In This Issue
• Beam Reaching To The Finish
• The Speedsters Of Diamond Rock
• Start date confirmed for The Ocean Race 2022-23
• What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
• Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar
• Jules Verne Trophy: A Thursday start for the maxi-trimaran Sails of Change
• Conclusions From The Eurochef Mini Transat
• Mediterranean ports consider Ocean Globe Race host options
• Niels Jeppesen Collaborates with Arcona Yachts
• Featured Charter: J121 - Wings
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Baltic Yachts 48 DP
• • SY SOJANA
• • Gunboat 60 ALAIA
• Back on Monday
• The Last Word: Marcus Tullius Cicero

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 13th annual Wight Vodka Best Sailor's Bar search is on... Send us your stories and drink recipes...

Beam Reaching To The Finish
The breeze looks patchy over the final miles to the finish at Fort de France on Martinique, but Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière are firmly on course for LinkedOut's first big win in the IMOCA Class.

With 320 nautical miles still to sail in the fifteenth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the blue and white IMOCA is expected to cross the line on Thursday morning after nearly 18 days at sea in a race dominated by light-to-medium conditions.

This has been an impressive 2,000-mile leg from Fernando de Noronha for LinkedOut when Ruyant and Lagravière have steadily increased their margin over the chasing duo of APIVIA and Charal. With Lagravière focusing on trim and Ruyant on tactics, the pair have been on the pace throughout, showing an excellent turn of speed downwind and then at right angles to the wind.

Behind them Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat on pre-race favourite APIVIA have been fighting to stay in touch, but also to keep Jeremie Beyou and Christopher Pratt on Charal behind them. Right now APIVIA is 155 miles behind LinkedOut and 50 miles ahead of Charal, with the minor places on the podium seemingly assured.

www.imoca.org/en/news/

The Speedsters Of Diamond Rock
All seven Ocean Fifty multihulls have now finished the Transat Jacques Vabre. And we have a winner in the esports version of the race.

Whilst Primonial may have won the trans-Atlantic race, the Diamond Rock Trophy went to Solidaires en peloton-Arsep co-skippered by Thibaut Vauchel-Camus and Frederic Duthil.

The trophy is awarded to the fastest boat on the final stretch of the race. As the race-boats approach Martinique they must pass the famous landmark of Diamond Rock that also marks the start of the timed sprint to the finish line. Solidaires en peloton-Arsep completed the sprint in 43 minutes and 32 seconds. They finished the actual transat race in 4th place.

Results of Diamond Rock Trophy in Ocean Fifty:
1. Solidaires en peloton - Arsep (Thibaut Vauchel-Camus - Frederic Duthil): 43'32
2. Les P'tits Doudous (Armel Tripon - Benoit Marie) : 54'22
3. Arkema 4 (Quentin Vlamynck - Lalou Roucayrol) : 1h03'46

www.transatjacquesvabre.org

Start date confirmed for The Ocean Race 2022-23
The start date for leg one of The Ocean Race 2022-23 has been confirmed with both IMOCA and VO65 fleets scheduled to burst from the starting blocks on Sunday, 15 January 2023 from Alicante on Spain's Mediterranean coast.

There will be race activity throughout 2022, with teams building their campaigns towards prologue racing as well as with The Ocean Race Legends, sustainability and youth programmes ahead of the assembly period in Alicante late in Q4 of the year.

Then, in January, the start of leg one will see the fleets racing away on one of the greatest challenges in sailing and the toughest test of a team in sport - over 31,000 nautical miles (57,000 km) around the planet.

"This marks a change for The Ocean Race, as we adjust to the challenges of this new world with a more compact and exciting race route than ever before," said Johan Salen, Managing Director of The Ocean Race.

"We are pleased to have been able to work with our partners in Alicante, which has been the home of the Race since 2009, to agree on a start date for leg one that takes advantage of the Christmas and New Year holiday season and allows for maximum stakeholder opportunities in the week leading up to the start as well."

The opening leg of the Race will see both fleets racing for nearly one week to a finish in Cabo Verde. It will be the very first time The Ocean Race has stopped in the African island chain.

