Profiles

The Stan Honey How-To

by Kimball Livingston, Posted February 3, 2011

The giant trimaran that holds the round-the-world sailing record, with the speed to hop from weather system to weather system, and the even larger—suddenly crippled—trimaran that is out there now trying to beat that record . . .“Are fragile,” says Stan Honey. “The premise is to build a china cup that is extraordinarily fast in flat water and 25 knots of breeze. You use the boat’s

Alessandro the Great

by Charles J. Doane, Posted March 10, 2011

Sailing around the world in a modified 21-foot Mini Transat 6.5 to set a world record for the smallest boat to circumnavigate non-stop is one thing. Doing the part around Cape Horn with a jury-rigged mast is quite another. In recognition of these impressive feats, the Cruising Club of America is awarding its Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy to Franco-Italian solo sailor Alessandro di Benedetto in a

Stanmore-Major Addresses Velux 5 Oceans Finish

by MacDuff Perkins, Posted March 17, 2011

The third leg of the Velux 5 Oceans race boasts the closest finish in solo racing history, with only 40 seconds separating the second and third place finishers. Zbigniew Gutkowski and Chris Stanmore-Major had been within eyesight of each other for much of the 3,500 nautical mile

Baptism by Boat

by JoJo Nielsen, Posted April 13, 2011

Often the traits of a good crew—teamwork, communication, responsibility, mutual respect—don’t top the list of traits associated with an average teenager. So what happens when you put eleven 16 t0 18 year-olds on a 50-foot Beneteau and send them off to sea for five weeks? I found out last summer, during a sail training program with Broadreach Academic Treks. From disaster to delight, I saw

A Q&A with Ryan Breymaier

by Adam Cort, Posted May 2, 2011

On April 10, American sailor Ryan Breymaier and his German teammate Boris Herrmann crossed the finish line on board the Open 60 Neutrogena in fifth place out of 15 boats in the double-handed Barcelona World Race—despite being relative newcomers to shorthanded offshore racing and sailing a relatively “old” boat, built in 2004.The 25,000-mile race begins and ends in the

Pier head jumper

by Tom Cunliffe, Posted April 6, 2009

I don’t know about you, but although I much prefer to go to sea with tried and tested buddies, there are times when I end up shipping out with total strangers. You’ve met the type. They might be those credible people you run into in a waterfront bar with a tale to tell. “There I was, and the waves were 40 feet high…” And so on. Then there’s the friend of a friend, which often turns out to be the

Case closed

by Sail Staff, Posted April 2, 2009

On June 6, 2008, the Cynthia Woods, a Cape Fear 38 owned by Texas A&M University-Galveston, was racing to Veracruz, Mexico, when her keel fell off and she capsized. Tragically, Roger Stone, the team’s safety officer, drowned after helping two students to safety.In late December, the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit (MSU) in Galveston, Texas, with guidance from the U.S. Coast

Speed machine

by Sail Staff, Posted April 2, 2009

Over the past two years an intense battle has been waged between Thomas Coville aboard his 120-foot G-class trimaran, Sodeb’O, and Francis Joyon aboard his equally massive tri, IDEC 2. While the two Frenchmen likely share laughs ashore, when they’re racing offshore they are at each other’s throats, with one skipper battling to best the other in setting unbelievably fast

Hats off to Mr. Wilson

by David Schmidt, Posted March 13, 2009

Rich Wilson, 58, of Marblehead, Massachusetts, became the second American to have completed the Vende Globe, an unassisted, non-stop, around the world race that’s fought out in wildly powerful IMOCA 60 monohulls — when he crossed the finishing line in ninth place aboard his trusty stead, Great American III on March 9, 2009. While Wilson finished weeks behind the overall winner, Michel

Chess master

by David Schmidt, Posted March 12, 2009

In Grand Prix circles, few jobs titles exert more pressure on their bearers than that of tactician. In 2007, Terry Hutchinson, then-tactician for Team New Zealand, felt just how heavy of a burden that title can be when his team lost a final America's Cup battle to Alinghi by a mere 1 second.Flash forward to 2008 and Mr. Hutchinson was back in force, first winning Key West Race Week about