More sailing news

The third edition of the DRHEAM-CUP, starting on 19 July in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin and finishing in La Trinité-sur-Mer, will be the very first Grand Prix de France de Course au Large (French Offshore Racing Grand Prix). The competition will be strong, with over 80 boats expected on the three courses, including three Ultime multihulls, just as many Multi50s, 25 Figaro Bénéteau class boats, a dozen Class40s, several Multi 2000s and many IRC yachts, sailed double-handed and with crews.

The owners and organisers of La Solitaire du Figaro, OC Sport Pen Duick, have confirmed that the flagship race of the French Elite Offshore Racing Championship will go ahead at the end of the summer.

A race around the Isle of Wight on Saturday 1st August will see the return to competitive racing at the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) - the first since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The race will replace the originally scheduled Channel Race and is open to COVID-19 compliant crews following Government regulations in both the Two Handed and family/same-household classes. Race entries are required to have an IRC TCC of 0.900 and above.

With five months to go to the start of the Vendée Globe, almost all of the competitors have relaunched their boats and restarted their preparation for the ninth edition. Now is the time to look at some of the details concerning the key steps that lie ahead as the skippers prepare for 8th November.

Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19), the renewed Medemblik Regatta, which was scheduled for June 4-7, 2020, has been canceled. The return of this spring classic in sailing will now take place from 2-6 June 2021. However, the international regatta will now be held virtually from 4 to 7 June this year. Recreational eSailors can compete against top Olympic sailors and the best eSailors during the Virtual Medemblik Regatta and qualify for the eSailing World Championship Finals PlayOff.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the New York Yacht Club to postpone 2020 Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex, which was to include the Swan American Regatta, from its scheduled dates of July 14 to 18 to a to-be-determined date in September. As September is quite a busy month for Nautor's Swan, including the Rolex Swan Cup in Sardinia among other European events, the decision has been made to cancel the 2020 edition of the Swan American Regatta

The members of the Race Management Committee led by Hans-Eckhard ("Ecky") von der Mosel and the management and staff at the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) are pleased to announce the publication of a project that has put together the knowledge and expertise of many ORC contributors: the inaugural edition of the ORC Race Management Guide.

The Notice of Race for the 2020 Rolex Sydney Hobart, the 76th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, encouraging entrants in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s famous blue-ribbon event, has been released.

Just over a fortnight after the lockdown ended, the sailors and their teams are now busy catching up on lost time. Many IMOCAs have been relaunched after their winter refits, which took longer than planned. There have been more and more measurement checks and trips to check out the changes made during the winter. Other sailors have to wait a while before heading back out to sea. We look at what has been happening at the end of the refit season.

The second in the current series of The Ocean Race Summits will stream online live from The Hague and feature top experts and leaders from across a wide range of fields coming together to share solutions to accelerate the restoration of ocean health.