In This Issue
• ORC European Championship
• 2021 World Championship. What a Difference Another Month Makes
• The Harken Catalog - Online Flip Book Version
• 66th Regata dei Tre Golfi - The Winners
• iQFoil International Games
• The Unique Challenge Of The Ocean Race Europe
• Successful lift-off for the (future) Class 30!
• Alex Thomson plots August return to racing onboard HUGO BOSS
• Australian Sailing launches landmark Athlete Development Framework
• Featured Charter
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Swan 100-103 Hoppetosse
• • Outremer 4X - New Boat
• • Dazcat 1295
• The Last Word: Anthony Bourdain

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

ORC European Championship
The first day of mark racing got underway today in ORC European Championship 2021 with a fleet of 62 hulls from 12 different nations taking to the waters off Capri this morning to do battle for the title.

Things got off to a challenging start for the Race Committee, who had to endure a long wait for the weather conditions to stabilise. Finally, at 2 p.m., the starting signal was sounded for the first group with a breeze of around 6 to 8 knots from 235 degrees. First off the line in the starting sequence were the smallest craft, in Group C, who raced on a triangular 5-mile course (upwind-beam reach-downwind), followed by groups A and B, racing on two different windward-leeward courses of approximately 7 miles, positioned in the Bocche di Capri.

The win in Race 1 among the bigger boats in Class A went to the Latini 52 Solano, owned by France's Pascal Feryn, in Class B the Swan 42 Fantaghiro owned by Carlandrea Simonelli took the top spot, while in Class C the First 35 Squalo Bianco, owned by Concetto Costa, was victorious.

At 5:11 p.m. as some more stable air of 6 to 8 knots filled in, it was time to start Race 2 again.

All three groupings were able to complete the course this time around with victory, at the end of a long day at sea, going to Marco Serafini's TP52 Xio in Class A, Carlandrea Simonelli's Swan 42 Fantaghiro in Class B and Vincenzo De Blasio's Italia Yachts 11.98 Scugnizza in Class C.

At the end of today's racing the overall classification for each of the classes is beginning to take shape, with three races in the bag and the championship formally valid given that the Notice of Race requires a minimum of 3 races to be completed, including the offshore competition. Racing in the ORC European Championship continues tomorrow with the starting procedures scheduled to begin at 11:55 a.m.

Complete rankings

rolexcaprisailingweek.com

2021 World Championship. What a Difference Another Month Makes
Bermuda suffered the perfect covid storm in April. The combination of the UK variant spreading among school children and some illegal house parties caused infections to take off. One party alone accounted for more than 80 new cases. The Bermuda Government responded by imposing a stay at home order for 1 week and followed with a non-mixing of households order for 3 weeks. This, along with continued progress with vaccinations, has had great results. The seven day average of new infections has fallen to 7. On a population of 64k this puts us at 109/million, about 1/3 lower than the US, 1/2 of Germany but trailing the UK. This weekend, Bermuda moves back to the rules being followed earlier in the year and life is more or less normal.

Currently, 39% of the total population is fully inoculated, 51% have had at least one dose. So 62% of the eligible population has had at least one dose. As in other countries, the rate of vaccination is slowing due to reluctance to be vaccinated rather than availability of supply. Significant efforts are underway to coax more people toward vaccination.

Bermuda was early in imposing testing before and after arrival on the island last summer. Effective June 6, allowances will be made for vaccinated travellers freeing them from significant quarantine. Covid testing will still be required before departure, again on arrival, day 4, day 7, day 14. The testing station is a block from the club and the health department has been very good at working with the club to ensure scheduling is not a problem.

So, we can announce a happy conclusion and anticipate a fantastic event come October for vaccinated competitors.

www.int505.org

The Harken Catalog - Online Flip Book Version
Obsessively Updated for Increasingly Accurate Ordering.

If you're a sailor, you've probably picked up the Harken Catalog. Thick. Rectangular. Hundreds of pages. Pictures. Charts. It comes out each fall. If you're like us, you have about 7 years of back issues in the bathroom. It's simply the best tool to make sure you choose the right Harken equipment to get faster.

There's just one thing: The catalog comes off the presses once a year. Harken doesn't stop making new stuff. So the print catalog is almost immediately out of date.

