In This Issue
• Re: An 'open letter' to Richard Brisius and Johan Salén
• Ranger Record Round the Island Win for Debutant Owner
• A welcome addition - A&T
• 18ft Skiffs Queen of the Harbour
• This Monday: Q&A Live Call with Barbara Kendall
• Finn UK Nationals
• Mahi 2 is the first autonomous vessel to cross the Atlantic
• Customs detains over 100 vessels at the Moorings for non-compliance
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Nautor Swan 371
• • IMOCA 60 - Arkea Paprec FRA04
• • Arcona 385
• The Last Word: Christopher Hitchens

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

An 'open letter' to Richard Brisius and Johan Salén
We'd like to take this opportunity to confirm that we have reached out to Barry Pickthall and connected with him on Friday to address the concerns he raised in his "Open Letter".

As custodians of The Ocean Race, we feel a great responsibility towards the heritage of the event and to honour the people who have sailed in this race as we carry the legacy forward. In the story Barry referenced, we could have taken a wider approach in our fact-checking. Our team has updated the piece on our website to reflect a more complete telling of the origin of the 1973-74 Whitbread Round the World Race following Barry's comments.

Barry himself, along with a handful of his colleagues, can be considered among of the journalist legends of the Race, given the work they have put in over past editions to tell the story of the amazing men and women who have taken on the compelling challenge of what was known originally as the Whitbread Round the World Race and then for nearly twenty years as the Volvo Ocean Race. We hope his contributions continue.

Looking forward, this is an exciting time for The Ocean Race. In less than a year, on 15 January 2023, two fleets of fully-crewed IMOCAs and VO65s will depart from Alicante, Spain for the 14th edition of the Race, marking the 50th anniversary - golden jubilee - year of the event.

Already, the local organising committees in our nine stopover cities around the world, along with our growing team in Alicante, are engaged and working to provide an unforgettable experience for the sailors, our stakeholders and partners, and local visitors alike.

This edition of the Race will feature the longest leg in the history of the event, racing through the deep south, direct from Cape Town to Itajaí, Brazil, with some of the best sailors in the world motivated to take on this epic challenge.

And despite these uncertain times we are expecting the largest fleet of entries in the race in more than 20 years. Our goal has been to have more participating teams than we had in the last race and we are pleased to be on track to reach this.

As has been the case since its inception, The Ocean Race today is a platform for uniting and motivating people to achieve the extraordinary. And the Race is also driving change towards a healthier and more sustainable planet. While our sailors have always been leaders when it comes to protecting our ocean, with sustainability now a core principle of the event, our Racing with Purpose initiatives are reaching top decision-makers and influencers around the world, like French President Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, among many others. This is a positive development that reaches beyond sailing.

We invite Barry - and all of you - to join us at the start in Alicante, Spain in January (or any of our amazing stopovers through the Grand Finale in Genova, Italy at the end of June 2023) to see it for yourself. Come and enjoy the latest chapter in the amazing story of The Ocean Race.

Richard Brisius and Johan Salén

www.theoceanrace.com

Ranger Record Round the Island Win for Debutant Owner
Click on image to enlarge.

J Class debutant team Ranger won their first race together at the Saint Barth's Bucket - the Caribbean superyacht regatta which has long been a favourite with the historic class.

On the 25-nautical mile counter-clockwise passage round the island, Ranger remained clear of the fray a spirited tussle at times between Hanuman and Velsheda - and pushed hard from behind to save their time on the leading, faster rated duo.

The winds were slightly kinder than for Thursday's opening day of windward-leewards a more manageable 15-18knots and while Hanuman led off the start line which was set just outside Gustavia, Velsheda progressively caught on the spinnaker leg down the outside of the island.

As the two leaders passed the rocky Petits Groupers islets, Hanuman did not give enough room to inside boat Velsheda and was penalised. The incident between the two, and the consequent penalty turns, allowed the slower rated Ranger to close down on the leaders. From there Ranger sailed clean to win their first race, a welcome compensation after having to sit out yesterday's second race due to a winch failure.

