Sailing

Porto Cervo, 6 September 2021. An excellent first day of racing opened the 31st Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda with the support of Title Sponsor Rolex and the IMA (International Maxi Yacht Association), with a fleet of 44 yachts of over 60 feet (18.29 metres) enrolled.

After a year’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 43 of the world’s largest and most advanced racing boats have gathered in the jewel of northeast Sardinia that is Porto Cervo, for tomorrow’s start of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

Porto Cervo, 5 September 2021. The 31st edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda with the support of Title Sponsor Rolex and the International Maxi Association, officially gets underway today with the skippers' briefing followed by a welcome cocktail on the YCCS terrace. Racing will start tomorrow at 12 midday, and run through Saturday 11 September.

The ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, Nautor’s Swan flagship of the ClubSwan line, the high performance range of the Finnish yard, débuted remarkable success at the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Palma is gearing up to welcome the biggest fleet of ClubSwan yachts seen in the Mediterranean so far this year. The 39^th Copa del Rey will see three ClubSwan one design classes take to the water from 2 to 7 August, alongside several other classes that join this high-end regatta.

The biggest ever fleet of TP52s will meet on the Bay of Palma in August (24th to 28th) in Mallorca, Spain, to celebrate 20 years of the enduring international box-rule class at the Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week & TP52 20th Anniversary Invitational.

In August a record fleet of 450 boats is expected to be on the start line of the world’s largest offshore yacht race, the Rolex Fastnet Race. Among the crews of this traditionally male-dominated sport, just over 10% will be women, according to present crew registration. While still a minority, this is nonetheless a strong sign of how female participation has grown in the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, since 1926 when Mrs T Aitken Dick became the race’s first female competitor aboard her 38ft 14 ton cutter Altair.

The weather conditions experienced by the 12 international professional crews competing in The Ocean Race Europe have moderated considerably from yesterday’s fierce headwinds winds that funnelled against them through the Gibraltar Strait.

A day after leaving Cascais, Portugal on the second leg of The Ocean Race Europe, this afternoon the race’s 12-boat fleet battled fierce headwinds in the Gibraltar Strait – the narrow and congested waterway dividing mainland Europe from north Africa – on their way to Alicante, Spain.