We fixed that. Now there's a Harken Catalog that gets updated all year long. You can download it right here right now. You can also get it at the bottom of the home page of the new Harken.com (which you should also check out).

The online Harken Catalog looks just like the print catalog. You can flip pages. You can scan the codes and get to the video. You can call your foredeck guy and immediately get on the same page. It IS the Harken catalog.

There are however, two small differences:

1. It's always up to date.
2. It will never give you a paper cut.

Open Your Catalog

66th Regata dei Tre Golfi - The Winners
At 7.20 yesterday morning, Monday 17 May, the 66th edition of the Regata dei Tre Golf officially drew to a close. Almost all the participating boats finished the race with impressive times, thanks to the ideal conditions encountered along the route. First to cross the line in real time was Pendragon VI in 17 hours 54 minutes and 19 second - narrowly missing out on beating the record of 16 hours 44 minutes and 13 seconds set by Cippa Lippa IX in 2016 - while the last boat across the finish line was the First 34.7 Malafemmena at 10.53 on Sunday night, after 27 hours 53 minutes and 35 seconds of racing.

The ceremony continued with the Verusio Cup - for the winner overall in IRC
1 - Shirlaf - Giuseppe Puttini - CN Marina Di Alimuri
2 - Lorina 1895 - Jean Pierre Barjon - Yacht Club de France
3 - Fra' Diavolo - Vincenzo Addessi - Yacht Club Gaeta

Coppa Gustavo d'Andrea - for the first boat in real time:
Pendragon - Carlo Alberini - Yacht Club Punta Ala

Coppa Guido Imperiali di Francavilla - for the winner among the Classic Yachts
Finola - Klaus Schuwerk - RYCC Savoia

ORC Class A
1 - Tengher - Alberto Magnani - Yacht Club Italiano
2 - Fever - Alice Tibaldi Chiesa - Vento Di Venezia
3 - Ulika - Stefano Masi - RCC Tevere Remo

ORC Class B
1 - Mela - Andrea Rossi - CN Marina Di Carrara
2 - Fantaghiro - Carlandrea Simonelli - CN Marina Di Carrara
3 - Essentia44 - Catalin Trandafir - 900 Constanta

ORC Class C
1 - Scugnizza - Vincenzo De Blasio - CC Napoli
2 - Sugar 3 - Ott Kikkas - YC Tallin
3 - ZigoZago - Marco Emili - CN Riva Di Traiano

Coppa Senatore Andrea Matarazzo - ORC Class overall
1 - Scugnizza - Vincenzo De Blasio - CC Napoli
2 - Essentia44 - Catalin Trandafir - 900 Constanta
3 - Fantaghiro - Carlandrea Simonelli - CN Marina Di Carrara

Coppa Beppe Knight - ORC Double Handed
Loli Fast - Davide Paioletti - Sezione Velica Anzio

Complete rankings

rolexcaprisailingweek.com

iQFoil International Games
Click on image to enlarge.

After a successful 2020 event in late October last year, a fleet of 38 women and 69 men for a total of 107 windsurfers gathered on Lake Garda for the 2021 iQFOiL International Games hosted by Univela Sailing in Campione del Garda. 20 nations are represented here despite the still standing international travel restrictions.

Racing on Day One started around noon as the typica local thermic breeze from the South filled in to reach about 12-15 knots. The firsts to hit the water were the men with three flawless slalom races, followed by the women who had to face a major wind drop and could only finish two races.

The provisional ranking at the end of Day One is a French affaire, they occupy all top three spots in the Men. Nicholas Goyard won all of three manches, followed by Clement Burgeois and Adrien Mestre. The defending champion Sebastian Koerdel (GER) closed the day in fifth position with a win in the last race and a 'dive' in the first one.

Tomorrow's conditions won't be as sunny with potential rain in the afternoon, and the Race Committee opted for a morning start, with the ladies going out first at 10 am and the boys following them at 10,30.

Full results here:
Men
Women

The Unique Challenge Of The Ocean Race Europe
With Annie Lush And Clarisse Cremer

In the modern history of the IMOCA Class, The Ocean Race Europe, which sets sail in just two weeks time, offers a unique challenge to solo sailors and those from fully-crewed backgrounds alike.

