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Runners and Riders for 52 Super Series St Tropez Season Opener

Runners and Riders for 52 Super Series St Tropez Season Opener

The 2025 52 Super Series season kicks off next week in Saint-Tropez with 11 teams locked, loaded, and ready after months of prep. No clear favorite means wide-open racing on the Côte d'Azur as the world's best TP52 crews chase early glory on one of sailing’s biggest stages.

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Runners and Riders for 52 Super Series St Tropez Season Opener

Runners and Riders for 52 Super Series St Tropez Season Opener

The 2025 52 Super Series season kicks off next week in Saint-Tropez with 11 teams locked, loaded, and ready after months of prep. No clear favorite means wide-open racing on the Côte d'Azur as the world's best TP52 crews chase early glory on one of sailing’s biggest stages.

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Young Gun Match Racers Assemble in Long Beach for Ficker Cup

Young Gun Match Racers Assemble in Long Beach for Ficker Cup

There’s no room for faint hearts or fluffed manoeuvres this weekend as eight match racing teams swagger into Long Beach, Ca. for the 2025 Ficker Cup — a bruising, no-second-chances shootout where only two crews will emerge with golden tickets to the big dance: the 60th Congressional Cup.

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Billionaire Bailout?

Billionaire Bailout?

The exit of two billionaire-backed syndicates – Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos Britannia and Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi Red Bull Racing – as potential challengers for the 38th America's Cup is a worrying indicator for the future of sailing's oldest and most prestigious competition.

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Heading Home

Heading Home

The 2025 season started well for maxi yachting: first was the RORC Transatlantic Race followed by the latest venture for maxis in the Caribbean, an inshore regatta, the Nelson’s Cup Maxi Series, followed immediately by the RORC Caribbean 600 – reports IMA Secretary General, Andrew McIrvine.

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Returning Heroes

Returning Heroes

When a single point decided the 2024 52 Super Series season championship, no one wants to start the 2025 circuit by giving anything away in the first few races of May's 2025 season opening event in Saint Tropez.

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Rob Wilson: Inside The Life Of A SailGP Coach

Rob Wilson: Inside The Life Of A SailGP Coach

Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team coach Rob Wilson shares his insights into the evolution of the SailGP coaching role—from limited chase boat support to giving real-time tactical input from a high-tech booth ashore—and gives us a behind-the-scenes look at one of SailGP's most high pressure roles.

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Alinghi Red Bull Racing Pulls Out of AC38

Alinghi Red Bull Racing Pulls Out of AC38

There was more bad news for America’s Cup holders Emirates Team New Zealand over the Easter weekend, as Swiss syndicate Alinghi Red Bull Racing confirmed it will not be mounting a challenge for the 38th America’s Cup.

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Launching into Europe

Launching into Europe

With military-spec materials, design awards and pro sailor endorsements, Mustang Survival unveils its new ranges of lifejackets and foul weather gear.

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Billy Gooderham: Taming the T-Foils

Billy Gooderham: Taming the T-Foils

Canada SailGP Team flight controller Billy Gooderham gives an in-depth look at what it takes to fly the SailGP F50 catamarans. From handling the upgraded T-foils, to refining muscle memory and managing complex controls, he breaks down the evolving challenges of this high-stakes role.

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The ‘Club’ Problem

The ‘Club’ Problem

Magnus Wheatley explores the challenges facing yacht clubs today – from declining membership to rising costs – and argues that clubs focusing on fun, accessibility, and community sailing, thrive—while those don't, risk decline.

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Opinion: Ainslie Unmoved as Ratcliffe Bows Out

Opinion: Ainslie Unmoved as Ratcliffe Bows Out

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s America’s Cup story just ended not with a bang, but with a finger-point and a disappearing act. The British billionaire formally stepped away yesterday from what would have been his third Cup campaign—news that came via a frosty press release and landed with a thud.

