Yachting news, Saturday, 14 November 2026

Custom Line launches 11 yachts in six months

Ferretti Group's Custom Line brand put 11 yachts in the water at its Ancona superyacht yard between April and September: seven Navettas and four Saettas. Among them were the first two hulls of the new Navetta 35, the first of the new Saetta 128', the 18th Navetta 42, the eighth Saetta 140', the sixth and seventh Navetta 38s, the 28th and 29th Navetta 30s and the 29th and 30th Saetta 106's. The yard expects 19 launches in all this year, 18 in composite and one, the Custom Line 50, in aluminium, and has four more lined up for January 2027.

Royal Balk offers a €10m “ReCraft” of a 2015 explorer

Royal Balk Shipyard has drawn up a refit programme for a 36.8m Van der Valk explorer built in 2015, which has had one owner and private use only. Guido de Groot Design, which drew the original boat, has produced concepts that include new hull colours and upper-deck layouts, a range of flybridge options, a stern extension with a bigger crane, and a longer swim platform able to carry a small submersible. The yard puts the cost of buying and transforming her at about €10 million, which it says is roughly half the price of a comparable Dutch new build, with the work taking up to 12 months. Nauticon Yacht Services is the brokerage partner.

Pardo's GT65 crossover detailed

Cantiere del Pardo has released details of the GT65, the third model in its GT line, which was unveiled at the Cannes Yachting Festival. She is 20.14m long with a 5.65m beam and a 1.55m draught, has three cabins plus an optional two-berth crew cabin, a tender garage for a boat of up to 3.25m and a second, joystick-controlled helm on the foredeck. Twin Volvo Penta IPS drives come as standard, and with the larger IPS 1350 option the yard quotes a top speed of 35 knots. She carries 3,300 litres of diesel for a range of more than 300 miles. Nauta did the design and Zuccheri Yacht Design the naval architecture.

Metstrade previews: a small Seldén winch and new Wescom beacons

Equipment makers are lining up launches for Metstrade, at the RAI in Amsterdam from 17 to 19 November. Seldén is adding a compact S19 self-tailing winch for keelboats and smaller yachts, below its existing S30 to S66 range. It has the firm's asymmetric-rib aluminium drum, costs €565 before VAT, and deliveries start in December.

Wescom Group will preview the sMRT SHIELD MAX, a SOLAS EPIRB that pairs 406 MHz Cospas-Sarsat alerting with AIS for close-range location, uses Galileo's Return Link Service and has a strobe and infrared light. A matching life-raft AIS SART will also be shown. The SHIELD range is due in 2027.

Le Cléac'h on his Route du Rhum capsize: “lucky to be alive”

Armel Le Cléac'h has described the night his Ultim Maxi Banque Populaire XI turned over two days into the Route du Rhum, about 550 miles north-west of the Azores. He had been sailing close to Tom Laperche on SVR-Lazartigue and had shortened sail ready to tack ahead of a front when, his team says, a gust of about 40 knots tipped the 32m trimaran over almost instantly. He set off his beacon and put on his survival suit, but the carbon structure made it hard for his satellite phone to get a signal. The cargo ship Palexpo took seven to eight hours to arrive, and in rough seas it needed several attempts before he was hauled aboard from the water on a rope. He spent six days on the ship before getting home. It is not yet clear whether the boat can be recovered.

44Cup: Peninsula Racing leads the Cartagena finale at halfway

The last event of the 44Cup season, in Cartagena until tomorrow, is wide open. After two days of racing in a lumpy swell and winds that Team Aqua's Chris Bake put at anything from 3 to 22 knots, John Bassadone's Peninsula Racing leads on 20 points, with Team Aqua, GeMera Racing and Nico Poons' Charisma tied on 23. Charisma, Team Aqua and Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika each won a race on the second day, when several boats were caught over the line at the start. South-westerlies of up to 18 knots are forecast for the final day.

