This 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race was a signal for play to begin for the IMOCA fleet in what proved to be a particularly thrilling ride for the 29 competing duos. At every stage of the ranking, the battle was ferocious, offering up some incredible one-on-ones, as evidenced by the duel at the […]
It’s not hard to imagine the pressure when it comes to designing and building a new IMOCA for Charlie Dalin. It’s not just about producing a boat that is faster than his main rivals at the top of the IMOCA fleet, it’s also about creating something that is better than Dalin’s old boat in which […]
In Brest on Wednesday Bertrand Quéguiner and Elodie Bonafous formalized the launch of Horizon 29 Offshore Racing team which is aiming for the Vendée Globe 2028 with a new Verdier design which expected to launch in January 2025. Tip & Shaft tells you more. While this new project was made official on Wednesday, it is an idea which has been running around for […]
And that’s two for 11th Hour Racing Team on their Imoca designed by Guillaume Verdier. The crew led by Charlie Enright won the 5th leg of The Ocean Race in Aarhus, Denmark, in the early hours of Monday morning. Having already won the previous leg in Newport, 11th Hour Racing Team took advantage of this […]
It’s hard to believe that a sailing boat can cover a total distance in 24 hours that would equate to travelling from Paris to Alicante in southern Spain, the home of The Ocean Race, but that is what Holcim-PRB has now done. Racing in Leg 5 of The Ocean Race from Newport to Aarhus, Kevin […]
Skipper Paul Meilhat and his Biotherm team had a long wait to get to the finish on Thursday morning in Newport, Rhode Island. With an initial ETA of 0530 local time, the light overnight winds nearly died completely with the sunrise, leaving the team to battle adverse conditions for a few more hours before they finally glided across […]
While four IMOCA boats are now engaged in the second half of this third leg, GUYOT Environnement – Team Europe is heading for Brazil to be at the start of the fourth leg… Team Holcim – PRB is still in the lead on Thursday, while the fleet is now less than 100 miles apart. As […]
11th Hour, skippered by Charlie Enright, won the 4th leg of The Ocean Race this evening in Newport. A victory, on home turf, that was eagerly awaited by the entire American team. They did it! The great favourites of The Ocean Race, which they had raised to the rank of number one objective of their […]
The spectacular finish of Leg 2 in The Ocean Race demonstrates that you don’t need more than five boats to make a classic, and this one is already showing signs of being just that.After nearly 18 days at sea, it was Kevin Escoffier and the crew of Team Holcim-PRB who pulled out all the stops […]
11th Hour Racing Team, sailing onboard its 60-foot IMOCA race boat Mālama, has finished Leg 1 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 in second place. The opening leg of the grueling 31,700 nautical miles (36,500 miles, 58,700 kilometers) around-the-world race took the fleet from Alicante, Spain, to the Cabo Verde island of São Vicente. Crossing the […]
French skipper Kevin Escoffier led his Swiss-flagged Team Holcim-PRB to victory in leg one of The Ocean Race in the early hours of Saturday morning. It marked the end of an intense and challenging opening to The Ocean Race – from storm force headwinds in the Mediterranean to fast downwind conditions in the Atlantic with […]
Maxime Sorel: The big step from being one of the pack to becoming a performer You only have to look at Maxime Sorel’s impressive Class 40 career to know that this 35-year Frenchman is a highly competitive sailor who is more than capable of reaching the podium in major IMOCA races. So far he has […]
Some childhood dreams can become realities, others remain just that- dreams. For a 10-year-old boy growing up in Bendigo Australia, his childhood dream was to go faster than anyone else had done, powered by the wind. Speed has always been at the centre of Glenn Ashby’s existence, on yachts, motorbikes- or land yachts. The quest […]
The 30.48m (100ft) VPLP Design/Verdier Maxi Comanche, skippered by Mitch Booth, has taken Monohull Line Honours in the 2022 RORC Transatlantic Race, winning the magnificent IMA Trophy. Comanche has set a new race record for the 3,000nm race from Lanzarote to Grenada of 7 days 22 hours 1 minute 4 seconds. Comanche’s new Monohull Race […]
After a tough duel in the Atlantic, Giovanni Soldini’s team caught and overtook their rivals Argo and PowerPlay and closed the race with a real time of 6 days 18 hours 51 minutes 41 seconds. At 01:51:41 local time (05:51:41 UTC, 06:51:41 Italian time), Maserati Multi70 was the first to cross the finish line […]
On a beautiful morning off Fort de France in Martinique, the blue and white Guillaume Verdier-designed IMOCA LinkedOut, sailed by Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière completed a comprehensive victory in the fifteenth Transat Jacques Vabre today. The two Frenchmen enjoyed every minute of their triumph as they crossed the finish line after 18 days, one […]
Guillaume Verdier is one of the leading naval architects in the IMOCA class. He gives us his analysis of the evolution of the class, since its beginnings in the circuit in 1997, but also his opinion on the forces at work. How has the classroom evolved and what architectural changes have we seen since the […]
From the hull shape, to the dynamic foils, durable sails and advanced systems of 11th Hour Racing’s IMOCA 60, every area of this around-the-world machine has been optimized. Now it’s up to the sailors to get it to its full potential. “The marine environment is harsher than any other, even outer space; the salt, wind, […]
Once again Emirates Team New Zealand has entered the history books and won the America’s Cup for New Zealand for the fourth time. On day 7 of the 36th America’s Cup presented by PRADA, the Kiwis scored the 7th point they needed to raise the Auld Mug in front of thousands of spectators. A spectacular […]
The Pogo Foiler is a production prototype, designed to create an off-the-shelf Mini 6.50 that can compete in the experimental prototype class. François Tregouet reports Since the Pogo 1 was launched in 1997, the Pogo Structures yard in Brittany has won ten out of the last 12 Mini Transat 6.50 races (the single-handed transatlantic race […]