In This Issue
• Pyewacket 70 announced Overall Winner of the 2023 RORC Caribbean 600
• How to Follow the Cape Town In-Port Race presented by V&A Waterfront
• Your chance to own a piece of Zhik!
• The Man They Call 'Bucko'
• Abby Ehler: I was adamant I was not going to do Leg 3
• Faster, lighter AND more reliable - Harken
• RYA Dinghy Show
• Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
• Yacht Sales Co Brisbane to Hamilton Island Yacht Race
• Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, September 29 - October 8
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Elliott 57 Sport Canting Keel Cruiser
• • Persico Fly 40
• • Dazcat 1295
• The Last Word: Bob Dylan

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

Pyewacket 70 announced Overall Winner of the 2023 RORC Caribbean 600
The Royal Ocean Racing Club announce that the overall winner of the 14th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 is Roy P. Disney's Pyewacket 70 (USA). None of the teams still racing under IRC has any realistic chance of beating Pyewacket 70 after time correction. The Pyewacket 70 team will be presented with the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy at the Prize Giving on Friday 24th February.

Pyewacket 70 Crew: Ben Mitchell, Peter Isler, Tony Mutter, Brad Jackson, Brian Janney, Daryl Wislang, David Tank, Jan Majer, Mark Callahan, Matt Mialik, Robbie Kane, Rodney Daniel, Tristan Louwrens.

Pyewacket 70 joins an impressive list of overall winners from the United States; Warrior Won, Wizard, Rambler 88, Bella Mente, Shockwave, Privateer, and Rambler 100.

To follow the race with satellite tracking and regular updates from the competitors and media team go to: caribbean600.rorc.org

How to Follow the Cape Town In-Port Race presented by V&A Waterfront
Friday's In-Port Race in Cape Town is scheduled to start in perfect racing conditions at 1415 local time / 1215 UTC

The Cape Town In-Port Race presented by V&A Waterfront is the second event in the In-Port Race series for The Ocean Race 2022-23.

It follows the opener in January in Alicante, Spain where Team Malizia won the race, with 11th Hour Racing Team and Biotherm taking the other podium positions. The leaderboard is here.

In addition to being a competition in its own right, the In-Port Race series also serves as the tie-breaking mechanism on the overall race leaderboard.

The forecast for Friday's Cape Town In-Port Race presented by V&A Waterfront is for 15 knot southeasterlies, with stronger gusts possible - perfect racing conditions for the course in Table Bay.

leaderboard

Crew list - In-Port Race

Crew list - Leg Three Cape Town to Itajai

theoceanrace.com/en/how-to-follow

Your chance to own a piece of Zhik!
Innovative, technical water apparel brand Zhik has launched a crowd funding campaign giving everyday sailors and loyal customers the opportunity to become shareholders and invest in the company’s future success. Registration is now open following one of Zhik’s most successful years, with sales growing 40% in the financial year ending June 2022.

Zhik are inviting sailors, brand followers and water sport enthusiasts to register. Successful investors will receive VIP perks associated with their level of investment. See the introductory video below.

Triple Olympic medallist, Mat Belcher, who stepped up from the Zhik Board to take over as CEO in October 2022, is leading the equity crowd funding campaign to raise AUS $4m to drive future growth. “This campaign kicks off an exciting new chapter for Zhik. Our investment plan is centred around continuing to drive our digital capabilities and working closely with our extensive trade partners to expand into new territories and grow market share,” explains Mat. “Plus, we want to continue investing in developing more sustainable technical and lifestyle products, whilst expanding our range for the broader sailing, boating and watersports markets.”

To join Zhik’s journey to build innovative gear that drives the industry forward, discover more in this video with Mat Belcher and register your interest here.

zhik.com/crowdfunding

The Man They Call 'Bucko'
Andrew Buckland and a decade of influence in the 18s

Regular viewers of the Australian 18 Footer League's Sail Media livestream coverage of 18ft Skiff Racing on Sydney Harbour will hear the insightful comments of Andrew Buckland without knowing the full extent of his incredible record and knowledge about what makes an 18ft Skiff go fast, and the influence he had during the period from the late 1970s through to the late 1980s.

He not only 'talks-the-talk' on the livestream coverage, he definitely 'walked-the-walk' on his way to winning seven JJ Giltinan World 18ft Skiff Championships as well as numerous other national and international 18ft Skiff events in Australasia, USA and the United Kingdom.

Next week, Andrew will feature as Sail Media's expert commentator, live and from the race course, at the 73rd JJ Giltinan World 18ft skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour, beginning with the invitation race on March 3, then during heats of the championship on March 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12.

It was the legendary 18 footer champion Iain Murray who obviously first saw Bucko's talent when he recruited him to join the Color 7 racing team for the 1977-78 season.

Together with skipper Iain Murray and for'ard hand Don Buckley, sheet hand Andrew Buckland formed an incredible team in the famous Color 7 skiffs, and the trio were unbeatable as they won every major championship regatta between 1977-78 and 1981-82, inclusive, when the team disbanded upon Murray's retirement from the 18s.

