In This Issue
• It's a wrap - 2019 RORC Caribbean 600
• Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup
• Lifesaver - Exposure Marine
• 18ft Skiffs Club Championship, Race 16
• First Thoughts: The Figaro 3 Is Both Physical And Technical
• Collaboration Between Gitana And Sebastien Josse Draws To A Close
• World Sailing Show
• Vale Donald M. Green
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Brokerage
• The Last Word: James Joyce
Brought to you by Seahorse magazine and YachtScoring.com EuroSail News 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
It's a wrap - 2019 RORC Caribbean 600
The 11th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 attracted 76 teams from 21 countries and crews from six continents. The highly diverse fleet were challenged by the tough conditions and captivated by the beauty of a stunning race course. The non-stop 600 mile race around 11 Caribbean islands is unique and very much on the bucket-list of any offshore sailor.
For the 2019 edition, David and Peter Askew's Wizard (USA) is the first Volvo 70 to win the race and the eighth team from the USA to lift the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy.
Maserati Multi 70 skippered by Giovanni Soldini (ITA) crossed the finish line of the RORC Caribbean 600 in an elapsed time of 1 day, 06 hours 49 minutes and 00 seconds, taking Multihull Line honours and setting a new Multihull Race Record. Jason Carroll's MOD70 Argo (USA) also beat the previous record, but finished the race just seven minutes behind Maserati.
The overall winner of the MOCRA Class was John Gallagher's Gunboat 62 Chim Chim.
Ten teams from France, Norway and Brazil formed a race record entry for the Class40 Division. After two and a half days and nights of intense competition and over 600 miles of racing, it all came down to just a few minutes. Catherine Pourre's French Class40 Eärendil won Line Honours for the Class40 Division for the second year in a row, defeating two of the rising stars of offshore racing who had both led for parts of the race.
IRC Zero accounted for the top three yachts overall under IRC. Wizard was first, with two British based yachts filling the podium. Botin 52 Tala was second, with Ker 46 Lady Mariposa, skippered by Nigel King, in third. The magnificent Baltic-built superyacht Nikata was the winner of the Superyacht Class, Will Apold (CAN) racing Southern Wind 96 Sorceress was runner up.
Gibb Kane's Swan 66 Bounty (USA) was victorious in IRC One, with Andrew Berdon's Marten 49 Summer Storm (USA) in second and Pata Negra, chartered by Daniel Heine and skippered by Andy Liss (GBR) was third with a crew from Lake Constance, Germany.
IRC Two was won by Scarlet Oyster, this is the sixth class win for the Oyster 48 and the seventh for the Oyster 48's skipper Ross Applebey (GBR). Scarlet Oyster was also the winner of CSA 2. Performance Yacht Racing's Beneteau First 47.7 EH01, skippered by Andy Middleton was a close second, with Pamala Baldwin's J/122 Liquid (ANT), skippered by Julian White (GBR) taking third place in the competitive class.
IRC Two was won by Scarlet Oyster, this is the sixth class win for the Oyster 48 and the seventh for the Oyster 48's skipper Ross Applebey (GBR) © Ted Martin/RORC
Jeremi Jablonski's Hanse 430 Avanti (USA) was racing in IRC Three and scored the best corrected time for teams racing two handed, completing the race in an elapsed time of 3 days, 13 hours, 50 minutes and 47 seconds.
IRC Three was won by Vicki and Jonty Layfield's S&S Swan 48 Sleeper X (GBR). Trevor Middleton's Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep (GBR), skippered by Jake Carter (GBR) was second, and Constantin Claviez's Swan 441 Charisma (GER) was third.
The 12th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 will start from Fort Charlotte on February 24, 2020.
For results, all the latest race reports, videos, photos and news go to: caribbean600.rorc.org
Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup
Nick Egnot-Johnson and his RNZYS Performance Programme KNOTS Racing Team - Zak Merton, Sam Barnett & Alistair Gifford - have notched up another big victory, taking out the 2019 Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup.
Egnot-Johnson eased through his semi-final 3-0 against Callum Radford's Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club team from Wellington to cement his spot in the final.
He was made to wait for an opponent though, with the semi-final between Jordan Stevenson's RNZYS Youth Training Programme Vento Racing team and Tom Grimes' team from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia going right down to the wire. It was Grimes who was sitting in the box seat, taking the first two matches and leaving himself needing only one more victory to meet Egnot-Johnson in the final. Stevenson wasn't going to have a bar of that though, and as he has done before, pulled up his socks and pulled off an amazing comeback - winning the next three matches to send Grimes reeling into the petite final and himself into the big dance.
