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Sailing News for December 25, 2025

A punishing forecast is lining up for the Sydney Hobart, promising an uphill slog that rewards toughness over raw speed. The next generation makes waves as rookie 49er and 49erFX crews mix it with the best. Cruising stories explore how sailors celebrate Christmas at sea and dream routes through Dutch waterways. Wherever you are reading this, fair winds, stay safe, and Merry Christmas from all of us on the water.

Inshore & Offshore Racing

Ocean Graders’ Delight (4 min read)
This is a weather nerd’s love letter to the 2025 Sydney to Hobart forecast, and it matters. Tight isobars, a punchy High-Low combo in the Tasman, and a nasty bend near Gabo Island are lining up for a proper uphill slog south. Think 20–30 knots, short steep seas, and boats getting hammered the moment they clear Sydney Heads. The light-air procession years look over. Expect tacks, broken sleep, and a race that rewards toughness, not just straight-line speed.

Olympic Class/Dinghy Sailing

49er and 49erFX Rookie Teams of the Year 2025 – a new generation steps up (4 min read)
The 49er and 49erFX fleets got a serious youth injection in 2025, and the rookies did not hang around at the back. Ireland’s Ben O’Shaughnessy and Ethan Spain jumped straight from 29ers to race wins at Worlds, while the Hamm twins and Germany’s junior world champs Haschen and Fromm showed the pipeline is stacked. On the FX side, Polish duo Ewa Lewandowska and Anna Zwara carried dominant youth form into podium finishes. Fast, fearless, and already mixing it with Olympians, this next generation is very much here.

Cruising

How Sailors Celebrate Christmas at Sea (5 min read)
Christmas at sea is less carols and cocoa, more homesickness, heavy weather, and improvised cheer. For centuries, sailors have marked the holiday with shared meals, saved-up rum rations, and some wildly creative Christmas trees made from rope, broomsticks, or whatever was lying around. Storms often ruined the mood, but the traditions stuck. From rescuing pigs meant for Christmas dinner to getting gloriously drunk with Captain Cook, it’s festive, strange, and deeply human.

Dutch Inland Waterways: The Best Second-Hand Yachts for the Staande Mast Route (4 min read)
Dreaming of sailing mast-up through canals, lakes, and historic Dutch towns? This guide breaks down the best used yachts under 40ft that can actually handle the Staande Mast Route without drama. Shallow draught, easy tacking, and good manners under power are the name of the game. From sensible modern cruisers to quirky classics, there’s something here for every budget and taste. Practical, nerdy, and very tempting if the Netherlands is calling.

Tech & Gear

La Tortue 147: the aluminium catamaran disrupting traditional yacht design (4 min read)
La Tortue 147 is a stealth-bomber-meets-space-pirate aluminium cat that stole the show at La Grande Motte, and it’s not subtle about it. Built like a tank with up to 10mm plating and a seriously overbuilt beam, it’s designed for comfy, long-haul living with huge volume, wild window “streaks,” and 5.5kW of solar up top. The engines are shoved forward to tame pitching, and the rig even kept a crow’s nest from a scrapped paraglider runway plan. Weird, bold, and kind of brilliant.

Sailing Highlight of the Day

After a brutal one-night retirement in 2024, Comanche is back for another crack at Hobart glory. Co-skipper Matt Allen explains how broken battens, wild downwind loads, and hard lessons shaped a major reliability refit, including a new mainsail and beefed-up systems you can’t see. No radical redesigns, just smarter, stronger, more ocean-proof choices. With up to six true 100-footers on the line, Allen reckons this could be the deepest supermaxi fleet Hobart has ever seen.