In This Issue
• Rolex Middle Sea Race: Pressure Point
• 2.4mR World Championship
• Better now than later - QI Composites
• USA Foiling Gybe
• Joyon Ahead Of The Pace After Two Days Of Racing
• Day 1 of the SB20 World Championships
• The call for the return of the Finn for Paris 2024
• First day of the Catamarans Cup
• Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally
• First part of mini series on Malcolm McKeon MM597 super yacht build is released
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Volvo Open 70 - Ocean Breeze
• • Maxi One Design 80 Weddel
• • JPK 1080 - Blue Note
• The Last Word: Turkish proverb
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
Rolex Middle Sea Race: Pressure Point
The 40th Edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race is doing its best to leave a mark on the history of the famous 606nm offshore race. For the moment, that mark appears somewhat black. While George David's American maxi Rambler powers south towards Lampedusa, the rest of the fleet have been left contemplating another night of slow progress. If the first 24 hours were frustrating for the majority of the fleet, the following 24 have been equally as painful.
Rambler is the only yacht to so far have escaped the clutches of the great Sicilian wind shadow, formed off the northern coast. Rounding Favignana this morning at around 09:30 CEST, the crew switched on the afterburners, relatively speaking, and sped to Pantelleria at 15 knots passing the island at 15:10 CEST. Rambler is now marching on to the southernmost corner of the racecourse and has taken the overall lead of the race under IRC. Behind Rambler, the competitive juices still flow strong despite the struggle, all competing yachts are through the Strait of Messina and more than half the fleet have rounded Stromboli.
Spirits remain high among the crews, particularly those at the back of the fleet, the furthest from the finish. In IRC 6, two JPK 10.80s have renewed their rivalry from last year. In 2018, Timofey Zhbankov's Rossko (RUS) won the class with Ludovic Gerard's Solenn (FRA) taking second place. This year, after 200nm of racing the two teams are within sight of each other.
In the Double-handed Class, Daniel Martin's Figaro II Inteman (ESP) rounded Stromboli at just about noon. The only other double-hander to have rounded the volcanic island is Fabiijan Roic's Akilara 40, Crazy (CRO), about an hour earlier in the day.
After IRC time correction, three Maltese boats are currently in the top 10 of the 98 boats racing for the overall win. Artie is ranked sixth, the Podesta family racing the First 45 Elusive 2 is ninth and Xpresso is tenth.
In IRC 6, there is a fantastic battle between two identical boats raced in the main by young Maltese sailors. Jarhead Young Sailors Foundation has two identical J/109s racing in IRC 6. JYS Jarhead is skippered by Andrea Azzopardi, whilst JYS Jan is an all-female team skippered by Gabriella Mifsud. Among, the crew is Nikki Henderson, the youngest ever skipper in the Clipper Round the World Race.
2.4mR World Championship
Genoa, Italy: The worlds ended today after a week of very rough weather. A female podium, two women among the first three. England's Megan Pascoe dominated with a perfect week, second was Finland's Marko Dahlberg and third Fia Fjelddahl from Sweden
The world 2.4 mR championship ended after a very windy week and after six races staged by the Race Committee in often difficult conditions, with heavy seas and strong wind that forced many competitors to retire early. There were however numerous entries - 91 from 15 countries.
The fourth and final day, decisive for the rankings, began under a rain-filled sky, waves of 2 m and a stiff south-easter of 15/18 kn with frequent gusts. Decidedly tough conditions for this boat - although it is unsinkable - that demands particular ability in strong wind.
The Northern European crews were at their ease in these conditions and dominated the top of the rankings right from the first race. There was a consistent performance from the English Megan Pascoe, with a series of impeccable races (1,1,2,3,2,1,2) who became 2.4 world champion.
