© Dave Reed

The 2012 America's Cup World Series stop in Newport drew big crowds to the lawns of Fort Adams State Park. In 2015, organizers of the Newport, R.I., Volvo Ocean Race stopover, hope to repeat.

Volvo Ocean Race executives will announce today the selection of Newport, R.I., as the 2014-2015 race’s North American stopover. Never before has the round-the-world race pulled into the self-proclaimed Sailing Capitol of the World, and according to Brad Read, executive director of Sail Newport, the non-profit public sailing center that will serve as the stopover’s host, a stop in the City by the Sea has been a long time coming.

© Chris Cameron/ETNZ/ACEA

Emirates Team New Zealand (left) and Luna Rossa trial their AC72s on New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf in late November 2012. The platforms are virtually identical courtesy of a new technology sharing component of the AC72 rule.

[Editor's note: This story was initially scheduled for the January/February 2013 issue of Sailing World magazine, but was bumped from the issue. It was intended to be posted to the website instead, but was misplaced. Our apologies.]

Watched intently by Northern Hemisphere spy boats and with their 30 allotted sailing days quickly dwindling, Emirates Team New Zealand wrapped up the old year practice racing their AC72 catamaran in Auckland against their sister ship and fellow America’s Cup challenger Luna Rossa.

© Stuart Streuli

A self portrait of senior editor Stuart Streuli just before racing on the final day of Key West Race Week.

My wife’s gotten into juicing lately. You know, of the fresh-squeezed variety, not the needles-pills-and-powders version favored by so many top athletes. The byproduct, as anyone who’s done this knows, is a lot of soggy pulp. As I looked at macerated remains of carrots, grapefruit, oranges, apples and other fruits and vegetables left over from Sunday morning’s fresh squeeze, I felt a certain kinship. “I know how you feel,” I thought to myself.

Finishing after a record 78 days and two hours.

Francois Gabart was just a few hundred yards away from becoming the youngest sailor of all time to the win the Vendée Globe. He was also just about to beat Michel Desjoyeaux’s record by sailing around the world in 78 days and two hours, while averaging 15.3 knots over the 28,647-mile long solo trek. But you would not know that by watching him Sunday afternoon as he grinded the winch one last time and studied how the sail was reacting, as methodically and carefully as if he were still out in the middle of the Indian Ocean alone.