EuroSail News #5151 - 22 August
In This Issue
• Light Winds Start To The 53rd La Solitaire du Figaro
• Tquila first Class40 to finish Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race
• Genoa International Boat Show - Solaris to debut 2 models
• ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix
• Cascais 2022 Snipe World Championship
• Veteran Skipper Vines Unbeaten at Uffa Fox 50
• Tarte Tropézienne (again) - IMA
• Bernaz and Team Mistral Gagnant win the 2022 Detroit Cup
• F-18 Raid World Championship
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Sweden Yachts 45
• • Jeanneau 64 Yacht
• • Dazcat 1495
• The Last Word: Leonard Mlodinow
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
Light Winds Start To The 53rd La Solitaire du Figaro
The 34 skippers of the 53rd La Solitaire du Figaro and their Figaro Beneteau 3s left Nantes this Saturday august 20th lunch time and to sail down to Saint-Nazaire at the mouth of the Loire. They will dock there for the night making ready for tomorrow Sunday's start off Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef at 1540hrs local time.
Winds for the start of the 644 miles Stage 1 north to Skokholm island off Wales Pembroke coast look set to be light, the precursor to what looks like a complicated leg with many transitions and several small weather features to negotiat.
Yann Chateau, 43, is the new Race Director of La Solitaire du Figaro taking charge of this edition after the baton was passed from Francis Le Goff with whom he served as Assistant for many years. He is an accomplished offshore, inshore and small boat racer who comes from the Normandy region. Chateau is a past European match racing champion and has 12 podiums under his belt in the French national championships.
Only light to moderate winds are forecast for this, the first of three legs. With multiple small, weak fronts and many transitions expected only that southwards, returning leg to the finish seems relatively straightforward. There will be several chances for comebacks, transitions or light 'park ups' which should allow those who have lost early miles to make good their deficits. Certainly the first 24 hours will keep the solo sailors on high alert as they seek to interpret and respond to the small changes in wind conditions.
Britain's top hope Alan Roberts (Seacat Services), a renowned inshore dinghy racer, was in the early fight, seeking to stay fast and clean in what proved a scrappy, intense departure circuit off Saint Martin Chef Chef. One hour after the start gun Roberts was seventh. Ireland's Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) made his most accomplished La Solitaire start yet and was in the early mix too in 11h, as was German rookie Sanni Buecke (This Race Is Female) still very much in her comfort zone as a Tokyo Olympic 49er FX silver medallist. Spain's Pep Costa (Play to B-Terravia) was 12th.
'The light weather of the start should give way to a southerly wind of eight to 12kts, veering to the SW and maybe picking up to 12 to 15 knots' says the race meteo specialist Cyrille Duchesne of Meteo Consult, "It should stay fairly tight and direct along the coast with some maybe opting to go offshore looking for more wind."
Tquila first Class40 to finish Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race
James McHugh's Tquila is the first Class40 to complete the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race. Finishing on Saturday 20 August at 14:06:47 BST in an elapsed time of 13 days 2 hrs six mins and 47 secs. Tquila Crew: James McHugh, Brian Thompson, Alister Richardson.
The team received a warm welcome and cold beer at Trinity Landing in Cowes before walking up to the RORC Cowes Clubhouse for the first solid meal in nearly two weeks. The team spoke dockside about the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race.
Multihull specialist Alister Richardson is fairly new to Class40 racing although he did finish the 2021 Transat Jacques Vabre in 11th place with Brian Thompson in Tquila: "I love the short-handed format and there is extremely good competition. It is a great boat to sail and it's not too expensive. It is different to the very high performance boats I sail, but this is good fun racing. Even in the really light weather it requires a lot of concentration because every little bit of breeze is just a gain, so you concentrate, day in day out and it is nearly more tiring than when it's windy as it wears you out mentally."
The last time Brian Thompson did the race was setting the 60ft and under record on IMOCA 60 Artemis which completed the course in under six days.
roundbritainandireland.rorc.org
Genoa International Boat Show - Solaris to debut 2 models
On the wave of the success of the Solaris 48 and Solaris 50 in recent years , Solaris Yachts has started a long research and design work of new lines that has led to the new Solaris 50 that the Aquileia (Udine) shipyard is presenting. premiered at the 62nd Genoa Boat Show.
A 15.50-meter sloop with a 4.78-meter beam signed, like many Solaris, by Javier Soto Acebal , the Solaris 50 is equipped with two wheelhouses which, thanks to the " step " that interrupts the deck at the beginning of the cockpit, enjoy perfect visibility and control possibilities .
