In This Issue
• Chabaud second in Rhum Mono
• Yoann Richomme - Corentin Douguet
• Book Early! Prepare your standing rigging for 2023 with BSI Rigging
• British Yachting Awards 2022 winners revealed
• Winning out the box - RORC Baltic Sea Race
• Eric: A Novel by Henry Menin
• In Conversation with: Benny Brannbacka
• One Global Lipton Trophy 2022
• Black Jack claims clean sweep of Bird Island Race
• Featured Charter: AEGIR - 82ft Maxi Sailing Yacht
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Swan 115-001 Solleone
• • Bavaria C57
• • TP52 - J/V 2007
• The Last Word: Sienna McQuillen

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

Chabaud second in Rhum Mono
On the eve of her 60th birthday, sailing the famous 'Cigar Rouge' - the boat on which she became the first woman to complete the Vendee Globe in 1996/7- Catherine Chabaud completed a successful, popular return to ocean racing when she finished the 12th Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe in second place in the Rhum Mono class. The only woman competing in the class - one of seven in the race - Chabaud crossed the finish line at 23:33:43hrs Monday evening 28/11/2022 some 2d 20h 20m and 52s after the class winner Jean Pierre Dick on his modern, faster Verdier designed 54-footer Notre Mediterranêe-Ville de Nice.

Upset by the amount of pollution and debris in the oceans Chabaud halted her prolific ocean racing career in the early 90s to 'find solutions'. She became an environmental campaigner starting and popularising many different initiatives. Her return to the Route du Rhum - unfinished business since abandoning in 1998 - is prompted by the support of a French business school in helping promote her Ocean As Common programme which takes messages to major sporting and economic platforms.

Before the start in Saint Malo she said, "I stopped competing in the early 1990s after seeing the amount of waste at sea. For the last 20 years what has interested me is talking about solutions"

She has become a European Commission deputy minister since 2019 and a specialist adviser to the French ministry for social and environmental economics and writes widely on sustainable and environmental topics.

routedurhum.com/en/actualite/989

Yoann Richomme - Corentin Douguet : A Rum winner, a Class40 champion, 40 shades of performance
Photo by Alexis Courcoux. Click on image to enlarge.

For its 2nd newsletter, the Class40 is still benefiting from the 'Rum' spray. While some skippers are still battling in the Atlantic, the 55 entered put on a breathtaking spectacle, culminating in the title for Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkea).

Corentin Douguet (Queguiner-Innoveo) who fought like never before because of a recalcitrant engine and finished 3rd, was nevertheless rewarded for his consistency. We are proud to announce that he becomes Class40 champion of this year 2022 . For the occasion, the two friends, Corentin and Yoann discussed the growing level of the fleet, the resistance of the boats and the outlook for the class.

Corentin Douguet: "It's great, there's everything we love about offshore racing. It's a mix between boats that are both incredibly efficient and very fast. The fight on the water is at the rendezvous since there are people and levels. It's a treat to live in this period."

Yoann Richomme : "The commitment from everyone was very high. It was quite close to the Solitaire du Figaro in the first week. There were a good dozen skippers with a very good level. Some have impressed me, like Matthieu Perraut (Inter Invest), Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande Pirelli) and inevitably Xavier Macaire (Groupe SNEF). There was a great fight all the way to the Azores, very intense."

Yoann Richomme: "I hardly had any damage to my boat. A cleat, a pulley and next to nothing. I inspected the boat several times but nothing to report. It's solid! Admittedly, there were breakages but we faced conditions against which we never measure. To resist, you need a hell of a level of preparation, especially for boats coming out of the yard. There are few errors. It shows the seriousness and the level of professionalism that these sailors put into their project. »

Corentin Douguet: "Apart from my engine problems, I haven't had any structural problems. The boat could very well go the other way! They are faster, more violent boats. We discover efforts that we did not know about, impacts, areas to be reinforced. With the emergence of scows, we realize that these are boats that require even more than we could imagine."

Full interview in the Class40 Newsletter

Book Early! Prepare your standing rigging for 2023 with BSI Rigging
At BSI Rigging, your standing rigging is our number one priority, and we work with riggers and certified BSI agents to help you prepare for your important regattas in 2023. Times are busy, and at BSI we want to help you today to plan and maintain your rigging for next year.

Several factors will affect the life expectancy of your standing rigging: its age, sea miles and weather conditions when racing and during passage sails. Also, how your rig is tunned and how often you carry out maintenance checks, plus those traumatic events such as knockdowns, crash gybes, groundings and general environmental conditions all play their part.

Here are our tips to prolong the life of your rigging.

1. We are advocates of preventive maintenance. This process does several key things; it protects your yacht's rigging structural integrity, it can help enhance your racing performance, it will help the longevity of your rigging and perhaps most important of all it looks to protect the safety of your crew.

2. Speak to your local BSI Rigging expert who will be able to inspect your rigging, replace any parts with genuine BSI Rigging parts, lubricate and tune your rig to give you peace of mind and the best chance at getting the most out of your 2023 season.

