In This Issue
• Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week
• Westerhall Rums White Jack Grenada Sailing Festival
• Francis Joyon has rounded the Cape of Good Hope
• Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
• America's Cup: Fourth Challenger in battle to stay in Cup
• New partnership between UNESCO's IOC and IMOCA Class
• World On Water Global Sailing News
• World's elite talent to contest Hardy Cup 2020
• Five Olympic medallists to compete at Laser World Championships in Melbourne
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Swan 90-708 Alix
• • Grand Soleil 50
• • Bagliettto 64 Ft Marconi Cutter - EA
• The Last Word: Umberto Eco
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
Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week
Photo by Tim Wright, www.photoaction.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
Pamala Baldwin's J/122 Liquid (ANT) is the overall winner of CSA1, the young team led by Pamala scored podium finishes in all ten races scoring five bullets. Richard Szyjan's Hobie 33 Category 5 (GRN) was a solid second in class and Rob Butler's Reflex 38 Touch2Play (CAN) beavered away to hold on to the last podium spot. Peter Lewis's J/122 Whistler (CAN) finished the regatta in style taking the win in the last race.
In CSA 3, Dieter Huppenkothen's Swan 43 Rasmus (AUT) is the winner, in today's two races Ramus won the first race, and after time correction, tied the second with Mathew Barker's Alfred Milne sloop The Blue Peter. Norman Da Costa's Soveral 42 C-MOS was second overall for the class just half a point ahead of The Blue Peter.
The overall lead in the J/24 Class has changed every day of the regatta, such has been the intensity of the competition. After 18 hard fought rounds, Robbie Yearwood's Die Hard (GRN) came back off the ropes to win by a single point from Nick Forsberg's Jabal (LCA). Gus Reader's Fadeaway (BAR) won the last race of the regatta but finished third just three points behind the winner.
In the Classics Class Jonathan Gittens' Morgan 41 Shangri La (BAR) scored a perfect four bullets for the regatta. Cal Enoe's Free in St. Barths (GRN)s won the battle of the Carriacou sloops ahead of Walter Ollivierre's Zemi (GRN) and Danny Donelan's Savvy (GRN).
Westerhall Rums White Jack Grenada Sailing Festival
Click on image for photo gallery.
The opening day of the regatta featured community rounds were teams from the respective regions race against each other in similar boats. The class of boats ranged from classic designs with double-ended hulls with short gaff rigs, to sportboat designs with powerful wide hull shapes and enormous sail area requiring full shrouds. The reaching start was just a few feet off Grand Anse Beach with all bar one of the crew in the water before the gun goes off. After the reach off the beach, the workboats haul in for a windward leg, followed by a leeward leg then back for a reach to finish. Races take roughly 45 minutes.
Today, Sunday 02 February, the teams will have two more races to complete the seven round community qualifiers. The community champions will then race each other in one design GSF16s, ratified by World Sailing. The standard of sailing is phenomenally good with races decided by boat lengths. Some of the skippers have been racing for decades and there are young guns strutting their stuff, taking on the old-timers. The winner gets a cash prize of US$1000 and other prizes include outboard engines and plenty of White Jack Rum from sponsors Westerhall Rums. Well over a thousand Grenadians and visitors are expected to watch the finals, it is going to be some party! -- Louay Habib
Francis Joyon has rounded the Cape of Good Hope
Crossing the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope today at 1:30 hrs UTC, Francis Joyon and his crew of four completed the first half of their attempt at the Tea Route record, which has been held since 2018 by Giovanni Soldini's Italian crew.
14 days, 17 hours, 29 minutes after leaving Hong Kong, and having sailed 7666,3 miles averaging 21,7 knots out on the water, they have clocked up a lead of one day, 8 hours, 56 minutes over the record time. This is a particularly remarkable performance given the conditions they encountered particularly in the Indian Ocean, which was far from being cooperative with the absence of the trade winds forcing the maxi trimaran to zig-zag her way around the bubbles of low pressure against the prevailing weather systems of the Southern Ocean.
