EuroSail News #5114

In This Issue
• Jean Genie becomes first British boat to win Scandinavian Gold Cup
• Rudder-munching Killer Whales
• Making the exceptional standard - Rondal
• An energized Day 4 at the 2022 ORC World Championship
• UK WASZP Nationals
• Pros and Corinthians gather for the J/70 UK Nationals
• Cowes Classics Week
• John 'Woody' Winning, 70 Years Young
• Results of Orca report submissions
• Featured Charter
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Solaris One S
• • EXCESS 11 - Catamaran
• • IMOCA 60 - Arkea Paprec FRA04
• The Last Word: Vincent Van Gogh

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

Jean Genie becomes first British boat to win Scandinavian Gold Cup
Jean Genie (GBR 42, Elliot Hanson, Andrew Palfrey, Sam Haines) has made history by winning the Scandinavian Gold Cup at Hanko Yacht Club, Norway, after two more races were sailed on Tuesday. They won both races to become the first British boat in the 103-year history of the event to win this highly prestigious trophy.

After a few days of cold, wet weather, the forecast was for a great day and with 10-13 knots from the south-west and wall to wall sunshine, it was a great day to be on the water. For the second race, the wind topped out at 20 knots with fantastic rolling waves for some epic sailing conditions.

In a first to three wins format, Ku-Ring-Gai 3 (AUS 66, John Bacon, Terry Wetton, James Mayjor) and Jean Genie already had a win each, and after three races everyone but the race winners are eliminated.

Race 3 was incredibly close with four boats pacing each other round the three laps, though New Moon II (BAH 24, Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Peter Vlasov) led at every mark, sometimes but just a few boat lengths. Jean Genie closed up on the final lap and sailed deeper to the left hand finish mark and took the final wave into the finish to win the race by just two boat lengths. It was a very exciting finish to an exciting race.

So, everyone but Jean Genie and Ku-Ring-Gai 3 were eliminated, however, Ku-Ring-Gai 3 broke its jib halyard and had to retire, leaving Jean Genie to complete the final race unchallenged to take a third race win and the Scandinavian Gold Cup.

The Classic fleet concludes the Royal Kaag Classic Cup on Wednesday, but the rest of the fleet now has two days off before the world championship begins on Friday. 24 boats from 10 nations are expected to compete, with most already present in Hankø and enjoyed the summer weather. -- Robert Deaves

Final results

5.5class.org

Rudder-munching Killer Whales
Orca image by Milai. Click on image to enlarge.

While the soon-after-the-start collision between the French and Canadian boats highlighted the hazards and obstacles above the surface, other competitors in the Globe40 Race would have been more mindful of the enemy below.

The Globe40 is a 30,000 mile, multi-stop doublehanded race around the world in Class 40 keelboats. Leg 1 from Tangier to Cape Verde should be straightforward, fast and pleasant downwind sailing conditions. However, as the Dutch team discovered on the prologue race from Lorient in France to Morocco a week earlier, fishing nets are a real hazard round these parts.

For the Japanese boat it was much worse. The crew of Milai were attacked by a group of playground bullies barring the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. A mob (not a pod) of orca killer whales decided to play a game of 'snap the rudder' with the starboard rudder of the Japanese Class 40. Owner Koji Nakagawa had already noticed the fins of the orcas trailing the stern before the attack began. "We have a camera to watch what's going on underwater," said Nakagawa. "And we could see that orca A would come up and smack the rudder, then orca B, then orca C, and so on. To them it was a game, but to us it was quite scary."

With the Class 40 rule only permitting glass-fibre construction, the orca assault eventually succeeded as the pod of attackers broke the rudder clean in two. 1-0 to the Orca of Gibraltar.

Race director of the Globe40, Christophe Gaumond, said the orcas were an ever-present menace near the Strait of Gibraltar at this time of year. "It's migration season for tuna entering the Mediterranean," said Gaumond, a veteran of multiple Olympic Regattas and Vendée Globes. "So the orca are a threat and the tuna nets are another hazard in this area. There is a lot of commercial traffic going up and down the Atlantic too, so there are many hazards to watch out for on this first leg."