As well as the world title and awards for the individual races, during the prizegiving the following awards were presented:
Guldmann Cup: Antonio Squizzato - ITA (Best Italian in 2.4 World Championship)
Guldmann Cup: Giancarlo Mariani -ITA (Best in 3 races circuit Italian Championship)
Best Lady Competitor: Megan Pascoe - GBR
Best Disabled: Megan Pascoe - GBR
Best Master: Julio Reguero - PUR (over 55)
Best Grand Master: Harald Rolfsnes - NOR (over 65)
Best under 30: Fia Fjelddahl - SWE
The Youngest: Gianlorenzo Copertari - ITA
Final top ten:
1. Megan Pascoe, GBR, 9 points
2. Marko Dahlberg, FIN, 15
3. Fia Fjelddahl, SWE, 35
4. Antonio Squizzato, ITA, 39
5. Harald Rolfsnes, NOR, 55
6. Rikard Bjurstr, FIN, 56
7. Niko Salomaa, FIN, 83
8. Julio Reguero, PUR, 89
9. Pauli Immonen, FIN, 95
10. Ulli Libor, GER, 102
Better now than later - QI Composites
As the quest for more and more extreme performance in sailboat racing continues, designers and builders face ever increasing challenges. While advanced composite construction is taken to the limits, the need for in-depth, expert quality testing of build parts - hulls, decks, appendages, rigs - plays an increasingly crucial role.
Over the last 20 years, QI Composites has become the globally accepted expert for NDT (nondestructive testing) and evaluation of technical build specifications and their practical execution. 'We have been involved in all America's Cups since 2001, in 2007 working for nine teams; also in all Volvo Ocean Races since 2007, official NDT supplier for entire V65 fleet for past two editions and Ferrari F1 consultant since 2012. We have also partly or entirely checked the majority of composite superyachts made in the last 15 years,' says Stefano Beltrando, CEO. QI Composites' clients include renowned builders who use the firm to validate their work and for R&D activity, yacht owners seeking to protect their investment, racing teams as in the America's Cup and insurance companies who use QI for damage assessment.
Full article in the November issue of Seahorse
USA Foiling Gybe
This video shows American Magic's "Defiant" foiling and completing a foiling gybe. You can see eight sailors on the grinding pedestals, and one on each wheel. The last five seconds show a closeup of the cockpit, with with two grinding pedestals in each cockpit trench and the helm aft of all the grinding stations. Dean Barker is on the portside helm, Andrew Campbell is just forward of the starboard wheel. The eleventh sailor is just forward of Barker and next to the aft grinding pedestal. You'll also notice that the mainsail is not end-plated to the deck, but that may change by the time racing begins - there is plenty of development work ahead for all four teams. -- Jack Griffin in CupExperience.com
Joyon Ahead Of The Pace After Two Days Of Racing
Francis Joyon and his maxi trimaran IDEC-SPORT have got off to the finest of starts in their latest challenge, the Mauritius Route, an attempt to beat the record set by IDEC SPORT ten years ago between Port Louis (Morbihan) and Port Louis on the island of Mauritius.
With a lead of more than 184 miles over the pace he set with the second maxi trimaran to display the name of IDEC (designed by Irens in 2007), Francis says he is happy and pleased with the first 48 hours. The trajectory from Brittany to the island of Madeira that he passed north of around the middle of the day, looks very smooth, but hides a lot of difficulties with winds that have been irregular in strength and direction. T
his configuration is set to continue and become even more unstable as he makes his way to the Cape Verde Islands. Francis is not looking forward to setting an exceptional time to the Equator. He has already settled into long haul race mode and the rhythm is far off the furious pace he achieved a year ago when he won the Route du Rhum.
"I'm not pushing as hard as during the Rhum," explained Francis. "This is a long haul race, representing the equivalent of three Route du Rhum races. I have to keep an eye on the equipment. The start of the record has gone well, in spite of having to get through squalls, where I needed to be extra cautious in between gusts and calms. At the moment, I am under a huge dark cloud, which is moving forward with me at low speed. I have to zig-zag around to get out away from its influence..."
IDEC SPORT gybed in the middle of the morning to head due south and is now on the port tack in the NE'ly Portuguese trade wind, which is being interrupted by squalls. Francis Joyon will be passing to the west of Madeira late this afternoon. The sailor and his onshore router, Christian Dumard are doing a lot of thinking about how to get past the Canaries. The areas of high pressure are also tending to move towards the south and the big trimaran must avoid at all cost getting caught by them.
Day 1 of the SB20 World Championships
Hyeres, France: Race 1 of Day 1 of the SB20 Worlds Championships opened with a grey day and raining, something the locals refuse to call normal at this time of the year. The unstable wind added disappointment to the fleet, when the Race Officer Natalie Peberel announced at skippers briefing the maximum of four races today.
When the fleet arrived to the starting line by 11:00 the 30 degrees shifts didn't allow to call racing and it took about 40 minutes for the RC to call Race 1. It has started at slow pace with light wind of 5-6 knots from the South.