Francis, Christophe, Antoine, Corentin and Bertrand feel somewhat relieved to be back in the Atlantic. They can now look forward to smoother sailing in the southern part of the ocean with the air warming up off the continent of Africa. They are sailing close to the coast and pods of cetaceans and seals, which live in these warm waters. 6000 miles lie ahead in the Atlantic and their progress will be determined largely by how the Azores and St. Helena high-pressure systems behave. Looking at how they have performed so far, finishing in London may be possible on around 15th or 16th February. To beat Giovanni Soldini's record, IDEC SPORT must reach the Thames before 1036hrs UTC on 23rd February.
*|YOUTUBE:[$vid=uIswjoUxJ24, $max_width=500, $title=N, $border=N, $trim_border=N, $ratings=N, $views=N]|*
Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
This month's nominees:
Iain Percy (GBR) 'Perce is back!' - Ben Nicholls; 'Respect, Zen Master' - Krawczyk Ryszard; 'An outstanding sailor and sportsman' - Alvaro Marinho; 'An absolute gent and a total legend' - Andy Hazell; 'Mate!!!' - Steve Mitchell; 'Iain has the best technical knowledge out there and is a top human being' - Romain Ingouf; 'Fitting result' - Tom Burnham; 'Fantastic sailor and since London has also proved a great leader' - Tom Lofstedt; 'Class performance in the best fleet in the world' - Blue Robinson; 'Truly a classy act, all smiles, a lot of grit and he gives a great victory speech' - Carol Cronin; 'But he did nick my bacon sandwich' - Bryn Vaile.
View past winners of Sailor of the Month
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
America's Cup: Fourth Challenger in battle to stay in Cup
Last Monday, the Challenger of Record for the 36th America's Cup, issued a letter stating that only four of the five teams had paid the entry fee of $300,000 for the first America's Cup World Series Regatta in Cagliari, Sardinia.
Outwardly the door for the 2021 America's Cup would appear to be fast-closing on the second US team, Stars+Stripes USA. The team is headed up by two professional sailors, skipper and CEO Mike Buckley and helmsman Taylor Canfield.
The young US team does have some substance, for which their media give them little credit - being the payment of the first tranche of $1million of a $2million Entry Fee. The team also has a partly built AC75 to a design package purchased from Emirates Team New Zealand. That basic design is believed to be very similar in concept to Te Aihe the first AC75 launched by Emirates Team New Zealand and which is about to head to the Cagliari ACWS, after a very successful four and a half months of trialing and development in Auckland.
The team are believed to have attracted three substantial sponsors.
If Stars+Stripes USA does not cross the start line in the first ACWS event, then their only hope of hinges on the Defender and Challenger of Record between them agreeing to a Protocol change allowing the Long Beach Yacht Club entry to be exempted from participation in the first two ACWS events.
Unlike the 2017 America's Cup in Bermuda, the ACWS Regattas carry no points into the Challenger Selection Series, neither do they serve any other functional purpose for selection in the Prada Cup in January- February 2021 in Auckland. Essentially they are just a hit-out for the AC75 class - albeit it one that will be followed with intense interest by sailing and mainstream sports fans.
Richard Gladwell's full edtiorial in Sail-World.com
New partnership between UNESCO's IOC and IMOCA Class
A partnership agreement between UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA) was signed today at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. Over the next two years, the two partners will carry out joint projects to support marine scientific research and to raise awareness about the importance of ocean science for the protection of the ocean and the sustainable use of marine resources.
The activities will be coordinated by a Joint centre for oceanographic and marine meteorological observing programme support (JCOMMOPS) - a collaboration between the IOC and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - which internationally coordinates about 10,000 in situ ocean observing instruments for the continuous monitoring of the global ocean and the atmosphere above it.
Navigating in much more agile and nimbler boats than heavier traditional scientific vessels, the competitive sailing boats of the IMOCA class can reach areas of the ocean that are poorly served by regular maritime traffic. Gathering ocean-atmosphere data with on-board instrumentation all along the track and deploying Argo profilers and surface drifters are very valuable contributions to the Global Ocean Observing System coordinated by UNESCO's IOC.
