Improving the breed
When 200 yachts sail across the Atlantic it?s a perfect opportunity to field-test modern yacht equipment. We?ve been doing just this for five years now with the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers and over that period manufacturers and agents have started to take this, the world?s biggest real-life gear test, more and more seriously. The result, and yes it is blowing our own trumpet, is that for sailors all over the world, not just ARC participants, equipment reliability has improved. So make sure you see our 2005 Great Atlantic Gear Test in June before buying new equipment for your boat

?This sailing lot. They?re nuts?
This was the heartfelt view of one of the ?leggers? on the tough Indian Ocean leg of the Global Challenge. You might agree that sailing round the world against prevailing winds requires certain masochistic tendencies but it still makes riveting reading. We bring you the story of the endurance of the Challenge crews on this leg to Cape Town

They are big and mean
Rogue waves, every yachtsman?s nightmare, are, according to new research, more common than previously suspected. We look at causes and frequency of these monsters, recount a harrowing account of a yacht rolled and dismasted by a giant wave, losing two crew, and look at the tough time heavy seas gave the crews in the Global Challenge.

PLUS?
Tested, Jeanneau 49 and Moody 49, star of the London Boat Show