette Duetz (NED)
• Caterina Marianna Banti (ITA)
Male category:
• Ruggero Tita (ITA)
• Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (FRA)
• Nicolas Goyard (FRA)
• Bart Lambriex & Floris van der Werken (NED)
SailGP: Gremlins strike Brits in Cadiz
The Great Britain SailGP Team finished fifth place overall, despite recurring technical issues at the Spain Sail Grand Prix, in challenging racing conditions. Rudder damage and a bad start to Race 5 killed the Brits chances for making the podium final…
Australia extend lead in SailGP Season Three
Tom Singsby and his Australia SailGP Team still maintain their position as number one in the SailGP Season 3 leaderboard, despite losing the podium final to first ever SailGP winners, Quentin Delapeierre’s French Team…
Australia SailGP top of podium D1 in Cadiz
Tom Slingsby’s Australia Team has survived and thrived in the brutal conditions faced during the first day of the Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cadiz, finishing at the top of the podium…
America’s Cup: Recon Diary – Sept 22 – Alinghi RBR
Recon Report September 22, 2022: Dean Barker was on board Alinghi Red Bull Racing ‘s AC75, Boat Zero, last Thursday, with the Swiss. On their third AC75 sailing day BoatZero foiled more consistently than on their previous session…
SailGP – Ainslie bounces back at Spain Sail Grand Prix
Just three points separate the top five teams in the standings after day one of the Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cadiz…
Etchells World Champions – Ante Razmilovic, Brian Hammersley and Noel Drennan
Ante Razmilovic’s Swedish Blue – GBR 1438 – is the 2022 International Etchells World Champion with Brian Hammersley and Noel Drennan…
America’s Cup: Alinghi RBR get foiling
After a first sail Tuesday in Barcelona, testing every aspect of the boat, the team experienced foiling for the first time on the AC75 Wednesday…
Etchells World Championship – Lawrie Smith leads into final day
After the completion of six races, Lawrie Smit leads the 2022 International Etchells World Championships at Cowes…
16ft Skiffs: Wild race of survival
The winning skipper felt more like Daniel Ricciardo than Daniel Turner as the opening heat of Manly’s 2022/23 club championship developed into a wild race of survival last Saturday…
Project Land Speed heads for the salt lake
Not someone that enjoys idle time, it has been an agonising month of waiting for the moving waters of Lake Gairdner to evaporate for Land speed pilot Glenn Ashby…
INEOS Britannia to launch test boat T6
INEOS Britannia updates on the upcoming launch of their Test Boat T6 in Palma, the latest edition of Moving Parts features graduate engineer Ana Paterson, and Giles Scott updates on team preparations…
Ainslie focussed on top spot at Spain Sail Grand Prix
Having regained a top three place on the Season 3 Leaderboard, Ben Ainslie and his Great Britain SailGP Team return to the water for the Spain Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía – Cádiz presented by NEAR this weekend…
U.S. SailGP Team rides first win momentum
After the United States SailGP Team’s winning performance in France, the team now turns its focus to this weekend’s Spain Sail Grand Prix, aiming to ride the momentum and secure critical points in their quest to climb into the top half of the leaderboard…
Big breeze expected for IC37 finale
The third edition of the IC37 North American Championship September 23-25 and hosted by New York Yacht Club in Newport, RI. With big breeze expected for the 20 teams, it will be a hard-fought showdown on Narragansett Bay as the largest of big boat one-design fleets in the US will also by vying for the 2022 IC37 Season Championship Trophy. – Full report
PHOTOS: This doesn’t end well
Photographer Yohan Brandt caught this crash at the 2022 J/70 European Championship held September 13-17 in Hyeres, France.
Now or never at Spain SailGP
The nine SailGP teams will have their quickest turnaround of Season 3 as they move from France for Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cádiz on September 24-25. With it also being the mid-point of the 11-event season, the window of opportunity to reach the Grand Final is beginning to close.
While Australia and New Zealand have a point’s advantage in the season standings, the pressure on the remaining teams vying for the third slot for the Grand Final. Unless Canada can regain form, the fight appears to be on for Great Britain, Denmark, France and the USA.
