In This Issue
• Andrew McIrvine: "This Will Be A Big, Big Reset For Everyone"
• The best yet - HH Catamarans
• Oyster Design Manager
• That time Ted Turner got suspended so he could captain the America's Cup Team
• Travemunder Woche Cancels 131st edition
• What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
• America’s Cup: ETNZ develops new technology for return to work
• RYA launches eSailing Spring Class Championship
• New Animated Rules Quiz Posted
• Quantum Live Series: Debriefing With Data Points
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Charter
• Featured Brokerage:
• • X-41 One Design - 'Godspeed'
• • Racing sailboat TP52
• • Dazcat 1495
• The Last Word: Christopher Hitchens
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
Andrew McIrvine: "This Will Be A Big, Big Reset For Everyone"
Andrew McIrvine is the driving force behind the success of the International Maxi Association over recent years helping support key, focused events, developing and encouraging a wider range yachts and owners to the fold including developing the Maxi72 fleet and bringing the J Class under the wider IMA umbrella. The Secretary General, also an Admiral of the RORC, is locked down at home in London keeping a very close eye on the COVID-19 developments around the world. A consultant vascular surgeon at three prominent hospitals he is a past president of the Section of Surgery, Royal Society of Medicine and served as a council member of the British Medical Association. As such then very much an informed realist when it comes to looking at the altered horizons for big boat racing…..Tip & Shaft caught up with him.
How are things this week with the International Maxi Class members, owners and sailors, these are pretty grim times? Well initially there was some enthusiasm and promise, people calling to say ‘what’s happening, what’s happening?' That moved on to boat captains and tacticians calling to say 'please, please try and run some kind of racing', some time but now to a gradual silence as each regatta goes over, one after the other, now speaking with some of the yacht clubs saying 'are you going to make a decision soon because we need to tell people to cancel flights, and hotels and so on'. But the real problem now is the cross border stuff is really difficult. If you tried to run an international regatta you could not get crews there. I have spent a disproportionate amount of my time looking at all the statistics and country worldwide things. The problem is that because I think the Chinese data is not to be believed there was the hope the other countries would follow their trajectory and hit a peak and fall off rapidly. It isn't. Look at the numbers in Italy, Spain and France and it has peaked but it is not coming down very fast. I don't see it coming down very fast. We are either waiting for a vaccine or for some cocktail of drugs to work on people who are in hospital. And for me the disturbing feature that has come out this week is that even if you have had it, you are probably not immune.
Could it still work out later this season?
I have a feeling that even if it opens up and everything gets better quickly, a lot of our owners will be in turmoil trying to keep their businesses going. What happened last time there was a financial crisis is that a lot of owners mothballed their boats. They did not want to be seen to be having fun when they laid off half their staff. So the thing took a big dive. I have a nasty feeling we will see the same thing again. They are still talking about running Cowes Week. There are a lot of people not being very realistic, not looking at what is really happening. Even Cowes Week did happen with just the Dayboats, two or three people in the same family or whatever, racing and going home there is not much fun in that. I think a lot of people would say 'why bother, there is not much fun there if you can't have a drink with anyone afterwards?’ these are the things that make a regatta like Cowes fun.
The best yet - HH Catamarans
Dripping with custom features and with wireless control throughout the yacht the latest Morrelli & Melvin-designed HH66 cat from Hudson Yacht Group was created with one particular emphasis in mind... performance
For a few years now, Hudson Yacht Group has been the genre-leader in performance luxury offshore catamarans by combining innovative design from Morrelli & Melvin with outstanding raceboat build quality driven by veteran boat builder Paul Hakes and his team at the Hudson Yacht Group facility in Xiamen, China. Even with a brief interruption due to the virus precautions, this massive operation is still in gear to deliver on its years-long order book of the full range of HH models: the HH50, HH55, HH66 and largest model to date, the HH88.
With some customisation details found in each, all these models nonetheless still consistently deliver on the basic Hudson Yacht Group promise of high-tech design, practical utility and performance in sailing, comfort for the owner, crew and guests, and high construction quality and aesthetics appropriate for this elevated class of yachts.
Full article in the May issue of Seahorse
Oyster Design Manager
An opportunity has arisen for a creative dynamic yacht designer to take responsibility for the management and development of our design team.
Activities are in two parts; maintaining a flow of design information to support production at our facilities in Southampton and Wroxham and working in conjunction with third party designers on the design and development of new models.
