In This Issue
• Les Voiles catches its breath
• Female Owner Joins 44Cup
• What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
• OnCourse - Episode 14
• Great Britain SailGP Team take franchise ownership
• RORC Caribbean 600
• ILCA European Championships
• Brewin Dolphin’s Record Attempt
• Laurie Davidson
• Featured Charter: Ichtus - Futuna 70 Sailing Yacht
• Featured Brokerage:
• • YYachts Y7
• • Jeanneau 51
• • NEEL 51 - Trimaran
• The Last Word: Elim Garak

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

Les Voiles catches its breath
The expected Mistral episode translated as powerful winds throughout this Wednesday, with 42 knots recorded in the bay, gusting to 50 knots. Needless to say that in circumstances such as these it was impossible to host any races today. The 45 Maxi Yachts competing in the second week of Les Voiles wisely remained tucked up in the harbour, beefing up their warps as they awaited the much hoped for abatement at the end of the day.

Following yesterday’s exceptional racing, there were a number of competitors who were not averse to the prospect of being able to enjoy a brief interlude with the Mediterranean providing the perfect backdrop. Inevitably, they have plenty of repairs to busy themselves with as a result of the bracing sailing in the bay breeze, which has produced some exceptional images which will doubtless ensure that the lavish and classy legend that is Les Voiles warms everyone’s hearts for a good while to come.

Battle is set to resume on Thursday and naturally a new scenario, a new set, new lighting and new adventures await the enthusiastic skippers in the 4 IRC groups, to which will be added the highly exclusive in-house Mini championship comprising the 6 Wallys in action at Les Voiles this week.

6 sizeable Wallys with very different designs are racing at Les Voiles in a variety of groups. Lyra (Wally 77), Ryokan (Wally 80) and Rose (Wally 80) are sailing in IRC 3B, Green Eyes (Wally 107) in IRC2, whilst Magic Carpet Cubed (Wally Cento) and Y3K (Wally 100) are in IRC1. As a result, a formula has been devised to award points to each yacht at the end of each race, taking into account the ranking of each boat in their respective groups, independently of the courses and ratings. In this way, yesterday’s race saw Lyra take pole position, ahead of Ryokan and Magic Carpet Cubed. The boat that places highest at the end of Saturday’s racing will receive the one and only Wally Trophy. -- Maguelonne Turcat

www.lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr

Female Owner Joins 44Cup For 2021 RC44 World Championship
Nine teams are in Scarlino, Italy this week to contest the annual RC44 World Championship. This is fourth event of the 2021 44Cup, following Portoroz, Slovenia; Marstrand, Sweden and Cowes, UK, before the circuit concludes with the 44Cup Calero Marinas Lanzarote in November.

This is also the 11th edition of the World Sailing-sanctioned RC44 World Championship since Larry Ellison and his ORACLE Racing team won the first in Puerto Calero in 2010, en route to winning that year's annual fleet racing season.

Going into this World Championship for the high performance owner-driver one designs, there is a tie for overall lead between two 44Cup titans, Igor Lah's Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860 and Chris Bake's Team Aqua. Both are on seven points, having respectively won in Portoroz and Marstrand, four points ahead of Hugues Lepic' Aleph Racing, winner of the inaugural 44Cup Cowes event in August.

A newcomer to the 44Cup for this event is the circuit's first ever female owner-driver. While some women have been reserve helmsmen for teams, Moscow-based lawyer Valeriya Kovelenko is the first officially and has put together her ArtTube team with tactician Igor Lisovenko, who represented Russia twice at the Olympic Games in the Laser dinghy.

Kovelenko has been campaigning a J/70 for the last five years and in the smaller sportsboat has twice won the competitive Monaco winter series as well as the Russian National Championship. Her crew comes from the J/70 as well as the former 44Cup teams, Synergy and Kirill Podolsky's RUS-7. "A lot of my crew sailed in the RC44 and have great memories of the class. For five years it has been my dream to join it," admits Kovelenko, who knows RC44 owners Vladimir Prosikhin and Nico Poons from racing them in Monaco and in Russia. "I am happy to be sailing in the World Championship. Thanks to Bertrand [Favre, Class Manager] and Jessica [Gray, Event Manager] for making this happen."

The RC44 World Championship starts Thursday with a first warning signal at 1200 and will conclude on Sunday.

www.44cup.org

Seahorse October 2021
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine

The blink of an eye...
The ability to judge where the start line is as you approach it at 40kts is not something that troubles most racing sailors. But for SailGP crews the information is crucial.