As for the orca damage, co-skipper Masa Suzuki thanks the wicked whales for forcing a replacement rudder to be fitted. "We had never replaced a rudder before," he said, "so now I have been below the boat and we now know how to do that job if we have to do it again. So the orca did us a favour," he laughed.

It seems like the Japanese have avoided the orca coming back for seconds, however. As of 1500 hours (Tangier time) on Monday afternoon, Nakagawa and Suzuki hold a 7 mile lead over the fleet as they surge towards the first waypoint of Madeira. As yet the broken bowsprit of French entry, The Globe en Solidaire, means the boat has yet to depart Tangier.-- Andy Rice

www.globe40.com

Making the exceptional standard - Rondal
At first glance the sheer quality of Rondal's captive winch engineering can make a critical and highly demanding task look too easy...

Superyachts haven't just been getting larger in recent years. They've also become far more strongly focused on sailing performance and helm response in light airs. For designers and builders this means an ever-increasing preoccupation with weight reduction is required, while at the same time rigs are getting larger and the loads that the yachts' sail control systems have to handle are higher than ever before. Rondal has been a key player in enabling this evolution, not just by building the giant carbon spars for the new generation of mega sloops but also, more recently, creating a super-light version of its unique integrated sailing system to control their enormous sailpower. This includes a remarkable range of captive reel winches, built in carbon fibre and 22 per cent lighter than their aluminium anodized alternative. That's a potentially massive gain for a racing yacht or a performance cruiser. Installing a full set of Rondal carbon winches can reduce the sailing displacement of a 60-metre yacht by at least two tons.

Full article in the July issue of Seahorse

An energized Day 4 at the 2022 ORC World Championship
Porto Cervo, Sardinia - Both the Race Committee and the 69 competing teams here at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) were kept busy today in Day 4 of the 2022 ORC World Championship. After a frustrating Day 3 with no racing yesterday due to unstable light winds, all are exhausted today after several hours on the water that featured everything: delays again in the morning due to light air, followed by a building northwesterly that yielded two exciting windward/leeward races for all three classes.

This brings the championship now to three races scored, and YCCS race managers have decided to amend the schedule to conduct more inshore races tomorrow with the short offshore race scheduled now for Thursday, the last day of the event.

The two races conducted today were in a variety of conditions: from light to moderate in the first race, then moderate to heavy, thus testing the gear-shifting skill sets and seamanship among the teams. The last race was a gear-buster for some who struggled with broaches and broken sails due to the large waves and brisk winds on the course.

Nonetheless, those at the top of the rankings in all classes were incredibly close in corrected time in the first race of the day. In Class C, Ott Kikkas's (EST) Italia 11.98 SUGAR 3 defeated race runner up SCUGNIZZA (ITA) by only 2 seconds after 6.8 miles of racing on the two-lap windward/leeward race held on the Juliet course area.

For all teams two more races tomorrow will lead to a discard opportunity, but the long Offshore race is not discardable. With the strong westerlies predicted to remain through the Bonifacio Straits between Sardinia and Corsica to the north, tomorrow could resemble today with as many as three inshore races planned.

Scratch sheets of time allowances and race results after three races

www.orc.org

UK WASZP Nationals
With over 50 boats on the start line in big breeze, the WASZP UK Nationals delivered some spectacular foiling racing! The swarm was hosted by Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on the world-class foiling waters of Portland Harbour for four days of one-design, high-speed action.

The first day of the competition was dedicated to the Slalom tournament, which comprises of a series of short, downwind races in a knockout-style format. With just enough breeze to get all the heats and finals away, it was Welshman Zac Blomeley that came out on top to take the Slalom victory. Hattie Rogers sealed the women's Slalom title.

On the morning of the final day, the sailors woke to 25-30 knots on the wind instruments! The AP was promptly displayed and the sailors sheltered in the clubhouse waiting for the wind to moderate. They waited, and waited, and waited…and eventually, the wind dipped to an average of 20-22 knots, so the AP came down with enough time to run an electric couple of races

Even for the heavyweights, it was a day of hanging on and keeping the boat under control.