Oyster has a worldwide reputation as a leading builder of quality cruising yachts and the successful applicant is likely to be a qualified naval architect with relevant experience in yacht design, construction and management. Oyster yachts are created with modern design tools, efficient build systems and the skilled hands of some of the UK's finest craftsmen.
Our Oyster design manager will need an in-depth understanding of value engineering as it applies to yacht building and share our passion for creative design and quality.
This is a significant opportunity for the right candidate.
No agencies please
Applications in confidence to Paul Adamson, Oyster Yachts - CCO
oysteryachts.com/news/oyster-design-manager/
That time Ted Turner got suspended so he could captain the America's Cup Team
Former Braves public relations director Bob Hope spills the beans about how Ted Turner got himself suspended just in time for him to Captain an America’s Cup team.
Turner mouthed off to Giants owner Bob Lurie that he would sign Gary Matthews when the outfielder became a free agent. Well, that was tampering, and it got Turner in big trouble.
Turns out it was all an act. Turner wanted to not make Braves fans believe he had given up on the team, so he did something stupid to get suspended.
Travemunder Woche Cancels 131st edition
Travemunder Woche is striking sails for 2020. All efforts to find a modified version for the sailing and festival week during the Corona crisis had to be abandoned. With the decision of the state government to prohibit all major events up to 31 August, the alternatives to the original date had been reduced to only one date. However, the option of a Travemunde week from 3 to 11 October proved to be unsustainable. In consultation with the City of Lubeck, the partners and TW co-organizers and after feedback from the sailing classes, the 131st Travemuende Week has therefore been cancelled today.
The marketing of the Travemunde Week, which is necessary for the implementation of the sailing competitions, would have been largely deprived of its basis in autumn. Due to further expected restrictions and due to the weather conditions, it would hardly be possible to realize a festival event. The presentation areas for the partners would be omitted, the sales opportunities for carnies would be limited.
Not only from an economic, but also from a sailing point of view, the 131st Travemuende Week could not be realized on an October date.
With the cancellation of the 131st Travemunder Woche, preparations for the 132nd edition of the event have already begun. Some championships are already scheduled or announced. The sports management of TW will continue in-depth discussions with the classes in order to take off in 2021 with renewed energy.
www.travemuender-woche.com/home.html
Seahorse May 2020
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
Endless quest - UBI Maior
The young Italian engineers at UBI Maior are steadily working their way through pretty much everything that moves on a modern yacht... and working hard to make it move better
Who'd a thunk it?
Oak trees and acorns does not do justice to how an invitation by Luca Rizzotti to a few of his friends to join him for a bit of fun in Garda turned into one of the most influential events in sailing
Elephant in the room
Every single America's Cup skipper believed the first AC World Series was going to be crucially important... Ben Ainslie, Jimmy Spithill, Terry Hutchinson and Rob Kothe
Finishing the job - Harken Derm
Minimising sun damage when sailing has long been a major concern for sailors but a casual conversation with America's Cup winner Jimmy Spithill highlighted the second part of the equation for dermatologist Edit Harken
Elegant solution - Reckmann
There is something immensely satisfying in taking the massive loads of a superyacht furling system and by exquisite engineering reducing the task of controlling those loads down to the touch of a button or joystick
Boys of the pontoon
And he still won't wear a tie... Rob Weiland
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America’s Cup: ETNZ develops new technology for return to work
In the early stages of the level 4 lockdown, Emirates Team New Zealand was casting its thinking forward to what level 3 would look like to be operational again and what measures would be needed to keep team members safe so that it could be in the strongest possible position to make up for lost time.
“So we went looking for a simple technological system that could aid the team with their personal distancing but nothing seemed to be readily available.
Because we are an organisation with technology at its core, we looked at what we could do ourselves and who we knew could help.”
Dalton thought of Brent Russell and company Igtimi who are in charge of developing the pinpoint accurate boat tracking software for the America’s Cup race management system.
Brent and the team at Igtimi were straight onto the job developing an Ultra Wide Band positioning system of personal tags that accurately measure the distance between people. The tags are programmed to react by flashing, beeping and vibrating when a pre-programmed perimetre is intersected. The interactions between the two tags (or people) are then logged for contact tracing purposes.
“We have basically come up with a cost-effective technical solution to keep the Emirates Team New Zealand crew separated in their own bubbles in their work environment, and recording any contact between them for traceability and accountability.” Explained Russell.