A-Class Worlds: Cesari stretches his lead in Tampa

At the A-Class Catamaran World Championships at Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, which end today, Italy's Lamberto Cesari has three race wins and an extended lead in the Open fleet, ahead of Australia's Stevie Brewin and Marco Anessi (ITA). Light winds of 4 to 8 knots have so far held back the heavy-air specialists. In the Classic fleet, Bruce Mahoney (USA) is in front. There are 79 boats entered.

SailGP heads to the Gulf for its final two events

The SailGP season ends with two events in the United Arab Emirates: Dubai at Mina Rashid on 21 and 22 November, and the Grand Final in Abu Dhabi on 28 and 29 November, where three teams race for a winner-takes-all prize of US$2 million. Australia's Bonds Flying Roos (94 points) and Spain's Los Gallos (78) have already qualified. Artemis (59), the USA (56) and Emirates GBR (53) are chasing the third place.

Vilamoura: Skiff Junior Europeans finally get racing

After Storm Charles wiped out the first two days, racing at the Skiff Junior European Championships in Vilamoura started yesterday in a west-south-westerly that built from about 10 to 20 knots. After four races the reigning junior world champions Lorenzo Pezzilli and Tobia Torroni (ITA) lead the 49er on 3 points, from Simon Heindl and Conrad Jacobs (GER) on 9. In the 49erFX, Manase Ichihashi and Rinko Goto (JPN) are a point ahead of Malena Rüegge and Liv Wicki (SUI). The event has drawn 49 boats and 98 sailors from 17 countries, and racing is due to finish today, weather permitting.

Tavira: search for missing man goes into a second day

The search for the 32-year-old Moroccan man who went missing from a fast boat in the Ria Formosa on Wednesday night resumed shortly after 07:00 yesterday, the second full day of searching. The National Maritime Authority said the material seized from the boat, which came ashore at Quatro Águas on Ilha de Cabanas, pointed to a supply operation for drug traffickers, though the link is still being investigated. The other three men on board were treated for minor injuries.

Atmospheric river brings heavy rain to the north, little to the Algarve

Meteored says a new atmospheric river, drawing moisture from the Caribbean, will reach mainland Portugal tomorrow and keep the weather unsettled until at least Tuesday. The ECMWF model gives 150 to 250mm of rain in parts of the north and centre, with Minho, Douro Litoral and the Aveiro and Coimbra areas worst affected. The Algarve is not expected to be among the hardest hit: south of the Tejo totals look small, with cloud and some sunny spells. Today should bring only scattered, mostly light showers. The forecast gives no wind or sea-state figures for the mainland, so check IPMA and the Navy's bar status page before going out.

Cascais J/70 Winter Series: next round on 28–29 November

A report published yesterday covers the opening round of the new J/70 Winter Series at Clube Naval de Cascais on 24 and 25 October. Joan Cardona's Spanish YUPI won four of the six races and the event, ahead of José Caldeira's UON and Manuel Ramos's SAILCASCAIS, with the Finnish Solid Fun taking the Corinthian division. Twelve teams from four countries raced. The second round, the J/70 Atlantic Cup, is on 28 and 29 November.

Paralympic sailing decision put back to 2027

Para sailing will have to wait longer to learn whether it returns to the Paralympic Games, from which it was dropped after Rio 2016. The International Paralympic Committee had been expected to announce the Brisbane 2032 sport programme in late 2026 but will now do so in 2027, in line with the IOC's own timetable. The IPC's Colleen Wrenn said no sport is guaranteed a place, and that the board will weigh cost, venues and the impact on the organisers. World Sailing and the para sailing community are campaigning for a return. The decision matters locally: Portimão hosted the World Sailing Inclusion Championships in October, and Postal reported on 9 October that a world adapted-sailing training centre at the marina would start operating in November, with full operation from January 2027.

ARC+ fleet leaves Las Palmas

After a delay of several days because of two Atlantic lows, the ARC+ rally has set sail from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, according to Noonsite. World Cruising Club had rescheduled the start for Thursday 12 November. The fleet heads first for Mindelo in Cape Verde, then about 2,150 miles on to Grenada.