Storms come to play with Volvo Ocean Race fleet
A big make-or-break moment for Leg 2 is almost upon the Volvo Ocean Race fleet in the Indian Ocean: do they take on an approaching tropical storm in the next 24 hours or so, or dodge it? If they try…
All News
The latest news from the world of yachting and sailing including yacht & dinghy reviews, cruising and destination information plus the latest boating gear as well as inshore and offshore racing updates and regatta schedules. All things Sailing, Sail Racing, Sailboats and more.
70th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and Beneteau leads the production pack
A fleet of 119 will line up for the Boxing Day start of the 70th edition of the legendary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race – considered among the world’s most significant blue water races. Beneteau will have twelve yachts competing…
CYCA opens eBay auction for SOLAS Big Boat Challenge
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has once again launched its eBay auction that provides an exclusive opportunity to bid for places onboard one of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race favourites, when they compete in the CYCA’s SOLAS Big…
Western Australian yachts gear up for the Rockingham Race Weekend
Thirty one yachts are gearing up for the Rockingham Race Weekend, hosted by Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. Contested off the coast of WA, racing will be on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 November. The weekend incorporates the Dolphin Race…
Farr 40 fleet grows in Australia ahead of World Championships in Sydney
There’s a distinctive swagger amid the Australian Farr 40 class. Four top ten finishes at the recent international title, a new batch of super keen owners for the 2014-15 season and preparations underway to host the Rolex Farr 40 World…
Portsmouth to host America's Cup World Series racing
Portsmouth, a city on the south coast of the UK that is home to Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR), will host two America's Cup World Series events over the next two years.The America's Cup World Series is the preliminary race series…
Mapfre challenges for the lead in leg 2 of Volvo Ocean Race
MAPFRE, the Spanish boat which finished last of the fleet in Leg 1, has bounced back in style to challenge for the lead in the next stage between Cape Town and Abu Dhabi. Skipper Iker Martínez (ESP) acted decisively after…
Lack of money costs San Diego America's Cup
Evidence continues to mount that Bermuda will host the 2017 America's Cup with a San Diego official claiming his city's bid was scuppered on financial grounds. The formal announcement will be made by America's Cup bosses in New York on…
Spithill hid elbow injury during America's Cup
Jimmy Spithill is heading for surgery to rectify an elbow injury he claims he disguised during last year's remarkable America's Cup victory over Team New Zealand. Spithill, who won the world sailor of the year award on the back of…
Tom Slingsby to skipper Oman Air in final Act of Extreme Sailing Series
Tom Slingsby, Australian Olympic Laser Gold medalist, and member of Oracle Team USA, has signed up as skipper of Oman Air, one of two Oman Sail Extreme Sailing teams, for the final act of the Extreme Sailing Series in Sydney,…
Laafin from Phillip Island to Port Phillip for maiden Festival of Sails
After November 30, entrants for next January’s Festival of Sails will be no longer be able to take advantage of the $50 early entry discount, and will sadly miss the chance to win a holiday for two to tropical Fiji…
The Richmond River
A northern New South Wales river better known for its temperamental entrance bar than the positives upstream, the Richmond empties into the Coral Sea at the town of Ballina, 45 miles south of the Queensland border. Up-river from Ballina are…
Sail Sydney entries close in on 300
Entries for next week’s Sail Sydney are closing in on the 300 mark and the decision to waive the late entry fee and final surge in registrations is pushing organisers of the annual sailing regatta hard to process the resulting…
Atlantic Rally sets sail from Gran Canaria
The 29th Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) set sail today bound for Saint Lucia following a delayed start due to strong winds locally in the harbour of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria yesterday. For only the third time in the…
John Bertrand returns to Newport RI for the first time
John Bertrand was both excited and apprehensive about returning to Newport, Rhode Island, USA, to compete in the 2014 Etchells World Championship. He had not sailed there since he skippered Australia II to its historic victory in the 1983 America’s…
Elan introduces the new E3
Late afternoon was a fitting time of day to take the Elan E3 out for a sail. The owner, Jefferson Smith, joined us for his first sail and in a blustery, winter’s day we skimmed eastward along Sydney Harbour; leaving…
Navico launches GoFree a dedicated brand for digital marine solutuions
Navico has announced the launch of its newest brand: GoFree. Designed to deliver content and services to consumers in the way they have come to expect from modern household electronics, the GoFree brand works with Lowrance, Simrad and B&G multifunction…
Mat Belcher and Will Ryan gunning for gold at ISAF Sailing World Cup Final
World Champion crew of Mat Belcher and Will Ryan as well as World Championship Silver medallist Tom Burton, the current ISAF World Rankings #1 crews in the Men’s 470 and Laser classes, are aiming for gold at the inaugural ISAF…
Sydney to Hobart to be a race within a race
The Rolex Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race has stood the test of time. Australians share its rites of passage between Christmas and New Year. Since 1945 starters in the Sydney-Hobart have raced the equivalent of two circumnavigations of the world, almost 45,000…
Sydney Yachts Regatta sponsored by Performance Boating