Racing fully-crewed with up to five people on board, including one female sailor, requires new techniques, new ideas and new ways of sailing as the five teams in the IMOCA division prepare to push their boats full-tilt 24-hours-day over three legs.

For the IMOCA Class - which will take part in The Ocean Race Europe as a separate fleet alongside seven boats in the VO65 Class - the race starts from Lorient on May 29 and heads first across the Bay of Biscay to Cascais in Portugal. From there the crews will race through the Strait of Gibraltar to Alicante - the home of The Ocean Race - and then the final leg takes the boats up to the finish at the Italian port of Genova.

Annie Lush, a 41-year-old British veteran of The Ocean Race and former Olympic sailor, is racing with Offshore Team Germany whose crew also includes the Vendée Globe star Benjamin Dutreux. She says The Ocean Race Europe is going to be a fascinating test as solo sailors and those used to fully-crewed racing learn to work together.

Speaking after their first training sessions aboard "Einstein" - the completely re-vamped 2011 Owen Clarke Design formerly named Acciona - Lush says they are learning all the time how to get the most out of the boat. The team has been working through manoeuvres trying to be as efficient as possible on an IMOCA Class yacht which, as she put it, is short of hands, short of winches and short of halyards.

We're trying to work out the things we can take from the Vendée Globe and which things we can take from The Ocean Race and what to aim for," she told the IMOCA Class from the Offshore Team Germany base in Les Sables d'Olonne.

"With only four of us on board and an auto-pilot, it is going to be somewhere between the two - I think it is going to be really interesting to find where that line is," she added. "It is hard to manoeuvre the boat quickly...doing lots of (spinnaker) peels on a boat that's set up for single-handed or double-handed sailing."

Full interview by Ed Gorman on IMOCA.org

Successful lift-off for the (future) Class 30!
In response to its Request for Proposals for the future Class 30, over twenty-five applications from various candidates from the sailing world arrived in a dedicated inbox at L'Union Nationale pour la Course au Large (UNCL), organiser of the competition with its British partner the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC). The indisputable success of this project intended to inspire tomorrow's international training boat for offshore racing is an acknowledgement of its relevance as it brings together a number of the leading lights of naval architecture and prominent yards. Now, the support of America's Storm Trysail Club has given the initiative even further traction in the US by fleshing out the circle of organisers and with it the potential for the large adoption of the future one-design.

An enthusiastic reception
A key player with multiple offshore racing accolades, French legend Michel Desjoyeaux perfectly understands the appeal and the impact of such a project on a national level: "Being a part of a process to design an affordable and attractive craft in a bid to recreate a crewed racing dynamic among active youngsters seems like an obvious move to me. This method for training crews has disappeared of late as there's no longer a boat that fits the bill. Prior to the switch to the Diam 24, the Tour de France a la Voile was often the first taste of offshore racing for numerous crews. Today, it is these crews who are quitting regattas and who need to be won back with this new one-design, which has to perform well and be attractive. That's why we've decided to stand up and be counted with CT Mer Forte".

A fleshing out of the Jury
The main new feature of this venture relates to the Jury, which has evolved since the project was launched: in addition to the 4 members of the UNCL and the 3 members of the RORC, a new American member, the Storm Trysail Club based in Larchmont, NY, to the north of New York City, is stepping up to the plate. This very sociable Club is the reference offshore racing club in the United States and so it shares the same values and experience as the RORC and the UNCL. A renowned mover and shaker, its sphere of influence extends far beyond Larchmont thanks to its 12 geographic stations encompassing the most famous stretches of water on the East coast, the great lakes, Florida and California, where it operates a fleet of 8 Figaro 2s. This addition further reinforces the international dimension of the project as the organisers were always keen to ensure that the French projects do not make up more than half of the proposals.

Eight teams selected
In line with the scheduled programme, early May, the International Jury studied application requests from 9 different nationalities and made a pre-selection according to a matrix of weighted criteria, including how well the project was understood, references regarding design and production of similar boats, its eco-design credentials and its ability to innovate. In the end, six teams of architects/yards were selected on the basis of designing a new boat, including some world famous names in naval architecture and global boatbuilding, as well as two other teams with existing boats featuring similar specifications, who have to align with the brief, particularly to match boat price expectations. The applicants' various preliminary design proposals are expected by mid-June.