After a slow start to the season, the USA team hopes to get on a roll after their victory in France, but momentum will be hard to maintain going forward as there is seven weeks until the next event after Spain, and nine weeks after that.
It was a year ago when SailGP launched its Women’s Pathway in which female athletes have been onboard all teams in 100 per cent of races around the globe, gaining awareness and experience on land and onboard the F50s. The program hopes to accelerate inclusion, inspire change, and provide opportunities at the elite level of sailing.
“We want to inspire the next generation and show anything is possible,” said Fiona Morgan, SailGP global director of purpose and impact. “We recognize we’ve still got a lot of work to do to make our sport more inclusive, but we’re fully committed to addressing the need to accelerate change.”
Since the Spain Sail Grand Prix in 2021, 25 female athletes have been onboard during racing, building a strong roster of athletes capable of competing at the highest level of sailing.
“The Women’s Pathway brought me back to competitive sailing,” shared Canada SailGP Team athlete Isabella Bertold. “In 2019 when I stopped Olympic sailing, I finished my university degree and never thought that I would be back racing at an elite level.
“There were a few women who had managed to jump into professional sailing, but it did not seem like a credible path forward. When SailGP brought in the Women’s Pathway, not only was there now a path into professional sailing, but the support on the skill development side to start playing catch up.” – Read on
russian ac 40
Looks like those crazy Rooskies found a loophole in the rules and this is their prototype 40.
One hears it goes both upwind and downwind like a mofo AND blows up the competition with any contact. Winner!
Hobie 16 Worlds in Spain day 8
Testing conditions on the first day of the onsite qualifier. More wave than wind made surf launching a challenge today as boats left shore. Winds were more moderated today 8-10 knots but with large waves leftover from yesterday’s stronger conditions…
Diam 24 OD: A new sporting challenge for 2023
After creating the D-Crew, a “marketplace” for crew members, it was logical for the Diam 24 od class to set up a training centre in Port La Forêt in a way to prepare the innovative and exciting regattas season 2023…
Golden Globe: Southbound along Africa
(September 22, 2022; Day 19) – Damien Guillou, the French favorite for the Golden Globe Race, made it through the Lanzarote Rubicon Marina film drop under his biggest spinnaker on a tight reach this morning. A wind vane repair returning to Les Sables d’Olonne had cost him six days on the rest of the fleet, but the last twelve days have been an impressive comeback.
A renowned sailor, ocean racer and boat captain in the IMOCA fleet, Guillou is consistently posting the top 24 hour distances of the fleet, having already caught up with the other French sailor Arnaud Gaist and the Australian mariner and GGR 2018 Mark Sinclair “Captain Coconut”.
However, a lack of weather information this week from a defective Weather Fax, and a high-pressure system with light winds, while the wind came back in the south, favoring the leaders, hampered his efforts to catch-up. Sitting in 12th position, the leader has a 700 mile advantage but the mid-fleet pack is only 3 to 4 days ahead.
“The Bay of Biscay, I sailed it twice!” noted Guillou. “The first time it was hard in strong winds and seas right from the start, and the second time I had different conditions with lighter but more unstable winds, before getting over 30 knots upwind at Cape Finisterre.
“Now, in my mind, I’m taking it step by step. I’m happy to be here, happy with the way I’m living on the boat, happy to be back in the race, and with the way I’m living this experience. This is great!”