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Lebrun Extends Lead on Day 2 of Finn Europeans in Naples

Lebrun Extends Lead on Day 2 of Finn Europeans in Naples

Under the looming silhouette of Mount Vesuvius, the 2025 Open Finn European Championship continued on Wednesday with France’s Valérian Lebrun extending his overall lead to nine points after two more physically demanding and tactically rich races on the Bay of Naples.

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Two by Two: The Fastnet's Fiercest Fleet Gathers Steam

Two by Two: The Fastnet's Fiercest Fleet Gathers Steam

Doublehanded racing at the Rolex Fastnet Race isn’t just thriving—it’s now one of the most compelling storylines on the course. With more top-tier short-handed teams and cutting-edge designs on the starting line, the 2025 edition is shaping up to be one for the books.

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Emma Wilson Leads British Revival In Palma

Emma Wilson Leads British Revival In Palma

Under perfect spring skies and a golden Mediterranean breeze, the 54th Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca drew to a close on Saturday with British sailor Emma Wilson lifting the event’s highest individual honour: the overall winner’s trophy, awarded to the event's standout performance.

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Beckett Secures Fourth Palma Victory as Medal Races Await

Beckett Secures Fourth Palma Victory as Medal Races Await

As Olympic sailing’s new cycle toward Los Angeles 2028 gathers pace, the 54th Trofeo Princesa Sofía regatta in Palma is set for a dramatic final act on Saturday. Ten classes will contest their medal races in the Bay of Palma’s familiar breeze, but only one sailor will enter without any pressure.

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Editor's Notebook

Editor's Notebook

Full disclosure, while doing some 'research' for some stories on the website, I tripped and fell head first down the YouTube rabbit hole. It took me a while to find my way out – and that's why this Editor's Notebook is all about the three great sailing films I came across while I was down there.

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Maeder Returns to Top Spot as Trofeo Princesa Sofía Heats Up

Maeder Returns to Top Spot as Trofeo Princesa Sofía Heats Up

For many of the world’s top sailors, the Trofeo Princesa Sofía regatta in Mallorca is not just a competition but a checkpoint—a place to restore momentum, rebuild confidence, and shake off the residual disappointment or rust from a long Olympic campaign.

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Used boats can win

Used boats can win

You don’t need a big budget, a shiny new boat, or a crew stacked with pros to be competitive offshore these days. That’s not some clever marketing line—it’s reality.

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Featured Photographer: Daniel Forster

Featured Photographer: Daniel Forster

“There are no bleachers offshore.” With this simple phrase, Swiss photographer Daniel Forster sums up the ethos behind a career spanning over five decades spent chasing light, wind, and waves in some of the most challenging—and beautiful—conditions on earth.

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Can The British Return To Olympic Sailing Glory?

Can The British Return To Olympic Sailing Glory?

Ed Gorman speaks to the Royal Yachting Association's performance director, Mark Robinson – the man tasked with returning Great Britain to the top of the sailing medal table at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

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Palma Delivers as Olympic Season Shifts into Gear

Palma Delivers as Olympic Season Shifts into Gear

Sunshine, steady breeze, and the unmistakable hum of Olympic ambition—Day 1 of the 2025 Trofeo Princesa Sofía offered the kind of conditions that make the Bay of Palma one of the Olympic classes' favourite spring playgrounds.

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Ragtime Returns: A Legend Reborn for Transpac 2025

Ragtime Returns: A Legend Reborn for Transpac 2025

If you’ve spent any time on the docks at a major West Coast offshore regatta, chances are you’ve heard the whispers. “That’s the Ragtime.” It’s never just Ragtime. There’s always a pause, a little reverence in the voice.

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Editor's Notebook

Editor's Notebook

Yacht Racing Life Editor Justin Chisholm shares what's caught his attention in the sailing world this week

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Structured Luffs for All

Structured Luffs for All

At Europe’s major superyacht crossroads of Palma de Mallorca, the three key experts at the Doyle Sails loft are each involved in projects widely diverse in nature but all sharing a commitment to extract maximum benefit from the company’s groundbreaking Structured Luff technology.

