In This Issue
• Pointing at the finish line
• Cup Spy : Brits test boat catches fire after double capsize
• An Opportunity for a Captain and Chef
• Warren Jones International Youth Regatta
• French Orient Express Team Challenge
• American Yacht Club Spring Regatta
• Qatar GKA Freestyle Kite World Cup
• Defi Atlantique Guadeloupe / Horta / La Rochelle
• Industry News
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Gieffe Yachts GY 60
• • Pogo 12.50 Hermes
• • Infiniti 52R
• The Last Word: Thomas Paine

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

Pointing at the finish line
Team Malizia is leading the way on Thursday as the five IMOCA teams gybed away from the ice exclusion zone along 45-degrees south latitude overnight, turning to race towards the Cape Town finishing line.

There is now less than 900 nautical miles to run but a major obstacle remains - a ridge of high pressure with very light winds - between the fleet and Cape Town.

The wind is forecast to build in from the west, with the trailing boats GUYOT environnement-Team Europe and Biotherm carrying the breeze up to the leaders.

There is a very real possibility of all five teams finding themselves together on final approach to Cape Town, despite being separated by over 400 nautical miles on the rankings at noon UTC today.

In fact, the leaders are already starting to slow, the trailing boats making better speeds and closing the gap.

The ETA for Cape Town is Sunday February 12.

Leg Two Rankings at 1200 UTC - 9 February 2023
1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 867.6 miles
2. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 18.5 miles
3. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 73.6 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 190.8 miles
5. GUYOT environnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 416.3 miles

Cup Spy : Brits test boat catches fire after double capsize
INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Mallorca - February 8, 2023 - Day 24

INEOS Britannia, Britain's challenger for the 37th America 's Cup, has suffered damage to their T6 Test Boat after a capsize incident during a test day on Palma Bay, Mallorca in Spain.

The capsize incident happened four hours into the test day after rounding up from a downwind course to an upwind course in 18 knots of breeze.

After initially lying on its side, T6 rolled over to fully invert in the water with mast and double skinned main sail submerged, work quickly began to get her back upright.

The shore crew and sailors worked together for over two hours and after initially righting T6 back on its side they were able to fully right the yacht. T6 was then side towed by support boat back to the team base, where a full assessment of damage is under way.

The team also faced further challenges when the lithium batteries, that powers the yachts systems, reacted to seawater ingress causing a fire on board. The response was well managed with specialist training coming to the fore to mitigate the damage.

Read Richard Gladwell's full report in Sail-World.com

An Opportunity for a Captain and Chef
Click on image to enlarge.

Midnight is an impeccably maintained custom Oyster 82 often referred to as Mr Oyster's Oyster. Our captain and his wife, who is a great chef, are coming ashore. Midnight is a happy ship and operates with a crew of 3 doing owner trips, regatta mother-ship and charters seasonally between the Med and Caribbean.

We are looking for a qualified yacht captain with relevant sailing experience and a chef. Please send CV's in confidence to

Warren Jones International Youth Regatta
The final day of racing at the 2023 Warren Jones International Youth Regatta resulted in success for local legend Ethan Prieto-Low from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club!

It was absolutely glamour conditions today on the Swan River in Perth and despite the lack of the "Fremantle Doctor" coming through, Ethan Prieto-Low put on a clinical display of match racing against the current World Match Racing Champion, Nick Egnot-Johnson at his hometown venue.

Ethan Prieto-Low's dynamic pre-starts, calm demeanour throughout the races and slick boatwork saw the team to victory in emphatic fashion against the 2020 (& now also 2023) Warren Jones Regatta silver medallist, Nick Egnot-Johnson from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

In the Petit Final, it was tight racing between Alistair Read from Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and Tom Grimes from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, with one race each heading into the final match. In his final Warren Jones Regatta, Tom Grimes came away with the bronze medal.

