In This Issue
Van Den Heede - Last 100 miles to finish
San Francisco SailGP's inaugural season
Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
95 Clubs In 2019 Sailing Champions League Qualifiers
Nuvolari Lenard founder embarks on solo transatlantic crossing
Video - SailGP F50 Controls
Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta opens to multihull entries
ORR or ORR-Ez? Which Handicapping Rule is Right for Your Event?
Seeking membership in the South West Shingles Yacht Club...
Featured Brokerage
The Last Word: Art Land

Brought to you by Seahorse magazine and YachtScoring.com EuroSail News (formerly Scuttlebutt Europe) is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to

Van Den Heede - Last 100 miles to finish
ETA - 08:00 UTC Tuesday 29th January 2nd placed Mark Slats trails 321 miles

Les Sables d'Olonne, FranceL Jean-Luc Van Den Heede endured another tough night with 45knots winds and 6-7m seas but his Rustler 36 Matmut is now within 100 miles of the finish line at Les Sables d'Olonne and the 73-year old Frenchman is expected to arrive to a huge welcome at 08:00 UTC tomorrow (09:00 French time)

His great rival, Dutchman Mark Slats sailing a second Rustler 36 Ophen Maverick, narrowed the lead by 91 miles over the weekend, but remains 312 miles astern. He is not now expected to finish until late on Thursday, experiencing another Bay of Biscay gale just before his arrival.

The weather in the Bay of Biscay is forecast to moderate today, and barring light winds at dawn, should provide good sailing conditions all the way to the finish.

3,600 miles astern, Estonian Uku Randmaa sailing a third Rustler 36 One and All, is making the most of his last day of SE trade winds, sailing at 6.6 knots today, and is expected to run into the Dolrdums sooner than he expected. This marks the start of a frustrating period of calms, squalls and thunderstorms as he makes his way to his next goal, the Equator 500 miles north

Fouth placed American/Hungarian Istvan Kopar sailing his Tradewind 35 Puffin is still enjoying the SE tradewinds but making 4.6knots because the Trades are lighter than usual. These will hold for a few more days, so he has a chance to close on Randmaa once more.

Finland's Tapio Lehtinen is still in the Southern Ocean sailing at 4.4knots some 850 miles from Cape Horn. There is plenty of strong Southern Ocean weather blowing at 45knots+ but his Gaia 36 Astreria is covered in barnacles which is slowing her progress. Today, this additional drag has cost Tapio the lead in his virtual race against Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's Suhaili from 50 years ago. Suhaili's relative position on 26th January was just 8 miles behind Asteria in terms of distance to finish, and she would now be more than 100 miles ahead.

Follow the drama as it unfolds on GGR Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/goldengloberace/ Further updates will be posted at 12:00 on Friday and Saturday and at frequent intervals thereafter.

goldengloberace.com

San Francisco SailGP's inaugural season
SailGP, now embarking on its inaugural season, today revealed new details of its highly anticipated San Francisco event, which will take place on Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5, introducing U.S. audiences to a redefined form of sailing while showcasing the members of the national team on their home turf. Tickets will go on sale on Thursday, February 21, at SailGP.com/SanFrancisco.

As SailGP's first grand prix in the United States, the San Francisco engagement will be the second in a series of five events happening throughout the inaugural year and around the world in 2019. Spearheaded by Sir Russell Coutts and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, SailGP is officially sanctioned by World Sailing.

Each of this year's events will feature teams representing six countries – the United States, Australia, China, France, Great Britain and Japan – all racing on identical 50-foot foiling catamarans, known as the F50 – the world's fastest, most technologically advanced flying catamaran.

On Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5, San Francisco SailGP will take place from 12 to 2 p.m., just off the Marina Yacht Club Peninsula, in the heart of the San Francisco Bay, and with the Golden Gate Bridge serving as a stunning backdrop. Each national team will compete in a total of five short-format fleet races, culminating with the top two teams facing off in a match race finale to determine the event winner on Sunday afternoon.