The sum of the parts
Andrew Mcdougall gave us the first and since then the majority of competitive production built Moth foilers; now he has a new one. 'Amac' has also helped hundreds of more impecunious sailors share the foiling life. Blue Robinson

RORC - Falling close to the tree
Jeremy Wilton

Seahorse build table - (Genuinely) fit for purpose
And Paul Bieker's got us another one

Rod Davis - Bad taste
There's little appetite in evidence outside the gates of Team New Zealand for the possibility of the America's Cup defence being sold off overseas

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OnCourse - Episode 14
INEOS Britannia with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team is a big deal and one that some believe paves the way towards a new era of advanced development in the America's Cup. PlanetSail was there and talks to the big guns to find out how this partnership will work.

We report on the SailGP season as the foiling fleet descends on St Tropez, plus we find out what the world's sailing rock stars do in their spare time.

But it's not all about foiling, Matt Sheahan got stuck in with the 44Cup fleet when it came to Cowes to discover why the world's best don't always choose foils.

Plus, there's our regular helping of Docktalk

Great Britain SailGP Team take franchise ownership
Ahead of the sixth event in the global racing league’s second season in Cadiz - Andalucía, the Great Britain SailGP Team has become the first of the existing eight SailGP teams to evolve to a third party owned franchise with Ben Ainslie, the world’s most successful Olympic sailor and America’s Cup winner, taking majority ownership of the team.

This announcement comes with further news that two additional new franchise teams will be joining the league for Season 3, the first of which was announced as a Swiss team on September 6th in Geneva.

When Ainslie entered SailGP for Season 2, he secured an option from Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison to take ownership of the team franchise if the team’s running costs and liabilities were covered in full. Through an investment from Chris Bake this option has been exercised and Ainslie and Bake now take majority ownership of the team. Larry Ellison’s Oracle Racing Inc retain a minority equity in the team.

The greater commercial opportunities owning the majority of the Great Britain SailGP Team franchise provide were one of the key drivers behind Ainslie’s and Bake’s investment, with the pure sporting challenge enhanced by SailGP’s innovative sustainability and pathway programmes.

SailGP resumes in Cadiz, Spain for the final event of the European leg of the season on 9-10 October 2021.

sailgp.com/teams/great-britain/

RORC Caribbean 600 - Back in action
The hiatus is over - the RORC Caribbean 600 is back and set to start in Antigua on February 21st, 2022. Early entries include teams representing a dozen different countries from around the world.

An astonishing pack of multihulls will be ripping through the course, including the race record holder Maserati Multi70. The flying Italian stallion is skippered by Giovanni Soldini. The reigning class champion, and 2020 Line Honours winner, Cayman Island’s Peter Cunningham will be racing MOD70 PowerPlay. The multinational team, skippered by Ned Collier Wakefield, is set for a stout defence of their title. Back for another bite at the apple is Jason Carroll’s American MOD70 Argo with multiple record holder Brian Thompson on the team sheet. Antoine Rabaste and Jacek Siwek will be taking part in their second race with the largest multihull in the fleet, the French 80ft Maxi Multi Ultim’Emotion 2.

Of the expressions of interest so far, favourite for Monohull Line Honours is the 100ft Supermaxi Comanche, with a triple-A crew skippered by Australian Mitch Booth. The VPLP-Verdier 100 last competed in the race in 2016, finishing in just over 40 hours. Given solid trade winds for the race, Comanche is very capable of beating the Monohull Race record, set by George David’s American Rambler 88 in 2018 (37 hours 41 minutes and 45 seconds). Of the current entries, the biggest threat to Comanche will be the boat that set the original record, the Farr 100 Leopard 3 back under new ownership.

The overall winner and individual class winners for the RORC Caribbean 600 are decided by IRC time correction. Tilmar Hansen’s German TP52 Outsider is expected to be defending their overall win in 2020. Outsider races in IRC Zero which is shaping up to be a real battle of the titans and, more often than not, the winner of the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy comes from the big boat class.

