Eight sailors for Rio - Olympics 2024 - A-Cat Worlds - Historic yawl

by x on 10 Sep 2015 Rio 2016 – Eight British sailors announced in Rio Olympic Team - The British Olympic Association (BOA) today announced the names of the very first athletes to represent Britain in the 2016 Olympic Sailing Regatta in Rio de Janeiro.

A total of eight athletes have been selected across six of the ten sailing events, who between them have won four Olympic medals and seven World Championship golds.

Read about the selection of the eight sailors HERE.

Paris Olympic 2024 bid names Marseille as sailing destination - The Mediterraean French port city of Marseille has been named by the Paris 2024 bid team as the chosen location to host sailing competitions should they win the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) vote to stage the Summer Games.

2015 A-Class Catamaran World Championships – The A-Class world community has assembled at the Italian camping resort of Punta Ala in Tuscany. 173 top sailors from 18 nations are competing, making it by far the largest A cat event ever, and one of the largest cat events in the world this year.

There is a fierce fight going on in the top of the fleet, between the multiple World Champ and ETNZ skipper Glenn Ashby will be trying to retain his title, and the 2012 World Champ Mischa Heemskerk. Glen Ashby is looking very strong, five races and five wins.

The A-Class is a development class boat, and has this year seen the development of the ‘Deck Sweeper’ sails. Looking similar to a windsurf sail, they are proving fast in the hands of the few top sailors who have them – among those Ashby and Heemskerk - and is thought to be the sail shape for the future.

Follow the action at Sail-World.com.

2015 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup – Indicative of how tight competition is between the 40 boats, lead changes occur nearly every day of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the International Maxi Association.

See the many amazing pictures by Carlo Borlenghi.

Historic yawl “Dorade” completes historic campaign – the 52’ wooden yawl was built in 1930 by Olin and Rod Stephen, and recently finished second in IRC Class 4 and seventh overall our of 356 boats. With this years Rolex Fastnet Race, Dorade has completed a four-year campaign to repeat all of the major ocean races she won in the 1930s. Owners Matt Brooks and Pam Rorke Levy (San Francisco, Calif.) and their seven-man crew cut more than 24 hours off Rod and Olin Stephens’ original time when they won the Fastnet in 1931.

Brooks and Levy’s ambitious “Return to Blue Water” campaign began shortly after the couple purchased Dorade in 2010. The goal of the campaign was to restore the 80-year-old Dorade to ocean-racing condition and repeat all four of the major ocean races she won in the 1930s, matching or bettering her original time in each race. In just four years the boat has sailed more than 18,000 miles on her own bottom, competing in offshore and coastal races throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and North America.

Dorade has been on the podium in the Transpacific Race, Caribbean 600, Newport-Bermuda Race and now also Rolex Fastnet Race. Read the amazing story about Dorade HERE!

Good sailing
Dan Ibsen
Sail-World Europe Editor