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Nami 波

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On the water

Boat shows on now, this week's stories from each region, and what its press is covering — in English

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On the water this week the newest stories from the region's press

The wire the region's press, translated

How yachting moves in 2026 from the industry's own reports

Sources

Fetched every six hours, linked to the original

About

A dock at six in the morning tells you more than a launch party at eight in the evening.

I crewed for ten years and delivered other people's yachts across the Mediterranean before I wrote a word about them. I have been seasick in front of guests I was meant to impress. I have watched a yard in Viareggio spend nine months on a hull nobody will ever see. Nami (波) means wave, and this is a magazine about boats — I intend to go on calling them boats.

So that is what gets read here: around ninety sources out of Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Americas and Japan, in Italian, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese and English. Yards, crews, naval architects, the small classics moored beside the hundred-metre houses. Prices appear when the price is genuinely the story, which is rarer than the brochures imply.

A story here is a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out to the people who reported it. Nothing is reprinted whole. The photographs stay with whoever took them. A Dutch yard writes in Dutch and it stays in Dutch here. The link goes straight to them.

— Olivia Stay, Antibes and Tokyo Bay

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Comanche — Photo: Billy Black, photographer for Sail · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Champions · Offshore records

Comanche

Comanche is a 100-ft maxi designed in France by VPLP and Guillaume Verdier and built in the United States by Hodgdon Yachts for Dr. James H. Clark.

Builder’s plate

Class: Supermaxi
Length: 30.5 m (100 ft)
Beam: 7.85 m
Draft: 6.81 m
Displacement: 31,000 kg
Design: VPLP and Guillaume Verdier
Builder: Hodgdon Yachts, United States
Built for: Dr. James H. Clark

What she won

2015Fastnet RaceLine honours, skipper Ken Read
2015Sydney to HobartLine honours
2015–202324-hour monohull record618 nautical miles in a day, an average of 25.75 knots; held from July 2015 until May 2023618 nm
2016Transatlantic, monohullThe fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a monohull, set on 28 July 20165 d 14 h 21 m
2017Sydney to HobartWon in a race record that still stands1 d 9 h 15 m
2019Transpac, 50th edition2,225 miles to Honolulu, navigator Stan Honey5 d 11 h 14 m
2022RORC Transatlantic RaceWon
2025Sydney to HobartLine honours

Figures from Wikipedia, “Comanche (yacht)”, read 2026-10-02. Something wrong? Write to the editor and it will be checked and corrected.

More champions

Wild Oats XI

2005–Wild Oats XINine times line honours winner of the Sydney to HobartCanting-keel IRC supermaxi · 30.48 m · Reichel/PughPhoto: JJ Harrison · CC BY-SA 3.0

Banque Populaire V

2009Banque Populaire V now Spindrift 2908.2 nm in 24 hours, any class of sailing boatOffshore trimaran · 40 m · VPLPPhoto: D&M Larvor · CC BY-SA 3.0

Velsheda

1933–1936VelshedaMore than 40 race wins in her second seasonJ-class · 129 ft overall · Charles Ernest NicholsonPhoto: Frank Crossley · CC BY 2.0

America

1851AmericaWon the Royal Yacht Squadron's race around the Isle of Wight; the Cup is named after herGaff schooner · 101 ft overallPhoto: Oswald W. Brierly, published by Ackermann & Co. · public domain

All 11 champions →