A key feature of this year's Rolex Fastnet Race will be the number of high profile women taking part, when the world's largest offshore race sets sail from Cowes on Sunday 11 August.

The end of leg one of the Class40's Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables race concluded yesterday in the Azores.

Prince de Bretagne, or to be specific the Northern Brittany-based co-operative behind the vegetable brand, has significantly upped the ante with its sailing sponsorship.

“Everyone wanted to win that one,” said skipper Thomas Coville after his Sodebo won the leg of the Tour de France a la Voile between Deauville and Brest this afternoon.

Spindrift 2, the largest racing trimaran in the world, has been launched at Lorient this afternoon.

After much talk and weather analysis, all 12 boats in the Tour de France a la Voile left Deauville at 11.15 in 10 knots of northerly wind and a strong current.

Marc Guillemot and his IMOCA 60 have set a new record for the solo west to east crossing of the North Atlantic by monohull with a new time of 8 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes and 20 seconds.

The entry list for this October's Mini Transat is firming up with a fresh spate of boats and skippers qualifying following the Trophy Marie-Agnès Péron and the Mini Fastnet.

Franck Cammas and his Groupama 34 crew have done it again! They sailed a relentless upwind leg from Breskens, Holland, to Dieppe, earning their second consecutive offshore victory.