In This Issue
• Gilbert & McGrane grab the Tiger by the tail
• St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
• Andrea Fornado Enters Wicklow's Round Ireland Race
• 37th America's Cup Update
• Q&A Live Call with Chris Dickson
• Kovalenko Returns as Australia's First Master Coach
• World Sailing appoints Scott Dougal
• The Ocean Race connects with the One Ocean Summit
• What's Going On?
• Featured Charter: TS5 - Addictive Sailing
• Featured Brokerage:
• • J/112E - "Xanaboo"
• • SWAN 90-709 Nefertiti
• • HH66 - NEW BOAT
• The Last Word: Groucho Marx

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

Gilbert & McGrane grab the Tiger by the tail
Five-Oh heroes Roger Gilbert & Ben McGrane take their third win of the season in the Selden SailJuice Winter Series as they storm to victory at an impossibly windy Tiger Trophy at Rutland Water...

Even gusts close to 30 knots proved incapable of knocking Roger Gilbert & Ben McGrane off course from winning the Tiger Trophy in their 505 last weekend. On both days the inland sea at Rutland Water came alive with white horses as the 96-entry fleet decided whether or not they were up to the job of taking on the harshest of the gusts in the high 20s.

Those who competed in the even windier Tiger Trophy of 2020 still recall that weekend as one of their best ever sailing days. No wonder there were so many repeat customers this year, with around 80 per cent of the fleet getting on to the water on the Saturday, the remainder deciding to preserve bodies and boats for another day.

Double winners from 2019 and 2020 - two breezy Tigers - were back this year. Except that rather than the 420 which they blasted to consecutive victories in those years, Neil Marsden and Jonny McGovern were out in their 470. A capsize on Saturday in race 1 and broken gear in the pursuit race put paid to their chances.

Marsden and McGovern were certainly in the hunt at times, but the 505s were a class apart. Andy Smith and Stewart Mears took the first of two races on Saturday afternoon, closely followed by Gilbert and McGrane. It was Gilbert and McGrane who took victory in the second race of the afternoon chased by last year's Tiger victors, the evergreen Fireball team of Dave Hall and Paul Constable.

Outright Fastest
Roger Gilbert and Ben McGrane -505 9215 18.7 kts
Phil Hardisty, Chris Hill & Pete Richardson - N18 18.5 kts

Fastest adjusted to Great Lakes Handicap
Simon Horsfield Katie Burridge - 2000 17.1 kts
Ollie Williamson-RS Aero 5 2713 - 15.9 kts

www.sailjuiceseries.com

St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
Simpson Bay, St. Maarten: The St. Maarten Heineken Regatta is ready to welcome back another expansive and international fleet to race the waters surrounding the island for the 42nd edition, hosted March 3-6, 2022. From local 24-ft mono- and multi-hull racers to international Maxis, the competition is guaranteed to be fierce!

Leopard 3 aims to be king of the Maxi fleet, coming in at a roaring 100-ft, and guest skippered by Volvo Ocean Race legend Bouwe Bekking. Another beautiful Maxi will be gracing the Caribbean, co-founder of 11th Hour Racing, Wendy Schmidt's new Botin 85 Deep Blue will make its St. Maarten Heineken Regatta debut.

On the other end of the spectrum, a collection of Diam 24s will rival the long-standing local rivalries between Melges in the sportboat classes. The Diam 24s take the sportboat One Design concept into the multihull class, with easy access and expanding fleets of these pocket performance trimarans in France, US and the Caribbean. The island is home to its own fleet of Diam 24s, which enjoy weekly racing, and are looking to welcome fellow owners to St. Maarten Heineken Regatta with two Diam 24s available for charter.

Full regatta details can be found in the NOR.

A few things will be different for this year's event, with shoreside activities adapted for health protocols to ensure teams are having "Safe and 'Serious Fun!'". The Registration process will be streamlined with Crew information collected via online survey in advance.

www.heinekenregatta.com

Andrea Fornado Enters Wicklow's Round Ireland Race
The hard work of Wicklow Sailing Club's 2022 Round Ireland Race committee is bearing fruit with the early entry for this summer's race of the new Class40 yacht Influence by Italian skipper Andrea Fornado.

The VPLP design is the first such Class40 into the race since the 700-miler Irish ocean classic was added to the Class40 International calendar, just one of 25 world-class offshore fixtures on the list.

It's a feather in the cap for organiser Kyran O'Grady who has added the former Irish Volvo 70 Green Dragon last week for the Wicklow startline on June 18.

It may well be that O'Grady's pioneering efforts at the Paris Boat Show in December 2018 and again earlier last month are finding favour on the continent.