David Collins’ British Botin IRC 52 Tala came second overall in 2019 and can match Outsider all the way around the course. From Larchmont YC USA, Christopher Sheehan will be racing Pac52 Warrior One, class winner of the 2021 Transpac Honolulu Race. Two new designs will make their debut in IRC Zero. German skipper Stefan Jentzsch has competed in the race on many occasions, but this will be the first RORC Caribbean 600 for IRC 56 Black Pearl with a multinational team, including South African Marc Lagesse. The Infiniti 52 Zeus will also be making its race debut. Boat Captain Matt Brushwood confirms that the carbon 52ft yacht is close to completion in the USA. A principal design feature is transverse DSS foils. -- Louay Habib

caribbean600.rorc.org

Aussies set for Gold Fleet racing at ILCA European Championships
It was another long and wavy day on the Black Sea as the 2021 ILCA Senior European Championships in Bulgaria hit their halfway point.

Luke Elliott is feeling good being back in competition and knows the significance this has for his Paris 2024 campaign.

"It's really important to start the lead-up to the next games well and check in with an international fleet for the first time in nearly two years," Elliott said.

Elliott commented “This is all great training for the Worlds in a few weeks’ time.”

The top 58 Laser men will head into gold fleet racing tomorrow, with all Australian entrants making the cut.

Three races are scheduled for each fleet playing catch-up.

Top Five Men, Open European Trophy
1. Micheal Beckett, GBR, 7 points
2. Zan Luka Zelko, SLO, 8
3. Pavlos Kontides, CYP, 9
4. Luke Elliott, AUS, 11
5. Filip Jurisic, CRO, 12

Top Five Women, Open European Trophy
1. Line Flem Host, NOR, 13
2. Vasileia Karachaliou, GRE, 26
3. Agata Barwinska, POL, 28
4. Louise Cervera, FRA, 30
5. Maxime Jonker, NED, 43

Full results

eurilca.org

Brewin Dolphin’s Record Attempt
Click on image to enlarge.

Led by the irrepressible Charlie Egerton-Warburton, the Brewin Dolphin International Grand Prix 2022 is expecting to attract the biggest ever fleet of RS Elites, to assemble in Cowes on the Isle of Wight in June next year. Hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron, the event, running from 9th to 12th June inclusive, will incorporate the 2022 RS Elite National Championships.

The regatta team have set a target of 55+ boats on the starting line, a significant increase on the previous record RS Elite fleet, which was also a Squadron event, when 42 boats attended the 2012 National Championships, one of six previous events Charlie has organised for the class over the last decade.

With characteristic exuberance, Charlie is promising great competition on the waters of the Solent and an unrivalled social scene ashore. A resident of the Island for many decades, one of his main themes is promotion of Isle of Wight products and businesses, with the promise of an entry pack stuffed with a showcase of the island’s best goodies.

“I have attracted the best of the best in terms of race management,” said Charlie, “and can assure you that the off-water socials will be unforgettable”. As well as a big commitment from the various U.K. based RS Elite fleets, there is interest from owners in Australia, Antigua, Canada, Italy, Norway and the USA.

Overseas interest is strong and growing, with Italy’s Paolo Pasquini confirming in an e-mail, “yes, of course the two Italian Elites will come to the race! Kind regards and good winds, Paolo.”

Designed by Phil Morrison, the RS Elite is a 2 – 4 person, high performance keelboat, that has attracted some very high quality sailors over the years, including Olympic medallists and world champions from both keelboat and dinghy classes. The Brewin Dolphin International Grand Prix was originally scheduled for 2020, but was inevitably postponed due to the pandemic. -- John Roberson

www.rys.org.uk

Laurie Davidson
Former America's Cup-winning boat designer Laurie Davidson has passed away aged 94.

Davidson, inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2007, was one of the lead designers in successful Team New Zealand campaigns in 1995 and 2000.

Notably, Davidson helped develop "Black Magic", the famous boat that took Sir Peter Blake and Russell Coutts to a 5-0 sweep over Dennis Conner's Young America to claim the America's Cup for New Zealand for the first time.

In the 2000 campaign, Davidson again excelled. When designers of competing syndicates used the hull shape of Black Magic as a yardstick, he invented what is now known as the "Davidson bow", a forward hanging geometry that provides slightly greater sailing length within the rating. Again a Davidson-designed boat won 5-0, this time against the challenger Luna Rossa of Italy.

Davidson's accomplishments were then recognised in the 2000 New Year Honours, when he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to yacht designing.

Team New Zealand expressed its grief to hear of Davidson's passing and praised his contributions to the sport.

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The Last Word
I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day. But I don't trust coincidences. -- Elim Garak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

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