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.
The 2020 TasPorts Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race (L2H) has attracted the biggest fleet since 2016, with 33 contenders including one Victorian and 32 Tasmanian teams including four teams from the north of the state. Derwent Sailing Squadron Race Director…
Kevin Escoffier, 40, who is racing in third place in the Vendée Globe solo non-stop around the world race, positioned some 550 nautical miles SW of Cape Town, has triggered his distress beacon. He was racing in a strong SW’ly…
At 0118hrs UTC the PRB Team was informed that their Vendée Globe race skipper Kevin Escoffier (PRB) has been rescued by fellow Vendée Globe competitor Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!). Escoffier had to abandon his IMOCA 60 PRB following…
Ever wonder how much work goes into preparing a yacht for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race – never mind a big boat that has just returned from Europe amid the COVID-19 pandemic? Peter Harburg had not…
Lorient, Friday, November 27, 2020 – After three days at sea on their first round the world record attempt, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, in agreement with Cyril Dardashti, the director of the five-arrow racing stable, have this evening taken…
Charlie Dalin, the Vendée Globe race leader, should pass the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope on Monday, the first of the legendary 24,296 nautical miles solo round the world course's’s three Great Capes. That his elapsed time since…
British skipper Alex Thomson's hopes of winning the Vendée Globe were dashed by damage to the starboard rudder of his IMOCA HUGO BOSS on Friday evening. This insurmountable problem occurred almost exactly one week after Thomson discovered extensive cracking to…
Lorient, thursday, November 26, 2020 – Since Tuesday evening, at 20:37 UTC on the dot, and their departure from the dock in Lorient to make for the start line off the north-west tip of Brittany, the pace has continued to…
At the same time as Alex Thomson euphorically announced this morning that ‘the BOSS is back’ after the British skipper completed four days and nights of structural repairs to the inside of the bow of HUGO BOSS, his French rival,…
As race leader Charlie Dalin starts to finally feel like he is on the threshold of the big south, where he will race for the first time in his life, his closest rival Thomas Ruyant reported damage to the port…
Charlie Dalin, Vendée Globe leader since yesterday morning, confirmed that he is in full ‘inshore mode, fighting for every metre I can gain’ as he tries to break through to the southern ocean low pressure train which should finally catapult…
Lorient, tueday, November 24, 2020 – Record hunting is not a bed of roses, but the many variables, which have inevitably been part and parcel of life for the Gitana Team and her crew since the start of standby, were…
Lorient, wednesday, November 25, 2020 – It’s all going on in the Jules Verne Trophy! For Gitana Team, the time has indeed come to cast off and make for the start line offshore of Brest. After a great deal of…
Lorient, wednesday, November 25, 2020 – Leaving Lorient shortly after 21:30 hours local time on Tuesday 24 November, the men of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild launched onto an express delivery trip up to Ushant and the start line for their…
The 76th running of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will be different this year with COVID-19 restrictions in place around the world, however, it has not diminished the quality of the fleet; the chase…
On a sequence of gybes stepping downwind underneath the Saint Helena high pressure system in the South Atlantic, Charlie Dalin (Apivia) became the new leader of the Vendee Globe this morning. He outmanoeuvred his close rival Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) and…
Lorient, Monday, November 23, 2020 – After a long weather briefing carried out remotely with the router Marcel van Triest, the entire crew of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild gathered alongside Cyril Dardashti, director of the five-arrow team, has taken…
British Vendée Globe skipper Alex Thomson has today been forced to slow his HUGO BOSS to a crawl as he attempts to make a technical repair to a longitudinal beam near the bow of his IMOCA. Thomson alerted his team…
Mischievous, amusing, sardonic, French veteran Jean Le Cam continues to light up the leading pack of the Vendée Globe who are slogging south-westward, beam reaching into choppy, slamming seas. Alex Thomson continues to lead the 32 boat fleet by about…
The complicated weather patterns of the first week, not least the high proportion of upwind sailing and multiple frontal systems, put to rest any hopes of the Vendée Globe’s 9 days 7 hours and 02 minutes passage record between Les…
