In This Issue
• Four challengers confirmed for 2021 race series in Auckland
• World Championship Of Match Racing
• All bases covered - Grand Soleil
• The Whitbread is back!
• Transatlantic Race 2019 Leaders Setting Up to Slow Down
• From the TR2019 Boat Blogs: Aegir Update - Changing Times
• New speed record in the 2019 ÅF Offshore Race
• Chinese Coastal City of Weihai Hosts the Largest Hobie Sailing Event of 2019
• Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image 2019 photo competition
• Dragons converge on Kuhlungsborn for third leg of Dragon European Cup Series
• Featured Brokerage:
• • X-41 One Design - GODSPEED
• • 2014 J/V Maxi 72 MOMO
• • Swan 90-708 Alix
• The Last Word: Captain Louis Renault
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
Four challengers confirmed for 2021 race series in Auckland
Four challengers for Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) have been confirmed for the 36th America's Cup by Prada race series to be held in Auckland in 2021. This point was reached today, the late entry deadline for applications.
The deadline saw one team, DutchSail from the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club, withdrawing, citing financial constraints, and another, the Long Beach Yacht Club's Stars & Strips Team, confirming. The possible entry from the Royal Malta Yacht Club withdrew over a month ago.
Simeon Tienpoint, DutchSail skipper, commented: "The team are hugely disappointed they won't be on the start-line in 2021 but they couldn't raise the funds necessary for the expensive AC75 monohulls introduced by Team NZ. This was our chance to do it for Holland and show you could put it together as a country, not just one rich man."
The four challengers for ETNZ will be:
CVS Luna Rossa from Italy
New York Yacht Club American Magic from the US
Royal Yacht Squadron Team Ineos UK
Long Beach Yacht Club Stars & Stripes Team from the US
In a press statement, Camille Daniels, Commodore of the Long Beach Yacht Club, said: "Long Beach Yacht Club is committed to making the start line at the first America's Cup World Series event in Cagliari, Italy. Our membership is excited and we are all working hard to achieve our goal of bringing the America's Cup to Long Beach."
World Championship Of Match Racing
Some of the biggest names in professional racing are steeling themselves for the World Match Racing Tour Finals this coming week. The GKSS Match Cup Sweden takes place just off the shores of the idyllic summer hideaway island of Marstrand, an hour's drive from Gothenburg. This year the event is the World Championship of Match Racing, which is why the great and the good of one-on-one dogfighting in fast cats are flying in from all corners of the world to compete.
Taking place from 3 to 7 July, among the talented line-up are four past Match Racing World Champions: Australia's Torvar Mirsky, the defending champion, Taylor Canfield of the USA (2013 champion), Phil Robertson of New Zealand (2016 champion) and Great Britain's Ian Williams, the daddy of modern match racing with six world titles between 2007 and 2015.
The WMRT championship finals in Marstrand will complete the 2018-2019 World Tour season, which was extended following a change of the ownership in the Tour at the start of the year. This year has been largely a transition year for the Tour as the new organisation reviews and rebuilds a new World Match Racing Tour season for 2020.
There were three events on the 2018 World Tour - GKSS Match Cup Sweden, Match Cup Norway and Regate de Portugal.
With sunshine and strong winds forecast, it's going to be fascinating watch the big guns come out, all barrels blazing for the winner-take-all Match Racing World Championship.
Confirmed skippers for the WMRT Championship Final
Nicklas Dackhammer (SWE) Essiq Racing Team
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar
Yann Guichard (FRA) Spindrift Racing
Harry Price (AUS) Down Under Racing
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Cetilar Mirsky Racing Team
Mans Holmberg (SWE) Stratsys Racing Team
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
Markus Edegran (USA) Team Torrent
Phil Robertson (NZL) China One Ningbo
Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) Sailing Team NL
Daniel Bjornholt (DEN) Youth Vikings Denmark
Taylor Canfield (USA) US One
All bases covered - Grand Soleil
Grand Soleil Yachts is a brand best known for building elegant, high-performance cruiser-racers - it has launched more than 4,500 of those over the last five decades. But in recent years, the Italian marque has expanded its repertoire into new territory with the Long Cruise (LC) series, translating its traditional brand values of contemporary style, sweet handling and sailing performance into its first-ever range of pure cruising yachts with remarkable success straight off the mark. In 2015 the first yacht in the series, the 46 LC, won the luxury cruiser category in the European Yacht of The Year Awards. A 52- footer followed suit and now there's another new Long Cruise yacht in the pipeline, this time a smaller one due to launch later this year: the 42 LC.