It brings the entry to 12 so far in a race where O'Grady expects over 60 boats given the cancellation of the 2020 edition due to COVID.

The accomplished Fornado will have competed in April's RORC's Caribbean 600, and May's Normandy Channel Race before coming to Irish waters.

Fornado is not the first Class40 to have completed the Irish course. As regular Afloat readers will recall, top Figaro sailor Nicolas Troussel in the Mach 40 Corum made a blistering start to the 2018 race.

afloat.ie/sail/

37th America's Cup Update
Matt Sheahan provides an update and his views on the 37th America's Cup along with a quick peek at the new AC40 in build

This Wednesday / Thursday: Q&A Live Call with Chris Dickson, America's Cup helmsman, on how to make your 'Best Speed' even better...
New Zealand burst on to the America's Cup scene for the first time, the team's young leader Chris Dickson was described as the "U-Boat skipper," for the intense glare in his steely blue eyes and his take-no-prisoners approach to success.

In this week's Road To Gold Q&A, the topic is 'Best Speed'. Chapter 4 of the online sailing program looks at the system for developing your upwind and downwind speed to world-class levels.

According to Road To Gold founder Hamish Willcox, Chris Dickson is one of the fastest natural sailors there has been. Hamish should know because together he and Chris won the Youth World Championships together in the late 70s.

Chris went on to forge a successful career across many peaks of the sport - the Olympic circuit, the World Match Racing Tour, the Whitbread Race and the America's Cup. Few know more about making different shapes and sizes of boat go fast than Chris Dickson.

So join Chris, Hamish and Road To Gold co-founder Andy Rice for a 60-minute Q&A this Wednesday/ Thursday on Zoom to help solve YOUR boatspeed challenges.

The call is free to all-comers, and you don't even have to be a paid-up member of Road To Gold. But it helps.

For Members of Road To Gold: This call is your opportunity to fill in any gaps or questions you have about Chapter 4: Best Speed.

For Non-Members: You'll still be able to ask questions on the call, and you might even be sufficiently motivated to become a Member of Road To Gold yourself!

Here's the Zoom link to get on the call free:

Join Zoom Meeting with Chris Dickson

Meeting ID: 840 8603 7911
Passcode: 782133

www.roadtogold.net

Kovalenko Returns as Australia's First Master Coach
Victor "The Medal Maker" Kovalenko will continue to help guide Australia's Olympic sailing champions after signing on to become Australian Sailing's first ever Master Coach.

Kovalenko is Australia's most successful Olympic sailing coach, and the new role will reflect the significant contribution he has made to sailing in Australia since first joining the team back in 1997.

The principal duties of the newly created role will include the provision of leadership, management and coach development and mentoring services to Australian Sailing.

Kovalenko will closely work Australian Sailing's Technical Director Michael Blackburn and Performance Pathways Manager Ken Lynch to align directly with a range of targeted coaches' Individual Development Plans. Imparting his unmatched wisdom to ensure Australia delivers on its goal of sustainable, repeatable success on the Olympic stage is the goal. He will coach and mentor the development of Australia's Olympic coaching tree, including the Australian Sailing Team (AST) and identified Australian Sailing Futures Program coaches.

The rest of the refreshed Australian Sailing Team coaching appointments are expected to be announced in the coming days.

sailing.org.au

World Sailing appoints Scott Dougal as Director of Communications and Digital
World Sailing has appointed experienced media and communications strategist, Scott Dougal, as Director of Communications and Digital.

Dougal brings over 20 years of experience working within the sports media landscape. He began his career as a reporter and sub-editor with the Press Association, the multimedia news agency, and the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland, before leading on the development of new editorial products in partnership with commercial, page-ready and digital teams.

His roles at the Press Association saw him work on major events including Olympic Games in Athens, Beijing and Vancouver, Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Melbourne and Delhi, as well as major football tournaments Euro 2008, and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He also acted as a consultant to the host news agency at Sochi 2014.

Most recently, Dougal was Head of Communications for British Cycling, a position he has held since 2012. He has worked on three Olympic and Paralympic Games and brings expertise across media relations, stakeholder engagement and digital strategy, with a proven track record of driving engagement and growth.

Dougal will take up the new position in April.

sailing.org

The Ocean Race connects with the One Ocean Summit in France to support ocean protection
Nature's Baton, the symbol of Relay4Nature, has sailed into Brest, where it was welcomed to the One Ocean Summit by the Mayor of Brest Francois Cuillandre and Special Envoy of the President of the French Republic, Olivier Poivre d'Arvor.

