Francois Gabart, the young heart-throb of French solo offshore sailing, completed his first solo win on board his new 100ft trimaran, Macif, today when he crossed the finish line of The Transat bakerly off New York.

The fifth and final Act of the Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series 2015/2016 looks set to be a close-run final in both the J/70 (4-6 March) and Melges 20 (18-20 March) classes of this international one-design series, organised by the Yacht Club de Monaco.

Organizers from the Nautical Club of Thessaloniki and the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) remind prospective teams considering entry to the ORC European Championship held over 3-10 July 2016 that the first discount entry deadline for the event is approaching later this week.

The idyllic Western Australian coastal town of Fremantle saw 20 international crews begin their fast and furious battle for supremacy in the M32 catamarans, a giant leap from the more sedate keelboats traditionally associated with world-class match racing.

The 8th Vendée Globe will start in exactly 200 days and all of those hoping to compete are well aware of the clock ticking. Boats are being relaunched this week one after another.

After two days and six races at the 2016 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship hosted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in Sydney Australia, Alex Roeper’s Plenty from USA sits atop the leaderboard with a fragile one-point margin over fellow Americans Helmut and Evan Jahn’s Flash Gordon.

Exciting one-on-one matches punctuated opening day action at Les Voiles de St. Barth, where nine classes competed in testing seas and 12-15 knot breezes on courses, ranging from 24-31 nautical miles, that flanked the southern, western and northern sides of Saint-Barthélemy.

They say you make your own luck and in today's opening encounter of the Superyacht Challenge Antigua, yachts that maximised their performance in highly changeable conditions won the day.

The 37th Edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race is scheduled to start on Saturday 22nd October 2016. Entries for the race have been steadily coming in with a good mix of familiar names and new ones signing up for the 608 nautical mile race.

Taking full advantage since 2014 of its new Clubhouse and sailing facilities designed by Lord Norman Foster, the Yacht Club de Monaco has ramped up its winter regatta programme over the last two years.

Vitters Unfurled  46-metre high performance aluminium sloop has won the 2016 St Barths Bucket. The win is particularly exciting as this is the first St Barths Bucket Regatta the German Frers-designed sloop has competed in.

The two Claasen builds taking part in the Millennium Cup shined on New Zealand waters during the final day of event. With light winds delaying the race start, Shamoun was raring to go when she eventually bounded away from the line at 13.10.

The Hague, scene of an enormously successful pit-stop last year, has been chosen to host the finale of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18. The Dutch stopover will be preceded by a midsummer stopover in Volvo’s home city of Gothenburg, setting up the crucial last leg to the Netherlands in June 2018.

The FNOB (the Barcelona Foundation for Ocean Sailing) is studying the most suitable date for the start of the race, which will be between 20th December 2018 and 7th January 2019.

The 3rd day of racing at the St Barths’ Bucket, crowned the 56m ketch Rosehearty winner of the Les Grand Dames des Mers Class and the 38m Sloop P2 winner of Les Elegantes des Mers Class.

The Extreme Sailing Series™ starts a landmark season in 2016 with a Middle Eastern flavour as Muscat in Oman is confirmed as the host city for the first Act of the year (16-19 March).