From there the race proceeds to Cape Town, South Africa, before starting the longest and most challenging leg in the history of the Race - nearly 13,000 nautical miles direct through the Southern Ocean and past the three great southern Capes (Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn) before a finish in Itajaí, Brazil.

The Race then goes to Newport, Rhode Island in the USA; Aarhus, Denmark; The Hague in The Netherlands; and on to a Grand Finale finish in the Mediterranean in Genova, Italy in the summer of 2023.

Stopover dates for the above stages of the Race will be confirmed before the end of the year.

www.theoceanrace.com

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

World news
Like the Stones at their peak... Why designers will be up all night (well, the lucky ones) monitoring the myriad new yachts in a bonkers Transat Jacques Vabre. Why no one builds 'boats' any more. Why it's make or break for the Ocean Fiftys. How Charlie Dalin was two miles ahead in 10 miles of racing, why Franck Cammas wishes our other marine friends would stick to the right routes; plus Chris Nicholson - solid as a rock; and the enormous debt that is owed to the late Luiz Kahl. Blue Robinson, Ivor Wilkins, Patrice Carpentier, Dobbs Davis, Dick Neville, Sam Goodchild

Rod Davis - Changing with the times is not enough
How to get the mountain to come to Muhammad

Straight into it
The Super Series fleet may have felt rusty but it didn't look that way. Andi Robertson

Seahorse build table - A package for planet earth
Why all you really need to know is the price

Sailor of the Month
Brilliant (young) sailors doing brilliant things

1yr Print Sub: €77 - £48 - $71 / Rest of the World: £65 www.seahorse.co.uk/shop/subs/

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Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar
We've never had a winner from Australia... perhaps this time's the charm. One of the better tales of sailors being, well, sailors...

Best bar: CYCA Downstairs Bar. Sydney, Australia

Best story ever out of that bar... around 1999? And the CYCA had just completed renovation of the new clubhouse. We had just finished the Cannon Big Boat Series race day, I was mainsail trimmer, and the Yacht Club bar was charging. Two established sailors… one a Whitbread legend and the other an America's Cup legend came out of the toilets stark bollock naked and grabbed a firehouse and proceeded to hose down the bar with hundreds of people in it. Glasses and bottles of alcohol flying off the shelves… it was next level shenanigans. They both had to front the board of directors for disciplinary action the next week and one of the guys fathers was in the board of directors. They had a good laugh apparently but both did time in the sin bin.

Best specialty drink: Jugs of Rum and Coke.

Send us your favorite drink from your favorite bar and they could win this year's Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar award:

eurosailnews.com/sailors-bars

Jules Verne Trophy: A Thursday start for the maxi-trimaran Sails of Change
Dona Bertarelli, Yann Guichard and their nine crew will begin a fresh Jules Verne Trophy record attempt this Thursday. Early in the morning, the maxi-trimaran Sails of Change will cast off from her port of registry in La Trinité-Sur-Mer (Morbihan) to make for the start line offshore of Ushant. Their goal: to complete the non-stop, unassisted round the world course, leaving to port the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin, Horn), faster than the record time set by Francis Joyon and his men in 2017 of 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds. It's also an opportunity for the crew of the maxi-trimaran Sails of Change to support the #30x30 campaign, which aims to protect 30% of the planet by 2030 and raise awareness about this cause.

For this fourth record attempt, the crew led by skipper Yann Guichard has pulled out all the stops in a bid to optimise the trimaran. The boat's hull has notably been shortened by three metres to enhance the balance at the helm and limit vibration. On top of this, the cockpit has also been redesigned throughout to make it more comfortable for the sailors and less exposed to the sea spray. The maxi-trimaran's sail plan has also been redesigned, the aerodynamics improved and the boat has undergone a weight-reduction programme.

At sea, Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard will be surrounded by a crew which boasts a combination of seasoned offshore racing sailors and high-energy youngsters.

On previous occasions, the team has posted the 3rd best time in the Jules Verne Trophy (in 2015 – 2016 in 47 days 10 hours and 59 minutes), earning Dona Bertarelli the title of fastest women around the world in 2015, together with the record for the Ushant – Equator section (in 2019 in 4 days 20 hours and 7 minutes).