A main ingredient in the Long Cruise recipe for success is an all- Italian three-way design partnership between Cantiere Del Pardo's inhouse technical team, naval architect Marco Lostuzzi and Nauta Design, which does the styling, interiors and ergonomics.
Full article in the July issue of Seahorse
The Whitbread is back!
The spirit of the Whitbread Round the World Race is back with the announcement of the 2023 Ocean Globe Race, a retro event starting from a European port on September 10th 2023 celebrating the 50th anniversary of this major milestone in adventure sailing.
In a world now dominated by professional sailors, foiling yachts and eye-watering budgets. This retro Race reopens once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for ordinary sailors and adventurous yacht owners to follow in the wake of Tabarly, Blake, Van Rietschoten, Blyth, Knox-Johnston and of course Mexican Ramon Carlin, winner of the first Whitbread fully crewed global challenge in 1973 with his production Swan 65 Sayula II
Organised by Australian adventurer Don McIntyre along similar lines to the 2018 Golden Globe Race, which he also founded, the 2023 Ocean Globe Race (OGR) will follow the original Clipper ship sailing route around the Globe, just as the Whitbread Race did in 1973.
The course traces the classic four-leg route from Europe to Africa and on to Australasia, then back via a South American port: 27,000 miles and seven months passing under the three great Capes with Cape Horn the prize for most. The final course will be published in late 2020, together with the Final Notice of Race. Cities in the UK, Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil are being invited to bid to host the ports of call
Retro rules
Just like the 2018 GGR, this new fully-crewed challenge is equally retro, sailing similar well proven yachts to those entered in the first Whitbread and with technology limited to what was available to those pioneers back in 1973. That means no high tech materials, computers, satellite systems (including phones and GPS), as well as mobile phones. Navigation will be limited to sextant plots on paper charts, communications via SSB and VHF radios, and music will be played on cassette tapes.
Yacht types
Entries are limited to 'approved' fibreglass production yachts designed prior to 1988, from 47ft (14.32m) to 66ft (20.11m) LOA segregated into two groups:
ADVENTURE 47 to 56ft (14.32-17.06m) & SAYULA 56-66ft (17.07-20.11m) classes. In addition, original entries from the first three Whitbread Races (1973/4, 1977/8 and 1981/2) together with 'Class surveyed' production sail training yachts up to 68ft (20.73m) make up a third FLYER Class.
Nautor Swan production yachts that fall within the age/length parameters are currently approved, and similar well-proven production yachts will be considered on application. The fleet is limited to a maximum of 30 yachts and the Race will be sailed under the International Collision Regulations.
Transatlantic Race 2019 Leaders Setting Up to Slow Down
For the last three days the frontrunners in the Transatlantic Race 2019 have been striding across the North Atlantic at 20-plus-knot speeds, eating up the miles to Cowes in the strong southerlies - exactly the dramatic conditions and high octane experience their crews signed up for.
Sadly, the big speeds and 'yeehaa' moments are soon to come to an end for the two frontrunners, David and Peter Askew's VO70 Wizard and Lee Seng Huang's 100-foot maxi SHK Scallywag, at least. Already this morning, Wizard's boatspeed had dropped from 20 knots to 15.
The reason for this slow-down is a ridge of high pressure centred off the west of Ireland that lies in their path. As Wizard's navigator Will Oxley described it: "Wind speed is dropping, the sky is clearing and the barometer is rising. The sleigh ride is coming to an end and now it's back to tactical sailing. The trick is to get into the high enough to use its shape to get a nice lift on the exit, while keeping enough windspeed to keep moving. Sometimes it feels a bit like Icarus - making sure we don't fly too close to the sun (read 'high')."