3. Locate your local BSI Rigging expert here bsi-rigging.com/dealer-and-service/

BSI Rigging is part of the BSI Group of companies which includes, GORI Propeller, Moonlight Portlights and Hatches, Hundested Propeller, Jefa Steering and OYS Rigging.

British Yachting Awards 2022 winners revealed
The great and good of the yachting world descended on the Royal Thames Yacht Club on 28 November to celebrate the 2022 British Yachting Awards.

The awards, organised by Sailing Today with Yachts and Yachting  magazine, are an opportunity for the readership to vote and give their verdict on some of the incredible talents within the sailing world.

It was also a chance to celebrate the finest new yachts, best events, kit innovations, destinations and much more.

The champagne flowed as the winners were announced, confirming what a vintage year this has been for sailing.

Guest speaker was Sara Sutcliffe, Chief Executive of the RYA, who spoke about a more inclusive approach to sailing governance with a focus on diversity and equality.

Full list of all the winners

Winning out the box - RORC Baltic Sea Race
The first Baltic Sea Race which took place this summer was an instant success... not so much a classic in the making but a classic already

The idea of a new 635-mile race in The Baltic Sea was the brainchild of the Ocean Racing Alliance. At the core of the Finnish organisation are three passionate RORC sailors: Jan Paukkunen, Sakari Kalske and Ari Kansakoski, who have all competed in the Rolex Fastnet Race and RORC Caribbean 600. ORA proposed a race, starting and finishing in Helsinki, and approached the Royal Ocean Racing Club to organise it.

On 21 July 2022 that idea became reality when more than 200 sailors including all of the ORA founders, crossed the start line of the inaugural Roschier Baltic Sea Race. Sailors from 18 different nations took part. Teams from Poland, Germany, Sweden and Finland won honours in the race, with a fairy tale overall victory for the smallest boat.

Full article in the December issue of Seahorse

Eric: A Novel by Henry Menin
"Eric is an extremely bright young man whose curiosity leads him to explore a world previously unknown to him or his family. We follow him from boyhood through to manhood. He's the Philly Kid, breaking from his traditional background to find within himself a competitiveness he didn't know existed. He was the "natural" in singlehanded dinghy racing, progressing through local, regional, and national championships. But would his passion, focus, and drive to be the best in the world be derailed by outside distractions?"

A new book from one of the sailing world's favorite umpires and jurists, former St Thomas YC Commodore and Caribbean sailing enthusiast Henry Menin

Available as a paperback and Kindle e-book:

amazon.com

In Conversation with: Benny Brannbacka
Benny Brannbacka's history with Nautor starts a long way back. A valued member of the company, he benefits from a great heritage due to the experience gained by his father, uncles and other siblings.

Benny you have been part of this company since 2003 and you belong to the 3rd generation of boatbuilders at Nautor. How did your career in the company start?

I think I started my career at Nautor Swan even before I realized it myself. I was touched and inspired by all the stories of my father, his brothers and cousins and I started feeling enchanted by the Swan world.

Officially, I took my first steps in the company as a summer worker during my engineering school studies. I had the opportunity to work as an electrician as well as participating as delivery crew on several yachts and this gave me an excellent overview on how to build a Swan and the importance of the teamwork between the various departments as well as with the owner and crew.

The summer work period taught me that building a yacht is all about planning in sync with the whole building team, engineering staff as well as quality assurance, just to name a few. I also learned that everyone must be ready to help each other out, also across departments in order to build the yacht to perfection.

I must say that I truly admire my foremen who believed in me and gave me the opportunity to try out several jobs also during the summer work period.

Later I completed my final thesis work at the Technical Office at Nautor and was immediately after offered a job as an electronics designer in the Technical Office.

Full interview

One Global Lipton Trophy 2022
Hong Kong: The second constituent event of the Top Dog Trophy Series 2022-2023, the One Global Lipton Trophy, took place on Saturday 26 November with an average of 5kts of easterly wind being bestowed upon Victoria Harbour.

The regular Race Officer team of Gareth and Di Williams opted for a Hung Hom start and elected to set the fleet to sail 2.5 loops between Hung Hom and Tai Koo Shing. Pursuit races work on each boat or class of boats being given a different start time based on their handicap, which in a perfect race would result in all boats finishing at around the same target time of 1630hrs.

Luckily the rain stopped before racing got underway. The Pandoras were the first to start at 1400hrs and the last boat to start was TP52 Phoenix at 1514hrs. A total of 62 boats started the race at staggered start times set according to their RHKATI ratings.

As the day progressed, the wind built up to an occasional 9kts with blue sky briefly showing up at the end of the day. RO Gareth Williams shortened the course at Tai Koo Shing; exceptionally close to the target finish time.