Whaley successfully kept Zeltner at bay, but the same could not be said for Evans with Banham! Banham just soaked inside enough to command the final gybe and take Evans, earning him the national title and edging him into the world number one spot! Zeltner couldn't have done any more by this time and would have to relinquish his lead on the global rankings. No doubt the rivalry will be revisited at the WASZP Games in Garda in a couple of weeks.

www.facebook.com/WASZPUK/

Pros and Corinthians gather for the J/70 UK Nationals
The 2022 J/70 UK National Championships will take place 30th June - Saturday 2nd July as part of the Key Yachting J-Cup, organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. 27 teams are on the current entry list with more expected. Two-thirds of the fleet are completely amateur teams, racing alongside some of the world's best professional sailors.

Eight windward leeward races are scheduled over three days of red hot racing in The Solent. The Open and Corinthian UK National Championships will be decided as well as a new perpetual trophy for youth teams. The David Haw Youth Trophy to the top scoring team, where half of the crew are under 25.

In superb form this season is Martin Dent's Jelvis racing with daughter Ruby plus brothers Jack and Henry Wetherell. Jelvis has won all-four of the 2022 Grand Slam Events for the Open Class. 2019 J/70 World Champion Charlie Cumbley and Melges 32 World Champion Elliott Willis will be on Paul Ward's Eat Sleep J Repeat, winner of the 2019 J/70 Worlds and 2022 Bacardi Cup. Olympic Silver Medallist Luke Patience plus his Rio and Tokyo partner Chris Grube will be on Charles Thompson's Brutus, which was third at the 2022 Bacardi Cup. Fireball and 49er World Champion Stevie Morrison and double-470 and Melges 32 World Champion Nic Asher, will be racing on Simon Patterson's Standfast.

The reigning Open UK National Champion, Nick Phillips' Chaotic will be defending their title, the team come from Parkstone Yacht Club in Poole, including Matt Hardy and Pete McCoy. For the 2022 championship Chaotic will include Chris Draper as one of the crew. Draper is currently the Japan SailGP wing-trimmer, is a former Olympic medallist, America's Cup helm, and multiple world champion.

www.j-70.co.uk

Cowes Classics Week
Photo by Tim Jeffreys. Click on image to enlarge.

Day one of Cowes Classics Week got off to a cracking start yesterday with a 25 knot rain squall running up the Solent, but this then settled down to a 15 to 20 knot South Westerly enabling two races for the classic dayboats and one longer race for the classic yachts.

The largest class, the X One Designs, had one windward leeward race out by Hill Head followed by a round the cans race culminating in a long beat to 'Cowes Harbour' racing mark inshore of the Gurnard navigation buoy and a sparkling run in a building breeze to finish at 'Donna' off Cowes Green. John Tremlett helming Astralita had a second and a first winning the day followed by Paul Woodman in Lone Star and Jonathan Clark in Tortoise.

In the Daring metre boats Giles Peckham, last year's winner in Dauntless had a second and a third followed by Graham Wilkinson in Doublet and Malcolm Lofts in Streak. The Darings had two windward leeward races at the eastern end of the Bramble Bank along with the Mermaids who were won by Richard Rivlin in Bluebell.

On Circuit 2 in the area of the Contessa 32 racing mark on the bank the Swallows did not race as they were sailing over from Itchenor but the Flying Fifteens, 1922 Classic Mermaids and the Squibs all had two good windward leeward races. The 1922 Classic Mermaids are racing for the Anniversary Bowl for the overall week but the day was won by Cynthia helmed by Michael Randall.

The classic yachts had lively race in the eastern Solent with lots of mark rounding which the competitors enjoyed finishing on the Royal London line at Cowes. Division 1 was won by the 1937 Johan Anker designed flush decker Bojar owned by Mark Dowie followed by Fenton Burgin's 6mR Sioma and Lawrence Winde's S&S Sunmaid V.

Division 2 was won by Chris Savage's Chameleon of Cowes, a Morris 36, Division 3 by Richard Hollis' H boat Warrior and the Old Gaffers racing as one fleet were won by Andrew Hitt's Plymouth Hooker Spinaway X followed by Richard Haines' 1898 Essex Oyster Smack Alberta flying a topsail despite the strong wind. -- Gilles Peckham

www.cowesclassicsweek.org

John 'Woody' Winning, 70 Years Young
Click on image for photo gallery.

Australian 18 Footers League President and legendary 18ft Skiff champion John 'Woody' Winning celebrates his 70th birthday this week but you would never know it as the dynamic 'Woody' prepares for his 38th season of 18 footers racing on Sydney Harbour, in the 'famous' Yandoo skiff with the red and blue oval colour patch of the 7th Field Artillery Brigade.