Furthermore, thanks to the new lines and the greater space obtained in the stern, it was possible to set up a garage with longitudinal access .
The cockpit can be set up with one or two tables while the interiors , in addition to the 3 cabins-2 bathrooms solution , can be organized with a third bathroom and the kitchen along the starboard side instead of the classic sofa in front of the dinette . The auxiliary engine is 50 hp with optional 75 hp .
The Genoa Boat Show represents an unmissable event both for the international boating market and for sea lovers and is a global platform for institutional, technical and market comparison for the whole sector 365 days a year. The 2022 edition opens September 22.
ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix
New Zealand has claimed its second win in a row after a near-perfect performance at the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix saw the team triumph in all four races.
Driver Pete Burling delivered a starting masterclass against competitors, soaring into the Final with a hat-trick of fleet race victories and trouncing Quentin Delapierre's France and home favorites Denmark with a 25 second lead over the finish line.
Position - Team - Driver
1. New Zealand - Peter Burling
2. France - Quentin Delapierre
3. Denmark - Nicolai Sehested
4. Australia - Tom Slingsby
5. United States - Jimmy Spithill
6. Canada - Phil Robertson
7. Switzerland - Nathan Outteridge
8. Spain - Jordi Xammar
9. Great Britain - Ben Ainslie
* The Great Britain SailGP Team are unable to compete in the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix, after sustaining damage to their F50 race boat during practice racing in Copenhagen.
On the final day of practice yesterday, the team were completing pre-race training drills when they hit an uncharted rock just outside the racecourse boundary. Damage sustained included snapping the head of the starboard rudder clean off and damage to the starboard daggerboard and board casing.
After a successful retrieval of the rudder the damage was assessed. Unfortunately for the GBR team the foil board casing was beyond an onsite repair and the team had no choice but to retire from the Danish event.
Cascais 2022 Snipe World Championship
Photo by Matías Capizzano. Click on image to enlarge.
The Snipe World Championship started today, with fierce competition for the first places.
65 years later, the Snipe Worlds are back in Cascais waters for 5 days, 9 races, of fierce competition for the world title.
With 87 boats lining up on the starting line, the Race Committee needed 3 attempts, the last one with a black flag, to get the first start of the day. The line honors of the inaugural race went to the brothers from the Canary Islands, Gustavo and Rafael Del Castillo, who led the entire regatta.
In the second race, the wind decreased a little, from 18 to 12 knots, forcing the Race Committee to readjust the course. The victory went to the Spanish team of Victor Perez Campos/Enric Noguera.
Looking at the scoreboard, with results that are still provisional, the Brazilians Mario Junior / Henrique Wisniewski, end the first day in 1st place, with 5 points, after scoring a 2nd and a 3rd place today. The 2nd place, with 11 points, is occupied by the American athletes athletes, Ernesto Rodriguez and Kathleen Tocke, one of the favorite teams for the top places. Closing the provisional podium is the Spanish duo Alfredo Gonzalez and Cristian Sanchez, who today scored a 4th and 9th place, thus having 13 points.
Tomorrow, 2 more regattas are scheduled with similar conditions - the typical summer north wind in Cascais, "Nortada", with the wind blowing between 14 and 17 knots.
The race marks the history of the Snipe class, not only for being the 50th edition, 1st post-covid, but also for having a record number of entries: 87 doubles, from 19 nations.
Among the approximately 180 sailors present, there are 5 Olympic athletes, a gold medalist among them, and 9 world sailing champions, so there is no shortage of candidates for the title.
Veteran Skipper Vines Unbeaten at Uffa Fox 50
Click on image to enlarge.
Cowes, Isle of Wight, England: Jeremy Vines and his team sailing the National 18 Ace remain undefeated, in the fast handicap class, after the second and final day of the Uffa Fox 50 Celebration Regatta. The toughest fleet at the event was the slow handicap, where the battle for the top spot was between two Fireflies, with Ben Pym's KEM just taking the honours from John Greenland in Falken.
The Flying Fifteens were the numerically strongest, and Patrick Harris sailing Seventh Heaven took victory by three points from Rob Goddard's Over The Moon. In the keelboat class, Rowan Horner's Harrier 20 Meg won the only two races sailed, beating the beautiful yawl Mary Lunn skippered by Robin Whaite, which finished second in both races.
Jeremy Vines's strongest competition came from a pair of Albacores, Mathew Thompson sailing Uffa Fox Sake and Mike Banner's Fifty Shades. The first of the vintage International 14s in the fast handicap fleet was K545 Sunrise in the hands of Mark Harrison. This boat was originally built by Fairey Marine for "the boss" Charles Curry and he went on to win the coveted Prince of Wales Cup with her.
