The World Sailing Show – March 2018

The World Sailing Show provides a monthly view of the racing world. From non-stop around the world racers, to the intensity of Olympic campaigns, from seasoned professionals, to grass roots weekend warriors, The World Sailing Show will get into the latest action afloat. Here’s the March 2018 show synopsis.

The new look Sail Arabia The Tour
New boats and a new route, the Sail Arabia Tour has changed. A 1,000km programme takes the new 24ft trimarans up the coast from Salalah to the finish in Muttrah. The two week event takes in 5 coastal races and 19 sprint style inshore races around the cans, all set against a spectacular backdrop.

The event kicked off with a bang as strong winds provided a baptism of fire for the teams – some fared better than others with an impromptu swim for a few.

Mini Transat – Life aboard a small boat on a big ocean
At the end of last year, French solo sailor Ian Lipinski won a big yacht race in a tiny boat. With a cabin smaller than a cupboard and with inner workings more complex than a laptop computer a Mini Transat boat has little space to live below decks. To give us an idea of what life is like aboard, Lipinski takes us on a training run.

Volvo Ocean Race update
Light and shifty winds made things tricky for navigators and tacticians in the In-Port races in Hong Kong. The results saw the leaderboard re-ordered with Dongfeng taking the overall lead in the In-Port series, but only briefly. After the next In-Port race in Guangzhou, China, MAPFRE was back on top, winning the race and leading the In-Port series once again.

But the reality is that it’s the offshore that counts and here the race south from Hong Kong to Auckland threatened to shuffle the pack and disrupt the scoreboard once again. We take a look at what happened.

Plus, what’s in a VO65’s sail wardrobe and how do crews pick the right sail? Mapfre’s Rob Greenhalgh explains in a World Sailing Show exclusive.

The inflatable wing sail – The future?
Wingsails may not be commonplace in the sailing scene but the last two America’s Cups have demonstrated how much more efficient a wing sail can be. The trouble is handling them – few amateur sailors have a crane and a shore crew at hand to lift the rig in and out each day.

But a Swiss engineer has come up with an ingenious and innovative design that could provide an answer to the problems of handling a wing sail. And it’s based on air.

News and reviews
Who won the awards in the European Yacht of the Year?
Plus, who took to the podium at the World Cup Series in Miami?