Tony Cable closes on his 50th Sydney-Hobart race
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…
Offshore
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.
Final Sydney-Hobart forecast suggests mid-size boats will benefit
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…
Is James Spithill the most over-qualified grinder in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart?
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…
Fast start to Rolex Sydney-Hobart as Comanche gets the drop on Wild Oats XI
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…
Perpetual Loyal is early leader in RSH as inside track pays dividends
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…
The Fork in the Road aiming for fourth line honours in Launceston to Hobart
The Fork in the Road may not be the biggest boat in the National Pies Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race, but she is a hot favourite to record her fourth line honours victory in the 285 nautical mile race starting…
Comanche and Oats close on Loyal and Ragamuffin as night falls
After five hours of the 2014 Rolex Sydney-Hobart, less than four nautical miles separates the four leaders. Comanche and Wild Oats have closed on the shoreline and on the race leaders Perpetual Loyal and Ragamuffin. Just after 6pm on Boxing…
Rolex Sydney Hobart: Levelling the Playing Field
There’s a sense among the crews competing for a win in the inaugural Corinthian Division of the Rolex Sydney Hobart that it’s levelling a playing field that has been uneven for a while under the handicap system. “In theory, the…
Tamar yachts looking for win in Launceston to Hobart Race
Boats from northern yacht clubs have yet to win a Launceston to Hobart race since it began seven years ago but Tamar Yacht Club vice commodore John Joyce is confident the four boats contesting this coming weekend’s race are good…
Rolex Sydney Hobart: To Hobart in Style
There are two ways you can get to Hobart, there is the wet way – cold, noisy, perched on the rail dreaming of the next Mars bar – and there’s the Swan way, dry in the cockpit, savouring the aromas…
No chance at a record in 70th Rolex Sydney Hobart
Sailors in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart should watch what they eat on Christmas day or they may well watch Christmas dinner all over again on Boxing Day. At the Christmas Eve briefing at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia…
Boom damage on Wild Oats XI causes last-minute repairs for Sydney-Hobart favourite
Sydney Hobart yacht race record holder, Wild Oats XI, is the centre of an intense repair effort on the eve of the big race after suffering damage during her most recent training run. The sleek supermaxi, owned by Bob Oatley…
Offshore legend makes surprise visit to CYCA marina
Loick Peyron has won … everything in sailing possibly. He is the fastest sailor around the world, he took over a 103 foot tri two months before this year's Route du Rhum and beat his round the world 130 foot…
The Rolex Sydney Hobart is a women's world too
In its early days, ocean racing was a very blokey thing – hard sailing and hard drinking – back to the wife and kids on a Sunday night after a weekend offshore – so it is an interesting fact that…
Australians wanted for Clipper Round the World Race
Clipper Ventures Australia is on the hunt for Australians looking to push their limits and take on the challenge of a lifetime, the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Australians have an impressive history in the world's longest ocean race…
Team Vestas Wind off the reef and on board a container ship
ALICANTE, Spain, December 22 – Team Vestas Wind’s stranded Volvo Ocean 65 boat has been retrieved from a remote reef in the Indian Ocean and on Monday was heading on a round-trip via Mauritius and Malaysia back to Europe. After…
Online entries open for Sydney-Mooloolaba Race
Online entry for the Sydney to Mooloolaba Yacht Race, which starts on Sydney Harbour on Friday 27th March 2015, is now open. The race is being organised by Middle Harbour Yacht Club (MHYC) in partnership with Mooloolaba Yacht Club (MYC)….