While Nicholas Troussel is motoring slowly into a lumpy sea, his Vendée Globe abandoned after his mast was broken early yesterday morning, this afternoon in bright sunshine and light winds off Les Sables d’Olonne, Jérémie Beyou was resuscitating his own…
When the cannon fires 1300hrs Boxing Day, signalling the start of the 2020 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, a strong deputation of six Tasmanian entries inclusive of two previous overall winners will have their sights set on winning a trophy…
French skipper Nicolas Troussel, who was lying in seventh place in the Vendée Globe, has dismasted on CORUM L’Épargne this morning. He was racing south in brisk NE’ly trade wind conditions some 270 nautical miles NW of the Cape Verde…
This year's Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet includes just two 100ft supermaxis after Wild Oats XI and Comanche failed to enter by the deadline. The Oatley family has issued a statement, clarifying why the big silver boat will not be on…
As he leads onto the trade winds motorway down the Atlantic, between the Canary Islands and the Cape Verdes, British skipper Alex Thomson is expected to increase his lead at the head of the fleet as his foiling Hugo Boss…
Passing the Azores, some 100 miles to the east of São Miguel island, Britain’s Alex Thomson leads the Vendée Globe fleet this afternoon on Hugo Boss. He moved south away from his closest rivals on the water early this morning, choosing…
Jérémie Beyou, one of the Vendée Globe solo round the world race’s pre-race favourites has been forced to turn back to the start port of Les Sables d’Olonne in France after suffering a succession of problems including rudder damage…
Heading west this afternoon and encountering building winds, skippers of the many of the faster foiling IMOCAs are preparing themselves for an overnight pounding, set to last five or six hours, when they punch through an active weather front which…
France’s double Paralympic gold medallist and 2017 winner of the Tour Voile Damien Seguin leads the 33 boat Vendée Globe fleet as the early rankings favour a leading group of older generation IMOCAs as they race south westwards across the…
A sea mist shrouding the start zone off Les Sables d’Olonne held up the start of the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe, the solo non-stop round the world race, for nearly one hour and 20 minutes. But for…
Matt Donald and Chris Townsend’s Gweilo has held off six rival TP52s and a plethora of strong challengers to claim IRC victory in yesterday’s Blue Water Pointscore Bird Island Race. After a light, tactical start in Sydney Harbour 1000hrs Saturday…
Lorient, Friday, November 6, 2020 – As scheduled, since 1 November, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild and her crew have officially been on standby to set sail on their Jules Verne Trophy attempt. Moored in Lorient, her port of registry,…
The latest generation imocas will surely deliver a new Vendée Globe record time. The British skipper of Hugo Boss, Alex Thomson, suggested on Tuesday in Les Sables d’Olonne that a new time could be “between 59 and 70 days depending…
Following the positioning of the Antarctic Exclusion Zone, Race Direction of the Vendée Globe have confirmed the course distance for the imminent ninth edition of the race at 24,296 nautical miles, 44,996kms. The theoretical course distance in 2016-17 was 24,394…
Created by sailors, for sailors, Offshore Doubles' mission is to strengthen the community of sailors, events and boat classes who are already making Double Handed offshore sailing the fastest growing segment of the sport. Click here to join now for…
The starting cannon will be fired again on Boxing Day for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA) 2020 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The world-renowned 628-nautical-mile blue water classic will go ahead after a lengthy period of consultation with…
Short of space flight, a 40,000km non-stop singlehanded yacht race around the world represents one of the toughest human-mechanical challenges that can be undertaken. Sadly this often comes with a high attrition rate. Over the last eight editions of the…
I received this book in the midday post, immediately began reading, and did not stop until I had turned the last page. It is a book that will make you realise how small your perceived problems really are. And it…
November 2, 2020 – Los Angeles, CA – As of today, 8 months and 10 days in advance of the first start on July 13, 2021, there are 42 confirmed entries in the 51st edition of the Transpacific Yacht Club’s…
OPINION When the CYCA finally decided to enter the 21st century and allow double-handed entries in the 2020 Rolex Sydney Hobart, fans of short-handed sailing applauded. However, that applause has turned to anger with the announcement that double-handers won't be…
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