All information about the Request for Proposals Competition Information, Specifications, Presentation of the Project: on request via email addressed to

Alex Thomson plots August return to racing onboard HUGO BOSS
British sailing team Alex Thomson Racing will begin their 2021 competitive season with the Fastnet Race on August 8th.

Three months out from the start of the prestigious race, the team this week returned their IMOCA 60 yacht, HUGO BOSS, to the water, with training set to commence in the coming days.

"The boat has had a full inspection, NDT and service, and two new rudders installed" said Skipper Thomson. "Restrictions here in the UK due to the pandemic have meant that we've worked at a steady pace to keep our team safe. Now, with the work complete and restrictions set to ease, we're looking forward to getting back out there to train again".

The 695 nautical mile Fastnet Race will begin on Sunday 8th August from Cowes, UK with a record 450+ boats - across multiple classes - set to compete. The fleet will sail via the Fastnet Rock off south west Ireland and will finish, for the first time in the race's 96-year history, in Cherbourg, France.

Sailing onboard HUGO BOSS, Thomson - joined for the double-handed race by a co-skipper yet to be decided by his team - will aim to better his previous second place finish in the race:

"This will be my 11th Fastnet, I believe, so we've got a lot of experience in this race. I'm really looking forward to sailing the new course and finishing in Cherbourg. I think it adds a new tactical dimension to the race".

Australian Sailing launches landmark Athlete Development Framework
Australian sailors have a proud tradition of success at recent Olympic Games, and Australian Sailing announced a landmark framework which identifies the success factors and attributes required to continue steering our athletes towards the podium.

Aligned to the new Australian Sailing High Performance Strategy #nextlevel towards LA 2028, the Australian Sailing Athlete Development Framework (ASADF) has been designed in accordance with best practice principles, academic guidelines and years of applied knowledge. Expertise from national and state coaches as well as experts within the fields of sport science and medicine, athlete wellbeing and psychology were consulted throughout the development process.

The main purpose of the Framework is to provide aspiring athletes and their coaches with clear targets to tailor athlete development plans and key focus areas for ongoing learning and development. An important caveat is that the framework provides guiding principles for a situational development approach and should not be seen as a panacea to be prescribed without a deep understanding for long term-athlete development principles.

The Framework is a key deliverable from the #nextlevel strategy, which brings to life and shares the expertise of the AST to the broader sailing community.

You can download a summary of the strategy from the Australian Sailing Team website. www.australiansailingteam.com.au/about/documents/

Featured Charter
Pata Negra - Marc Lombard IRC 46. Located in UK 2021, Caribbean 2022

Pata Negra, a Marc Lombard designed IRC 46, is capable of a podium result both inshore and offshore. With an Axxon Carbon rig, twin rudders, open cockpit and asymmetric sailplane. Pata Negra ticks a lot of boxes! Available to Charter in the UK 2021 and Caribbean 2022.

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Lucy Jackson - LV Yachting
Call: +44 (0) 20 3920 6261
Email:
lvyachting.com

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
2006 Swan 100-103 'Hoppetosse'. Located in Palma de Mallorca.

Hoppetosse is a superyacht and masterpiece built by Nautor’s Swan and launched in 2006. She combines the performance of a racing yacht with world-class comfort and opulence. The Swan 100 FD's deck lines give the yacht a very impressive sleek and racing oriented look. The cockpit concept features two spacious L-shaped sofas with large cockpit tables on either side of the centre-line companionway. In addition the helmsman seats are extended aft to form another seating area on the aft deck. The coaming continues aft of the L-shaped helmsman seats awarding a sleek and elegant profile.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Lorenzo Bortolotti
Nautor's Swan Brokerage
T. +377 97 97 95 07

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Outremer 4X - New Boat

Outremer 4X is the fastest sailboat in its category. Its outstanding performance ensures enjoyment and safety and allowed it to earn the distinction as the European Yacht of the Year 2017

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

Tel : +33.467 560 263

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Dazcat 1295. From 530,000 ex VAT GBP

The Dazcat 1295 has it all. Hand-engineered to an exceptional quality for stunning good looks, outstanding sailing performance, comfort and ease of ride for coastal and blue water cruising and racing.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

www.dazcat.com/d1295.html

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

The Last Word
Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride. -- Anthony Bourdain

Editorial and letter submissions to

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