News, race results plus editorial coverage from the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Vendée Globe, The Ocean Race, ARC, Fastnet, Transpac, Ocean Globe Race, Global Solo Challenge and Offshore Yachting from around the world.
After yesterday’s light winds start, which tested the patience of the 16 skippers with a busy, if slightly slow-motion, send off from the waters off the Hotel Vela (W-Hotel), there has been a steady building of wind strength, and a…
ABU DHABI, January 1 – Neal McDonald, the performance director of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, has been pulled out of retirement to join the crew for the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race starting on Saturday. The 51-year-old Briton…
The blocking pattern of a huge stationary high pressure system over the Tasman Sea is going to decide conditions for the Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs Yacht Race fleet of 28 yachts. Other than some variation at the start and…
Before the start of the Pittwater-Coffs Race, owner of the ORMA 60 trimaran Team Australia, Sean Langman, said he would try to make up the 15 minutes start the multihull had given the monohulls, then “cover” the 80ft Beau Geste. …
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race came to an end on January 1 at the Royal Club of Tasmania, where the Official Prize Giving took place. Welcoming guests, including Her Excellency, the Honourable Kate Warner, A.M. Governor of Tasmania, Commodore…
When Roger Hickman and his crew went to bed last night, it still looked as though his 29-year-old Farr 43 Wild Rose could be pipped for the handicap honours in the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Two smaller yachts,…
The 16 skippers, eight duos, who are set to take on the 2014-2015 Barcelona World Race gathered to face the media at today’s busy official press conference, the last official gathering of all the teams before the race start on…
The West Coast race has been a competitive affair with multiple boats vying for the lead at various times and tactics playing a key role. Laurie Ford’s Cameron De Lange 12m, Spirit of Downunder, was not first out the heads…
Who could have known at any stage of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race that boats touched by Bob Oatley and both bearing the name ‘Wild’ in their title would take line honours and overall corrected time honours in the…
Have a look at the IRC standings, the list of boats leading the Rolex Sydney Hobart overall on handicap; it’s a long time since such venerable names have graced the top of the list en masse as they do today….
Bruce Taylor and the crew of his Caprice 40 Chutzpah would have been sipping nervously at their beer. In Hobart since 10.49 when they were ranked well below 20th on the IRC table, one by one they have seen the yachts…
Wild Rose has crossed the finish line at Hobart and her owner Roger Hickman now looks likely to win the Tattersalls Trophy for handicap honours in the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart. When the 29-year-old Farr 43 finished just before 8pm…
Defending champion The Fork in the Road last night took line honours in the National Pies Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race, slashing three-and-a-hours off the race record. Skippered by former world champion and Olympic sailor Gary Smith, the Bakewell-White 45…
It is inconceivable for most of us to understand the frustration of being within a single nautical mile of the finish and have the wind shut down on you completely. That is what happened to Gusto at the mouth of…
After the exciting finish to the Rolex Sydney Hobart between Wild Oats XI and Comanche, the officials at the finish line had a long night checking in the next 10 competitors. It wasn't until 2.26am that the third finisher, Syd…
The entire fleet of 24 boats in the National Pies Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race should be tied up at Elizabeth Street Pier by lunchtime today – in time for a feed of the sponsor’s famous pies. The 285 nautical…
As the boats dock in Hobart so do the stories. Everyone has a tale to tell, some funny, some of outright terror, some apocryphal to tell about the Rolex Sydney Hobart. This morning Daryl Hodgkinson jumped off his Cookson 50…
Ever wondered about the cost of breaking and damaging gear – and the repercussions of it in a long race such as the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race? Well wonder no longer. Three boat owners confidentially whispered this morning “Don’t…
The New Zealand Volvo 70 Giacomo limped into Kings Street Pier in Hobart at midday today, minus her towering rig, her crew dejected but determined to come back and do the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race again. Owner, Jim Delegat,…
The 10-year-old super maxi Wild Oats XI had a good run during the second night of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and now looks to have the defence of her line honours title in hand. Shortly after 7am on…