S&S 34 comes back from the dead for Rolex Sydney Hobart
In a sea of impressive boats preparing for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, a little 33-year-old S&S34 is turning heads. With her rich blue hull, sparkling white deck and faultless stainless steel…
Overseas yachts arriving for Mount Gay Round Barbados Race
Bridgetown, Barbados (21 December, 2014): The arrival of the first overseas yachts into Bridgetown, including British VO70 Monster Project marks the start of the countdown of the 2015 Mount Gay Round Barbados Race Series, which is taking place from 16-24…
Sydney-Hobart forecast favours smaller boats as super-maxis to sail into a hole
When Andrew Treloar from the Bureau of Meteorology delivered his long-range forecast for the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race this morning, it was all bad news for the five 100ft super-maxis. According to Treloar, a pre-frontal trough that will pass over Sydney…
Roberts focused on victory in Rolex Sydney-Hobart
Just a few days out from Boxing Day and the buzz around the docks of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is that Ray Roberts is looking like a very good bet to win this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart. He…
Army training helps Rolex Sydney-Hobart mates when the going gets tough
There’s no doubt the returned soldiers aboard Spirit of Mateship and Southern Excellence II are the kind of blokes you want around if things went horribly wrong – and for that matter, you want them for the good stuff too…
Forecasts for the “other” Christmas offshore races vary
Yesterday saw competitors for the Tassie Trio of races attend the compulsory pre-race briefing session. Discussion ranged across a variety of safety and procedural issues but was also the first indication of the likely weather. On the 26th December for…
Salt-water therapy keeps cancer survivor heading south to Hobart
Warwick Sherman never really wanted to do the Rolex Sydney Hobart. He’d done plenty of ocean racing, but bashing his way across Bass Strait to get to Tasmania just didn’t grab him. Perversely, all that changed when he was diagnosed…
'Coming home' for Victorian – via Launceston to Hobart Race
The 2014 Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race will have special significance for Melbourne yachtsman Richard Gates – culminating a return to yachting after a break of 30 years and sailing back to where he grew up. Gates, a Melbourne-based senior…
Rob and Scarlet's big adventure continues in Sydney-Hobart
Ocean sailors are daft; why else would you think it a good idea to take a modern ocean racing yacht around the world on her own bottom to compete in lots and lots of races, some thousands of miles long?…
Daryl Hodgkinson is looking for another Rolex watch
Hundreds of Australian sailors spend their lives trying to win the Tattersall’s Cup and the Rolex watch that goes with it; year after year they declare in Hobart that this was their last Rolex Sydney Hobart – definitely – for…
Sydney-Hobart spectator's guide to waypoints
When reading reports or listening to commentary of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race, you will hear key waypoints being passed. Here's what RSH navigators tick off as they head south. Montague Island The island is off the NSW south coast, 155…
Rolex Sydney Hobart – one race, many nations
Australia’s premier ocean race has always had an international flavour; Captain Illingworth, who started the whole Sydney Hobart thing was, after all, an Englishman. In the heyday of the great aluminium maxis, legendary boats like Nirvana, Kialoa and Condor of…
Martinez hands over the Mapfre reins to concentrate on Nacra 17 campaign
ALICANTE, Spain, December 19 – Iker Martínez (ESP) is stepping down for the next leg as skipper of MAPFRE in the Volvo Ocean Race to concentrate on a pre-arranged commitment to prepare for the 2016 Rio Olympics. His best friend…
Volvo steps up investment in Volvo Ocean Race
ALICANTE, Spain, December 19 – Volvo Cars has underlined its commitment to the Volvo Ocean Race as part of a radical new marketing strategy that was unveiled earlier this week. The company has backed the race and been joint owner of…
Clipper Race skipper to receive award for outstanding seamanship
The Cruising Club of America (CCA) has confirmed that its 2014 Rod Stephens Trophy for Outstanding Seamanship will be awarded to Sean McCarter, skipper of the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race Northern Irish entry Derry-Londonderry-Doire. The award is…
Chris Nicholson back on the reef to retrieve his Volvo boat
ALICANTE, Spain, December 18 – Team Vestas Wind skipper Chris Nicholson (AUS) has flown back to a remote Indian Ocean reef to help oversee a complicated operation to retrieve his stranded boat after it was grounded there during Leg 2…
Clipper Race to stop at Albany again in 2015
The City of Albany will host the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race for a second time when the longest and toughest ocean challenge on the planet for amateur crew reaches Western Australia in the tenth edition of the biennial…
Balancing the cost – Paul Clitheroe talks TP52 v Beneteau 45
Financial guru Paul Clitheroe calls all his boats Balance; as in balance sheet, balanced portfolio, bank balance and balance in life. This year he graduated from racing a Beneteau 45, a displacement, more or less family friendly cruiser/racer to a…
Rambler 88 and Bella Monte sign up for Les Voiles de St Barth 2015
With the recent launching of Rambler 88, George David (New York, N.Y./Newport, R.I.) is eyeing the next Les Voiles de St. Barth – scheduled for its sixth edition April 13-18, 2015 – as an early and critical step in getting…
How you can sail in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race
If you'll be sitting in front of the television screen on Boxing Day, wishing you were on board one of the 118 yachts heading south in the great race… you could easily do so in 2015. The Clipper Round the…
Early Sydney-Hobart forecast has Wild Oats crew anticipating “snakes and ladders”
With the early weather outlook for next week’s Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race indicating it will be a sometimes torrid all-round test over the 628 nautical miles, the highly experienced crew of race record holder Wild Oats XI is feeling comfortable but…
Andrea's 10-year love affair with Wild Oats XI
If you are into sailing in Australia you will probably know his name, and you will no doubt have seen his images hundreds of times. However, for the majority of sailors, putting a face to his name would be an…
GAC Pindar’s Volvo Ocean Race logistics challenge
All of the boats in the Volvo Ocean Race have now arrived into Khalifa Port and behind the scenes GAC Pindar’s logistics team ensured the original race village from Alicante was safely re-built in Abu Dhabi, 62 days and 11,672…
