All posts tagged: sailing

Gaza aid flotilla organisers say 41 boats intercepted, 10 still sailing | Gaza News

Gaza aid flotilla organisers say 41 boats intercepted, 10 still sailing | Gaza News

Published by Sam Flores

Foreign ministers of 10 countries say Israel’s storming of the aid flotilla is a blatant violation of international law. Published On 19 May 202619 May 2026 The organisers of an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip say Israeli forces raided 41 of their boats in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, while 10 vessels continue to sail towards the besieged Palestinian enclave. The vessels still sailing were about 121 nautical miles (224km) from Gaza, the Global Sumud Flotilla said on Tuesday morning. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list More than 50 vessels sailed from the Turkish port city of Marmaris last week, in what organisers described as the final stage of a journey aimed at challenging Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Israeli forces began storming the boats in international waters off the coast of Cyprus on Monday, organisers said, and abducted activists. Several countries have condemned the Israeli attacks on the aid flotilla. The foreign ministers of Turkiye, Spain, Jordan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Libya, and the Maldives released a joint statement, describing Israeli …

France to target Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ with tougher penalties for ships sailing under false flag

France to target Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ with tougher penalties for ships sailing under false flag

Published by Sam Flores

France is to double penalties for ships that fail to fly a flag or refuse to comply, a draft law showed Wednesday, in what an informed source said was a bid to strengthen measures against Russia’s “shadow fleet”. The move comes as France has, since September, boarded three ships suspected of being part of the fleet transporting Russian oil in violation of Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. Vessels in the “shadow fleet” frequently change the flags they fly, a practice known as flag-hopping, and sometimes sail under invalid flags in an attempt to escape detection and tracking. France will now punish those who fail to fly the correct flag or refuse to comply with orders to stop the ship with up to two years in prison and a fine of €300,000 ($351,000), according to a draft update to France’s military planning law seen by AFP on Wednesday. That would double the current penalties in place, with sanctions applying to any person – such as the owner, operator, or legally responsible individual – who exercises “power of …

French captains chosen in historic first for Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race

French captains chosen in historic first for Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race

Published by Sam Flores

Next month’s edition of the annual men’s Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge universities will feature French captains for the first time in the rowing event’s long history. When the two boats take to the River Thames in London on April 4, three-time defending champion Noam Mouelle will lead the Light Blues of Cambridge against the Dark Blues of Oxford captained by Tobias Bernard, a Londoner born to a French father and a Franco-American mother. “As Noam said, it’s a fun fact, it’s amusing,” 23-year-old Bernard, who studies chemistry at Oxford, said on the sidelines of the team announcements. Mouelle, 24, said the nationality of the two captains meant little in an event that was first run in 1829. “The cool thing is that it shows that no matter where you come from or what you did before, as long as you commit 100 percent to the project, the training programmes and the club’s culture, it doesn’t change anything,” he said. Mouelle, a physics PhD student at Cambridge, took his first strokes aged nine at …

He took on the world’s toughest sailing race — while battling cancer

He took on the world’s toughest sailing race — while battling cancer

Published by Sam Flores

Competitors had capsized there in previous races, clinging to overturned boats in frigid waters for days before they were rescued. In 1997, one sailor, Gerry Roufs, called race organizers, frantic. “The waves are not waves, they are higher than the Alps,” he exclaimed. Roufs’s boat and his body disappeared. Dalin knew those stories. He spent hours on his laptop agonizing over projections of the storm. He decided he would take the more conservative approach, going north, avoiding the massive swell. Source link