If the wind was dropping for the frontrunners, the opposite was true for the boats some 1,000 nautical miles astern at the aft end of the Transatlantic Race 2019 fleet. Today a front associated with a depression centred just south of Newfoundland was rolling across the tail-enders and bringing gale-force winds.
The group of boats rounding the southeasternmost point of the ice exclusion zone (A3), such as Lucy Georgina, Carina, True, Hiro Maru, Kiva and Charisma, in particular, were feeling the effects of the strongest winds. However, the depression is forecast to move northeast over the next 24 hours with the gale abating, so the mid-fleet should be spared its full force.
While the VO70 and maxi are slogging it out for the lead on the water, there is a similar tense battle between the 46- to 54-foot mid-fleet trio. Here Erik de Turkheim's Nivelt/Muratet 54 Teasing Machine was just 20 miles ahead of Vendée Globe legend Jean-Pierre Dick's Verdier 54, The Kid, as she passed the ice exclusion zone's A4 corner at midday UTC. However, it is currently Giles Redpath's Lombard 46 Pata Negra which leads under IRC.
From the TR2019 Boat Blogs: Aegir Update - Changing Times
This is the 10th year of my professional yachting career. Having found sailing in my late teens, the dominance by males in the sport has been an undeniable and frustrating factor during my time. However, stepping on board Aegir last Tuesday, filled me with hope.
We are sporting no fewer than four female sailors: Abby Ehlers, Caitlin and Devon Murphy and little old me. To some, this may seem unremarkable, but this is the first time that I have raced with more than two women. I am sure I say on behalf of us all that we are grateful to Clarke Murphy for his belief in us. We are having a ball.
I am not one for bashing the opposite sex in order to promote my own. But I do believe that a balance on board is invaluable. Women bring a lot to the table. Having spent time sailing and racing on a J-class, numerous classics, a number of Oysters etc, this week has been one of my favourite to date. The genuine feeling of respect for one another (especially regarding the calibre of jokes) is palpable. The usual machismo has been diluted by what I would like to think of as our calming feminine influence alongside our unique skillsets. With the exception of a pushup contest on the aft deck in the sunshine today, we have managed to keep the competive testosterone driven activities to a minimum to ensure focus on winning is maintained.
All joking aside, recent years have seen the trailblazers on board the all girls Volvo team SCA (including our very own Abby - one of the worlds most competent, modest and understated sailors ) and the efforts by the Magenta Project smash stereotypes and open doors for all the younger generations to come. These women have been my heroes for the last few years and I know I am not the only female sailor feeling indebted to them for the work they are doing. My heart bursts with pride and excitement at the prospect of a stronger female presence on the water and I hope our presence on Aegir is evidence of the change to come.
Amy Jane Dawson
New speed record in the 2019 ÅF Offshore Race
Click on image to enlarge.
The 2019 ÅF Offshore Race, the largest annual offshore race, started in the centre of Stockholm during Sunday with 232 registered entries in 14 different categories. The course is unique with a challenging 40NM stretch through one of the world's most spectacular archipelagos. At times the fleet is tacking through narrow straights in rather shallow waters. Once passed the famous Sandhamn, the fleet will have a 300NM offshore race ahead of them. This year the weather was tough with winds up to 30 knots and wave heights of 4 meters. In total 94 boats retired from the race.
The strong winds were favourable for HiQ 4 to beat the record held by CQS from 2017. The average speed was 13.01 knots and the time to finish the 352,1NM course was 27 hour 4 minutes and 9 seconds,
Skipper was Bouwe Bekking and crew: Jorden van Rooijen, Pelle Norberg, Roger Nilson, Antonio Cuervas Mons, Ysbrand Endt, Christa ten Brinke, Anders Lewander, Jonas Haggbom, Andreas Andersen , Fredrik Nylof, Peter van Niekerk, Erik Ridman, Michiel Goegebeur, Mattias Reintz.
Chinese Coastal City of Weihai Hosts the Largest Hobie Sailing Event of 2019
From June 29th to July 3rd 2019, Hobie 16 Asian Championships joined by the China Family Regatta returned to the beautiful city of Weihai.
This is by far the largest Hobie event held here - with 73 participating teams from 11 countries and regions.
