Merry Christmas and Thank You!

Merry Christmas and Thank You!

by Mark Jardine 24 Dec 20:00 EST

I’d like to start out by wishing you all a Happy Christmas, and hope that nonetheless you might be celebrating, you might be having enjoyable with family and friends. Also I’d wish to say an enormous thanks for selecting to get your repair of crusing information by way of our web sites and YouTube channel. Without you all studying in report numbers all through 2025, we would not have something. It means so much.

It’s arduous to consider that twelve months in the past we had been within the thick of overlaying the Vendée Globe, producing day by day movies and all of the information because the unimaginable solo sailors battled it out around the globe, taking offshore crusing to new heights. I used to be so happy to see Charlie Dalin this week awarded The Ocean Race’s Magnus Olsson Prize, in recognition of his excellent contribution to crusing, each as a sailor, designer and the private battle with a gastrointestinal stromal tumour which was identified in late 2023. Dalin’s affable nature makes him a pleasure to speak to, and his depth of data is obvious from the get-go in any dialog.

The 12 months has been an distinctive one for crusing. SailGP has reached new heights in getting the game out to a wider viewers, albeit in a kind which could be very totally different to the one most of us observe. Regardless of what you concentrate on the racing, and a few of the venues, it’s doing what crusing has by no means managed to do earlier than, drawing enormous crowds to occasions, and quickly approaching a sustainable enterprise mannequin with large title sponsors and salaries to match. Before this 12 months the entire concept of a ‘switch market’ in crusing was a pipedream, however it’s now one thing of a actuality, with the highest sailors being traded for big sums. This offers the aspiration for the subsequent foiling technology. They can now see a route by to a profession doing the form of crusing they wish to do. There have been large cash careers within the business for a while, engaged on superyachts and the like, however being correctly paid for high-speed racing is now a actuality.

Highlights of my very own 12 months have come from overlaying much less excessive profile occasions, however in their very own approach simply as necessary.

The Flying Fifteen World Championship on the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy within the UK introduced sailors from throughout the globe, and proved you can have top-level competitors and a really wholesome social scene on the similar time. At the highest of the rankings Graham Vials and Chris Turner placed on a masterclass to take the win in type, in a fleet the place Olympians had been typically struggling to remain within the main pack.

Back ashore, the sailors’ tales gave clues as to the best way to develop crusing, with routes into the game which I hadn’t even thought of earlier than listening to them. The Flying Fifteen could have been designed in 1948, however it’s as related as we speak because it ever was. The Uffa Fox timeless traces proceed to look good, and even the quirky swept again keel one way or the other seems proper. Combined with a number of rigorously thought out rigging and inside structure updates through the years, the boat is now a lot simpler to sail as effectively.

The International Moth UK Championship was one other occasion the place one way or the other the sailors mixed crusing what’s an extremely twitchy and blindingly quick boat with a good social scene. Just getting out of the harbour in Torquay was a problem, and the waves in Torbay gave new which means to the phrase ‘ship it’, with 100% dedication required on the downwind legs at 35+ knot speeds.

The recently-crowned SailGP season champion helm Dylan Fletcher has notched up a few of the greatest prizes in crusing in recent times, along with his Olympic gold medal within the 49er at Tokyo 2020, the International Moth Worlds title in 2022 and the Louis Vuitton Cup win as port helmsman in 2024, however he is very happy to place it on the road at occasions within the Moth, and rightly believes that it helps him keep sharp in SailGP, persevering with to observe what obtained him to the highest within the first place.

Dylan is one more crusing famous person who has stayed humble and is all the time open and interesting throughout a chat. Yes, he is assured in the mean time, which he must be given his run of kind, however that by no means comes throughout as vanity. The tiny variations in efficiency on the very high of sport are sometimes all the way down to mindset, so retaining that stability is a rare ability which few grasp.

It’s outstanding how lots of the biggest sailors retain that humility, and are all the time focused on all the newest goings-on within the sport. Keith Musto is a basic instance of that, as the primary winner of the Endeavour Trophy, the UK’s dinghy champion of champions occasion, he was absolutely engrossed within the racing this 12 months at Burnham on Crouch, and was very happy to speak about every part taking place elsewhere within the crusing world.

It does really feel just like the crusing season by no means actually stops globally, and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race exemplifies that completely. The conventional and iconic Boxing Day begin in Sydney Harbour is one other a type of moments for crusing to achieve a far wider viewers than simply the hardcore crusing followers. With a slew of 100ft maxis competing this 12 months it should be fascinating to look at, and John Curnow, our Australian editor, is heading up our complete protection of the race. Just as with the Vendée Globe, following the race on the tracker turns into addictive, however it’s the tales behind every of the groups on the yachts which supplies the race its color, and John is a grasp of doing simply that.

So my want is for a spectacular and protected passage for all of the sailors racing to Hobart, and need you all a cheerful and affluent 2026, with loads of time on the water. Sailing might be a tremendous sport to comply with, however nothing beats doing it your self and there is a tremendous 12 months of occasions forward.

Mark Jardine

Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com Managing Editor