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SailGP 2025: A Two-Tier Fleet After First Five Events

SailGP 2025: A Two-Tier Fleet After First Five Events

We are five events deep into the 2025 SailGP season and the fleet has split into two tiers. In the top group six teams are all jostling for the podium places with just an 11-point gap separating them. Below that, though, there’s a gaping 10-point gulf down to the second tier.

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SailGP San Francisco Analysis

SailGP San Francisco Analysis

A Yacht Racing Life Podcast Episode | Yacht Racing Life editor Justin Chisholm is joined from the UK by Magnus Wheatley as the pair give their independent analysis and commentary on the fifth event of the Rolex SailGP Championship 2025 season which took place in San Francisco, CA this weekend.

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The 10th Vendée Globe: A record breaking event of epic proportions

The 10th Vendée Globe: A record breaking event of epic proportions

There is no doubt that the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe has raised the bar—on the water, in the media, and in the hearts of millions. Records were shattered, heroes were made, and Charlie Dalin wrote his name in bold across the annals of solo offshore greatness.

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Editor's (San Francisco SailGP) Notebook

Editor's (San Francisco SailGP) Notebook

This week’s Editor’s Notebook comes from San Francisco, where Yacht Racing Life editor Justin Chisholm is in town to experience first hand the fifth SailGP event of the 2025 season, taking place along the cityfront this weekend.

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Data and AI Continue to Redefine the America’s Cup

Data and AI Continue to Redefine the America’s Cup

The modern era America’s Cup is often characterised by its breathtaking speeds, cutting-edge yacht designs, and fierce competition on the water. But behind the scenes a secretive world of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and performance management is playing an increasingly crucial role.

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The Ocean Race to Return to Auckland

The Ocean Race to Return to Auckland

It had to happen. The Ocean Race, that relentless round-the-world marathon that separates the good from the great and the great from the legends, is heading back to its spiritual home in Auckland, New Zealand, for the 2027 edition.

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Taking on the Southern Ocean

Taking on the Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean is a place of fearsome legend—a vast, untamed expanse where the wind screams and the waves tower, where sailors must confront their deepest fears and push their endurance to its absolute limit. British solo ocean racing skipper Sam Goodchild knows this place well.

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SailGP Los Angeles Analysis

SailGP Los Angeles Analysis

A Yacht Racing Life Podcast Interview | Justin Chisholm is joined from the UK by Magnus Wheatley as the pair give their independent analysis and commentary on Event 4 of the Rolex SailGP Championship 2025 season which took place in Los Angeles, CA this weekend.

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Canadians top the podium after stunning second day in LA

Canadians top the podium after stunning second day in LA

It’s been a long time coming, but Northstar Canada is finally back in the winner’s circle. After two frustrating years of near-misses, new helmsman Giles Scott delivered a statement victory at the Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix, taking down heavyweights New Zealand and Australia in the process.

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Editor's Notebook

Editor's Notebook

Kylian Mbappé joins France SailGP Team as investor and charity partner There is good news for French SailGP fans on the eve of the Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix their team announces a major investment from French footballer Kylian Mbappé's via his company Coalition Capital. Mbappé’s foundation

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Nice awarded Ocean Race Europe 2025 stopover

Nice awarded Ocean Race Europe 2025 stopover

For the first time in its storied history, The Ocean Race will make landfall on France’s Mediterranean coast, adding the city of Nice as a stopover in The Ocean Race Europe 2025.

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John Croom: US America's Cup Cyclor

John Croom: US America's Cup Cyclor

A Yacht Racing Life Podcast Interview. John Croom had an illustrious career as a track cyclist in the US National Team before switching sports to bring his physique and fitness to bear in the America’s Cup with the New York Yacht Club American Magic team AC75 at the 38th Cup in Barcelona last year.

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Featured Photographer: Gilles Martin-Raget

Featured Photographer: Gilles Martin-Raget

This month’s Featured Photographer will need little introduction to regular readers. If you have followed the professional end of our sport over the past several decades then inevitably at some point you will have found yourself captivated by one of Gilles Martin-Raget’s spectacular images.

