Yachting World September 2021

Back in October 2015 our Yachting World cover asked ‘Should your next yacht be a multihull?’. It was a surprisingly controversial question: the historic dichotomy between the multi- and monohull worlds meant few sailors crossed between one side and the other. But one of the most significant changes in the boatbuilding marketplace over the past few years has been the explosion in multihull launches. There is now a huge range of cruising catamaran options, from high performance daggerboard designs to super spacious bridgedeck models. There are aluminium builds suitable for off-grid adventures, all-electric set-ups for fossil-fuel free cruising, and everything in between. There are multihulls that offer a level of responsiveness to appeal to even the most diehard monohull yachtsman, while the stability and liveability of a cat has tempted…

Reaching struts out, sails stacked, surf mode engaged: Cecil and Alyson Rossi’s Farr 57 Ho’okolohe flying into home waters of Diamond Head, Hawaii, in the LA-Honolulu Transpac. First to finish and winner of the famous ‘Barn Door Trophy’ in the 51st edition of the 2,225-mile race was Roy Disney’s turboed Volvo 70 Pyewacket, while Ho’okolohe won Division 8. Photo by Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing Not sure how to make a 100ft Ultim more extreme? The Gitana crew went for a blast with foiling kiteboarders from the Lorient Glisse et Foil association. Kiteboarder Billy Guy Maupas took on the challenge of recreating Alex Thomson’s famous ‘skywalk’, but going one step further: towing-in at over 30 knots in the wake of the 32m trimaran and then flying from the top of the Maxi…

Brunswick buys Navico US company Brunswick Corporation, the name behind Mercury engines, Mastervolt and Boston Whalers, has acquired electronics giant Navico in a $1.05bn deal. The Norwegian-based electronics company has the Lowrance, Simrad, B&G, and C-MAP brands and gives Brunswick a market position in multifunction displays, fishfinders, autopilots, sonar, radar and cartography. ‘Other Fastnet’ races renamed A race which starts and finishes in Plymouth and conceived as one of two alternatives to the Rolex Fastnet Race has been renamed to distinguish it from the races that start in Cowes. The Plymouth Fastnet 500 Race, organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club, alternates every other year with the also renamed Original Lonely Rock Race, which will start from Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 17 July 2022 and finish in Plymouth. Corinth…

Over 30 years after the event was created, the Vendée Globe solo round the world race has hit a historic high point, leading to a race for limited entry in 2024. A third of the next fleet could be made up of skippers returning for another attempt to gain a place on the podium. The 2020 race, its ninth edition, was perhaps the most successful ever: it saw 33 entries, a record number of new foiling designs, the lowest ever number of abandonments and was followed by a new high of 11 million website users. And when Yannick Bestaven won on Maître CoQ, a 2016 generation foiler, it fuelled the values of recent IMOCA 60s that are tried and tested, competitive and ready to fine-tune right away. That has created…

Pen Duick VI, the yacht which legendary French sailor Éric Tabarly skippered in the very first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973, will be competing in the 2023 Ocean Globe Race, the crewed multi-stage race which pays homage to the original Whitbread. It will be skippered by his daughter, Marie Tabarly. Other famous former Whitbread yachts taking part in the race include Tracy Edwards’ 58ft Bruce Farr designed Maiden, which raced in the 1989-90 Whitbread and the 81-82 race (as Disque d’Or 3), and the 85-86 winning yacht L’Esprit d’Équipe, which will be entered by OSTAR winner Lionel Reignier. The Swan 651 that was skippered by Clare Francis in the 77-78 Whitbread as ADC Accutrac will also be on the start line as Translated 9.…

Uncertainty about quarantine restrictions and international travel rules is giving cruising event organisers a dilemma: which rallies can go on regardless and which ought to be cancelled early to allow crews to make firm alternative plans? World Cruising Club, organisers of the annual ARC and ARC+ transatlantic rallies and the annual round the world World ARC, have decided to press ahead with plans for its three transatlantic rallies between November and January from Las Palmas to the Caribbean. However, the company has cancelled the start of the 2022 World ARC round the world rally due to begin from St Lucia next January. No decision has yet been taken about running the second part of the route, which runs from Australia to the Caribbean. “Ongoing uncertainty about Covid infection levels, the…