2021 Crew On The Maxi-Trimaran Sails Of Change:
Yann Guichard - Skipper
Dona Bertarelli - On-board reporter
Benjamin Schwartz - Navigator
Jacques Guichard - Watch leader
Xavier Revil - Watch leader
Duncan Spath - Helm / Trimmer
Gregory Gendron - Helm / Trimmer
Julien Villion - Helm / Trimmer
Thierry Chabagny - Helm / Trimmer
Jackson Bouttell - Watch leader, bowman
Yann Jauvin - Watch leader, bowman

spindrift-racing.com

Conclusions From The Eurochef Mini Transat
A record number of entries, a staggered re-start on the first stage, a volcanic eruption in the Canaries, unprecedented comebacks, unsettled trade winds, yes each Mini Transat is unique, but this 2021 edition will long be remembered for a whole gamut of reasons. It also was a great race won conclusively by Pierre Le Roy in the prototype division and Hugo Dhallenne in the series. Tip & Shaft takes stock of the sport and the technical stuff on this 23rd Mini.

Some 28 years after his first Mini, Wednesday's finish of Pierre Meilhat, father of Paul and one of the 15 returning racers of field of 90 marked the final finish of this Mini Transat EuroChef 2021. After leaving Les Sables d'Olonne on September 27, the race saw 84 of the 90 competitors have their dreams come true. This Mini Transat followed the general trend of the 2021 season, with a very low number of retirements: three in series and three in prototypes to be precise.

The weather was particularly good between Santa Cruz de la Palma and Saint-François, Guadeloupe on a second stage that race director Denis Hugues describes as "more tactical than physical". The stop in Galicia by the great majority of the competitors during the first stage to dodge a strong gale also had a big positive effect on the reliability of the fleet. Even if this stop caused a little controversy (read our article), the unprecedented 24-hour for repairs granted by the jury to a large part of the fleet "did not ultimately upset the sporting ethos of this edition," confirms Jean Lorre, president of the Mini 6.50 class. "The whole Mini family is back together in Guadeloupe and any bad memories of this stage are behind us."

Without the redress Melwin Fink, one of the few competitors who did not stop during the first stage, would have put his name on the race history in series race but he finished 18 hours and 19 minutes behind Hugo Dhallenne, overall winner. The young German, 22nd in the second stage at Saint-François, finally finished 3rd overall.

This second stage revealed some unexpected names (Loïc Blin, 3rd in series, Arnaud Biston, 6th on his old Manuard 2005 design) but also saw the hopes of many fancied competitors dashed. Those who played the direct rhumb line course paid a price.

Full report in Tip and Shaft

Mediterranean ports consider Ocean Globe Race host options
Following the first announcement of the 2023 Ocean Globe Race in July 2019, owners of Whitbread 60's and a few maxis lobbied the organisers for their own modern class to join this 50th anniversary celebration event of the very first Whitbread race. After months of discussions with interested owners the Classic Challenge was announced, and six teams began early planning and ongoing discussions with two reserving entry positions.

While many teams have since demonstrated interest for the Classic Challenge and continue to do so, organizers have not yet received entry deposits guaranteeing the fleet is sizable enough to provide a competitive, interesting race, alongside the "Retro" class of the OGR.

With time running out for refitting racing yachts ranging from 60 to 80 feet for a round-the-world project, the Founder Don McIntyre has decided that the interested entries have until January 1st , 2022 to put in a refundable deposit to secure their place in the classic challenge.

Should the race organizers fail to secure four deposits by January 1st, 2022 to guarantee a healthy and competitive class, the Classic Challenge will be cancelled.

With a growing list of Mediterranean OGR entries, Don and the team were invited to Marseille last month to discuss with the Societe Nautique de Marseille the candidature of the city as home port of the Ocean Globe Race .

The Ocean Globe Race team will be exhibiting at Boot Dusseldorf in Hall 17, from January 22 to 30, 2022 and will hold a Press Conference to introduce attending OGR entrants.

An Entrants Conference to discuss latest planning followed by an OGR owners' dinner is planned. New owners considering an entry are also invited. Details to be announced shortly.

oceangloberace.com

Niels Jeppesen Collaborates with Arcona Yachts
Arcona Yachts is delighted to announce a new design collaboration with Niels Jeppesen, a world class designer of performance yachts. Niels was a founder and the principal designer within the well-known Danish shipyard, X-Yachts.