Congratulations to Pandora Windfall who held off the faster classes until the final gun, crossing the finishing line at 16h30m52s with their sailors jumping up and down with joy. Impala 1 crossed in 2nd place just 37 seconds behind and Impala Gnu took 3rd place. It was a great day for the Pandora and Impala fleets with boats from these two classes taking up the top ten places of the day.

The One Global Lipton Trophy is the second of four events that make up the Top Dog Trophy Series 2022-2023. The first event was last weekend's Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race and the next two pursuit races are the One Global HKRNVR Memorial Vase (7 January 2023) and the One Global Tomes Cup (29 April 2023).

rhkyc.org.hk

Black Jack claims clean sweep of Bird Island Race
Skipper Mark Bradford says Black Jack reached its peak performance to win both line and overall honours in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 2022 Bird Island Race.

The 83nm race around Bird Island - approximately 3nm north east of Norah Head - was the fourth race in the 2022/23 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore.

A fleet of 55 boats started the race at 1000hrs on Saturday, with a light 6-8 knot nor'easter making it a rather slow procession out of Sydney Harbour.

Peter Harburg's Reichel/Pugh 100 Black Jack, which won Line Honours in the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, was first out of the Heads, closely followed by URM Group, Moneypenny, Andoo Comanche and Whisper.

Andoo Comanche (skippered by John Winning Sr) was forced to retire shortly after the start, citing a hydraulics issue, as Black Jack picked up speed offshore and broke away from the mini-maxis.

With an average speed of 8.7kts, Black Jack returned to Sydney Harbour in 9 hours, 37 minutes and 47 seconds to secure Line Honours.

The lighter conditions endured by the rest of the fleet on Saturday afternoon and evening ensured the maxi also claimed the overall win (IRC), as well as victory on ORCi and PHS handicaps.

The penultimate race in the 2022/23 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore is the 172nm Cabbage Tree Island Race, which begins at 1900hrs on Friday 2 December.

The series finale is the 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart, with 119 boats currently entered for the 77th edition of the iconic race.

The Bird Island Race is the fourth of six races in the 2022/23 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore, organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The series opened with the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, which was won overall by Sean Langman's Reichel/Pugh 69 Moneypenny.

Anthony Johnston's Reichel/Pugh 72 URM Group, skippered by Marcus Ashley-Jones claimed Line Honours and the overall win in the Flinders Islet Race.

Andoo Comanche, skippered by John Winning Jr, then won line and overall honours in the Tollgate Islands Race.

2022/23 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore schedule
Race 1 - Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race (Saturday 30 July)
Race 2 - Flinders Islet Race (Saturday 24 September)
Race 3 - Tollgate Islands Race (Friday 14 October)
Race 4 - Bird Island Race (Saturday 12 November)
Race 5 - Cabbage Tree Island Race (Friday 2 December)
Race 6 - Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race (Sunday 26 December)

cyca.com.au

Featured Charter
AEGIR - 82ft Maxi Sailing Yacht. From 29,400 per week EUR. Located in West Mediterranean.

AEGIR, a Simon Rogers Design built in 2010 and designed as a modern Racer-Cruiser to compete in the Maxi Class.

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Bernard-Gallay
Phone : +33 (0)467 66 39 93
Mail : or

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
2015 Swan 115-001 Solleone. 13,000,000 EUR. Located in Marina di Scarlino, Italy

Designed for comfort and performance, SOLLEONE is the first Swan 115 S Version, delivered by Nautor's Swan in Summer 2015. The magic combination of German Frers yacht design alongside a luxurious and elegant italian style interior designed by Nautor's Swan in house styling team and Michele Bònan.

See listing details in Nautor's Swan Brokerage

Contact
Nautor's Swan Brokerage - Lorenzo Bortolotti

Tel. +377 97 97 95 07

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The BAVARIA C57. New Boat. POA EUR.

Pioneering design meets exceptional performance. A new dimension of sailing pleasure.

The BAVARIA C57 is a pure expression of class, elegance and the finest craftsmanship. With the design and style of a mega yacht, it sets new trends and boasts a long waterline which guarantees high basic speeds.

The BAVARIA C57 isn’t just impressively large, it sails perfectly too. Standing at either helm stand you can enjoy an exceptional view of the sails and the whole yacht. All of the important navigating instruments are available at both steering pedestals, as is the electrical motor control system. All of the sheets and halyards are fed directly to the 2 x 2 winches right in front of the steering pedestals. A self-tacking jib, larger overlapping genoa, gennaker and Code 0 are all there to help make the sailing great, whatever the conditions.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

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2007 TP52 - J/V 2007. POA EUR. Located in Hamburg, Germany.

This TP52, built by King Marine has been very nicely prepared by her last few owners, who all had high-level, offshore racing on their calendars. A high quality inventory, with new electronics, un-used brand new EC6 standing rigging and a proven track record - this boat needs a closer look!

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats
+447759 424900
+442380 016582

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

The Last Word
One should never start one's day without a complete spin of Dark Side of the Moon. -- Sienna McQuillen

Editorial and letter submissions to

Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see eurosailnews.com/advertise/