After a bit of waiting the RC called Race 2, that started wit ha general recall. On the first upwind almost at the rounding of the first boats November flag was displayed, sending the boats back to the starting line. The wind has stopped completely, and after boats got back to the start the AP over H was displayed which meant the RC was sill hoping for racing today.
Overall for the opening day the strong lead is from Russian and Australian teams, Portuguese boats Dom Pedro & Animal/SailCascais chose the left side and despite that Vasco Serpa managed to finish 15th.
All-female Youth team from Australia - Essence of Athena had a good start and were within top 15 boats on the first rounding.
Overall in Top 10 we see a strong Russian and Australian domination with the only UK boat being Breaking Bod of Charles Whelan.
For the coming days we are expecting a storm coming with winds up to 40 knots on Wednesday, so Tuesday's racing is likely to be pushed earlier in the day to try and catch some racing in the morning.
Results: www.sb20hyeres2019.com
The call for the return of the Finn for Paris 2024
At the World Sailing annual conference in Bermuda, which begins next week, the Finn class has made eight submissions to try and get the Finn reinstated into Paris 2024, with the sailing held in Marseille.
You can read about these submissions and the reasoning in the current edition of FINNFARE as well as here.
All the submissions can be found here.
Individually they are here:
- Submission 099-19
- Submission 100-19
- Submission 101-19
- Submission 102-19
- Submission 103-19
- Submission 104-19
- Submission 105-19
- Submission 106-19
First day of the Catamarans Cup
Starting point has been set at Alimos Marina and the first destination of the boats was Poros. Skippers meeting took place at 09:45 in order for all teams to fine-tune the last details before the start of the race. Following their arrival in Aegina, the crews participated in the Cook Off competition, where each team had to prepare one dish and present it. The dish that gets the most votes will determine the winner. The winners of the first leg were also presented at the award-giving ceremony as the crews are getting ready for the second leg of the race.
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally
American entry J/V Maxi 72, Lucky, sailed into Nha Trang, Vietnam on 18 October at 8h 40m 10s (HK time) to take the Monohull Line Honours for the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally in an elapsed time of 41h 30m 10s.
Skipper Bryon Ehrhart, 2013 Hong Kong to Vietnam Race IRC Racing 0 Division winner, was thrilled to cross the finishing line after the two trimarans, taking Monohull Line Honours. "The rally was fantastic; good breeze all the way through. Powerful wave conditions, our depowered sail plan was to stay in sequence with the wave set. It was a very difficult sea state and everyone performed really well and we appreciate the chance to have participated in the rally."
Lucky was third over the line after Italian Maserati Multi70, which was edged out of the Multihull Line Honours win by SHK Scallywag/FUKU in the final leg of the rally. In the end Maserati Multi70 crossed the finish line on 18 Oct at 22hr 57min 53s HK Time, 1 hour 38 mins behind its rival.
Next over the line was Sam Chan's TP 52 FreeFire at 15h 37m 46s (HK time), resulting in Lucky being nudged out of contention for the winner of IRC Racer 0 and the IRC Overall positions. FreeFire now has to see if she can hold on as nearest rival Ambush are yet to finish and are due to arrive in Nha Trang tonight. Ambush must finish by 2100hrs (HK time) to pull the IRC Overall trophy out of FreeFire's hands.
The rest of the fleet are still racing and due to arrive in the next 14 hours save for Zanzibar who retired in the afternoon with rig damage.
First part of mini series on Malcolm McKeon MM597 super yacht build is released
Southern Spars has released the first in a four part mini film, featuring Yacht Designer, Malcolm McKeon, Owner's Rep Gregory Monks and Southern Spars' Head of Super Yacht Sales, Paul MacDonald.
The series gives a behind the scenes look at the project development and design phases of the Malcolm McKeon MM597 project, currently in build at Royal Huisman shipyard.
This 59.7m superyacht will be McKeon's largest sloop-rigged yacht featuring Southern Spars mast, Future Fibres AEROsix hybrid carbon rigging and sails from North Sails.
The film does a great job at presenting the challenges faced by yacht designers and naval architects as they calculate the balance of fulfilling the owners' dreams, while pushing the boundaries of technological innovations to deliver a finished product in the most elegant packaging possible. -- Nicholas Simon
www.malcolmmckeonyachtdesign.com
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The Last Word
The forests were shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe. The axe was clever and had convinced the trees that, since his handle was made of wood, he was one of them. -- Turkish proverb
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