In This Issue
• Foiling GC32 catamarans prepare for Mar Menor grand finale
• Minor adjustments with a view to a long leg
• Information - Innovation - Conversation
• Australian Sailing supports Paralympic reinstatement bid
• ORC Responds
• Boat Folk - Britannia
• New Teams Great Start To 18-Footer Season
• Francois Gabart Heads Back Out To Sea
• 2021 Women's Match Racing Worlds
• Featured Charter: Pata Negra - Marc Lombard IRC 46
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Blackcat 50
• • "Dunkirk little ship" - Dawn
• • X-Yachts - X56
• The Last Word: Andy Zaltzman
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
Foiling GC32 catamarans prepare for Mar Menor grand finale
The GC32 foiling catamarans are one week away from entering into combat for a fourth and final time in 2021 with the GC32 Mar Menor Cup which runs from 3rd to the 7th November. This grand finale represents the first time the flying multihulls have visited Spain's famous 170km² salt water lagoon located near Cartagena on the Costa Calida, within the Autonomous Community of Murcia. The event is being hosted by the Club Nautico Lo Pagan with the support of the Turismo Region Murcia, the Autoridad Portuaria de Cartagena and the local municipalities of San Pedro del Pinatar, Cartagena, San Javier and Los Alcazares.
The outcome of the GC32 Mar Menor Cup will decide the overall winner of this ninth season of the GC32 Racing Tour.
At present the favourite to take the title is Alinghi, the team of two time America's Cup winner Ernesto Bertarelli. With Arnaud Psarofaghis helming, the Swiss team won the two opening events of the season in Lagos, Portugal and last month were on track to defend their GC32 World Championship title in Villasimius, Sardinia, until it was unexpectedly prised off them by Red Bull Sailing Team on the last leg of the last race.
Racing will take place out of San Pedro del Pinata on the Mar Menor's northern corner where the GC32 Mar Menor Cup is being hosted by the Club Nautico Lo Pagan.
The event is part of the Spanish celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the circumnavigation of Ferninand Magellan, that was completed by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano.
Minor adjustments with a view to a long leg
Kick-off for the second leg of the 23rd Mini Transat EuroChef will take place this Friday at 14:00 UTC. The 87 sailors still competing in the event will set sail from Santa Cruz de La Palma bound for Saint-François located some 2,700 miles away on the other side of the Atlantic. Though it took between 12 and 13 days for the front runner to complete the passage from the Canaries to the West Indies during the last edition in 2019, the trend which seems to be playing out some two days prior to the start is not looking quite as a quick this year. The reason for this is that the trade wind is currently ranging from very weak to virtually inexistant. As such, the solo sailors will be forced to drop a very long way south in a bid to hook onto more pressure whilst also extending their courses. In this way, the leaders in the prototype and production categories are set to take between 14 and 16 days to complete the distance. This naturally implies a few minor adjustments, particularly regarding the quantities of water and food carried aboard.
Currently lying in 4th place in the production boat category, Jean-Marie Jezequel (951 - FondApro) shares his apprehension. "The first few hours of racing are very likely to be pretty crucial. We're going to have to be right on top of our game to sniff out the slightest gusts and it's imperative we don't miss our connection. I'm also going to set sail with 90 litres of water. I'm taking 15 days of food and a bit extra, given that when it's hot, which should be the case during this section of the course, you consume a lot fewer calories than normal", explains the sailor from the Finistere.
Information - Innovation - Conversation
After two years, it is time to meet again in person! The global leisure marine industry finally comes together from 16 to 18 November 2021 in Amsterdam - Robline will exhibit in Hall 1, booth 265!
Robline has focused on sustainability and performance both in kiting and sailing, and is thrilled to introduce several new products to the portfolio. This includes
- a fully recycled line,
- new packaging material, and
- an award-winning product!
The trade show will take place in compliance with the current COVID19 measures that apply to B2B events in the Netherlands. For country-specific requirements, please refer to relevant resources!