Final results:
1. Nick Egnot-Johnson - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron:
2. Jordan Stevenson - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, NZL:
3. Callum Radford - Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, NZL:
4. Tom Grimes - Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, AUS:
5. James Wilson - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, NZL:
6. Tom Picot - Cercle Nautique Caledonien, FRA:
7. Oakley Marsh - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, NZL:
8. Juliet Costanzo - Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, AUS:
9. Patrick Harris - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, NZL:
10. David Wood - Balboa Yacht Club, USA:
11. Charlotte Griffin - Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, AUS:
12. Jed Cruickshank - Darwin Sailing Club, AUS:
13. Harry Milne - Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, NZL:
14. Niall Powers - Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, AUS
Lifesaver - Exposure Marine
It all started with a simple yet remarkable torch, cleverly designed and purpose-built to solve one of the most intractable problems in offshore sailing. When someone falls overboard at night, the chances of getting that person safely back aboard can be frighteningly low. Rough weather, cold water, doubledigit boatspeeds, spinnakers, lack of practice, panic and many other factors make it even more of a challenge. That said, technology can dramatically improve those odds. Exposure Light's MOB light, which won a DAME Design Award for lifesaving and safety in 2014, was arguably the most significant advancement in man overboard technology since the introduction of affordable, easily portable personal locator beacons. Over the past five years that first innovation has evolved into a full man overboard rescue solution, with further developments now on the horizon.
The best ideas often seem simple and obvious in hindsight. Most sailors were either relying on low-powered lights built into their lifejackets or using cheap, unreliable throwaway torches that weren't designed for marine use. Exposure Light's groundbreaking innovation was to put its powerful, market-leading LED lighting technology into a tiny, robust and reliable waterproof rescue torch that floats, with an immensely powerful searchlight beam and strobe. It switches itself on automatically after a few seconds of immersion, creating a pool of light in the water and its 1,300-lumen strobe can be seen five miles away.
Full article in the March issue of Seahorse
18ft Skiffs Club Championship, Race 16
James Dorron, Harry Bethwaite, Trent Barnabas. Click on image for photo gallery.
Going into today's final race of the championship, Asko Appliances (James Dorron, Harry Bethwaite, Trent Barnabas) held a 3.4 points lead over arch-rival Smeg (Michael Coxon, Ricky Bridge, Mike McKensey) and had to finish no worse than three places behind Smeg to take their third championship title for the season, so far.
In a 12-15-knot South-East breeze, Smeg grabbed an early lead while Asko Appliances was never further back than third over the first three legs of the course.
Just when everything appeared to be going to the plot, Asko Appliances capsized on the tight spinnaker run from Clark Island to Chowder Bay and the team's championship-winning hopes seemed to out the back door as Smeg held a handy lead over Finport Finance (Keagan York, Matt Stenta, Charlie Gundy) and Bing Lee (Micah Lane).
Winning Group (John Winning Jr., Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton) was back in fifth place at the Clark Island windward mark, but the team went up a gear over the next four legs of the course and gradually chipped away at Smeg's lead until Winning Group took a 12s lead at Rose Bay on the final lap.
With just one downwind leg into Athol Bay and a windward beat back to the finish off Clark Island, the two experienced teams went leg-for-leg before Winning Group finally crossed the finish line 16s ahead of Smeg.
The consistent Finport Finance finish a further 39s back in third place.
Final points in the championship were: Asko Appliances on 63 points, Smeg on 63.4, third place went to Winning Group on 92, followed by The Kitchen Maker-Caesarstone on 114, Finport Finance 115, and Bing Lee on 121 points.
NEXT WEEK IS THE 2019 JJ GILTINAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Race dates are:
Saturday - March 2
Sunday - March 3
Tuesday - March 5
Wednesday - March 6
Thursday - March 7
Saturday - March 9
Sunday - March 10
First Thoughts: The Figaro 3 Is Both Physical And Technical
Since the first batch were delivered on January 7th now 49 new Figaro Beneteau 3s have been delivered to their proud new owners. More than thirty are sailing now, primarily spread between Lorient, Port-la-Forêt and Saint-Gilles Croix-de-Vie, where skippers are hard at work preparing for the first event of the season, the Sardinha Cup (26 March-13 April ). Tip & Shaft has gathered up the first throughts of several sailors (Loïck Peyron, Fabien Delahaye, Nicolas Lunven, Adrien Hardy, Alan Roberts), and also those of Christian Le Pape, the top dog at the pole Finistère race training centre at Port-la-Forêt, his Lorient counterpart, Tanguy Leglatin, who heads up the training group at Lorient Grand Large, and Etienne Saïz, who is coach of the Team Vendee Formation.
