Ocean Racing

The Miracle Race

by David Schmidt, Posted November 4, 2008

The Vendee Globe is the real deal: A singlehanded sailor, a massively powerful, 60-foot canting-keel carbon-fiber racing shell with some of the fastest sails around, and Planet Earth. Solo. No assistance. Just the sailor, aboard his/her boat, taking on the world. What could be simpler?Obviously, “simple” is not a standard word used to describe the work list necessary to just arrive on the

Robo-boat

by Sail Staff, Posted May 7, 2009

A solo-transatlantic journey is no easy undertaking, but try doing it without any crew at all. A group of students from ETH Zurich in Switzerland are currently testing a fully autonomous sailboat that’s theoretically able to reach any destination on its own. At just over 13 feet LOA and 1100 pounds, the Avalon robotic sailboat will be competing against 11 other

Hummus the hard way

by David Schmidt, Posted August 24, 2009

So there we were last Friday evening, sitting on the rail of Tom Hill’s magnificent new Reichel/Pugh 75 Titan XV during the 2009 Ida Lewis Distance Race off Newport, Rhode Island, happily munching on carrots and hummus, when a curious thing happened: a torrent of saltwater exploded over everybody seated at the back of the sled. It happened so suddenly that all I could

Southern Straits Smashup

by Adam Cort, Posted April 7, 2010

This year’s Southern Straits race, held April 2 by the West Vancouver Yacht Club, was hammered by big winds and even bigger seas, which forced most of the fleet to retire and sent one boat to the bottom: the 30-foot custom racer Incisor.The race, which was marking its 42nd year, features a three separate course across the Strait of Georgia measuring between 58 and 127 nautical

Galley Gourmets

by MacDuff Perkins, Posted September 21, 2010

If the crew of an ocean racer sails on its stomach and a happy, well-fed crew is a skipper’s strongest asset, then the cook is as crucial as the navigator.We asked some competitors in this year’s Newport-Bermuda race how to keep a crew well fed and ready to go. All had years of experience provisioning for offshore racing, leading to as many galley philosophies as there were boats.On

Atlantic Cup Rounds Out Field

by Adam Cort, Posted April 6, 2011

Organizers of the inaugural Atlantic Cup have enlisted two more boats, bringing the fleet total up to five, just one shy of the number they had hoped for when the event was announced late last year.Set to take place May 6-14, the regatta will be held aboard Class 40 sloops—currently all the rage in Europe—and include both an inshore, fully crewed event and a double-handed 260-mile

BSL Leads the Global Ocean Race Fleet

by Meghan Dente, Posted September 26, 2011

Day two of the Global Ocean Race 2011-2012 proved a lively, welcome change from yesterday’s light air start in Palma Bay, Mallorca, Spain. Led by Ross and Campbell Field on BSL, the six double-handed Class 40s continue to race toward the Straits of Gibraltar, and eventually Cape Town, in an effort to complete the first leg of the five-leg, 30,000-mile journey around the globe. With

CAMPER Completes Leg 5 of Volvo Ocean Race

by Hilary Sharp, Posted April 17, 2012

After 31 days, brutal weather conditions and an endless stream of boat repairs, Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race has finally come to a close. The arrival of CAMPER in Itajai, Brazil on Tuesday marked the end of the longest stretch of the entire race, and arguably the most challenging segment up to this point.