Final negotiations are underway between the IMOCA class and the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) to adopt the IMOCA 60 as the design the next fully crewed round the world race.…
Elaine Bunting
British tech entrepreneur buys Oyster Yachts, boat building to resume
Oyster Yachts has been bought from administrators by British gaming software entrepreneur Richard Hadida. Hadida won the bid from a shortlist of seven bidders. He is a keen yachtsman who…
RORC Caribbean 600 fleet faces record-setting pace in punchy tradewinds
A record fleet got off to a squally start from Antigua today in the RORC Caribbean 600 race. Some 84 starters, the largest number in the event’s ten-year history, crossed…
Escape the 9-5: how to sail across the Atlantic (when you can’t quit your job)
Do you really need to stop work or take months off to make a transatlantic crossing? What if you can’t quit, or you don’t have the funds for your own…
Radical 75ft flying monohull ‘could be fastest America’s Cup design ever’
One of the fastest and most futuristic sailing designs in history has been unveiled by Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) and challenger of record Luna Rossa as the class for…
Clipper Race crew dies after going overboard on Southern Ocean leg
A crewmember from Clipper Round the World Race yacht Great Britain has died after going overboard. Simon Speirs, 60, a retired property solicitor from Bristol went overboard while on the…
851 miles in a day – solo sailor Gabart sets incredible new sailing record in giant trimaran
An astonishing new solo 24-hour record has been set by French sailor François Gabart. The single-hander covered 851 miles in the South Atlantic in his 98ft trimaran MACIF. This equates…
French solo sailor François Gabart out to beat round the world record in under 49 days in giant trimaran
French solo sailor François Gabart set off yesterday on an attempt to break the single-handed round the world race. He left from his home port of Port-la-Forêt in Brittany to…
VIDEO: How a massive makeover turned the Volvo Ocean Race one-designs into mint condition
Small fishing boats lie alongside; seagulls pick their way past fishing pots and nets. The River Tagus winds by. Nothing much happening in this semi-derelict pocket of Lisbon’s outskirts, or…
Team New Zealand confirm 75ft monohull for America’s Cup, but Ben Ainslie warns protocol is ‘conflict of interest’
A 75ft monohull is to be the new America’s Cup class for challenger series and match in March 2021. This was part of a tranche of changes to the Cup…
Comment: Losing Mark Turner from the Volvo Ocean Race is a huge blow to race’s future credibility
Losing Mark Turner is a blow to the future credibility of the Volvo Ocean Race. He was brought in to shake the event up – and he did. His vision…
Future strategy of Volvo Ocean Race in question as CEO Mark Turner steps down
Just weeks away from the start of the 2017/8 Volvo Ocean Race on 22 October, CEO Mark Turner has stepped down. The board he reports to announced that the organisation was…
What went wrong for Land Rover BAR in Bermuda?
Knocked out at the semi-final stage of the Louis Vuitton Challenger series by 5-2 against the eventual America’s Cup winners, ETNZ, Ben Ainslie’s start-up team Land Rover BAR did much…
French crews dominate to take top trophies and overall win in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race
French sailor Didier Gaudoux was confirmed today as the overall winner of the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race, sailing a near perfect race in his JND39 Lann Ael 2. His crew’s…
Design in detail – exactly what made Emirates Team New Zealand so fast in the America’s Cup?
When Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) launched their AC50 in Bermuda in mid-April, just six weeks before the America’s Cup Round Robin, they were the last to arrive and no…
Dongfeng gets first Volvo win in the Fastnet Race – but by just 56 seconds
As dawn broke this morning, a skirmish for first blood in the 2017/8 Volvo Ocean Race was still underway in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Spanish team MAPFRE and Dongfeng Racing…
Trimaran Concise 10 blasts home to take Fastnet Race line honours after upwind slog to the Rock
Line honours in one of the lightest wind Rolex Fastnet Races in recent years were claimed at dawn this morning by Ned Collier-Wakefield and the crew of MOD70 Concise 10.…
How thinking outside the box won the Cup for Emirates Team New Zealand
“Baby, you’re coming home.” You could see the eyes of Grant Dalton, the tough, straight-talking CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand, filling with tears as he lifted the America’s Cup…
All-time record Fastnet fleet set off hard on the wind for long beat towards the Rock
A perfect summer Solent sea breeze gave the 368-strong fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race a picture perfect start today. In winds of 15-20 knots the fleet began the beat…
Record fleet of 368 yachts ready for challenging and tactical 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race
A record entry for the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race is getting ready for the start tomorrow in what could be one of the most interesting tactical races in recent years.…