We are looking forward to seeing you there!
Australian Sailing supports Paralympic reinstatement bid
Australian Sailing, the governing body for the sport of sailing, has thrown its support behind World Sailing's campaign for sailing to be reinstated at the Paralympic Games in Los Angeles (USA) in 2028.
World Sailing this morning announced a set of strategic priorities to support the growth of the sport by 2023:
- Increase worldwide participation to 45 nations on 6 continents.
- Increase youth participation (below the age of 30) to 20% of total athletes.
- Grow the number of female participants to 30% and, ultimately, to achieve gender parity.
Focusing on diversity, inclusion, affordability, development, and increasing the number of open and Para sailing events are all part of World Sailing's framework to build on the success of Para sailing.
Australian Sailing President Daniel Belcher is also a member of the World Sailing Council and Events Committee, and today he announced Australian Sailing's unconditional support for the bid.
"Australia is the most successful Paralympic sailing nation, having won four Gold, two Silver and one Bronze across the six Games at which it was contested," noted Belcher.
"Names like Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch became household names and provided inspiration for the many para sailors around Australia. We could not be stronger in our belief sailing must be reinstated to the Paralympics at the earliest opportunity."
"We know that other major sports looking for reinstatement are already drawing up their bid plans," commented David Graham, CEO of World Sailing. "We know that IPC President, Andrew Parsons, has already publicly declared that the IPC will be looking at potential 'new sports' following the successful introduction of new, youth-focused sports at Tokyo 2020. We are on track to achieve our strategic priorities by 2023 and we are taking nothing for granted."
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has joined in the chorus, sending a letter to the President of the International Paralympic Committee earlier this year supporting the bid to reinstate sailing to future Paralympic programs.
ORC Responds
Statement below from Bruno Finzi and the ORC Management Committee in response to yesterday's IRC press release:
We are sorry the IRC Board has expressed shock and disappointment about our decision with YCCS to issue the Notice of Race for next year's ORC Worlds and chosen to misrepresent our dialogue in their press release.
An email was sent on 4 October explaining to them our frustration over their insistence to replicate what we knew was a failed solution of averaging scores in ORC and IRC, as done in 2018 in The Hague. The feedback from the sailors at this event was very negative, and even the minutes of the 2021 IRC Congress admits this as well.
We feel we need to listen to the sailors on what is acceptable to them and not use an ineffectual scoring solution based purely in politics. Our proposal of using ORC scoring for inshore races and IRC scoring for offshore races seems the appropriate solution and we still believe would be acceptable to the constituency.
We therefore fail to see why the decision by YCCS and ORC to issue the ORC Worlds 2022 Notice of Race on 21 October could be a surprise: this is only 8 months prior to the start of this event. We also informed them of this on 4 October, their IRC Board meeting was on 6 October, and the IRC Congress was held on 16 October, and yet we still heard nothing from them before our announcement.
Regardless, we are available to re-engage on these discussions for a combined ORC/IRC event in 2023.
Boat Folk - Britannia
been owned by the same family for over 110 years now. In this film we hear from Anne, 4th generation Davis, on how she fell for Britannia and how she became proud owner.
Britannia's 5th generation Davis owner, Bella Laughton-Clark, happens to be our Marketing Manager and Program Coordinator at the AWBF, so some might say we are a bit biased, but we think this story is worth hearing.
New Teams Great Start To 18-Footer Season
Click on image for photo gallery.
The opening day's racing of the Australian 18 Footers League's 2021-22 season, last Sunday, produced a great result for the club's policy of introducing talented, young sailors into the high-speed world of 18ft skiff racing on Sydney Harbour.
A 10-12 knot South-East breeze provided excellent conditions for the 16-boat fleet and gave the newer teams an opportunity to show their talents.
Two of the 'rookie' teams took full advantage of the opportunity and actually dominated the racing in the two Spring Championship races on the day.