John, a JJ Giltinan world champion as well as an International and Australian Championship winner, has also been President of the Australian 18 Footers League for the past 18 years and is responsible for the sport's stability and success over the past two decades.

'Woody' has not only been the major influence in 18ft Skiff Racing on Sydney Harbour over the past 20 years, or more, he is still an active competitor in both the modern and historical 18 footer fleets each weekend over the summer months.

'Woody' joined the 18 footer ranks in 1975-76 in a skiff sponsored by TraveLodge, after winning the 1971-72 Australian 12ft Skiff Championship with Yandoo and the 1974-75 Inter-dominion 12ft Skiff Championship for the TraveLodge company.

In the 18s, he won the JJ Giltinan world Championship in 2000 when he skippered AMP Centrepoint to victory with teammates Euan McNicol and Anthony (Jack) Young, and has won the Australian Championship as well as international 18ft Skiff championships in Europe, the USA and New Zealand.

John's record could have been even greater as he was also runner-up to the legendary 18 footer champion Iain Murray in two JJ Giltinan world and three Australian 18 footer championships, and had he not taken several years away from the 18s to concentrate on family business commitments.

John's international 18 footer championships record includes three European championships (2001, 2004 and 2011), a Mark Foy Trophy victory with Yandoo at Sonderborg, Denmark in 2011, the San Francisco International Championship in 2004 and the ANZAC Regatta at Auckland in 2010. -- Frank Quealey Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.

18footers.com

Cruising Association and Groupo Trabajo Orca Atlantica (GTOA) publish results of Orca report submissions
The Cruising Association (CA) and GTOA partnered to launch a new online orca reporting form in early June 2022 to investigate orcas interacting with vessels along the Iberian Peninsula, and the reports received are now published online.

The phenomenon of orcas often damaging small yachts and other vessels along the south and west coasts of Spain and Portugal is linked with the migration of tuna exiting the Mediterranean from the Strait of Gibraltar and heading West and North around the Iberian Peninsula, primarily between the months of June and October.

The online reporting platform was launched on 7 June 2022 and the CA is pleased to now publish the data received on the specifics of the orca interaction or uneventful passage. Interaction reports are displayed by location map pin, with the uneventful passages in list format. The data submitted includes factors such as date/route of passage, sea state/wind speed, boat speed, day/night, cloud cover, distance off land, sea depth, hull/antifoul colour, type of rudder. The reports also share the skipper's comments on specific precautions taken and information on the experience if there was an interaction.

www.theca.org.uk/orcas/reports

Featured Charter
ELISE WHISPER - 78ft Sailing Yacht From 28,000 per week EUR. Located in West Mediterranean.

Designed as a cruiser-racer, ELISE WHISPER is ideal for both bluewater navigation and competitive races.

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Lisa Spiller
Charter Manager
Bernard-Gallay
Phone 1 : +33(0)6 33 42 45 09
Phone 2 : +33 (0)467 66 39 93
Mail :

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
1990 Solaris One S. 235000 EUR. Located in Tuscany, Italy.

Doug Peterson designed ocean cruiser from 1990 with hugely versatile three cabins plus crew interior. Well protected cockpit and in-mast furling. Beautifully constructed and with great attention to detail throughout.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

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

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EXCESS 11 - Catamaran. 299,262 TAX NOT PAID GBP.

The highly anticipated EXCESS 11 Catamaran from Groupe Beneteau is now available for the 2021 season. This is a Sea Ventures stock order for HULL NUMBER 43. The Excess 11 is the only large-scale production boat on the market for this size of catamaran. She is one of the smallest cruising catamarans capable of offering so much comfort, space and performance. Our stock boat is spec'd with the 3 cabin "owners" layout and the "Pulse Line" rig. Very easy to handle but increased performance.

This is a STOCK BOAT HULL NUMBER 43 which has been ordered in advance by Sea Ventures to reserve and guarantee a build slot for 2021. Availability ex Factory August 2021.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Swanwick
Hampshire SO31 1ZL
+44 (0)1489 565444

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2019 IMOCA 60 - Arkea Paprec FRA04.