I’ve always loved boats.  When I was just a few years old, my grandfather set me up in a small sailing dinghy and sent me on my way.  I have no recollection of the instruction…More

The America’s Cup trophy has always been a magnet for powerful men, from J.P. Morgan and various Vanderbilts to Ted Turner—perhaps because there simply is no second place. The race revolves around a defending champion…More

Billy Joel had two great loves when he was very young, classical music and boats.  The boats came first.  Growing up near the center of Long Island in middle class Hicksville, the highlight of his…More

In 1969, the same year Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Robin Knox-Johnston completed the first nonstop solo circumnavigation of planet Earth. Now, at age 68, he is making another solo lap around the globe…More

OLIN STEPHENS’S obsession with sailboats took hold shortly after World War I during a childhood visit to Cape Cod. He didn’t just admire them. He studied them with what he later described as “great concentration,”…More

The news that a young Dutchman named Hans Horrevoets died after being washed from a yacht that was crossing the Atlantic as part of the Volvo Ocean Race came as a shock to many readers…More

NEW YORK HARBOR — What a ride! As we left Annapolis and headed toward the starting line for the sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race early Sunday afternoon, I was looking forward to a…More

NEAR LAND’S END, ENGLAND — We made it! Shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday (U.K. time), Mari-Cha IV crossed a line near the start of the English Channel to break Charlie Barr’s 100-year-old trans-Atlantic racing record…More

LATITUDE 40 30 NORTH, LONGITUDE 58 09 WEST–When we glided down the Hudson River and past the towers of midtown Manhattan two Sunday mornings ago, the start of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005 was still…More

Sailing around the world is the nautical equivalent of climbing Everest. Making the circumnavigation alone and without stopping for supplies or rest is a bit like making the ascent without oxygen or sherpas. To undertake…More