Balmain Slake, Henry Larkings, Max Paul and Flynn Twomey, won both races and leads the points table on two points. Rag & Famish Hotel, Harry Price, Josh McKnight and Harry Hall, finished second and third and is placed second overall on five points.
While the teams may be 'rookies' in the 18s, the individuals in both boats are top class and the two skippers both have impressive international results in youth world championships.
Larkings won two Australian 29er Australian Championships (2017 and 2018) and two excellent results at consecutive Youth World Championships in 2017 and 2018. He placed 9th at the 2017 regatta at Sanya, China then 3rd (in a fleet of 25 international teams) at the 2018 regatta in Corpus Christi, California, USA.
Incredibly, Sunday was the first time Larkings had raced an 18 and says he was "shocked, but happy with the boat's speed." He also paid tribute to the League "we were given the boat John Winning sailed last season, which was perfectly set up for us to go racing."
The other brand new skiffs in the 20-boat fleet are Lazarus Capital Partners (Marcus Ashley-Jones), Noakesailing (Sean Langman) and Yandoo for the 2000 JJ Giltinan world champion John Winning.
2004 JJ Giltinan world 18 footer champion, and international champion yachtsman, Rob Greenhalgh will have his first start for the season as skipper of Finport Finance. -- Frank Quealey
Francois Gabart Heads Back Out To Sea
Trimaran SVR Lazartigue. Click on image to enlarge.
Take-off is scheduled for Sunday 7 November offshore of Le Havre in north-east France. Destination Fort-de-France, in Martinique. For the boats in the Ultim category, that of the giants of the seas, the journey involves 7,500 miles of racetrack, two passages of the equator and two transits across the Doldrums.
On 7 November, just three months after her launch in Concarneau, Brittany, the Trimaran SVR Lazartigue, a genuine flying boat, will take the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre, her first offshore race. François Gabart will make his big comeback to the competitive arena aboard her in the Ultim category. Alongside him will be Tom Laperche, his young sailing prodigy.
The front runners are expected to make the finish after 16 or 17 days at sea. Among the five Ultims lining up for the start of this 15th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the Trimaran SVR Lazartigue is bound to attract attention. Fresh out of the workshops at MerConcept, where she was designed and assembled in her entirety, the large capri blue boat will make her race debut with her unique and sleek design to better cut through the air, her 36 m mast stepped onto a hull measuring 32 m long and 23 m wide, and her cockpit where go-kart steering wheels replace the traditional helm.
Designed and assembled by MerConcept, who contracted the whole project, the Trimaran SVR Lazartigue belongs to a new generation of flying boats where aerodynamics is of equal importance to hydrodynamics. The development of new technologies in all the design domains, makes the Trimaran SVR Lazartigue a unique and revolutionary boat.
2021 Women's Match Racing World Championship takes over Cherbourg
The 2021 Women's Match Racing World Championship, featuring Olympic and America's Cup champions, is set to take over Europe's second largest artificial harbour - Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in Normandy, France - from tomorrow (Thursday, 28 October).
The eight teams of four and five crew members from Finland, France, Netherlands, Sweden and UK will compete over four days of intense racing on J/80 fixed keel one-design sports boats.
The 2021 Women's Match Racing World Championship is being hosted by Yacht Club Cherbourg, after the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) - now hosts of the 2022 edition - was forced to withdraw due to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
The skippers are:
Pauline Courtois (FRA) - Rank 1
Anna Ostling (SWE) - Rank 2
Marinella Laaksonnen (FIN) - Rank 5
Octavia Owen (GBR) - Rank 9
Margot Riou (FRA) - Rank 10
Renée Groeneveld (NED) - Rank 15
Sanna Matsson (SWE) - Rank 21
Kenza Coutard (FRA) - Wild Card
Featured Charter
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1905 Gaff Yawl "Dunkirk little ship" - Dawn. 70,000 GBP. Located in Cowes.
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The Last Word
To all the revolutionaries fighting to throw off the yoke of tyranny around the world: look at British democracy. Is that what you want? -- Andy Zaltzman
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