The Hobie 16 Asian Championships is a key event in Weihai's International Sailing Month, co-hosted by the International Hobie Class Association, Weihai Sports Bureau and other supporting organisations, 32 professional teams gathered to compete for the top 8 spots.
Competitive and fun to handle, the Hobie 16 sailboat is able to set off directly from the beach. Since its first sail in Weihai back in 2009, its popularity spread among the sailing fans in China.
Weihai city has since hosted Hobie International Championships, Asia Championships, Asia-Pacific Championships and many more.
hobieclass.com/2019-hobie-16-asian-championships/
Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image 2019 photo competition
Professional yacht racing photographers from all over the world are invited to join the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image award. Submission of the pictures is open until October 13th at midnight. The awards ceremony will take place during the Yacht Racing Forum in Bilbao (ESP) on 26 November.
July 2, 2019 - Yacht Racing photographers from all over the world are invited to submit their image for the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image award 2019. Initiated in 2010, this event is the world's leading photo competition dedicated to sailing as a competitive sport. Its objective is to allow professional photographers to share their passion for the sport of sailing with the public.
The images can be submitted to the organising committee until 13 October. In order to participate, photographers must register at www.yachtracingimage.com and select one image taken between September 13, 2018 and October 13, 2019.
The 80 best photos will be pre-selected by our prestigious international jury, which will be announced shortly through a press release.
The twenty best images selected by the International Jury will be exhibited on 25 and 26 November in Bilbao (ESP), at the Yacht Racing Forum, as well as in Shenzhen, China, during the China Cup. The prestigious award will be presented in public on November 26, in the presence of the sports' leading personalities.
For more information: visit our website
Dragons converge on Kuhlungsborn for third leg of Dragon European Cup Series
Kuhlungsborn on Germany's Baltic coast is the venue for the third and penultimate regatta in the 2019 Dragon European Cup Series. Forty of the top International Dragon teams from across Europe and as far afield as Japan are gathering to compete in the Dragon Grand Prix Germany from 3 to 6 July, being hosted by the Segelclub Kuhlungsborn and the German Dragon Fleet.
With two of the four qualifying events in the European Cup Series already completed, the competition is hotting up to decide who will make the Grand Final in Palma de Mallorca in November. Teams require results from three of the four qualifying events to be eligible for the 20-boat finale so every point counts.
The opening events of the series, in Cannes in April and Cascais in May, were windy affairs and it looks like that trend will continue in Germany. The forecast is promising strong predominantly north westerly winds throughout the regatta so the sailors can expect challenging and spectacular conditions for the eight scheduled races. The regatta is based at the new Kuhlungsborn Marina and racing will take place on the open waters of the Baltic just a short sail from the harbour.
Current series leader Grant Gordon from Scotland will not participate in this event. A third place at the Dragon Grand Prix Cannes followed by a win in the King Juan Carlos Trophy Regatta in Cascais have given him a four-point lead, but at the half way mark in the series there are still plenty who can challenge him.
Grant's nearest rivals are Portugal's Pedro Rebelo de Andrade and Switzerland's Hugo Stenbeck, who hold seven points apiece. -- Fiona Brown
Featured Brokerage
The Farr 520 Performance Cruiser is a real gem of a yacht. Fast, fun to sail and the same hull as the Farr 52 one design, but with a much more sedate interior. Not many of these were built and so having one on the market is almost a unique opportunity. Only in her second ownership, she has done more miles in the last year than the last 15 and been well serviced and looked after with a good electrical and instrumental refit.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
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Ben Cooper
Telephone: +44(0) 1590 679222
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MOMO needs no introduction Winner of the last two Maxi 72 world championships. Perfect throughout and turn key with all the gear to keep on winning
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
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William Jenkins
410 267 9419
410 353 7862
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Another successful collaboration between Germán Frers and Nautor, the Swan 90S 'Alix' is the quintessential performance cruiser combining elegant and powerful lines with Finnish quality to achieve an aggressive beauty.
See listing details in Nautors Swan Brokerage
Contact
Nautor's Swan Brokerage - Lorenzo Bortolotti
Tel. +377 97 97 95 07
nautorswanbrokerage.com
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
I'm making out the report now. We haven't quite decided whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape. -- Captain Louis Renault, Casablanca
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