PBS will be the naming sponsor for the first Sydney Yachts regatta being hosted by the RPAYC next February the 20th to the 22nd. Fifteen Sydney 38s and ten Sydney 36s are expected along with an assortment of the 32s,…
Nika wins in Oman and Team Aqua clinch their fourth RC44 Tour title
The 2014 RC44 Championship Tour has seen the 13-strong fleet compete in five events across three continents, with the finale played out this week on the Gulf of Oman. With no team able to discard the last event of the…
Perfect day sailing for Beneteau Cup on Sydney Harbour
Sydneysiders cooked under a spring blowtorch that took the temperature in the CBD past 30 degrees at 9am last Friday morning, November 21, 2014. Out on the harbour the real sizzle came from the class rivalry in the 23rd annual…
Strong winds cause postponement of ARC start
Strong winds blowing through the harbour of Las Palmas have caused ARC organisers World Cruising Club to announce a delay to the start of ARC 2014. Whilst the front that has brought 4 days of heavy rain squalls to Gran…
Roger That wins Melges 24 NSW State Championship
Lake Macquarie turned on spectacular summer weather for the 2014 Pusser’s Rum Melges 24 New South Wales State Championships. Lake Macquarie Yacht Club hosted the three day event (21-23 Nov), the largest Melges 24 fleet competing at a State Titles…
Zhik release PowerPads II for improved hiking comfort
Zhik’s hiking PowerPads II are designed to be worn either inside a wetsuit or under waterproofs to fit around your thighs. The fully enclosed neoprene sleeve design ensures there is no external pad that can be easily snagged or ripped…
Gary Smith inducted into Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame
Former World champion Fireball sailor and Olympic Flying Dutchman skipper Gary Smith, a member of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, has been inducted into the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame. Smith is only the fourth yachtsman to be inducted…
View from the bridge
It’s a big world. And 71% of it is salt water. But with more than 100,000 ships plying the oceans, it’s not unusual for a small sailboat to find itself in exactly the same piece of water as a “trading…
What not to do on the start line
The start of a sailboat race is a focused test of a crew’s ability across the range of sailing skills: tactics and strategy, boat handling, rules and speed. The last skill of boat speed may not initially seem related to…
Designing sails for the Volvo Ocean Race
What does it take to design sails for the Volvo Open 65? There is no better person to answer that question than North Sails’ Gauiter Sergent, VO65 Designer of Record. Based at the North sails loft in France, Gautier has…
New HH42 is just Simply Fun
I was quite excited to be asked to go for a sail and do a review on the new HH42 Simply Fun. Owned by Phil Coombes, the boat had been attracting quite a lot of attention around Port Phillip. I…
Team Nika holds the lead in RC44s with a day to sail
The 10 competing teams at the RC44 Oman Cup enjoyed a great sailing day on the Gulf of Oman for the penultimate day of the 2014 Championship Tour. Racing started in a seven-knot north-westerly breeze which built steadily throughout the…
Sir Ben Ainslie says his America's Cup budget is bigger than Oracle's.
In an interview with CNBC International in October, Sir Ben Ainslie confirmed his America’s Cup budget is £80 million ($US128 Million), making it bigger than the reported $US100 million budget that defender Oracle Team USA is working with.
Sir Robin “ecstatic” with third place in Route du Rhum
British adventurer and Clipper Race Founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, 75, has finished solo Transatlantic race the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe in third place in the Rhum class. Sir Robin crossed the finish line on his Open 60 Grey…
Ariel wins Morna Cup as Sydney-Hobart entrants warm-up
The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s historic Morna Cup had a distinct Rolex Sydney Hobart Race flavour about it yesterday, with Cup winner Ron Forster’s Ariel an entrant in the blue water classic and runner-up Minerva skippered by the Chairman of…
Andrew Hunn, Amelia Catt receive Tasmanian Sailing Awards
Prominent Farr 40 skipper Andrew Hunn and Rio Olympic Games aspirant Amelia Catt today were named as the Tasmanian Sailors of the Year along with other annual awards. Yachting Tasmania president Ron Bugg announced the awards at the Royal Yacht…
Gotta Love It 7 wins Race 3 of 18 Footer Club Championship
The champion Gotta Love It 7 skiff continued her domination of the Australian 18 Footer League’s 2014-2015 Season with another brilliant victory in Race 3 of the Club Championship on Sydney Harbour today. Usual skipper Seve Jarvin and for’ard hand…
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston locked in battle for podium places
As the bulk of the Class 40 fleet in the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe file in to the finish in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe Friday with their stories to tell, the fight for the remaining places in the Rhum Class of the…
Consistency hard to come by at the RC44 Oman Cup
The Oman RC44 Cup delivered another challenging sailing day for the fleet competing in the final event of the 2014 Championship Tour. Consistency was hard to come by and no team managed to stay in the top half of the…
GC32 Racing Tour 2015 – dates and venues announced
For 2015, its third season of racing, the GC32 foiling catamarans are to compete around Europe on a five event circuit known as the GC32 Racing Tour. The GC32 is attracting considerable interest due to its conceptual similarity to the…
Rolex Sydney Hobart winner racing for Morna Cup
Victoire, the overall winner of the 2013 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, will begin her final tune-up for this year’s 70th edition with a sprint race tomorrow, contesting the historic Morna Cup off Sydney Heads. The Morna Cup is the…
