Sailors are being urged to submit their entries for the 2015 RYA Youth National Championships as soon as they can with many entries expected. The event is being held at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) from the 4 -10th April.

Competition will be highly charged as places for the British Youth Sailing Team ISAF Youth Worlds Selection event at Hayling Island Sailing Club (29-31st August 2015) will be up for grabs along with the chance to earn selection to British Youth Sailing Squads and to win a host of international travel grants.

Racing will be held across Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour for boys in Laser Standards, girls and boys in Laser Radials and Neil Pryde RS:X 8.5 windsurfers, and for all-boy, all-girl or mixed crews in 420s, 29ers and Spitfire catamarans.

The salvage team dealing with the stricken Hoegh Osaka in the Solent may soon be abe to move the car transporter, which is presently at Alpha Anchorage between Lee-on-the-Solent and Cowes.

It will need to be at five degrees before it can be moved, and while it had initially been listing at 52 degrees it is now at 25 degrees. Salvage teams say they have a short window of opportunity between now and Friday evening to ready the ship to be moved, but if the list does not reduce to the required amount in time it will be Sunday before the right weather and tide conditions occurs again.

Premier Marinas has launched a new self-storage facility, Premier Self Store, at Swanwick Marina. The 6000 sq ft. facility includes space for 122 individual storage units and offers the marine community, local residents and businesses flexible, low cost and accessible space to meet their storage needs.

For boat owners the days of lugging dinghies, outboards and valuables to and from the boat each trip are over and there is no need to clutter garages with cushions, sails and the contents of your boat during the winter months.

The facility benefits from 24 hour security, unlimited access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and no long term commitment (minimum stay 28 days).

Registration has opened for the 2015 HISC Open Perisher Pursuit Race which will take place on Saturday 7th February 2015 in Chichester Harbour. Proceeds from the event will go to the Hayling Island Sail Training Trust (HISTT).

The event is open to all monohull dinghies with a PY of 1451 and below. Keelboat classes including the Artemis 20, Flying 15, K6, RS Elite, X Boat, Swallow, Sunbeam, Hawk and others may be accepted at the discretion of the organising authority. Eligible boats may enter at the HISC office on the 7th February 2015 or by completing the online entry form at http://www.hisc.co.uk/sailing-racing/open-events/hisc-perisher-2015/.

The HISC Perisher Pursuit Race takes its name from the Pompey Perisher event which was started by Portsmouth Sailing Club in 1970 to commemorate the club’s 50th Anniversary and ran until 2002. HISC ran their first Perisher event in 2013. Hayling Island Sailing Club hold seven Open Pursuit races throughout the year, and all the pursuit races, including the Perisher Open Pursuit Race are open to visitors.

After their record breaking start, Alex Thomson and Pepe Ribes, skippers of yacht HUGO BOSS, are no longer competing in the Barcelona World Race 2014 - 2015 after losing their mast on Wednesday evening. The yacht was reaching in moderate conditions when there was a rigging failure and the mast fell overboard and broke.

The skippers and the shore team are currently evaluating how to get the boat to the nearest landfall. Although it is likely to be Salvador in Brazil this is a significant distance from the boat’s current position.

Stewart Hosford, Managing Director of Alex Thomson Racing, said, "After such a promising start to the 2014-2015 edition of the Barcelona World Race this has come as a great shock. We have been preparing for this race for over a year, but unfortunately in offshore racing this type of failure sometimes happens. I now just want the skippers to get to safety and to recognise that they, and the team, are very upset that this has happened, and to thank our team and our partners for their support. Alex and Pepe were doing a superb job in this race and having spoken to both of them – they are devastated that this rig failure has ended their race."

Seventy-five-year-old Sir Robin Knox-Johnston has been named British yachtsman of the year by the Yachting Journalists’ Association (YJA). At the age of 75, Sir Robin’s achievements last year culminated in an amazing third in class finish in the renowned Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race. It is the fourth time the Portsmouth based sailor has been crowned Yachtsman of the Year – the first dates back to 1969, when he famously became the first person to complete a non-stop solo circumnavigation.

The awards were presented by Ian Atkins, president of boats.com and Bob Fisher, Chairman of the YJA, at a ceremony at Trinity House in London. 

Sir Robin’s outstanding sailing exploits impressed the country’s foremost sailing journalists, as members of the YJA voted him the eventual winner from a closely contested shortlist that included ISAF sailing world champion Giles Scott from Weymouth and Hamble based solo transatlantic sailor Miranda Merron.