“I’ve been lucky enough to sail on a good selection of the ‘coolest’ yachts and I remember the excitement of the first time sailing each of them as I’m something…
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Fastest race boat? Meet Wally’s new TP52 beater, the wallyrocket51
“This will be the fastest boat in the world on corrected time,” Wally founder Luca Bassani announced at Ferretti Yachts’ global unveiling of the wallyrocket51 in September. On paper, the…
The club for young cruisers you might not have heard of
The Young Cruisers Association is not your average yacht club. In fact, it might be the largest cruising association you’ve never heard of. Its ethos is very different to any…
Dufour 41 review: game-changing 40-footer
The number of bedrooms is usually the first line of enquiry for people looking to buy a house. It helps to categorise and price a property. So it stands to…
Extraordinary boats: Trimaran Trinity
Californian sailor Terri Nelson likes nice things. One of her pet peeves, she tells me from her home in San Diego, is that even when checking into luxe hotels, as…
Great seamanship: inside a volcanic caldera in 50-knot winds
Joe Phelan is one of Ireland’s great sailors. With his wife and equal partner Trish he has been quietly standing out from the crowd for over 50 years, with dinghy…
The land of four kings: discovering Indonesia by yacht
The night is almost over when we motor our dinghy across Namatote Strait, drawn by the glinting fluorescent bulbs of a dozen fishing trimarans. The lights that attract the nightly…
How to find the right weather window
How do you pick the right departure date? One of the most critical aspects of planning for an offshore passage is choosing the right weather window for departure. A weather…
How to manoeuvre a yacht under power
When handling under power is done well, it’s like a black art. It wasn’t until I became an instructor that I realised it could be broken down into a few…
American Magic win first AC40 showdown at America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta
The second day of racing for the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta was something of a mixed bag. Three solid fleet races in full foiling conditions were followed by an attempted…
First America’s Cup AC40 races: France and New Zealand share wins
It was a day of firsts in Villanova, some 30 miles along the coast from Barcelona today: the first races in the 37th America’s Cup cycle, the first ‘proper’ races…
Cruising couple hook an unexploded bomb while at anchor!
A Dutch cruising couple were forced to abandon their brand new anchor and chain off the port of Pula, northern Croatia, after they discovered they were entangled with an unexploded…
How to get a multihull ready for bluewater sailing
If you’re contemplating buying a multihull for bluewater sailing, be it a new one or a brokerage yacht, what equipment and spec should you be thinking about? The choices you…
Richard Mille Cup: a classic yacht revival
For two weeks in mid-June it looked as if those evocative black and white photographs taken by Beken of Cowes had come alive and the past was racing again. But…
Legendary yachts set off on ‘retro’ round the world race as Ocean Globe Race starts
Amost exactly 50 years to the day since the first Whitbread Round the World Race, the latest ‘retro’ race, the Ocean Globe Race, set off today from Cowes, UK. Fourteen…
America’s Cup: what have the teams been up to?
Several years after Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defended the America’s Cup back in 2021, we are about to see racing in this cycle for the first time. But what…
World’s coolest yachts: Maxi 72 Ran II
The Maxi 72 Ran II was a dominant force both inshore and offshore, sailing an intense programme after its launch in 2009, including taking back-to-back wins in the Rolex Fastnet…
First look: HH44 – smallest offering yet
The old adage that the many benefits of a cruising catamaran are achieved at the cost of its sailing qualities is no longer true and a growing proportion of buyers…
New yachts at Cannes Yachting Festival 2023
Cannes Yachting Festival has always featured a wide-array of new multihull launches – it is France, after all – but in recent years the French boat show has grown and…
The Ocean Race: Was the latest edition a success?
In the sweltering heat of midsummer in the Ligurian Sea, temperatures and tensions were steadily rising on board 11th Hour Racing. Simon ‘Si Fi’ Fisher restlessly tidied lines in the…