Profiles

2008 World Sailors of the Year

by Kimball Livingston, Posted November 16, 2008

British Olympian Ben Ainslie, just days after competing in AC class racing in Valencia, has been named ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year at the 2008 ISAF General Assembly in the Spanish capital of Madrid. Ainslie won his third gold medal at the Qingdao Olympiad (he also has a silver in the Laser) with an overwhelmingly confident win in the Finn dinghy. Ainslie, 31, is the first

Solos

by Kimball Livingston, Posted September 12, 2008

Thirty years after the first Singlehanded Transpacific Race, there’s a grassroots, run-what-you-brung, let’s-celebrate-life spirit still thriving in West Coast shorthanded sailing. You won’t find any French celebrity sailors with million-euro budgets. Nobody’s out to beat the world; they’re out to beat their friends. But if you’re thinking pushover, you haven’t met those friends. Let’s pick just

The Racing Sailor's Menu

by Sail Staff, Posted August 27, 2008

Good nutrition can provide a performance edgeBy Carol M. BareutherThe optimal diet for a racing sailor depends on the kind of sailing being done and whether it requires more brainpower or brawn. Still, there are certain basic nutrition principles that apply to all competitors. Before the Regatta Carbohydrates are your body’s primary fuel and should

Sailing with Superman

by Sail Staff, Posted August 14, 2008

It’s November 9, 1999, and you’re sailing aboard USA-53, Young America, in the second round robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Conditions are a little breezy, maybe 18-20 knots of air with fairly large seas off Auckland, New Zealand. The boat seems capable and the crew is 100-percent dialed-in. But then a curious thing happens: In the midst of a tack, while pushed up by the

Ed Baird on the Fast Cats

by Sail Staff, Posted August 9, 2008

By Kimball LivingstonI wasn't far along with my project of the day, querying America's Cup helmsman Ed Baird about sailing these real fast multihulls he's racing nowadays, when he interjected, "A lot of my friends have been asking the same questions you're asking, and yes it's different but it's not so different. I grew up racing Lasers and the like, and when boards

Passages: Mark Rudiger

by Sail Staff, Posted July 21, 2008

On Thursday, July 17, 2008, Mark Rudiger passed away from lymphoma. He was 53 years old. Rudiger had battled the cancer for 4 years, and he had been doing well in his fight until the tide sadly changed a few months ago. Rudiger was a legend in offshore racing and navigating circles, having navigated 14 Transpac races and two Volvo Ocean Races, the later being the

The Master

by Sail Staff, Posted May 30, 2008

If you’ve ever been caught out Laser sailing in a serious squall, you have a taste of what it’s like to be completely self-sufficient in an over-canvassed boat, with the safety net of land feeling like an untrustworthy mirage. Now imagine that you’re alone in the middle of the North Atlantic, with land nothing more than a week-old memory, on a wildly powerful IMOCA Open 60.

2008 Eureka! Award

by David Schmidt, Posted January 28, 2008

A Q&A with Lou Varney, the brains behind Harken’s Pro-Trim Traveler and Rigtune Pro and winner of this year's SAIL FKP Eureka! AwardBy David SchmidtWhat is your professional background?I was originally a boatbuilder, and then I became a mast maker and a designer of high-end Grand Prix raceboat masts. What led you to think up the Pro Trim?I have

The Real Deal: The Truth About Racing Around the Planet

by Sail Staff, Posted November 21, 2007

It’s a rare coup when a world-class sailor also happens to possess great writing skills, as this is the winning ticket to capturing the true grit of offshore racing. When you start talking about premiere-level events such as the Whitbred/Volvo Ocean Race, or the Barcelona World Race (BWR), a double-handed, non-stop, around-the-world race, the number of people capable of participating is small,

The Accidental Pro: An Interview with Jonathan McKee

by David Schmidt, Posted October 31, 2007

For most dinghy sailors, co-skippering an Open 60 in the Barcelona World Race, a non-stop double-handed circumnavigation race via the three capes, would be a suicide mission. Luckily, Seattle based Jonathan Mckee, 45, isn’t your typical dinghy sailor: His resume includes three years on the All American College Team during his time at Yale, a Gold medal in Flying Dutchman in the 1984 Olympics,