Conditions on day two of the regatta were sparkling from start to finish, with sunshine and 12 to 15 knots of breeze with the occasional gust of 20 knots. The courses were laid off the Shrape, to the east of the harbour entrance. The Royal London Yacht Club, who were hosting the event, did a great job ashore and afloat. -- John Roberson
Tarte Tropézienne (again) - IMA
At last we are getting back to near normal post-pandemic with most of the Maxi race fleet returning with full programmes. The IMA team have been very active supporting all the regattas with which we have become involved over the past few years and from which we have created several IMA Maxi Challenge series.
Rather tentatively we introduced a Caribbean Maxi Challenge this year even though we realised that it would be difficult for many teams to commit to getting there. The number of Maxis participating in the RORC/IMA Transatlantic Race in January was encouraging and many stayed on for at least one of the local regattas as well as the RORC Caribbean 600. We have now linked the 600, St Maarten Heineken Regatta, Les Voiles de St Barth and Antigua Week to make up the series. We expect it to flourish.
PalmaVela in Mallorca returned with an encouraging turnout especially from the larger Wallys. The Portofino Regate de Primavera, brought back to life by the Yacht Club Italiano last year, was run again but not helped by rather difficult weather conditions.
Full article in the September issue of Seahorse
Bernaz and Team Mistral Gagnant win the 2022 Detroit Cup
Detroit, Michigan, USA: Due to a lack of sailable wind today in the Semi-Final and Final stages, the final standings in the Detroit Cup held at Bayview Yacht Club are based on the Round Robin results among the 11 teams competing at this year's event. This was the second stop on the USA GRAND SLAM series of Grade 2 events and a member of the World Match Racing Tour.
Based on an impressive 9-1 record in the Round Robin, Jean-Baptiste Bernaz and his Mistral Gagnant team of Jules Bidegaray and Thomas Deplanque from France have won the 14th edition of the Detroit Cup.
Bernaz is no stranger to winning in other arenas of sailing too: he is the reigning World Champion in the ILCA 7 Laser Class, he has been in four Olympics representing France, and has been the French national match race champion twic
From Thursday August 18th through Saturday August 20th match racing was held in the Detroit River just meters off the seawall at Bayview YC, featuring a broad international field of teams from Australia, Ireland, France, Mexico, New Zealand, USA and United Kingdom. The competition format included a Round Robin to determine the top-four to advance to the Quarter-Final round, followed by a Repechage among the remaining seven teams to determine the other four teams to advance to the Quarter-Finals.
This stage produced today's Semi-Finalists in two matches for all but one pair, where Chris Poole needed three matches to defeat Ruairi Finnigan (IRL).
Throughout the event racing conditions were light to medium-strength breeze from a variety of directions, giving both competitors and race managers a challenge in setting and sailing the courses with shifty breezes and the current of the Detroit River. Reading this tricky race course and executing perfect crew choreography were the keys to success, along with the occasional bit of luck. -- Dobbs Davis
Final Results, 2022 Detroit Cup
1. Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (FRA)
2. Ryan Seago (USA)
3. Cole Tapper (AUS)
4.Chris Poole (USA)
5. James Pinder (GBR)
6. Ruairi Finnegan (IRL)
7. Michael Kirkman (USA)
8. Patrick Shanahan (USA)
9. Robbie McCutcheon (NZL)
10. Megan Thomson (NZL)
11. Alfonso Garcia-Bringas (MEX)
F-18 Raid World Championship
We were looking forward to a day of fast sailing and a long stretch from Sandhamn to Fejan in the north end of the Archipelago. But, the forecast didn't match reality. No wind. First start was postponed and the race officer decided to tow the boats to the first checkpoint and shortened the course. The wind did come eventually, and it turned out to be a rather tricky race, where standings changed all the way.
In the top though, it was the same gang. First the Belgian team, Patrick Demesmaeker and Olivier Gagliani, second Fredrik Karlsson and Niklas Nordblom who did a magnificent comeback after hitting rocks in race four on Thursday. On third place another couple of swedes Jakob Lundqvist and Rasmus Rosengren. So after five races Demesmaeker, Gagliani and Lundqvist, Rosengren shared equal point in the overall standing.
Tomorrow forecasts says 20 to 26 knots of wind, but hey we heard that one before...
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The Last Word
A failure doesn't mean you are unworthy, nor does it preclude success on the next try. -- Leonard Mlodinow
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