* Second win sees Ranger lead into Saint Barth's Bucket Sunday showdown
Ranger won their second successive race at the Saint Barth's Bucket superyacht regatta by just 15 seconds to hold a slender lead of just one point ahead of the tied duo Hanuman and Velsheda to set up an exciting winner-takes-all finale.

The team might be the 'new kids on the block' as far as J Class racing is concerned, competing together for the first time at a J Class regatta, but theirs is a very experienced outfit, laden with America's Cup winning talent led by skipper-helm Ed Baird with John Kostecki calling tactics supported by Jordi Calafat as strategist.

Competing around today's 22.5 miles nautical miles coastal buoys contest billed by the organisers as a 'not so wiggley race' which offered a good mix of upwind, downwind and reaching work in 17-22kts of trade winds, once more the Ranger crew sailed clean and made no obvious sail handling or tactical errors to win on corrected time as the slowest rated J Class of the trio racing here.

On the final beat to the finish line Velsheda once again made a sizeable gain back at Hanuman, pulling back 40 seconds or so between the last mark and the finish line. Although they crossed just a few seconds behind it was too little too late for Velsheda who finished third today.

Race 4 result:
1. Ranger elapsed 2:14:27, corrected 2:07:46
2. Hanuman elapsed 2:12:02, corrected 2:08:01
3. Velsheda elapsed 2:12:10 corrected 2:10:37

Standings after 4 of 5 scheduled races
1. Ranger 2,4,1,1 8pts
2. Hanuman 1,2,4,2 9pts
3. Velsheda 3,1,2,3 9pts

www.jclassyachts.com

A welcome addition - A&T
Autopilots are an absolute hotbed of performance development - the news that a market leader in superyacht electronics is joining the party will raise the bar even further

A+T has built a well-established reputation for high performance instruments, with beautiful engineering and second-to-none support. Their products are now being used on over 400 of the world's largest and fastest superyachts.

Building on this foundation they have now launched a new autopilot built to the same exacting standards. This is the first production autopilot using a web server interface so the user can easily see "inside" the pilot to see how it is performing.

Full article in the April issue of Seahorse

18ft Skiffs Queen of the Harbour
Queen of the Harbour winner 2022, Charmaine Hill and a group photo of the competitors in the 2022 race. Photo by Jessica Crisp. Click on image for photo gallery.

Sydney Harbour: Charmaine Hill is the 2022 Queen of the Harbour after teaming with Michael Coxon, Ricky Bridge and Zac Barnabas in Smeg to win the Australian 18 Footers League's annual 18ft skiff race on Sydney Harbour today.

The Smeg team led for most of the two-lap windward-return course in a 12-knots South-East breeze to defeat Yandoo (Josh Porebski, Fang Warren, Mike Kennedy and Emma Phillips) by 40s with Noakes Blue (Yvette Heritage, Tom Clout, James Turner and Bec Hancock) a further 42s back in third place.

Noakes Youth (Tom Cunich, Wallis Brewer) finished in fourth place followed by Burrawang-Young Henrys (Simon Nearn, Emma Edwards) and 18 Footers Bar and Restaurant (Pedro Vozone, Ali Vandeness).

Smeg led from Noakes Blue at the top mark on the first lap of the course with Yandoo and Shaw and Partners Financial Services close together in third and fourth place.

Burrawang-Young Henrys, 18 Footers Bar and Restaurant and Noakes Youth headed the rest of the fleet and there was little change at the head of the fleet over the final lap of the course.

Another winner today was the 2021-22 season Yandoo team of John Winning, Fang Warren and Mike Kennedy who won the Australian 18 Footers League Pointscore series.

Yandoo finished the season with a total of 180 points, just one point ahead of the rookie Rag & Famish Hotel team of Harry Price, Josh McKnight and Harry Hall. The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines (Aron Everett, John Cooley and Charlie Gundy) finished in third place with a total of 204 points.