"We are like children at Christmas who are just discovering their new toy" Loïck Peyron hits the nail on the head as he captures the mood of the sailors who have been learning the subtleties and idiosyncracies of the new Figaro 3 and also the problems that come because the boat is so new "We are all in the process of learning and testing the reliability of the mechanics, which is not so simple because it is a series production boat", continues veteran Peyron, skipper Action Enfance. Christian Le Pape agrees: "It's a nice boat not without the problems of its newness in terms of the finish, but these are cosmetic, minor problems, some concern the bowsprit, the set up of the foils, t halyards that rub, just teething issues which are sorted by optimization and a little time in the yard".
But there are bigger issues, according to one who is closely involved, "Most of the skippers at the Pole had their boat scanned and did not notice any major differences in the alignments of the appendages for example, but some hulls are a bit bumpy, you can not really feel it, but the class will have to find solutions, because some people will have a hard time believing thier hull is less efficient. "
As for the performances of the boat all the skippers we questioned agree: the Figaro 3, with its foils, its lack of ballast, a fine, slender keel and more rounded hull is not so easy to sail fast upwind. "It's very light and as there is no ballast, it lacks a little bit of inertia, we will probably have to work a little more and steer more often, depending on the sea state", confirms Loïck Peyron. Fabien Delahaye adds: " Accelerating out of the tack is harder than on a classic boat like the Figaro 2, you have to get the flow attached over the foils, to look for speed, it is an acquired skill we will have to learn."
Collaboration Between Gitana And Sebastien Josse Draws To A Close
After eight seasons, which prompted the creation of some fantastic craft like the Multi70 Edmond de Rothschild, the eponymous IMOCA 60, not to mention the most recent addition to the saga, the flying Maxi Gitana 17, the owners of Gitana Team and skipper Sebastien Josse have announced the end of their collaboration initiated in 2011.
Recruited back in 2011, Sebastien Josse got the chance to cut his teeth in the multihull world, benefiting from most high-performance platforms of the day. Considered to be one of France's top monohull specialists, with several circumnavigations of the globe to his credit spanning both the Vendee Globe and the Volvo Ocean Race circuits, the sailor made no secret of how amazingly lucky he was to get the opportunity to express himself on another craft. Working alongside the members of Gitana Team for eight years, the sailor racked up a number of seasons and competitions in crewed, double-handed and singlehanded configuration, fleshing out Gitana's incredible and unique track record: Multi70 victory in the Tour de l'Europe and the Transat Jacques Vabre 2013, a very striking 3rd place in the Route du Rhum 2014, the Vendee Globe adventure and the first foray on the giant Gitana 17... Ariane de Rothschild thanks Sebastien Josse for the eight years spent working together.
The five-arrow team is keen to embark on a new, ambitious campaign geared around offshore optimisation with the aim of setting sail on a singlehanded round the world race aboard these giants (the new date for this event will be announced in the coming weeks).
World Sailing Show
After 211 days at sea, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede completed his solo circumnavigation and took the trophy for the 2019 Golden Globe Race. Among those waiting to greet him was the man who had started it all, the first man to lap the planet non-stop and alone, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. We hear from both, plus the man who just missed out despite a 15,000 mile epic chase - second placed Mark Slats describes his trip around the world.
From the first to the fastest, how Spindrift's campaign to set a new round the world time was delivered a crushing blow…again. Plus, we take a look at some of the coolest kit for 2019. We report on the latest in the America's Cup World and we head to Miami for the Hempel World Cup Series.
The Golden Globe - The first two home
Spindrift - Down and out again
Cool kit - Innovations for 2019
Another Challenger for the America's Cup
Hempel World Cup Series Miami
Vale Donald M. Green
An inductee in the Canadian Sailing Hall of Fame (August 2018), Don was the recipient of many civic distinctions including Member of the Order of Canada (1980), the nation's most significant civilian honour. "As well as being extremely active in community endeavours," the office of the Governor-General noted of his membership, "he has brought honour to the country as a yachtsman, winning the Canada's Cup in 1978 with his racing yacht Evergreen."
