In This Issue
• Rescue of Kevin Escoffier Underway
• Huge Support for Alex Thomson as he Heads for Cape Town After Vendee Globe Withdrawal
• Marlow Ropes Partner with UK Skipper, Ian Herbert Jones for 2022 Golden Globe Race
• Barfoot & Thompson NZ Women's National Keelboat Championship
• Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image of the Century
• Wight Vodka Best Sailor's Bar Competion
• Meet The INEOS Team UK Crew | Tactician Giles Scott
• Royal Cork Yacht Club to Host 2021 Topper Worlds in Cork Harbour
• Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
• Industry News
• Featured Charter: JPK1180 - Sunrise
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Gunboat 57 - VAI VAI
• • GC32 Malizia MON 023 For Sale or Charter
• • 1935 Marconi 13.5m Bermudan Cutter
• The Last Word: Albert Einstein

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

Rescue of Kevin Escoffier Underway
Race Direction of the Vendee Globe requested the assistance of three competing skippers, Germany's Boris Herrmann (Seaexplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco), Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ IV) and Sebastien Simon (ARKEA PAPREC) to help Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!) in the mission to retrieve solo skipper Kevin Escoffier from his life raft after the 40 year old from Saint Malo had to abandon his IMOCA 60 PRB this Monday afternoon after activating his distress beacon.

Escoffier was racing in third place on the 22nd day of the solo non stop around the world race, at some 840 nautical miles SW of Cape Town, when his PRB got into difficulties and he was forced to take to his liferaft.

He alerted his technical team at 1346hrs UTC this afternoon, telling them he had significant amounts of water coming into the boat and immediately triggered his yacht's distress beacon. PRB was positioned at 40deg55S 9deg16E at the time the distress beacon was activated.

Race Direction of the Vendee Globe alerted MRCC Cape Town and CROSS Griz Nez who have been collaborating in a rescue operation. The skipper closest to Escoffier's position, Jean Le Cam, who is competing on his fifth Vendee Globe, immediately responded to the request to divert to Escoffier's position.

Guided by Race Direction Le Cam arrived on zone around 1615hrs UTC and quickly established visual and voice contact with Escoffier who was in his liferaft but he was unable to retrieve him in the big, 5m, seas and 20-25 knot winds.

As he was manoeuvring to prepare to get closer to the liferaft Le Cam lost sight of the liferaft and could not establish radio contact nor to pick up the signal from the AIS the range of which was reduced by the heavy seas.

He lost sight of Escoffier in the dying light but has continued to try and locate him, Le Cam is communicating regularly with Race Direction and the rescue authorities. The three other skippers are now in, or are approaching the search area. The positioning of Kevin Escoffier's personal beacon (AIS MOB Man Over Board) emits HF radiowaves and will only be detected in the local zone.

The four skippers will follow a protocol established by Race Direction in coordination with Jean Le Cam. They will approach with three reefs in the mainsail and the engine idling. A grid search area for the zone has been established and will be carried out by the four IMOCAs who are set to provide assistance.

The PRB shore crew said that besides his AIS Mob, Kevin Escoffier also means to signal his presence in the liferaft. Daybreak tomorrow morning is around 0340hrs UTC in this zone and the search will be ongoing.

www.vendeeglobe.org

* At 0118hrs UTC the PRB Team was informed that their Vendee Globe race skipper Kevin Escoffier (PRB) has been rescued by fellow Vendee Globe competitor Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!).

Huge Support for Alex Thomson as he Heads for Cape Town After Vendee Globe Withdrawal
Charlie Dalin, the Vendee Globe race leader, should pass the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope on Monday, the first of the mythical 24,296 nautical miles solo round the world's three Great Capes. That his elapsed time since the race started in Les Sables d'Olonne will be around 22 days might be of some tiny consolation to British skipper Alex Thomson who is heading to Cape Town.

His Vendee Globe may be over because of a broken rudder sustained on Friday evening but the blistering pace of 17 days 22hrs 58 seconds that Thomson leading the 2016-17 race remains intact, and is likely to remain so for at least another four years.

