In This Issue
• Spanish big-money bids for America's Cup revealed
• The world's top 49er racers will compete in Mallorca for the Sofia
• Now for some sport! - Bavaria Yachts
• Beacon Group 'A' Class Catamaran World Championships
• Headed to Charleston Race Week? Shoreside passes discounted until April 1
• Emirates Team New Zealand returns to Southern Spars as it eyes up land speed record
• Australia Capsize During San Francisco Practice
• Artisan Sloops in the Grenadines
• Frisco* Shop Window
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Marstrom Seacart 30' - 2006
• • Bavaria C38
• • Bavaria 41 - Pegasus
• The Last Word: Will Rogers

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

Spanish big-money bids for America's Cup revealed
Spain has doubled its chances of hosting the 37th America's Cup after Barcelona announced a bid to attract the event.

With a decision on the host set to be announced by Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on March 31, Barcelona has joined Malaga, Cork in Ireland and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on the shortlist.

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton was last week in Barcelona - Spain's second-largest city and capital of the Catalonia region - to view facilities ahead of the defenders' decision.

Spanish media yesterday reported the Catalan government had thrown its weight behind the bid as a way to boost a tourism industry hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The government has…announced that it authorises the Department of Business and Employment to undertake the necessary actions to promote the candidacy of the Catalan capital in order to win this event," La Vanguardia reported.

"The government is enormously interested in this issue since it considers, above all, that it implies an international projection for both the city and Catalonia and a boost to the recovery of the tourism sector."

www.nzherald.co.nz

The world's top 49er racers will compete in Mallorca for the Sofia
The current Olympic and World Champions in 49er and 49erFX will compete for the 51 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca against many of the top contenders in both classes. Many of the leading sailors have been training during recent days, taking advantage of the excellent conditions on the bay of Palma, sporting the striking black sails that have been incorporated as the new official equipment for Paris 2024.

Among the ten classes that will compete for the 51 Trofeo Princesa Sofía, the 49er stands out as the fastest and most spectacular monohull in the fleet. The powerful two person skiff has been an Olympic class for the 49er since the Sydney 2000 Games and since Rio 2016 for the 49erFX (women's). Both share the same hull and crew of two, but the FX has a scaled down rig.

With just under two weeks to go before the annual showdown begins on the waters of Palma, the list of entries includes a total of 80 boats from 28 nations in the 49er class and 59 teams representing 25 nations in the 49erFX class.

As the first scoring event for the Hempel World Cup Series, the 51 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca will be the first time that the teams will use the new regulation equipment for Paris 2024 in competition, in which the incorporation of 3Di technology sails stands out. This detail will mean a spectacular aesthetic change in the fleet due to the characteristic black colour of the material, but it will also mean an interesting change in performance, at least in theory.

www.trofeoprincesasofia.org

Now for some sport! - Bavaria Yachts
Claes Eliasson, lead designer Maurizio Cossutti and the Bavaria Yachts team all agreed that now is the time for something a bit different…

Have you ever sailed a cruising yacht and wondered how much faster it might be with a good set of racing sails - and with some of the heavy cruising equipment removed? Claes Eliasson, a Norwegian dealer for Bavaria Yachts and a keen club racing sailor, is leading a team with a mission to find out.

Cruisers are of course designed to have a high load-carrying capacity and the best ones sail fairly well even when heavily laden with optional extras like bathing platforms, bow thrusters and cockpit tables. But what if the typical options budget was instead devoted to boosting the boat's performance? How much difference would that actually make?

Full article in the April issue of Seahorse

Beacon Group 'A' Class Catamaran World Championships
Click on image to enlarge.

May 1st sees the start of the 2022 'A' Cat Worlds in Texas after a delay of 2 years and lockdowns. Following successive enforced cancellations of the 2020 and 2021 events, due to be held in St. Petersburgh Florida, an opportunity suddenly arose in last November for an event to be held at a new host club in 2022 and allowing the USA to keep alive the hopes of hosting an 'A' Cat Worlds for the first time in 10 years. The US would have lost it's chance to hold the Championships for at least three more years, had this not been the case. The Houston Yacht Club at La Porte Tx was that club, and frantic work began under the direction US Association President, Bob Webbon, with his small team, to organize a World Championships in double quick time.

