Creating and sharing ocean sailing stories and adventures

Listen to the podcast

The Ocean Sailing Podcast is designed for people who love to cruise, race or explore the worlds oceans. Its also for those yet to experience the joy of sailing and those no longer able to cast off their dock lines and head for the open sea. Join now and listen free to the Ocean Sailing Podcast episodes.

Come ocean sailing with us

Step up and join David Hows onboard as crew of his Beneteau 45 foot yacht 'Ocean Gem' for the ocean sailing adventure of a lifetime. Whether its a 600nm ocean passage down Australia's East Coast, a 200 yacht regatta around the Whitsunday Islands, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, a Tasman Sea crossing or circumnavigating Tasmania, why not join us as a paying crew member in one of the limited spots available for each adventure. Find out more about offshore sailing onboard Ocean Gem. Check out our crew testimonials to see what others have to say about their adventures onboard Ocean Gem with us.

Episode 72: Glenn Ashby from Emirates Team New Zealand - will we see capsizes, 100% foiling and 50 knot speeds in the AC36?

Glenn Ashby Emirates Team New Zealand Americas Cup

As the winning 2017 Americas Cup skipper and wing trimmer for Emirates Team New Zealand and now Cup Defender for the next edition on Auckland Harbour, Glenn Ashby shares insights on the design evolution to the new 75-foot foiling monohull and how the return to some of the traditional elements of Americas Cup match racing such as; upwind starts, larger sailing teams and tacking duels have driven the monohull design and created this hybrid of both ‘tradition’ and ‘futuristic’ design that even a ‘catamaran purist’ could love. Glenn gets technical on the physics that drive the performance of this exciting new monohull and candidly shares his thoughts on potential speeds, likelihood of capsizes, the potential for 100% fly time and the changes to crew selection strategy with the new design.

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Episode 71: Patti and James Hunt - 73 countries in 25 years of cruising

Jimmy Cornell La Aventurer James and Patti Hunt

James and Patti Hunt are Australians who truly have the traveller’s spirit, having extensively backpacked as young Australians throughout Europe in the early 1980’s. By 1995 they made the decision to find the ideal cruising yacht to become their travelling home and subsequently purchased ‘La Aventura’ (Spanish for ‘The Adventurer’) from Jimmy Cornell. Over the next 25 years they sailed two-handed to 73 countries and covered approximately 50,000 miles, including a circumnavigation of the UK, two seasons in the Baltic, sailing to Eastern Europe, St Petersburg, Russia, on to the Mediterranean in 2000, where they spent the next 11 summers, then Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. By 2012 they crossed the Atlantic to the Eastern Caribbean, before spending 6 years exploring the Eastern and Western Caribbean, Panama, Cuba and east coast USA.

Listen to podcast episodes now or with iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher

Upcoming sailing adventures

Whether your next step is an ocean race or offshore passage, we have a growing calendar of exciting events;

Brisbane to Hamilton Island Race: 2-8 Aug 2019
Hamilton Island Race Week: 16-25 Aug 2019
Hamilton Island to Southport: 25-30 Aug 2019
Southport to Middleton & Elizabeth Reefs to Lord Howe Island: 17-24 Nov 2019
Lord Howe Island to Balls Pyramid to Sydney: 23 - 28 Nov 2019
Rolex Sydney Hobart Race: 25 Dec 2019 - 2 Jan 2020
Tasmania Circumnavigation: 27 Jan - 10 Feb 2020
Hobart to Picton Tasman Sea Passage: 8 - 22 Mar 2020
Brisbane to Noumea Race: 27 May - 6 Jun 2020
New Caledonia Groupama Race: 11-20 Jun 2020

Check the full sailing calendar for all adventures

Sailing Photo Gallery

Check out the photo gallery of our past adventures to get a taste of what ocean sailing is all about. From offshore coastal passages to ocean races, multi-day regattas and Tasman Sea crossings we have covered more than 30,000 nautical miles and competed in more than 400 races in the past 8 years.

View gallery

Join the crew for the 2020 Tasman Sea crossings

The offshore passage from Southport, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand is a challenging and exciting 1,400nm blue water crossing of the Tasman Sea. Here is a taste of what you can expect if you jon us for the Hobart to Picton passage in March 2020 or Picton to Southport passage in April 2020.

Ocean Gem’s Live Tracker

Follow Ocean Gem’s sailing adventures on the live Predict Wind GPS Tracker. With Predict Wind and Iridium Go its easy to put weather routing, departure planning and live location tracking into one technology package. I love it because I can use the Iridium Go App on my iPhone as for satellite phone calls, email and messaging and its all part of the same subscription package.

View Ocean Gem on the Live Tracker