The bitterly disappointed 46-year-old from Gosport, Hampshire in England has explained briefly what happened to his rudder, believing that some discarded or lost fishing equipment caused the fracture.

"I was averaging 21 knots, flying the small gennaker and one reef in the mainsail. I was down below when there was a huge bang and the boat broached violently. The steering system was jammed and all I could do was roll the sails away. Once on deck, I could see the rudder blade was broken and swinging around with a large piece of fishing gear jammed into the cracks. So I think I must have hit something. It certainly looks that way. Now I am having to keep the boat flat while I sail the boat now with just one rudder to Cape Town."

Even after losing four days and nights slowed to make structural repairs, Thomson was sure he had the capacity to win, "I still felt that we could win it, I really did "I'm obviously devastated."

afloat.ie/sail/

Marlow Ropes Partner with UK Skipper, Ian Herbert Jones for 2022 Golden Globe Race
Marlow Ropes are proud to announce that they are the Official Rope Supplier for Golden Globe Race 2022 skipper Ian Herbert Jones.

The Golden Globe Race is a sailing race like no other, Sailors will race 30,000 miles around the globe non-stop, alone and with no outside assistance. It is an incredible feat of endurance and Marlow are delighted to be supporting Ian.

Ian's experience in the sailing world began during his time spent serving in the British Army over 25 years ago, in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, but his love for offshore sailing really started with his circumnavigation in the 2007 and 2008 Clipper Round the World Race (Which Marlow are also official suppliers for).

This race is a solo, non-stop circumnavigation and is a race set with restrictions. The entrants are limited to sailing similar yachts and using equipment that was available to Sir Robin Knox-Johnston used in that first race back in 1968, which means sailing without modern technology or the benefit of satellite based navigation aids.

I'm really pleased that the team at Marlow have chosen to support my Golden Globe campaign for the 2022 Race. Marlow have always been the go-to trusted name in the sport for quality lines and I'm especially pleased to be able to use the new Blue Ocean ropes, which are being made from 100% recycled materials. I think this fits extremely well with the ethos of the Golden Globe Race, where all the competitors are recycling older boats, bringing them back to life and showing they can be taken on epic adventures.

Ian's boat, "Puffin" a Tradewind 35, will be entirely rigged by Marlow using their innovative, Blue Ocean® Doublebraid - this product is based on the same construction and materials as those used by the winner of the first Golden Globe Race, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, in 1968, but now has a sustainable edge as it is manufactured from 100% recycled plastic bottles as the raw material.

Paul Honess, Leisure Marine Sales Director, of Marlow Ropes said: "Marlow Ropes has been used many times on boats circumnavigating the globe, in 2019 we added our sustainable Blue Ocean® Dockline to the Clipper Race fleet and now, with our latest innovation Blue Ocean® Doublebraid being released this autumn it made perfect sense for it to be used on-board Puffin. We are pleased to be in partnership with Ian, and for him to have personally contacted us to be his rope supplier for the Golden Globe Race after using our ropes on-board the Clipper Race shows the quality and trust in the product"

marlowropes.com

Barfoot & Thompson NZ Women's National Keelboat Championship
Karleen Dixon and her crew of Sara Tucker, Paula Satterthwaite, Jennifer Jameson, Raynor Haagh, Miranda Addy and Kylie Jameson, have taken out the 2020 Barfoot & Thompson NZ Women's National Keelboat Championship after two days of full-on racing in Auckland.

The wind was consistently upwards of 20 knots, sometimes hitting the 30's, for the duration of the weekend which provided for some incredibly intense conditions for our ten all female teams. It is a massive credit to the sailors and the Race Management team led by Megan Kensington that ten races were sailed, five on Saturday and five on Sunday.

Racing for the entire weekend was always tight, with close battles up the front, in the middle of the pack, and at the back of the fleet, making it very entertaining across the board. With the wild conditions there were certainly a few wipeouts, man over boards and hairy moments, but for the vast majority of the racing all teams showed their incredible skill, strength and boat handing to successfully navigate the course and finish in one piece.

