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Francis Joyon has just beaten his own record, set ten years ago, of the Mauritius Route and made it all look so easy. 19 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes and 45 seconds, or an improvement of 6 days and 10 hours in comparison to ten years ago. The Mauritius Route started from Port Louis in Brittany with part of the round the world route that Francis knows so well having sailed it many times both alone and with a crew. …

Thirty hours into racing and all four of the trimarans competing on the Brest Atlantiques race have already reached the latitudes of Gibraltar, most of them averaging around 30 knots with top speeds over 40! Ahead lies one gybe to be taken between the Azores and Madeira before a fast surf down to the equator. The fleet has not been hanging around having set off cautiously on Tuesday in very rough seas, the four trimarans taking part in the “Brest …

by Richard Crockett Never has a Class40 boat travelled as fast before as Ian Lipinski and Adrien Hardy on ‘Crédit Mutuel’. Last night they peaked at 415.86 miles at average speed of 17.3 knots over 24 hours. That beat the old record of 377.7 miles at average speed of 15.7 knots by 2017 winners ‘V and B’, set in the last edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre. It is no one-off wonder. They have broken the old …

by Richard Crockett To read the full reports, click on the LINK following the headline. A slight change in headline this morning to better represent the origin of this history. We open today with a delightful tale of a Sandefjord crewman who received a “broomstick whopping” It’s a wonderful read. Bruce Dalling announced that his crew of 9 would start training immediately after ‘Jakaranda’ arrived in Durban. Another delightful story about a BOC skipper and his sad tale of flags! …

The four Ultim Class trimarans departed yesterday on the “Brest Atlantiques” race, a new 14,000 mile double-handed race that will take them non-stop to Rio and then Cape Town, before heading back to Brest. After five hours of racing at an average speed of 30 knots, the ‘Macif’ (François Gabart/Gwénolé Gahinet) and the ‘Edmond de Rothschild’ (Franck Cammas/Charles Caudrelier) were in the lead. A white and frothing sea, average winds of 28/30 knots, gusts a little below 40, clear skies …

by Richard Crockett To read the full reports, click on the LINK following the headline. With most cruisers doing their circumnavigations from East to West, Durban was always the first South African city they stopped in after a tough passages in the Indian Ocean. The city, “back in the day”, always received high praise from these intrepid yachties. The second leg of the BOC Challenge was in countdown mode to the second leg start with John Martin and Bertie Reed …

by Richard Crockett To read the full reports, click on the LINK following the headline. One aspect of our sport few give any thought to is that sailing is a sport one can participate in from a very young kid until old age. There is no better example of this, which is highlighted today, by the fact that 62-year-old Harry Mitchell, the oldest skipper in the BOC Solo race was due into Cape Town. “Cudmore’s Cunning Saves Crusader” said the …

‘Hugo Boss’ has reported that after exhausting all the options, they had decided to cut the keel off their 60ft monohull after damage forced them to withdraw from the 14 edition of the Transat Jacque Vabre Normandie Le Havre on Sunday. “Last night Alex and Neal were both able to get some rest on board ‘Hugo Boss’,” Ross Daniel, Technical Director at Alex Thomson Racing, said. “In the early hours of this morning the skippers resumed their attempts to stabilise …

by Richard Crockett Four maxi-trimarans of the Ultim Class 32/23 are all set for the start of the double-handed Brest Atlantiques race, departing from Brest today. The 14,000-mile non-stop loop, or the equivalent of sailing halfway around the globe, will see the trimarans round an island off Rio de Janeiro and then Cape Town before returning to Brest. Depending on how the teams tackle the strong wind and sea conditions, the descent into the Bay of Biscay could be extremely …

Alex Thomson and Neal McDonald are working on the safest place to navigate their damaged 60′ monohull, ‘Hugo Boss’, after announcing their withdrawal from the 14th edition the Transat Jacque Vabre. Earlier in the day they informed the race office that they were withdrawing from the race with the keel of their brand new 60ft monohull attached only by the hydraulic ram after hitting something in the water whilst travelling at around 25 knots. Hugo Boss had completed just over …

Francis Joyon and the ‘IDEC SPORT’ maxi trimaran crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope, often referred to as the Cape of Storms, on Sunday morning after 14 days, 19 hours and 48 minutes of sailing. He was 2 days, 19 hours and 51 minutes ahead of the time he set in 2009 on his first attempt at the Mauritius Route, the start of the route to the Indies, between Port Louis (Brittany) and Port Louis (Mauritius). This …

PredictWind has made significant improvements to their weather models. 10 years of development has culminated in the release of the most accurate iteration of the PWG & PWE forecast models to date. This means that the PredictWind models now give you more forecast confidence than ever before, making your time on the water safer and more enjoyable. To validate the improvement, we undertook an intensive verification study using real time data from 77 weather stations around the globe. For each …

by Richard Crockett To read the full reports, click on the LINK following the headline. The weekend was filled with distractions other than sailing – and a very fine victory by the Boks. How humbling it was to see Siya raise the Web Ellis Trophy, and listen to him as journalists from around the world fired questions at him. What a great ambassador he is for our country – as well as being an inspirational captain. International cruising folk again …

Progli and Hutton-Squire won the recent 505 Nationals in Saldanha Bay, winning 3 of the 6 races and not being lower than 4th (their first race) – a great result against some well-seasoned and highly experienced and competent 505 sailors. A report on the event said it was going to be “one of the toughest events on the calendar in 2019″ – and that was not puffery, especially when one looked at the competitor list. Progli and Hutton-Squire did not …

As he beats his way down the North Atlantic in an increasingly unfavourable position, Britain’s Alex Thomson looked forward to England playing in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday morning with the good omen that he watched the last one in Salvador at the end of the Transat Jacque Vabre 16 years ago. “I’ve got goose bumps just thinking about it,” Thomson on his 60ft monohull, ‘Hugo Boss’, said. “I guess I might go on the BBC sport website, …