TSC interviews New England Rope’s Kevin Coughlin at the 2005 U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD. With so many types of line available, which ones should a cruising sailor choose when it’s time to replace those aging halyards and sheets? Kevin gives some incite into proper rope selection for cruising boats. Be sure to [...]

Tillerman rather cheekily accused the sailing blog community of apathy in the lack of response to his latest group writing project, namely the bucket list of sailing things to do before heading down to Davy Jones's locker.

In this case it was the difficult combination of trying to run a small business while fighting a lingering 'flu virus which has delayed this post.  read more »

TSC interviews Fred Cook of Schaefer Marine at the 2005 U.S Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD. Fred demonstrates Boom Furler, Schaefer’s popular mainsail hoisting, lowering and reefing system. Unlike in-mast furling, Boom Furler accommodates a full-batten, high-roach sail for better cruising performance. Be sure to subscribe to this free video podcast series and our [...]

From the press release: Eight top quality teams signed-up so far for 2008 iShares Cup With the Extreme 40 catamaran fleet now numbering 14 boats, there is potential that even more will make the start line of the five iShares Cup events, which begin in Lugano, Switzerland, on May 30. The entry list reads like a Who's Who of sailing, bursting with the very best skippers and crews in the sport. America's Cup sailors will be lining up against Olympic medallists, ocean racers, and world champions, all coming together on the unique iShares Cup sailing circuit. Fleet at the start, Amsterdam 2007 Vincent Curutchet/DPPI/OC Events With the next America's Cup looking set to take place in multi-hulls, the Swiss Defender Alinghi will be putting their cat-sailing skills to the test in this year's iShares Cup. America's Cup-winning helmsman Ed Baird has been putting in plenty of training in the Extreme 40 with the Alinghi crew in Valencia. Even this multiple world champion admitted that the powerful catamarans can be pretty challenging: "It was hard at first - going down from 17 to just four crew, but after the initial learning curve it got to be pretty exciting!" He compared the spectator-friendly iShares Cup city courses to recent America's Cup racing close to the shore in Valencia, saying: "It's a good kind of racing for the sport to have, as the shorter the race the more evenly matched the boats are." TEAMORIGIN, the British Challenger for the next multi-challenger America's Cup, will also be lining up in the series. Current iShares Cup champion Robert Greenhalgh, who skippered the winning boat on last year's circuit, leads the team. Rob is joined by his brother Peter, a top skiff sailor and part of the 2007 winning Extreme 40 crew, as well as other key members of the British Cup squad. This year's series has also drawn double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson back to the Extreme 40, having competed in two events at last year's iShares Cup. "Last year really whetted my appetite, but this year's going to be a bit different with the pro teams really upping the ante," she explained. "I love the boats and am really looking forward to going sailing on them again." Shirley will once again take the helm of JPMorgan Asset Management, showing her mettle as the sole female skipper on the circuit.  read more »

Round the world yacht race skipper Bob Beggs is on course for the start of the toughest sailing challenge left – a polar circumnavigation of the North American continent, and transit of the North West Passage from Atlantic to ...

On Monday 6th October Thomas Coville and his crew relaunched the Maxi Trimaran Sodeb’O (105 feet) after three weeks’ refit in the yard at Lorient. The Sodeboys have been working over recent weeks on the optimisation of the trimaran ...

The Royal Ocean Racing Club and Antigua Yacht Club will run the first offshore race to circumnavigate the Caribbean Islands. This exciting new race will be called the RORC Caribbean 600. Conceived by a group of RORC members living ...

Three years after Dame Ellen MacArthur sailed into the history books by breaking the world record for a solo circumnavigation of the globe, her trimaran is back in action. The 75 foot trimaran previously known as "B&Q", has been ...

In fluky wind conditions, varying between 12 and 30 knots predominantly from a north easterly direction, Race 10 to from Panama to Jamaica began at 10:02 local time (15:02 UTC) with a Le Mans start. Jamaica was first off ...

Part 2. At the far end of the spectrum of the relationship between Man and Boat are the tragic affairs. In a perverse way, they are probably the most interesting. One of the most famous examples were the cases Donald Crowhurst and Nigel Tetleys relationships with their trimarans Teignmouth Electron and Victress in the Golden Globe race of 1968 . They were identical boats and considered cutting edge speed machines that theoretically would win the race. Crowhurst mortgaged his house and bet his business in constructing the boat that he thought would bring him fame and fortune. It was tricked out with the latest in marine technology manufactured by Crowhursts own company. To the outside world, his boat was a floating advertisement for Crowhursts genius, his business and the future of sailing. Behind the scenes, it was a different story. The boat was constantly, behind schedule, not built to Crowhursts specifications and certainly not ready to cross the start line of the Golden Globe race by the October 31 st 1968 cut-off.  Underway, the electronics never worked properly and the boat started to delaminate early in the race. She leaked like a sieve taking on water, very seriously in one pontoon. He knew early on that his boat would fall apart in the Southern Oceans. It was desperate. He just couldnt do it and his boat as well his own abilities had let him down. Rather than face the shame and financial ruin of abandoning the race, Crowhurst had a different strategy. He stayed in the relative safety of the Atlantic radioing in false positions. These showed him still in the race. His aim was to sail in circles till the other racers returned to the Atlantic and then rejoin the race taking second in the prize for fastest time to complete the race. Well, that was his plan.  read more »