Finishing up in second place for the fourth year in a row was Melinda Henshaw. Henshaw and her team sailed brilliantly this weekend, but just weren't quite as good as the champion team. Henshaw has finished inside the top two at this regatta for the previous five editions of the event, a fantastic feat which shows she is a very accomplished keelboat sailor.

Defending champion Sally Garrett was our third-place getter, finishing 5 races inside the top three and only finishing two points back overall from Henshaw.

Final Placings:
1. Karleen Dixon
2. Melinda Henshaw
3. Sally Garrett
4. Megan Thomson
5. Bianca Cook
6. Sarah Reynolds
7. Jan Dawson
8. Nuria Ferres
9. Katie Clark
10. Parizad Dantra

Full Results

www.rnzys.org.nz

Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image of the Century
Click on Gilles' winning photo at right for the 2020 Gallery of images

131 professional photographers took part in the special edition of the "Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image of the Century" photo competition, designed to celebrate the best sailing images taken since 1 January 2000. Gilles Martin-Raget (FRA) won the main prize, while the public chose the photo of Alfred Farre (ESP). A special prize was awarded to Dan Towers (GBR) for his photo of Bernard Stamm facing a terrible storm in the Bay of Biscay in 2006 during the Velux 5 Oceans Race.

The Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award has once again been a huge success. No less than 12'000 votes were counted on the event website while thousands of people liked and shared the pictures on the social networks. In all, several million people watched and enjoyed the images submitted by the worlds' best sailing photographers.

Gilles Martin-Raget won ahead of Antoine Dujoncquoy (FRA) and Dallas Kilponen (AUS).

Alfred Farre (ESP) benefited from the biggest number of votes on Internet and wins the Public Award thanks to his beautiful photo of two Minis fighting the storm in a breathtaking landscape during the Mini Med 2009, in Spain. The Special Award goes to Dan Towers (GBR), who is rewarded for his stunning picture taken in the Bay of Biscay, after the start of the 2006-2007 VELUX 5 Oceans.

Gilles Martin-Raget will receive a prize-money of € 1000 as well as an Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Automatic watch offered by Skippers magazine.

www.yachtracingimage.com

Wight Vodka Best Sailor's Bar Competion
Tonight we honour 2014's winner The King & Queen of Hamble UK.

If you've ever come in from the Solent with your boots filled with a little too much sea water, and happened upon The King & Queen in Hamble, you will have a full appreciation of this year's winner...

Dan Hiza, co-owner of 50° North, the company behind Wight Vodka, said "This year's contest had more votes than any of the previous five contests run, and the King & Queen ran away with the competition in the final week with over 1,000 more votes than the runners up. With this said, we can most definitely claim that there is huge passion the world over from our yachting fraternity on shouting about their favourite bars. With the King & Queen taking top honours, Sue and her team at the Pier View in Cowes can be proud of their coming in 2nd, with the venerable Royal Bermuda Yacht Club rounding out the podium finishers in 3rd place. The other bars rounding out the top ten include the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke, the Haven in Lymington, the Union Inn Cowes, the Clipper Bar in Porto Cervo, the Bitter End on Virgin Gorda and the Divers Inn in Alderney on the Channel Islands."

Dan continued "This contest is a blast to run, and the King & Queen definitely deserved the win this year. This is the first year that a British bar has won, and the King & Queen now join The Peter Cafe Sport in the Azores, the Soggy Dollar on Jost Van Dyke, IYAC in Newport, Rhode Island, the Sint Maarten Yacht Club, and the One Bar Playa Blanca in Lanzarote as the World's Favourite. Congratulations and long may the party last!"

We're accepting nominations for this year's award, please send us your memories, stories, drink recipes at eurosailnews.com/sailors-bars

Meet The INEOS Team UK Crew | Tactician Giles Scott
Olympic Gold medallist Giles Scott has his sights set on making history by winning the 36th America's Cup for Britain with INEOS TEAM UK in Auckland followed up by winning the last ever Finn gold medal at Tokyo 2021.

He's currently competing at the highest level on the Olympic circuit alongside his America's Cup duties - preparing for a tactician role on the AC75 - a similar role that he under took in Bermuda for the 35th America's Cup racing in the ACC. He is using the adversity of Bermuda as his driving force in Auckland.