Since 2005, Niels Jeppesen has run a yacht design company in the UK together with specialists in the design, construction, and manufacturing of yachts. "Arcona's experience as a manufacturer of quality yachts with superb sailing performance is a perfect match with my long-term knowledge and experience in this area" says Niels Jeppesen. Niels will also join the Board of Arcona Najad Yachts AB, Sweden.

Urban Lagneus, recently appointed Arcona Yachts CEO, himself an experienced Olympic sailor with an enviable racing career with 18 years' experience in senior management roles at Hallberg Rassy, is very much looking forward to this new collaboration. Urban said, "The combination of our extensive experience and complementary competences within performance cruising will result in a very exciting future for our company, our yachts and, importantly, our existing and prospective customers."

Håkan Eksandh, the owner of Arcona Najad Yachts AB, is really looking forward to working with such an experienced and renown designer. "Niels' incredible track record will ensure that we maintain the best design and build standards, both in new projects as well as in the development of our existing Arcona models, ensuring we continue to build and deliver boats that people love to sail. I am incredibly excited for the future of our business" says Håkan.

For more information, visit www.arconayachts.se or contact CEO, Urban Lagneus on +46 (0)70 33 233 10.

Featured Charter
J121 - Wings. Available to charter on the East Coast of the US and Caribbean.

The J/121 is a high performance, offshore capable speedster, sprinting along point-to point, around- the-island or adventure-style race.

The J/121 is a high performance, offshore capable speedster, sprinting along point-to point, around- the-island or adventure-style race. Brand new in 2020, this J boat won’t disappoint J boat lovers and is available to charter on the East Coast of the US this summer.

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
1985 Baltic Yachts 48 DP. 164000 EUR. Located in Tuscany, Italy.

Beautifully built Doug Peterson Baltic Yacht launched in December 1985. Hull nr. 1 of the iconic design, ultra-equipped with furling hydraulic and winches.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Michele Antonini – Grabau International (Italia)
Tel: +39 333 74 89 281
Email:

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SY SOJANA 4,950,000 VAT paid EUR.

PRICE REDUCED TO SELL

115' (35m) Sojana is now for sale and offered in exceptional condition for the 2021 sailing season. Maintained fastidiously this Farr designed performance carbon ketch has excellent accommodation for 6-8 guests. If you have a passion for sailing this yacht offers you a perfect blend of exhilarating cruising, fast ocean passage making and regatta winning pedigree.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Contact Alastair for further details +44747 6888639
carrswoodyachts.com

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Gunboat 60 ALAIA. POA USD.

The world-class luxury, performance Gunboat catamaran ALAIA represents generations of build experience and meticulous upkeep in a platform optimized for self-sufficient cruising and adventure.

Underneath the subtle curves and graceful sheer lines, the Gunboat 60 is a true performance machine built with high-end race boat construction methods and top-of-the-line exotic materials. The all-carbon hulls are built in female molds set in epoxy and post cured over a Corecell foam core to achieve lightness with maximum strength and durability. Performance and safety go hand in hand with ocean-going structures designed to deliver the most pleasurable sailing motion in the widest range of conditions.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

gunboat.com/brokerage

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

Back on Monday
Your humble narrator has gathered most of his flock and will be fully indulging in his favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. No damned shopping, no presents to agonize and fuss over, minimal commercialization... just socially sanctioned gluttony. The "anything worth doing is worth doing to excess" day. Turkey coma and football. Perfect.

I have much to be thankful for this year, including a recent successful heart procedure on my 93 year old mother, who will now probably outlive me. I encourage you to think of how lucky you are to be alive right now, and how important it is to help others. There are a lot of great charities. One of my favorites is called ModestNeeds.org

Modest Needs is a tax-exempt charity where you can make small, emergency grants to low-income workers who're at risk of slipping into poverty and for whom no other source of immediate help is available. You can spare a 10 or 20 note. Feel like a good person for a very small price. Hell of a deal, that.

The Last Word
Not for ourselves alone are we born. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Editorial and letter submissions to

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