Full story in YachtRacing.life
RYA launches eSailing Spring Class Championship
Following the popularity of the RYA eSailing Spring Club Championship, which has seen over 235 clubs get involved, with more than 3,000 sailors expected to take to the virtual waters, the RYA has launched the 'RYA eSailing Spring Class Championship'.
Over the coming weeks’ competitors from across the classes will have the chance to compete for the title of RYA eSailing Spring Class National Champion.
Classes firstly need to register to take part by 10 May, after which they must run their own Class Championships and submit details of their champion by no later than 31 May 2020.
The champions from each Class will then go into the final series with qualifying rounds to be held on the 06 and 13 June 2020 with the top 20 going into the National Final which will be held on Saturday 20 June 2020.
“We at the GP14 Class Association are thrilled that the class will be taking part in the RYA’s eSailing Spring Class Championships. At this challenging time, eSailing provides an excellent opportunity for sailors across the country to continue to meet and compete in a safe and socially distanced way. The excellent Virtual Regatta platform allows us to get our competitive ‘fix’, whilst Zoom and Facebook Messenger provide a space for post-race chat and maybe even a sociable beer with your racing friends. One design racing against some of the best sailors in the country from the comfort of your living room is just the diversion we all need at this point”, commented Les Burns GP14 Class Association Secretary.
The qualifying rounds and National Final will all be live streamed, details of when and where will be announced in due course. There will also be some great prizes up for grabs.
Register today to be in with a chance of clinching the National Championship crown for your class. For more information and to register visit www.rya.org.uk/go/esailing
New Animated Rules Quiz Posted
UK Sailmakers just posted an animated rules quiz that deal with rules 18.3, 17, 16.1 and 13. This quiz is an example of how UK Sailmakers will be reviving our popular Rules Program that was sold in the past for $55. We all be updating those 42 quizzes and posting them for free to the UK Sailmakers website. As you’ll see in this quiz, we not only post the correct answer to the situation, but we include the text of any rule mentioned and offer tactical advice on how to avoid getting in the situation in the first place. Expect more that simple “yes” and “no” answers. Here is a direct link the quizzes on the UK Sailmakers site: www.uksailmakers.com/rules-quiz
Make sure to check back each week as we will keep adding quizzes and test questions.
Instead of charging as we did in the past, we are posting the test questions and animated quizzes at no charge in exchange for your email address and your agreement to receive the UK Sailmakers monthly online newsletter. Know that UK Sailmakers respects your privacy and we do not share or sell our mailing list to any other group or company. Those who sign up will not get spam, only newsletters from UK Sailmakers.
Quantum Live Series: Debriefing With Data Points
Quantum Racing Tactician Cameron Appleton and Quantum Racing Coach Tom Burnham guest starred on US Sailing's Starboard Portal and gave a powerful inside look at how Quantum Racing debrief's races with data points from multiple sources. The Duo walks you through the 2020 52 Super Series race in Cape Town
Featured Brokerage
2007 X-41 One Design - 'Godspeed'. 110000 EUR. Located in Valetta, Malta.
The X41 is a very strong and lively yacht to sail. Easily handled by two without the need for a row of gorillas on the side. Ergonomic deck layout and a nice bend of simplicity and comfort down below. GODSPEED is very well appointed and available right now for the next owner.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Ben Cooper
Telephone: +44(0) 1590 679222
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2008 Racing sailboat TP52. 360000 EUR. Located in Gaeta, Italy.
Originally designed by Reichel-Pugh to fit the 2008 Audi/Med-Cup, she was built by Cookson Boats, NZ and optimized for IRC mods by Ericsson boatbuilders. Optimized for ORC 2020.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
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Dazcat 1495.
The Dazcat 1495 really is our champion. Not only has she won numerous RORC and MOCRA races, including her class in the Fastnet 2017 and the 2-handed Round Britain & Ireland 2018 as well as twice MOCRA Nationals Champion (2017 & 2019), she’s also the perfect yacht for long distance cruising or family weekends, ensuring comfort and safety wherever you are.
You’ll be able to follow two of our D1495s in this year’s Rolex Fastnet as they race against three of their smaller sister Dazcats, including the 1295. We’ll be posting live to our Facebook page from on board one of the 1495s.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
www.dazcat.com/d1495.html
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence. -- Christopher Hitchens
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