In This Issue
• The Big South Bares Its Teeth
• Paris 2024 decisions made by the International Olympic Committee
• Dick Carter - Yacht Designer
• R&D by Trial and Error not good enough any more
• Touchdown in Auckland
• What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
• 2020, A Record Year For Virtual Regatta
• Sodebo ahead in Jules Verne record attempt
• PRADA ACWS Auckland & PRADA Christmas Race: The Race Course
• La Belle Classe Academy in full swing
• Featured Charter: SW105 Wolfhound
• Featured Brokerage:
• • ERYD 30 Classic - ORIENTE
• • ClubSwan 42-024 Barleycorn
• • Kinetic Catamarans - KC62
• The Last Word: Chuck Yeager

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

The Big South Bares Its Teeth
Pip Hare and Didac Costa's match race across Good Hope. Dalin, Ruyant can race clear to a big lead. Peloton take pain in full Southern Ocean gale

Britain's Pipe Hare should cross the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope early tomorrow, her first of the Vendee Globe's three Great Capes. Lying in 20th place she is chasing Spanish rival Didac Costa hard, just 12 miles behind the Barcelona firefighter who is on his third round the world race in five years, all of them on board his One Planet - One Ocean which started life as Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher over 20 years ago.

Ticking off her first Great Cape will be a significant moment for 45 year old Hare, who is based out of Poole, England and whose IMOCA is of identical vintage to friend and rival Costa's. Her's was built as Superbigou by Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm and his friends in a shed in Lesconcil, Brittany and launched 11th February 2000 while MacArthur's Kingfisher was launched within the same fortnight on the other side of the world in New Zealand.

Just as the two IMOCAs are lifelong rivals - although Stamm had to abandon the 2000-2001 Vendee Globe on which 24 year old MacArthur led and went on to finish second - so Hare and Costa previously raced Mini 650s against each other and finished within 40 minutes of each other the last time they did the MiniTransat.

Costa, who finished 14th on the last Vendee Globe, reported last night that he had hit something which he believed to be a whale although there was no damage to the mammal nor to his boat. As well as notifying other competitors via Race HQ, he also made sure Hare - who is sailing in his wake - was aware.

600 miles back in the fiery depths of the low pressure system it is very windy with big seas, much more like the Dante-esque vision of the Southern Ocean.

"I have never seen a sea like this, it is rough, it is very hard to go forwards, it catches the boat, the boat accelerates forwards surging to 29 knots but if you are too slow, the waves will catch up and explode on the transom it is hideous " confirms Maxime Sorel (11th) reached this morning on the phone.

The nine boats sailing in Dalin and Ruyant's wake were overtaken by the front which had 50 knots in squally gusts. With huge confused seas racing is on hold and self preservation become the most important challenge.

"The big South is an endurance race that slowly wears you out" summarizes Josse.

Top ten at 07 Dec 2020 - 21h (UTC)
1. Charlie Dalin - APIVIA, 15215.4 nm to finish
2. Thomas Ruyant - LinkedOut, 199.11 nm
3. Louis Burton - BUREAU VALLEE 2, 268.7 nm
4. Yannick Bestaven - Maitre CoQ IV, 337.75 nm
5. Jean Le Cam - Yes We Cam!, 352.47 nm
6. Damien Seguin - GROUPE APICIL, 372.66 nm
7. Benjamin Dutreux - OMIA - WATER FAMILY, 431.92 nm
8. Boris Herrmann - SEAEXPLORER - YACHT CLUB DE MONACO, 511.11 nm
9. Isabelle Joschke - MACSF, 605.28 nm
10. Giancarlo Pedote - PRYSMIAN GROUP, 681.69 nm

www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ranking

Paris 2024 decisions made by the International Olympic Committee
World Sailing has received confirmation from the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Executive Board, on the event programme and athlete quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The decisions announced today come following an IOC Programme Commission recommendation. They were as follows:

Mixed Kiteboarding (Formula Kite) and the Mixed Two Person Dinghy (470) will feature at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Competition.

The IOC would like to further review the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat Event in order to properly assess the key considerations around safety and security of the athletes. The specific event proposal will be decided as soon as practicably possible but no later than 31 May 2021.