Don developed a passion for racing sailboats when his son, Steve and daughter Sharon - junior sailors at RHYC - convinced him to race his cruising boat, the C&C 35 Motivation, in local keelboat races. With all juniors onboard, Don and his 'Motivation Super Crew' went on to compete triumphantly throughout Lake Ontario. Bit by the sailing bug, he went on to challenge for the 1978 Canada's Cup: the match race competition between Canadian and American yacht clubs on the Great Lakes.
The Canada's Cup had been contested since 1896, but no Canadian club other than Toronto's Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) had participated. In 1978, when Don launched his campaign, the trophy had been held by Bayview Yacht Club (BYC) of Detroit since 1972, after a successful defense against an RCYC challenge in 1975.
Don approached C&C Yachts of Oakville, Ontario, to design and build his challenger, christened Evergreen. As in the previous series, the contest would be held in IOR Two Tonners, approximately 41-foot. He gave the design department carte blanche to come up with a yacht that could win a match-race competition in the predominantly light winds of Lake St. Clair.
Many of her innovative features would soon be outlawed or made prohibitive by changes to IOR, which made Evergreen one of the most technically advanced keelboats of its time.
Don served as Commodore of RHYC in 1978 to 1979, and went on to compete as part of Canada's 1979 Admiral's Cup team, again as skipper of Evergreen. Changes to the IOR designed to discourage further daggerboard designs required Evergreen to be converted to a fixed keel.
That year, the Fastnet Race, a segment of the Admiral's Cup series, was marred by a storm that claimed the lives of 15 competitors. While Evergreen did not complete the course, Don brought Evergreen and crew safely back to harbour from the carnage in the Irish Sea.
After the 1979 Admiral's Cup, Don sold Evergreen, and campaigned Evergreen II, a 45-foot German Frers design, very successfully offshore.
Don is survived by Sandy, his loving wife of 61 years; son Stephen and daughter Sharon; daughter-in-law Christine; and grandchildren Michaela, Kieran, Michael and Rachel. He will also be mourned by his best friend, 'partner in crime' and sailing buddy John Bobyk of Orillia, Ontario, and many others in the boating and local community.
A celebration of life will be announced in the coming weeks.
Letters To The Editor -
Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.
* From Ginny Jones:
As some of you may know several founders of Off Center Harbor: Maynard Bray, Eric Bates and Steve Stone (and perhaps others), have just returned from a trip to New Zealand in which they made about 30 new nautical videos -- documentary in nature -- for the OCH website. Attached is the first to be aired and as I am sure most of you will agree, it is riveting! As some of you also know, Off Center Harbor has now planned, filmed and thus accumulated a treasure trove of amazing videos which preserve all sorts of maritime knowledge and skills in visual (and audio) form. I believe that the current number of videos stands at something over 1000 and counting. When I think of all the other maritime films -- whether documentary, or movies of classics (such as CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS), or out and out fiction SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS) -- which are available, it occurs to me that an index or compilation of names and details (by category, and/or even by location) would be endlessly helpful. This would an admirable topic for a graduate student looking for a project (MIT, Webb, Exeter University or University of Southampton, Mystic Seaport, Maine Maritime, etc.) as having such a research tool would be such a boon to anyone who is interested in classic yachts, traditional working water craft, or any of the associated arts and crafts, skills and knowledge.
There may be such a list, however the lists that I have seen hardly comprehensive (and of course new films and resources are being added daily) while many films are in languages other than English. No problem with that because the visuals provide a lot of information but perhaps sub titles in English provided as well for those of us who are language challenged. If you know of a reasonably complete list please let me know.
I hope that you can access the video because it really is fascinating and listening to (and watching) Maynard describe the construction of VICTORY provides an enormous amount of information in an easily assimilated package. The sight of the magnificent gaff cutters sailing at the beginning is additional eye candy (pardon the vulgar phrase) to entice you to keep watching, but Maynard's commentary ably meets the challenge of how to keep you engaged! Off Center Harbor is more than living up to its mandate and I hope that you will consider subscribing -- you get a whole vast world of superb viewing. If, where you are, it is, like my island, blowing hard out of the SE (gusts to 33 mph) and raining, it is a good afternoon to settle into a comfortable chair with a cup of tea or a glass of something stronger and spend some time learning about New Zealand yacht construction and boats which are now well over 100 years old and still sailing. Then, when you finish that there are about 1000 more videos to watch.
At Home in the Bilge with Maynard Bray, Part 1 - How New Zealand's Classics Were Built
Hitchhiker
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The Last Word
A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery. -- James Joyce
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