In This Issue
• Outsider lifts the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy
• A race to get addicted to
• Sydney SailGP
• Dutch Continue To Dominate RS:X Class
• No limits - Doyle Sails
• Evolution Sails Round North Island Race
• Cape of High Hopes
• HARKEN 2020 Youth Match Racing
• 18ft Skiffs Australian Championship
• Atlantic Cup starts in 100 days
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Charter
• Featured Brokerage:
• • BoatOne
• • BoatTwo
• • BoatThree
• The Last Word: Andy Weir, Artemis
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
Outsider lifts the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy
The overall winner of the 12th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 was Tilmar Hansen's TP52 Outsider (GER), skippered by Bo Teichmann. Outsider is the first German boat to lift the RORC Caribbean Trophy, breaking a seven-year winning streak of winners from the USA. Runner-up was the defending champion, David & Peter Askew's Volvo 70 Wizard (USA), which also took Monohull Line Honours. One of the smallest boats in the race was third, Peter McWhinnie's JPK 10.80 In Theory (USA).
The winner of the MOCRA Class was Adrian Keller's Nigel Irens 83ft catamaran Allegra. Christiaan Durrant (AUS) racing his Nigel Irens 63ft Trimaran Shockwave was runner-up. Jason Carroll's MOD70 Argo (USA) was third. Multihull Line Honours went to Peter Cunningham's MOD70 PowerPlay (CAY).
IRC Zero was won by Outsider, with Wizard second. Eric de Turckheim's NMD54 Teasing Machine (FRA) was third. The Bella Mente Trophy was won by Landry, Siwicki & Roesch's Mills 68 Prospector (USA).
Giles Redpath's Lombard 46 Pata Negra (GBR) was victorious in IRC One. Philippe Frantz's NMD43 Albator (FRA) was second and Placido Arango García-Urtiaga's Swan 65 Libelula (ESP) was third in class and winner of the Swan Challenge Cup. Andrew Berdon's Marten 49 Summer Storm (USA) was runner up in CSA One.
IRC Three has been won by Peter McWhinnie's JPK 10.80 In Theory (USA). Richard Oswald's Emily of Cowes, skippered by Katy Campbell (CAN) was second, Yoyo Gerssen's Ohlson 35 Cabbyl Vanewas determined to finish the race and after almost exactly five days, crossed the line to take third. IRC Two Handed was won by Richard Palmer's JPK 10.10 Jangada (GBR), adding to their overall win in the RORC Transatlantic Race. Last year's winner, Jeremi Jablonski's Hanse 430 Avanti (USA) was second.
The Class40 Division was won by BHB, sailed by Arthur Hubert (FRA). Morgane Ursault Poupon's UP Sailing (FRA) was runner-up. Arnt Bruhns' Iskareen (GER) completed the podium
A race to get addicted to
The 12th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 attracted 73 boats from 22 nations and competitors from 37 different countries The fleet was made up of professional sailors and boats, as well as corinthian amateurs who love their offshore racing. The RORC Caribbean 600 is the only offshore race in the Caribbean. The race course starts and finishes in Antigua and is very different to any other as it weaves its way around 11 islands, going as far north as St. Maarten and as far south as Guadeloupe.
"The 2020 RORC Caribbean 600 was a completely different event from what we've seen over the past two years," explains Eddie Warden Owen, RORC CEO.
"2018 and '19 were very windy and this year, the normal, regular trade winds didn't arrive. You might say that the race was slower by 24 hours from what we've seen in the past. We had 73 boats with 700 competitors from 37 countries, so the fleet is made up of professional sail boats as well as Corinthian amateurs who love their offshore racing. We also had last year's winner, Wizard - owned by the Askew brothers - who were back to defend their title. In the Multihull class we had an array of talent all the way through the fleet: people like Franck Cammas, Loick Peyron, Giovanni Soldini, Brian Thompson, and the fastest man in the world, Paul Larsen.
Ben Ainslie and Great Britain cap off dominating performance with Sydney SailGP title
Ben Ainslie and the British team wasted no time establishing themselves as the ones to beat this season as they put on impressive performances throughout Sydney SailGP to claim their first event title. The first match race of SailGP Season 2 saw traditional rivals Great Britain and Australia face off and the four-time Olympic gold medalist capped off his debut in style against the defending champion.
Thousands of spectators crowded Sydney Harbour over two days to watch the world's fastest sail racing and see hometown hero Tom Slingsby attempt to fend off Ainslie's challenge.
