Lorient is the Hollywood of ocean racing. Like the movie factory of Los Angeles, the Brittany port is a seemingly single-purpose town that draws dreamers. And just as Hollywood is La La Land, so Lorient attracts some of the most outlandish projects in sailing.

The La Ter river is dotted with small yachts bobbing on moorings, awaiting gentle adventures in the tiny creeks and sandy beaches of southern Morbihan. But the estuary’s north shore is different. This is home to the concrete wonderland of La Base, a former U-boat submarine base that is today’s epicentre of ocean racing. A walk around the pontoons here is a chance to window-shop the most extreme offshore technology.

Gitana’s team base is in prime position, a nearly 2,000m2 boat shed with Bond-lair-esque rolling walls to shutter its secrets. Since 2022 the work inside has been kept closed and confidential, but in early December the base was thrown open to unveil Gitana 18, the newest 100ft foiling trimaran.

The Y-foils cant on giant swinging arms

A passion for sailing

Gitana is the racing stable of the Rothschild family, a banking dynasty synonymous with generational wealth on an epic scale. Their passion for sailing has equally been handed down, and Gitana 18 marks 150 years of the family’s deep involvement in yachting, currently spearheaded by matriarch Ariane de Rothschild.

This history shapes the fundamental reason for building a new boat. Unlike most corporate sponsorships, Gitana 18 is not built to score column inches. She is not even entirely built to win. Gitana 17, the previous Ultim launched in 2017 and the first giant tri to take flight, has basically already won most things.

“What we’re doing here is really on another level, but it’s also going to be a risk,” explains project manager Sébastien Saison. “If we had wanted to be 100% sure that we’re going to win the next Route du Rhum in 2026 we would have gone safer. It would have just been a bit of an evolution. But we know that’s not the future.”

It was the opportunity to do something extraordinary that drove the project. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have had the chance to build a new boat.

The Y-foils also have two adjustable flaps

“Ariane de Rothschild was quite clear about it: if they invest, and if we are to do a new boat, it has to be disruptive. It has to be another level up,” recalls Saison.

“So it was part of the scope of work, to say ‘Okay, do a new boat, but show me you can do something really crazy.’ Obviously for a naval architect or an engineer, it’s always nice to hear! But we couldn’t have known at the beginning what we would have ended up with.”

So Gitana 18 isn’t just about collecting trophies. It’s about the creation of an epic. In pursuit of the two great achievements that eluded her predecessor – solo and crewed non-stop around the world records – it’s a boat built for experimentation on a grand scale. And that is why it looks quite so mad.

The 121ft mast can be bent underway using hydraulic rams around the spreaders

Full flight

The most obviously extraordinary things about Gitana 18 are the appendages. The goal of this boat is 100% air-time, flying across oceans at 40+ knots, and the resultant foils are phenomenal in both scale and shape.

While the previous generation Ultims have L-foils that plunge through their outer hulls before curving inwards, Gitana 18 sports giant T- or Y-foils on swinging arms that lift up between the crossbeams. Beneath the central hull is a huge ‘skate wing’ T-board. And most baffling of all are the rudders, which are like no other rudders seen before. They have a ‘U’ or A-frame shape with twin chords and a horizontal base plate.

The foils, which the team refer to as Y-foils, show a clear lineage from those on the AC75s, though Gitana’s will lift inwards to meet the Ultim maximum beam rule. Their wings span more than 5m, the bulb 2m long.

One key target is to enable the boat to take off earlier. Skipper Charles Caudrelier explained that the old Gitana needed to be sailing at around 22-24 knots to accelerate and take flight. These new foils could reduce that to less than 20 knots of boatspeed, in potentially as little as 10 knots of windspeed.

At the upper end of the range, cavitation is another problem they’ve worked to address. “When I reached 37 knots on Gitana 17, all the appendages started to cavitate. So that means lots of drag, and also lots of damage on the foils. They degrade very quickly. It’s a nightmare,” Caudrelier explained.

The radical A-frame rudders are deeper, thinner, but theoretically more resistant to deformation

“We pushed the limit with a second generation of foils up to 40-42 knots. But in surfing conditions sometimes you can’t stop the boat. You have a big wave, plus a gust, and you go to 45, 47 knots – and then all the boat vibrates, and you know you’re damaging them. You know that at the end of the race, you’ll have lost 10%, 20%, even 30% of the performance of the boat because of degradation. It starts to impact the paint. Then it goes through to the carbon. In the end, you can break the foil because you’ve lost skin on skin. At the end of the race around the planet, I was sailing at 70% of my performance in perfect conditions because the foil was completely destroyed.

“That’s also why we like canting foils because another problem before was that my windward foil was up, but it was hitting the water and damaged a lot in the elbow. By canting them, we can pull it up off the water and they’ll have no contact.

“We expect these foils to degrade much less. Then at the end of the race, we’ll still be at 100% – if we don’t meet a rock or a piece of wood. That’s a game changer.”

The in-house simulator was used to process vast amounts of data and help sailors visualise the boat’s behaviour

Minutely trimmed

The ‘skate wing’ T-board beneath the boat is now a massive, sculptural piece of metal (the team won’t disclose which one) which will be more resistant to this degradation. It is 30% bigger than the previous boat’s. The switch from carbon to metal is because, while metal is a little less efficient, it offers a better overall balance of stiffness against both torsion and bending.

The T-board version we were allowed to see (but not photograph) had a tattoo etched in the surface which will carry fibre optic sensors to measure how much this metal is contorting under the sea – just some of the 500 sensors Gitana 18 will carry (double the number on 17). Designer Guillaume Verdier described the boat as like a creature capable of telling its crew when it is in pain.

Cyril Dardashti, team manager; owner Ariane de Rothschild; and skipper Charles Caudrelier at Gitana 18’s grand unveiling. Photo: Marie Rouge/Gitana SA

The metal skate wing should also be more robust in case of collisions. The central bulb contains pinger technology to warn marine mammals of its approach.

The physics driving these foil shapes will require whoever is piloting to trim complex underwater interactions over multiple planes, often while sailing solo. This a very different prospect to a full-time flight controller minutely trimming the foils of an AC75 over a windward-leeward Cup course. The Y-foils alone can be canted, raked, and each wing has independently adjustable flaps on the trailing edges.

“You have to change the trim of the [foil] depending on sea state, because the sea state makes a big difference in speed,” explains Caudrelier. “So if the sea state is flat, the wing is horizontal. If the sea state is larger, we have to put it more vertical because it helps when the boat accelerates. The boat starts to fly higher because the foils lift more. Then part of the wing goes in the air, so the foils lift less.

“That is the game, which is very complicated.”

The grand unveiling. Photo: Marie Rouge/Gitana SA

The flexi-rig

Another tool at Caudrelier’s disposal will be the rig, shipped over from Southern Spars – the first the New Zealand builders have made for the Ultim class.

The 121ft spar is capable of impressive levels of flex. The problem, Caudrelier explains, is that when you are building speed and power to take off, particularly in lighter airs, you need camber in your rig. But when in flight mode you need it flattened off to depower.

The solution is a mast which can be bent, with the spreader angles flexing by up to 35° to create camber in the middle of the section. Rams control the power – one on each spreader – in a system which can be handled by a solo sailor, rather like cranking on the Cunningham on a dinghy or windsurfer rig.

Article continues below…

The ability to depower should also reduce the number of headsail changes or reefs required. “I can very quickly change the angle of the spreaders, then I can adapt my power to the wing and to the speed of the boat. That’s very, very fast,” notes Caudrelier.

Despite the intimidating forces involved, he says the rig is actually simple to handle. “But to do it on a canting wing mast, and such a big mast – that has never been done before. And how to manage it with only one guy on board? That took a lot of brain hours!”

Gitana 18 was moved under cover of darkness. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

Radical Rudders

Control is what led to the creation of the outlandish rudders, the most unique feature of Gitana 18. To improve steerage when flying at faster speeds, high above the waves, the team wanted to lengthen the rudders. The problem is that the huge loads they are subjected to, means they can deform, twist and shear, leading to sudden loss of control.

The new U-shaped rudders do not rotate – instead they have trailing edge flaps on each vertical chord, which provide steerage like an aeroplane wing. Each rudder also has a horizontal elevator, which in turn has an adjustable flap to control trim. This rigid structure enables the rudders to be much deeper – at over 4m they are a metre longer than on Gitana 17 – and resistant to cavitation. They are also thinner hence, somewhat counterintuitively given their shape, there is no drag penalty.

But they’ve never been made before. There has been no tank testing and no scale models built – just a lot of CFD and data analysis, and enormous trust in the process.

The problem, Saison explains, is that when you are designing something that has never been done, there is no data to work from. “When we started designing those rudders, the software for designing them didn’t exist. The simulator didn’t understand them and physically couldn’t calculate them. So in the same time as we’ve invented those rudders, we had to invent a new code for the simulator. We had to invent a new programme to calculate the structure. Obviously, those programmes are not as well proven as the one for the foils. So that brings another little level of stress.”

Caudrelier is confident. “On a car, you can have a super engine, but in Formula 1 today sometimes you lose a race because of your tyres. You can have the best car, but if your tyres are not good, you cannot be very accurate and you have to reduce your speed. It was exactly the same on Gitana 17. Sometimes we felt the rudders were overloaded. We knew that if we didn’t reduce the load, we were going to damage them, or it’s going to twist and we’d lose control. More control means you can push harder.”

The boat was precision built at CDK Technoloiges in Lorient, with up to 80% made in an autoclave. Photo: G Le Corre/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

Visualisation

Because this rudder shape had never been tried before, even the most high-tech autopilots weren’t suitable. So, in an ambitious side quest, Gitana developed its own. This also helped keep a project of such complexity top secret, in a town where everybody works in the same industry.

One key weapon was their in-house simulator. Derived from the Team New Zealand America’s Cup sim, Gitana has now developed an offshore foiling simulator tool like no other. Over three years Caudrelier says they ‘sailed’ for thousands of hours on it, initially verifying the vast data accumulated from eight years of optimising Gitana 17, and focussing on improving how the simulator handled variances of sea state.

Caudrelier explained: “Over the last three years, the improvement in the sim has been huge – because we’ve had no boat, we’ve spent hours and hours ‘sailing’ the simulator and developing it. Now it’s really accurate.
“Before it was just numbers and no sensation, no feeling. Now we can really test the foils, rudder, everything, and give our feedback to the designer. It’s completely changed the way we work.”

200,000 man hours have gone into Gitana 18’s construction. Photo: G Le Corre/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

The autopilot was subject to some eight months of daily testing. “It works like a helmsman,” Caudrelier enthuses. “It understands how the boat works, can adjust the height of the flight, can visualise the boat in 3D and anticipate its movements. In terms of performance, it’s amazing what we can achieve with it.” The major limitations will be what the class rules permit in terms of automation.

The cockpit of this 100ft goliath share some features with the latest IMOCAs, particularly Charlie Dalin’s Vendée winning Macif. Like Dalin, Caudrelier requested his living space be behind the working cockpit area. The cockpit is also fully enclosed. But once inside, what strikes you most are the irregular-shaped portholes punched through the roof and sidewalls. Gitana 18 is the first new trimaran built to meet the latest Ultim rule on visibility, and their positioning was created with Caudrelier to enable him to maintain a lookout, and view sail trim.

Sébastien Saison (left), Caudrelier (seated) and team discuss the finer details of construction mid-build. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

Anything goes

Gitana 18 was a year in conceptual development before build even began. The team adopted a ‘try anything’ approach, working with the most innovative and free-thinking designer of a generation in Guillaume Verdier. “The whole idea of the boat – and Guillaume loves working like that – is to say, don’t think about the problems now. Think about what would be the most crazy thing,” explains Saison. “The rudders are one example. If you say, ‘Oh, it’s going to be super complicated. How are we going to attach them to the boat?’ If you start thinking like that, you don’t do it.”

Verdier himself commented: “being so lucky to create such a work of art in a career is rare.”

While the project’s ambition was unlimited, that doesn’t mean the budget was, as Ariane de Rothschild explained: “When we work under tension and pressure is when we work better. So it’s very important to put in budget caps that are reasonable.”

Caudrelier (left) working in VR goggles to visualise the cockpit layout, sight lines etc.

But reasonable is relative. They will likely never disclose exactly how much this extraordinary project cost, but one team member did emphasise that their 30-person operation runs at quite a bit less than an America’s Cup campaign. Meanwhile the previous boat was listed for sale at €15million, so the answer likely lies somewhere in the very big space between €15million and €50million.

Far more important is what it can do. “The top speed, I think we’ll manage above 55 knots, which is a lot for a big boat. But that’s not what we’re looking for,” explains Saison. “What we’d like is to have average speeds above of 40 knots all the time.

“The around the world time is very hard to say because already on the previous boat, it was 35, 38 days. If you had perfect routing, I’m sure that the times would be just about 30 days now, but it’s never going to happen because of the weather. But if you can go at 40 knots average around the world, it would be 32 or 33 days.”

And that would be something truly extraordinary.

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The post The smartest boat ever built? 500 sensors, custom autopilots, and the future of foiling appeared first on Yachting World.

Today, Monday 26 January 2026, the eight-person crew aboard The Famous Project became the first all-female team to sail non-stop around the world.

Crossing the finish line between Ushant and the Lizard at 1200hrs, The Famous Project completed their non-stop circumnavigation in 57d 22h 20m after setting off on 29 November, 2025. This does not break any existing official records for the Jules Verne Trophy, but sets a groundbreaking benchmark time as the first successful all-female bid to complete the course.

Alexia Barrier and crew of The Famous Project CIC: Dee Caffari, Annemieke Bes, Deborah Blair, Molly LaPointe, Támara Echegoyen, Stacey Jackson and Rebecca Gmür Hornell. Photo: Lloyd / Jmliot Images / CIC

This is also the first time an all-female crew has sailed a maxi multihull around the world. The only previous all-female attempt on the record -– Tracy Edwards’ Royal & Sun Alliance – dismasted in the Southern Ocean. In total just 14 female sailors have ever attempted a Jules Verne Trophy circumnavigation.

The Famous Project was masterminded and skippered by former Vendée Globe sailor Alexia Barrier, together with British co-skipper Dee Caffari, and an international crew of Annemieke Bes, Rebecca Gmür Hornell, Deborah Blair, Molly LaPointe, Támara Echegoyen and Stacey Jackson.

They were sailing the former Idec Sport, the previous holder of the Jules Verne Trophy record at 40d 23h 30m – a record which was broken only yesterday by Thomas Coville and crew on Sodebo Ultim.

The Famous Project’s challenge

Idec Sport is a non-foiling maxi trimaran, and now a 20-year-old design. From the outset the crew were faced with gear troubles – including steering issues and mainsail halyard problems.

Later an entanglement with fishing gear caused damage and delamination to their starboard foil, so the team continued for the second half of their round the world voyage with the foil out of use. ““We went from 30 knots to 5 knots!” Alexia described the incident. “We put the boat in reverse and were able to remove the large net, but the foil remained stuck in the down position for a while.” It later transpired that the foil had been damaged beyond repair.

Their biggest blow came in late January, when their mainsail tore in half in strong winds. Although they managed to secure it to the second reefing point, 45-knot winds in Storm Ingrid further shredded the damaged sail, leaving them with little more than a headboard and the wingmast, plus headsails, for the final miles.

Under barely any mainsail, The Famous Project CIC aboard the IDEC Sport crosses the finish line off Ouessant after completing their Jules Verne Trophy non-stop crewed round-the-world record bid, in Brest on January 26, 2026. Photo: Lloyd / Jmliot Images / CIC

Despite being behind the outright record from early on their circumnavigation, and seeking shelter in the lee of islands at several points, the team never once suggested they were considering retiring. Though the bid has attracted some critics, their goal was unwavering: to become the first all-female Jules Verne Trophy challengers, and to set a benchmark time for the next.

Many of the Royal & Sun Alliance crew went on to become leading figures in ocean racing, and tens of thousands of collective miles of maxi multihull oceans racing experience have now been gained by the Famous Project crew.

The Famous Project’s Alexia Barrier and Dee Caffari,embrace after finishing the Jules Verne Trophy on January 26, 2026. Photo: Lloyd / Jmliot Images / CIC

History makers

Shortly before the finish, Dee Caffari posted a quote by former US President Theodore Roosevelt on Facebook: “It is not the critic who counts; not the one who points out how the strong woman [Dee’s edit] stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

“The credit belongs to the woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds..

“Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends herself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

See more at thefamousproject.io and we’ll report further when we hear from the crew.

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Thomas Coville’s Sodebo team crossed the virtual finish line between Ushant and Lizard Point this morning at 0746 (French time), after 40 days, 10 hours, and 45 minutes at sea, setting a new time for the fastest ever boat to sail non-stop around the world and claim the Jules Verne Trophy.

The Sodebo Ultim 3 – crewed by Thomas Coville with Benjamin Schwartz, Frédéric Denis, Pierre Leboucher, Léonard Legrand, Guillaume Pirouelle – completed the circumnavigation 12 hours and 44 minutes faster than Francis Joyon’s long-standing previous record, which was held by IDEC Sport since 2017.

Sodebo’s record speed

The team sailed 28,315 miles non-stop at a jaw-dropping average speed of 27.17 knots.

Thomas Coville and crew, approach the Jules Verne finish aboard the Trimaran Sodebo Ultim 3 – recent damage to the starboard rudder casing is visible caused during Storm Ingrid. Photo: Lloyd Images / Sodebo

After setting off from Ushant, they reached the Equator in just 4 days and 4 hours, and the Cape of Good Hope in just under 11 days.

Sodebo rounded Cape Leuuwin, having sailed half way around the planet, in 17 days and 1 hour – at that point having maintained an average speed of 32.1 knots since the start.

They crossed the Pacific in just 7 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes — taking three hours off the previous fastest time set by François Gabart (subject to WSSRC validation). And on the return leg, they were 20 hours and 49 minutes ahead of Idec Sport at the Equator crossing.

Thomas Coville and his crew, Benjamin Schwartz, Léonard Legrand, Frederic Denis, Pierre Leboucher, Guillaume Pirouelle, Nicolas Troussel, aboard Sodebo Ultim 3 off Ouessant, celebrate after winning the Jules Verne Trophy on January 25, 2026. Photo: Lloyd Images / Sodebo

By that point they had already sailed nearly 2,000 miles further than IDEC Sport, and had maintained a blistering average pace of 29.9 knots since the start.

They team were still on course to break the symbolic 40-day barrier until the final miles, when Storm Ingrid forced them to take a westerly course and slow the trimaran in a potentially boat-breaking sea state.

Apart from the loss of a rudder casing, they got through Storm Ingrid relatively unscathed and were able to get back up to 30-knot speeds for the final approach to Ushant, crossing at 0746 this morning.

Thomas Coville record breaker

Skipper Thomas Coville. Photo: Team Sodebo

Thomas Coville has dedicated his life to the pursuit of incredible round the world records.

A truly extraordinary human being, Coville is not only remarkably skilful, brave and resilient, he is also an erudite philosopher who brings an incredible energy and curiosity to everything he does.

He has twice set a Jules Verne record as crew — with Olivier de Kersauson in 1997 on Sport Elec (71 days), and the second in 2010 with Franck Cammas on Groupama 3 (48 days).

In 2016 he set a non-stop solo circumnavigation record after a decade of attempts.

In 2019 he launched his new Sodebo Ultim 3, with the goal of becoming the fastest boat ever to sail around the world — see more about the remarkable boat and watch our exclusive video tour.

Over the past six years the Sodebo team have made three attempts at the Jules Verne, sometimes in a ‘race’ with other Ultims, sometimes alone. Each was thwarted by damage as the Ultims – fully foiling, at the very bleeding edge of offshore technology — suffered breakdowns and damage. This is also the first time an Ultim has sailed non-stop around the world.

So remarkable was IDEC Sport’s time, that in total there have been 13 attempts at the record since, but all others had failed.

The Ultim Sodebo filmed by drone by the team in the Southern Ocean shows the extreme speed. Photo: Leonard LeGrand/ Team Sodebo

Despite starting in an optimum weather window, the Sodebo crew did not have an easy circumnavigation: the position of the St Helena High meant they had to add precious extra miles to their route in the South Atlantic, avoid rogue ice in the Southern Ocean, and withstand 40-50 knot winds as an Atlantic depression, known as ‘Storm Ingrid’ stood between them and the finish line.

However, Sodebo’s outright speed also saw the crew set two passage records (Ushant-Equator and the Pacific Ocean) and establish benchmark times at each ‘Great Cape’ (Good Hope, Leeuwin, and Horn).

Coville signed off his final onboard update yesterday , as Sodebo hurtled through the remnants of Storm Ingrid — with the record not yet secure, saying “Know that on the other side of Biscay there are seven guys out here having a blast and dreaming of sharing it with you!”

Creac’h lighthouse, the Jules Verne record’s finish line, is passed by Sodebo on January 25, 2026. Photo: Lloyd Images / Sodebo

Long-standing support

Coville has been supported by Sodebo, a family-run food company that has a huge presence on the French offshore racing world, since 1998. Co-president Patricia Brochard was one of thousands who turned out to welcome Coville and crew back into Brest:

“It’s an intense joy, a mix of relief and excitement,” she said as they finished.

“It’s the culmination of the wonderful story we’ve been writing together for 27 years with Thomas (Coville). What we love is seeing men and women united around a common project, with unwavering determination.”

We’ll report further with the sailors’ reactions once we have them.

The post Around the world record broken: Sodebo takes Jules Verne Trophy in 40d 10h 45m appeared first on Yachting World.

The two teams making Jules Verne Trophy attempts have both faced damage to their trimarans in their final approaches to the finish line off Ushant, northern France.

Thomas Coville’s Sodebo is this afternoon, Saturday 24 January, just 400 miles from the finish line and more than 470 miles ahead of the record pace set by Francis Joyon on Idec Sport in 2017. They are expected to finish around 0700 tomorrow, Sunday 25 January, and are currently on course to break the around the world non-stop record.

However, it will truly go to the wire and the record is likely to be broken by hours, rather than below the 40-day barrier.

Rudder damage for Sodebo

Yesterday the Ultim Sodebo sailed through winds of 40-knots while tracking around Storm Ingrid, sailing under J3 and a reefed mainsail, intentionally making slow progress to the north rather than sailing at a reaching angle – around 90° becomes a ‘no go zone’ in these conditions for the Ultim trimarans.

Despite nursing the boat in atrocious sea states, the team sent photos of the starboard rudder sleeve ripping off, the carbon shredding under force.

The starboard rudder casing can be seen shredding in the rough seas. Photo: Team Sodebo

In the team update they explain that, although dramatic, the damage should luckily have little impact.

“This incident could have affected the rudder and steering system, but fortunately the robustness of the systems allowed the steering system to remain intact. Only the rudder trim tab is lost.

“In the evening, the sleeve detached from the boat, seemingly without causing any further complications.”

Skipper Thomas Coville added: “We had a hell of an encounter with Ingrid, with gusts of over 50 knots and 8 to 10-meter swells.

“The last 36 hours have been the most difficult and longest of this attempt: we’ve damaged more things than during the entire round-the-world voyage.

“A breaking wave ripped off a support that allowed us to raise and lower the rudder, and we’re lucky because it’s still operational. Naturally, this adds extra tension and stress on board.

“Were working hard to find the physical, technical, and mental resources. This is what the crew is doing perfectly, just like the shore team that prepared the boat.”

This afternoon the boat was back up to 30-knot speeds.

Follow at https://sodebo-ultim3.sodebo.com where there will be live updates as the team approaches the finish tomorrow, with a live video broadcast of their arrival.

Famous Project loses mainsail

Meanwhile the all-female team The Famous Project are continuing on their non-stop around the world voyage despite having completely lost the use of their mainsail.

The Famous Project, skippered by Alexia Barrier together with Dee Caffari, is not in the running for an all-out circumnavigation record, but have committed to setting a benchmark time as the first all-female crew to complete the non-stop around the world lap.