A new sponsor, Beacon Consulting Group, who's CEO, Cliff Farrah, is a keen cat sailor, and his 22 year old daughter is a rising US 'A' Cat sailor, then generously stepped forward to ensure the event was properly supported. This, together with help from the City of La Porte, and with the Tasmanian Ingenious Beer Company supplying some custom made beverages for all, now looks like being a memorable event

A 65 year old development class, fast 18ft single-handed catamaran, the World fleet members had voted a few years ago to have the class separate into two official sub-divisions within it's fleets when it's practical foiling possibilities became apparent.

30+ or so sailors are registered in each fleet, and considering the current times, this is pretty fair, and shows the relative popularity of the twin divisions. There are 23 non-US sailors, coming from AUS, NED, FRA, ESP, POL, CAN, ARG and ISV. Amongst them are current are former double World Champion Stevie Brewin AUS, several former and current National Champs including Kuba Surowiec POL, Micky Todd ESP, Emmanuel Dode FRA, current US champions Bruce Mahoney and Bob Webbon, Olympic 49er sailor and ESP Open Champion Iago Lopez Marra, and the America's Cup sailor, Darren Bundock.

www.aclassworld.com

Headed to Charleston Race Week? Shoreside passes discounted until April 1
Advance Purchase Price Is $99.95 For The 4-Day Event And Increases To $125 On April 1St.

Shore-side Event Passes may be purchased here in advance or at the event and will be available for pick up at will-call at the entrance to the Regatta Village at Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina. The pass is good for all four days.

Please see the Event Schedule for detailed information. Each pass will be hole-punched on the appropriate day accompanied by a different color wristband to be worn each day. Individual daily tickets will also be available for purchase at the entrance. Please note that each boat registration includes two Shoreside Event Passes but additional passes must be purchased for additional crew members.

The 2022 Charleston Race Week is from April 28 to May 1.

charlestonraceweek.com

Emirates Team New Zealand returns to Southern Spars as it eyes up land speed record
Emirates Team New Zealand has announced that it is returning to partner with world-leading composite specialists, Southern Spars NZ, in an attempt to beat the wind-powered land speed record.

Long-time Emirates Team New Zealand member Glenn Ashby, who will be in the driving seat, says the record attempt is fulfilling a boyhood dream and that he needed to have absolute confidence in the team involved: "To beat a world record you need to work with the best in the world. I've never once heard Southern Spars say we can't do that - it's always let's make it happen."

What looks to the untrained eye as a simple, stream-lined vehicle belies the intricate Southern Spars technology sitting underneath and plays a key role in driving the team to victory.

With production already under way at Southern Spars headquarters in Avondale, the team is on track for completion in the next 3 - 4 weeks. The different components of the land yacht will then be brought together and shipped to Australia for the record attempt which will likely take place in August on one of Australia's vast salt lakes.

At present, the wind-powered land speed record stands at 202.9km/h - set in 2009 by Richard Jenkins onboard his 'Greenbird' in the USA.

emirates-team-new-zealand.americascup.com

Australia Capsize During San Francisco Practice
The Australia SailGP Team's bid for Championship glory took an unfortunte turn on Thursday as the Flying Roo capsized in San Francisco Bay during a practice session for the Mubadala United States Sail Grand Prix.

The Aussies, who lead the Championship and have already booked their place in the three-team winner-takes-all Grand Final, took their F50 out as the fog descended on San Fran and unfortunately keeled over - with damaging consequences.

Whilst no injuries were sustained by any of Tom Slingsby's crew, the F50 wing showed visible damage when the boat was righted, with further assessments planned when the team return to the Tech Base.

Slingsby and co can take it easy over the five Fleet Races in San Fran, having guaranted their place in Sunday's Grand Final race.

They will be joined in the winner-takes-all shootout by the home United States team, with the third finalist still undecided.

Both Japan and Spain can still qualify for the Grand Final race, with the pressure on heading into Race Day 1 on Saturday.

sailgp.com

Artisan Sloops in the Grenadines
The 42-foot sloop Genesis. Photo by Alwyn Enoe. Click on image to enlarge.

On the island of Carriacou, the largest of the Grenadines, lives a man who has spent five decades keeping a tenuous hold on a boatbuilding tradition that was the lifeblood of the area for centuries. Alwyn Enoe (at right) sculpts his wooden vessels with an ancient cutting tool called an adze, knowing that each will be appreciated for not only its simple beauty but also its impressive speed.

