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| Clare Francis – skipper of ADC Accutrac in the 77/78 Whitbread Race |
I have always been a fan of women in sailing. Some of the very best sailors that I have sailed with have been women and they were all a darn sight better than many of the men that I have sailed with. My fondness goes all the way back to Clare Francis who skippered ADC Accutrac in the 77/78 Whitbread Race. Claire, it could be said, loved to chat on the phone, well back then it was the single-sideband radio and all conversations were broadcast for all to ...
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| Jann Elies and Charlie Dalin win the Transat Jacques Vabre aboard Apiva |
Right now there are three major ocean races taking place in the Northern Hemisphere, the Transat Jacques Vabre, the Mini Transat and the Brest Atlantiques and they all have one thing in common; they all started from France. Either there is something in the water over there or their love for racing sailboats has seeped into their blood but the French people can’t seem to get enough of it. The lead boats in the Transat Jacques Vabre finished in Bahia, Brazil over the weekend, the Mini Transat fleet ...
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| Four Ultime trimarans ready to race |
Here is another big sailing event that is likely to go unnoticed anywhere outside of France. The Brest Atlantiques. Ever heard of it? Well me neither until recently and I follow the international racing scene quite closely. This one they were keeping a secret I guess. The Brest Atlantiques is limited to Ultime multihulls only, Ultimes being those behemoth trimarans that can only be sailed ...
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| Class 40’s at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre |
There are two iconic sailing events taking place right now. Two huge sailing events which I am sure that most sailors have barely heard of or are at least unaware that they are taking place. One is the Mini-Transat, a singlehanded race from La Rochelle ...
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| Moli – 45-foot aluminum sloop purpose-built for high latitude sailing |
It’s getting harder and harder to do something challenging and original in sailing. It used to be that a circumnavigation was a big deal, a solo circumnavigation even more so. Take the Australian sailor Jon Sanders for example. In 1970 he did a solo, non-stop circumnavigation. Ten years later he did a solo, non-stop double circumnavigation. As if that
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| Is it a boat or a beast? |
Wow just wow, would you take a look at this. Is it a boat, a battleship, or some kind of low flying jet? It’s the fourth AC 75 to be launched and the British America’s Cup entry looks to be the most radical of all. My jaw dropped when I saw the Italian yacht Luna Rossa come ...
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| Is it a boat or a beast? |
Wow just wow, would you take a look at this. Is it a boat, a battleship, or some kind of low flying jet? It’s the fourth AC 75 to be launched and the British America’s Cup entry looks to be the most radical of all. My jaw dropped when I saw the Italian yacht Luna Rossa come ...
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| New Italian AC75 launched |
The third AC 75 foiling monohull was launched in Italy yesterday in preparation for the 2021 America’s Cup. Like the other two yachts already sailing, the boat is a beast and looks formidable, in fact it looks downright sinister. Bow on it looks like some kind of predator which I guess in some ways it is. The Wednesday launch was the culmination of two years of construction that involved over 90 people including 37 team designers. After a ...
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| The innovative Classe Mini |
It’s incredible how far the sport of sailing has come in the last few decades. Just think about it. Right now 89 sailors await a weather window in France before setting off to race single-handed across the Atlantic in some pretty futuristic 21-foot boats. The Mini Transat is an incredible event with a class that has grown from strength to strength and is not only on the cutting edge ...
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| Tom Slingsby leads Team Australia to victory in the SailGP series |
They have said for years that watching sailboats race is about as interesting as watching grass grow; but not anymore and most definitely not if you watched the final race of the SailGP series that took place yesterday in Marseille, France. It was an absolute nail biter and an extremely close finish between the Australian team led by Tom Slingsby and ...
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