The match race closely reflected the racing throughout the entire event, as the British team got out to an early lead and was the fastest boat on Sydney Harbour. Slingsby and the Australians found themselves behind from the start, incurring a penalty for entering the start box early and the hosts were unable to pull back.
The victory marked Great Britain's first event win in the global championship.
After the first event of Season 2, Great Britain sits atop the leaderboard with 47 points, followed by Australia with 42, Japan with 39, Spain with 31, the United States at 31 and Denmark with 22, while France rounds out the standings with 14 points.
SailGP Season 2 Overall Leaderboard
1 // Great Britain // 47 pts
2 // Australia // 42 pts
3 // Japan // 39 pts
4 // Spain // 31 pts *9 points deducted from total score
5 // United States 31 pts
6 // Denmark // 22 pts *2 points deducted from total score
7 // France // 14 pts
Dutch Continue To Dominate RS:X Class
The 2020 RS:X World Championships being held in Sorrento, Australia, came to a showdown during the mornings medal races which were held in a light 8 knot breeze with a strong ebb tide flowing. The volunteers and staff of the Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club had promised that it would be sailable in the morning only, and for the ten men and ten women sailors competing, this would be their last shot at claiming a spot on the podium for this event.
The previous four days of racing had been fast and furious, with different sailors performing better or worse in the differing conditions. It looked as though on Friday morning that the super consistent Kiran Badloe (Netherlands) could've sealed the championship title, but an inconsistent Friday on the water kept the door open for the chasing pack. For the women, it was Lilian de Geus (Netherlands) that slowly ground down week long leader Noy Drihan (Israel) over the four days to end Friday tied on points but ahead on countback. The first four days also saw the reigning Olympic champions in Dorian van Rijsselberghe (Netherlands) and Charline Picon (France) start slowly and also grind their way up to the top to be in medal contention.
And in the end it all came down to the Medal races.
Final top ten, men
1. Kiran Badloe, NED, 37
2. Dorian van Rijsselberghe, NED, 39
3. Thomas Goyard, FRA, 56
4. Shahar Zubari, ISR, 62
5. Pawel Tarnowski, POL, 64
6. Pierre Le Coq, FRA, 74
7. Radoslaw Furmanski, POL, 93
8. Louis Giard, FRA, 94
9. Tom Squires, GBR, 98
10. Tom Reuveny, ISR, 106
Final top ten, women
1. Lilian de Geus, NED, 42
2. Charline Picon, FRA, 51
3. Noy Drihan, ISR, 52
4. Emma Wilson, GBR, 63
5. Marta Maggetti, ITA, 74
6. Katy Spychakov, ISR, 81
7. Zofia Noceti-Klepacka, POL, 97
8. Maja Dziarnowska, POL, 98
9. Blanca Manchon, ESP, 107
10. Hei Man Chan, HKG, 116
Full results - Men Full results - Women
No limits - Doyle Sails
Win/wins are rare in any walk of life yet every now and then a change of approach, a new concept or a breakthrough in technology triggers a step change in thinking. In the Grand Prix and superyacht world Doyle's Structured Luff sails have delivered one of those key moments in design.
Doyle Sails' innovative approach has not only provided a new generation of higher performance sails, but triggered a revolution that looks set to have a far greater knock- on effect. Indeed, so significant are the benefits that there are many who believe that Structured Luff technology has the potential to transform how yachts are designed and built from here on out. Furthermore, the breakthrough is now considered to be equally as important for cruisers as it is for the racers for which it was originally developed.
Full article in the March issue of Seahorse
Evolution Sails Round North Island Race
Photo by SSANZ / Deb WIlliams. Click on image for photo gallery.
Wired, Miss Scarlet and Kia Kaha pulled out to an early lead and managed to maintain this through the race to claim the line honours positions. Mr Kite, skippered by Nathan Williams and Craig Satterthwaite, took out the PHRF Handicap win in Division One, with Anarchy skippered by AJ Reid and Will Reid took second place leaving Mr Kite and Anarchy tied in first place for overall PHRF in Division One.
In Division Two Clockwork, with Jamie Logan and Steve Mair as skippers, continued to pull ahead of the fleet taking their second line honours win on Handicap, firmly chased by Titanium skippered by Shane Bellingham and Casey Bellingham.
