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The Ultim SVR Lazartigue hit the water on May 26, 2023, following a winter refit that caused a lot of ink to flow. The large blue trimaran has indeed undergone modifications to comply with the requirements of the Ultim Class. This launch and the obtaining, which the entire offshore racing community hopes will be quick, of the measurement certificate should mark the end of the sad legal saga between the team of the boat's historic skipper, François Gabart , and the Ultim Class , regarding its conformity. This relaunch also marks the effective change of skipper, Tom Laperche succeeding François Gabart at the helm of the trimaran...

We're guessing that US Ailing must be pretty desperate for money. Check out the sponsor for the US Team Racing Champs. Word is that they paid $80k to be the title sponsor. Now read this: The lawyer representing two groups of AeroVanti members says its Top Gun membership has the ‘hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme’ If true, the allegations against private aviation membership provider AeroVanti in two separate lawsuits filed earlier this week could mean dozens of the private flight provider’s clients have lost as much as $15 million. That sure as hell sounds like trouble. Nice work.  More here....

Some things are just so easy to call and this was one of them. Now I am not against people having big dreams and big ambitions, but seriously this one was bound to fail. This dude, and you might expect this from a Frenchman and not a Brit, this dude was planning to sail across the Atlantic in a three-foot boat. Well, you can hardly call it a boat. Andrew Bedwell from Scarisbrick in Lancashire, England was hoping to sail from Canada to England in the smallest boat ever, a home-built, blunt-nosed thingamajig that had a sail. It's 1,900 miles from Canada to England and let's guess how far he got. I actually don’t know the exact distance but I think that it was around a couple of miles from the dock before his boat started to take on water, and well you guessed it, it started to sink. His yacht, and I use that word kindly, was 3 feet long and 11 feet wide built out of fiberglass with a foam core and was called the Big C. Bedwell was raising money for cancer research and broke down in tears when he announced that he had to abandon his three-year-long dream. OK, I don’t want to be dick here, (that part comes naturally to me) but seriously, he was never going to make it and in my most humble opinion he was lucky to sink close to land. Ferchristsake the Titanic didn’t make it across the Atlantic and there have been many other more seaworthy boats that have gone down to Davy Jones's locker. Mr. Bedwell said in a video statement, “Hello everyone. Firstly I am so sorry. We had a difficult problem yesterday. (Understatement - my comment) We got back to the harbor and the boat had basically...

Or is the real question, "Is there any way they didn't? Great shot by Max Ranchi at the 52 series in Scarlino...

Over the past 3 years, there has been a thread in the forums called TP52 Cruiser.  As the owners of this refit, I thought it was time to answer some questions as forums tend to have a lot of people’s opinions that aren’t based on facts. First things first.  It should be RACER/Cruiser.  It was never meant to be a full-blown cruiser.  It will always be a RACER first and foremost with a few cruising additions.   J-Bird III was Hull #2 of the TP52’s.  Originally there were three in series 1, all built together to create the class.  Remember that these initial boats were built for one purpose, hence the name TP, the TransPacific Yacht Race.  They were built as offshore racing machines, not like the current 52 Super Series vessels. When we bought the boat we paid AUD$30,000.  One person said we paid $29,500 too much for it.  Well, if you consider buying a boat that the mast is worth over $100K and the winches close to $100K as bad buying, then I guess we got ripped off.  In fact, we could’ve sold the mast and winches countless times throughout this build and made our money back several times over. But as stated, Annika fell in love with the boat and so did I. The hull lines are incredible and it is built solidly.  As to implying that Annika gets what she wants, it’s what we both wanted.  I’m just fortunate enough to have a wife that loves what I do and lets us take on a project like this.  O.K, when we bought it the balsa in the deck was rotten due to reconfiguring the deck layout, but we had always wanted a fast yacht that we could replace the deck to give us room for me at...

Last week, the Dutch tall ship Europa tipped over during a relaunch following a drydocking period in Cape Town, South Africa. The vessel was damaged in the accident, according to the operator, Rederij Bark Europa. During her return to the water, the vessel "partly fell over," the organization said in an update. One sailor aboard the sailing ship was injured, but is in stable condition and is receiving care. All others aboard the vessel safely disembarked. The full extent of the damage is under investigation, and the timeline for any needed repairs will still need to be assessed, the organization said. This will inform the impact on schedule for the ship's normal operations. Europa was scheduled to depart on June 13 for the Azores.  Read on....