In This Issue
• Dalin is first at the Gallimard Waypoint as the last lap begins
• Icebear Wins First Leg Of The Spirit Of Bermuda Charity Rally
• Sir Ben Ainslie hails 'game-changing' AWS technology in America's Cup bid
• Team New Zealand proving Te Aihe's reliability in Auckland's winter
• Scotland's order for marking lobster pot buoys
• J/109's top the results in JOG Lonely Tower
• Logicalis Gorey Regatta
• Cork Week 2022
• One year to first start of 2021 Transpac
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Hylas Yachts H60
• • Aquarius Alfa - Swan 100S
• • XL Catamaran TS 52.8 Pampero
• The Last Word: Bastille Day
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
Dalin is first at the Gallimard Waypoint as the last lap begins
Charlie Dalin at the helm of the white and yellow foiler, Apivia, was the first skipper to reach the Gallimard Waypoint this morning as he turned his bow eastwards for the final stretch of the Vendee-Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne Race.
The 36-year-old Frenchman based at Port-la-Foret was making about seven knots of boatspeed in very light airs as the leaders continued to battle their way through the high pressure system centred to the west of them.
Dalin had been fighting hard to keep Jeremie Beyou behind him on Charal and the margin at the mark was less than two miles. Behind Beyou, in turn, came Thomas Ruyant on LinkedOut, about three miles behind Dalin.
The three boats are so close that one mistake from any of the exhausted skippers will be enough to see the lead change hands again as they begin the 540-mile leg to the finish line off Les Sables d'Olonne. The further east they get, the further away from the centre of the high, the more breeze they will have from the north-northwest.
Remarkably, the top-12 boats are spread out this morning over only 75 miles of ocean on a north-south axis. After Joschke, who is sailing with no one else around her, the final four boats are continuing south in a loose group with about 90 miles of lateral separation.
They are led by Manuel Cousin on Groupe SETIN (+251) in 14th position, followed by Arnaud Boissieres on La Mie Caline-Artisans Artipole (+253), then Miranda Merron on Campagne de France (+284) and finally Clement Giraud on Vers Un Monde Sans Sida (+295).
The estimated finish time for the first boat off Les Sables d'Olonne is around midnight on Tuesday.
Icebear Wins First Leg Of The Spirit Of Bermuda Charity Rally
Click on image to enlarge.
First in to the finish at St George's at 10:31 Friday night was Andy Schell's Swan 59 Icebear skippered by Sean Westoby, followed by Hank Schmitt's Swan 48 Avocation at 3:06 PM on Saturday, then fellow North leg competitor Alessandro Pagani double-handing with Anthony Johnson on his Spirit 47 Luna at 8:35 PM, with Andy Schell's Swan 48 Isbjorn skippered by Vincent Matiola crossing the finish on Saturday night at 9:56 PM.
This race is unusual in allowing not only starts from two locations - the West leg at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and the North leg from south of Newport - but also motoring at the discretion of the teams when the wind quit or some other obstacle to progress. The time spent motoring was then deducted from the elapsed time used for scoring the race. These times varied greatly among the teams: Icebear motored the least at 2 hours 48 min, whereas Avocation motored the most: 21 hours 22 min.
Using the SYRF Offshore Scoring System and each boat's polars from their ORC certificates, Race Director Larry Rosenfeld then calculated the optimized route time to sail from each boat's start to the finish based on the Expedition routing program and weather GRIB files. The optimized time was then compared to the actual sailing time to determine "efficiency," which was then used to rank the finishers.
With this approach, Icebear won with a corrected time of 4 days 9 hours 53 min, for an efficiency rating of 75%. Runner-up was Isborn with a time of 4 days 22 hours 4 min, for an efficiency rating of 68%, with Luna in third with a time of 5 days 1 hour and 40 min and an efficiency rating of 66%.
Sir Ben Ainslie hails 'game-changing' AWS technology in America's Cup bid
Sir Ben Ainslie has hailed the new computing power available to Ineos Team UK as a "game-changer" in their preparations for the America's Cup.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist has said the team's use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its new cloud computing partner has allowed the team to run more simulations than ever before in preparation for the competition.
He told the PA news agency that thanks to the new computing system, the team had been able to continue their design and development at pace despite the coronavirus outbreak and the limitations placed on team planning.
"The switch to AWS has been a bit of a game-changer for us really, just because of the access to high-performance computing, and we're now about 20 times more powerful than we were before, just in terms of being able to get that many more simulations done in a day," he said.
