The first signs that something odd was taking place came in July 2020. After the strangest start to a summer any of us can remember, just as Europe began to…
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World’s coolest yachts: Ngoni
“Build me a beast. Don’t build me a sheep in wolf’s clothing. This has to be an edgy and innovative weapon, fast and furious.” This owner’s brief is well known…
World’s coolest yachts: The Ultra 30
“The Ultra 30s were the coolest boats, were way ahead of their time,” says Eddie Warden Owen, who skippered an Ultra 30 and also ran the circuit for several years.…
World’s coolest yachts: Mariquita
“Built in 1911 as a 19 Metre, Mariquita is one of the most beautiful yachts afloat, and I’ve had the privilege to be race navigator on board for most of…
World’s coolest yachts: Lady Belle
“It’s 50 years since my wife and I were beating down the West Solent in our first tiny yacht and saw a cloud of sail running in from seaward,” say…
London light, a tale of working on the barges
Anybody who has successfully worked an 85ft, 120-ton Thames sailing barge up and down the estuary and East Coast waters, under 4,000 square feet of canvas with only a mate…
World’s coolest yachts: Duen
“I cannot think of a better example of a happy cruising family than that of the crew of Duen,” So says cruising legend, Jimmy Cornell. “Among the many cruising people…
On test: Oceanis Yacht 54
There’s something surprising and quite brilliant about the new Beneteau Oceanis Yacht 54, which I bet you won’t notice at first. I certainly didn’t. It’s not the powerful looks or…
World’s coolest yachts: The Mayflower
The Mayflower is certainly the most unusual nomination to date for a world’s coolest yacht! It came to Yachting World from Pete Goss, on the 400th anniversary of the famous…
World’s coolest yachts: Finot-Conq design Nica
Hawaii-based photographer Tor Johnson, who has written for Yachting World on the challenges of cruising in British Columbia, has shot many different yachts, but he has a soft spot for…
World’s coolest yachts: The Beneteau First 25.7
Although he is something of an expert on ocean cruising subjects, ARC organiser Jeremy Wyatt says his ideal is smaller, and more local, a Beneteau First 25.7. “A boat I…
World’s coolest yachts: Charal IMOCA 60
“When you look at what the designers and engineers have put in place to get round quite restrictive IMOCA rules and balance on a single foil, I think that is…
World’s coolest yachts: Swan 65
Tracy Edwards says her heart will always belong to Maiden, the 58ft Bruce Farr-designed maxi she raced round the world in the 1989/90 Whitbread Race, now restored and being sailed…
First look: Ovni 370 – smaller rugged alloy yacht
Ovni is another French yard that builds rugged shoal draught aluminium boats. It has recently focussed on larger models, but this Ovni 370 brings much of the thinking behind the…
Scandinavia to the Big Apple: lessons learnt from a cruising couple’s adventure
Carsten and Vinni Breuning are a modern cruising couple. Like many who make the leap – and the many more who aspire to – they went to sea in retirement…
The rise and rise of double-handed racing
If ever the stars aligned to see a sport’s popularity grow exponentially, they did so for the recent story of double-handed racing offshore. Societal changes, a brief hint of a…
How to make a living on your yacht
In late 2018 my wife, Roxy, and I took a few suitcases of belongings and moved aboard our 47ft Cheoy Lee monohull to start the cruise of a lifetime. So…
Pelagic 77: onboard one of the world’s most extreme sailing machines
The latest and largest Pelagic design, Pelagic 77, the 77ft Vinson of Antarctica, created in collaboration with legendary adventurer and expedition sailor Skip Novak, has hit the water after years…
Racing 695 miles double-handed: Fastnet contest goes to the line
The Fastnet double-handed fleet made up a whopping 89 boats in this year’s race, almost a quarter of the fleet, and produced one of the closest finishes of the race…
British JPK 1180 Sunrise is Rolex Fastnet Race overall winner
The overall 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race winner is Thomas Kneen’s JPK 1180 Sunrise, who takes the IRC overall trophy. Sunrise finished the 695-mile course into Cherbourg today after building a huge lead in…