U.S. fans will be treated to the stateside debut of the U.S. SailGP Team. As announced in October 2018, the five team members are: Rome Kirby, 29, of Newport, Rhode Island (helmsman); Riley Gibbs, 22, of Long Beach, California (wing trimmer); Hans Henken, 26, of Coronado, California (flight controller); Mac Agnese, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida (grinder); and Dan Morris, 31, of Newport, Rhode Island (grinder).

sailgp.com/news/san-francisco-sailgp

Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
Van Den Heede - Last 100 miles to finish
Last month's winner:

Jorge Zarif (BRA)
Jorge has friends, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them! 'Very nice!' - Maria Gilka da Cunha Ferreira!!! 'He follows a great father who we still miss' - Erika Lessmann; 'Jorginho this year made magic' - Juliano Rosas; 'A great sailor from a sailor's family' - Theodoro Rombauer; 'He is a champion on the water as well as in life' - Alex Luiz; 'He helped me to enjoy sailing again' - Patrick Oberholzer; 'A showcase talent' - Wietze Zetzema; 'Jorge is today the best sailor in the world' - Angela Brun; 'A great sailor like his father and his grandfather' - Raymond Grantham; 'I take my hat off a million times!' - Bernardo Okada Ahmed.

This month's nominees:

Van Den Heede - Last 100 miles to finish Simon Fry (GBR)
Ok, a second Dragon world title in a row meant we finally had to give in and allow a little credit to one of the most ubiquitous and best-liked sailors in the world who is also- it breaks our heart to admit it - quite good as well. Stirfry raced a One Tonner with the editor in the year of our Lord 1989 so, in spite of what you may think, he's not a young man… But he is a top bloke with more big wins under his (ample) belt than he would most probably ever own up to.

Van Den Heede - Last 100 miles to finish Demolar Du (CHN)
The chairman of Far East Boats in Shanghai has made a gesture towards supporting disabled sailing that deserves widespread international recognition, committing to selling the first 1,000 examples of the innovative and long awaited new Simonis-Voogd S\V14 dinghy design for an astonishing price of just US$3,000. It gets better… this price will be fixed for any more boats sold in 2019 with subsequent price rises limited to increases in material costs.

Seahorse Sailor of the Month is sponsored by Musto, Harken McLube & Dubarry. Who needs silverware, our prizes are usable!

Cast your vote, submit comments, even suggest a candidate for next month at seahorsemagazine.com/sailor-of-the-month/vote-for-sailor-of-the-month

View past winners of Sailor of the Month

95 Clubs In 2019 Sailing Champions League Qualifiers
Hamburg, Germany: Ninety-five clubs from the National Sailing Leagues will participate in the SAILING Champions League 2019 qualification process that culminates in the SCL Finale to be sailed, yet again, in St. Moritz, Switzerland in August.

The first qualifier will be hosted by the Club Nautic S'Arenal in Palma de Mallorca, Spain from May 9th to 12th in their fleet of J/80s.

Two weeks later, from May 23rd to 26th, the second regatta will take place in Porto Cervo in Sardinia, Italy. For the fifth year in a row, the Italians from Yacht Club Costa Smeralda are hosting an SCL event as one of their top sailing regattas in their matched fleet of one-design J/70s.

The third qualifier will take place from July 4th to 7th in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Russian city and Saint Petersburg Yacht Club are hosting the SAILING Champions League for the fourth year in their fleet of matched one-design J/70s.

In this year's qualifying events, the SCL will grant "wildcard slots" to the new National Sailing Leagues from Estonia, Portugal, Spain and Belgium.

At the SCL final in the Swiss Alps, 24 clubs will compete for the trophy. The fleet will include three clubs with wildcard slots; the hosting club Segel-Club St. Moritz, one club from Australia and one from New Zealand/ Oceania.

Livestream and results by SAP
As with all SAILING Champions League events, the racing will be live broadcasted by SAP, with expert commentators providing blow-by-blow analysis of the racing, aided by the detail provided by SAP Sailing Analytics. The SAP Sailing Analytics provide 24/7 additional statistics and data for sailors, fans, spectators and media. Watch how your favorite team performs with GPS tracking, real-time analysis, and the live leaderboard combined with 2D visualization. You will find all results on SAP SAILING

www.sapsailing.com

sailing-championsleague.com

Nuvolari Lenard founder embarks on solo transatlantic crossing
Dan Lenard, founding partner of superyacht design firm Nuvolari Lenard, has set sail on a solo transatlantic expedition to raise awareness of global ocean pollution.

Lenard left Cadiz on January 20 in Scia, a 10 metre "repurposed" sailing yacht designed by Lenard himself and constructed from the remnants of five abandoned projects.