Final Results:
1st Place: Ethan Prieto-Low - Swan River Sailing Team (RFBYC)
2nd Place: Nick Egnot-Johnson - KNOTS Racing (RNZYS)
3rd Place: Tom Grimes - CYCA Youth Sailing Academy (CYCA)
4th Place: Alistair Read - Vaikobi Racing (RPAYC)
5th Place: Max Paul (RSYS)
6th Place: Marcello Torre - Gage Roads Sailing Team (RFBYC)
7th Place: Braedyn Denney - Tu Kaha Racing (RNZYS)
8th Place: Lucy Alderson - Akamai Race Team (RFBYC)
9th Place: Antun Janekovic (RPYC)

swanriversailing.com/warrenjonesregatta/

How The French Orient Express Team Challenge Was Started
It all started during the 36th America's Cup. In front of his television, Stephane Kandler who had launched K-Challenge in 2001 which went in to be a challenger at the 2007 America's Cup (under the name of 'Areva Challenge), found it hard to contain his excitement: "I said to myself then while watching the racing that we had the potential in France and above all the means to do at least as well as Team New Zealand."

His activity then on social networks aroused interest and in particular that of Bruno Dubois, team manager of the last French challenge in 2017, Groupama Team France and now at the head of the French SailGP team.

At the beginning of the summer of 2021, Stephane Kandler launched but with a non negotiable "sine qua non condition" that of "being sure to have a good boat". He recalls: "I called Team New Zealand, with whom I had kept good contacts, to find out if they would agree to help us. Immediately they were very receptive. I also spoke a lot with Guillaume Verdier [member of the Kiwis design team, editor's note] whom I had worked on the Cup in 2007. He gave me his vision of things and put me in contact with Benjamin Muyl."

The team gets to work in March 2022

Muyl has collaborated on numerous projects with Guillaume Verdier. He had just finished four years with the British challenge Ineos Team UK. He reports: "I had just finished my fifth Cup, I don't didn't really want to do it again unless it was a French project." In the Autumn Franck Cammas, who had shown interest, was also approached as was Dimitri Despierres, an engineer with Cup experience who had then just resigned from American Magic. He was offered a position as technical director. On the sailing side, Bruno Dubois raised the subject a few months later with Quentin Delapierre, who took the helm of the F50 of the French SailGP team.

Full report in Tip & Shaft

American Yacht Club 44th Annual Spring Regatta
American Yacht Club has announced the plans and new format for the 44th Annual Spring Regatta. We are going to be moving to a three-day Spring Regatta weekend format which is becoming increasingly more popular for premier sailing events. We received a lot of feedback from participants before making this change. Everyone felt having one more weekend to get their boat and crew ready would be extremely helpful. We also received a lot of encouragement to increase the coastal navigator racing format which will be the focus of Friday's race.

The schedule for the Spring Regatta is to open with a Friday Coastal Race on May 5, which will be followed by the Spring Series on Saturday and Sunday, May 6-7. We also have fantastic post racing parties planned for Friday and Saturday night – much more to come about these Spring Regatta event nights in future announcements.

The 44th American Yacht Club Annual Spring Regatta will consist of:

- The Friday Coastal Race on May 5. Scoring for the Friday Coastal Race will be using PHRF. This race will be scored separately and will not be included in the Spring Series score.
- The Spring Series on Saturday and Sunday, May 6-7, will offer two racing formats:
- Windward/Leeward Racing for the ORC and One Design Classes
- Coastal Racing for the PHRF Classes (including Doublehanded & Non-Spinnaker)

As part of the AYC Spring Regatta registration, you can also sign up for the AYC Fall Regatta which will continue to have the two-weekend format and is scheduled for September 23, 24, 30 and October 1, 2023.

Notice of race on Yachtscoring.com

AmericanYC.org

Qatar GKA Freestyle Kite World Cup
Finishing on Saturday, the Visit Qatar GKA Freestyle-Kite World Cup was the opening event of the Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour 2023 season.

Ahead of a season that's packed with events, anticipation levels were high for this first pure freestyle event, with the added excitement of competing at a brand new location and the addition of a new judging format that rewards riders who show a more varied performance

Event winners Bruna Kajiya and Gianmaria Coccoluto also scored two business class tickets each to any of the 150 destinations on the Qatar Airways network!

Just under 90 minutes north of Doha, Fuwairit Kite Beach resort hosted the very first world tour kiteboarding competition to take place in Qatar. The stunning landlocked lagoon, situated directly in front of the resort facilities, delivers world class flat water conditions.