The athlete quota for sailing at Paris 2024 will be 330, which is a decrease of 20 from the 350 at Tokyo 2020.

David Graham, World Sailing's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Today's announcement by the IOC marks a positive step forward for showcasing the diversity and excitement of sailing at the Olympic Games. The list of Events, approved by World Sailing's Member National Authorities, truly represents the international landscape of sailing with dinghies, keelboats, kiteboarding, skiffs and windsurfers all included in the ten Events. This change has been a complicated process to manage, and I take this opportunity to thank the 1000's of hours work done principally by our volunteer body.

"The Mixed Kiteboarding competition will be one of the fastest events at the Olympic Games, requiring speed, precision and teamwork in short form, close knit races. In addition, the Mixed 470 will require close collaboration between male and female teammates to master the dinghy that has established so many well-known champion sailors.

"We're looking forward to continuing our close collaboration with the IOC and the Paris 2024 Organising Committee to answer the important questions on the Mixed Offshore Event to ensure safety and security of the world's best sailors.

"Offshore sailing is an exciting way of showcasing the sport and engaging fans worldwide with the thrill of adventure, eSport integration and sailors battling the elements. Marseille will be a perfect venue for the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Competition, and we're excited to progress the development of our sport with the IOC and Paris 2024.

"It is obviously disappointing to receive an athlete quota reduction, but this has impacted many sports, not just sailing. We appreciate the difficult decisions the IOC had to make in order to deliver the requirements set out in IOC Agenda 2020." -- Daniel Smith - World Sailing

sailing.org

Dick Carter - Yacht Designer
In the Golden age of offshore racing
Special limited edition signed by Dick Carter - Great Xmas gift!
With foreword by John Rousmaniere

In 1965 Dick Carter entered Rabbit, the first boat he had ever designed into that year's classic Fastnet race - And Won! Two years later, racing Red Rooster, an even more innovative boat of his own design, he won the Race again, his centreboarder finishing top boat in the Admiral's Cup which contributed greatly to overall victory for the American team!

Over the next decade, Carter and his yachts dominated across the world, winning successive World One Ton Cups with the likes of Tina, Optimist, Wai-Aniwa and Ydra, the Half Ton Cup with Crocodile and Two Ton Cup with Aggressive. During 1972 Wai-Aniwa skippered by New Zealander Chris Bouzaid capped off a great season by finishing Top Boat in the Southern Cross series lifting New Zealand to win the team trophy.

The stories behind other top Dick Carter designed racing yachts include Robin Aisher's Frigate, 2nd boat overall in the 1973 Admiral's Cup, Carina III, a member of the winning team at the same event, Chica Tica II, winner of the 1976 Cape/Rio Race, Dr Recchi's Custom 65 footer Benbow, line honours and handicap winner in the 1977 Middle Sea Race, and William Hubbard's Lively Lady II which dominated the 2006 Bermuda Race prize-giving.

Despite his lack of formal training in naval architecture, Dick Carter made himself into a skilled yacht designer with radical ideas and a record of daring and continuing success. The results his designs achieved, are a direct reflection of his innovative mind. Blessed with what sailors call 'an eye for a boat' - an intuitive understanding of why some boats sail faster and better than others, coupled the ability to transform that understanding into new expressions. He was the first to separate the keel and rudder in ocean racing, the first to introduce a trim tab to the trailing edge of a keel, an idea later adopted by Olin Stephens on his 1967 America's Cup winning 12 metre Intrepid. Dick was also the first to radically reduce weight and windage within the rig, pioneering the idea of internal halyards and shroud tangs. "They don't even do that on America's Cup yachts." Ted Hood remarked at the time.

As John Rousmaniere writes in his Introduction: "This story of the underdog sailor taking on the world and conquering it is often surprising, roundly entertaining, inspiring and instructive. Dick's approach was straightforward: challenge the common wisdom with a daring that he describes as: 'Once a challenge is met successfully, that is enough for me.'"

The last challenge was the first he could not successfully meet - the petroleum crisis during the 1970s that depleted economies and nearly destroyed the boating business. Just a decade after he burst on the scene, Dick Carter retired from boats, and moved to furrow a fresh course through life. Many of his old friends and shipmates were sure he had died. Now Dick is back, larger than life - and with a remarkable story.

