The 90-ton ketch Johanne was launched in 1929 as a Baltic trader, writes Tom Cunliffe. Bought out of Denmark in the late 1960s, she sailed to Lymington on the west…
Bluewater cruisers recommend their top new gear and marine equipment
Yachting World readers can be found all over the globe, some chilling out in the Med and the Caribbean, others pushing their boats and themselves to the limit in high…
Sybaris – a new ketch from Perini Navi and the world’s sixth largest private yacht
The 70m ketch Sybaris, built for a New York lawyer and software entrepreneur, is the largest private yacht ever built in Italy and the sixth largest in the world and…
The incomparable style of Wally Nano MkII – a Hoek designed modern classic
Eight years ago Wally did what it does best and stunned the sailing world with the launch of its exuberant, incomparable ‘Nano’. The Andre Hoek designed masterpiece, the first of…
The new heyday of the J Class – why this illustrious class is now more popular than ever
As the breeze freshens, we power up even more. We’re heeled to the gunwales now, our near 200 tonnes displacement creating a bow wave that sucks the water out from…
Solo sailor Paul Heiney describes battling gale force winds off the Azores
I was 150 miles south-west of the Azores, heading for home, and it was blowing up rough from ahead. I lit the gas, and thought things through. The kettle was…
Fourth Volvo Ocean Race entry announced as Vestas return
Vestas, the Danish wind energy company, is returning to the Volvo Ocean Race for 2017/18 with a new team led by American duo Charlie Enright and Mark Towill. Partnering with…
How Alex Thomson nearly won the Vendée Globe 2016-17
In the piercing cold morning of 18 January, Armel Le Cléac’h was grasping a 34-mile lead in the Vendée Globe, racing upwind towards the Scilly Isles. A wind shift to…
At the helm of J Class yacht Endeavour – we get exclusive on-board access
The mighty press of canvas fills as her bows fall off from head to wind. As she loads up and heels, everything changes – there’s a distinct mood adjustment aboard. It’s…
A pocket guide to the J Class yachts – the world’s most elegant racing fleet
Shamrock V – JK3 LOA: 36.50m /119ft 9in · LWL: 26.7m/87ft 7in · Beam: 6.00m/19ft 8in · Disp: 166 tonnes Original lines: Charles E Nicholson Modified design: Dykstra Naval Architects…
How Thomas Coville set the solo round the world sailing record
‘A warrior,’ is how Samantha Davies, part of the intelligence team that guided Thomas Coville and his yacht Sodebo to victory, describes the solo skipper. Over a decade Coville returned…
Expert tips on understanding shipping forecasts and weather broadcasts
When ashore we get our forecasts from a variety of sources, nowadays largely through the internet. However, unless we have the long-range communications of a bluewater cruiser, once our link…
J/11s – specially designed for short-handed sailing
In 2015 the double-handed class trophy for the Rolex Fastnet Race went to Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerley aboard the J/105 Jester. Neither had raced short-handed before that season, yet both said…
Expert tips on getting your cockpit set up perfectly for short-handed sailing
The simple things we take for granted when sailing with crew can become a nightmare double-handed. Dropping the main on a blustery night with one of you stuck behind the…
The world’s biggest yachts – what’s behind the growth of the gigayacht
Dwarfing not only any other yacht that happened to be on the River Eider, but even the buildings along the foreshore, the monolithic Sailing Yacht A made quite an impression…
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston refits his famous yacht Suhaili
In 1968, on 14 June at 1420, a 32ft ketch called Suhaili, with Robin Knox-Johnston at the tiller, crossed a start line off Falmouth. Few saw them off, and fewer…
Bright and breezy – a selection of great images from this year’s St Maarten Heineken Regatta
The most well attended of all the Caribbean regattas, the St Maarten Heineken regatta boasts a wide variety of competitors as well as a big spectator fleet, in terms of…
Design guru Gino Morelli on the latest multihulls – “We’re like the Wright brothers”
Gino Morelli and Pete Melvin, more commonly known as Morelli & Melvin, are at the centre of almost every development in catamaran performance technology over the last three decades. Their…
First look videos from 6 of the most recent launches from Bavaria, Dufour, Elan, Solaris and Hanse
Bavaria C57 Bavaria has been promising something big and, sure enough, the C57 is Bavaria’s largest yacht yet. As you can see from our first look videos, the length, 57ft,…
Is the Contest 67CS the most impressive new yacht under 80ft in production today?
We were on board Contest’s first new 67CS, a sensational new 67ft semi-custom model, and the first Contest designed by Judel/Vrolijk in the yard’s near 60-year history. We were sailing…