In This Issue
• Josh Junior secures Finn Gold Cup
• A Milestone Year For The IMOCA Class
• Kostia Belkin and Viola winner of YCM Awards’ Credit Suisse trophy 2019
• Wind limits buffet Auckland 2021 America's Cup planning
• Going back to grassroots - 11th Hour Racing
• The Australian Coast-To-Coast Leg Begins
• Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar
• Sir Peter Blake
• Alive boat tour
• John Bridges Tinker 1926-2019
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Custom Harry Dunning 42, Baby Bella
• • Alfred Mylne 75 Bermudan Yawl
• • Ker 41
• The Last Word: Claude de Villars
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
The 11th annual Wight Vodka Best Sailor's Bar search is on... VOTING IS OPEN FOR THE TOP TEN
Josh Junior secures Finn Gold Cup
Josh Junior has become the first Kiwi to ever win the Finn Gold Cup after an epic medal race in Melbourne, Australia. Nick Heiner, from The Netherlands, took silver while 2018 world champion, Zsombor Berecz took bronze.
Earlier in the day, Ed Wright, from Britain, won the final race for the rest of the fleet, from Oskari Muhonen, from Finland and Jonathan Lobert, from France.
Even though he went into the medal race with a 16-point advantage over Heiner, Junior kept everyone guessing until the later stages of the race.
Apart from Friday’s tricky races Junior was never out of the top five, leading from Day 2 all the way to the nail-biting finale. He entered the class in 2013 and has threatened brilliance ever since. But the years of hard work with Andy Maloney and coach Andrew Murdoch has finally paid off.
Results after medal race (medal race results in brackets)
1. Josh Junior, NZL, 44 (7)
2. Nicholas Heiner, NED, 52 (3)
3. Zsombor Berecz, HUN, 53 (2)
4. Giles Scott, GBR, 67 (8)
5. Jake Lilley, AUS, 72 (1)
6. Andy Maloney, NZL, 79 (9)
7. Nenad Bugarin, CRO, 92 (5)
8. Tom Ramshaw, CAN, 95 (10)
9. Joan Cardona Endez, ESP, 98 (6)
10. Alican Kaynar, TUR, 100 (4)
A Milestone Year For The IMOCA Class
New and ever more efficient prototypes, high intensity races, a great partnership with Iridium Communications and Thales, the development of The Ocean Race program and above all a lot of emotions shared with all of you, thank you! Relive this rich season which announces an exceptional 2020 with a thrilling Vendée Globe!
Kostia Belkin and Viola winner of YCM Awards’ Credit Suisse trophy 2019
Held during the members winter cocktail at the Yacht Club de Monaco, the YCM Awards and Credit Suisse Trophy marked the end of another busy year for the Club’s sailors competing all over the world.
The coveted Credit Suisse Trophy went to Kostia Belkin who had an outstanding season on the classic yacht circuit on his 1908 Fife-design gaff cutter Viola, including 1st in the Cowes Nab Tower Race (all classes combined), 2nd in class at Monaco Classic Week and 2nd at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez.
Also recognised were Prince Charles de Bourbon-Siciles who won the Smeralda 888 International Championship 2019, and Ludovico Fassitelli for his consistency and results in the highly competitive one-design J/70 class.
The motivational YCM Youth Awards recognised Noah Garcia, 13, in the Optimists for his progress and contribution to 2nd place in the Monaco Optimist Team Race 2019; Jérémy Moutout, 21, in the Laser Standard; Logan Viciana and Mathieu Choquet in the under-17s Nacra 15 category; and kiteboarder Alexander Ehlen who showed remarkable consistency throughout the year to finish 4th in the under-19s on the IKA Gold Cup World Series circuit.
Celebrating its first year, the Monaco Sport Academy presented the second year class of 11 young athletes competing in six disciplines (Laser Standard, Laser Radial, Nacra 15, Optimist, Jet-Ski and Kiteboarding). The Academy provides 360o support to help these youngsters from the YCM Sports Section reach their full potential, the ambition being to field a team for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
www.yacht-club-monaco.mc/en/home-en/
Wind limits buffet Auckland 2021 America's Cup planning
A row has blown up over wind limits for the America's Cup with defenders Team New Zealand and the challengers unable to agree on the upper limits for racing in the 2021 series in Auckland.
The wind range for the 75-foot monohulls was meant to be signed off last Friday, but with no agreement reached the issue will now go to an arbitration panel.
could take at least three months deliberation and if the syndicates cannot find common ground then the arbitration panel will make a final ruling.
The challengers want a 20 knot upper limit which is "unrealistic for Auckland," Team New Zealand legal advisor Russell Green told Stuff.