The Famous Project is currently around 800 miles from the finish, mostly sailing under bare wingmast and headsail alone. The mainsail of their giant trimaran initially tore at the second reef — a setback, but manageable given the strong wind conditions they faced in Biscay. However, the mainsail then ripped from luff to leech, leaving it unable to be hoisted, and the crew were reliant on the power generated by the giant wingmast, together with a headsail.

“We are sailing with just the headboard of the mainsail plugged in and the mast (the rotational mast is 30 square metres on its own,” Caffari explained on Facebook.

After some reconfigurations, she then updated today: “The final stretch is getting smaller. We survived the storm conditions and now enjoy a slight respite for a few hours.

“In this time we have looked at how we can make best use of the sails we have available. We now have the head of the mainsail hoisted as a reef it never knew it had and the J2. This is giving us some better and more consistent boat speeds. This afternoon we will see an increase in wind but with the right angle we can make use of this with our limited sail area.

“Tomorrow will test us once more with wind and waves but we have handled it once, we will not be beaten by it now!”

The trimaran, which was formerly Idec Sport, has also lost the use of its starboard daggerboard and both autopilots have ceased functioning. Follow their progress at https://thefamousproject.io/

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Thomas Coville and his crew on the Sodebo Ultim 3 trimaran are less than 1,000 miles from crossing the finish line of the Jules Verne Trophy, and are currently more than 600 miles ahead of the record time set by Idec Sport in 2017.

Coville and crew must cross the finish line before 2031 on Sunday, January 25 to beat the coveted non-stop fully crewed around the world record of 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds.

But over the next 24-48 hours, the crew could yet face their biggest challenge yet with a huge winter low pressure system – named Storm Ingrid – in the North Atlantic.

“A very large winter storm is coming our way and will accompany us all the way to the Bay of Biscay,” explained skipper Thomas Coville in an update from the team today. The systems is expected to produce winds of over 40 knots, gusts up to 50 knots, and “swells of over 10 meters,” he adds.

The Ultim Sodebo filmed by drone by the team in the Southern Ocean shows its extreme speed, even in larger sea state. Photo: Leonard LeGrand/ Team Sodebo

Sodebo’s Jules Verne attempt

This is by far the most successful record bid ever by a foiling Ultim trimaran, following repeated attempts by Sodebo, Gitana 17 and SVR Lazartigue over the past six years. All of those previous attempts ended less than halfway around the world after the boats suffered damage or collisions with underwater objects.

In passing the Azores, Sodebo’s circumnavigation has also become the longest non-stop around the world passage by an Ultim – Charles Caudrelier sailed Gitana 17 solo around the world in the Arkea Ultim Challenge in 2024, but made a brief stop in the Azores when he faced an impassable system in Biscay with potentially boat-breaking sea states.

Approaching the final North Atlantic stage, Coville and team have maintained an advantage they have held almost continually – albeit narrowly at times – since setting off at 2101hrs on Monday 15 December, 2025.

Skipper Coville explained at departure: “It’s a very good North Atlantic window, the likes of which we haven’t seen for a very long time. It allows us to make a great track.”

Skipper Thomas Coville onboard during the 2025/26 Sodebo Jules Verne record attempt. Photo: Team Sodebo

Despite optimum conditions, they were just a few hundred miles ahead of the 2017 record, set by Francis Joyon on Idec Sport, for most of the Atlantic – demonstrating just how tough Idec’s benchmark time would be to beat.
However, just four days and four hours after setting off, Sodebo crossed the Equator, setting a new record for the first section (set by Spindrift 2 in 2019).

Despite having to take a westerly route around the St Helena High, the South Atlantic saw them rapidly build their advantage to 800-plus miles over Idec Sport, extending to 1200-miles by the Cape of Good Hope. Again, they set a new record time, rounding the Cape after just 10 days and 23 hours (this one beating the record set by Gitana Maxi Edmond de Rothschild in 2021) on Boxing Day.

The foiling Ultim is capable of maintaining average speeds of 30-35 knots and beyond. Photo: Team Sodebo

Fighting for every mile

Tricky conditions in the Indian Ocean saw that lead eroded almost completely, dropping to just 250 theoretical miles around the Kerguelen islands. They passed Cap Leeuwin less than 200 miles ahead of Joyon, but still set another record on the way.

“They didn’t gybe once during the entire crossing of the Indian Ocean,” recalls Sodebo co-skipper/navigator Benjamin Schwarz, comparing their routing to Idec Sport’s. “We’ve already done 19 gybes since the Cape of Good Hope, and there are about ten more to go to Tasmania!”

The Sodebo team dropped further and further back as they traversed south of Australia, briefly falling behind the record as they passed the longitude of New Zealand.

In the Pacific, they began to regain some of those lost miles – regularly sailing at 35+ knots to overtake the record pace again. Sodebo set a third benchmark time rounding the last ‘Great Cape’ of Cape Horn, with nearly an 11-hour advantage over Idec.

The return up the South Atlantic was another game of snakes and ladders, Sodebo gaining and losing hundreds of miles over the record time before crossing the Equator on 19 January.

The Sodebo team has set new benchmark times at all three Capes and both Equator crossings. Photo: Team Sodebo

Finding the boat’s limits

In a daily update, the team explained their strategy for contending with Storm Ingrid: “The goal is to continue sailing upwind as long as the wind and sea conditions allow. Routing is being adjusted to force us further west whenever possible. The idea is to create more leeward space so we can sail downwind when the wind and sea are at their strongest.

“While we’ll discover the boat’s behaviour and limits in these conditions, we believe that sailing beyond 110-120° TWA is definitely safer than sailing at 90° to the wind.”

The team press release also notes that these conditions are ones which “the boat has never encountered, but for which it was designed”.

Wind conditions in the North Atlantic for Sodebo (yellow) on Friday 23 January. Red is the Idec Sport benchmark record time. Image: Sodebo team tracker

Coville, who has previously held the solo non-stop around the world record, is sailing with Benjamin Schwartz, Frédéric Denis, Pierre Leboucher, Léonard Legrand, Guillaume Pirouelle and Nicolas Troussel.

You can follow the team’s record bid on their superb tracker at sodebo-ultim3.sodebo.com

The post Will the Jules Verne record be broken? Final 1,000 miles for Sodebo – but brutal Biscay conditions expected appeared first on Yachting World.

After months of tumbleweed, there has been a flurry of America’s Cup news from both organisers and teams.

Ahead of a gathering today between the five ‘founding teams’ of the new America’s Cup Partnership in the host city of Naples, the British squad got their news out first this morning.

Sir Ben Ainslie’s team – the Challenger of Record, representing the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes –  revealed their new name GB1, complete with patriotic red, white and blue styling.

GB1 also confirmed that Dylan Fletcher, Olympic gold medallist, SailGP reigning champion helmsman and Ainslie’s co-helm in the 37th Cup will return to helm for the 38th America’s Cup.

No surprises there – although also no word on who’ll be sitting on the opposite wheel. Ainslie has mentioned in several interviews that he may not be back in an active sailing role – but equally nor has he definitively ruled it out.

Eyes on the prize… Dylan Fletcher will helm GB1 in the 38th America’s Cup. Photo: Ian Roman/GB1

British America’s Cup talent

Ainslie, whose official job title now is Team Principal for GB1, said in today’s news release: “GB1 is delighted to secure Dylan as our helm for AC38.

“He has worked extremely hard to earn the seat, and his results on the water don’t lie. Olympic and SailGP champion, and an America’s Cup finalist all in the space of five years, these are no mean feats and highlight his absolute dedication to performance on the water.”

Fletcher said: “I’m buzzing to be back in the America’s Cup with the British Challenger. Reaching the final last time out was a great achievement for the team, but getting so close drives us on even more.

“I know how committed the whole organisation is to winning the Cup for Britain. There is a huge amount of work to do, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

Fletcher, Ainslie and team mates celebrate winning the Luis Vuitton Cup as INEOS Brtannia in the 37th America’s Cup. Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Ainslie’s phrase ‘delighted to secure’ is unlikely to be accidental. With the loosening of the nationality rule in the AC38 Protocol (the so-called ‘Burling clause’ which enabled the three-times Cup winning helmsman to move from New Zealand to Italian Challengers Luna Rossa), and the recent flurry of ‘athlete transfers’ in SailGP, locking key team members in will have been a big focus for all teams.

One such transfer was Iain ‘Goobs’ Jensen – a key member of the INEOS Britannia British America’s Cup squad, as well as wing trimmer for the season winning Emirates GBR SailGP team (also run by Ainslie and helmed by Fletcher). He has since departed the British SailGP team for Slingsby’s Australian team.

British Youth Team applications open

Again, no surprises that Hannah Mills has been confirmed as helm for the second edition of the Women’s America’s Cup and Team Principal for the British women’s and youth Athena Pathway Programme.

Today in Naples Mills also opened the British application process for the Youth Team – they’re looking for talented, high potential sailors born between 1 July 2001 and the 1 July 2008. See the application criteria here,

Who’s backing the British Cup team?

The fact that the two British squads have two different identities – GB1 and Athena Pathway, albeit both under the ‘Athena Sports Group’ – points to their different funding.

Just before Christmas, the team revealed that the America’s Cup Challenge had secured majority ownership investment from Oakley Capital, a private equity firm headed up by businessman and yachtsman Pete Dubens – who was also one of the founding backers of Ainslie’s first ‘BAR’ America’s Cup challenge for AC35.

Oakley Capital also own North Technology Group, which includes North Sails and Southern Spars, as carried by every AC75 and AC40.

In November, former North Sails UK manager Ian Walker was appointed CEO of Athena Racing (as it was known then). This also raises the question of, whether freed from the conflicting demands of being CEO, team boss and skipper, Ainslie might find his role is once again back in the sailing team…

Ian Walker and Sir Ben Ainslie as Walker joins Athena Racing (now GB1)

In an interview with The Times today, Ainslie revealed that he had personally funded the team for 14 months following the acrimonious fall-out with previous backers INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

With the rebrand, GB1 is not currently carrying a title sponsor at all, but it’s understood they are still very much looking for commercial partnerships.

Interestingly, the Women’s and Youth seems to have been an easier sell – Ainslie told me months ago that they had secured funding for the Athena Pathway programme, and Mills’s squad has backing from another private equity firm, Advent, and defence/technology company Cobham Ultra.

Naples’ impressive history was on show as organisers and teams gathered on January 21, 2026 to confirm the dates of the 38th America’s Cup. Photo: Ian Roman / AC38

Bringing in backers

Despite the oft-repeated message that the new ACP is all about financial security, the Brits aren’t the only team who are yet to carry full title sponsorship.

Today Cup defenders New Zealand confirmed that their title sponsor will be airline Emirates, who have renewed their partnership for an impressive fifth Cup cycle. And the Swiss entry is titled Tudor Team Alinghi (having apparently dropped the Red Bull F1 tie-in from AC37).

However, the Italian entry is currently simply ‘Luna Rossa’ and the French ‘K-Challenge’.

As part of today’s official event at Naples, though, Louis Vuitton was confirmed as title sponsor for the 38th America’s Cup event.

Founding members of the America’s Cup Partnership (ACP) and title sponsor Louis Vuitton at Palazzo Reale in Naples. Photo: Ian Roman / America’s Cup

When is the 38th America’s Cup?

The other major announcement in Naples was confirmation that the Cup Match will begin on Saturday July 10, 2027 and will be wrapped up by 17-18 July 2027.

There is no word yet on the dates for the Challenger Selection Series.

This follows last week’s confirmation that the first preliminary regatta of AC38 will take place in Cagliari, Sardinia, on 21-24 May 2026 in the one-design AC40s.

The ‘shoulder season’ prevailing winds in Cagliari at that time of year could make for some spicy sailing conditions. Up to 10 races are planned over four days, with the top two teams then racing in a deciding winner-takes-all single match.

Up to three Preliminary events may be held in 2026 – we’ll report on any further date and venue announcements.

The post 38th America’s Cup Match dates set – and Dylan Fletcher back on the helm for British team appeared first on Yachting World.

Back in 1985 Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin, and a world-famous pop star was airlifted off his capsized yacht when Drum – belonging to Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran fame – turned over during the Fastnet Race. It was, in every respect, a very different time.

That autumn sailor and author Jimmy Cornell arrived in the Canary Islands on assignment for Yachting World (in those days a print magazine only, of course), tasked with finding sailors about to set off on an Atlantic crossing. Cornell had four years previously completed his own circumnavigation with his young family while also recording radio content for the BBC World Service. He not only found plenty of sailors to interview, but realised he had stumbled across a whole community.

“I was contributing articles based on our recently completed world voyage to Yachting World when [then editor] Dick Johnson asked me to fly to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria to interview some skippers on their expectations before the Atlantic Crossing – and then fly to the Caribbean and try to find some of the same skippers to interview them on completion of the Atlantic passage,” Cornell recalled.

“However, while I was in Las Palmas I was seeing five or six boats leaving the marina every day, setting off on the long voyage across the Atlantic, the waving and tears of friends… and the following day witnessing the same scene again, I decided that surely somebody should get all these separate people into one group motivated by a sense of togetherness?

“I flew to the Caribbean, met some of those I’d met in Las Palmas, and each agreed a rally idea was something they’d have gladly joined. Back in London, I spoke to Dick about it and he thought it was indeed a very good idea.

“The ARC was launched at a party in St Katharine Docks. Soon after Yachting World hit the stands, letters started arriving at my address – hundreds of them. And in late November 1986, 209 boats left for Barbados in the first ARC.”

Liferaft demonstrations. Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC

That first ARC rally was, Cornell says, “Certainly the first properly organised trans-ocean sailing event.”

“A group of French cruising boats had been brought together for an Atlantic crossing named Le Transat des Alisées. People arrived when they felt like it, and it all looked like the proverbial attempt at herding cats. But I could see the potential of organising a proper sailing event with its own structure, rules and regulations, and an absolute stress on safety. That format was applied the following year.

“Before the start all boats had been inspected for their seaworthiness and all essential safety equipment was checked. That structure, which I’d laid down in those early days, has been followed to this very day in the ARC, and has been adopted by countless other rallies.”

The ARC is not just for sailors aiming for a fast crossing – families go too. Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC

Trailblazing concept

The first ARC rally saw sailors from 24 countries sail from Las Palmas to Bridgetown, Barbados. A Yachting World Trophy for the first yacht to arrive in Barbados was awarded to a 54ft trimaran, while the winner of the Jimmy Cornell Trophy for the best performance by a family crew (parents plus child) was won by a 31-footer from Finland – a results sheet that could easily still be seen today. But over the years, the ARC has evolved.

Inevitably, sending a couple of hundred yachts across the ocean on the same course meant that some crews saw the crossing as a competition, and in 1989 a Racing Division was introduced, using the Channel Handicap System (CHS). These days the race fleet is handicapped under IRC, with the key difference from the main fleet being they’re not permitted any engine hours.

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Cornell always resisted turning the rally into a race. “I made sure there was always a so-called racing division in the ARC, and that the rest of the fleet, which formed by far the majority, were not actually competing.

“I still believe that the main attraction of the ARC was the sense of camaraderie and the safety in numbers it provided. I find it very irritating to read that some boat had ‘won’ the ARC. My attitude all along was that everyone who took part in the ARC was a winner.”

A support system has developed around the ARC in Las Palmas, including marine services such as the Rolnautic boatyard and Alisios rigging company, and everything from grocery companies that will deliver to the dock to a pharmacy that can kit out offshore medical kits. Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC

Linking events

After four years of finishing in Barbados, Saint Lucia became the 1990 destination port, and Rodney Bay has been the rally’s Caribbean home ever since. Connecting rallies were also established – the ARC Portugal in 1995, taking a fleet across the Bay of Biscay and down the Portuguese coast. An east-bound transatlantic rally, the ARC Europe, began in 2000, bringing ‘returners’ home and giving an option for US-based cruisers. And an Atlantic-with-stops ARC+ rally, sailing to Grenada via Cape Verde, has proved popular with family crews since it was introduced in 2013.

Following on from Cornell’s Europa round the world rallies, which he began in 1991, a circumnavigation was also introduced in 2008 and the World ARC now sets off every year.

World Cruising Club (WCC), the organising company behind the event, was established in 1987. Cornell remained associated with the event for many years, though Andrew Bishop and his team, including Jeremy Wyatt, held stewardship for the longest period and oversaw a great deal of expansion and modernisation.

ARC routes for Atlantic crossings

Today WCC is owned and run by Paul and Suzana Tetlow together with a small, dedicated team out of Cowes in the UK. At events the team is bolstered by an army of the famous ‘yellow shirts’, many of whom have themselves been involved with the event for years. Bones Black was this year on the scrutineering team, having sailed the ARC many times with his wife, Anna, when they ran charter yacht Emily Morgan.

The ARC formula has since been emulated by other event organisers, with rallies now running in locations as varied as Tasmania and the Amazon River, of varying levels of formality. The round-the-world format has also been adopted by some big brands, with Oyster Yachts and Grand Large Yachting creating multi-stage rallies exclusively for their own marques.

80s fancy dress party time ahead of the start. Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC

Scaling up

This year 145 yachts set off from Las Palmas on the ARC, with a further 56 departing on the ARC+ two weeks previously. The biggest ever ARC year was the 30th anniversary in 2015, which saw 268 yachts cross in the two rallies.

Though overall numbers may now be slightly down from the peak, the marina in Las Palmas is almost equally full, reflecting the increase in size of yachts taking part, and the relentless rising popularity of multihulls. While a decade ago the rally could house over 220 boats in the start port, it is now maxed out at 175 because multihulls require two finger pontoon berths or a hammerhead to moor on.

The Bowman 57 Emily Morgan continues its run of ARC crossings, now under new ownership. Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC

The shift was consolidated some six years ago when the first boats home in both the ARC and ARC+ rallies were multihulls for the first time – both beating larger, racier monohulls. The proportion of multihulls has maintained a steady average of 30-40% in recent years, with a notable proportion of new boats in the fleet being catamarans or trimarans.

Bigger boats

Monohulls taking part have also undeniably got bigger. The largest yacht in this year’s fleet was the 100ft Wally Vantanera, while the brand with the most boats in the ARC was Oyster, with 12 50-footers or larger, many heading across the Atlantic en route to their own Oyster World Rally, which begins from the Caribbean in January. On the big boat dock, they were joined by two Spirit 72s, as well as larger yachts from Swan, Baltic, Contest and more.

The increased size of boats in the fleet is something Dan and Emily Bower can attest to. They run the Oyster 62 Skyelark II as a charter yacht, having previously owned Skyelark of London, a 51-footer. They’ve taken part in every transatlantic since 2008, apart from the ones in which they were taking part in the World ARC.

Despite the fact their own yacht has upsized they’ve noticed that relatively speaking they’re no longer one of the biggest boats in the fleet.

Charter crew with Dan and Emily Bower on Skyelark II. Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC

“When you’re allocated your number, it’s based on how big your boat is. And every year our number would just go up and up and up!” recalls Emily.

The Bowers find that the ‘bucket-list’ nature of an Atlantic crossing draws many new clients, who discover their pay-per-berth ARC crossing as a way of ticking off a lifetime ambition.

“Usually a life event has happened that triggers it, it might be a career break or a retirement present,” says Dan.

But Skyelark has also taken part in dozens of other WCC rallies – after a Caribbean season this winter, they’ll return via the ARC Europe, before heading north to hook into the ARC Baltic. The advantages are wide-ranging – the reassurance of a nearby fleet for their clients, administrative support for Dan and Em. “And honestly, now a lot of the issue is around berthing,” points out Dan. “It’s getting harder to get, as boats are getting bigger, and the ports aren’t investing. And the rally has more clout.”

Start of the first ARC in 1986. Photo: courtesy of WCC archives

Anniversary returners

However, there are still many smaller family boats making the crossing. The Sage family first sailed their Moody 44 Ocean Strider across the Atlantic in 2005 with the 20th anniversary ARC. This year Joseph Sage, and his grown up children, Matthew, 34, Elizabeth, 31, and Victoria, 29, will make the crossing again in the same yacht – though sadly without wife and mother Kim, who passed away six years ago.

Ocean Strider has since been up-spec’d over the intervening two decades, with a new engine, twin alternators, solar power panels, a watermaker and washing machine. They also have Starlink, and have been impressed with how user-friendly apps such as Navionics and batteries monitoring on mobile phones have become. “It’s all just a bit easier than it was 20 years ago,” Joseph notes.

Sage has been preparing for the crossing for years. He opted for a slow route down to Las Palmas, visiting as many ports and anchoring in Brittany, Spain and Portugal as possible, factoring in breaks to meet the Schengen 90-day rule. He enjoys sailing in short hitches, and will do the same on the Caribbean side.

Aboard the German Yacht Roter Baron at the inaugural start. Photo: courtesy of WCC archives

“We’re going all the way up to Puerto Rico, and then we’ll hop back down to get back to Grenada for the lift out, which will be in June, then return for several seasons to explore further to Colombia, Jamaica and Cuba.”

Taking the leisurely approach has paid off – Ocean Strider arrived in Las Palmas mostly ready to go. “A lot of boat prep is about thinking a long way ahead,” Joseph says. “We did a lot of it a long, long way out. Tick those boat prep jobs off as early as you can because it could be three years before you go, but if you do that small job, it’s ticked off.”

“Up and down each of the pontoons you still see people busy at work. You don’t want to get here and realise there’s so much still to do. Then you miss out on all the fun and the community spirit that you get from being part of the rally,” adds son Matthew.

Swedish skipper Pekka Karlsson on the radio in ‘86. Photo: courtesy of WCC archives

Rookie crews

This year there were also plenty of first-timers, typical of the hundreds of ARC cruisers over the years who have joined the rally for reassurance.

Byron Bay sailor Stephen Huntsman is sailing his Fountaine Pajot Isla 40 Osiris with friends.

“It’s always been a dream to sail across the Pacific, and it became time to action that,” he explains. “But the most appropriate boat was best to buy brand new in La Rochelle. We picked up that boat in August last year.

“We were planning to do last year’s ARC, but did not have enough time. We just weren’t ready. So we deferred and sailed from La Rochelle to Cartagena in Spain, then spent the summer in Mallorca and Menorca. We got to Las Palmas in the first week of October.”

Surrounded on the pontoons by yachtsmen and women with decades of experience, Huntsman admitted that he felt a little intimidated. “It also makes us feel a bit nervous that we might be a bit underdone,” he noted.

Over the years thousands of sailors – young, older, and musical – have achieved an Atlantic crossing with the ARC. Photo: courtesy of WCC archives

But as a first time transocean skipper, he always planned to cross with the rally, even when the original time scale became unrealistic.

“We never considered any other option. I think it would be foolish not to do it with the ARC, really.

“You probably never feel ready,” he adds. “Maybe if you spent 20 years preparing, you feel ready. But it’s a bit of a luxury to have that much time. At some point, you’ve just got to take the plunge and learn by experience, and just go.

“I’m very, very aware that we don’t have as much experience. I’m super-conservative. I don’t like a lot of sailing in strong winds. I reef early – we probably have a lot more reef in than you really need. But it’s not a race for us. We’ve got all the time we need, and I’d rather be underdone than over!”

Big send-offs and emotional farewells – all part of the camaraderie that surrounds the start of the ARC. Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC

Sea gypsies

Some things remain timeless. Hungarian Vendee Globe veteran Nandor Fa met Romanian Jimmy Cornell in Las Palmas 40 years ago, while Fa was preparing to set off on the first circumnavigation by a Hungarian sailor. He later went on to compete in multiple around the world races.

In 2025 he was back, taking a group of young Hungarian sailors across the Atlantic in the ARC on his own Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 50 DS On’y’va. He recalls the spirit of the early rallies.

“I remember the people who were on the pontoons. They were really cosmopolitan – different nationalities, ages, very mixed in language, in culture, and purpose.

“But one thing was the same: they wanted to enjoy the free life on the sea. It’s a sea gypsy life.

