Sailing News

  It looks like 2012 started just like 2011 had finished, with a big mess, another spinnaker blown and trashed in the water, this time the masthead A2 spinnaker, the biggest one… somewhere somehow there was a weak point as it finally blew in mild 18-20 knots conditions, went overboard and gave us a horrible… Read more

  We had been doing great all night shaving mile after mile from Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron’s lead over us, we were flying the smallest spinnaker, a bullet proof job called the A5, a sail that can be used even if 40 knots of wind, which is not far from what we had, sustained… Read more

  We are sailing in a lovely sunshine, broad reaching towards the northern tip of South island, New Zealand of course, some 500 miles to the North East of us. From there we’ll have a final stretch of just over 100 miles of tricky sailing in the infamous Tasman Bay and Cook Strait, often battered… Read more

  So here we are in yet another 45 knots stinker, making excellent progress under staysail and reefed main, occasionally surfing high teens. The front came and went and we were left with that nasty situation where you have massive seas and decreasing winds… increasing sail area would keep you surfing on rails, but the… Read more

    In the unlikely setting of a sunny Southern Ocean day, flying the biggest spinnaker under a blue sky, we dream of home, of friends, family and loved ones (and beer and steak). It’s friday and you’ll be heading home to your families soon so we thought we’d send you our best wishes for… Read more

  Yesteday we passed Cape Leeuwin, about 500 miles to our north and have now, geographically speaking, entered the Pacific Ocean… we have just under 2500 miles left to sail in this second leg of the Global Ocean Race and after all the nasty weather we had to endure for over a week today we… Read more

  There we go, did i mention anytime over the past few days that this freaking place is a bit windy? We are running under triple reefed mainsail and staysail and earlier we got flattened on the side like a dinghy in a gust that read 57.8 knots on the one surviving wind instrument… This… Read more

Last week we had one of our yachts, Bellini, lifted out for her usual winter refit. Nothing major just the usual thorough check over we give all our yachts at this time of year. The main jobs are to give her 2 coats of antifoul, service all the winches, service the heads, check all the… Read more

  I may sound boring if i reiterate that we’re still in 35-40 knots of wind, we have not seen anything less than 25 and anything up to 55 for the past week and inevitably we’ve suffered some level of damage. Australia is now only 750 miles above our heads but the finish line still… Read more