Royal Cork Yacht Club to Host 2021 Topper Worlds in Cork Harbour
The 2021 International Topper World Championships will be hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club, Ireland, from the 24th to 30th July.

As Afloat reported previously, the event will attract up to 200 young sailors from around the world and it has been planned to dovetail with the UK National Championships, following on two days later at Ballyholme YC in Northern Ireland, from the 2nd to 6th August - providing sailors with a fun, fortnight festival of top-quality racing.

The club and ITCA are currently finalising plans for the event and will, of course, be closely monitoring the situation regarding COVID-19.

Entry will open January 1st 2021.

afloat.ie/sail

Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
This month's nominees:

Pip Hare (GBR)
Another Vendee racer who is providing commentary to reach far beyond the ranks of the already knowledgeable enthusiasts. Hare's battle to get to the startline was no different from that of half the fleet, but these stories need telling alongside those of racing 'brilliance'. Like King Jean, Hare's fan club will keep on growing the further she gets around the course; but she has already proved to be another skipper capable of bringing this race into the most landlocked living rooms.

Jean Le Cam (FRA)
In the 1997 Whitbread it was Paul Cayard and his brutal talk of firehoses on deck that kept followers of the race locked onto the news coming off the eventual race winner. In this Vendee Globe that mantle has landed with King Jean, who introduced himself to thousands of new fans by hogging the limelight in the opening weeks of the race by refusing to lie down with the other old boats as he 'should'. And then there came prose to turn Moitessier green with envy...

Last Month's winner:
Timothy Long (GBR)
My boys can't cook an egg, never mind navigate around a big island!!!' - Harriet Thame; 'Brilliant job, Tim. Now those boring exams!' - Herbie Knott; 'An amazing achievement for a young man of 15 on his own with no support boat' - Dido Rawlings; 'As the father of a daughter in chemotherapy I was so inspired to learn of Timothy's adventure for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust. A credit to his generation and the sailing family' - Lewis Coombes.

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

Industry News
boot Dusseldorf to make a statement regarding show dates on Thursday

The organisers of boot Dusseldorf are aware that rumours have been circulating that the January show has been postponed until later in the year.

Messe Dusseldorf said they wished to make it clear that any supposition about a new date is purely speculation and it should not be taken as a confirmed fact and that an official announcement will be forthcoming on Thursday.

www.ibinews.com

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Forced to cancel its traditional in-person event due to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, organisers of the Toronto International Boat Show (TIBS) have released details of a new virtual event to be held from January 18-24, 2021.

Linda Waddell, president/show director for show owner, Canadian Boat Shows, says that the firm researched more than 50 software options and virtual shows in order to find a platform that would provide the best type of user experience for TIBS exhibitors and visitors alike. "We wanted to provide a platform that would be inclusive of all exhibitors who exhibited in the 2020 show, with an ability to highlight those which commit to the virtual features and want to maximize their results," said Waddell. "At the same time we wanted to also provide an opportunity for new exhibitors who were planning to exhibit in 2021 and are now not able to do so as a result of the pandemic."

The company ultimately elected to partner with Toronto-area technology provider Unity Event Solutions, which has worked with Canadian Boat Shows Inc for the past two years on both the Toronto and Vancouver International Boat Shows handling APP, exhibitor badge registration and live seminar video boards. Unity has also live-streamed daily activities taking place on the Toronto show's indoor lake.

www.ibinews.com/events

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In the 2020 Sports Technology Annual Review and Industry Power List published this month, Emirates Team New Zealand has been ranked at #3 on the Global Power List by the STA Group and the English Institute of Sport.

The report, which looks at the influence of technology in sport ranked Emirates Team New Zealand behind F1 & the Tour de France respectively, but ahead of 47 other sporting powerhouse teams and governing bodies including the NFL, NBA, Wimbledon, PGA Golf, Nascar, EA Sports, Formula E, Barcelona FC, Nike, FIFA and ESPN.

Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton is particularly proud of the ranking, "To be honest this came as quite a surprise to myself and the team being included on this list of such significant sporting global entities.