The FKB facilities have been custom built for the sport of kiteboarding in the last 18 months. Beyond the beautiful views and state-of-the-art beachside conveniences, Fuwairit also delivers one of the longest, most consistent wind seasons, running from November to July with a prevailing northerly wind that blows cross-onshore between 15 – 30 knots.

The tour will be returning to Qatar for the grand finals in December.

Women's Final Results:
1. Bruna Kajiya (BRA) 31.86
2. Mikaili Sol (BRA) 28.24
3. Nathalie Lambrecht (SWE) 26.56

Men's Final Results:
1. Gianmaria Coccoluto (ITA) 32.53
2. Carlos Mario (BRA) 32.10
3. Louka Pitot (FRA) 31.93

Full results

Defi Atlantique Guadeloupe / Horta / La Rochelle
This second edition of the Defi Atlantique Guadeloupe / Horta / La Rochelle offers an exceptional line-up of Class40s. 12 Class40 vessels have already confirmed their presence and some boats are still waiting to register, therefore, a total 15 Class40s are expected to set sail on Saturday 1 April. An excellent line-up that promises a great battle on the water since many new boats have signed up.

With a many Class40s on the other side of the Atlantic since the end of the year, Grand Pavois Organisation, the Guadeloupe Region and its local partners, the municipality of Pointe-a-Pitre, the Communaute d'Agglomeration Cap Excellence and Guadeloupe Port Caraïbes are offering storage solutions on land or in-water for the Class40s registered for the Defi Atlantique. The aim is to allow those who want to sail the Caribbean circuit, participate in the RORC Caribbean 600 or organise public relation operations in the sunshine to leave their Class40 vessels in the water or take them out so that they can be stored on land in the best possible conditions before the start of this Atlantic return race. Further technical information from Grand Pavois Organisation.

The record to beat? A look back at the 2019 event.

Atlantic return race every 4 years, the 2019 Defi Atlantique Guadeloupe / Horta / La Rochelle was won, with a combined time over the two legs, by Aymeric Chappellier (Aïna Enfance et Avenir) in 15 days, 3 hours, 42 minutes and 48 seconds, at an average speed of 9.67 knots This will be the reference time to beat for the 2022 edition.

defi-atlantique.com

Industry News
The long established and one of the most successful marine photography businesses in the UK, BoatPhotos.co.uk, is to be offered for sale by auction. With no reserve and a starting price of just 99p, eBay bidders will get a chance to become the new owner with bidding commencing Thursday 23rd March. A video with full details of the sale is available for viewing below.

"As I approach 80 years old it's time for younger minds to carry this forward," says owner Tony Toller. "I started it merely as a weekend hobby in 2005 but the business proved incredibly popular and sales boomed. In spite of selling my boat in 2018 and uploading very few new images since, orders are still coming in from the extensive catalogue of images providing an easy income of a few thousand pounds in the last financial year".

In the 18 years since BoatPhotos began operations, Tony has photographed over 25,000 different craft, most of which are catalogued by date, boat name and/or sail number. A number of orders come from visiting yachtsmen from Norway, Sweden and across Europe. The sale includes the comprehensive library of around half a million images.

The latest website, launched in 2008, ranks highly on Google and has attracted over 20 million page views. Many boat owners come across a link to the BoatPhotos site when they tap their boat name or sail number into Google. An accomplishment only possible through years of building BoatPhotos' reputation.

The winning bidder will gain full copyright to all images which will be provided along with all company data on a hard drive storage device. Six months subscription to the website hosting platform will be included and all artwork and other promotional material will also be provided. The sale will include a list of just under 4000 email addresses of potential enquirers to the website and a further list of everyone who has placed orders. Finally, the new owner will have a full handover from Tony and his personal guide on how to get the best shots in boat photography and how to run the business successfully.

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Nils Jolliffe joins A+T Instruments as COO for its next stage of expansion.

A+T Instruments, one of the leaders in the high-end yacht instruments market, have announced Nils Jolliffe as Chief Operating Officer. Nils is responsible for general management, scaling the business operational processes, including manufacturing, to support growth which is running at 40% year on year.

