More sailing news

The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), organisers of the Rolex Fastnet Race, announced at a press conference today that the City of Cherbourg will host the finish of the Rolex Fastnet Race for the 2021 and 2023 editions of the biennial race. The move encourages and secures the future development of the race and will open it to more competitors; in 2019 the race had a waiting list of 150 boats.

The 6th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race got underway on time with the fleet starting from outside Marina Lanzarote at 1100 UTC on Saturday 23 November, 2019. After months of preparation, the international fleet have started one of the most iconic offshore races with a stiff breeze gusting up to 25 knots.

More than 5,000 sailors from around the world, racing in a dazzling variety of 570 yachts, took part in the 2019 RORC Season's Points Championship. The world's largest offshore racing series comprised 14 testing races and every race had its own coveted prize for the overall winner and for IRC class honours.

On the opening day of the Dragon Grand Prix European Cup Finals 2019 Ukrainian Olympic 470 Gold Medallist Evgenii Braslavets, crewed by Sergey Pugachev, Sergey Timokhov and Oleksandr Myrchuk, claimed the golden ticket which will allow him to leapfrog past the Quarter and Semi Finals straight through to the Finals.

The Dragon Grand Prix Spain participants remained ashore on the final day of the regatta. Strong winds, above 30 knots, and a big swell with waves of more than two meters in the race area off Puerto Portals, made it impossible to run the last day of racing.

Ian Lipinsky and Adrien Hardy, on their 40ft monohull, Crédit Mutuel, have won the Class40 of the 14th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre after crossing the finish line in the Bay of All Saints in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil on Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 04:36:23 (UTC), 17 days, 16 hours 21 minutes and 23 seconds after leaving Le Havre, Normandy, France on Sunday, October 27 at 12:15 (UTC). 

The Dragon Grand Prix Spain of Puerto Portals, Mallorca, produced a splendid second day of racing thanks to a generous if shifty north wind that did not stop blowing in the nearly five hours in which the fleet of 44 teams from 12 countries were competing.

The 2020 IRC European Championship will be held at Cork Week as part of the unique celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Royal Cork Yacht Club. The 5th edition of the IRC European Championship will take place over five days of racing from Monday 13th July to Friday 17th July 2020. The championship is expected to attract a record fleet of highly competitive IRC rated boats vying for the overall win and class honours.

The four Ultim 32/23 Class trimarans took off on Tuesday 5th November at 11am 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 Trimaran Macif (François Gabart/Gwénolé Gahinet) and the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Franck Cammas/Charles Caudrelier) are in the lead.

Hugo Boss said today 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.