“Most of them were middle-aged people who had sold their companies, sold their house, and changed their life. They didn’t want to be a number. They wanted to be a person.

“The major draw is still the same: somehow to escape and enjoy life on the sea.”

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Master Lock Comanche (Matt Allen & James Mayo) has won line honours in the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart, the 80th running of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s classic 628-mile offshore race.

The current race record holder (since 2017) finished the race at 18.03.36 on 28 December (local time) after 2d 5h 3m 36s to claim the title (though the upwind conditions meant that was nowhere near her record time of 1d 9h 15m).

The 2025 edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race set off on Boxing Day, 26 December, in strong headwinds. Combined with a 2-3m swell and confused wind-driven waves, the fleet faced two days of potentially boat-breaking conditions as they beat towards the Bass Strait en route to Tasmania.

Start of the 80th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

First across the line was last year’s line honours winner LawConnect, holding off from Master Lock Comanche and the fast 88-footer Lucky at the first turning mark, with Palm Beach XI (formerly nine-time line honours winner Wild Oats XI, making its race debut in its new livery after a major refit) just behind.

Many of the 129-boats entered scattered rose petals as they passed Bondi Beach in a tribute to the victims of the recent Bondi terror attack.

With no fewer than six 100ft super Maxis taking part this year (LawConnect, Master Lock Comanche, SHK Scallywag, Wild Thing 100, Palm Beach XI and the performance cruiser Maritimo 100) competition for line honours went to the wire.

Initially Christian Beck’s LawConnect (Christian Beck), the two-time defending champion, took the early lead, chased hard by SHK Scallywag 100 (skippered by David Witt, for Hong Kong) with the 88ft Lucky (Bryon Ehrhart, USA) impressing in 3rd.

LawConnect (nearest) and Master Lock Comanche at the start of the 80th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Problems beset many boats in the fleet after a tough opening section, with 14 retiring.

Christian Beck, skipper of LawConnect commented after the first night: “We had problems last night. We broke the mainsheet and that took a while to fix. Then we broke the halyard. The J1 came down twice. It’s mildly disappointing. If we didn’t have these issues, all would be fine. Everything’s good, though.”

Wild Thing 100, skippered by Grant Wharington was among those to retire after suffering damage to the runners on the first night.

Comanche was not immune – their bowman was injured with suspected broken ribs in the early stages, and another crew member fell out of their bunk in the rough sea state, with the Maxi’s 11-metre beam making it particularly challenging to move around.

Boat-breaking conditions in the early stages of the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart – here Elizabeth Tucker’s Class 40 First Light takes off over a wave. Andrea Francolini/Rolex

Over the second day Comanche pulled ahead, but the approach to the finish in Tasmania – frequently a twist in the tale of this race – saw an almost complete restart in light winds.

Going into the final miles Master Lock Comanche had stretched out a lead of around seven and a half nautical miles — not conclusive by Maxi standards, but enough to suggest a degree of confidence. Then, without warning, the breeze shut down. The fleet closed up rapidly, with LawConnect, SHK Scallywag 100 and Lucky all within a few 100 metres of each other.

“It’s not good,” Matt Allen recalled. “You’ve had a handy lead, and then you’re watching it disappear. We had to work hard to get it back in the later quarter of the race.”

The Master Lock Comanche crew opted to defend their inshore position. “We stuck to our game plan,” Mayo said. “We wanted to be closer to the coast. We could see something developing there. The breeze filled in from inshore, we got moving first, got the lead back, and then we were able to extend.”

“There was just no wind — it totally dissipated,” he added. “The boats behind caught us, brought the breeze back down, and then we all parked up for a while. But everyone stayed calm.

“We saw puffs developing near the shore, started moving, and suddenly we had a proper boat race. We were only a length apart for close to 100 miles. That was special.”

Master Lock Comanche crosses the finish line in Hobart to claim line honours at the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Once into the Derwent River, where light winds and smooth water allowed the Comanche team to enjoy the final sail to victory.

“The run up the Derwent was the best I’ve had in 33 races,” Allen said. “The sailing was superb, and the welcome in Hobart was unbelievable.”

Thousands lined the waterfront as Master Lock Comanche eased into Constitution Dock, greeted by cheers, applause and a sense of shared relief. “Tasmania embraced us,” Mayo said. “That’s something I’ll never forget.”

Second was LawConnect by 47 minutes and four seconds, with SHK Scallywag (David Witt) some 24 minutes behind.

Currently leading IRC overall is the double-handed JPK10.30 Min River skippered by Chinese/Australian short-handed sailor Jiang Lin with Alexis Loison, 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race and La Solitaire du Figaro winning skipper.

You can follow the Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet on the live tracker.

The post Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours won by Master Lock Comanche in nail biting finish appeared first on Yachting World.

When the Rothschilds and Gitana team unveil a new boat, they do it properly – and last night the huge team base in Lorient, France, became the theatrical backdrop to the grand unveiling of Gitana 18, the highly anticipated new foiling Ultim.

In a dramatic ‘reveal’ a silk curtain dropped mid-press conference and the gathered guests – a couple of hundred media, technical partners, and the great and good of French ocean racing – realised they were underneath one of the most top secret boat building projects of recent years.

But perhaps even more dramatic was the boat itself – or certainly the appendages that will be fixed to it.

The radical new foils for the Ultim Gitana 18 – the flaps on the trailing edge can be trimmed independently, while the arms can also be lifted, and the rake adjusted.

The L-shaped foils of the current ocean-going trimarans have been replaced with what the team refer to as ‘Y’ foils – giant appendages with 5m span set on enormous swinging arms, that show a clear lineage from the America’s Cup.

The central ‘wing’ beneath the boat is a sculptural 3m of metal (they won’t disclose which one).

Radical rudder design

But the rudders are unlike anything seen before – an inverted ‘U’ or A-frame design. Unlike a conventional rudder, which itself turns, the double chords of the rudder are fixed, while flaps at the trailing edge control direction – all designed to overcome the deformation that the hugely loaded rudders would experience, and apparently with no drag penalty.

The rudders of the new Gitana 18 are a revolutionary A-frame or ‘U’ shape, with twin fixed stocks or chords, but adjustable flaps.

Meanwhile the rig is not only a canting wing mast, but is designed to bend to allow the crew to control the mainsail’s power – particularly in the shift between take-off and flight, and in squally conditions where the trimaran could become overpowered. It’s another element which is entirely new on this scale, and is the first Ultim mast made by Southern Spars in New Zealand.

“With this new boat, we hope to achieve as close to perfect flight as possible. Ideally, we’ll be able to fly very high without ever touching the waves. We hope to be able to fly in 3m waves and reach an average sailing speed bordering on 40 knots”, explains Charles Caudrelier, the skipper of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild Gitana 18.

The team told me that top speed potential is over 55 knots.

Gitana 18: designed to fly

The project was designed by known out-of-the-box thinker Guillaume Verdier with the 30-man in-house team at Gitana. Its primary goal is to foil for 100% of its sailing time, achieved by both decreasing the wind strength at which it can foil, while also sustaining higher average speeds at flight.

It builds on much of the knowledge, data and experience the team have gained from their previous Gitana 17 (now Actual Ultim 4), which was launched eight years ago and became the most optimised and successful of all the 100ft trimarans, winning the Transat Jacques Vabre, Route du Rhum, and Arkea Ultim Challenge, while covering over 200,000 miles of ocean.

The new Gitana 18 in the team base in Lorient

Owner Ariane de Rothschild also spoke at the launch, which she attended with her daughters. They are represented on the boat’s spectacular livery, designed by French artistic duo Florian and Michaël Quistrebert, in collaboration with the Palais de Tokyo. Gitana 18 is the 28th boat in the Rothschild/Gitana stable, which next year celebrates 150 years in the sport.

“Within my family, we’ve always enjoyed a passion for competition, performance and also one of technological disruption. It’s about being disruptive, knowing how to take risks, gauging them and managing them. This is fully in line with our philosophy,” said Ariane de Rothschild.”

The Rothschild family and Gitana team hosted a spectacular unveiling of the newest Ultim, Gitana 18,  on Wednesday 3 December.

You can’t rush perfection, and the boat is definitely launching a little later than anticipated, but a project of this magnitude will take months to work up. Its first event will be the 2026 Route du Rhum, which skipper Caudrelier will be looking to defend his title in, before taking on solo around the world and crewed Jules Verne record bids.

We’ll take an in-depth look at this incredible creation in the February issue of Yachting World, out January 8th.

The post Have you ever seen rudders like that before? Radical top-secret Gitana 18 Ultim unveiled appeared first on Yachting World.

For many cruising couples the liveaboard life is a shared ambition worked and saved towards for years, before setting off together, alone. For others, the decision to sail two-up is an evolution, borne of an increase in skill and knowledge, and the desire to reclaim peace and privacy on board after sailing with crew. But expectation and reality do not always align, so how do you ensure the experience matches the vision you both held?

We canvassed dozens of cruisers on how to run a happy ship for two. Many knew couples whose relationship did not survive living aboard. All had strategies to avoid the same pitfalls, and generously shared their advice.

Who knows more?

Few of our cruising couples had similar levels of sailing experience as each other initially. “A very definite no,” says Miranda Baker on that question. “Elliot had his RYA Yachtmaster Offshore and a ton of experience crewing and teaching sailing. I’d spent six weeks ‘crewing’ a boat through the Whitsundays in my early 20s – but don’t remember the sails ever being raised. I think this disparity worked in our favour because it was clear who would be in charge.” The couple have so far sailed 15,000 miles from New Zealand to Indonesia.

More important was how each pairing developed those skills. “One bit of advice we always give is to make sure you level-up your sailing experience as much as possible,” says Charlotte DC. She and partner JP Baudains are circumnavigating, and also run a brokerage company, often advising new cruisers on bluewater yachts.

“Stressful situations at sea can be even worse when only one person feels like they can be ‘dealing with the boat’ at that time,” she adds. “It makes the other person feel guilty and unimportant.”

Miranda Baker and Elliot Russo have cruised 15,000 miles on their 1985 steel Mason 48 Fortaleza. Photo: Miranda Baker & Elliot Russo

Get better together

Fundamentally, it’s a safety consideration. “I’d never been on a sailing boat before we met. I quickly decided, however, that if Neil went overboard i wanted to [be able to] sail the boat back to land so i did lots of sailing courses and got my Yachtmaster Offshore before we left,” recalls Helen Smith, who spent four years circumnavigating with her husband, Neil, on their s&s 40, then later bought a Moody 54 which they sailed across the Atlantic.

Kate Ashe-Leonard took a rigorous approach to up-skilling before she and partner Jim Hooper set off on their Catana 47. “Jim had sailed his whole life whereas i had never sailed before.

“In the first few months we divided the sailing quite evenly but i was always under Jim’s watchful eye. After a day of sailing, at anchor we’d discuss the manoeuvres we’d done (for example, raising and dropping the mainsail).

i would type them up into a step-by-step written procedure to make sure i really understood what was going on and why each step is important.”

Discuss how you will divide roles – from sailing to maintenance, navigation, paperwork and domestic tasks. Photo: Tor Johnson

But with so many demands on your time when preparing for a voyage, it can be a struggle to get the hours in. “Will grew up cruising offshore with his family. i had little to no sailing experience,” recalls Sarah Curry. “In the years that we were saving to buy our first bluewater boat we sailed locally out of Vancouver for a cumulative three weeks. i focused more on taking navigation courses and reading as much as i could.

“Will’s seamanship and skill is amazing, but i initially struggled as the far less experienced sailor. It’s hard to take direction all the time! i often felt jealous of couples who learned together or had sailing skills at similar levels. In hindsight, i should have used our preparation years to hone my on-the-water skills,” she acknowledges.

It worked out though – the couple have lived aboard for over 10 years, raising twins on board while also running wind vane company Hydrovane.

Photo: Tor Johnson

Who does what?

There are broadly two schools of thought on how to split roles on board: divide equally, or play to your strengths. The critical thing is to ensure that one member of the team doesn’t end up doing all the sailing and technical jobs, with the other de-skilled.

Janneke Kuysters and Wietze van der Laan were closely matched in their experience levels. “Many couples need to have a clear ‘captain’ role on board. We don’t believe in that. The person closest to the wheel (or on watch) has the best oversight and takes the decisions,” says Janneke.

“Wietze is the better sailor, so he sails the boat while i do everything around it: food, radio, weather, navigation, paperwork, berth reservations, etc. We strongly believe in doing what you’re good at, instead of both wanting to be able to do all the jobs. Despite being together all day, you need to have something to talk about. And having achieved something you’re proud of is good for the ‘catch up’ at the end of the day.”

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“i had a vision that certain areas would be really equal in our roles – everything down to the marine electrics or engine maintenance and so on,” recalls Larissa Clark, who is cruising the Pacific with Duncan Copeland and their two sons.

“i tried to prepare towards that before we left, going on courses where i didn’t have the expertise. Two days into a marine electrics course, where it felt like every chapter ended with the word ‘Fire!’, i decided actually there were areas it was just better to divide and conquer. Electrics is definitely not my strength, but it is very much Duncan’s. But i always like to ask a lot of questions so i can understand the decisions that we’re making, and vice versa.”

Helen Harbour and her husband, David, sail their 46ft Amel ketch around six months of each year. Helen described a typical division of roles among our cruising couples: “i do the planning, navigation and piloting. David does the maintenance. i helm to anchor and pick up buoys. David helms to bring us into marinas. We both do all sailing roles, either together, or on our own. We both stand our own, equal length watches, carrying out all boat handling on our own, night or day.”

Kate Ashe-Leonard and Jim Hooper have sailed halfway around the world on their Catana 47 Polaris. Photo: Jim Hooper

“More demanding manoeuvres, we make sure that we do together,” observes Miguel and Claire Queiroz, who crossed to the Caribbean in their Fountaine Pajot 47.

“There were no clear cut roles for us. We had a sign above the companionway saying ‘The Captain’s Word is Law’. The only issue was that we both captained on and off, sometimes making it confusing which of us was the law and which of us was the law-breaker!” recall Sarah and Rasmus Haurum Christensen, who have lived aboard their Beneteau 423 for a year.

“We were convinced that a flat structure was the best way, and that turned out to be wholly right. But for longer passages we establish a dedicated captain. This means that if all hell broke loose, this person had the main responsibility and last word.”

Most double-handed couples sail a large proportion of miles solo, but work together on more challenging manoeuvres. Photo: Nikkey Dawn/SV Freeranger

Domestic duties

Many couples reported that domestic duties were more equally shared on board than on land. Seasickness is the often unspoken reason why one half of a couple takes on more domestic tasks.

“Wietze gets seasick. Making him cook or get a weather forecast would make him unnecessarily miserable. So he sails the boat outside, i do everything inside,” explains Janneke.

“While we tried to split boat jobs and domestic jobs as evenly as possible, the simple fact is that i don’t get seasick and can knock out a meal in most sea states, whereas i wouldn’t have a clue where to start fixing the watermaker or the generator. It made sense to play to our strengths and skill sets,” says Philippa Steventon, who cruised Europe and the Caribbean with her family on their Bowman 40.

“When we moved onto the boat i volunteered Elliot to deal with the composting loo, a task that involves a trowel. His tax for us living his dream!” adds Miranda.

Downwind in big seas – fun sailing, but potentially stressful two-up. Photo: Tor Johnson

What do you both want?

Having equal ‘buy in’ is important to mutual happiness. “What is most important is discussing your expectations: what does each person want to get out of cruising? That’s what we see most of the fights are about on other boats. In many cases, one is fulfilling a lifetime dream and the other is going along to keep the relationship going,” says Janneke. “That person is prone to homesickness, boredom and unhappiness.”

“We met so many couples where one – usually the wife – was there because it was her husband’s dream,” seconds Philippa Steventon.

Drilling down into expectations is important. “We are very lucky that we both equally sought this lifestyle, and have similar feelings about the sorts of places we like to go, and the balance between visiting well-known versus more challenging destinations,” explains James and Jayne Pearce, who live on their Garcia Exploration 45 Scout. “If one partner dreams about long bluewater passages, and the other dreams about socialising by a marina pool, then there are going to be some painful misunderstandings!”

Larissa Clark and Duncan Copeland are cruising the Pacific while running the Free Range Ocean citizen science directory. Photo: Free Range Ocean

But you don’t have to bring equal experience to have equal involvement. “When you start out there will be one of you that is more confident in sailing or handling the conditions than the other. We learned early on that you really need to drive to the level of comfort where you are both happy. That may be a bit frustrating for the more experienced partner, but as time and experience move forward, trust is built allowing confidence to grow,” say Carl and Joanna Greenwood, who have been cruising their Lagoon 42 Rockhopper since 2021.

“Passage planning and weather routing really is a joint process. We both make a decision together as to whether to go or stay. If one of us is uncomfortable about the conditions then we don’t go. This way there are no ‘i told you so’ moments,” they add.

“It’s inevitable you are going to have bad passages and anchorages that don’t work out. But it’s important that it is both of our decisions, never just one person’s, so there’s no blame when things don’t go to plan. When we commit to something we have got to be in it together,” agree Simon McKenna and Soph Snijders, who are sailing their Duncanson 34 Nakama around Australia (and documenting it on their ‘Slim & Soph’ youtube channel).

Sarah and Will Curry cruise with their twin boys, and remotely run the Hydrovane windvane company. Photo: Will & Sarah Curry

But big changes can put pressure on the cruising dream at any stage. “Sailing life is a huge undertaking. Working remotely adds a new element of time management. Parenting on board was a natural progression for us but the combination of all three ‘jobs’ landed us in the Red Zone,” recalls Sarah Curry. “We found ourselves in la Paz, Mexico, with toddler twin boys learning to walk on the boat, in the middle of Covid, with emails to answer, while trying to re-visit our favourite anchorages.

“Our challenge was admitting to each other that we weren’t having any fun. We had to slow down for a few years, which is not in our nature.”

Jessy and Chet Chauhan are cruising the world on their Nautitech 46 Open catamaran Navasana. Photo: Sailing Navasana

Problem solving

Every couple has their flashpoints, largely depending on their boat set-up. One recurring issue our couples reported was handing downwind sails double-handed.

“For us downwind sailing in following seas presents the biggest challenge,” say Eamonn Naughton and Brigid McMahon, who have cruised their Rustler 42 for over seven seasons. “We carry a parasailor for downwind sailing and use a poled-out headsail when winds are in excess of 20 knots. Lowering the parasailor and gybing the pole in heavy seas can be very challenging double-handed. So when the weather gets up we now tend to sail on a broad reach (less than $160^\circ$ twa), gybe when required, and take the hit on course and vmg.”

“Wing on wing is the sail plan we most enjoy and have perfected,” say the Currys. “Our first boat came with a huge spinnaker pole strapped on the side of the deck. It was incredibly cumbersome, and even dangerous, for us to manoeuvre as a couple. We immediately had it mounted on a track on the mast for ease of deployment.

“We practice, practice, practice pole deployment and gybing. A well-balanced boat is essential for self steering, so we take this seriously and always use a pole on our monohulls when reaching or sailing dead downwind.”

Irish couple Eamonn Naughton and Brigid McMahon sailing their Rustler 42 Mor Toad. Photo: Eamonn Naughton & Brigid McMahon

‘Marriage savers’

Some double-handed issues can be solved by changing your gear. “Recently in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, we found it challenging in very tight anchorages where you have to use multiple shore lines,” recall Jessy and Chet Chauhan, cruising their Nautitech 46 Catamaran. “Chet had secured one line but while he was getting the second one attached, a squall came through that pushed the boat towards the reef. Jessy couldn’t use the engines, because the first shore line was under the boat and close to the propellers. We now have floating lines to tie to shore, which should allow Jessy to use the engines at any time.”

But by far the most common point of contention was mooring up. “Bella was Scheel keeled and particularly painful to manoeuvre in close quarters. This meant parking was 100% our biggest source of stress. We really didn’t want to be one of those couples screaming at each other going into marinas so we learned to get really calm and quiet coming in to dock,” says Philippa Steventon. Early preparation, doubling up lines and fenders on both sides, and refusing assistance from well-meaning bystanders helped smooth the process.

Many couples recommended radio headsets, often referred to as ‘marriage savers’. “For moments of potential contention we use headsets. In marinas, sometimes anchoring if it looks tricky, or when Elliot goes up the mast. The headsets have definitely reduced the need for raised voices – now we can whisper our insults at each other,” says Miranda Baker.

Simon McKenna and Sophie Snijders are rounding Australia on their Duncanson 34 Nakama. Photo: Sailing Nakama

Sarah Haurum Christensen feels there are three options for stress-free berthing: “Figure out some good hand signs and hope you understand each other; yell across 43ft, a rumbling engine and 30 knots of breeze; or buy headsets and dock like pros but look like boomers!

“We established clear hand signs, and yelled, which did not always end well. The most important tip here is to establish a method for dealing with arguments after a manoeuvre, and to debrief if arguments arose.”

Is it worth it?

There’s no doubt that living on board will test a relationship like – almost – nothing else.

“We consider this the ultimate Ikea test!” says Sarah and Rasmus. “The Ikea test normally entails building flatpack furniture as a couple, and success means you can do anything together. Try doing plumbing in the bilge together at 0300 in 4m waves because you had a fresh water hose explode!”

Somira Sao and partner James Burwick took a more extreme approach before going sailing with their young children on an Open 40 – continuing as their family grew to six children on a 50ft trimaran. “We were unique in that we never had a land life together in the traditional sense. We did not come from a world where we had to downsize from a four-bedroom house,” Somira explains. “All of our time living together involved an expedition lifestyle – bike packing for 12 months, living in vans etc.

“Before you commit to going sailing, we highly recommend doing some off-grid expeditions together. It’s a good litmus test for what will happen when you’re in a small space on a boat together in the middle of the ocean.”

For many couples the shared time together is a huge draw to double-handed liveaboard cruising. Photo: Tor Johnson

Prepare for some teething problems, even if you are experienced cruisers. “On both our long voyages, we have learned that the first three months are the most challenging,” says Janneke Kuysters. “You have to get used to living together on the boat, to being underway all the time and letting go of everything you were used to.

“For many people, their job is part of their identity. So if the job is no longer there, they have to find their new identity as a cruiser. We always advise to give it time and allow yourself to get used to your new way of life before making big changes.”

But the rewards are huge. “We spent 18 months living aboard while completing the World ARC,” says John DiMatteo and his wife Angela. “In addition to sharing a life changing experience (for the better), the biggest benefit was greatly improving how we communicate with each other. It brought us much closer together at an age where many couples start to drift apart.”

“i am glad i didn’t know how scary it can be,” reflects Miranda Baker, whose partner Elliot faced a life-threatening medical emergency in a remote anchorage. “i’m not sure if i’d have put my hand up, and that would have been a shame. This life probably makes or breaks relationships, so i am proud of our resilience as a couple.”

She concludes: “The immersive experience of exploring our planet by sailboat is a wild ride but the reward is equal in measure. We experience a freedom to choose what’s next for ourselves that’s rare for most humans. We are humbled by enormous, star bursting skies and by important things breaking in remote places.

“We have each other’s backs. And, when Elliot and i are very old, we will have a thousand crazy stories to reminisce over and laugh about.”

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The post How to split roles (and avoid divorce) when sailing as a couple appeared first on Yachting World.

“If someone gave you a lottery ticket with a 33 % chance of winning $2m, you’d snap their hand off!” said Dylan Fletcher, helmsman of the Emirates Great Britain Team during last weekend’s SailGP Grand Finale in Abu Dhabi.

And certainly for a lot of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final – an event title which took almost as long to say as it took the F50s to get to the top mark – luck seemed to be playing a significant part in results, with zephyr-light winds and exceptionally short course plunging the season’s most consistent performers down the leaderboard.

At first watch even the final looked to come down to a ‘Hail Mary’ decision when the British team, who were third – or last – off the line split from the leading duo of Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand Black Foils to hook into a convenient shift and come out on top.