World On Water Global Sailing News
In this week's "WoW TV":
- Pietro Pinucci and Vittorio d'Albertas of Quantum sails Genoa explore what happened when the Italian AC Challenger of Record's boat was dismasted.
- Alex Thomson looks back at his highly active 2019 campaign.
- Hempel World Cup Series Miami.
- Interview with 470 World Champions Mat Belcher and Will Ryan.
- Francis Joyon is nearing the Cape of Good Hope in around 15 days from Hong Kong.
- A look at the teams and Day One racing in Sailing Arabia.
- 43rd Windsurfer Class Australian Championships, Day One.
- Sailing League racing in Victoria, Australia.
- Clipper Round The World race is helping in Ocean Research.
- Waszp Australian Championships in Port Stephens.
- And finally more Windsurfing fun.
World's elite talent to contest Hardy Cup 2020
The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron is set to host the annual Hardy Cup International Match Racing Regatta, one of the final events of a long Australasian Youth match racing season. This season has been unsurpassed in terms of attracting elite talent from around the world to compete in Australia - and now they're heading to the Squadron with the Hardy Cup trophy in their sights.
Of the 13 teams tilting at the cup, six are in the top 25 Youth teams in the world. They hail from New Zealand, USA, Denmark, Sweden, New Caledonia and Australia, and will compete in the four-day contest on glorious Sydney Harbour from 2-6 February. Defending Hardy Cup champion and number 2 in the world Nick Egnot-Johnson and his Knots Racing team, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, are the red-hot favourite. They have enjoyed an outstanding year, having achieved top two positions in 10 out of 12 recent events, including the World Youth Match Race Championship in Russia and the Governor's Cup and Oakcliff international Cup in the USA.
Ready to test EJ's mettle will be the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's top skipper and current number 5 in the world, Harry Price and crew. This hot team placed second in both the Ficker Cup, USA and the Sopot Match Race in Poland. Price has been sharpening his skills in the highly competitive 16ft Skiff class as fill-in skipper on current National Champion Sutech Musto Racing.
Racing is due to commence in the waters off the Squadron's clubhouse at Kirribilli at 1020hrs on Monday, 3 February and conclude with a presentation on Thursday, 6 February.
Event Patron and sailing legend Sir James Hardy OBE will address guests at a special Hardy Cup lunch at the Squadron at 12pm on Tuesday 4 February. Sir James will describe the origins of this Youth event and explain the relevance of honing match racing skills for the aspiring sailing champions of tomorrow.
Competitors' families, friends and members from other clubs are warmly invited to attend. Tickets are priced $115 and may be booked via RSYS Reception on 02 9955 7171. Ticket price includes a $50 tax-deductable donation to support RSYS Youth Sailing.
View Regatta information here: www.rsys.com.au/sailing/hardy-cup.
Five Olympic medallists to compete at Laser World Championships in Melbourne
Melbourne Australia: Olympic selection, vindication, bragging rights and psychological advantage - these will be the motivations for some of the 131 sailors from 45 countries competing at the 2020 Men's Laser Standard World Championships in Melbourne, beginning on Tuesday February 11, 2020.
Five sailors boast a total of nine Olympic medals among them. Leading the way with five medals - two gold, two silver and a bronze - is Brazilian legend Robert Scheidt, who was Olympic Champion in 1996 and 2004 and won the silver at Sydney 2000 after an epic battle with Ben Ainslie. Now aged 46, Scheidt is not as competitive in the single-handed dinghy as he once was, but on the tricky Sandringham course, no-one will be prepared to write him off.
Vindication may be the motivation for 2016 Rio Olympic Champion, Tom Burton of Australia. Burton is the defending world champion but was controversially overlooked for the Tokyo Olympic team, with his place going to Perth sailor Matt Wearn.