The real battle in this race was with the weather, with the forecast delivering a significant high off the coast of Taranaki and getting ahead of this dead breeze patch created a massive challenge for our fleet with 13 of the yachts managing to pull ahead. For the remaining 25 yachts, the reality was being becalmed off the coast of Taranaki for between 24 and 48 hours. Frustrations grew across the fleet at the slow progress with less than 30NM sailed for many of the fleet in 24 hours.
With the 200NM Leg 3 from Wellington to Napier starting today Monday 2nd March at 2:30pm our skippers are ready to race again and start on the homeward stretch back towards Auckland and the last leg of the race. The first yachts are expected to finish in just over 24 hours into Napier.
Cape of High Hopes
Cape Town, South Africa: High hopes and expectations of a breezy introduction to Cape Town for the 52 SUPER SERIES were left on hold today as the Official Practice Race, the prelude to the 2020 curtain raising Odzala Discovery Camps 52 SUPER SERIES V&A Waterfront - Cape Town had to be abandoned due to very light winds.
The forecast for the week-long regatta, the first ever in the Southern Hemisphere for the 52 SUPER SERIES, does promise a heady mix of a little bit of everything. Tuesday's first races should be contested in a light winds, which are forecast to freshen up in the afternoon.
For the hosts - the Plattner family's Cape Town based Team Phoenix - there is immense pride in having the fleet visit their home waters. Local Cape Town sailors never in their wildest dreams expected to ever have a TP52 fleet regatta raced on home waters, sleeping in their own beds each night.
On Saturday, Ergin and Nazli Imre and their Provezza team hosted a group of youngsters from the the Skipper Foundation who travelled 400km to visit the regatta, get on board the TP52s and learn more about sailing.
The mission of the Skipper Foundation is to teach and develop sailing skills for vulnerable youth groups from underprivileged communities. They achieve this through sponsored training courses presented by volunteer experts.
Entries
Alegre - Andy Soriano (USA/GBR), 2018 Botin
Azzurra - Roemmers Family (ARG/ITA), 2018 Botin
Bronenosec - Vladimir Liubomirov (RUS), 2019 Botin
Paprec Recyclage - Jean-Luc Petithuguenin (FRA), 2015 Judel/Vrolijk
Phoenix 11 - Hasso/Tina Plattner (RSA), 2018 Botin
Phoenix 12 - Hasso/Tina Plattner (RSA), 2014 Botin
Platoon - Harm Müller-Spreer (GER), 2018 Judel/Vrolijk
Provezza - Ergin Imre (TUR), 2018 Judel/Vrolijk
Quantum Racing - Doug DeVos (USA), 2018 Botin
Sled - Takashi Okura (USA), 2018 Botin
Racing at the Odzala Discovery Camps 52 SUPER SERIES V&A Waterfront - Cape Town starts on Monday 2nd March and finishes on Friday 6th March.
James Hodgson crowned HARKEN 2020 Youth Match Racing World Champion
Click on image for photo gallery.
For the finals, the afternoon sea-breeze picked up and this worked in Hodgson's favour as he has showed over the course of the last two weeks that he thrives in more breezy conditions. Hodgson was great in the pre-starts, forcing penalties on Parkin in two of the matches, and he was faster around the track too, not letting up at all and cantering on to win the final fairly easily without losing a race.
Hodgson and his crew were ecstatic, with all of them diving into the water just as they crossed the line for the final time. This is the second year in a row that a CYCA team have won the World Championship, and also the second year in a row that Hodgson - and his crew mate Harry Hall - have won the title, after they crewed for Tom Grimes winning team in Russia in 2019. -- Andrew Delves
Overall placings
1. James Hodgson, AUS
2. Jack Parkin, USA
3. Nick Egnot-Johnson, NZL
4. Finn Tapper, AUS
5. Jordan Stevenson, NZL
6. Aurelien Pierroz, FRA
7. Emil Kjaer, DEN
8. Ted Blowers, USA
9. David Wood, GBR
10. Marius Westerlind, SWE
11. Sonja Stock, RSA
12. Ludovico Mori, ITA
18ft Skiffs Australian Championship, Race 5 (resail) & Race 9
Click on image for photo gallery.
Tech2 went into the final day with a handy points lead, but the team wanted to finish strongly as it continues the build up to next month's Giltinan Championship.
After the opening race of the day, Tech2 secured the title and improved the winning margin with a victory in the final race to finish with a total of 19 points, 13 points ahead of defending champions James Dorron, Harry Bethwaite and Tim Westwood, who was replaced for today by Lachlan Gilmour, in Shaw & Partners Financial Services, on 32 points.