With fast spinnaker running conditions forecast for all the way from Low Head to Tasman Island, the entire 24 boat fleet in the Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race could finish by Monday evening, with a race record also on the…
If anyone was on their first ocean race they well may be wondering what all the fuss is about when people speak of Bass Strait in reverential terms. No wind reduces it to just another piece of water, photos from…
Bob Oatley's 100ft super-maxi Wild Oats XI was the first of the yachts in the Rolex Sydney Hobart to pass Tasman Island, the southern-most point in the 628nm race. The big silver beast passed the landmark at 11.45 this morning…
The Eastcoaster race fleet have struggled with a complete lack of wind overnight, at the moment the measure at Hogan Island has them in 10 – 12 knots East South Easterlies. In a tactical difference XLR8 has stayed on the…
The crew work and light airs performance of Bob Oatley's 100ft super-maxi Wild Oats XI was just too good for the opposition in the Rolex Sydney Hobart this year. Comanche, the high-tech newcomer from the USA was valiant in defeat…
It was shaping as a race within a race. Peter Harburg's Black Jack from Queensland and Jim Delegat's Giacomo from New Zealand are both Volvo 70s which raced in the last Volvo Ocean Race as Telefonica and Groupama. Ever since…
“This is the sweetest victory by far,” Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards declared today after steering the silver-grey thoroughbred to a record eighth line honours victory in the Rolex Sydney Hobart “To rewrite a bit of sailing history doesn’t…
As far as the America’s Cup winning skipper Jimmy Spithill is concerned, there is now unfinished business between Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours winner Wild Oats XI and the US supermaxi she beat across the finish line, Comanche. Spithill was…
The lovely 21 year-old maxi Brindabella has been forced to retire from the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race this evening, a sixth victim of the bone shaking conditions off the New South Wales coast this afternoon. Brad Kellett, Brindabella’s sailing…
“He followed like a bloodhound on their track” is a line from Banjo Patterson's famous poem The Man From Snowy River. The words could be ringing in the ears of Camanche navigator Stan Honey as he sees Mark Richard's Wild…
One of the supermaxis vying for line honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Anthony Bell’s Perpetual Loyal, has retired and is returning to her home club at Rose Bay in Sydney. The crew believes the yacht may have…
8am this morning saw skippers and navigators gathered for the compulsory pre race briefing. Nick McGuigan and Donald Fraser took the participants through the all important safety briefing before Fraser revealed the up to date weather forecast. Whilst there are…
By Grand Prix ocean racing standards she’s an old girl, and there’s no denying she’s had a few makeovers during the past decade, but Bob Oatley’s 30-metre long supermaxi, Wild Oats XI, was leaving no doubt today that when it…
Will the 70th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race have been decided between lunch and tea today? That’s the conclusion that one might well draw from the huge difference in the performance of the Hamilton Island supermaxi Wild…
Chicken pies, the gooseneck and the voodoo stick were the last items to be ticked off today in Wild Oats XI’s preparation for a record-breaking bid in the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, which starts on Sydney Harbour at 1pm today….
Tony Cable just keeps going on. Last year he finished his 48th Sydney Hobart, setting a record for the number of races by an individual – this year it is number 49 – 49 not out, just one off the…
The forecast for the 70th Sydney-Hobart Race is generally benign for most of the fleet, with winds not expected to exceed 30 knots until Monday night, when a cold front crosses Tasmania. Andrew Treloar from the Bureau of Meteorology told…
America’s Cup winning skipper Jimmy Spithill could well be the most overqualified grinder you’ll see in action in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Rolex Sydney Hobart start line today. “He’s been a wonderful team player and literally in the…
To reef or not to reef, that was the question during the pre-start of the 2014 Rolex Sydney-Hobart. Wild Oats had one in, as did Ragamuffin and Rio 100 but Comanche and Perpetual Loyal thought they could carry full main…
Just over three hours into the 2014 Rolex Sydney-Hobart, the two Australian 100ft super-maxis Perpetual Loyal and Ragamuffin were leading the race for line honours by 3nm from pre-race favourites Comanche and Wild Oats XI. The US-owned Comanche showed a…
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