sailboat racing

Just 57 seconds ahead of 2nd, Hull and Humber has won the Santa Cruz to Jamaica portion of the Clipper Race. The last leg from Panama proved exciting, as eight of the ten yachts were in sight of each other, and the leading pack was only separated by 13 miles.

On this seventeenth day at sea, Groupama 3 has already covered a third of the course around the globe and is managing to hold onto a small lead over the reference time. These two pieces of good news are added to the fact that a SW'ly wind rotation should kick in over the coming hours, a shift which will be favourable for a long descent towards the furious fifties...

The "Offshore Race Rolex" kicks off in Buenos Aires today. The 1123 mile race began in 1947 and has endured as a classic every three years since then. The race is organized by both the Yacht Club Argentino and the Yacht Club do Rio de Janeiro, and has attracted many well-known international ocean racers and their yachts over the years. The current record to beat from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro belongs to the Brazilian Navy Academy's Cisne Branco, who covered the distance in 4 days, 18 hours, 52 minutes and 57 seconds.

Day 87 - 5/2/2008: Servanne Escoffier, of Educación sin Fronteras, doesn't seem to be to concerned about his place at the back of the Barcelona World Race fleet: “Tonight was absolutely fabulous, Venus and Jupiter aligned with the crescent moon in the south-east. The sea is calm, and we are racing upwind towards Barcelona. The boat is gliding along and you can really appreciate the pleasure of being at sea; for a few days now I would not change places with anyone.