Smeg (Micah Lane, Ricky Bridge, Peter Harris) finished in third place on 35 points, followed by Finport Finance (Keagan York) on 42, The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines on 43 and Appliancesonline.com.au on 50.
Today's opening race was in a 15-18 knots NE wind, over a windward-leeward return course and produced an exciting finish after the Winning Group (John Winning Jr., Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton) looked to have the race at her mercy with a 40s lead over Tech2 at the final windward mark.
Tech2 and Finport Finance gained on the final spinnaker run to the finish but when a harbour ferry crossed the path of the fleet the race took on a different look.
Finport Finance crew (Keagan York, Matt Stenta, Angus Williams) elected to gybe away from Winning Group and Tech2, leaving this pair to 'fight' each other while they sailed their own course and grabbed a 2s win over Winning Group, with Tech2 another 5s back in third place.
In the final race, Winning Group again won the start and quickly opened up a clear lead over URM, skippered by Marcus Ashley-Jones, Tech2, Smeg, The Kitchen Maker-Caesarstone (Jordan Girdis) and Dal Zotto (Jack Sprague).
The breeze had increased to around 20-knots and the outgoing tide created conditions which saw the skiffs airborne as they raced downwind to the bottom mark off Clark Island.
Race 16 of the Club Championship will be sailed next Sunday.
Atlantic Cup starts in 100 days
Race prep is getting busier and busier with each day and the 2020 race is shaping up to have one of the largest fleets in race history.
We're excited to welcome two new teams to the Atlantic Cup! Offshore sailing Legend Kito de Pavant will race onboard his Class40 #142 Made in Midi and Morgane Ursault-Poupon will race on #30 UP-Sailing.
With no fewer than three participations in the Vendée Globe, a victory in both the Transat AG2R and the infamous Solitaire du Figaro, you'd not be surprised that Kito de Pavant is one of France's most recognizable sailors. In addition to the above, he's competed in 3 Route du Rhums and 10 editions of the Transat Jacques Vabre.
His Class40 #142 MADEINMIDI designed by Guillaume Verdier and built in 2014 is quick. Kito will be competing in The Transat prior to the Atlantic Cup.
Born in May 1986, it is no surprise that Morgane Ursault-Poupon stumbled across the sport of short-handed offshore sailing as 1986 was also the year her father won the Route du Rhum! Now campaigning her own Class40, Morgane finished the Route du Rhum in 27th place and more recently the Transat Jacques Vabre in 20th!
For those with eagle eyes it's not the first time #30 has competed in the Atlantic Cup. We last saw her in 2012 when campaigned by Rob Windsor and Emma Creighton.
June 5th
Leg 1 Start
Charleston to New York
June 11th
Leg 2 Start
New York to Portland
June 20-21
Leg 3 - Inshore Series
Portland, Maine
Hugh Piggin, Race Director, said, "The 2020 Atlantic Cup is looking like it will be both the largest and most competitive fleet in Atlantic Cup history. 2018 Champions Catherine Pourre and Pietro Luciani on Earendil will be looking to defend their title, but they'll have to perform well against Vendee Globe entrants, Solitaire du Figaro winners and some of America's most promising talent. With three very different legs, the Atlantic Cup is a challenge to that of what most offshore shorthanded sailors are used to, and it's always exciting to watch!"
Featured Brokerage
Aquarius Alfa is a sleek looking semi raised Swan 100 S which was designed by German Frers. She is the first SWAN 100S to feature the ‘Semi-Raised Saloon’ configuration incorporating a low-level coach roof. The yacht has four en-suite guest cabins sleeping up to nine people. This yacht is beautifully appointed and in excellent overall condition. Viewing is highly recommended - she is VAT paid. Aquarius Alfa is Malta registered.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Contact Alastair for further details +44747 6888639
www.carrswoodyachts.com
-----------------------------------------
Offshore friendly 40 ft racing yacht, that does inshore and offshore with verve. Full planing hull and larger sail plan than her peers. Excellent option for the 2020 ORC and IRC worlds in Portsmouth, RI.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Ben Cooper
Telephone: +44(0) 1590 679222
-----------------------------------------
An alluring range of dual purpose yachts for an expanding sector. "A race boat in disguise" by design, the 66 has been turning heads and collecting accolades and silver around the world. Boat no 6 is set to launch later this year, the lightest and fastest to-date.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Hudson Yacht & Marine
www.hhcatamarans.com
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. -- Calvin and Hobbes
Editorial and letter submissions to
Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.eurosailnews.com/advertise.html