During the five seasons the Color 7 team were together, the three members were responsible for the design, construction and development of all aspects of the boats, as well as 'packaging' of many 18ft skiffs for their rival competitors and sponsors.

The link to next Sunday's livestream is:

Those who haven't watched the livestreaming coverage so far also will have the opportunity to hear 'Bucko' when the Sail Media team covers every race of the 73rd JJ Giltinan World 18ft Skiff Championship.

The race dates for the 73rd JJ Giltinan World Championship are:
Saturday - March 4 - Race 1
Sunday - March 5 - Race 2
Tuesday - March 7 - Races 3 and 4
Wednesday - March 8 - Races 5 and 6
Thursday - March 9 - Race 7
Saturday - March 11 - Race 8
Sunday - March 12 - Race 9

18footers.com

Abby Ehler: I was adamant I was not going to do Leg 3
The 46-year-old British sailor Abby Ehler, who is on her fourth Ocean Race as part of the crew of Holcim-PRB, admits it was a tough decision to agree to sail on Leg 3, after stepping aside for Leg 2.

Abby, we are just a few days away from the start of the epic Leg 3 from Cape Town to Itajai. We hear that originally you had decided there was no way you were going to sail on Leg 3, so what changed your mind?

I was pretty adamant I was not going to do the leg, and that was set in stone a little bit during the delivery back from Guadeloupe on this boat. It was so uncomfortable - it was just horrendous - and I was like there is no way I could survive 35 days doing this. Then I did Leg 1 and really enjoyed the crew. It was a very different experience. Kevin (Escoffier) is just positivity off the scale. And I think you just absorb his energy. It's hard not to feel like you're in good, safe company and in the knowledge that he can sail the boat on his own, and we're effectively there it help him and make it go faster.

I thought about it and chatted about it a lot with my husband. The comment he made was this leg is the race; if you haven't done this leg, you can't really say that you've done it. So I think, deep down, there was a little feeling that wanted to do it, but I had my way-too-sensible head on. But thinking it through and analyzing it, I am confident that I can physically get through this. Chatting to Kevin, when we stopped in Cape Verde, and just having time to digest Leg 1, and thinking about it, I really do want to do this leg; I'd be angry with myself if I didn't.

Tell us about how you are going to deal with the psychological challenge? Will you be counting off the days in your head?

I find it can be quite depressing counting the days, and there is a great quote by Mohammad Ali - 'don't count the days, make the days count' - and I think that will be my motto to live by. Cape Horn is obviously the key point from where you are going north, and you are going into warmer weather, and that will be almost like turning the corner to the final leg home. That's the benchmark - get to Cape Horn, and mentally that's a huge goal. I've been involved in the food packing, and making sure that we've got plenty of comfort food and variety, as well as the stuff that's going to keep us going, because having a meal and snacks is such a milestone of each day. And yeah, I think I am just going to live by that.

imoca.org

Faster, lighter AND more reliable - Harken
Most of us take traveller cars and tracks for granted but the extreme sail trimming and roll stability requirements of AC75s and AC40s required Harken to redevelop its hardware for a whole new performance level

Balancing a monohull with no keel on a pair of foils that are offset from the yacht’s centreline has been one of the biggest challenges for highperformance yacht design in recent years. Understandably, in achieving this the foils themselves have attracted plenty of attention, particularly among commentators and spectators at the last America’s Cup in Auckland 2020-21.

However, as we are now starting to understand there are far more elements involved in keeping a highspeed show on the road, not least the way in which both the power that’s generated by the mainsail and the roll stability control of the boat are achieved through the fine control of the mainsheet. Here, hardware experts Harken have been in the front line of development in an area of deck gear that many of us would normally take for granted: the traveller track and car. And while Harken was also involved in other key areas such as the winches and the self-tacking system for the jib, the mainsheet system was the most challenging area.

Full article in the March issue of Seahorse

RYA Dinghy Show
Returning to Farnborough International this weekend (25-26 February) is the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show presented by Suzuki - the season-opening Show organised by the RYA to encourage and inspire everyone to get afloat.

As soon as you enter the Show you'll find RYA staff on hand (stand A10) to help with advice on a range of topics from club development, training to racing, coaching and legal advice.

Discover sailing, windsurfing and winging

For newcomers, the Show is the perfect opportunity to discover a new sport. The RYA team will be on hand all weekend with all you need to know to start or progress your watersports journey.

You can also find out more about Discover Sailing opportunities with clubs and centres across the UK running taster sessions this summer.

rya.org.uk/events/dinghy-show

Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
This month's nominees:

Grzegorz Baranowski (POL)
When Baranowski’s young crew crossed the finish of the 2023 Transatlantic Race they took both line honours and the IMA Maxi Trophy, the culmination of a proudly all-Polish programme that has been improving with every season. Led by Baranowski and run within the framework of the Polish National Sailing Foundation, the I Love Poland programme is already making a real impact at home, bringing on a new generation of Polish offshore racers

Ed Wright (GBR)
It’s easy to make a case that in terms of pure talent Ed Wright might be the greatest of all of Great Britain’s quite extraordinary 25-year run of Finn champions. Wright seems to drop in and out of the class at will yet big titles keep coming (he is surely the worst nightmare for any full-time Finn campaigner). Among his titles Wright has twice won the Finn Gold Cup (medalling 7 times), most recently in January in Miami. Ed Wright is 45. Runner up Domonkos Nemeth of Hungary is 20…

March's winner:
John Winning (AUS) ‘Racing skiffs hard at 70, an inspiration to all of us getting on a bit!’ – Dick Roe; ‘A low-key, honest person, the salt of Sydney Harbour and a great Australian’ – Len Burke; ‘Woody has done more for Australian sailing than any other person or organisation I know of’ – Joe Akacich; ‘A great competitor and an even greater supporter of sailing – the 18-footers would struggle to survive without his support and the historic 18s would never have got going at all’ – Simon Nelson.