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Shape of the Future

Shape of the Future

Marc Lombard Design Group’s highly successful Lift Class40 designs have now evolved into a racer-cruiser – built in the UK at SR Structures in Lymington.

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Editor's Notebook

Editor's Notebook

Yacht Racing Life Editor Justin Chisholm shares what's caught his attention in the sailing world this week.

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Cut and Paste

Cut and Paste

The quandary over which of the two British Knights of the Realm – Sir Ben Ainslie or Sir Jim Ratcliffe – will be representing the Royal Yacht Squadron as the official Challenger of Record at the 38th America’s Cup was resolved this week – and in a most discreet and understated way.

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Taking the load off

Taking the load off

It used to be a tough choice for superyachts: either accept very high gearing on the helm or lose the direct feedback from the rudder. Now there’s no need to compromise.

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What Jimmy did next

What Jimmy did next

US sports writer Bernie Wilson catches up with the inimitable Jimmy Spithill to find out what life ashore has been like for the Australian sailor since his surprise retirement from competition

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Glenn Ashby

Glenn Ashby

A Yacht Racing Life Podcast Interview | Joining Justin Chisholm on the Yacht Racing Life Podcast this time is Australian Olympic silver medallist and two-time America’s Cup winner with Emirates Team New Zealand – Glenn Ashby.

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Role models

Role models

Parents looking for suitable sporting role models for their youngsters to emulate could do a lot worse than Switzerland’s Justin Mettraux and Britain’s Sam Goodchild – the first two non-French entrants to complete the 10th edition of the grueling Vendée Globe single handed around-the-world race.

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An all-time classic

An all-time classic

The Rolex Swan Cup has been going great guns for six decades and it’s the enduring appeal of the event that puts it in a class of its own

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Billionaire Bailout?

Billionaire Bailout?

The exit of two billionaire-backed syndicates – Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos Britannia and Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi Red Bull Racing – as potential challengers for the 38th America's Cup is a worrying indicator for the future of sailing's oldest and most prestigious competition.

Free Members Public
Opinion: Ainslie Unmoved as Ratcliffe Bows Out

Opinion: Ainslie Unmoved as Ratcliffe Bows Out

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s America’s Cup story just ended not with a bang, but with a finger-point and a disappearing act. The British billionaire formally stepped away yesterday from what would have been his third Cup campaign—news that came via a frosty press release and landed with a thud.

Free Members Public
Data and AI Continue to Redefine the America’s Cup

Data and AI Continue to Redefine the America’s Cup

The modern era America’s Cup is often characterised by its breathtaking speeds, cutting-edge yacht designs, and fierce competition on the water. But behind the scenes a secretive world of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and performance management is playing an increasingly crucial role.

Free Members Public
Cut and Paste

Cut and Paste

The quandary over which of the two British Knights of the Realm – Sir Ben Ainslie or Sir Jim Ratcliffe – will be representing the Royal Yacht Squadron as the official Challenger of Record at the 38th America’s Cup was resolved this week – and in a most discreet and understated way.

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Kiwi brilliance takes Emirates Team New Zealand to Match Point in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match

Kiwi brilliance takes Emirates Team New Zealand to Match Point in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match

Subscribe now It was a fired-up, proficient and efficient Emirates Team New Zealand that aced the hardest to interpret wind direction here in Barcelona and took two clean races off the fast-charging Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia who left very little out on the water today but succumbed to a

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Tight racing as Emirates Team New Zealand take fourth straight win in Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup CUP Match

Tight racing as Emirates Team New Zealand take fourth straight win in Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup CUP Match

Subscribe now In a closely fought race that rewarded the most marginal of gains, Emirates Team New Zealand took one more point in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match this afternoon in Barcelona, with a fourth consecutive victory over INEOS Britannia that advanced them to within three points

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NYYC American Magic: Excellence Determination and Passion

NYYC American Magic: Excellence Determination and Passion

Representing the New York Yacht Club in the America’s Cup comes with a huge amount of responsibility and a serious weight of expectation. The most famous yacht club in the world, the architects of ‘America’s Cup,’ is an elite organisation built on excellence and a reputation that is peerless.

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