An Anchoring Adventure

Our anchoring adventure took place a few years ago as my family and I were nearing the end of a weeklong bareboat charter along the west coast of Florida. With me was my wife, Diane, our son and three of his high school classmates. The boys were all age 16 and inexperienced sailors. We had …

Racing: Please Stand By

Today marks the beginning of Spindrift’s standby window for an attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy: the record for the fastest global circumnavigation. The current record, held by Francis Joyon aboard IDEC Sport, was set in 2017 at 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds. In the past 30 years, …

A Glimpse into Maiden’s World Tour

In 1989, the 58ft yacht Maiden made a splash in the Whitbread Round the World Race with the first all-female team in the race’s history. Despite intense criticism and many roadblocks, then 26-year-old Tracy Edwards and her crew won two legs of the race and finished in second in their fleet—the best …

Just Launched: Performance Cruisers

It should come as no surprise that lots of owners want a boat that can do it all. Monohull sailors, in particular, tend to love the idea of a performance cruiser that will be as at home on a racecourse as it is anchored off some remote island. Along these same lines, if there’s one thing the …

Experience: Up the Mast

I gazed aft over Hazel James’ port quarter and patted her well-travelled 31ft hull. “It’s time to sail, girl. We’ve got a long way to go,” I said. As the Virgin Islands sank below the horizon, my thoughts were filled with Caribbean memories, a curious and sundry collage of trade-wind sailing, …