Sail News

Lydia helping sail Spindrift’s Sails of Change in France.  Last year I was at a wedding of an old friend from high school. Near the end of the night, when the bustle of the evening started to ebb and we had a chance to catch up, he slung an arm around me and said, “Lydia,

Photo Rick Tomlinson, courtesy Dauntsey’s School At 110 years old, the storied pilot cutter Jolie Brise powers off the wind. In 1851, the New York pilot schooner America sailed to England, beat the Brits at their own prestigious yacht race (which came to be known as the America’s Cup), and launched an evolution of the

Close Encounters: A Star to Steer By I first met Steve and Irene Macek in the proper way—in an anchorage full of bluewater cruising boats. This was in St. Georges, Bermuda, in the spring of 2019. Theirs, without doubt, was the most distinctive boat there—an immaculate, three-masted, double-ended Marco Polo schooner …read more

Photos courtesy of Alexforbes Arch Angel; Translated 9 With just four boats still on their way, it has been a long road to Rio for the fleet competing in this year’s Cape2Rio. Larry Folsom’s American-flagged Balance 526 Nohri took line honors and a win in the MORCA fleet, finishing with a corrected time of 18

Steve and Irene Macek stand next to their new boat, Pearl, after more than 30 well-traveled years aboard Star. Photo by Charles J. Doane I first met Steve and Irene Macek in the proper way—in an anchorage full of bluewater cruising boats. This was in St. Georges, Bermuda, in the spring of 2019. Theirs, without

Sailing Energy / The Ocean Race After a trial by fire start to the race and only a brief stop for limited fixes, the five IMOCA 60 crews in The Ocean Race set off for Cape Town, South Africa, early on January 25. Despite arriving somewhat battered in Cabo Verde, an African island nation west

Photo by Tami Rae/Loadedcanon.us I was sailing down the inner channel of Marina del Rey under a beautiful red sunset when Nills, one of the crew members on my boat, pointed out an unusual and unique-looking 40-foot gaff-rigged wooden cutter tied to the end of a dock. Its classic appearance was a stark contrast to

SAIL Editor-in-Chief Wendy Mitman Clarke enjoys a sunny autumn cruise in her Peterson 34 on the Chesapeake Bay. It was late afternoon just after the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis when I climbed aboard the last boat on the schedule. I and others who review and sail boats for the magazine’s Top 10 Best Boats

B&G has long been putting out top-of-the-line electronics, but the new Zeus S Chartplotter is a new take on the best way to give sailors the exact information they need, when they need it. “So many more people sail shorthanded these days, whether as a couple or when they’re doublehanded racing,” says B&G Product Director

Thanks to their detailed planning, the friends enjoy a laid-back morning at the Baths on Virgin Gorda in the BVI. Photo courtesy of Zuzana Prochazka In the wake of the pandemic, many sailors are seeking adventure and grabbing onto a vision of their best lives. For some, that may mean sailing across the Atlantic with

Even with—and sometimes because of—recent changes to the format, The Ocean Race is still the heart and soul of offshore racing, in my opinion. You could certainly make a case for the intensity of solo sailors lapping the planet in the Vendée Globe, but there’s something enchanting about the camaraderie, teamwork, and trust required for

The Alexforbes ArchAngel team training The lonely southern latitudes will be uncharacteristically busy this season, between the Ocean Race’s mammoth Cape Town-to-Itajai leg, the final stretch of the Golden Globe’s southern trek, and a fleet that will be crossing its wake: the less well known but no less spirited Cape2Rio. This east-to-west transatlantic fleet started

Photo from Charley Morgan’s Facebook page Jan. 11/2023: Now comes news over the past weekend that Charley Morgan, one of the great pioneers of fiberglass boatbuilding and design, left this world on Saturday, bound for whatever comes next. He was 93, and reportedly passed just a few hours after his wife Maurine died. Sailors of

The newly opened up main saloon seating area is more comfortable and spacious  Our Open 66, NV, was originally designed, built, and raced by Hungarian sailor Nándor Fa in the singlehanded around-the-world races Around Alone and the Vendée Globe. Like many such boats, she carried water ballast, up to 4 tons in six tanks (three

The Cruising Club of America (CCA) is a collection of 1,400 ocean sailors with extensive offshore seamanship, command experience, and a shared passion for making adventurous use of the seas. Their experiences and expertise make them, collectively, one of the most reliable sources of information on offshore sailing. In partnership with SAIL, the CCA is

Photo by Emma Garschagen The adventure sailing company 59 North is reserving two bunks on all upcoming voyages for women. The move is to help make participation in its programming more inclusive, encourage more women to give offshore passagemaking a try, and gain confidence in their skills. Historically, about a quarter of the paying sailors

July 14/2022: I must confess I had never even heard of Ralph Middleton Munroe, a.k.a. “the Commodore,” until just 12 years ago, when I test-sailed a very interesting boat called the Presto 30, designed by Rodger Martin, on Biscayne Bay during the Miami International Boat Show. I was informed at that time that this new

In March 2022, Kenichi Horie set sail under the Golden Gate Bridge aboard Suntory Mermaid III, an 18-foot sloop, reversing the Japan-to-San Francisco voyage he made 60 years earlier. Photo by Latitude 38 Kenichi Horie, who undertook his most recent voyage last year at age 83, sailing solo from San Francisco to Chiba, Japan, in

2 – 2 Tango, the Schionning 53 competing in the 2020 CMC.  Photo by Laurens Morel, Salty Colours, Inc. The fifth annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge will begin in just over a month with a record number of boats on the start line. “From a high of 18 boats in 2022, we hope to come closer

Every year, sailboat manufacturers around the world launch their latest models, and every year, SAIL magazine’s experienced boat reviewers spend days and weeks learning what’s new, talking with boatbuilders, examining the boats top to bottom dockside, and finally taking them sailing. This culminates at the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, where our review team gets