Special limited edition signed by Dick Carter is available only from South Atlantic Publishing www.southatlanticpublishing.com priced £40.00 + P&P

View sample pages

Order online at www.southatlanticpublishing.com

R&D by Trial and Error not good enough any more
This article was written in March 2018 but it seems relevant to publish it again, against the backdrop of catastrophic failures in the Vendee Globe...

In the past decade high-performance boats have become much faster. The pace of development has been meteoric, particularly with the widespread uptake of hydrofoiling. While the popularity of the International Moth took off in the mid-Noughties with introduction of full foiling, it took the flying exploits of the AC72 catamarans in the 2013 America's Cup to really capture the attention of the wider sailing world.

Since then the number of foiling craft has proliferated, from dinghies and small cats up to the likes of Wild Oats XI which has also dabbled with foils at the Maxi level. Now foils have become de rigeur on the latest generation of IMOCA 60s, and so it goes on.

While the boats have got faster, they have also become much less reliable. Breakage is an almost inevitable part of development. As legendary America's Cup designer Ben Lexcen once said: "If it doesn't break, it's too heavy." However, this trial and error approach to yacht design doesn't cut much ice with the insurance industry.

Simon Tonks, deputy head of marine at Hiscox has been insuring race boats for more than 20 years. "At Hiscox we're passionate about the sport of sailing and we love to support the latest developments," he says. "But with these increased speeds come increased risks, not only to the boats themselves but to the people sailing them and also people in the vicinity of these fast craft. When you've got MOD70s and other kinds of high performance boats flying around confined spaces like the Solent, these all have safety implications, and therefore insurance implications too."

Andy Rice's prescient editorial available in full here in Sailjuice.com

Touchdown in Auckland
Touchdown in Auckland, but like everyone else who enters New Zealand 14 days managed quarantine lies between me and immersion in the America's Cup world. Fortunately as I sit out the two weeks in my hotel room there's been plenty to watch, plenty of chatter and plenty of detail to look into as we watch teams get ready for the America's Cup World Series that starts on 17 December. Thanks to some great filming from Giles Martin-Raget we are now able to see the teams going through their routines as they limber up for the Christmas Cup. So here are my first impressions. -- Matt Sheahan

Seahorse December 2020
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine

World news
Smarter than smart (grounded too), a complex race ahead, and bumpy beyond belief, new 'US' faces on the scene, rather late but a grand Spi nonetheless, a little light-prepping for Tokyo 2021 and a few signs of shorthanded life at last out there in the provinces... Guillaume Verdier, Jacques Caraes, Stan Honey, Thomas Ruyan, Sebastien Simon, Ivor Wilkins, Patrice Carpentier, Dobbs Davis, Jake Lilley, Blue Robinson

Rewriting the rules
Conventional wisdom suggests that promoting a maxi-sized one design will always be a challenge. But then who cares about convention when a boat like this pops up on your radar?

Just passing through
There may only be one class starting the Vendee Globe but it won't seem like that by the third or fourth day of the race. Patrice Carpentier

Missing piece - Part I
Roger Vaughan was hired to chronicle the story of the 2010 Deed of Gift Match from the Challenger perspective. But it has taken a full 10 years for his work to be allowed to see daylight

RORC news - All on schedule
Eddie Warden-Owen

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2020, A Record Year For Virtual Regatta
With almost a million virtual boats entered - more than double the number that competed four years ago – the virtual Vendee Globe is a huge success for Virtual Regatta which had also took the opportunity presented by the first confinement between March and May to enhance its development. Tip & Shaft looks at the success story that the publisher of sailing games obviously is.

The Covid-19 pandemic has badly affected the economy all around the world but there are certain certain sectors of activity that have experience strong growth. That is the case with eSport and particularly eSailing as shown by the main player in the market, Virtual Regatta.

Leading the company that he founded in 2006, Philippe Guigne confirms: "The first lockdown had a very clear impact on our activity, especially on the inshore game: we have almost multiplied our audience by 20 with up to 200,000 players per month compared to barely 20 000 before. The period also allowed us to roll out projects that we didn't expect to see happening for a year or two. Many organizers of canceled or postponed events turned to us to replace them with a digital regatta." This was the case of the Solo Maître CoQ, Spi Ouest-France (38,000 players on the inshore game in April), the Beneteau Cup. And to meet demand in March Virtual Regatta launched The Great Escape, a 100% digital transatlantic, which attracted 150,000 players."