Among the countries yet to select their Laser competitor for Tokyo is Great Britain. Nick Thompson was the 2015 and 2016 World Champion but failed to win a medal in Rio. He is being pushed hard for the GBR nomination, particularly by Elliot Hanson and Sam Whaley. Thompson entered the Australian Championships, which were also held at Sandringham, with the aim of getting some vital race course knowledge under his belt. He finished fifth and hopes that the local knowledge will work for him in the coming week.
The home country, as always, will have the biggest entry list. Eighteen Australians will be on the start line, with the battle between Matt Wearn and Tom Burton the main focus, but with training partners such as Luke Elliott, Mitch Kennedy and Finn Alexander also aiming to impress coaches and selectors.
The event begins with a practice race on Monday February 10, followed by six days of two races per day from February 11 to 16, weather permitting.
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 Alessandro Castelli: re: open letter to European Laser Districts
In its statement released on December 1, 2019 after the Annual General Meeting Eurilca wrote “EurILCA has scheduled an extraordinary EAGM for mid January to make any decision we believe necessary to protect the interests of our sailors, should significant progress on the above points not be apparent.”
This extraordinary General Meeting is now scheduled for March 7, 2020 and I think it’s important that all the district representatives attending the meeting know what their members think about it, because the decisions to be taken will have a fundamental impact on the future of our class.
For this reason I propose that every district has a referendum (electronically it’s quick, every member has an email address or a mobile phone where to write a message) on how to proceed.
There are 2 realistic options:
1) To continue the class activity with the rules imposed by ILCA’s actual governance, with boats and gear ILCA Dinghy built in many different boatyards in competition with each other.
2) Split form ILCA with a new class that gathers all Laser owners, keeps the original spirit from the 1970’s, remains as strict one-design as equal as possible and built by a limited amount of builders.
I take the opportunity of this letter to express and justify my vote.
I will vote option 2, for the following reasons:
- The main reason why I’ve been sailing Laser for many years instead of another boat is its strict one design. I do not want issues with boats and gear with different performances, that take unavoidably to pursue the fastest product. ILCA Dinghies will for sure have different performances and will for sure end up being more expensive. Who denies that is either stupid or in bad faith.
- The second reason why I sail Laser is its simplicity and durability. I’m not interested in having innovative rigs with innovative sails that make me sail half a knot faster. There are many other boats on the market to achieve much higher speeds.
- The third reason is that I’m in total disagreement with ILCA’s actual governance, whose actions taken in the last 10 months are totally against my vision.
I felt the need to write this letter because I have the feeling that a group of people is destroying our beloved Laser and we Laser sailors are not doing anything to defend it.
Featured Brokerage
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 beautyThe anthracite grey colour scheme and customized four-cabin interior with Wengé and tinted oak give Alix a modern edge while maintaining the classic and timeless appeal of a Swan yacht.
Alix is under original ownership since new and has been based in the Med with light usage during the summer months except for two winters in the Caribbean (2011/2012 and 2016/2017). She has done a few charters each year but not more than three weeks annually. The owner has carefully selected the charter clients.
Alix has been maintained to the highest level and benefits from three substantial maintenance periods in 2014, 2015 and 2018The new engine, carbon standing rigging and complete paint job have kept her looking and working like new.
The yacht is MCA LY2 coded for commercial use and was inspected by MCA in June 2018.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Lorenzo Bortolotti
Nautor's Swan Brokerage
T. +377 97 97 95 07
-----------------------------------------
Well-equipped example of the Judel Vrolijk designed Grand Soleil 50 aft cockpit performance cruising yacht. FREETIME 5 is still under her first ownership and she is presented in great condition inside and out.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Michele Antonini - Grabau International (Italia)
Tel: +39 333 74 89 281
Email:
-----------------------------------------
EA is at the same time both glamorous and functional - Vittorio Baglietto designed in EA a yacht that won the Giraglia Race 4 times and absolutely dominating Mediterranean racing during this period.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Barney Sandeman
+44 (0)1202 330077
33 High Street
Poole, Dorset
BH15 1AB
United Kingdom
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. -- Umberto Eco
Editorial and letter submissions to
Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.eurosailnews.com/advertise.html