But, as Fletcher explains, that’s not quite how it happened.

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

SailGP leaders play it safe

Abu Dhabi was a new venue for the SailGP final, previously in San Francisco, and first impressions frankly weren’t great. Racing on the first day took place in very light winds – often just 5-7 knots – with the teams deploying the newest 27.5 wing rig, extra large light wind T-foils and just three crew onboard to make racing feasible in the very marginal conditions.

Fortunately the waters off Port Zayed were undisturbed – there was a notable lack of spectator boats. The race village was also smaller than some previous venues, with no giant grandstand packed with the roaring crowds of Auckland or Portsmouth. This was not a showcase of the stadium-filling, crowd-pleasing racing that SailGP can deliver – though it was a marker of the financial appeal of the league, with the event sponsored by the Sports Council of Abu Dhabi.

In the light, sub-foiling conditions and super-short courses, winning the start became everything, with Denmark, Switzerland and Germany having the best of the first day. At the end of four races three of the the top four teams – Emirates SailGP, Australia and Spain – were the sitting firmly in the bottom four on the leaderboard. The Kiwis only slightly redeemed themselves in 8th.

What, I asked Dylan, was going on?

“I think, honestly, you could have called it before the event,” Fletcher says.

Article continues below…

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“There was a lot of teams who had couldn’t go up or down in the season championship; the points were basically closed off. Then you also had a bunch of teams changing people. And they were going to take risk. They were going to push it really hard.

“And I think we were all just so focused on doing what we needed to do to get into the Grand Final. As soon as it was that light, in reality, we want to win the actual Abu Dhabi event itself – but actually we don’t really care! We just want to make sure that we win the season points. So we inevitably ended up watching the other boats.

“We stopped taking as much risks as you don’t want to crash. We saw that the Kiwis got a rudder written off because the Swiss just sailed into them. And the Italians nearly took our rudder off with their foil. So there’s no wind, and there’s all these other boats pushing it, effectively.

“But it was funny, wasn’t it? It was like, oh, we’ve had a worst day of the entire year, but so have the other top four. So it doesn’t matter.”

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

The British had effectively pre-booked their slot in the Grand Final, though there was still a chance for the Spanish to fight their way back in. “I think the Spanish will feel obviously annoyed they didn’t make it, but the opportunity was there. All the other teams are doing terribly. They just needed to have a normal day and they would have been in very good shape!” points out Fletcher.

Super SailGP Sunday

On Sunday there was slightly more breeze nudging the F50s back up onto their foils and four crew back on board. Fletcher and the British squad came out firing, winning the first race. Was there a big team talk to reset the night before?

“I think we were very pragmatic about it, as we always are. We know that in reality, not foiling H2 [mode, two hulls in the water] there’s always more jeopardy, there’s more luck. You just got to do things a bit differently.

“[For Sunday] we came up with a different starting strategy. And from looking at the data on the other boats, came up with some things to make the boat go faster if we weren’t foiling. Although it was obviously foiling conditions, but we did actually adopt that start approach for the first two starts. I think there’s no doubt that our team is more comfortable when we’re foiling. And I think it showed on that Sunday.”

The teams had sailed with both the larger wings and foils previously, but not together. “It was new for the event. So we’d got one day. We’d used the foils before – they were from Geneva, and we used them in Cadiz. So [the change] was mainly the weight and the extra power of the 27.5m wing. You feel the extra weight, and it changes some of the moding. Once foiling, it’s a little more similar. But you do end up sailing a little higher, slower upwinds, and a little lower and slower downwind, basically.”

Sailing the F50s three-up also requires some ninja-levels of multi-tasking. “There are certain manoeuvres which you can’t do or it gets exceptionally challenging. And four people is a lot easier than three. Having someone to be able to grind, and then having effectively the pilot back to being a pilot really makes a difference.”

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

The $2m lottery

On the live broadcast on Day 2 Fletcher made a comment to his crew about the ‘lottery’ conditions. The SailGP commentary team took umbrage, but there was clearly a roll the dice element to the course.

“I guess there’s always an element of luck, and yes, it’s probably a little bit larger [in those conditions]. But interestingly or not, we had the best finish positions. You could have scored it any way the entire year, and we would have won. So there is a lot of jeopardy in that final race – and I think I said on the start of the final, ‘Welcome to the $2 million lottery’.

“But the idea behind that was that, yes, we won the points season. And yes, we’re sailing very well. But just because of that, that doesn’t mean that we are in any better position than the other two boats.

“If someone handed you a lottery ticket with a 33% chance of winning, you’d snap their hand off. So it’s just trying to see it as a massive opportunity and be open to enjoy it, basically. Enjoy it.”

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

Getting angry

But the fluky conditions didn’t play to everybody’s strengths. How hard was it for Dylan and co to keep their head in the game with this level of unpredictability?

“I think that was a real testament to the team on Saturday. We had obviously a challenging day. And we were still the same team. We were still smiling. We didn’t fall out. We weren’t getting angry… other people from some of the other teams were getting quite angry! And we didn’t get angry.

“I think that’s why I think we won, because of that is how our team operates. And we consistently are able to continue to solve the problem. We’ve had bad times this year, in America, where we didn’t do a very good job of that. And the results followed, basically, because we weren’t doing a very good job as a team.

“And I think that’s what I’m really proud of how the team operated.”

Final showdown

In the final itself it all seemed to come down to one key manoeuvre. GBR lagged off the start, then split at the leeward mark. But that decision was far from a fluke, Fletcher explains.

“We’d been working on it for seven weeks on how to win the Grand Final.

“For the start, we obviously didn’t want to be late, but we did want that approach. We just were trying to be on time. And we were happy to throw some risk at potentially being late. But we’d done a lot of analysis on, ‘Okay, well, if we don’t lead at Mark 1, what’s our next opportunity?.’

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

“We’d already discussed that we wanted to take the right turn at the bottom, if nothing had changed significantly from the racing beforehand. So we set ourselves up deliberately early on that gybe out to get a really good fast layline into the bottom. The Kiwis went round, but they were really slow. And we’d practised that ‘JK’ [manoeuvre] in some of the races, actually. So we’d set that up.

“Effectively we were using some of the fleet racing to try and practise a few things that we might do. So I felt pretty – not happy, but I felt very much when we went around the leeward and tacked, it was, okay, all the boats are level at this point. It’s completely even.

“I was actually surprised we weren’t further ahead. When we tacked back onto starboard, and the Kiwis were on port, I thought we would potentially be ahead. I was kind of annoyed that we weren’t, to be honest! But we also had decided that, again, if nothing had changed, we wanted the right turn at the top. So how we tried to orchestrate that up the beat [was] to be out of phase, set up for the right turn at the top with the other boats probably having to take the left, and they would have a difficult decision to make.

“That’s the key for me. They had a difficult decision if they wanted to take the right turn off us. And to be honest, as soon as we bore away, I was like, ‘it’s ours to lose’, because we took the bias mark and we were already faster.”

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

Fletcher’s make or break moment

To go from new ‘driver’ to SailGP champion is a remarkable feat. What were the team performance goals when he took over the wheel a year ago?

“It was to be in the Grand Final. So it was to win, but the actual goal was always get in the grand final.

“I’ve still been nicely… maybe surprised isn’t the right way of putting it, but I always felt like in my career, when I’ve been doing well, you’re not expecting it. You know you’re capable of it, but you don’t think it’s just going to happen. You always feel slightly on edge. I very much felt like that this whole year. And the team has just done a good job of learning all the new kit and giving me the opportunity to make mistakes, having come back in.

“I felt as though after America, then when we came to Portsmouth, I thought that was make a break for me, that event. If we didn’t go and get on the podium there – or maybe not even on the podium, but if we didn’t have a very good event, get the team back together, then that would be it. We would just be in the middle. So delivering there [was key]. And then I think also delivering in Sassnitz after the disappointment of getting the boat cut in half and everything, and the team really pulled together.

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

The biggest prize in sailing

SailGP’s famous $2 Million final prize is a great headline. But how important is it for Fletcher to be racing for serious cash?

“I think it is important, but I also think that we all care more about beating the others than the money. Yeah, the money is great, don’t be wrong. It’s obviously lovely. But the reality is, you just want to beat the others.

“I think Jensen Button said one time, all he wanted to be was an F1 world champion, and he’d trade everything. He didn’t care about his salary, he just wanted to win, be a world champion.

“I think that it’s a good amount of money in terms of it does raise the stakes, it does change people’s decision making. It adds quite a lot of extra spice effectively to it.

“But I also would probably say I’d like to see a bit more money for the season points because that is the traditionalist in me, that still thinks that valuing the points over the entire season is – maybe not more worthy because this is SailGP and SailGP has always been about winning that grand final. But the [overall] points to me is also quite important.”

Fletcher’s winners’ Rolex watch, however, is treasured. “I’ve been trying to win one of these for 37 years!” he jokes as he tried it on.

Photo: c/o Emirates GBR

Transfer season

The flip side of all the money apparently sloshing around is SailGP are trying to ramp up interest in their ‘transfer season’. Have the Brits guys put a target on their backs for being poached?

“People have been chasing!” He laughs. “But Ben’s done a good job and we’re in a really good shape going forward. And I think that as people are getting longer contracts and getting locked in a bit more, to be honest.

SailGP now has a brief ‘off-season’ before the 2026 circuit kicks off in Perth in January.

“It’s six weeks to the next event. It’s less time between the Grand Final and the first event of the season than it was between Cadiz and Abu Dhabi,” points out Fletcher.

Though the break is welcome, “We’d rather be sailing!” He says, adding, “I guess for myself, because I’m still new into it.

“Experience means that when you take a break, you come back and you’re still at that same level. So I work quite hard, do what I can between the events to try and ensure that I’m as sharp as I can be. Even before the Grand Final, I was Moth sailing, 49er racing, and just doing anything.”

It’s a fair bet Fletcher will be coming back sharp and hungry in January.

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Two sailors have been discovered dead on their yacht, while sailing between Madagascar and Mozambique, off Africa’s south east coast in the Indian Ocean.

The yacht Acteon is a 50-footer registered in France, and was sailing in the Mozambique Channel, around 200 miles north east of Beira, Mozambique.

The two sailors have been named as Deirdre Sibly, 67, of Port Lincoln, Australia, and Frenchman Pascal Mahe. Both are understood to be highly experienced cruisers.

The pair were sailing to Durban, South Africa from Reunion Island, when a distress call was sent from their yacht on Thursday, 27 November, which was received by a cargo ship in the area that alerted French authorities.

Deirdre Sibley, an Australian cruiser reported to have been found dead aboard the yacht she was sailing in the Indian Ocean, in a photo released by her sister Sue Good.

Speaking to The Guardian in Australia, Deirdre Sibly’s sister Sue Good said that the cargo ship approached Acteon but was unable to board the yacht. Two additional vessels then joined the rescue effort, and crew were able to get aboard.

“I had a call from [the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] at about 10am Friday morning, that’s when they told me someone was able to board the yacht and a man and woman had been found deceased,” Cook confirmed to Guardian Australia.

Speaking to Australian news broadcaster ABC Adelaide, Good was also quoted as saying: “We’re just devastated; she’d been away sailing with Pascal since early June … she was so happy.”

The yacht Acteon, as identified on the Marine Traffic AIS tracking site. Image Fran Solly/Marine Traffic

Piracy speculation

There has been no official indication of a likely cause of death, though some online reports have speculated that piracy may be involved.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed it was “providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian missing in the Mozambique channel”.

A spokesman added: “Our thoughts are with the family at this distressing time.

“Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.”

Historically there have been numerous incidents of Somali pirates targeting yacht sailors, most high profile of which were the Chandlers, who were kidnapped from their yacht near the Seychelles in 2009 and held captive for over a year before being released in 2011. That same year four American sailors were killed after being hijacked off the coast of Oman.

The Gulf of Aden has been known to be a high risk area for over two decades, although some yachts do still transit the area – 50-60 yachts are estimated to have crossed the Suez Canal in 2023 and 2024.

The reported location of the yacht Acteon when it issued a distress call on 27 November.

The waters further south were previously thought to be lower risk, though a radical Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique, funded in part by drug smuggling from Afghanistan to East Africa, led to authorities warning of an increased piracy risk in the area from 2020/21 onwards.

The Mozambique Channel is a key shipping route, and also a major oil and gas production area.

Madagascar and the eastern side of the channel were previously considered safer, though Madagascar has also experienced political upheaval and unrest, with a coup in November 2025.

The yacht Acteon is understood to still be adrift. We’ll report more when we have further information.

The post Mystery after two cruisers discovered dead aboard yacht in Indian Ocean appeared first on Yachting World.

The Famous Project CIC, the all-women challenge for the Jules Verne Trophy, the non-stop around the world record, departed on Saturday 29 November.

The team, which is skippered by French former Vendée Globe skipper Alexia Barrier and was set up together with British record-breaking yachtswoman Dee Caffari, is aiming to become the first all-female crew to complete a Jules Verne attempt.

But above all they are chasing one of the all-time great sailing records, the non-stop, no-holds-barred around the world record time, which currently stands at 40 days and 23 hours, set by Idec Sport in 2017.

As Dee Caffari posted on her Facebook page: “Sh*t is about to get real!”

Barrier and Caffari are racing with Annemieke Bes, Rebecca Gmuer, Deb Blair, Molly Lapointe, Xiquita Etchegoyen, and Stacey Jackson aboard Idec Sport, the same maxi-trimaran which set the current Jules Verne record in 2017, skippered by Francis Joyon.

The Famous Project CIC, 100% women crew, crossing the start line for Trophée Jules Verne on November 29, in Brest, France. Photo by Jean-Marie Liot / The Famous Project CIC

Starting a Jules Verne challenge

The Jules Verne Trophy has an official start/finish line between the Créac’h lighthouse on the island of Ouessant, France, and Lizard Point lighthouse on the southernmost tip of England.

Crews must sail around the world, passing Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn to port, before crossing the same line in the opposite direction to finish – a ‘great circle’ distance of 21,760 nautical miles (40,300km).

But the Jules Verne has no set start time, so teams may leave whenever their weather routers believe a suitable window of opportunity for a fast Atlantic descent is opening up.The Famous Project first moved to what’s known as ‘Code Green’, or ready to depart. Having left Brest, they crossed the line at 01.40 UTC (14 h 40 FR) on Saturday, November 29.

The Jules Verne Trophy course

Toughest 24 hours at start

The Famous Project crew set off in tough conditions with a blustery north-westerly, and will immediately face 4-5m waves in the Bay of Biscay.

“I feel very lucky and grateful for all the work that has been done over the last few months and years, all together. It’s really a collective celebration to be at the starting line,” said Barrier.

“Obviously, I’m a little nervous because what we’re doing is huge. But what reassures me a lot is having these incredible girls by my side. I’m not alone and I know my team is up to the task.

“We’ll be sailing downwind until we reach the equator. These are conditions we know well. Further on, the doldrums are still shifting.

“As Brian Thompson, who has helped us a lot throughout this training course on trimarans with the girls, would say, ‘You’re going to experience the toughest 24 hours of your Jules Verne Trophy.’ So we need to stay focused and conservative so we don’t hurt ourselves or break anything on the first day.”

Boat and crew of The Famous Project CIC, 100% women crew, before start for Trophée Jules Verne on November 29, in Brest, France. Photo by Jean-Marie Liot / The Famous Project CIC

“I’m surprisingly calm, but I think I’m calm to help everyone else, because you can feel a certain nervousness,” said Dee Caffari on the morning of the start.

“The main goal has always been to get to the starting line, and I think today we took a big step forward. It’s an important milestone, and I think it deserves a little celebration.

“It’s been a long road, with ups and downs, but Alexia never lost confidence or faith in herself, and I supported her throughout. So I’m very happy to be here. Today it’s about reminding the girls that we’re just going to sail, which is what they do perfectly, but simply that they won’t be sleeping in a bed for a few days. That’s exactly what we practiced in training, so we’re just going to set off, enjoy ourselves, and do what we know how to do.

“We wanted a perfect start, but perfection doesn’t exist in sailing, because we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature. That said, it’s a very good start.”

Skipper Alexia Barrier (FRA) before start of The Famous Project CIC attempt on the Trophée Jules Verne. Photo by Jean-Marie Liot / The Famous Project CIC

Jules Verne weather window

Ashore the team is supported by meteorologist Christian Dumard. The circulation of two high pressure systems over the North Atlantic has created an opportunity for a starting window, though the team will have an immediate race against time as the movement of an anticyclone threatens to close the route off Cape Finisterre.

“The front will pass over the starting area on Saturday morning,” explains Dumard. “The idea is to leave just behind it, in the early afternoon, in a north-westerly wind of less than 30 knots, which will gradually weaken.

“This window is very short and does not necessarily offer an absolute chance of achieving a ‘blistering’ time at the equator. But it does offer favorable wind and sea conditions for downwind sailing and a relatively comfortable start for the crew.”

“We will leave Brest on Saturday before noon and cross the line about two hours later. There will be rough seas, with swells of over 4 meters, which are perfectly manageable aboard Idec Sport,” adds Barrier.

“The danger is that the high-pressure system centered off the coast of Portugal will grow and block us as we pass Cape Finisterre. We would then have to turn back and resume our standby in Brest.”

A big crowd turned out to see the crew of The Famous Project off from Brest. Photo Jean-Marie Liot/The Famous Project CIC

All-female team

The Famous Project was launched in 2022, with the team initially training in a MOD70 before taking delivery of Idec Sport. They have been working with round the world yachtsman Brian Thomspon, with fellow British ocean sailor Jonny Malbon the Team Director.

In a recent blog post, Dee Caffari reported that the team’s final training sessions in late October ahead of the record were both invaluable, and challenging.

“These training sessions are where theory meets reality – intense, demanding, and absolutely invaluable.

“We were fortunate to train with Brian Thompson, whose expertise and calm authority at sea are second to none. Brian’s coaching has helped us fine-tune our performance and strengthen our team dynamics – those crucial marginal gains that will make all the difference when we take on the planet’s toughest challenge.

“This month, Mother Nature decided to push us harder. The conditions were significantly bigger and stronger than what we experienced during the summer -exactly what we needed. It’s one thing to sail fast in perfect conditions; it’s quite another to maintain that performance when the waves are towering and the wind is howling.

“These challenging sessions gave us a much more realistic preview of what life will really be like as we chase the record around the world.”

Skipper Alexia Barrier and his crew training onboard the Maxi-Trimaran The Famous Project CIC, off Groix island. Photo: Jean-Marie LIOT / The Famous Project CIC

Jules Verne attempts

There have been numerous attempts on the Jules Trophy record since Joyon set the current record in 2017. That time of 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes requires an average speed of 22.84 knots.

The foiling Ultim trimarans – capable of maintaining consistent speeds in the high 30s – have set off several times. In 2024 Thomas Coville’s Sodebo and Francois Gabart’s SVR-Lazartigue started within hours of each other, but both had to pause their attempt after damage or gear failure. Sodebo restarted last winter, but later had to retire after losing their central rudder.

In 2020, Charles Caudrelier’s team on Gitana 17 and Sodebo also set off in the same weather window in late November, but both had retired by mid-December after colliding with underwater objects.

Sodebo is among the Ultims that has made numerous attempts at the Jules Verne Trophy. Photo: Pierre Bouras/DPPI

The last all-female attempt on the Jules Verne, Tracy Edwards’ Royal & Sun Alliance in 1998, ended when the 92ft catamaran dismasted in the South Pacific 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile.

Idec Sport, the trimaran the Famous Project CIC crew are sailing, is a non-foiling design that was originally launched in 2006 as Groupama 3, and won the Jules Verne Trophy in 2010, skippered by Franck Cammas. While its peak speed is less than that of an Ultim, it is a robust and well-proven boat which has successfully completed multiple non-stop around the world passages – the first challenge of any Jules Verne attempt.

How to follow The Famous Project Jules Verne bid

You can follow The Famous Project’s attempt at thefamousproject.io

The team also has an app, active social media, and plan to share live daily updates on their YouTube channel.

The post All-female round the world record attempt sets sail in tough conditions appeared first on Yachting World.

Big news from the British America’s Cup team Athena Racing, which announced today that legendary sailor and team boss Ian Walker MBE has been appointed Chief Executive Officer.

Walker joins Sir Ben Ainslie’s Athena Racing as CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of its America’s Cup Challenge, reuniting two of Britain’s most successful competitive sailors.

It also sends a strong signal that the Brits – who have not revealed any major backers since splitting from INEOS in January 2025 – are gearing up for a full-power challenge for the 38th America’s Cup.

Since entries closed for the 38th America’s Cup, to be held in 2027 in Naples, there have been no announcements of confirmed entries, only the news that American Magic will not take part.

Athena Racing, representing the Royal Yacht Squadron, remains the Challenger of Record.

Ainslie at the helm of INEOS Britannia in AC37 (no word yet on what the Team Principal’s full role will be, nor on backers for the British Challenge).

Athena Racing’s new CEO

Ainslie welcomed his new CEO today, saying: “Ian is an exceptional leader with a proven track record of success with high-performance campaigns across the very top of our sport, there are very few people as qualified, both on and off the water.

“He also understands the complexity of running teams that need to be at the forefront of innovation and performance while meeting both budget and timeline demands. For AC38, that timeline is tight, and we needed a CEO who could hit the ground running and Ian can do that, he understands how to drive teams forward and the importance of continuity in achieving the ultimate goal.”

Ian Walker also spoke about his enthusiasm for returning to the America’s Cup arena: “The Cup has evolved enormously since I was last involved in terms of the boats, the technology, and even the balance between sailors and designers.

“But at its core, it remains unchanged, it’s about managing your resources, getting the best out of your people, and making every second count, in a race against time, and the clock is ticking.”

The 2000 Team GBR sailing team, including Ian Walker (left), Ben Ainslie (3rd from left) at the Olympic Games in Sydney Harbour. Photo: AFP/Torsten BLACKWOOD via Getty Images

British talent reunited

Walker and Ainslie were both part of the hugely successful British Olympic sailing team, and competed at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games (Ainslie famously took silver at Atlanta, then Gold at Sydney, while Walker won silver at both – in the 470 with the late John Merricks in 1996, then the Star with Mark Covell four years later).

Since then, while Team Principal Ainslie went on to score four more Olympic golds and compete in multiple America’s Cups, Walker’s career has spanned ocean and inshore racing, America’s Cup campaigns, and high-performance team management roles.

He skippered Britain’s Wight Lightning for Peter Harrison’s GBR Challenge in the 31st America’s Cup in 2003, which Ainslie was also a member of. In 2007 Walker joined the Italian 39+ Cup team with fellow British Olympian Iain Percy.

The British Americas Cup boat GBR Challenge racing in the Solent during the Round the Island Race. Photo: Clive Mason/ALLSPORT

Ian Walker: a winning leader

Ian Walker also achieved major success in offshore racing, skippering three Volvo Ocean Race entries, which culminated in becoming the first British skipper to win in 2015 with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, having come back from a dismasting in the previous edition.

His coaching and performance roles have included coaching Shirley Robertson to her second gold in 2004, and serving as Performance Director for the British Sailing Team. He oversaw the British team’s last truly dominant Games, with GBR sailors topping the medal table at Tokyo 2020, winning five medals, including three golds after a challenging, covid-disrupted build up.

Since Tokyo, Ian Walker has been at North Sails, leading the UK sailmaking team for the past three years.

Ian Walker, skipper of the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team, celebrates during the winners ceremony in Gothenburg at the end of the Volvo Ocean Race. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

Unusually, Walker brings experience at a high level in both commercial and performance spheres, combined with personal sailing achievement and experience.

“It’s an exciting moment to return to the America’s Cup with a British challenge that has the continuity of the last three campaigns, alongside the recent creation of the America’s Cup Partnership (ACP),” Walker explained.

“That was a big part of my decision to take this on, because I believe in what the ACP is trying to achieve – creating a sustainable, viable commercial business model for the competition. I’ve also worked with several members of the team previously, which gives me real confidence in what we’re building together.”