Today's race was the final event of the 2021-22 season. Racing will recommence in October for the 2022-23 season. -- Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.

www.18footers.com

This Monday: Q&A Live Call with Barbara Kendall
Barbara Kendall competed in 5 Olympic games from 1992 to 2008, winning a medal in every colour. Gold in 1992, silver in 1996 and bronze in 2000. During her career Barbara dominated the world of windsurfing by also winning 11 world championship medals and 25 national championships. In 2018 she led a very successful New Zealand Youth Olympic Team to the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, so she knows how to plan for other athletes' success too.

Planning your campaign, prioritising your time, getting serious about how you're going to raise the necessary funding for world-class success. These things might not be the reason why you first went sailing, but to win even at national level, let alone international or Olympic level, you need to be organised and have a solid but flexible plan in place.

Barbara has a reputation for being ferociously well organised. She had to be, especially for her last two Olympic campaigns when the athlete/mother travelled with her young kids in tow. All of which makes her the perfect Q&A expert for next week's Road To Gold live call.

This is a chance for existing Road To Goldsters to ask their questions about Chapter 11 of the online course.

It's free to get live access to the call, all you need to do is sign up here at www.roadtogold.net. It takes less than 30 seconds.

WHEN? The Q&A kicks off on Zoom at 1900 hours UK time on Monday 21 March/ 0800 hours NZ time on Tuesday 22 March.

HOW?
Join Zoom Meeting with Barbara Kendall

Meeting ID: 871 0233 5223
Passcode: 945082

Make sure you're signed up to the Road To Gold Facebook Group to get further info on the call.

www.roadtogold.net

Finn UK Nationals
Don't miss the early bird discounted entry for the UK Nationals!

The 2022 Finn UK Nationals is hosted by WPNSA, the London 2012 Olympic sailing venue from May 13-15. BFA members can save £50 on their entry by booking online before March 31st.

Sign up via the BFA Membership & Subscriptions page of the website to secure your Nationals entry for just £60, before it rises to £110 on 1st April.

The UK National championships will again be generously supported by Ronstan and The Old Salt Loft, with lots of great prizes to win and the much sought after BFA event polo shirt for every entrant!

RYA Members can book accommodation, at the RYA Portland House, for £75 / room. To make a booking email Debbie Woof or call 01305 828941.

Mahi 2 is the first autonomous vessel to cross the Atlantic
Click on image to enlarge.

Mahi 2 reached the shore in Martinique after 8000km and 6 months at sea. The autonomous vessel, powered only by solar energy, left A Coruña, Spain on September 22, 2021 at 7 am and is the first of its kind to complete an Atlantic crossing.

Despite losing satellite connection in January, the small vessel continued its journey indipendently until the end. The project Mahi team is currently planning on going to Martinique in order to retrieve it.

Born from a Dutch team of passionate engineers, Mahi is a mono-hull measuring 4 x 1 x 0.5 meter. The hull is made of composite materials and designed to be streamlined, strong and light. The boat communicate by exchanging data through an onboard modem, GPS and automatic identification system. The brain of the boat is a self-developed software running on embedded microprocessors to steer, communicate and manage the energy flows onboard.

The electric system on board consists of two Torqeedo battery packs, Solbian solar panels and several electric consumers such as the Torqeedo electro-motor, the bilge pumps, steering actuator and electronics.

Several sensors are fitted on board: temperature sensors, conductivity and dissolved oxygen, cameras, AIS and more.

This achievement paves the way to a series of future applications, Mahi can measure basic atmospheric and oceanographic parameters over vast areas of the world's oceans.

projectmahi.com

Customs detains over 100 vessels at the Moorings for non-compliance
Her Majesty's Customs has detained more than one hundred vessels at The Moorings for lack of compliance with government regulations; stating that the charter company was given ample time and extended lenience to get its vessels compliant with regulations.

Yesterday afternoon, officers from Customs and Virgin Island Shipping Registry (VISR) conducted checks on vessels docked at The Moorings to ensure they had a commercial license, safety certificates, and insurance.

Speaking with ZBVI, Senior Customs Officer Sassoon Fahie said non-compliant vessels will be detained until they comply.

She said The Moorings is one of the territory's largest charter companies and it possesses one of the largest fleets of boats. However, Fahie also said many of its boats have not met Customs' policy requirements to a standard that would allow them to operate or remain in the territory.