Skipper Alan Roura, a two-time competitor in the Vendee Globe, and Olympian Aloïse Retornaz, who took Bronze in the Women's 470 class at the Tokyo Games in 2021, sailed the Baton to Brest from Lorient on Roura's latest generation of an IMOCA 60 boat, accompanied by UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson and Race Chairman of The Ocean Race Richard Brisius.

Relay4Nature, The Ocean Race's initiative developed in collaboration with Ambassador Thomson, helps to give the ocean a voice on the critical issues affecting our planet and connect the major events where decisions are made about the environment.

Starting on Wednesday 9th February, the One Ocean Summit, by the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the support of the United Nations, aims to increase international action for the ocean and drive tangible commitments and is an opportunity to kick-off the second year of the Ocean Decade.

Race Chairman of The Ocean Race Richard Brisius said: "It is fitting that France has organised this milestone event for the ocean, as it is a nation with a rich maritime history that has produced some of the world's top sailors, including several skippers that have won The Ocean Race.

"We are delighted to bring Relay4Nature back to France for the One Ocean Summit, after it featured at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September. By bringing together the platform of our event, the voices of sailors and landmark conferences we can raise awareness of the critical issues affecting the ocean and help to accelerate action."

www.theoceanrace.com

What's Going On?
And so I come to The Ocean Race and a very interesting video that a highly informed reader sent to me. It's quite a hard watch. There's an air around the race that it perhaps has seen better days, that the sport has moved on, but I thoroughly admire the organiser's guts and determination in trying to get it away. Covid hasn't helped one jot and nor has the shift in public perception. Once upon time, fully crewed round the world races were the pinnacle. Nothing came close. Legends were chiselled from it - Dalton, Blake, Walker, Dickson, Conner, Kostecki, Caudrelier, van Rietschoten, Cayard, Grael, Sanderson, Pean, Burling, Slingsby and Cammas to name but a few. Every pro-crew worth his salt sold a kidney to get on any boat going. It was a rite of passage in the pro ranks.

Today it's a murmur. The big money and the media profile is elsewhere. Round the World is done by foiling cats with big stories to tell against the clock and the public latches onto and laps up the sheer endeavour of single-handed in the Vendee Globe. Fully crewed sounds like a cop out or a pay day - and anyone who's sailed knows that's simply not true.

It's still the ultimate challenge whatever boat in whatever race is sailed. I'll follow The Ocean Race until the life-support machine is turned off. I really do hope it's a success with a new interesting route and a first class management team and I sincerely hope that the Spanish come out in droves to send them off. But I have an eerie feeling that this edition could be one too far. I hope I'm wrong.

From Rule69 Blog

Featured Charter
TS5 - Addictive Sailing

Available:
Caribbean - Spring 2022
UK and France - Summer 2022

Built by Marsaudon Composites in Laurient, the TS5 follows on from the TS42 and TS50 and offers a comfortable living space on a sporty chassis. They have made headlines for being among the fastest liveable multihulls in the world and can reach speeds in excess of 20 knots and are able to cover 400nm per day! Addictive Sailing weighs just 8 tonnes, has a rotating mast, fully carbon cross structure & fins and NKE instrumentation. Discover the magic of sailing on a performance catamaran. The TS5 has 4 double cabins, 2 heads and a spacious open plan living space that provides a fantastic platform for entertaining, and enjoying all the toys this TS5 has to offer. Addicitive sailing is perfect for active charters with lots of toys including paddle-boards, kitesurfing equipment, inflatable sailing dinghy and snorkelling equipment.

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Lucy Jackson - LV Yachting
Call: +44 2392 161272
Email:
lvyachting.com

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
2019 J/112E - "Xanaboo". 275000 GBP. Located in UK.

"Xanaboo" is a incredible example of the J/112e design, which has achieved an awful lot in a short space of time. This example, launched in 2019 has been race prepared by her fastidious owner who ensures the boat has all that she requires to compete at the highest level.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats

+442380 016582
+447759 424900

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2010 SWAN 90-709 Nefertiti. Located in Badalona, Spain.

Nefertiti was built in GRP by Nautor’s Swan to a design by German Frers and was delivered in 2010 as a Swan 90.

See listing details in Nautor's Swan Brokerage

Contact
Lorenzo Bortolotti
Nautor's Swan Brokerage - MYM SARL
9, Av. D'Ostende
98000 Monaco
tel: +377 97 97 95 07
email:

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HH66 - NEW BOAT

An alluring range of dual purpose yachts for an expanding sector. "A race boat in disguise" by design, the 66 has been turning heads and collecting accolades and silver around the world. Boat no 6 is set to launch later this year, the lightest and fastest to-date.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Hudson Yacht & Marine

www.hhcatamarans.com

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

The Last Word
A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running. -- Groucho Marx

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