Certainly, we are a sports team, but 100% with technology and innovation at our core. So when you think about it, maybe it is not entirely surprising because as an organisation if we don't lead the wave of innovation and technology we simply will not win the sport event on the water. It is as simple as that."

www.emiratesteamnz.com

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Ten youngsters from across the UK have been handed a huge boost in their ambitions to become top class dinghy sailors thanks to a national programme helping young talent progress in the sport.

The delighted sailors have been awarded exclusive use of their own boat for the next two years through the on-going partnership between the John Merricks Sailing Trust (JMST) and RYA OnBoard.

Launched in 2013, the partnership supports youngsters who display enthusiasm, drive, talent and commitment to the sport and who may not ordinarily have the opportunity or financial backing to achieve their goals. The RYA is delighted to announce that the JMST and OnBoard partnership will continue for another three years.

The JMST seeks to help young sailors and youth sailing organisations to achieve their goals and was set up in the memory of 1996 Olympic silver medallist, John Merricks. As OnBoard's official charity partner, JMST have so far donated 86 boats and boards with some remarkable success stories.

www.rya.org.uk/go/onboard

www.jmst.org.uk

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Cowes Week, one of the world's best-known regattas, remains at the forefront of the UK sailing scene and indeed is on the bucket list for sailors worldwide. The regatta, which is 196 years young, sees around 700 entries and thousands of sailors and visitors coming to Cowes every August for a celebration of sailing, racing and the famous social scene.

Cowes Week is run by Cowes Combined Clubs (CCC), an organisation that brings together nine yacht clubs and over 500 volunteers during the regatta. The day-to-day organisation is managed by Cowes Week Ltd (CWL) and its Board of Directors is delighted to announce that the current J/70 Open World Champion Paul Ward has now joined the Board, representing the Royal Southern Yacht Club, one of the CCC member clubs. Paul and his crew of Eat, Sleep, J, Repeat, are the first British team to win the J/70 Open World Championships, one of the world's most competitive One Design classes

Cowes Week 2021 takes place July 31st to August 7th with eight IRC classes, 17 one-design classes, four Performance-Cruiser Divisions and two Club-Cruiser Divisions.

cowesweek.co.uk

Featured Charter
JPK1180 - Sunrise

Sunrise was launched in Spring 2018 and is hull number 2 of the JPK1180. Sunrise is the only JPK1180 available for charter and is exclusively available through LV Yachting

JPK have become known for building fast and very competitive race winning yachts. The 1010 and the 1080 have both been incredibly successful inshore and offshore. The 1010 won the its class in the 2013 Fastnet and the 1080 won the Fastnet overall in 2015.

The JPK1180 will be the fastest boat in IRC 2 with a handicap of 1.099, Sunrise has 2 modes an inshore mode with a short bow sprit and symmetric pole or an offshore asymmetric mode with a 1.7m bow sprit and 10m2 of extra downwind sail area.

This is an exciting 40’ race charter option for any enthusiastic team wanting to win.

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Lucy Jackson - LV Yachting
Call: +44 2392 161272
Email:

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
Gunboat 57 - VAI VAI. POA USD,

Gunboat 57 Vai Vai is an impeccably optimized yacht, VaiVai introduces several new innovations which makes this luxury cruiser ideal for cruising, daysailing with friends, and competitive racing.

See listing details in Gunboat Brokerage

Contact

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GC32 Malizia MON 023 For Sale or Charter. 200’000 excl.VAT EUR.

Experience the foiling revolution with this 30+ knot GC32 flying catamaran, ready to compete on the GC32 Racing Tour.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Christian Scherrer
email:

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1935 Marconi 13.5m Bermudan Cutter. 249990 ex VAT EUR. Located in Valencia, Spain

Historic Bermudan cutter from the pen of Mario Tarabocchia. Completely restored between 2002 and 2005 in La Spezia and a regular to the podium of the Mediterranean classic yacht regattas.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Lucio Pellegrini – Grabau International (Palma)
Tel: +34 675 236 174
Email:

See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/

The Last Word
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein

Editorial and letter submissions to

Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.eurosailnews.com/advertise.html