“The America’s Cup transcends the sport of sailing and has so much untapped potential, Walker concluded. “I am excited about what lies ahead, just imagine how cool it would be for the team to win it for Britain.”

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On June 29 a lifeboat crew was attending a multicoloured little yacht that had run hard aground off Folkestone, on the south-east corner of England, in the early hours of the morning.

The yacht was a 27ft Albin Vega, sitting high and dry on the rocks, and its skipper a petite young sailor called Jazz Turner, who was in the closing stages of a solo circumnavigation of Britain – and also happens to use a wheelchair to get about on land.

At first glance, Turner and the Albin’s situation looked hopeless: the yacht would surely require towing off, the single-handed skipper would surely require assistance.

But the rescue crews were asked not to intervene. Jazz and her team had a plan, and she was going to get herself and her yacht out of this predicament on her own.

Despite her limited mobility Turner was able to kedge off and refloat after dragging first a bow and then a stern anchor out across the rocks.

It was a remarkable act of seamanship by any standards, but Turner spent hours crawling across the slippery shoreline, hauling anchors and chain that weighed nearly as much as her own 40kg frame, then pulling in on the stern anchor lines by hand to get the yacht’s rudders back into deeper water.

It worked, the Albin refloated – relatively unscathed – and Turner went on to complete one of the most incredible sailing achievements of recent years.

Turner’s yacht Fear aground just before her voyage end. Photo: Project Fear

Face everything and rise

Jazz Turner’s solo sailing circumnavigation was named Project Fear, and her beloved Albin is named Fear, for ‘face everything and rise’.

It’s an apt sentiment, as Turner has faced more adversity than most. She was initially drawn to sailing quite by chance – a school friend had been given a voucher for a day’s sailing experience as a birthday present, but the typical English summer weather was uninviting, cold and wet.

When her friend didn’t want to go, Turner jumped at the chance, and realised instantly that she loved it. She began dinghy sailing aged 13 at her local club, Newhaven & Seaford SC.

“I couldn’t afford my own boat, so I walked down to the club every Sunday morning, on Wednesday evenings after school. I’d go around the dinghy park and ask people if I could go sailing with them.

“Eventually they brought down a Topper for me from our club inland site, which I raced and learned to sail that way,” she recalls. From the Topper she progressed to the Laser (now ILCA) at Weir Wood SC, and helmed a double-handed Fireball dinghy.

Article continues below…

However, the sailing clubs weren’t just a source of fun. Turner had an unstable home life, often moving around, and finally left home as a teenager.

Fellow Fireball racer and friend Chris Turner realised Jazz’s situation and took her in – later formally adopting her. Sailing had not only given Jazz a passion and an outlet, but it also brought her a new family.

Jazz Turner approaches Brighton to complete her around Britain adventure. Photo: Ingrid Abery

Remarkable story

But that was far from the end of Turner’s remarkable story.

Due to her chaotic childhood, Turner had never had some unusual medical symptoms investigated. Chris Turner’s wife, Carolyn, is a GP and realised that some of the conditions Jazz lived with – frequently dislocating joints and unexplained allergies – needed proper diagnosis.

That diagnosis was Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome; a genetic, progressive condition, which affects connective tissue throughout the body, and over the years the condition has increased in severity.

On land Turner uses a wheelchair, as it’s painful to bear weight and she is liable to falling. Gastro-intestinal failure means her digestive system struggles to process food and drink.

Jazz has raced in a wide range of dinghy fleets including the RS200. Photo: c/o Jazz Turner

Her foster dad, Chris, explained to our sister title PBO: “She also has a Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) condition which means her heart rate goes through the roof; assistance dog Phoebe tells her to sit down before she passes out.

“When sailing she has a clever watch, which gives her a shorter warning of five minutes.”

In December Jazz was told her condition had become terminal, and she had months to live. She was just 26.

“They offered her a bed at the hospice but she’s a 26-year-old who wants to live life to the full. She might die quicker doing so but she’d rather do that than be in a hospice with tubes – that’s a jail sentence,” Chris explained.

Living every day

Living life to the fullest for Turner was always going to involve sailing.

Determined to continue despite her worsening physical symptoms, she had previously begun sailing Paralympic and adaptive classes, such as the 2.4mR and RS Venture. “I found out that I wouldn’t classify: even if sailing was re-included in the Paralympics I wouldn’t be able to go because my disability isn’t eligible.

Racing in a Dart 15. Photo: c/o Jazz Turner

“I wanted to chase something similar to the Paralympics and still feel like I had a focus, so I switched over to big boats,” Jazz Turner recalls.

“But I was struggling to get opportunities crewing because people were scared of my wheelchair or scared of my disability. I was getting really frustrated. So I decided I’d get my own boat with the intention of potentially racing it or taking on some bigger challenge.

“I didn’t necessarily know what that challenge was: I just knew I needed my own boat.”

Sonar keelboat sailing in the Solent. Photo: c/o Jazz Turner

Chasing a dream

Turner had a total budget of £10,000 and bought the 1970s Albin for £6,000, leaving scant funds for the total overhaul required.

“She was pretty unmodified from when she was first built. She didn’t really have any modern electronics; it was all original winches, original rigging, original wiring.

“I had to totally rebuild her from the ground up,” Turner recalls.

Initially the shoestring refit was carried out by friends and family, but as Jazz’s plans crystalised into an around Britain challenge, more and more companies in the marine industry began to support her and she was able to make upgrades, including new sails and electronics.

Minor adaptations were made for her mobility: all lines are led to the centre cockpit, and fear sails downwind with a goosewinged jib rather than a spinnaker.

“Other than putting up the jib pole, there was no need to go on the foredeck at all,” she explains. “Then I have a series of straps that hold me onto the windward side of the boat, as well as a lot of handholds and extra supports so I could pull myself around using my body and not be reliant on my legs.”

Turner also competed in Para sailing classes, including the SV 14. Photo: c/o Jazz Turner

It wasn’t until late 2024 that Jazz knew whether a truly solo sailing adventure would even be possible.

“It was nearing December when I finally did my first solo, solo sail. Up to that point I’d always had someone else on board as a backup.

“I went out, past Dover and back. It was a lot, but it was good. That was when I realised I was actually going to attempt this solo, non-stop and unassisted.”

Around Britain

Turner and Fear set off on their round Britain challenge on 2 June from Brighton marina.

It did not go well. “It was a brutal start, properly brutal. I had 20 knots of south-westerly, upwind, that didn’t drop for the first four days,” Jazz Turner recalls. “Everything, everything, that could have broken did break.

“It was exhausting physically, and very exhausting emotionally – because I thought we’d done loads of sailing to test everything, and then things were still breaking. I genuinely thought we’d be forced to turn around. I remember I was off Poole and my electronic compass had stopped working.

Showing true grit turner refloated the boat herself during her Round Britain. Photo: Project Fear

I was on the phone to my parents and dad said, ‘Look, it’s okay. You can come home. You can start again. We’ll start you again next week.’

“And everything in me wanted me to say yes, but all I could shout down on the phone was ‘no!’ – and then hang up on him, because how could he even say that? That was when I realised I was going to push on no matter what. It just might nearly kill me.”

When Jazz says the challenge might kill her, she’s not talking purely metaphorically. Maintaining body temperature and processing food are among the vital physical functions disrupted by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and even harder offshore.

Another complication is that her joints easily dislocate. “Without being able to brace my legs, I get thrown around an awful lot. Physically, that is massively exhausting and painful, but all my joints dislocate. So every time I get knocked, a joint falls out and I have to put it back in.

“If I do a tack wrong or something, I can knock my hip out, knock several fingers out. And then once the boat’s on the new tack, I’ve got to reattach and relocate all those joints and carry on sailing.

“It happens daily, so I’m used to it, but it doesn’t stop it from hurting. And I couldn’t take most of the pain relief because of the risks with drowsiness.”

Sailing Round Britain

Over the top

Despite the rough start, Turner carried on. After nearly two weeks at sea, she realised she’d fallen into a rhythm.

“It was passing Fastnet rock on day 11. When I first started out in yachting, it was a Fastnet race year and I’d applied to loads of boats to do the race. I’d been turned down from each one – basically being told by teams that my disability was too complex and they couldn’t support me.

“So passing Fastnet was one of those moments where I suddenly thought we actually might pull this off!”

Fear was flying and the passage up the west coast of Scotland proved an unexpected treat. “It was really enjoyable. We had a breeze behind us pretty much the whole time, about 20 knots, just surfing down waves. So we made it to St Kilda by day 14, which was a lot faster than planned.”

Going into the challenge, Turner hadn’t set herself an end goal. “I didn’t set any expectations because I really didn’t know how long things would take – I never actually planned the second half of my route because I never thought I’d ever make it that far!” she recalls.

Turner’s yacht Fear aground. Photo: Project Fear

Second half

The return leg proved not so kind. “It was horrific. I thought by the point we were heading south, the worst had to be over. But the east coast and North Sea lived up to its reputation. A short, sharp, chop that was uncomfortable to sail through.

“Not nice for the boat, not nice for me, not good for the autopilot. That combined with the fact that you were having to slalom between oil rigs, tankers, and wind farms. It was pretty bloody miserable.”

Turner had onshore weather routing from Paralympian and offshore racer Hannah Stodel, and would check in twice a day via satellite communication.

“But a lot was just a case of keep going. There’s a massive storm coming? Reef, tough it out, carry on. Because once I’d turned south, there weren’t any anchorages I could get into and out of under sail alone.

“I think we saw 52 knots at one point in the North Sea. I was quite far offshore, and it was just a massive squall that came through. I was fully reefed and just drifted on the poles. But I had complete faith in Fear.

Turner is reunited with her parents, Chris and Carolyn, at the end of her circumnavigation. Photo: Fergus Kennedy

“She didn’t let me down in the slightest. She’s a bomb-proof little thing.”

The only point Jazz’s challenge was in true jeopardy was that grounding the night before she finished. “I was essentially drifting because there was no wind and an awful lot of tides. So I went inside to check the chartplotter, and I must have fallen asleep.

“The next thing I know, all the alarms were going off and I can see I’m in less than a metre of water. I throw myself out the companionway, look up to see the cliff, then chuck the rudder over to try and tack out to sea. But we’d hit and it was too late.”

After calling her family and team she formulated the strategy of using anchors to winch herself out.

Even getting on and off the beached yacht required some quick thinking. “The boat was high and dry, on its side. So I was able to slide off the front. I had on board a long piece of rope with a load of knots in, so I tied that onto the windward guardrail, and then I could pull myself back on board by pulling myself up the knots on the rope.”

Ashore after her circumnavigation. Photo: Fergus Kennedy

Success recognised

Jazz Turner completed her round Britain by sailing back into Brighton marina on 30 June after 28 days and 2,070 miles of sailing. She became the first disabled person to sail around the British Isles solo and unsupported.

Huge crowds turned out to greet her, her adventure having drawn the support of sailing A-listers including Ben Ainslie, Dame Ellen MacArthur, Pip Hare, and Ian Walker.

The achievement took a while to sink in. “This project started as nothing more than something to keep me going at a time where I didn’t really see any hope or any future for myself,” she reflects.

“It was very much a personal challenge. The fact that it has inspired so many people to believe they can do more than what’s expected of them – that’s a great bonus.”

However, Turner is not done adventuring yet. “I think i’m going to attempt a transatlantic in fear next year. I learned a lot while I was out there,” she said. She is also seeking sponsorship to compete in the RWYC’s 2026 Worldstar Solo Round The World Race.

“Pretty much immediately afterwards, it’s been, ‘oh, what can I do next?’ I don’t think I’ll ever be done.”

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post Inside Jazz Turner’s solo circumnavigation around Britain appeared first on Yachting World.

The Transat Café L’Or – formerly known as the Transat Jacques Vabre – has got off to a dramatic start with three Ocean Fifty trimarans capsizing in the first night of racing.

Four classes compete in the double-handed transatlantic race from Le Havre to Martinique: Ocean Fifty trimarans, Ultim trimarans, Class 40 monohulls and IMOCA monohulls.

A series of fronts in the Channel and North Atlantic have made conditions difficult, with the race village closed on Thursday 23 October. The scheduled start for the Ultims, Class 40s and IMOCAs was delayed from Saturday 25 to today, Sunday 26 October.

However, the 10 trimarans in the Ocean Fifty fleet started on Saturday afternoon at 1630hrs, aiming to get out of the Channel before the biggest winds hit on Sunday night.

The Ocean Fifty fleet at the start of the Transat Café l’Or on October 25, 2025 in Le Havre, France. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot / Alea

Three trimarans capsize

The first capsize was reported on the first evening at 2027 UTC (1027 pm local time) when the Ocean Fifty Lazare X Hellio flipped off La Hague, the first peninsular after the start at Le Havre. The trimaran had set off just four hours previously. Both skippers, Erwan Le Draoulec and Tanguy Le Turquais, were safely airlifted to shore.

French coastguard services (SNSM) marked the boat’s position, which was later recovered.

Weather conditions in the area were reported as rough, with steady winds of 22 to 25 knots, gusts up to 30 knots, and 3m waves.

The Ocean Fifty Lazare x Hellio being towed by the French SNSM rescue service after capsizing off Cherbourg, during the Transat Café l’Or race on October 26, 2025. Photo: Lazare Sailing Team

Skipper Tanguy Le Turquais posted on social media today: “Emotionally I can say that it was a bit shocking to see Erwan get in the helicopter from the central hull, then my turn [to get into the] chopper and see Lazarus x Hellio, with its white crossbeams and hulls half underwater… These are quite shocking images.”

The capsized Ocean Fifty Koesio washed up off a beach on Guernsey. Photo: Guernsey Coastguard

Around four hours later at 0025 UTC (0225 local time), the race management team was informed that a second Ocean Fifty, Koesio, had capsized north of Guernsey. At the time, the boat was in 8th position and sailing in a 25-knot northerly wind with 2.5m waves.

Co-skippers Erwan Leroux and Audrey Ogereau were both safe and unhurt, and rescued by helicopter. On Sunday morning the wreck of the trimaran had washed up on a shingle beach at Perelle on Guernsey.

Next to capsize was Inter Invest, skippered by Matthieu Perraut and Jean-Baptiste Gellée, which was reported as having capsized off the coast of the Abers, the north-west the tip of Brittany at 0405 UTC. Co-skippers Perraut and Gellée were also both safe and in good health, and airlifted from the trimaran around 0600. The boat was later salvaged by the 35m/115ft trimaran Merida.

Ocean Fifty Inter Invest, skippers Matthieu Perraut and Jean Baptiste Gellée at the start of the Transat Café l’Or on October 25, 2025. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot / Alea

Ocean Fifty: on the red line

The Ocean Fifty fleet is notorious for racing ‘on the edge’. In 2018 six of the 50ft trimarans started the TJV, with only three finishing.

“The vigilance level is a little higher than for the other [classes],” commented Elodie-Jane Mettraux before the race. Mettraux is racing ​​with Anne-Claire Le Berre on Upwind by MerConcept.

“We know there’s a red line that we mustn’t cross, otherwise we’ll capsize,” added her co-skipper Anne-Claire Le Berre. “It adds extra nervous tension and forces us to be even more focused.”

Co-skipper of the capsized Koesio Erwan Le Roux had told race media before the start: “It’s easy to put the foot right down hard on the accelerator, but capsizing is the problem if you push too hard.”

Ocean Fifty Koesio, skippers Erwan Le Roux and Audrey Ogereau at the start of the Transat Café l’Or 2025 on October 25, in Le Havre, France. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot / Alea

Tanguy Le Turquais, a recent convert from the IMOCA and co-skipper of the capsized Lazare X Hellio had also spoken of the risks before the start, saying: “On board, you realize that you are slowly getting used to it, to increasing the threshold of fear.”

Transat Café L’Or start

The remaining three classes got underway at lunchtime today. They include four giant Ultim trimarans, 18 IMOCAs and 42 Class 40s. The course lengths of the Transat Café L’Or vary to try and have the four classes arrive in Martinique at approximately the same time between 5-7 November.

The Ultims have been set a 6200-mile course that takes the fastest ocean racing boats in the world into the Southern Hemisphere to a waypoint south of Ascension Island and sees them cross the Doldrums twice.

The Ocean Fifty fleet was set a 4600-mile course, rounding the island of Sal in the Cape Verdes before turning right for Martinique.

The 18 IMOCAs are racing on a 4350-mile track that leaves the Canaries to starboard.

Because of an incoming frontal system with an expected deterioration in weather conditions at theentrance to the Bay of Biscay, the race management team has decided to alter the Class 40 course. The 42 boats will stop in La Coruña (Spain) to seek shelter, and a second start will then be given as soon as conditions permit.

The overall ranking of the Transat Café L’Or Le Havre Normandie in the Class 40 fleet will be calculated based on the combined times of the two legs.

The post Three 50ft trimarans capsize in first night of Transat race: all skippers rescued   appeared first on Yachting World.

Local dinghy classes tend to evolve to suit the particular conditions of the waters they sail in, and the Patí Català catamarans are unique to their Barcelona birthplace. The catamaran is a development of the simple twin-hulled platforms that Spanish fisherman would paddle out to check their nets in the late 1800s.

In 1942 two brothers from Catalonia added wooden spars and battenless mainsails to their boats and the sailing class was born. Often referred to as ‘skates’, the flat-bottomed Patí boats have no rudder, daggerboard, or foils of any kind, meaning they can be comfortably dragged across the sand of the Barceloneta and Badalona beaches.

They’re also exceptionally quick to rig, allowing locals to race the class in their lunchtime breaks before popping back to work (racing is held five days a week, first gun at noon). However, while the design may be simple in construction, they are complex to sail, relying on the sailor’s skill in body weight positioning, sail trim and rig adjustment to manoeuvre.

Dani Pich sailed his Patí Català solo around the Isle of Wight in July. Photo: Tim Jeffreys Photography

Single mould design

The Patí Català is a strict one-design. So strict that not only must each boat meet the minimum weight of 89kg, but all bar a handful of boats are built using the same mould, as Spanish sailor Dani Pich explained.

Pich was showing me his modified Patí Català, which he went on to sail around the Isle of Wight solo on Thursday 24 July, in 13 hours and 8 minutes.

“They are all handmade near Barcelona. To make the hulls, we use what is called the cow. We call it the cow because when you put in the plywood, you stack it, and you have to clamp it.

“Then you have to go underneath and to tighten it the movement is as if you were milking a cow. Since 1970, all the Patí Catalàns have been made with this cow, except for maybe fewer than 20.”

Up close, the Patí hulls are surprisingly pretty, skilfully crafted from different woods to give different levels of structural stiffness in key areas.

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“The plywood is okoume. They are all tropical woods. The soft one, the yellow, is called ayous, it’s the one that permits the twist and the flex. And the one that is darker is called samanguila. That is a variation of the oak, and it’s very strong,” explains Pich.

The twin hulls are connected by five wooden crossbeams, known as racks or benches, which sailors use to traverse the boats and to move their body weight forward and aft depending on conditions. Weight is key – each racing boat has a minimum hull weight of 89kg and competitive sailors will sand their boats down to ensure they are as close as possible to the class minimum (if individual boats come in too light they must carry corrector weights).

Patí Català sailing off Barcelona during the America’s Cup. Photo: Ian Roman/America’s Cup

Custom build

Eight years ago Barcelona sailor Pich lost his sight when a fire extinguisher exploded aboard the gas ship he was working on as a merchant seaman. He is now totally blind.

Pich learned to sail as a child, starting in the Optimist dinghy before moving to the Laser (now ILCA) single-hander, though he never fell in love with racing. For him, the lure of sailing was more about the challenge of ocean crossings, and in his late teens he moved into sailing larger yachts, crossing the Mediterranean and Atlantic before building a career at sea.

Waterproof box housing a processor that converts wind data to a ‘clock’ direction system. Photo: Tim Jeffreys Photography

He first experimented with sailing the local Patí Català when he was 16. “At first I thought this was too complicated for me. But after a summer when I had the opportunity to train a lot with it, I found it spectacular,” he recalls.

After his accident, Pich struggled to return to the sport he loved. He tried some ‘accessible’ sailing programs in Spain and was left feeling degraded by the experience. “It was ‘Sit here, sit there’. I felt like a package they were moving around, and giving me orders. And I was supposed to be thankful for the opportunity.”

Pich demonstrating how he uses foot placement and body weight during a tack. Photo: Tim Jeffreys Photography

Despite their complexity, the only option for him to sail autonomously was to sail a Patí, out of a local Barcelona city club. “It meant that I could leave my house and go by public transport, and not require many more people to do this. I could go by myself,” he explains.

“I knew the club. And I thought, well, I know this is a difficult way to start. But the club were the only ones that said, ‘Okay, let’s try it.’”

Initially Pich was required to sail with another person aboard his Patí, so it was stiffened to carry the additional crew and the hull now weighs in at 150kg. However, the reinforced structure also helped Pich’s boat stand up to the short Solent chop during his single-handed sail around the Isle of Wight.

The ‘piano’ area of sail and rig controls. The cut-out notches both reduce weight and act as extra foot grips when hiking. Photo: Tim Jeffreys Photography

“This is the only Patí that you can be sailing in 15 knots upwind, with two people hiking, and it doesn’t break. Normally, when you start to heel, the bow wants to fall down, and the aft end wants to fall down. So the bits that suffer are the first and the fifth benches. And they break, bam! After the third time I broke the benches, I said, enough is enough – we’re going to build from scratch a boat completely reinforced, so I don’t have this problem.

“I built it myself with the woodmaker. So I know everything about it, how it is made, the wood thicknesses. Because I thought that if I had to do some repairs I should know my own boat.”

Rig and controls

With no rudder, the primary controls on the Patí Català are rig adjustments, mainsheet and shifting of body weight.

“You start sitting in the neutral position,” explains Pich, indicating between the third and fourth cross-beam. “So how we can control the boat is with our weight moving to the bow or to the aft. If we go to the bow, the boat goes upwind. When we go to the aft, we sail a lower course. You can do this in five knots of wind without touching anything. But when it starts to blow harder, if you don’t trim the sail, you cannot.”

Pich uses ropes of different diameter so he knows which control line is which. Photo: Tim Jeffreys Photography

To initiate and exit a tack, Patí sailors stand, using their body weight to drive the boat into a turn and swinging against the sail as it loads up in a fluid, acrobatic movement. Pich has added a solid panel between the forward cross-beams to allow him to more safely cross the boat without sight of his foot placement.

Besides the mainsheet and sail controls, there are also control lines that allow the sailor to adjust rig shape underway. “I can make the mast like a ‘C’,” explains Pich. “There are two ropes going from inside the mast to outside. I can bring on the front stay, but I’m not pulling the mast forward. I am just pulling from three quarters of the mast, to the front. So I can flatten the sail and twist the outer part of the leech.

“We call it like the gears of the car. You start with first, then second, third. So you start completely open, with the wind on the sail starting the power of the boat. When you feel the boat is starting to run, you go into first gear, put a little bit [of rig tension] on, then a bit more. And every time, then you have to trim the sail.”

Stripes of non-slip padding allow Pich to orient himself along the side decks and five racks. Photo: Tim Jeffreys Photography

Because the boat has no boom, the Cunningham is heavily used to pull down the mainsail. A stainless steel metal beam aft is the traveller, and also counter-balances the weight of the mast forward.

Sailing by feel

Despite its complexity, Pich says the wooden construction of the Patí gives a lot more feedback to him as a blind sailor than a glassfibre boat such as his Laser dinghy. “We say that this boat, you sail it by feelings. The wood talks a lot. The sound that it makes is incredible. You can know many things about what’s happening on board just by hearing the boat.”

Pich says the plywood Patí Català gives a lot more feedback to him as a blind sailor than a glassfibre boat would. Photo: Tim Jeffreys Photography

“Every time I broke the boat in any way, I was the first to know it – more than anyone who has sight. The sound completely changes. There is a new sound that enters the puzzle.”

