Fastnet Race remains wide open
Whether to go inshore or offshore, how long will it take, will it be a big boat or small boat race, how to handle the powerful tides and will I need an anchor and an umbrella – the answers for…
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.
Twenty IMOCAs to start Fastnet Race
The 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race will bring together no fewer than 20 IMOCA monohulls on Saturday (including eleven foilers), at the start from Cowes in the UK with the finish in Plymouth after sailing via the Fastnet Rock in Ireland….
Vale Geoff Ruggles – one of two surviving men from first Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
Geoff Ruggles, one of two surviving crew members from the inaugural Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in 1945, died peacefully last evening aged 94. At 21, Geoff was the youngest of an otherwise older experienced crew on Wayfarer when they headed…
Trade wind forecast sets up idyllic Brisbane to Hamilton Island Yacht Race
Eighteen crews are set to tackle the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s latest offshore initiative, a 530 nautical mile race starting in Moreton Bay at 1100hrs this Friday, August 2, and finishing at Hamilton Island in the picturesque Whitsunday island group….
Gun Runner closes up fleet as Noakes Sydney Gold Coast wraps
The 2019 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast has officially drawn to a close, with the final boat in the fleet making her way to Main Beach this morning. The Army Sailing Club’s Gun Runner was the final boat to finish, at…
Winners return to the Rolex Fastnet Race
While the toughest competition in the Rolex Fastnet Race will be within the individual classes, the ultimate kudos comes from winning the Fastnet Challenge Cup, the outright prize for IRC corrected time for the world's largest offshore yacht race. The…
ORCV launches new series aimed at transitioning crews into ocean racing
In the midst of launching its new Category 3 event, the Coastal Sprint Series, aimed specifically at helping crews make the move into ocean racing, the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria (ORCV) is pleased to announce online entry is open…
Fleet flocks to Gold Coast as leaderboard takes shape
What was a jog for the first day and a half has turned into a stroll for the majority of the fleet still at sea in the 2019 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. On day three of the ocean…
Unique circumnavigation attempt postponed until 2020
Knocked in the Irish Sea down shortly after starting a circumnavigation that was to take in all major oceans including the Arctic and Antarctic, Norbert Sedlacek has decided to postpone his record attempt. This is the second time the Polish sailor…
Cuneo's crew the Envy of Sydney Gold Coast Race
A Queensland TP52 crew, who all compete in other classes and typically train the day prior to the start of each major ocean race, has earned the pinnacle of the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race silverware. Barry Cuneo’s TP52…
Rolex Fastnet Race – offshore racing's most successful class
In the 15 years since the Class40 box rule was unveiled, an unprecedented 169 examples from early racer cruisers, to fully wicked-up grand prix race boats have been built, making it the most successful 40 foot racing yacht of all…
Eleven Tasmanian yachts enter 75th Sydney Hobart
Champion Hobart yacht Philosopher this week became the eleventh Tasmanian entrant for this year’s 75th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. It is the biggest contingent from the state since the 50th edition of the bluewater classic in 1995, with the…
Wild Oats X claims line-honours title in Sydney Gold Coast Race
Late on Sunday July 28, 2019, Wild Oats X, the Oatley family’s Reichel Pugh 66 skippered by Mark Richards, took line honours in the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race for the third time – and on ‘Ricko’s’ birthday. Wild Oats…
Spectacular start to Sydney Gold Coast Race
The 76 boats raced out of Sydney Harbour in a 10 knot south-easterly wind that arrived just in time for the start with the Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats X leading David Gotze’s No Limit and Rupert Henry’s Chinese Whisper…
Notice of Race out for Sydney to Auckland Yacht Race 2021
The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron are excited to announce that the Notice of Race for the 1250nm Sydney to Auckland Ocean Race 2021 is now available. The race will start on Sydney Harbour…
IMOCA Globe Series: The new boats are coming…
The summer news is rolling in off the presses for the IMOCA skippers, some of whom are preparing to switch to race mode for the Rolex Fastnet Race, which will set sail at the end of next week. For others,…
Rolex Fastnet Race: Power and Passion – review of IRC Classes Three and Four
For the previous four editions of the Rolex Fastnet Race, the elation of overall victory has been enjoyed by a team racing a yacht of less than 40ft. In the 2013 and 2015 editions of the 605 nautical mile offshore…
All yachts in at Transpac 50
HONOLULU, HAWAII – With Jason Seibert's Schock 40 Gamble making it across the finish line this morning after a long passage of almost 11 days, the Transpacific Yacht Club can declare all boats have finished this year's 50th edition to…
Tricky conditions set to challenge strong Sydney Gold Coast fleet
The Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race fleet of 76 is setting up for a light-wind coastal race from Sydney to Southport, starting on Sydney Harbour tomorrow, Saturday July 27 at 1300hrs AEST. Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse shared…
Last wave of finishers see rough conditions in Transpac 50
