More sailing news

Five years ago an old OK Dinghy was dragged out of a garden in southern France and given a makeover. Soon it was joined by another and then another, and what followed was the amazingly successful revival of the Mediterranean OK Dinghy fleet with many former and new sailors joining the class. Two years ago they initiated the Mediterranean Championship at Bandol, an indicator of the growing interest and potential of this fledging fleet. Then, on the back of all this, and to support the growth, they were offered the chance of hosting the 2018 European Championship, which begins next week.

The 23rd running of Europe’s largest and longest-running superyacht regatta, The Superyacht Cup Palma, will be held on Palma Bay, Mallorca, from 19–22 June 2019, the annual gathering again set to be a magnet attracting yacht owners, their friends, captains, crews and sponsors to the idyllic setting both on and off the water.

The quays of Porto Cervo are bustling as a fleet of superyachts arrives for the seventh edition of the Perini Navi Cup, an event organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in collaboration with the prestigious Perini Navi shipyard.

The final day of the 20th edition of the Rolex Swan Cup decreed the winners in each of the six categories that the fleet of 110 boats from 17 nations was divided into. The winners were: Plis-Play in the Maxi Class, Solte in the Grand Prix division and Six Jaguar in the Sparkman & Stephens Class. The ClubSwan 50 world champion is OneGroup while the world championship title in the Swan 45 Class went to Porron IX. The ClubSwan 42 Mela won the class European championship.

Light winds on the GC32 Villasimius Cup’s final day may not have provided the same top speed foiling action of the previous three days, but there was high drama across the leaderboard during today’s three races with first place changing twice and third place swapping. Out on the bay off Marina di Villasimius, the 5-7 knot wind started off in the east-southeast before veering south-southeast for the last two races made for particularly tricky racing.

The third day of racing at the Rolex Swan Cup welcomed the typical Mediterranean conditions that the Costa Smeralda is famous for the world over: clear skies, sunshine and a light wind that built from just 6 knots in the morning to more than 16 over the course of the day. Ideal conditions for a regatta that gathers as many professional sailing teams as passionate amateurs in Porto Cervo, every two years, for an unmissable event.

The new owner of Nandor Fa’s IMOCA, the Belgian skipper, Denis Van Weynbergh hopes to be able to compete in the Globe Series and reach a climax by taking part in the 2020 Vendée Globe. While for a long time, he has divided up his life between being head of a company and ocean racing, he is now dedicating all his time to his IMOCA project with the aim of becoming the first Belgian sailor to complete the Vendée Globe. He recently launched a highly original, artistic crowd-funding campaign. We met up with him to find out more.

A dramatic opening day at the GC32 Villasimius Cup saw two races held before black clouds descended on the race course, causing the wind suddenly to build to 25+ knots from the southwest, kicking up a rough sea state. Deeming it unsafe for the flying catamarans and to avoid damage on this first day, PRO Bill O’Hara called it a day and sent the seven GC32s back into the Marina di Villasimius. 

Girls on Film will be aiming for their hat-trick in Round 5 of the 2018 FAST40+ Circuit, the One Ton Cup hosted by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in the Solent from September 13-16. But there is a new boat in town.

At the end of the second day the rankings of four of the six classes in the 20th edition of the Rolex Swan Cup see the leading boats separated by just a handful of points, only Plis-Play and Mela emerge as clear leaders in their respective classes.