New Zealand want the upper limit set at 24 knots, the same as for the 50-foot catamarans that sailed in the last America's cup series in Bermuda in June 2017.
"We just think under 20 knots is ridiculous," Green said.
"We don't know what their game is ... Whether they are trying to develop specialist equipment for the lower wind limit, we don't know."
The challengers -- INEOS Team UK (Britain), American Magic (USA), Luna Rossa (Italy) and Stars and Stripes Team USA (USA) plan to use the 20 knots limit for their series to determine which yacht will compete against Team New Zealand for the Cup.
Team New Zealand argue the 2021 America's Cup should be sailed in conditions relevant to Auckland.
"We don't want a whole lot of races being cancelled in conditions that are normal in Auckland, solid 20 knots, that's what people expect to sail in here," Green said.
Going back to grassroots - 11th Hour Racing
11th Hour Racing’s pro-sailing ambassadors are partnering with a variety of marine conservation groups... and already with impressive results
‘Think global, act local’ is the simple philosophy that underpins many effective campaigns. And it’s at the heart of one of 11th Hour Racing’s recent initiatives, which funds collaborative projects between its own high-profile ambassadors - top-level marine industry professionals who care deeply about ocean health - and grassroots marine conservation groups.
Last year, 11th Hour Racing’s ambassadors were all tasked with finding a grassroots organisation that deserved a $10,000 grant and working with them on a worthwhile project. ‘They encouraged us - in a good way - to go out and find new grantees to work with,’ says Tom Burnham, pro sailor and coach. ‘We weren’t allowed to just go back to the same old well.’
Full article in the January issue of Seahorse
The Australian Coast-To-Coast Leg Begins
The fourth stage of the Clipper 2019-20 Round the World Yacht Race, the 3,400 nautical mile long Australian Coast-to-Coast Leg, has got underway from Fremantle today (Sunday 22 December).
The fifth race of 15 races that forms the complete circumnavigation, named ‘The Whitsundays, Heart of the Great Barrier Reef’ race, saw eight teams slip lines from Fremantle Sailing Club at 1200 local time with friends, family and locals lining the breakwater to wave them off. The Clipper Race Office has confirmed that the remaining three teams, delayed during Race 4, will be racing on elapsed time against the rest of the fleet.
Allowing for adequate rest and preparation time, Unicef, Punta del Este and Visit Sanya, China will be departing on the 24 December, exactly 48 hours after the other eight teams, starting from the same line, and racing the exact same course as the rest of the fleet.
This race, expected to take around 20 days, will see the 180 crew members from all over the world celebrate Christmas and New year at sea. On Christmas Day, each of the eleven identical evenly-matched teams will be sailing down Western Australia back towards the Roaring Forties and dipping back into the Southern Ocean.
Getting underway from Fremantle Sailing Club, which has played host to the Clipper Race fleet since 7 December, the starting cannon sounded at 1500. As the teams competed for prime position to cross the start line, reigning champions Qingdao crossed first, shortly followed by Ha Long Bay Viet, Nam and Dare To Lead.
Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar
"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify." - Henry David Thoreau.
In age of mixology that often stipulates a half dozen or more ingredients (three of which are nearly impossible to find), it's refreshing to find an old standard that's dead simple. And that's by copyright law!
We're talking about the Dark and Stormy, Bermuda's national drink, and a favored drink of sailors all over the world. Your humble narrator once found pre-mixed Dark n Stormy's in a can, in a public vending machine at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, situated out next to the beached dinghy fleet. And wondered just how big a change that might have made to his youth sailing days.
I've downed countless rounds at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, and it's a frequently mentioned favorite at two other bars on our top ten: The Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club (BER) and the Clarke Cooke House (USA).
"The cocktail has been under the stewardship of Bermudan rum distributor Gosling Brothers Limited since its inception at the close of World War I. According to the company, British sailors on shore leave at the island were “big fans” of Gosling’s Black Seal Rum and developed the cocktail by mixing the dark liquor with homemade ginger beer. The name allegedly came after a British soldier observing that the concoction resembled “the colour of a cloud that only a fool or a dead man would sail under.”
Using Gosling’s rum in the Dark 'N Stormy is no longer traditional: It’s the law. The New York Times reported in 2009 that the company filed two certificates with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after the cocktail enjoyed a “quiet resurgence” in New York City. The trademark dictates the exact ingredients in a legitimate Dark 'N Stormy: an ounce and a half of Black Seal rum and a dash of Gosling’s ginger beer in a highball glass. (Gosling's makes their own ginger beer now, it's common to mix with Barritt's ginger beer, also of Bermuda, and that's not subject to copyright...)