There are two other unique items on Pich’s boat: a wind sensor and a black electronics box. These read wind data which is then communicated to Pich through a special custom-made vibrating vest created by a Catalan startup company called White Jacket.

The vest has two strips around Pich’s torso, and 12 small vibration motors connected to a battery. The first strip feeds Pich information on his course, using the circle of a clock – so 12 o’clock is at his front and means dead ahead. The lower strip connects to the data from the wind sensor, and gives Pich true wind angle.

“I’ve got the two vectors; course over the ground and the wind angle. So then it’s trying to do some magic!” explains Pich, who calculates the course to steer in his head and by feel.

Pich only began working with White Jacket in April, and they want to develop the vest technology further to include heading guidance. This would also make the vest more of an accessibility tool for less experienced sailors than Pich.

The vest components are housed inside a silicone tube, with IP68 connectors for waterproofing. However, during Pich’s around the island bid in July his vest began overheating and he went on to complete most of the circumnavigation by feel, with his team on the support RIB communicating information on tide, waves and obstructions.

Pich also uses other cues such as the sun. “I cannot see light, but I can feel the heat. So for example, if I am reaching and I am on starboard tack, the sun is on my right. And I can feel it on my face. I know from the movement of the sun that is going from east to west, and knowing my latitude, I can orientate myself. But this is what I’d like to show people: that because we are blind, we’re not stupid. We can do things.

“Do you know how complex it is to fry an egg without seeing? It is hundreds of times more complex than sailing!”

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The post How a blind sailor raced this unique rudderless catamaran around the Isle of Wight appeared first on Yachting World.

French ocean racer Charlie Dalin has revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2023, and completed – and won – the gruelling 2024/25 Vendée Globe while continuing treatment for the illness.

Dalin, skipper of the IMOCA Macif Santé Prévoyance had withdrawn from the 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre transatlantic race for unspecified medical issues. He confirmed in his autobiography La Force du Destin (‘The Force of Destiny’), released tomorrow, that he was in fact diagnosed with a gastrointestinal stromal tumour that autumn.

Despite this, Dalin went on to qualify for the Vendée Globe, completing the Transat CIC and return New York Vendée-Les Sables Race in the summer of 2024.

An emotional Dalin crosses the line to win the 2024 Vendée Globe. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli / Alea

Dalin then delivered one of the most impressive winning performances in the solo non-stop around the world Vendée Globe race’s history, pushing his IMOCA to blistering speeds and maintaining a ferociously relentless work rate throughout – famously riding a low pressure system in the South Indian Ocean to pull ahead of his close rival Yoann Richomme on Paprec Arkéa.

He finished the race in 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes, and 49 seconds, demolishing the previous course record by 10 days.

Charlie Dalin cancer diagnosis

Dalin reports that he first noticed symptoms in late 2023 during a training sail, and received his diagnosis after emergency scans.

The skipper, who sails for MerConcept, did not publicly announce that he was going through cancer treatment, though he and his team adapted his training due to the weight loss and fatigue he suffered.

Dalin was first to finish in the previous 2020/21 Vendée Globe, but fellow competitor Yannick Bestaven was awarded the race win following receiving time in redress for his part in the search and rescue of Kevin Escoffier, whose boat PRB broke up off South Africa.

Before the 2024 race Dalin had spoken about how he came to terms with the unique emotional rollercoaster of crossing his first ever Vendée Globe in first place, but knowing his victory wouldn’t last.

Dalin’s 2024 Vendée Globe

With a purpose built Verdier-designed IMOCA and – outwardly at least – apparently perfect preparation until the 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre, Dalin was a hot favourite for the 2024 Vendée Globe.

But privately, his participation was in doubt until the last minute, when a scan in November 2024 confirmed that his tumour had not grown and he was able to join the record-sized fleet on the start line in Les Sables d’Olonne. During the race he managed the illness with daily medication, and prioritised rest when possible.

“I stuck to my strategy, sleeping an average of six and half hours per 24 hours, which is more than on my first Vendée,” he told French news agency AFP, in one of several interviews ahead of Thursday’s publication of his book.

“I had stomach pains, but I just told myself: you don’t have time to worry about that. The pains went away as quickly as they had come,” he added. “By the time I got back to shore, I had almost forgotten about them.”

Macif was custom-built and designed for Dalin. Photo: Ronan Gladu/Disobey/Macif

Speaking about his race post-diagnosis, Dalin revealed that he felt very relaxed during his second Vendée.

“On November 10, 2024, the day of the Vendée Globe start, I was incredibly relaxed. We often hear that taking part in the Vendée is already a victory. In my case, that was exactly it! Because a year earlier, I didn’t even know if I would survive,” he told French sailing magazine Voiles et Voiliers.

“In fact, during a chat during the trip up the Atlantic, when I was neck and neck with Yoann (Richomme), I said: ‘In the end, it’s just a game.’

“Many people thought it was a bluff, thinking it didn’t correspond to my usual state of mind. But no, I was really relaxed, happy to be on my boat, battling for the final victory.”

Incredible story

Dalin had considered going public with his diagnosis during the media frenzy after winning the Vendée Globe, but when offered a book deal decided that would be the better way to tell his story.

“Frankly, if a screenwriter had imagined a script around the Vendée, he would never have dared to write the story of a sailor with cancer, who returns to the race of his dreams and wins it after crossing the line first, but finishes second in his first participation…

He would have been told that it was too much, that it didn’t make sense. And yet, that’s exactly what happened,” Dalin told Voiles et Voiliers.

Dalin (left) 2nd second placed Richomme in Les Sables d’Olonne after the pair’s fierce duel during the Vendée Globe. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Dalin’s recovery

Shortly after the finish in February this year, Charlie Dalin underwent surgery and is now focusing on his recovery. “I had a tumour 15 centimetres long on my intestine. They removed it in February, but it came back elsewhere in April,” he explained to French newspaper L’Equipe.

British skipper Sam Goodchild is racing Macif in next month’s Transat Café L’or (formerly the Transat Jacques Vabre), with new IMOCA co-skipper Loïs Berrehar. The Macif team will be making a further announcement about their sailing squad later this month.

All of us at Yachting World sincerely wish Charlie and his family the very best for the future. Charlie and his team generously gave me the opportunity to sail aboard his incredible Macif in September 2024, and it was an absolute privilege to witness him at the helm. We hope to see him back there very soon.

The post Vendée Globe record-breaker Charlie Dalin won gruelling race after cancer diagnosis appeared first on Yachting World.

Without medical services, how do you keep yourself, your crew, or your family healthy? It’s one of the most daunting elements of sailing offshore.

We joined crews preparing for the Grand Large Odyssey: a three-year, 35,000-mile round the world rally organised by Grand Large Yachting, builders of Outremer, Gunboat, ORC, RM, Allures and Garcia brands, for owners of those boats (the next edition starts in November this year).

Ahead of the rally start, GLY held a ‘World Odyssey University’; a week-long series of seminars and networking events crammed with information for participants.

One of the recurring topics was healthcare on board, including a full-day seminar led by Dr Matthieu Coudreuse, an ER doctor who specialises in medicine in isolated and offshore environments. Coudreuse has worked as the onboard doctor on an icebreaking expedition vessel, in remote tropical clinics and with disaster relief teams. The GLY entrants also heard a presentation by previous rally crews on how to avoid or handle health issues based on their experiences and learnings. These are some of the key takeaways:

A medical kit to cover most likely eventualities is essential offshore

Before you go

Preparing the humans is as important as preparing the yacht. Just as you wouldn’t set out without servicing the boat’s engine, allow enough time for medical checks, including a visit to the GP, optician and dentist. Advice is that ‘men of a certain age’ should also consider visiting a urologist.

If you have any health conditions that require ongoing medication, such as diabetes meds or blood thinners, discuss with your doctor how to carry enough supplies to allow for delays or re-routing.

Look at the areas you plan on, or might consider, visiting and ensure you’re up to date on vaccinations (eg hepatitis, rabies, tetanus, typhoid, yellow fever or encephalitis). Proof of vaccination is mandatory for some countries. Make sure any crew or guests planning on joining the voyage do the same, and that everyone on board has comprehensive health insurance.

Article continues below…

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On a long passage, also plan to incorporate ongoing health checks – many countries along the way will offer good, affordable health and dental care. Previous GLY rally crews accessed treatment in Panama, Tahiti, Noumea, Reunion, Mauritius and South Africa.

Dedicate time to more advanced medical training – a basic First Aid at Sea should be the minimum, but there are multi-day courses suitable for situations where you may not be able to access medical help for days, including from marine specialists such as MSOS (msos.org.uk).

You might consider signing up for a tele-med service – there are several private providers that offer a dedicated e-medicine service for offshore sailors, in addition to the MRCC-connected TMAS services (see over the page). Anyone using the French TMAS service can send their medical records to their Toulouse base in advance.

And consider your own fitness – back sprains etc are a common problem and can be debilitating. Working on your own strength, core stability and balance before setting off can help reduce the risk of injury.

Skin welts from a jellyfish sting can be very painful. Photo: Adrian Weston/Alamy

Get prepared

Preparing for all medical eventualities is impossible, and health issues completely unrelated to sailing can always rear their head, but having a good awareness of your own health is key as getting an early and accurate diagnosis is critical.

You can work out what your greatest risk factors are, to prepare to mitigate them. The most common risks include: skin problems due to exposure to sun; wet/saltwater and problems with wound healing; food and drinking water contamination; the boat itself; and risks associated with stopovers.

During the previous two-year GLY world rally there were a small number of serious incidents, including a broken leg when a crew member was flicked overboard by the mainsheet while sailing in 4m waves, and safely recovered. Another dislocated their shoulder falling through an open hatch when walking on deck. A skipper dived to attempt to free their stuck anchor, but their air tank ran empty at 15m depth and they ascended too rapidly. And a seemingly innocuous incident led to a helicopter medi-vac after one crew member cut their feet on coral, which caused an infection that didn’t respond to antibiotics.

Be confident in basic first aid, including CPR. Photo: Grand Large Yachting

What to pack

When offshore or in many remote areas, your onboard medical kit will be your only resource, so spend time considering what to carry. There is no compulsory list of medicines to carry, only advisories – rally organisers and tele-med services can help, while TMAS France publishes two lists, for vessels 0-60 miles offshore, and 60 miles-plus.

As a starting point, you should carry treatments for seasickness, cuts and wounds, burns, bruising and broken bones, allergic reactions, hypothermia and sunstroke, infections, skin problems, and digestive problems.
Every first aid kit should have some sort of pain relief – from paracetamol and ibuprofen. Stronger analgesics, such as opiates and anti-inflammatories, will need a prescription (also include anti-sickness medication, as opiates can make many people sick). Always talk to a medical professional before administering opiates, and be aware of laws on restricted substances, such as morphine, when crossing international borders.

If any crew have known allergies or asthma they should have their own EpiPen or inhaler, with spares in the first aid kit. Even if you have no known allergies on board, consider carrying an EpiPen as you’ll likely come into contact with new foods, insects etc.

More advanced skills such as suturing or stapling wounds will need practice ashore before being attempted afloat. Photos: Grand Large Yachting

A range of dressings can be useful, including gauze, steristrips and tape. Suturing can be immensely difficult for inexperienced first-aiders, particularly on a moving boat, so a staple kit can be easier – but still requires training and practice beforehand. Consider carrying plastic or inflatable splints and a neck brace for any suspected broken bones or spinal issues.

Burns are surprisingly common at sea. Make sure the boat has both washes for chemical burns and scald treatments, as well as waterproof dressings to prevent infection. Diagnostic tools such as a pen torch to assess pupil dilation, mirrors, urine dip sticks, a thermometer, scalpels, scissors, needles and syringes should be kept in sterile waterproof packaging.

Consider if you want to carry a small bottle of oxygen in case of suspected drowning or respiratory issues. Or even a defibrillator – which can be helpful in an emergency, but is relatively heavy and bulky.

But the more comprehensive your onboard medical kit, the more you need to be aware of drug interactions – for example, medication that a crew member is taking for a chronic condition with a drug taken to treat a new issue. Do not administer prescription medicines without medical advice from a tele-med service or similar.

Keep tablets, drugs and treatments well labelled and in waterproof bags or containers in your medical kit. Photo: Pip Hare Ocean Racing

Prevention over cure

Tropical environments bring their own challenges. For example, mosquitos can fly more than two miles over sea, potentially carrying malaria, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, or zika fever. Prevention – avoiding getting bitten – is best, although you can do a self-test for malaria onboard to avoid taking anti-malarials, which just involves a single blood prick.

Digestive issues such as gastroenteritis and parasites again mostly require prevention. A rule to reduce risk is ‘Cook it, boil it, peel it, or forget it.’

Watch out for drinking water and ice served ashore, as well as making sure your own water supply on board is safe (keep on top of filters, tank hygiene etc). There’s an added risk of dehydration when gastro issues combine with sailing, so carry rehydration and electrolyte sachets.

Travellers in the tropics can be at risk of Leptospirosis – avoid by not eating fallen fruits from the ground, or drinking from bottles in cafes/beach bars. Ciguatera can be avoided by not eating fish caught in some areas – check official and local sources to avoid risky catches.

In Vanuatu, nearly all the rally crews picked up some kind of infection, even from a simple splinter. Antibacterial gel is often ineffective – focus instead on handwashing with soap and being careful to dry your hands, and use alcohol to treat. Other key items to have in your armoury are tweezers and natural topical treatments which often have no expiry date, such as tea tree oil (antibacterial and anti-fungal), lavender aspic to treat insect bites, helichrysum or peppermint oil for bruises, and tiger balm for sprains and strains.

Events such as Outremer Week and the GLY rally ‘University’ include medical training seminars

If you need help

If you do have an emergency or require medical assistance on board while offshore, Dr Coudreuse emphasised that the first thing to do is check that the boat is secure, and the rest of the crew is safe. Prevent further accidents – before you begin taking care of the patient.

Assess the severity of the situation: are they bleeding? Have they lost consciousness?

Carry out any basic first aid needed: recovery position, chest compressions etc. If possible, take photos of their injury, skin colour etc, which can be useful for a tele-med diagnosis.

In a critical situation, first call TMAS or the tele-med service, but have email ready to send photographs or other information.

Make sure you know the medical history of the patient: do they have any allergies, pre-existing conditions etc? Then you will likely need to examine them: determine location of any pain, measure blood pressure, heart rate, breathing frequency, oxygen saturation levels, temperature and other key observations. There are forms you can download in advance with prompts to guide you through the process.

Patching up during The Ocean Race Sprint Cup

Dr Coudreuse explained that it’s important when observing and describing a patient’s condition to be very specific. For example, saying they have ‘difficulty breathing’ gives limited information. While a wheezing noise on exhalation is a classic sign of asthma, in children a noise on inhalation often indicates an object in the upper airways. Likewise, when describing pain, the more specific you can be, the more able a remote doctor will be to diagnose the problem – for example, kidney stones cause a very characteristic type of pain.

But be reassured, according to Dr Coudreuse when the crew are the eyes and ears of the doctors, 70% of situations can be satisfactorily handled on board.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post How to cope with a medical emergency at sea appeared first on Yachting World.

Nathan Outteridge, undisputedly one of the best foiling sailors of his generation, is re-entering SailGP as helmsman for the newly announced Swedish Artemis Racing team.

The Swedish Artemis entry becomes the 13th team to join the multi-stage, travelling stadium race series.

Artemis Racing will be led by CEO Iain Percy, himself also an Olympic gold medallist and previously Artemis Racing’s Team Manager during their America’s Cup campaigns.

Nathan Outteridge (left) with Iain Percy CEO of Artemis SailGP Team and Russell Coutts (right), CEO of SailGP at the Artemis team announcement during the Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix in Geneva. Photo: Felix Diemer/SailGP

Outteridge back in SailGP

Outteridge’s return to SailGP will be much welcomed, as one of the biggest talents in the sport right now.

His appointment pits three of the four finalist helmsmen in the 38th America’s Cup  against each other in the foiling catamaran league. Outteridge was co-helm to the Black Foils’ Pete Burling on the winning Emirates Team New Zealand AC75 last year, beating Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher on INEOS Britannia, who currently manage and helm the GBR F50 respectively.

In the past two years Ainslie and former US skipper Jimmy Spithill stood down from racing in SailGP to take management roles, so the return of more Cup sailors with real star power will be a big boost for the circuit.

Nathan Outteridge (crouching) and Pete Burling celebrate after winning the America’s Cup in 2024 for Emirates Team New Zealand. Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images

Outteridge, who is Australian, is also a double Olympic medallist, winning a gold in 2012 and silver in 2016 in the 49er class.

However, his SailGP career has not gone entirely smoothly. As helmsman and team boss for the Japan SailGP Team in Seasons 1 & 2 he delivered great results on the water, but the team was unable to attract sufficient commercial backing and had their boat reallocated to other teams, before being dropped from the league by founders – and funders – Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts.

Since then he has raced and coached other crews, but has not skippered a team for a full season, and took some time out to go cruising with his family.

Nathan Outteridge helms the Japan SailGP Team during a practice session in Season 2. Photo: Bob Martin/SailGP

Of his return to the global racing championship, Outteridge said, “Reuniting with Iain, Torbjörn and the Artemis team for this new chapter in SailGP is incredibly exciting. We’ve shared huge moments together in the past, and bringing that experience, trust and energy into this arena gives us a powerful foundation.

“This is a new challenge for all of us – a chance to showcase what Swedish sailing can achieve in one of the toughest and fastest stages in the world. We’re approaching this season with focus, ambition and the belief that we can set the standard for what’s possible in this championship.”

Swedish Artemis Racing

Artemis Racing has a huge history in cutting-edge racing. The team is backed by Torbjörn Törnqvist, a Swedish billionaire and passionate sailor who has raced in highly competitive classes such as the RC44s and TP52s (in which he won the World Championships and Med Cup with SailGP founder Russell Coutts as tactician).

Törnqvist founded the Artemis Racing America’s Cup team, which competed in several America’s Cups – including in 2013 and 2017 – with Percy and Outteridge on the crew.

Most recently Sweden challenged for the Youth and Women’s America’s Cups as an ‘invited’ team, finishing fourth in both.

Nathan Outteridge spent time as co-driver and sailing advisor t0 the Switzerland SailGP Team in 2022. Photo: Jon Buckle/SailGP

The Artemis SailGP Team will join the Rolex SailGP Championship for 2026, the sixth season of SailGP which opens in January 2026 in Perth, Australia

Artemis SailGP Team CEO Iain Percy commented: “I’m proud to lead the Artemis SailGP Team as we return to the global stage with a clear focus – leveraging cutting-edge technology, a world-class line up, and the hard-won lessons from America’s Cup.

“SailGP is redefining the sport with unmatched speed, innovation, and fan engagement. Bringing Sweden into this elite championship is a milestone we’re proud of, and we’re determined to compete at the very highest level – pushing boundaries both on and off the water.”

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“I’ve been very lucky. I’ve sailed on a lot of really cool boats, modern boats, but also my background’s from dinghy sailing. So up until recently I probably would have said the International 14, which is an absolute classic, or the Merlin Rocket in the UK. But without a doubt, the Ultim is the coolest boat I’ve sailed on.”

Roberts was part of the Actual Ultim 4 crew for the Rolex Fastnet Race. “This was the old Gitana, it’s the new Actual 4. We put the boat in the water a week before the race, and when you buy these boats, you don’t get given all the information – or even all the right parts. So we’ve only scratched the surface of what we can do with this boat.

“It’s just next level. You sail around at 30 knots upwind, 40 knots downwind. The boat’s dead flat, I can make my cup of tea while we’re going 40 knots without even holding the mug! And it’s so reactive. The Ultim is the ultimate sailing machine in the world at the moment.”

Make sure you check out our full list of Coolest Yachts.

Ultim Actual 4 stats rating

Top speed: 51.7 knots
LOA: 32m/100ft
Launched: 2017
Berths: 1-4
Price: €10-15million
Adrenalin factor: 98%

Alan Roberts

Alan Roberts has won in a huge range of designs, from XOD classic keelboats to International Moths and other performance dinghies. Having raced at the front of the Figaro fleet he is now found on many top ocean race teams, including IMOCAs and Ultims. He will be racing The Ocean Race Europe in the IMOCA Holcim PRB.

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Thirty-one Class 40s started the CIC Normandy Channel Race on Sunday, 25 May, one of the first big races of the season. It had been a tough test from the outset, with 25 knots and a building forecast. By Tuesday there had been several retirements, including a collision between two boats on the start, a dismasting and gear failures. But the Class 40 is one of the most competitive fleets around – entries included Vendée Globe legends Michel Desjoyeaux and Vincent Riou, such is the level of experience.

The double-handed pairings had rounded the Isle of Wight, and were zigzagging their way across the English Channel and its tough tidal races. Jay Thompson, an American who has spent much of the last decade in France working with big IMOCA teams, was racing #Empowher with Irish co-skipper Pamela Lee. He recalls: “It was quite a hard race. We’d had 25-35 knots of upwind, basically the entire race. So everyone was really tired.”

Faced with forecasts of 40+ knots in the Celtic Sea, race organisers had altered course to take the fleet back across the Ouessant Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS, or DST in French). This is common – the Class 40s, along with the Figaro and other classes, frequently race across the shipping areas, though the diversion meant this particular race would cross a TSS six times.

“We had just passed the most southern mark,” Thompson continues. “We were going upwind, but slightly open. It was like a tight reach, about 80° or so true wind angle. At that time, there was 25 knots, pretty steady, with 28 knot gusts sometimes. So mostly everybody was sailing with a J1 and one reef in the main. We were on port tack, sailing north – basically to Fastnet, which was going to be our last mark before we came back to Caen, to finish.

“There was pretty good visibility. And there were big waves, about 2.5m or so of swell because a large front had just passed through.”

Event map showing the original CIC Normandy Channel Race course

Busy traffic

Cédric de Kervenoaël and Thomas Jourdren were about a mile ahead of #Empowher on their sistership Pogo S4 NST Cabinet Z. Not all the Class 40 skippers are pro sailors – de Kervenoaël is a lawyer during the week, but has been offshore racing for 30 years, and in the Class 40 fleet for a decade. He is also class president. Co-skipper Jourdren, 25, is a préparateur for Class 40s and has competed in the Transat Jacques Vabre.

De Kervenoaël says: “It had been two days of really, really tough sailing because the boats are very hard now. The scows are not so difficult to sail, but difficult to live in. You cannot eat, you cannot sleep.

“We crossed the Channel very, very quickly. And when we rounded the buoy, near Ouessant, it was about 1800-1900. We were preparing for about 15 hours of very [high] speed [sailing] and the wind to be stronger when we arrived at the Fastnet.”

“I was not really sleeping inside, but I’d kept my oilskins on. Really I was wondering if I could put my oilskins out because everything was so wet, but I had no motivation to do that. That proved quite useful later.”

Thompson had a clear visual of NST Cabinet Z as they chased north. “We were slightly south and east of their position, just a bit to leeward. So I could see him quite well – well, I could see his navigation light as it was 0200 in the morning. We were on port tack, and so off to the port side is really clear. It’s really hard to see things that are on starboard because they’re underneath the sails and the waves and the spray.

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“We were crossing the DST off Ouessant, which is the turning point. And it’s quite a busy one. My skipper, Pamela, was relaxing inside, and I was out in the cockpit just racing the boat. We have a screen on the outside, so I’m able to see the AIS and also do the sail adjustments at the same time.

“I noticed two cargos that were coming westbound. They would have been east of us. So they’re in that zone that’s difficult to see. And I could see that the crossing was going to be quite close. At that point, you’re paying more attention, and I’m trying to understand how I’m going to go around these two ships as well. Both boats had about 16-18 knots of boat speed or so.”

