More sailing news

A day of light wind saw a slightly disrupted race schedule on Day 2 of Ready Steady Tokyo – Sailing, the official test event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition.

After four days of intense racing at the 38th Copa del Rey MAPFRE, competition is about to get that bit more serious.  Heading into the final two days, the leading boats in the Swan One Design classes may look to be sitting pretty, having built up solid leads over their closest rivals, but a new scoring system introduced this year by the Real Club Náutico de Palma means those in pole position are less secure than they might seem.

While the toughest competition in the Rolex Fastnet Race will be within the individual classes, the ultimate kudos comes from winning the Fastnet Challenge Cup, the outright prize for IRC corrected time for the world's largest offshore yacht race. The challenge will be all the harder for this year's race has an immense fleet of 336 boats (excluding the 60 racing in the non-IRC fleet).

The weather will play a significant outcome in determining the overall results of the Rolex Fastnet Race. Winning your division is more within each team's control, and here we'll look at the top three IRC handicap categories in terms of size and speed. IRC Zero is where the biggest boats congregate and is likely to produce the monohull line honours winner. However, you have to go back to the 2009 and 2011 editions of the race to find the last Maxi to win overall - on both occasions the impeccably sailed Rán 2.

Quantum Racing clinched their first 52 SUPER SERIES regatta title of the 2019 season, but their perennial arch rivals Azzurra ran them close, the Italian-Argentine teams losing out by a matter of a only a couple of metres on the finish line of the last race of a windy Cascais 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week.

Pieter Taselaar’s Bliksem recorded its best performance yet at the M32 European Series Marstrand today, winning five out of six races. In the ‘one that got away’ the New York-based Dutchman’s team recovered from an OCS to finish second.

A truly unforgettable Super Final of the Tour Voile served up an even higher than usual dose of tension, excitement and top-level sailing – all set against the stunning backdrop of the Baie des Anges in Nice.

Quantum Racing go into the final day of the Cascais 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week with a five-point lead over Azzurra and so sit on the threshold of their first major regatta title since victory in Puerto Portals in late August last year.

A growing question as the 27^th August start of the M32 World Championship in Riva del Garda looms is - will this year’s World Champion be a team from the M32 European Series or from the USA? The opening day of the M32 European Series Marstrand gave a strong initial indication that it may be the latter.

After a disappointing Puerto Sherry regatta last month when they finished seventh overall, their worst regatta result in the history of the world’s leading grand prix monohull circuit, Quantum Racing are on fire in the big winds and waves of the Atlantic off Cascais and lead the third regatta of the season by six points.