HONOLULU, HAWAII – By sunset on Monday, only a handful of yachts were still at sea heading towards the finish in the 50th edition of the LA-Honolulu Transpacific Yacht Race, organized by the Transpacific YC. This day was overcast and…
Auckland Fiji Yacht Race to go ahead in 2020
The dates have been set for the next Royal Akarana Yacht Club major bluewater race, with the club sticking to tradition and racing from Auckland to Fiji. On Saturday May 30, 2020, a fleet of competitive yachts and multihulls will…
Red-hot battle forecast for start of blue water ocean racing
The biggest fleet in more than a decade, 11 TP52s and a very different upfront tussle for line honours among the 60-footers are just some of the anticipated highlights of the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race starting at 1pm…
Rolex Fastnet Race: Hot prospects in the big boat divisions
The weather will play a significant part in determining the overall results of the Rolex Fastnet Race. Winning your division is more within each team's control, and here we'll look at the top three IRC handicap categories in terms of…
Half the fleet are in with more to come in Transpac 50
HONOLULU, HAWAII – Mostly favorable weather conditions for this race and the staggered start paradigm has created for the 50th edition of the Transpacific Yacht Race what was intended: a flood of both fast and slow entries converging together on…
Unique circumnavigation attempt gets underway
After greeting the crowd this Sunday at 06:00 pm on the Vendée Globe pontoon in Les Sables d'Olonne, the Skipper Norbert Sedlacek motored down the legendary channel escorted by his team and many supporters’ boats, before setting out on his…
Finishers start pouring in at Transpac 50
HONOLULU, HAWAII – With the conditions on the race course remaining perfect, the first of a large wave of finishers has started to cross the finish line at Diamond Head in the 50th edition of the 2225-mile LA-Honolulu Transpacific Yacht…
Transpac 50: Rio 100 wins Merlin Trophy
With a finish time of 19:34:25 HST today, Manouch Moshayedi's Bakewell-White 100, Rio 100, has become the fastest monohull without powered performance systems to finish the 50th edition of the biennial 2225-mile LA-Honolulu Transpacific Yacht Race. In doing so, Rio…
Transpac 50: Comanche takes monohull line honours
Honolulu, Hawaii: After the same slow start that plagued all Saturday starters in the 50th edition of the LA-Honolulu Transpac, Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant's VPLP 100, Comanche, still managed to sneak out of the light air and get into…
Transpac 50: First multihulls in – Comanche on the way
Honolulu, Hawaii: After Jason Carroll's Argo crossed the finish line at Diamond Head last night 20:52:32 local time, only 29 minutes later Peter Cunningham's PowerPlay crossed the line, followed 6.5 hours later by Giovanni Soldini's Maserati, ending the rivalry between…
Argo first to finish Transpac 50
HONOLULU, HAWAII – After a slow initial start on Saturday, Jason Carroll and his team of Chad Corning, Thierry Fouchier, Anderson Reggio, Alister Richardson and Brian Thompson were able to push their MOD 70 trimaran Argo into the lead among…
Over 30 IMOCAs at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre
Whilst Alan Roura (La Fabrique) hurtles across the Atlantic in a bid to secure the singlehanded North Atlantic record (50 miles in front with 666 miles to go), the list of duos signed up for the Transat Jacques Vabre 2019…
82 teams press on, leaders past halfway point in Transpac 50
LOS ANGELES, CA – At about 2 AM PDT, a small crowd gathered at the docks of Windward Yacht Center to await the arrival of a 68-foot sailboat with 19 people aboard. This was 10 more than the nine they…
Charleston confirmed as Official Finish City of The Transat 2020
The city of Charleston and race owners OC Sport Pen Duick are pleased to announce that the 2020 edition of The Transat, the world’s oldest solo ocean sailing race, will finish in Charleston, South Carolina for the first time in…
All boats away in Transpac 50
LOS ANGELES, CA – With the breeze shifted far left in overcast skies due to a strong Catalina Eddy, the final wave of 24 monohulls and 4 multihulls in a record fleet of 90 yachts are now headed off the…
Second wave heads west in Transpac 50
Los Angeles, California: In gray but clearing skies and a light building sea breeze, the second wave of monohulls have left the start line at Point Fermin, to head to the Diamond Head, Honolulu finish line 2225 miles away in…
A busy summer for the IMOCA skippers
With 22 crews working on their boats to prepare for the Rolex Fastnet Race, which starts off Cowes on 3rd August, a lot is going on around the world in the IMOCA class, starting with the imminent launch of a…
Les Sables d'Olonne to host 2022 Golden Globe Race
Following the success of the 2018 Golden Globe Race, the Vendée City of Les Sables d'Olonne and its three-town Agglomeration have voted unanimously to host the next Golden Globe Race in 2022. At a meeting on July 5, the city’s…
Rolex Sydney Hobart entries reach 100
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) has announced a milestone 100th yacht has already entered this year’s 75th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, with the receipt of Marcus Grimes’ entry for Insomnia, a JV42 from Pittwater in NSW. Insomnia,…
First starters on their way in Transpac 50
LOS ANGELES, CA – On a classic So Cal summer day with the sun burning through the morning haze to help along a building seabreeze, the first wave of 33 monohulls and two multihulls set off for Hawaii today in…
The Race Around – double-handed in Class40
NEWPORT, Rhode Island (July 09, 2019) – Manuka Sports Event Management and 5 Oceans Sports Marketing announced today the beginning of a new era in Class40 racing: The Race Around. The Race Around is a double-handed around-the-world race with the…