On board NST Cabinet Z Cédric de Kervenoaël heard his co-skipper on the VHF radio. “He was calling the cargo, but he was speaking very low, so I didn’t hear exactly what he said. But I learned afterwards that 25 minutes before the collision, he tried to call the cargo. The cargo didn’t answer. And after that, they answered.

“[Thomas] told them that, on the AIS, we were crossing in front of the cargo and he wanted to be sure that the cargo had seen us. And the guy answered, ‘Okay, I move my course’.”

“And maybe five or seven minutes after, I heard the same guy saying, ‘Well, you’re not a sailing boat, you take me for a piece of shit.’”

31 Class 40s started the 2025 CIC Normandy Channel Race, an approximately 1,000-mile double-handed offshore race around the English Channel and Celtic Sea. Photo: Photos: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

Not clear

Monitoring the situation, Thompson recalls. “I heard 191 (NST Cabinet Z) call one of the cargo ships and ask if he can pass ahead. And the guy responds by saying, ‘Yeah, you can pass ahead.’

“I would say by then we’re quite close to the cargo, getting within a mile or so – I did a couple of degrees [adjustment] to just pass behind it, and he was going to try to pass in front of it, basically in between the two cargos, because one was going to be clear ahead.

“Then a few moments later, the guy [on the cargo] comes back on the radio and says, ‘You are the give-way vessel. YOU are the one that’s going to move out of the way.’ And he says it in a way that’s really kind of unprofessional. It was more in his intonation – angry or upset.” Thompson didn’t hear anything further in the VHF exchange.

On NST Cabinet Z de Kervenoaël got up in alarm.

Cédric de Kervenoaël (on left) and Thomas Jourdren. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

“I said to Thomas, ‘Did you understand what he said?’ He was not sure, but I understood very well. So I took the radio, and I told them, ‘Yes, we are a sailing racing boat. That’s why we are fast.’ Because I suppose those guys are used to crossing sailing boats at 6.5 knots – not when they’re going at 15 knots.

“But the guy [on the cargo] didn’t answer me. I looked at the chart and I asked Thomas, ‘Okay, look, look, where is the boat? Where is the boat?’ He went outside and said, ‘It doesn’t cross, it doesn’t cross, it doesn’t cross!’
“And then we were crushed by the ship.”

Hit and run

Thompson had heard the conversation and noted it as odd. Watching from #Empowher. “I could see the Class 40 and the cargo ship’s lights coming together. And then I see just the cargo lights, so I assume he passed in front.
“Then I hear on the VHF a guy comes back on – which I assume is the cargo ship because he says, ‘You need to call the Cross.’ I thought that’s a weird thing to say.

“I waited maybe 30 seconds, the cargo ship continues on, and I don’t see the lights of the Class 40 anymore. Then I look at my screen, and their AIS has disappeared on the screen. I pick up the VHF and I call NST. She doesn’t answer. And so I tell Pam, there might be a situation here. Then a radio call comes in. He says, ‘Mayday, the boat is cut in half. We’ve de-masted. Come and get us now.’

Cédric de Kervenoaël and Thomas Jourdren were racing NST Cabinet Z. Photo: Photos: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

“It was very crackly because it was just a handheld VHF. So I responded, ‘Okay, we’re going to come right away.’”

Thompson readied his Class 40 – furling the jib and starting the engine, while Lee relayed the Mayday to the Cross Corsen – the French maritime rescue service. Jourdren had also activated the EPIRB on NST.

It’s not totally clear what the cargo skipper meant when he said ‘You need to call the Cross,’ but Thompson believes he was telling the yacht they needed to call the rescue services themselves after the impact. The ship did not stop to offer assistance.

“When I saw the AIS disappear, I just put a very quick waypoint on the Adrena of where it happened,” recalls Thompson, “So we headed over to that zone. We were there within 10 minutes.

“We could see that the boat was in pieces. The bow was apart but attached, and the mast laying in the middle with the sail. The cockpit was slightly sticking out of the water, but most of the back half of the boat was underwater.”

Class 40 rules require each yacht to have large blocks of foam for flotation built-in both forward and aft. “With the keel, the aft section was barely floating, nearly vertical. The crew were on the starboard pushpit. It was the only section that was out of the water, but with the waves, it was still going in the water. We could just see their reflectives on their jackets because we had a big spotlight. That’s how we spotted them,” Thompson adds.

The Cross rescue confirmed that a helicopter could be with them in 40 minutes. They also halted all shipping traffic in the area around the disabled yacht.

“We asked Cédric and Thomas: ‘Do you have your TPS survival suits?’ They said, no, all they had was a handheld VHF. So we relayed that, and the Cross said, ‘Well, you really need to try to get them off because 40 minutes in the water is going to be a long time.’

Pamela Lee and Jay Thompson are campaigning the Pogo S4 #Empowher. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

“We instructed the crew to inflate their liferaft, get into the raft, then let it float behind the boat. Because with the wreckage and everything in the big swell, it would have been almost guaranteed that we would put a hole in our boat if we even got close. But when they tried to inflate the liferaft, the liferaft didn’t open.”

Next the crew of #Empowher tried a different plan – inflating their own raft, with the intention of letting it drift down to the stranded crew. “We went just upwind of the boat and opened the raft. This was when it got really crazy because I looked down for two seconds to help Pam get the liferaft out of the back. And when we looked up we couldn’t see the boat anywhere. It happens so quickly that you can lose somebody. It took a little moment for us to search around to find them again.

“Then Pam opened the liferaft, and everything went perfect. She was holding on to the rope at the back of the transom. I’m driving the boat, trying to hold station, just to windward so that she could let the raft down to them. And then Pam tells me “There’s nothing on the rope.”

The rope had detached from #Empowher’s liferaft. Having had the scare of losing sight of the Class 40, Jay and Pam decided not to attempt to recover the raft, but instead to keep eyes on the crew – not an easy task short-handed.

“The boats are not easy at all. In one moment, you’re going super fast because you’re going downwind and down swell, kind of surfing. Then the next, you’re trying to go upwind super slow. And you’re trying to stay close, but not too close.

Pamela Lee and Jay Thompson on #Empowher. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

Pam was handling all the communications, I was just driving and trying to always keep a visual on the boat, basically making anticlockwise loops around them, which was easiest for me because the port side is where the controls are for the motor.”

Cedric and Thomas confirmed that their situation on the disabled NST Cabinet Z was stable – not sinking, but cold, so #Empowher kept circling for another 20 minutes.

“I think the most stressful part for us was when there was about 10 minutes left to go for the helicopter to arrive,” recalls Thompson. “Every time we did a circle, we would check in with them. But after that 10-minute point, we could start to hear in their voices how they were in themselves [going downhill] a bit. They were asking, ‘Where are you? Where are you guys? I don’t see you anymore.’”

Fortunately the helicopter arrived from Brest shortly after, and the rescue divers swiftly lifted the two men to safety – Jourdren first, as he was suffering from severe cold, then de Kervenoaël, who had broken four ribs in the impact, but – remarkably – both were otherwise unharmed.

Lessons learned

Both Thompson and de Kervenoaël commented on how the Offshore Personal Survival training had helped in the moment. “It was a bit terrifying,” admits de Kervenoaël.

“But as soon as we crashed and saw that we were both still on the boat, we did the job we had to do. The sea survival training was very useful. When you are in this situation, you know exactly what you have to do. So there was no panic. We knew that someone would come and that it would be too stupid to die in that place! It was just a question of time.”

However, Thompson notes that one thing that could improve the training is more on boat-to-boat rescues.

In a separate incident two Class 40s collided at the race start. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

“Actually there’s quite a lot of scenarios where one boat is assisting another sailing boat, and that’s often not really taught too much. It’s mainly about what happens when the helicopter comes or a cargo ship.

“For example, something I’d never actually thought about before, was that the rafts have something like 300kg of water ballast. So you can’t just drag it wherever. You either have to get rid of the water ballast once you deploy the raft, or make sure that you don’t inflate it until you’re in the exact right area.”

That two rafts failed in an emergency situation is something the class is taking very seriously. Both boats were carrying Waypoint rafts, favoured by Class 40 skippers for their light weight. The class has since mandated an alternative Plastimo raft, which is around 12kg heavier. Waypoint is also investigating the cause of the failures – Thompson confirmed he was visited by the manufacturer to discuss what happened and view the liferaft on NST Cabinet Z (the Class 40 hull was salvaged).

Cédric de Kervenoaël speaks to the media after his dramatic rescue. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

De Kervenoaël says the class will also look into liferaft positioning (both the Pogo S4s had their raft stowed on the transom), and how grab bags can be best secured within reach. “Maybe it should be attached somewhere because I was very lucky to find it floating beside the boat. But if we hadn’t had the grab bag, with the VHF, it would have been another story.”

The collision itself is subject to a police investigation. The cargo ship Ital Bonny, which was Italian flagged, was intercepted by a French warship and escorted to shore.

“Clearly, a conversation was going on about taking avoiding action, and for some reason, that didn’t happen. In terms of the angle [crossing the TSS], there was no fault. The race crew did everything right,” an experienced Class 40 sailor told me, who didn’t want to be identified.

However, as the confusion on the VHF shows, calling a cargo ship is no guarantee of a safe outcome. “I basically never call the ships,” says Thompson, “just because in my experience, it’s very rare that it goes well. Often you have a lot of different nationalities so it’s quite difficult to speak with them. So I think that should be your secondary step – if you need to do it. The very first step should be to adjust your course early so that it doesn’t become an issue.

Cédric thanks Thompson and Lee for their part in saving him and his co-skipper. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot/CIC NCR

“When we’re crossing the lanes, closing speed starts to get so quick because we’re averaging between 16-18 knots, and the cargos are going anywhere from 12-18 normally. When you’re going 6 knots, you have so much more time.

“So it’s really important to get that visual – because the moment you get a visual, normally you can tell fairly easily how it’s going to cross. Sometimes it’s difficult, and you have to do that painful thing of letting the sheets go and the boat slow down a bit, or even turn downwind for a second to make sure that you can really see.

“Often, those decisions that we figure would be quite standard end up being really difficult when you haven’t slept for a couple of days. It’s definitely the most stressful and difficult thing on these races, because we’re basically crossing a freeway on a bicycle.”

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The much delayed Protocol for the 38th America’s Cup has – finally – been agreed and signed, and there are some radical changes within it for both the racing and the structure of the America’s Cup. Plus, potentially some promising hints for the British team.

This Protocol is long overdue, and the past few months have seen publicly played out disagreements between ETNZ, headed by Grant Dalton, the Challenger of Record, represented by Ben Ainslie, and the other potential teams (Alinghi, New York Yacht Club, the French, and Italians), that have been vehement and, at times, a bit ugly to watch.

Even until late last week I was still receiving messages from those closely involved suggesting that the 38th America’s Cup could yet become a ‘Deed of Gift’ match – or in other words, that the Protocol could fail, and the Cup go back to a two team match. There have clearly been some emergency summits held among the key players with Ainslie, Dalton, and Bertie Bickett of the Royal Yacht Squadron hinting that it had been a fairly torrid 72 hours.

So today’s news is something of a relief, and positive step, though it’s worth noting that until the final ‘Partnership’ agreement (more on that below) is signed in September, this could yet all become null and void. Such is the way of the America’s Cup…

Cup cyclors replaced with batteries

Some of the most visible changes will be in the crew used to sail the AC75 for the 38th America’s Cup. Teams must sail either their existing AC75 from the 37th Cup, or build one to an existing design.

The boats will race with a crew of five, one of which will be a female sailor. However, the four cyclors are to be replaced with a new battery power system.

There are no ‘surrogate’ boats allowed this time around, such as the LEQ12 designs some teams built in the last cycle, and were heavily used in the design and testing of elements such as power cycles. The addition of batteries also removes the number of athletes on board, and adds a ‘push button’ element, similar to the AC40s in the last Women’s America’s Cup and Youth America’s Cup.

“This isn’t a decision taken lightly regarding the cyclors and the athleticism of sailing these boats and the effort that those guys put in,” Sir Ben Ainslie – the head of Athena Racing, the official Challenger of Record – told Yachting World this morning. “But we had to make some difficult decisions regarding cost caps and moving forward. That’s a tough call.”

“It doesn’t actually change the sailing of the boat,” Grant Dalton added. “I think the key to it is not to just create unlimited power because, really, you might as well carry around a power station. It’s to mimic – and I think this won’t be very hard – the peaks and troughs of the power of an average [AC]75 from the last America’s Cup and produce that.”

Peter Burling – who left Team New Zealand and joined Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – will be eligible to compete for the Italian team

Nationality and Non-compete agreement

The nationality rule was known to be a huge sticking point in the negotiations for the new Protocol. For AC38 the female sailor and at least two other crew members must be of the same nationality as the yacht club they represent.

The other big shift in this updated Protocol is the removal of a ‘non-compete’ clause which would have banned sailors who competed in one team from competing in another, which was a point known to be a big bone of contention among some teams.

Widely referred to as the ‘Burling clause’ after New Zealand three-times winning helmsman Peter Burling did not re-sign with Emirates Team New Zealand but instead moved to Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, a lot of focus has been on whether Burling could sail for the Italians. In this morning’s media call, Grant Dalton confirmed that he now could.

After an announcement earlier this year Naples is now confirmed as the 38th America’s Cup venue.

38th America’s Cup venue

The 38th America’s Cup is still due to be held in Napes, Italy, in 2027. The racing cycle for the 38th Cup will include up to three Preliminary regattas – potentially two as soon as next year in AC40s, before a Preliminary Regatta in AC75s in Naples.

There will also be more racing scheduled, including fleet racing for the AC75s as part of the Challenger Series.

A cost cap of £75million is to be imposed – though Dalton acknowledged that would be tricky to fairly implement for teams such as Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, who are already up and running, with staff employed.

Entry opens soon, with just a 28 day window, and a €7million entry fee. Ainslie said that they are expecting most of the AC37 teams to enter. “I think we’re looking at five, maybe six teams for this next cycle.

Grant Dalton added: “Whether there is any further – if there is, they’re going to come out of Italy. I think that would be fair to say. So there could be an extra one, not sure yet.”

‘Fundamentally reshaped’ America’s Cup

However, the biggest structural change to the America’s Cup baked into this Protocol is the formation of a new Partnership Agreement, in which all currently involved teams have agreed a new commercial structure for the America’s Cup.

The idea is to give the event – which has historically been largely subject to the whims of its current holder – a firmer timetable. Going forward the Cup should have a two-year cycle giving teams more security when it comes to sourcing sponsors, planning campaigns etc. A new board will make key decisions such as class rule, agreeing venues etc, following an Formula One type model.

There’s no getting away from the fact this is controversial. The America’s Cup is the oldest sporting trophy in the world, and the Deed of Gift is one of its most unique elements. But it has also struggled to maintain momentum between cycles, and often ended up with protracted legal battles to get events off the ground. At one stage, it looked as if the 38th Cup could go the same way.

In this morning’s announcement, Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton said: “As the three-time successive winner and Defender of the America’s Cup and along with the RNZYS as current Trustee, we feel the responsibility to continue to drive the growth of the America’s Cup event.

“Although the America’s Cup is the oldest trophy in international sport and the pinnacle of sailing, its Achilles’ heel has always been its lack of continuity, so this transformation now gives all teams collective stewardship, and we are introducing a new executive management team to be headed up by a new independent CEO.

“By negotiating this Protocol and the America’s Cup Partnership with the Challenger of Record, it provides certainty for teams, commercial partners, and event venues to invest for multiple editions. This is the boldest change in 174 years of the Cup, while respecting the Deed of Gift, along with the Challenger of Record we are confident this is the best initiative to grow what is already one of the greatest sporting events in the world.”

New York Yacht Club Commodore Jay Cross said: “As the founding Trustee of the America’s Cup, we are completely supportive of the move to modernise the oldest sporting trophy in the world.”

“This is a seismic moment for the America’s Cup,” said Ainslie. “The partnership agreement fundamentally reshapes the governance and organisation of the event. The teams and yacht clubs share a vision to make the America’s Cup more inclusive, compelling, and financially sustainable. This new model marks a unified commitment to that vision. I am excited for the future of the sport.”

So will this partnership agreement actually go through? There does seem to be – on the surface at least – more agreement on the fundmental principles of this, than on some of the details that were driving the AC38 disputes.

Grant Dalton explained that there is more to it than appears in the Protocol. “You’re not seeing really the key document that actually has been signed – and you’re not going to be able to see it either, which is the term sheet,” he told invited media this morning.

“Which sets out the transitional period and the transitional rules of the defender handing over basically the keys to the city, the Crown jewels,  handing over all that. That is the key document. The rest of [the agreement], I have every confidence [will be signed], because it’s well done.”

Both of the AC75s used on the 2024 America’s Cup are likely to return, although the British boat will be renamed. Photo: America’s Cup

Hope for British America’s Cup team?

For British Cup fans, the signing of the Protocol by the Royal Yacht Squadron as Challenger of Record, represented by Ben Ainslie’s Athena Racing, is obviously a very good sign. Since the loss of sponsorship by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS, there have been major concerns about the viability of the British America’s Cup Challenge.

While Ainslie did not speak about the funding of his own team, he did drop a few hints that could be interpreted encouragingly. The first being that, while he confirmed that the AC75 hull they used in the 37th America’s Cup to win the Louis Vuitton Cup will race again, it would be under a different name, suggesting a title sponsorship deal may be in place.

“The boat that’s Athena Racing’s boat is not going to be called Britannia,” he said in today’s media call.

While talking about the importance of having female athletes in the America’s Cup, he added: “We have funding in place for our youth and women’s team right now, for the whole programme. I think it just goes to show how much support there is out there across the sailing community to push this agenda.”

There’s lots more to unpick from this morning’s announcement, and we’ll follow up with further details as we have them.

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The Yacht Club de Monaco team of Jolt 6, skippered by Pierre Casiraghi and Jolt 3, skippered by Peter Harrison, has won the 2025 Admiral’s Cup after a high tension finish to the event’s conclusion, the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race.

Monaco finished with a 19-point advantage over the Royal Hong Kong YC entry after the leading boats in both the big boat AC1 and smaller AC2 fleets poured into Cherbourg in a frenetic night of finishes that saw over a dozen boats over the line within an hour from 2130 on Tuesday 29 July.

The final deadline for protests is six hours after the last boat in the event has finished. As the slowest boat in the fleet (Hamburg’s Edelweiss) wasn’t due to finish until this evening – and there were rumours aplenty of potential protests on the Cherbourg docks as the big boats approached – organisers RORC did not immediately confirming the Monaco team as winners, with the crews were being equally circumspect.

Monaco’s Jolt 3 team celebrate after moving into the lead of the Admiral’s Cup overall on the provisional results after the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Monaco win Admiral’s Cup

Ocean racer Will Harris was navigating the smaller Jolt 6 Carkeek 40, which won AC2 by just 2 minutes 45 seconds on corrected time. Harris explained on the dock straight after finishing:

“We were coming into this race in second place overall on the scoreboard with the Beau Ideal and Beau Geste team. And yeah, we think we’ve just managed to beat them into the finish line there, but we’ve still got to keep our fingers crossed and see how the other teams go.

“We know we’ve done everything we can and we’ll just have to see. But it’s a big relief to be here at the finish line.”

Ed Baird helms with an all-star team on the rail of Jolt 3 during the Admiral’s Cup. Photo: James Tomlinson/RORC

After the win had been confirmed, Jolt 6 skipper Pierre Casiraghi said: “Honestly, I still can’t believe what we’ve achieved.

“To win the Admiral’s Cup in its revival year and with Monaco’s first ever participation is beyond words. I’m not a professional helm and this was the most exhausting race I’ve ever done.

“We knew the Fastnet would be decisive and our team executed it flawlessly. Will Harris, our navigator, was just phenomenal, he didn’t miss a beat. From the moment we exited the Solent everything went to plan. This was a true team effort, from sailors to shore crew.

“Right now, I’m exhausted and can’t imagine doing another offshore race on a 42-footer any time soon, but this has been a magical journey. The Admiral’s Cup is an extraordinary event. I’m so proud to have been part of it.”

Jolt 6 in the RORC Admiral’s Cup 2025. Photo: James Tomlinson/RORC

America’s Cup legend Ed Baird was helming the 52-footer Jolt 3. “The points were close. We had to do well in our division and so did our 40-footer. Sounds like they are going to finish okay,” he said.

“I would say there hasn’t been a lot of tension amongst the team but everybody was very aware [of how close it is]. We have been racing both divisions of boats since April in Cowes, and we knew the whole time that it was going to come down to very, very tight margins.”

Seconds in it

Those tight margins initially dropped the Italian team out of the podium places in the provisional results.

“[The Fastnet Race] was very enjoyable and I think that we had a possibility to have a great result. Unfortunately, we lost by 55 seconds after 697 miles and that’s a little sad, but I think that I’m proud about what we were able to do,” said Vasco Vascotto, skipper of the newly launched WallyRocket 51 Django, the YCCS AC1 entry.

DJANGO WR51 rounds Fastnet Rock. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

“But this was day 11 in the water for this boat and we were able to go around that Fastnet and that was a big challenge but we did it.”

However, the small Italian AC2 boat Django JPK finished 3rd in class some 12 hours later – just 18 seconds ahead of the New Zealanders, which also moved the YCCS team back up to 3rd overall ahead of New Zealand in 4th on the team series.

Admiral’s Cup Fastnet finale

The Admiral’s Cup fleet had its own start for the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, with the 15 two boat teams scored on handicap in the big boat (AC1) and smaller AC2 class. Twenty-nine boats started, after the dismantling of Red Bandit (GER) during the inshore series. Ino Noir (GBR) also had to retire from the Fastnet due to electronics issues.

Jolt 3 leads a tightly packed group of finishers to the Admiral’s Cup fleet in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: RORC

Going into the Fastnet, after one double-scoring Channel race and three days of inshore racing, the Royal Hong Kong YC team led on 36 points, ahead of Monaco on 44, the Italian team of Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in third on 59 points, and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s team at 76 points in fourth.

The Rolex Fastnet Race counted for triple points, non-discardable, making some significant place changes possible on the overall leaderboard.

Intense racing

The Admiral’s Cup teams raced much of the 695-mile Fastnet course with the same intensity as the inshore series. “It was unbelievably intense racing with the other fast four teams,” said Harris. “We were racing like match racing the whole way around, neck on neck crossing each other really closely.”

A dominant north-westerly breeze also turned the Fastnet track into a 700-mile windward-leeward course. “A disappointing [result] in the end for us, but it was a cracking Fastnet race. Some beautiful conditions – and just a giant windward-leeward, but just a little shutdown at the end that tripped us up,” said Miles Seddon, navigator on Beau Geste, the big boat in the Hong Kong team.

Beau Geste finished 9th in AC1 in the Fastnet, and the smaller Beau Geste 8th, dropping the Hong Kong team off the top spot for the Admiral’s Cup win overall.

The smaller boat in the Hong Kong Admiral’s Cup team, Beau Ideal, rounding the Rock during the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Racing focussed on a single class, instead of competing against the whole 444-boat Fastnet fleet, also changed the strategy for the Admiral’s Cup teams. “When you’re racing IRC in general, you’ve just got to sail the boat as well as you can sail it. If it’s your conditions, it’s your conditions,” explained Seddon.

“But when you’re racing the Admiral’s Cup fleet, you’re just racing that fleet and you’re really focused on where they are all the time, which is quite draining.

“Just constantly keeping tabs on where everybody in the fleet is and how you’re going to manage them – and that’s 13 boats to manage. So it’s tough You’re constantly aware. I went into it knowing what we needed to do and then you’re constantly recomputing and looking at weather tracker updates, so you don’t get a lot of rest.

“Ultimately,with the finish here in Cherbourg, it’s fantastic. But it just adds that extra tidal gate and that’s brutal – it can be a real bonus, but it can take away as well.”

Dutch win in AC1

Huge celebrations for the Van Uden crew after winning AC1 in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: RORC

The biggest celebration of Tuesday night unquestionably belonged to the Dutch team on Rost-Van Uden, winners of AC1 overall, whose supporters were out in force showering the team in traditional flowers, champagne and song.

