Yachts & Yachting magazine Yachting Year

Welcome to the Yachting Year, our annual sailing ‘bookazine’ covering the full spectrum of our hobby – dinghy racing, yacht cruising and racing, as well as vintage wooden boats. The Yachting Year is brought to you by the team behind our monthly titles Classic Boat magazine and Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting magazine. Within the following 130 pages, the editors of each of those titles make predictions for the coming 12 months – what the next year may bring for the sailing world. The Yachting Year also looks back at a magnificent year of regattas, races, boat shows and other events. Despite ongoing restrictions, 2021 was a great year for all those who sail, and for many of those who work in the marine industry. Have you tried buying a…

The J-Class Topaz was the largest entry at the 2021 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup at Porto Cervo in September 2021, where she enjoyed a magnificent duel with fellow ‘J’ Velsheda, narrowly losing out, but the rivalry continued later that month in Saint-Tropez, where Topaz got the upper hand. Topaz was designed by Frank C Paine in 1935 and first launched in 2015. Velsheda, a Nicholson design, dates from 1933. For more incredible stories and photos featuring the great boats of yachting’s past, try Classic Boat magazine each month or visit classicboat.co.uk…

The world’s best 470 crews battle it out for glory beneath Mount Fuji in the Tokyo Olympic sailing regatta, which took place from 25 July to 4 August 2021. An unseasonal tropical cyclone passed by Japan the week before the Games, playing havoc with the winds and conditions that the sailors had been preparing for since after the Rio Games, but the competition was as intense and emotionally charged as ever. The British Sailing Team finished as top nation with five medals, three of them gold. The regatta took place at Enoshima Yacht Harbour, the host venue of the Tokyo 1964 Olympic sailing competition. For all the latest news and behind-the-scenes stories from the racing world, see our sister title Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting and visit yachtsandyachting.co.uk…

It’s a far cry from the scene that must have greeted Captain James Cook when he arrived in Tahiti 250 years ago, but given the nature of round-the-world cruising today, a marina-full of sleek-looking plastic and aluminium yachts is hardly an uncommon sight. Marina Vaiare, the only marina on Moorea Island, has been beyond the reach of even the most adventurous bluewater cruisers during the pandemic, but travel is opening up and so is cruising. Here’s to a fair and fresh season in 2022, whether your intended shores lie in Polynesia or Poole Harbour. For all the latest cruising news, plus advice on handling your yacht, see our sister title Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting or visit sailingtoday.co.uk…

For followers of sailboat racing, it was a year of getting up early or staying up late – to watch the Vendée Globe finishes, the America’s Cup and then the Olympics. But sailors are used to early starts. And the action on the water in each of those events was worth it – spectacular moments that in some cases changed the sport of sailing for good. As event organisers juggled ever-changing restrictions, there was a full domestic racing calendar from July and cruising sailors enjoyed much-awaited time afloat, if not the best weather. Post-Brexit rules governing cross-Channel sailing and cruising in European countries gave the authorities a headache, but given the ongoing travel restrictions, not many people were sailing cross-Channel anyway. Some of the post-Brexit wrangles have been sorted out short-term,…

If 2021 was the year when we cautiously hauled up our anchors and made a tentative coastal cruise, then the year ahead will hopefully allow us to unfurl our sails to a fresh breeze and fix our eye on the distant horizon and all the adventure that goes with a voyage into the relative unknown. Certainly this seems to be a plan very much in the heads of many cruising sailors, who after many months of being effectively neaped by the pandemic are more determined than ever to escape. Boatbuilders are reporting a huge surge in orders with many struggling to keep up with demand. Indeed, British boatbuilder Discovery reported securing two orders at the Southampton Boat Show. The mood is essentially upbeat and, having spoken to a number of…