If you love the classic Dark 'N Stormy, you’re in luck: Bars are bound by law not to f**k with it. But there’s a little leeway in the recipe, according to Gosling marketing materials. “Run a lime slice around [the] glass rim and drop in (optional),” the pamphlet reads. -- www.maxim.com
Recipe:
1.5 oz Gosling’s Dark Rum
Top with Gosling’s ginger beer
Run lime around rim and drop in (optional)
Check out our top ten, vote for your favorite and keep the drink recipes coming: eurosailnews.com/sailors-bars
Sir Peter Blake
We remember The Ocean Race legend - and his iconic clean sweep of 1989-90, thirty years on
It's 18 years since we sadly lost The Ocean Race legend, Sir Peter Blake.
Blake competed in a hat-trick of Races as skipper - finally achieving his dream of lifting The Ocean Race trophy at the fifth attempt, with Steinlager 2 in 1989-90.
That win made history as the first New Zealand-flagged boat to win The Ocean Race, and the manner of victory left an indelible mark on the Race.
Blake led Steinlager 2 to a clean sweep in the most dominant campaign in the Race's near-50 year history, winning every single one of the six legs - the first time that feat had been achieved since 1981-82, when the Race comprised four stages.
The journey to victory had been a long one for Blake, who first competed in the Race as a 24-year-old crew onboard Burton Cutter in the 1973-74 edition.
That experience proved the beginning of a 16-year obsession with the Race - he famously went on to describe the competition as something that 'gets in your blood... and you can't get rid of it' - and by the time the 1989-90 edition came around, Blake was ready to take a radical and risky step in search of victory.
His idea for Steinlager 2 was to build the biggest and heaviest yacht in the Race, carrying 20 percent more sail area than its rivals.
True to Blake's luck in the race up to that point, the initial yacht built had to be scrapped at the fitting-out stage after large areas of the high-tech carbon fibre-moulded hull were found to have delaminated. The delay cost two months of preparation, almost putting paid to Blake's campaign.
But once the Race began, there was no stopping Blake and his crew on Steinlager 2 as they swept all before them, culminating in a legendary battle into their home port of Auckland, against fellow NZ boat, Fisher & Paykel, led by Grant Dalton.
As the pair raced into the City of Sails, just a mile separated the boats, and a match race was underway. The battle that ensued was one of the most memorable in sailing history, as Blake got the better of his opponent to steal the honours in his hometown.
Blake's legends lives on through the Race today. Blake's son, James, was an Onboard Reporter in the 2017-18 edition - and on December 5th, The Ocean Race announced a return to Auckland in 2021-22 - a twelfth visit to New Zealand in 14 editions.
Alive boat tour
You're invited onboard the 2018 Tattersall Cup-winning yacht Alive who are back to take on the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in its 75th year.
John Bridges Tinker 1926-2019
ohn Tinker, "Tinker'' as we always referred to him, was a dedicated volunteer to his chosen sport Sailing.
John first appeared at the top level of Canadian Sailing as President of the Int. Albacore Class.
During his tenure there were over 4000 in Canada alone. He was dedicated to ensuring that this class was administered to serve the one-design regulations and the sailors.
Being a very respected lawyer he was asked to represent Canada first at the IYRU and then ISAF where he Chaired both the Constitution Committee and Review Board with unquestioned integrity.
Tinker had a very sharp sense of humour which ensured that Competitive Sailing was well served.
A classic story which explains fully this characteristic was at his last meeting of the General Assembly in Copenhagen 2004.
The President asked him what he recommended be done on a certain issue: Tinker replied: "Well on one hand you should do this and on the other hand do this." The President retorted: "I wish I could find a one-handed lawyer." Tinker shot back: "You do not want a one-handed lawyer, you want a two-fisted lawyer." The assembled sailors broke out in great laughter.
ISAF honoured John Tinker awarding him the Beppe Croce Trophy, one of his proudest moments.
Well old friend I am sure you are now on Starboard Tack with spinnaker flying having rounded the weather mark. -- Paul Henderson
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See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
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1925 Alfred Mylne 75 Bermudan Yawl. 480000 EUR. Located in Barcelona,
Stunning Alfred Mylne Yawl-rigged classic. Completely refitted in 2011 with updated sail plan, new rig, decks, paint, varnish electronics and so on. Simply perfect for the Med’ classic regatta circuit.
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2016 Ker 41. 430000 USD. Located in Turkey.
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See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
If it please God to give your enemies another such victory, they are ruined. -- French commander Claude de Villars to King Louis XIV, following the Battle of Malpaquet, in a nod to Pyrrhus of Epirus
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