The Rost-Van Uden team is led by Gerd-Jan Poortman, who was part of the winning Dutch team in the 1999 Admiral’s Cup, and made up largely of young sailors from Rotterdam. To take the class win against an entry list stacked with pro America’s Cup sailors, Olympic medalists and world champions was a phenomenal achievement for this team.

Rost-Van Uden raced representing the Royal Maas Yachtclub, along with a family team on the AC2 entry Baraka GP, a Ker 43, and finished 6th overall.

Admiral’s Cup return

There’s no question that for the crews, the Admiral’s Cup has been a hit. “It’s been really, really good. The racing in our division AC2 was just super close, you never really knew how it was going to pan out until the end – that was the way it should be,” said America’s Cup winner Dean Barker. Barker was part of a very high level crew on Callisto, the small boat in the New Zealand team. The Kiwis finished 4th overall.

“The Channel race was just amazing. Like that was some of the best downwind sailing I’ve probably done in my life actually. And then, the Fastnet on a 42-footer, it’s challenging,”

Callisto put in a strong performance for NZL in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race for the Admiral’s Cup 2025. Photo: James Tomlinson/RORC

“The [format] adds a huge dynamic to the event because there’s a lot of inshore races specifically and not a lot have a strong offshore component. So to mix it up is actually really challenging for all the teams,” added Barker.

“The equal weighting between inshore and offshore, I think it’s a really good way to do it. You need to be able to be strong on both. So I really enjoyed it. It’s hard – but at the same time it’s what makes it rewarding in the end.”

“It’s been absolutely fantastic. The heritage of it, the history, it’s been a great event,” said Seddon.

“The lead up to it was fantastic. Hopefully it goes on strength to strength and really showcases the sport because it does everything – it does offshore, it does inshore and it’s team racing as well. So it’s been a really, really good event. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

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The monohull line honours winner of the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race is BlackJack 100, finishing the 695-mile race at 0021 (BST), early on Tuesday 29 July after 2d 12h 31m of racing.

Three 100-footer monohulls joined a record fleet for the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, adding not only an added element of spectacle to the packed IRC Super Zero startline in Cowes, but also bringing some long-standing rivalries that are more often fought out on the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race to the biennial British classic.

IRC Super Zero start of the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

Early monohull leaders

It was Hong-Kong based SHK-Scallywag, skippered by David Witt, which took the early lead out of the Solent. The veteran Leopard 3 initially stuck closely to the Hong Kong entry, and passing Portland Bill this pairing were side by side.

However, by the Lizard BlackJack100, owned by Remon Vos, had pulled into a close second and set up a duel which continued right across the Irish Sea, the two yachts matching each other tack for tack all the way to the Rock.

Scallywag 100 dwarves the spectator yachts at the start of the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race.
Photo: Rick Tomlinson/RORC

BlackJack skipper Tristan Le Brun explained on the dock after racing that the two boats were covering each other so closely, they were using the dirty air generated by the enormous five-spreader rig to try and stall their opponent as both boats fought for the favoured inside line. The 19-man crew were also maintaining constant tacking duels and sail changes.

BlackJack wins line honours

SHK-Scallywag was the first monohull around the Rock, rounding at 23:00 on Sunday 27 July, with BlackJack just 7 minutes behind and Leopard in hot pursuit, just 9 minutes further.

On the long run back the lead pair again matched alongside each other. But after gybing towards the Scillies TSS, BlackJack managed to gain a slight advantage on the reach east, which they extended to 20 miles approaching the Channel Isles.

BlackJack 100 won monohull line honours in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

The pair split at Alderney, BlackJack going south, and adding manoeuvres to their final miles but picking up favourable tide. Le Brun said they picked up around 6 knots of favourable tide, which was coming from astern so strongly it affected the handling of the yacht.

Meanwhile SHK-Scallywag took a straight line north, closing the gap to around 7 miles. But in a repeat of the Ultims’ battle for multihull line honours, it wasn’t quite enough, and BlackJack took the win.

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The first boat to finish the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race is the Ultime SVR-Lazartigue, which won multihull line honours this morning, Monday 28 July, crossing the line at 0438 (BST) this morning after 1 day, 17 hours, 18 minutes and 4 seconds of racing.

Less than hour later, at 0523, Banque Populaire XI, skippered by Armel Le Cléac’h, finished in second.

On the dock in Cherbourg, the two crews were visibly drained, the race having been both mentally taxing and physically demanding for the six and seven-man teams on the 100ft trimarans.

“I think all of us are quite tired from grinding with a lot of manoeuvres,” said Kiwi America’s Cup helmsman Pete Burling, who had joined SVR-Lazartigue for the race, with typical understatement.

“Everything is obviously quite big as well. It takes a lot of work, but it was an awesome ride.”

SVR Lazartigue celebrate arriving into Cherbourg as multihull line honours winners in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

SVR-Lazartigue Fastnet double winner

For SVR-Lazartigue this is an impressive back-to-back victory, having also taken line honours in 2023.

This year’s team was made up of co-skippers Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas, sailing with Amélie Grassi, Antoine Gautier, Emilien Lavigne, as well as Burling.

In 2023 the blue foiling trimaran set a new course record of 1 day, 8 hours, 38 minutes, and 27 seconds. This year conditions were considerably slower, and even the foiling Ultimes were – relatively speaking at least – crawling upwind at sub-10 knots on the approach to the Fastnet Rock.

However, once the Ultimes rounded the Fastnet Rock – SVR-Lazartigue at 1622 (BST) on Sunday 27 July, second-placed Banque Populaire XI just over an hour later – they were able to hit warp speed, immediately bearing away at speeds of 35-37 knots.

SVR Lazartigue skipper Tom Laperche talks to the media in Cherbourg at the finish of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

First home in record fleet

Four Ultime trimarans were among the 444 boats which made up a record sized fleet to start the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race on Saturday, 26 July.

With a larger than ever fleet, and a start area packed with spectator craft, negotiating a safe exit of the Solent was critical.

“Franck and Tom did a really good job getting us to the start line nicely. We didn’t have too many boats to interact with on the way out to Solent, but a lot of tacks,” explained Burling.

“Everything takes a lot of energy to do. We peeled from J1 to J2 to make the tacks a little bit easier and then had a really good trip out.”

“I didn’t count, but we did lots of manoeuvres,” recalls Laperche. “A lot of tacks, lots of board up, board down, foils, sail changes too.

“In the Solent, we only have, I don’t know, seven minutes between two tacks. We are six onboard and with a very good crew, so it was okay. But one tack is at least 10 minutes.”

First boat home in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, the Ultime SVR Lazartigue, rounds the Fastnet Rock. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

2025 Fastnet Multihull winner

SVR-Lazartigue got the best start of the giant multihulls, though it was the smaller MOD70 Argo who initially led out past the Needles. Approaching Lyme Bay on the first evening, by taking a more inshore line SVR Lazartigue claimed the advantage, didn’t relinquish it.

“We took a good decision to go to the shore, to go close to the England Coast,” explained Laperche. “So we managed to cross on starboard with the north-west wind in front of [Banque Populaire].

“We took a small advantage at this time and after that we managed to stay in front. It was difficult because for the longer [run] coming back from Fastnet to Scillies, the wind was better for them, stronger behind. So they came back, they reduced the gap.”

After the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) at the Scilly Isles, the Ultime fleet headed north, sailing east of the rhumb-line in order to play the angles for optimum speed, before the final upwind approach to the Fastnet Rock.

After flying around the Rock in a building north-westerly, with flat seas, yesterday afternoon the leading multihulls again able to speed.

“The trip back, really showed what these boats can do. The average speed would have been 30, 35 knots, something like that. Yeah, it was really good fun and cool,” said Burling.

“We had between 15 to 20 knots, very flat water – like we don’t see every day. And the boat flying at 35 knots!” commented Laperche.

Second boat home in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race was Banque Populaire XI. Photo: Nicolas Touzé/RORC

Second boat home

Second placed Banque Populaire XI, skippered by Armel Le Cléac’h, chased hard – splitting away from SVR-Lazartigue to round to the north of Alderney on the final approach to the finish.  But in the end, Banque Populaire XI finished 45 minutes behind.

“After a light wind start in the Solent – with way too many boats around for these things! – we managed to get out unscathed,” said Sam Goodhild, who’d joined the Banque Populaire XI crew for the race.

“And then as we left the Solent, I did my first upwind flight, going 30 knots upwind at 50 true, which I didn’t think was actually possible!

“Then we made the big mistake of the race. After Portland, we went offshore and paid hard to the boats that were inshore and basically played catch up from there on in. We had light winds all the way across Celtic Sea with some nasty clouds stopping us. And then a lovely run all the way home going 35 knots average since the Rock.

“The run back was great. I was driving last night when the sun was going down. They’re just amazing boats to drive when you get them all locked in and going – it takes a lot of winding to get there! – but once you’re there, it’s good fun and you’re going 35 plus knots downwind. I think we were over 40 at one stage on a reach.

“So, a good race. Good fun. A shame we lost so much in Lyme Bay, but that’s the game. And well done to SVR,” Goodchild added.

Third was Actual Ultim 4, with Sodebo fourth to cross the finish line.

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The leaders in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race have rounded the Fastnet Rock after 1 day and 4 hours of racing.

After a relatively slow first 24 hours, which saw even the foiling Ultimes crawling along at 8-10 knots for periods this morning, the first two boats have rounded the Fastnet Rock and are now reaping the rewards with a fast flight home on flat seas with a following wind.

First to round was the 2023 race winner, the Ultime SVR-Lazartigue, skippered by Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas, who has not been challenged for the lead since yesterday’s race start.

SVR-Lazartigue rounded the Rock at 1622 (BST) today, immediately bearing away to hit speeds of over 35 knots.

Second was Armel Le Cléac’h on the Ultime Banque Populaire XI, who rounded 1hr and 8 minutes later.

This duo are now powering south-east in a 25-knot north-westerly, setting up for a fast and furious final 315 miles in the race for line honours. The leader is expected to finish in Cherbourg around 0800 BST tomorrow morning.

The leader in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, the Ultime SVR Lazartigue, rounds the Fastnet Rock. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Monohull leaders

In the race for monohull line honours the two 100-footers SHK-Scallywag and BlackJack are matching each other tack for tack, while in the building breeze Leopard has also made gains on the pair in 3rd.

In the IMOCA class the newest boat in the fleet, Élodie Bonafous’s Association Petit Princes has a narrow lead from Jérémie Beyou’s well-campaigned Charal.

Largely benign conditions for the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race so far – here the Botin 52 Caro enjoys the company of dolphins in the Celtic Sea. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

Fastnet 2025 retirements

Unfortunately, Pip Hare, Scott Shawyer and team on Be Water Positive – Canada Ocean Racing retired from the race this morning after suffering a hydraulics issue.

LIke other modern IMOCAs, Be Water Positive – Canada Ocean Racing (ex-11th Hour Racing) has a comprehensive hydraulics package that includes key sail fittings which are required to stabilise the mast.

“We’re retiring due to a technical issue with one of our main hydraulic control systems,” said the team in a statement. “We’re gutted — this is such an iconic race and it’s so disappointing not to finish it.

“But we’ve got six weeks of racing ahead of us in The Ocean Race Europe, and it’s critical that we stay focused on a repair in time for that series of races starting in just two weeks’ time.”

The crew are all safe and the boat has arrived at Cherbourg.

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A record-breaking fleet started the 100th anniversary edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race today, Saturday 26 July, with 444 boats and over 3,500 competitors setting off on the 695-mile epic offshore. 

To mark the centenary year, HRH The Princess Royal started some of the fleets. The crowds which packed the shoreline in both Cowes were also treated to a flypast by the Red Arrows, jetting down the Solent in formation just as the Admiral’s Cup’s start got away.

HRH The Princess Royal fires the canon at the start of the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

Conditions were in marked contrast to the previous two races, when howling gales and a severe sea state both kept spectators away and decimated the fleet with dozens of retirements in the first few hours.

By contrast, today the Solent was hot, humid, and relatively flat – the main chop being kicked up by the competitors circling pre-start and the vast numbers of spectator boats that poured out to see the fleet off.

RORC Admiral’s Cup start in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: James Tomlinson/RORC

Record Fastnet fleet

The combination of a record entry, a very diverse fleet, a huge spectator flotilla, and the usual Solent traffic will certainly have raised stress levels on some boats. Getting away cleanly and safely is key.

Speaking ahead of today’s start, IMOCA skipper Pip Hare, who is racing with Be Water Positive Canada Ocean Racing commented. “Coming out of the Solent isn’t our favourite place to be in the IMOCAs! You run out of room quite quickly.”

The distinctive yellow Mike Birch-designed trimaran Acapella had a close run-in with a spectator RIB on the Mocra start line, but despite the congestion there have been no serious incidents reported and by evening just three boats had retired (one being Noel Racine’s highly fancied JPK 10.10 Foggy Dew).

Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

Big boat start

Despite the punitive two-hour OCS time penalties, many of the starts were also closely contested – the IRC Zero line up was a real show, the crew on Pyewacket 70 appearing dwarfed by the melée of 100-footers as they spun on a dime to duck back on port after trying to approach on the Royal Yacht Squadron end of the line. The Volvo 70 Tschuss got the best start of the big boats.

Of the three 100-footers, BackJack will have been relishing the lighter forecast. Boat captain Tristan le Brun explained: “With our boat we are at max power in eight knots of wind – after that we have to depower the boat. So Black Jack is very strong in light air. It is also quite strong downwind VMG, which will be the second half of the race.”

Although conditions were benign in the central Solent, a building breeze and wind over tide meant that by the time some fleets reached Hurst Narrows and the Needles, the swell had increased and some boats reefed down.

Admiral’s Cup contender Final Final meets lumpy seas in the western Solent after the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: James Tomlinson/RORC

Early Fastnet leaders

At the end of the first day, the Ultime SVR-Lazartigue, skippered by Thomas Laperche and Franck Cammas with Pete Burling on board, heads the line honours charge. The Actual Ultim 4 (ex-Gitana) is second, followed by the other two Ultimes. Unsurprisingly, the MOD70s Argo and Zoulou are also chasing hard.

The Hong Kong-based SHK Scallywag leads for monohull line honours, while Charal is second monohull and 1st IMOCA. Tschuss 2 is also firmly in contention. 

We’ll be following the fleet to Cherbourg, and bringing you all the news on YachtingWorld.com and YouTube.

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In sharp contrast to the dramatic conditions which saw the 2023 and 2021 fleets decimated by retirements and damage, the 3,000-plus crews sailing 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race look set to enjoy fair, largely stable conditions.

With a large high pressure system over the Azores controlling the weather systems for the next five days, the 695-mile race course looks set to become a beat to the Rock, and a run back – potentially with a bit of reaching along the English south coast and Normandy shores at the beginning and end.

Adrian Stead, tactician on last year’s winner Caro, described it as a “350-mile windward-leeward race.”

It’s expected to be a beat out of the Solent for the start of the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

Upwind Fastnet start

In other words a relatively ‘easy’ race – albeit a 350-mile beat to Ireland could certainly be mentally taxing. Wind speeds are expected to be mostly 8-16 knots, with max guests around 20 knots for most of the fleet, and wave heights no more than 1-1.5m in the Celtic Sea.

Brian Thompson, who is on the MOD70 Argo, added: “This year’s Fastnet could be a real classic. It’s going to be a real race, rather than a survival test.”

The high pressure system will generate a north-westerly offshore, which becomes a westerly in the Channel and Solent for the start. There’s a little bit of disagreement in the models on how strong that breeze will be, but from Tuesday the high becomes more powerful and conditions more stable. Any boats sailing back from the Rock by then could enjoy a fast, pleasant ride to Land’s End.

The Celtic Sea is expected to be benign for the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Fastnet 2025 forecast

Conrad Humphreys, who is navigating on Hound, a stunning Aage Nielsen/Abeking-Rasmussen sloop from the 1970s, talked us through the course.

“Twenty-four hours from the start, and the weather is looking pretty stable for the race. We’ve got this dominant high pressure ridge that’s sitting just off into the Atlantic, producing a really kind of steady north-westerly air stream. That’s going to be sort of the main focus of the race, certainly out to the Fastnet Rock.

“Moring of the start the breeze is more in the south-west, so it’s going to be a beat out of the Solent, and down through Hurst Castle, obviously with a little bit of current underneath us.

And, we’re expecting 15 knots of wind. We’re likely to be on the J3. We might still be on the Genoa. But then as we sail across St Alban’s, down towards Portland, we’re going to try and obviously be on the favored tack, maximise the tide and the flow to Portland.

“It’s a little bit questionable whether we’ll get there in time before the tide turns. But around about that time, as we come into Lyme Bay, we’ll start to see this wind come round to the northwest.

“And behind this little front we should see some quite reasonable pressure. I’m expecting up to 20 knots, which is going to be fantastic.

“We’ll just sail down the rhumbline towards Start Point, across past Plymouth – past home! – down to the Lizard.

“And then when we get to Runnel Stone, which is kind of the first day really, we’ll be there in the early hours of the morning.

“The next second stage is really setting up for the Isles of Scilly, the TSSs off the Land’s End, and making sure that we tackle those well. That we’re on the right side of those TSSs and play the shifts – it’s going to be it’s going to be a beat out to the Rock.”

It could be a downwind run from the Fastnet Rock. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Downwind from the Rock

“Then rounding the Fastnet Rock, the breeze remains in that sort of north-west air stream. So it’s going to be downwind back to Bishop Rock at the Scillies. And then obviously playing the tidal influences.

“There’s a little bit of sort of diurnal shifts between the winds. So we might see the wind during the day a little bit more in the west, and at night perhaps a little bit more in the north-west, and just getting those shifts right.

Conrad Humphreys is navigating on the 1970s offshore racer Hound 

“And then, of course, the last leg – which is arguably the most tricky, and certainly will be tricky for us because the breeze looks to be lightening on that final leg. Very strong currents as we close in on the Channel Islands and Cherbourg. Some of the strongest tides, Spring tides, of the year.

“And that obviously is going to be a roll of the dice towards the end.

“So, overall, a pretty steady, stable race tactically. Not too challenging, but it’s a boat speed race. And, we’ve all got to be sailing as well as we possibly can.”

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The Rolex Fastnet Race looks set to celebrate its 100th birthday (24 years sponsored by Rolex) with a record fleet, making this year’s running the biggest offshore race ever.

The 51st edition of the famous race starts from Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, UK, this Saturday, 26th Juy, with a 695-mile course to Cherbourg, France, via the eponymous Fastnet Rock off Ireland.

The entry list currently stands at 451 yachts, which would smash the previous record entry of 430 (in the 50th edition, in 2023) and also make it the biggest ever yacht race for sheer number of competitors. Over 3,500 sailors will take part, aged from 14-81 years!

The fleet is not only massive, but diverse, and spectacular. It includes three 100-footers: Black Jack, SHK Scallywag and Leopard down to the 27ft (8.5m) Puffin.

SHK Scallywag returns for the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, one of three 100-footers. Photo Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Flying Multihulls

First to start on Saturday will be the multihulls at 1120, which includes four Ultime giant trimarans. Manoeuvring these high speed behemoths in a crowded Solent is particularly challenging, and four giant multis will make for a truly impressive sight. 

The fleet includes current course record holder SVR-Lazartigue, who two years ago was first to finish in Cherbourg in just 1 day 8 hours 38 minutes 27 seconds. Along with co-skippers Franck Cammas and Tom Laperche, the fighter-jet style foiling trimaran welcomes America’s Cup winning helmsman Pete Burling onboard.

Burling has been on board training in the Ultime, and commented: “It’s an amazing boat — huge, powerful, yet very stable. It’s also incredible to see how much these boats have evolved since the last time I sailed an Ultima.”

The four-strong Ultime fleet will make for a spectacular sight on the Cowes startline. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

Also on the Ultime startline will be Actual Ultim 4, which is the former Maxi Edmond de Rothschild/Gitana 18 – another former Fastnet winner and record-setter; now skippered by Anthony Marchand and joined for the Fastnet by British ocean racer Alan Roberts.

There’s also Thomas Coville’s Sodebo; and Armel le Cleac’h and his team on Maxi Banque Populaire XI, whose crew includes Briton Sam Goodchild.

The Ultimes aren’t the only fast multihulls in the fleet – there are 20 MOCRA entries, including two MOD70s, Jason Carroll’s Argo and Erik Maris’ Zoulou, with an all-star crew list including Loick Peyron (Zoulou) and Brian Thompson (Argo). There are also nine Ocean Fifty trimarans – the class Sam Goodchild once described to me as “arguably one of the most dangerous and sketchy boats to sail offshore!”.

Foiling IMOCAs

Nine IMOCAs will line up on their own start , many teams using it as a pipe-opener before The Ocean Race Europe, which starts in August. Likely favourites include Vendée Globe runner-up Yoann Richomme with Paprec Arkéa. Richomme was also runner-up in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race – four minutes behind winner Charlie Dalin’s Macif – and will be looking to go one better this year.

Another hotly fancied IMOCA is the brand new Association Petits Princes-Queguiner, which only launched in February and finished 2nd in its debut race, June’s Course des Caps race around Britain.

Designed by foiling genius Guillaume Verdier the new IMOCA is an updated sistership to the Vendée Globe winner Macif, and skippered by Elodie Bonafous, a top Solitaire du Figaro racer. Her crew includes ocean racing legends Pascal Bidegorry and Yann Eliès.

Nine IMOCAs start the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, including Sam Davies on Intiatives Couer. Photo Rick Tomlinson/RORC

The star-studded IMOCA fleet also includes Jérémie Beyou with his Manuard-designed Charal 2, Britain’s Sam Davies, racing with offshore protege Violette Dorange on Initiatives-Coeur 4, and Justine Mettraux with SNEF Teamwork.

Regular Yachting World contributor and British Vendée Globe entrant Pip Hare will be racing with Canada Ocean Racing – Be Water Positive. The former Ocean Race winning and 3rd-placed Vendée finishing boat (Sébastien Simon’s Groupe Dubreuil) is now owned by Canadian Scott Shawyer, who is building up to a 2028 Vendée Globe campaign.

Admirals’ Cup firepower

The big boat fleet has been bolstered by the 29 boats competing in the Admiral’s Cup fleet.

Each Admiral’s Cup team has had to balance optimisation between the inshore race series and triple-points Rolex Fastnet Race offshore. So it’ll be fascinating to see if the lighter built inshore designs or more experienced offshore race teams come to the fore.

Rán is one of the Grand Prix fleet joining the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race as part of the RORC Admiral’s Cup. Photo: James Tomlinson

For example, the lead boat in the big boat class is currently the brand new WallyRocket 51, Whereas the Royal Irish YC team is currently lying 12th overall, but their team is made up of Sunrise IV, a JPK 1180, and the Cookson 50 Privateer – both hugely experienced and successful offshore teams that have previously won in the Rolex Fastnet Race. With triple points weighted to the Fastnet, there could yet be a reshuffle in the Admiral’s Cup.

Record Fastnet fleet

But the huge fleet size has been swelled by large entries across the monohull classes – with over 380 IRC entries, on top of 24 Class 40s.

There will be over 45 of the hugely successful JPK line, dozens of J-Boats, 16 SunFast 3600s and the same of 3200s, and 16 Swans of all vintages.

An incredible 81 teams have entered the 695-mile marathon as double-handed crews.

And then there are plenty of iconic boats for true yacht racing aficionados to swoon over. They include the famous maxi Kialoa II, 1961 line honours winner Stormvogel, and the Nielsen-designed Hound, built in 1970 (watch our course preview from Hound’s navigator Conrad Humphreys).

The stunning 1970-built Hound will be racing hard in the Fastnet, having just completed the Transatlantic race.

Check out our full Rolex Fastnet Race coverage on Yachtingworld.com, social channels and YouTube as we follow the Fastnet fleet to Cherbourg.

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