"Our regulations changed in October, and we had a lot of symposiums on what is required to operate on a commercial license and what is expected of your vessel to operate here. These symposiums Moorings attended, and they were aware of what was supposed to be done in order to meet our compliances. However, these were not met," the Senior Customs Officer said.

Full story in BVI News

Letters To The Editor -
Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Malcolm McKeag:

The late Tony Fairchild, an old-school journalist who for years was yachting correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, gave me some tips that have stayed with me ever since. The first sentence should be 28 words long and the first para no more than four sentences. And those sentences must answer five basic questions: What? Where? When? Why? And who won?

Tony, by his own admission 'not in the slightest interested in yachting or yacht racing', was trained in the days of hot metal type, pages laid out in a wood frame on a table called 'the stone', copy phoned-in on a not always reliable land-line, space and thus words both finite entities. The object of the exercise, as John Roberson puts it, being to impart information (which job, by the way, be it that of reporter or press officer should be entirely distinct from what is called 'PR').

The important stuff goes in the first paragraph, the detail in following, preferably short and ever shorter, paragraphs in descending order of importance to the integrity of the main story so that if there isn't room for all of it there is a simple process for shortening it. It was advice that stood me in good stead in a not-unsuccessful career as a press officer for two decades for some of the biggest international sailing events of the time.

Indeed, there is no greater accolade for a press release author than to see his, or her, words in the next day's paper word-for-word, albeit under someone else's by-line. Your two earlier correspondents, in those days my colleagues and now, I hope, still my friends, will know whereof and of whom I speak.

But no names - no pack drill.

* From Laszlo Toth:

My favorite press releases come from the French offshore events, where for decades the copy has followed the "out there with magical dophins, a sailing swordsman steering by the stars a la Moitissier" school of PR. Where you can go 3-4 paragraphs before you find out that this is a sailing event and the participants are not, in fact, immortals visiting from Sirius to show us all how real men and women travel the globe. "Flowery" doesn't begin to describe the prose style.

Another of my all-time favorites was at least 30 years ago. Some short Frenchman had won a France to USA transatlantic race, having hand steered for the last 2-3 days after his auto pilot broke. The release was accompanied by a photo of that sailor standing between two blue-blazered, nautical-cap-attired yacht club poobahs. Each perfectly groomed, and a foot taller than the sailor.

The Frenchman looked like shit. Unshaven, wild "yeah, I've been living on dexedrine for a week" look in his hollow eyes... wearing a filthy offshore jacket. Body language clearly showing that all he wanted was to get a meal and some sleep but NO these a-holes insist he speak to the press and members and take photos.

The assemblage was just missing a police officer slapping cuffs on the poor bastard, as if they'd found him rummaging through the club's kitchen dumpster and accosting members in the parking log for spare change.

The dichotomy between true ocean racing and what the poobahs call yachting couldn't have been clearer. I loved it.

Featured Brokerage
1980 Nautor Swan 371, 65000 EUR. Located in Ancona, Italy.

Ron Holland Swan 371. lovingly maintained and updated throughout her life. With just three owners the boat benefit from a recent refit.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

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

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2019 IMOCA 60 - Arkea Paprec FRA04.

Designed Juan Kouyoumdijan, built in 2019 by CDK and Vincent Riou.

4th of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021. Fully equipped.

Last 2020 Vendee Globe boat available!

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Please call or email Romain Menard for further details :
Phone : +33 618 155 654
Email :

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Arcona 385. POA EUR.

The new Arcona 385 continues to uphold Arcona’s strong heritage of innovation and design excellence, using the finest materials and best craftsmanship without compromising on superior performance through the water. The Arcona 385 is a quick, lightweight and easy-to-manage 11.28m/38foot performance cruiser.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Arcona Yachts AB
Odelbergs Vag 2
134 40 Gustavsberg
Sweden

+46 8 519 410 40

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

The Last Word
Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that's where it should stay. -- Christopher Hitchens

Editorial and letter submissions to

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