Another impressive comeback is South African Kirsten Neuschäfer who exited the Bay of Biscay in 10th position, and did not hide her disappointment at being 6th at the Lanzarote gate. But she has now joined the lead pack in 4th position and has been working very hard, spending a lot of time at the helm of Minnehaha to average 7 knots over the last 24 hours. – Read on
ETNZ AC40 hits the water at over 20+ knots in light 8-10 knots of breeze
It was up up and away on a very successful maiden sail for Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC40. After a long tow out behind the team’s hydrogen powered chase boat ‘Chase Zero’, the sails hoisted and sheeted on, it took just a handful of minutes for helmsman Nathan Outteridge to go from a cautious displacement…
America’s Cup: Recon Diary – Fire Breathing Bull
The bull is back and looking leaner and meaner with fire-streak decals down her aft hull run-off following the repair post their capsize three weeks ago in an intense thunderstorm…
Etchells World Championship – First win to Steve Benjamin of the USA
One race completed on the second day of racing for the 2022 International Etchells World Championships…
The DCSolar Power Move – Making Power Portable
If you are planning a longer voyage offshore, the question of how to charge your batteries to keep your electronics running is of paramount importance. Solar or Photovoltaic (PV) panels have obvious advantages…
The New-Generation IMOCA 60s
The 60-foot IMOCA is the grand prix offshore class, and with a slew of these new foilers lining up for The Ocean Race 2022-23 and Véndee Globe 2024, the round-the-world racing scene is going gangbusters. Report by Ed Gorman for Sailing World:
New boats in the IMOCA class are coming out of the sheds thick and fast on the Atlantic coast of France, many of them at the old German World War II U-boat base at Lorient in Brittany. These days, in the fleet made famous by the solo nonstop Vendée Globe round-the-world race, there’s a lot of pizzazz on these occasions.
Boats no longer appear and then get quietly lowered into the water. In a class in which millions of euros are being spent on new designs, promotions and messaging, first launches are now previewed by the release of sophisticated video treatments, and the reveals take place with theatrical precision.
It is an astonishing fact in a world teetering on the edge of recession that no less than 14 new IMOCA yachts are hitting the water in the summer of 2022 and into the early months of next year as the arms race in solo offshore sailing gets underway in the buildup to the next Vendée Globe starting in November 2024.
The sorts of commercial partners that are paying for these vessels and their skippers range from French banks to alcohol retailers, meat-products suppliers, chocolate manufacturers, insurance companies and companies organizing behind charitable causes. International sponsors include software businesses, watchmakers, hotel chains and global-logistics multinationals. Unlike the America’s Cup, there’s not a billionaire in sight. – Full report
The Golden Globe Race is as tough as it gets
The 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race made history delivering the first ever solo non- stop unassisted voyage around the world. Nine started, one finished, one died, one boat was lost. The legend of this amazing adventure was born…
Marine Industry Salary Survey results out
Specialist recruitment consultancy Marine Resources has released its Marine Industry Salary Survey Report 2022. Marine Resources aim to reassess the landscape through the report, helping understand and benchmark employment trends and salaries…
ORC classes at the Rolex Big Boat Series
After seven races sailed over four days on breezy San Francisco Bay, there are two new skippers who are wearing Rolex watches for winning their ORC classes in the St Francis Yacht Club’s Rolex Big Boat Series…
America’s Cup: AC40 is tested in Auckland
The exciting new AC40 that will be used to pave the way for women and youth into the America’s Cup has touched the water for the first time in Auckland with ETNZ continuing its extensive commissioning process out of the shed and onto the water…
Notice to Mariners: 2023 Hurricane Season in Full Force
There’s so much going on in the news that you would be in good company if you didn’t realize the first major storm to hit the Caribbean was in full force. Hurricane Fiona is currently raging over the Turks and Caicos and is projected to make its way north in the coming three days.
Puerto Rico was hit particularly hard, with a near-total power blackout and more than one million people without running water. National Guard troops have rescued hundreds of people stranded by mudslides and flooding, but the crisis continues. The US territory hadn’t fully recovered from the last direct hurricane hit which destroyed the power grid, exacerbating Fiona’s power and infrastructural damage…
For more information, click here for NOAA’s forecast maps and here for the NHC’s public advisory.
2022 Golden Globe Race – Guy deBoer hits rocks off Fuerteventura
Guy deBoer (USA) sailing in the 2022 Golden Globe Race has crashed into rocks at night on the north coast of Fuerteventura, Las Palmas in the Canaries…
A-Class Europeans at Lake Garda overall
The final day of many championship regattas can sometimes be a foregone conclusion. One sailor can totally dominate, leaving the rest to battle for the crumbs. At Garda neither fleet overnight leader could rest on their laurels…
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