And internationally, the online game publisher saw the activity grow significantly with many cancelled events developing their virtual equivalent. That includes the 100% digital events organized in partnership with World Sailing. "We went from 6 to 20 national federations which participated in the eSailing world championship, including some have gone all out, such as the RYA, which won the Nations Cup, which was originally supposed to come in year later", continues Philippe Guigne.

From Tip & Shaft

Sodebo ahead in Jules Verne record attempt
After 12 days 2 hours and 5 minutes at sea, Sodebo Ultim 3 crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope this Monday, December 7 at 5:00 a.m. (French time). It is the first of the 3 legendary capes to be crossed in this attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy.

Since their departure from Ouessant on November 25 at 2:55 am, Thomas Coville and his seven crew have covered 8,154 miles (15,101 km), at an average of 28 knots.

Over the past 48 hours, they have lengthened their stride with average speeds of nearly 70 km / h, which has allowed them to widen their lead a little further on the Idec Sport scoreboard.

When passing the Cape of Good Hope, they had a 17 hour and 35 minute margin compared to the holder of the Jules Verne Trophy.

Since November 30, they will have taken 6 days 16 hours 15 minutes to travel the South Atlantic between Ecuador and Cape South Africa (Idec Sport time 7d 00h 30min).

www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk

tropheejulesverne.sodebo.com/

PRADA ACWS Auckland & PRADA Christmas Race: The Race Course
The race course is about 1.7nm long (about 3km) and between 0.5 and 0.8 long( 900-1,5km metres) wide, with boundaries all around that the boats must stay within.

It's called a windward-leeward course, so named because the course is oriented directly into the wind and away from the wind - from the start, the yachts race directly upwind - to windward, round the 1st mark then downwind, or to leeward. Rinse and repeat.

At three-minutes to the start the boats 'enter' - sailing from above and outside the start line, and from opposite ends. This is the beginning of the 'pre-start'. The teams take turns over which side they enter from, as the boat coming in from the right-hand side has the advantage - with right-of-way.

Because the AC75s travel so quickly, the boat coming in from the left-hand, or port, side enters first, 10-seconds before their opponent. This is to help reduce risk collision by coming in at the same time.

The goal, time your run to the start line exactly to the second - when the countdown reaches zero, and the race is on.

Arrive too early - and you've blown it. In sailing terms, this is 'OCS' - you're 'on-course side' at the time of start - meaning, you've jumped the gun. The umpires will send a start penalty immediately, and you'll have to slow down to get behind your opponent, before getting racing again.

Once underway, the boats race upwind, constrained by boundaries on both sides of the course - step outside of those and it's another penalty.

Once at the top of the course, it's decision time, which way around the 'top-gate' - two separate marks, you just have to pass one from the inside, before heading off back downwind from where've they come, to the 'bottom gate', completing the first 'lap'. Once there, the drill is exactly the same - choose one mark to go around before headed back-up upwind.

The Race Director determines the number of laps the boats sail, based on how much wind there is and therefore how long it will take to complete a race. On the final lap, headed downwind, the only difference is instead of a downwind gate the yachts cross the start/finish line to complete the match.

www.americascup.com/race-format-and-racing-rules

La Belle Classe Academy in full swing
Through its La Belle Classe Academy training centre, Yacht Club de Monaco has courses running in December, remotely and on site at the YCM. It is all part of its public service remit and as a driving force in the Luxury Yacht industry to give concrete answers to questions posed by professionals, and reinforce Monaco's position as a centre of excellence in this sector.

This end of year programme features three courses and three topics: marine weather, protecting the environment and seamanship.

Weather: 2nd Monaco Weather Lab course – Thursday 10th December 2020
Details and registration

Environment: ETYC Training – 9th and 10th December 2020, 9.00am to 4.30pm
Details and registration

Seamanship : Marine knots & splices
Details and registration

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The Last Word
You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up. -- Chuck Yeager

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