The sailing team said that using AWS's cloud computing services has enabled it to carry out up to 1,200 detailed performance simulations a day for their AC75 boat - 20 times more simulations than their previous computing set-up and at a lower cost.
"Much of the external shape of the Ineos Team UK boat will have gone through CFD simulations created using the AWS Cloud. By leveraging AWS's virtually unlimited compute power, scalability, and resilience, we believe we're in a strong position to design the boat that can bring the America's Cup home to Britain."
Andy Isherwood, vice president of Amazon Web Services EMEA, said the tech firm hoped it would be able to support the sailing team design "the most technologically advanced boat in America's Cup history".
Team New Zealand proving Te Aihe's reliability in Auckland's winter
Team New Zealand are increasingly encouraged with their performance and reliability as they train in the depths of an Auckland winter.
The America's Cup defenders were back out on the water on Monday to start another week, following one where their AC75 Te Aihe was put to test under some extreme conditions on the Waitemata Harbour.
A shot of Te Aihe, up on its foils and powering its way into a looming front of dense black cloud, was testimony to the pressure the syndicate are placing themselves under to try to come up with a winning formula in the radical new design.
Under normal circumstances, Te Aihe would be on a container ship heading back to New Zealand now from England, with world series regattas in Italy and England completed.
But the coronavirus pandemic cancelled those and has forced Team New Zealand into a winter programme of testing and training as they build a second AC75 that will be used to defend the America's Cup next March.
They've managed to get enough windows of decent weather to make some good gains and, with ever-present squalls around, they've certainly discovered their first boat is robust.
The upper wind limit for the America's Cup has been set at 23 knots and the Kiwis will be more than comfortable with that, based on their training efforts. -- Duncan Johnstone
www.stuff.co.nz/sport/americas-cup/
Scotland's order for marking lobster pot buoys leaves CA urging rest of UK to follow suit
The Cruising Association's (CA) Regulations and Technical Services group (RATS) has welcomed the initiative taken by the Scottish government which came into force on 20 June making unlawful the marking of a string of creels (lobster or crab pots) with anything other than a buoy made for that purpose.
RATS has been vociferously campaigning for clearer marking of static fishing gear and lobster pot markers since 2017, so that yachts and other vessels remain free from entanglement.
But, says Ian Wilson, the CA's lead on lobster pots: "Progress towards a real solution is so slow in England, that someone is going to die. A family will watch a loved one drown, trying to free an entanglement, before anything is done. And even then, will legislators care that someone has been killed?"
MIN has followed the CA's campaign, from the working group being established to Scotland taking tentative steps forward. RATS is now pressing for the rest of the UK to follow Scotland's example, which it applauds for its simplicity.
"Scotland's solution is staggeringly simple, and quite clever," says Wilson. "It's marking using a buoy made for that purpose."
J/109's top the results in JOG Lonely Tower
"Jago" and "Just So" battled it out to take the top two positions in Class 2 in the spectacular JOG Lonely Tower race yesterday.
The first congratulations must surely go to JOG for all the effort that went into staging such a spectacular race. With around 120 entries and 92 finishers, this must have been the biggest organised sailing race on the Solent this year and it was fantastic to see familiar faces and new participants out on the race course after a long spell in isolation courtesy of the COVID-19 situation.
Organisation by JOG was faultless. Clear sailing instructions, a detailed briefing over Zoom and full online support via their excellent web site made for a successful event. The race was originally scheduled for 27th June, but the Sailing Instructions clearly flagged the intention of the organisers to take a view on the weather. As a result of the pandemic, the focus of the race was on household crews or double handed and minimising the risk of drawing on the emergency services. There was also a recognition that even the regularly raced yachts would be dealing with a new crew set up and less experience on board. So with forecasted winds consistently above 25 knots on the scheduled date, the decision was taken to delay to 11th July.
The rescheduled date delivered very different conditions. Forecasted winds of below 5 knots for much of the morning indicated it would be a challenging day for racing, but with the sun out, the competitors turned up to the waters off Cowes in droves to pass the JOG race hut near Egypt Point to signal their intention to race.
On the day, the J/109 fleet managed to float 9 of the original 11 boats entered for the original race. This was the biggest class meeting of the year so far.
Full JOG results available HERE
Logicalis Gorey Regatta
Click on image for photo gallery.
Calm seas, clear blue skies, constant sunshine and light winds - at times just a dash too light - attracted over 90 entries for what was the island's first major sailing regatta of the year.