Jolliffe, who has been working with A+T since October 2022, has over 20 years of experience in leading roles in fast-growing manufacturing and aerospace companies who share their quality, reliability focus and reputation that is such a key part of A+T's success so far. He has a degree in Naval Architecture from Glasgow and a postgraduate degree in Manufacturing Management from Cambridge. Previously, he was VP of Global Operations at Auxitrol Weston, Managing Director at DDC Electronics Ltd, COO at Bowman Power Ltd and held senior positions with Eaton Aerospace and Raymarine.

AandTinstruments.com

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SailGP will be organized into key business units including SailGP League covering Commercial, Marketing, Events, Technology and Strategy; SailGP Productions covering Broadcast and Content and SailGP Technologies which is the boat building, design and applied technologies division of the company.

Sir Russell Coutts will continue to oversee all business units as SailGP CEO while Andy Thompson will take on a wider role as Managing Director of the SailGP League business unit, focussing on the growth and commercialization of SailGP. Until now Thompson has been the Chief Commercial Officer of SailGP, having previously worked as CFO of the America's Cup until 2017. Newly recruited Melissa Lawton – who joined in May 2022 from Meta – will lead the SailGP Production unit.

Leah Davis and Nicola Sands join the Marketing department as Global Marketing Director and Global Event Marketing Manager respectively.

Davis has previously worked for Team GB as Head of Marketing and Brand for the 2012 and 2016 Olympic cycles as well as the Laureus World Sports Awards. She also sits on the board of British Cycling. Sands was previously the Head of Marketing for W Series, and has worked for a number of rights holders running high-profile global sports events.

Tom Gracey also joins the business as Global Head of Broadcast Media Partnerships. In this role Gracey will own and execute SailGP's global media rights strategy, building and developing relationships with broadcasters and online media publications.

Gracey joins SailGP from W Series, where he was Head of Broadcast and Media Rights. Prior to this he worked for the English Football Association, most recently as the Broadcast and Media Rights Lead sitting across the FA Cup, men's and women's national teams, development teams and the Women's Super League.

Daisy Vollans moves into the role of Director of Digital and Sacha Kemp promoted to Communications Director. The league's commitment to purpose and impact remains strong with Fiona Morgan taking on the position of Chief Purpose Officer. Julie Boyd will step into the role of Chief Financial Officer with Jon Massie being promoted to Chief People Officer to support the wider workforce growth.

SailGP's commercial team will be led by three regional commercial directors with Charlie Dewhurst overseeing the EMEA region along with global commercial strategy, Ben Johnson continuing to lead the Americas and Karl Budge expanding his core remit of the New Zealand team to the wider APAC region.

sailgp.com

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 Adrian Morgan:

"After an action-packed Season 2 Grand Final which featured thrilling crashes, capsizes and close competition, 2023 promises to raise the bar even higher. Spectators can look forward to nine identical flying F50s battling..." blah blah.

So it's not all about the racing then? Can you imagine that kind of language used to hype, say, a TP52 event, Laser Worlds, Classic Boat regatta? What depths has our sport reached when we boil it down to "thrilling crashes"?

Featured Brokerage
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Stunning carbon & E-glass rocket ship from 2010 with a great 3-cabin plus crew layout. Ultra-stylish, yet ultra-practical, and set up for effortless short-handed fast cruising.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Lucio Pellegrini
Tel: +34 675 236 174
Email:

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2012 Pogo 12.50 Hermes. 295,000 USD. Located in NYC, USA.

Fully equipped Class40 racer-cruiser, this turbocharged 2012 Pogo 12.50 is a turn-key package.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Ocean Racers

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Infiniti 52 R POA EUR.

The Infiniti 52 R is a custom-designed Grand Prix racing yacht developed to take full advantage of the performance benefits of DSS. Ideally suited to race coastal and offshore in locations all over the world and competitive under all rating systems, the Infiniti 52 R changes the game in this size range. Developed in conjunction with 4-time Whitbread/Volvo winner Stu Bannatyne, the Infiniti 52 R was developed to fulfil the wishes of a number of clients who were looking for a yacht that would provide a significant performance increase over current options but able to sail and race with 50-60% of the crew traditionally required for yachts of this size.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Infiniti Yachts
Tel: +44 7920 395397
Email:

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

The Last Word
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. -- Thomas Paine

Editorial and letter submissions to

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