Lenard, 50, is now tasked with sailing the 4,800 nautical mile journey to Miami without the help of a GPS, autopilot or engine.

Lenard hopes to arrive in Miami to coincide with the Miami boat show, where Scia will be exhibited.

The non-profit solo transatlantic expedition is called La Vite e Vela and has been entirely funded by Lenard in the hope of raising awareness of the worsening state of the world's oceans. By making the journey completely unaided by technology, Lenard hopes to promote the "pure form" of sailing "where the whole idea is about the wind, nature and a connection with the marine environment."

www.boatinternational.com/yachts/

Video - SailGP F50 Controls
It will be months before we see the revolutionary AC75's sailing, and months more before we see them racing. But the F50 catamarans are an evolution from the AC50's that raced for the America's Cup in Bermuda. Tom Slingsby, skipper of the Australia SailGP Team recently made a video showing the controls of the F50. -- Jack Griffin, https://club.cupexperience.com

Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta opens to multihull entries
Porto Cervo, 28 January 2019. This year multihulll boats will be able to participate in the Loro Piana Superyacht regatta for the first time. The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda is pleased to announce that multihulls of over 50 feet in length will be allowed to enter the event to compete in a dedicated division.

Classifications will be styled using the new ORCmh rating system specially developed for these types of vessels.

For further information please consult the Notice of Race online.

ORR or ORR-Ez? Which Handicapping Rule is Right for Your Event?
If you are responsible for organizing a sailboat race or regatta for boats of varying speeds and design, you need to use a handicapping rule to fairly score the racing. At the Offshore Racing Association, we're commonly asked which of our two popular rules should be used – ORR or ORR-Ez? Let's start by summarizing the rules.

What is ORR?
ORR is a measurement rule that accounts for various speed-affecting factors such as displacement, draft, stability, propeller drag, sail plan and sail inventory. All of these items are professionally measured. All are processed through the ORA's Velocity Prediction Program (VPP), yielding predicted speeds and different ratings for different uses. The cost is higher, but there is much higher confidence in the ratings. ORR is a pure measurement rule and no subjective factors are allowed. Lastly, with professional data, rating protests are easier to resolve.

What is ORR-Ez?
ORR-Ez takes all of these same things into account, but allows lower-cost owner-declared measurements in place of professional measurements. For designs where designer lines are no longer available, the Ez team will approximate a hull shape. The same VPP is used. However, for ORR-Ez, if the predicted speeds appear either too fast or too slow, the ORR-Ez administrators may apply subjective factors to adjust the predicted speeds as needed. Because ORR-Ez allows owner-declared measurement, costs are much lower.

Which rule should we choose for our race?
The answer of course is, "It depends." ORR is more accurate; ORR-Ez is more accessible. Here's our best advice to organizing authorities considering the question:

If you manage a prestigious event with long-established trophies, our experience is that you should probably consider a measurement rule such as ORR. This is especially the case if competitors are likely to spend significant amounts on sails, boat prep, travel, crew expenses, etc, and where, the higher cost of a professionally measured ORR certificate is relatively small as a percentage of the entire event cost. (As a stand alone sentence it may not be super clear)

For sailing regattas and distance races where minimizing costs and maximizing entries are more important than the highest accuracy ratings, organizing authorities should consider a lower-cost "Owner Declared" data rule, such as ORR-Ez. -- Bill Lee

Full article at offshoreracingrule.org

Seeking membership in the South West Shingles Yacht Club...
A nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine has been involved in a near-miss with a ferry in the Irish Sea.

An investigation has been launched into the incident, which occurred on November 6th.

The ferry was Stena Superfast VII, which operates between Northern Ireland and Scotland.

It has a capacity for 1,300 passengers and 660 cars.

The submarine was submerged at the depth needed to extend its periscope above the surface of the water.

The Royal Navy would not confirm which of its 10 submarines was involved. A navy spokesman said: "We can confirm the sighting of a Royal Navy submarine between Belfast and Stranraer on November 6th, 2018. We are co-operating with the MAIB's investigation."

For those who are unfamiliar with the world's most exclusive club:

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See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/

The Last Word
I’m not a crook, I’m ambitious. There’s a difference. -- Art Land (Mars Attacks)

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