Born in 1943, Enoe started his seafaring life aboard island traders until one caught fire. Several of the crew, including his best friend, died that night. Unwilling to return to sailing but residing where water was ever present, Enoe became a shipwright in 1973, honing a skill that was brought to the islands by Scottish immigrants centuries ago. He is now widely thought to be the last artisan of what are known as Carriacou sloops.

robbreport.com

Frisco* Shop Window
In sailing, particularly in Britain and other developed countries, there have been clear, well-lit pathways through the youth squads, into the youth teams for international events and then for the elite and those that can bear the mind-numbingly boring training sessions at freezing puddles, reservoirs and Weymouth, the Olympic programme hoves into view and becomes an obvious option.

Temperament, physical ability, skill and knowledge is honed from a very long way back. Most of the senior people in the Olympic GBR Squad can name you the likely medallists way into the 2030s and perhaps beyond. They're not always right but by golly, they're close. It's a formula that's been running for thirty years or more and it's wildly successful. The medal tables don't lie.

But into this surety, suddenly the whole foiling game came thundering along and whilst it was largely ignored until Rohan Veal blitzed the Moth Worlds and Team New Zealand got a 70ft leviathan flying, it has quickly trickled down to become ubiquitous. World Sailing took its time but eventually cottoned on to the zeitgeist and in short order the foilers came into the Olympics - and they're not done yet.

Magnus Wheatley's full editorial in Rule69.Blog

* Herb Caen, Emperor Norton & "Frisco"

The 6 September 1995 entry from legendary San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen (1916-1997) included the following note:

"Such balderdash dept.: A front-page story in the Daily Afterblatt yesterday assured readers that two fugitives were arrested by two rookie cops in Berkeley because they said they were from Frisco, 'the one word sure to identify them as tourists or rubes.' The toughest guys on the old S.F. waterfront, neither rubes nor tourists, called it Frisco, and no effete journalist would have tried to correct them, either."

This amounted to a late-in-life recanting of the Frisco Doctrine from the person who widely is recognized as San Francisco's modern theologian of anti-"Frisco" orthodoxy.

Almost invariably, in fact, those who champion the Doctrine today cite two authorities, Caen and Emperor Norton - not necessarily in that order - to buttress their position.

For decades, the famous injunction levying a fine of $25 against anyone "heard to utter the abominable word 'Frisco'" has been attributed to Emperor Norton. And - although we've seen no evidence that he ever wrote or said anything of the kind - it seems to be taken for granted that Caen must have caught the ant-"Frisco" bug from the Emperor.

So it's worth noting that, in Caen's little essay, "Don't Call It Frisco," which introduces his 1953 book of the same name - i.e., in the one place where one would expect to see Caen making his bows to Emperor Norton on this subject - the Emperor never comes up.

The Emperor doesn't even make the index to the book.

emperornortontrust.org

Featured Brokerage
2006 Marstrom Seacart 30'. 110,000 GBP.

Buzz is one of the most successful of all the Seacart30’s built (hull #4) and certainly in the last few years one of the most successful small multihulls on the UK racing circuit having won inshore and offshore events including Cowes week and MOCRA championships with the previous owner. In the hands of the current owner Buzz has won the RORC Offshore championship 2018, 2019 and the shortened 2020 series. She has taken several line honours against the whole of the RORC fleet including The Cherbourg race in 2018 and 2019. She completed the 2019 Fastnet race - 4th MOCRA multihull to finish in 2 days 19 hours setting a new sub 40ft multihull record in the process.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

Tel: +44 (0)7934 777821

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Bavaria C38. POA EUR. Located: bavariayachts.com/service/dealer-locator

The BAVARIA C38 combines perfect sailing characteristics, easy handling and maximum use of the interior space. Distinctive design features, such as the BAVARIA V-bow and Chines at the stern, guarantee safe and fast sailing characteristics and an incredible amount of space below deck. In the owner’s cabin in the bow, the double bed measures a sensational 1.73 x 2 metres. The berths in the stern cabins measure 1.50 x 2 metres, which must also be close to a record for this size of boat.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
bavariayachts.com/service/dealer-locator

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2003 Bavaria 41 - Pegasus. 95,000 Tax Paid GBP. Located in Cowes Isle of Wight.

Pegasus is an exceptional yacht, in excellent condition, and is extremely well equipped and ready to go.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
The Harbour Office, The Quay
Yarmouth, Isle of Wight
PO41 0NT
Please call Nick on +44 7900 191 326 to arrange a viewing.
or email

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

The Last Word
Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock. -- Will Rogers

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