The easing of Covid-19 restrictions encouraged a large turnout - both of cruisers who came round from St Helier and dinghies from St Catherine's. Everyone was keen to get back out onto the water racing again, and the lack of any social events ashore did not diminish their enthusiasm.
Pandemic restrictions did have one impact on the racing - no spinnakers were allowed, enabling the yacht crews to comply with social distancing guidelines.
Results
Cruisers:
Glendewar Challenge Cup, Stevens Centenary Challenge Cup and De Faye Memorial Cup, The Dog's… - Allen Brown; Commodore's Cup, Super Q - Julian Barber; Richardson Trophy, 2Farr - Jeff Speller; Le Riche Challenge Cup - Paper Tiger - Peter Crabb; Yangtze Cup and C Austin Potter Cup, Sunbeam - Justin Horton; Fairey Cup and Betty Bruce Challenge Cup, Hamsa - Bernard Azuelos;
Dayboats:
Frank Jeune Trophy, Eliza - Anthony Gibb; Orviss Challenge Cup, Kookaburra Too - Charlie Cadin.
Dinghies:
Norman Challenge Cup and Marmotier Trophy, James Mulholland; Perchard Memorial, Tom Holland; Fourth Gorey Cup and Assinder Cup, Martin Speller; Fifth Gorey Cup, Ben Rogers; George Thomas Labey Memorial, Sam Romer; Rosel Bowl, Will Dengate; Ecrehos Trophy, Olin Rogers.
Fast Cats:
F18 Prize, Adrian Jesson.
Windsurfers:
Extra Cup 1, John Gilmore; Extra Cup 2, Henry Horton.
Cork Week 2022
The Royal Cork are delighted to officially announce that Cork Week 2022 will take place from 11th - 15th July 2022.
Racing in Volvo Cork Week in association with Johnson & Perrott was due to commence, July 13th 2020. However, in March, organisers took the difficult decision to cancel the event in order to safeguard the health of sailors, visitors, volunteers and the community at large and to give early certainty to participants and visitors who had scheduled to come to Cork in July.
However, all is certainly not lost. Cork300 (the umbrella title given to a year long schedule of events to mark the Royal Cork Yacht Clubs tricentenary) continues to be celebrated by members and the Irish Sailing community at large with a number of National Championships taking place in the coming weeks along with what is now the pinnacle event in the Royal Cork celebrations, Tricenentenary At Home Regatta on 28, 39th & 30th of August.
The Royal Cork are delighted to officially announce that Cork Week 2022 will take place from 11th - 15th July 2022. Organisers are planning for 2022 to be every bit as enjoyable as 2020 was shaping up to be, as visiting sailors will have the opportunity to gather and celebrate the Tricentenary of the oldest Yacht Club in the world.
With interest already strong across the IRC fleets, confirmed return of the Beaufort Cup and a re-energised 1720 fleet signed up, organisers are now welcoming expressions of interest from clubs, classes and organisations across the world who are interested in hosting an event as part of Cork Week 2022. Please contact with all queries.
One year to first start of 2021 Transpac
One year from now on July 13, 2021 the first of three waves of starters will set off on the 51st edition of one of the world's oldest and longest classic ocean races, the 2225-mile Transpac. First raced in 1906 and organized every two years by the Transpacific Yacht Club (TPYC), this race starts off Point Fermin in Los Angeles to finish just south of Diamond Head in Honolulu, with plenty of fun and adventure lying between.
Already 22 entries are on the entry list, representing all areas of the US, Canada and beyond, and organizers from TPYC will be expecting more soon as sailors look ahead to their planning to go back out to sea to race.
With the format of three separate start days - Tuesday, July 13th for the slowest boats, Friday July 16th for the mid-speed entries and Saturday July 17th for the fastest boats - the event gets compressed at its end and teams have time to de-compress, relax, and enjoy the hospitality of Hawaii before attending the spectacular Awards presentation ceremony scheduled for Friday, July 30th 2021. This event is special to Transpac, with a world-class display of perpetual trophies unlike any other race in the world of sailing.
Seaworthy monohulls over 30 feet in length are welcome to enter Transpac 2021, and offshore multihulls 45 feet in length and longer are also welcome to join the fun too. All boats must meet eligibility and safety requirements defined in the official Notice of Race.
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The Last Word
The biggest gift our ancestors has given to us is the gift of freedom and courage to protect our every right in any situation. Bonne Fete Nationale.
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