“Humpback, 300 metres. Hard to port, Tom!” Icebear encountered her first whales in Cabot Strait, the deep passage separating south-western Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island on the far north-eastern corner…
Vendée Globe rescue: Le Cam plucks Escoffier from liferaft after ‘shipwreck’ sinking mid-Atlantic
Escoffier was adrift in his liferaft for over 11 hours, some 840 miles south of Cape Town, at night in 25-knot winds and 3 metre seas, when Le Cam –…
ClubSwan 80: New design promises the ultimate owner-driver racing experience
Another ambitious and innovative project from the Finnish brand, the ClubSwan 80 is aimed at becoming the ultimate in owner-driver one-design racing. Nautor’s group vice-president Enrico Chieffi said they wanted…
How to follow the 2020 Vendée Globe
A record fleet of 33 skippers started the Vendée Globe on Sunday, 8 November at 1302 local time (1202 GMT) and three of them have already seen their race ended…
‘Broken’ Alex Thomson retires from 2020 Vendée Globe after rudder damage
The enormously popular skipper has announced that he is retiring from the Vendée Globe, and is currently heading to Cape Town. Speaking from Hugo Boss today, a clearly emotional Thomson…
Night sailing: Offshore racer Henry Bomby shares 5 tips for helming after dark
It’s when you find yourself caught out in 50 knots with the big kite up on a single-handed Figaro yacht as you’re trying to get round Cape Finisterre that you…
Sailing in fog: Pro navigator Mike Broughton shares his top tips
At sea, fog can be summed up as condensed water vapour or just thick cloud on the surface. Sea fog, or advection fog, forms when relatively warm moist air moves…
Solaris 80RS leads a flurry of new yachts set to launch from the Italian yard
Renowned Argentine designer Javier Soto Acebal has worked with Solaris Yachts for the past 11 years and for these boats he has drawn powerful, clean contemporary lines with soft chines…
Jules Verne Trophy: Head-to-head foiling battle begins for round the world record
The time to beat is 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds, set in 2017 by Jules Verne Trophy holder Francis Joyon on Idec Sport. First to announce…
Induction cookers on yachts: Why it’s finally feasible to ditch the gas
For most of us, cooking with gas has been so much the norm both ashore and afloat that it’s easy to forget the march of yachting technology has the potential…
Sailing with humpback whales: An amazing extract from Orca by John A Pennington
It’s far too easy for a retired ocean sailor like me who served his time 40 years ago in a freer, simpler world, to imagine that the age of high…
Paja: Jack Setton’s modern whaleboat is the product of a singular mind
The appeal of many slim hulled designs lies in their traditional charm, but building an ultra-modern, super-skinny dayboat in 2020 is something else entirely. Paja is beyond slender, she is…
Sailing Antarctica: Vendée Globe veteran’s memorable return to the frozen south
The dense silence is broken only by the sound of snowflakes landing on my protective clothing, as my eyes struggle to adjust to the landscape that surrounds me. It is…
How (not) to set up a wind vane: An extract from Tom Fisher’s Arctic Smoke blog
Like me, you may have followed with interest the stories about failed self-steering wind vanes that emerged from the last Golden Globe Race. My own experience of a Windpilot Pacific…
Growing food on your yacht: Everything you need to know to become self-sufficient
With limited space and the obvious challenges of salt, wind and motion, many would never entertain the idea of growing their own produce. Yet it can be possible: we spoke…
Boat hitchhiking: How to sail around the world without owning a yacht
As a boy, Darroch Tait always had his head in a book. He was fascinated by adventures and the discovery of new lands. In his early 30s he decided to…
Jimmy Cornell: Why aluminium centreboarders are ideal for serious explorers
Both Aventura III, an Ovni 43, and Aventura IV, a Garcia Exploration 45, were aluminium centreboarders. Having clocked some 100,000 miles with them, including passages to Antarctica and the North…
Jeanneau 60 first look: Superyacht designers bring their expertise to this new model
Jeanneau offers buyers an enticing blend of superyacht features at around half the price of other yachts of a similar size. The latest model is once again a Philippe Briand…
Extract from Sailing through Russia: From the Arctic to the Black Sea
When the Great Seamanship series was planned back in 2004 it was about giant waves, dismastings, amazing rescues and the like. Research, however, led me into a wonderland of nautical…
From the Yachting World archives: The demise of the mighty 23 Metre racing cutters
With upwind sail areas not much short of 10,000ft2, these mighty 23 Metre gaff-rigged racing cutters were raced hard and fast at regattas around the British Isles and occasionally on…