View past winners of Sailor of the Month

Seahorse Sailor of the Month is sponsored by Harken Derm, Musto and Dubarry. Who needs silverware, our prizes are usable!

Cast your vote, submit comments, even suggest a candidate for next month at seahorsemagazine.com/sailor-of-the-month/vote-for-sailor-of-the-month

Yacht Sales Co Brisbane to Hamilton Island Yacht Race
Entries have opened and the Notice of Race published for the Brisbane to Hamilton Island Yacht Race, due to start at 11am on Thursday 4 August 2023.

The 530 nautical mile race, inaugurated in 2019 and organised by Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in conjunction with Hamilton Island Yacht Club, is open to monohull and ocean-going multihulls with fully crewed and double-handed options in both categories. The race blends in nicely to allow competitors time to prepare for the Northern Queensland circuit of Race Weeks.

Last year, Matt Williams' Cookson 12 Trouble & Strife from RQYS won the race on handicap, while Andoo Comanche (John Winning Jr) from NSW took line honours from the local favourite, Black Jack (Peter Harburg), and Hamilton Island Wild Oats (Oatley family). Andoo Comanche is proving hard to overcome since arriving back in Australia last year.

The race is very much a navigators race, starting on Moreton Bay in Brisbane and finishing in Dent Passage at Hamilton Island, with only two marks after the fleet departs Moreton Bay. The fleet will be fitted with YB trackers allowing families, friends and sailing fans to follow the action throughout the race.

On the line are the current race records, both set in 2019. Karl Kwok's MOD70, Beau Geste, created the multihull record of 1 day 2 hours 11 minutes 41. The Oatley family's Reichel/Pugh 66, Wild Oats X, established the monohull record of 1d 10h 46m 53s. They will be hard to beat, as it was a quick, mainly downwind race. -- Di Pearson/RQYS media

rqys.com.au

Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, September 29 - October 8
Never rest on your laurels: this appropriately defines the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez mindset, indefatigable organizer of the 25th edition of the Voiles de Saint-Tropez, backed-up by its board of directors and the municipality of the most famous port in the Var. In lieu of a well-deserved rest, the Société Nautique have been working on a brand-new formula which invites more than 250 of the world's most beautiful Maxi, Modern and Classic yachts, beginning Friday, September 29 and finishing Sunday, October 8. A revisited formula that promises to be super-vitaminized.

Ten days of racing, with the Maxis as the opening act
That this latest formula is totally new, it is not without echoes of founding event, the Nioulargue. The superyacht fleet will have the honour of opening racing for Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez 2023, with the novelty of racing beginning on the first Sunday, October 1st. This new configuration will allow the public, numerous in turnout during the opening weekend of the event, to see the Maxi fleet in training and to watch high-flying racing between the most impressive monohulls over 18.28 meters.

Modern and Classics: a renewed programme
From Sunday, the Classic fleet arrive in Saint-Tropez as part of the feeder race of the now well-established "Yacht Club de France Autumn Cup". Monday, October 2, the Modern fleet will start its racing session with a structure permitting the adjustment of type and distance of racecourse according to the weather. This is made possible by a race committee system of 'agile' self-driving, geo-postionable marker buoys, coordinates of which can be transmitted electronically to the participants on the racecourse. The show gains even more momentum on Tuesday with the entry of the Classic boats, with all fleets being on the water at the same time, reviving the DNA of the Nioulargue and the Voiles de Saint-Tropez.

The Challenge Day for the Modern and Classic yachts will be, as usual, scheduled for Thursday, October 5, with combined activities on water and ashore.

2023 Programme
Friday 29 September: (beginning of the afternoon) Maxi registration (over 18.28m)
Saturday 30 September: Maxi registration (over 18.28m) and registration for Classic and Modern yachts up to 18.28 meters
Sunday 1st October: regattas for the Maxis, registration for Classic and Modern yachts up to 18.28 meters
Monday 2 October: regattas for Maxi and Modern yachts
Tuesday 3 October: regattas for all fleets
Wednesday 4 October: regattas for Modern and Classic yachts
Lay Day, Maxi Club 55 Cup and Challenge Day for Maxis
Thursday 5: Challenge Day and Club 55 Cup for Modern and Classic yachts
regattas for the Maxis
Friday 6 October: regattas for the whole fleet
Prize giving for the Maxis
Saturday 7 October: regattas for Modern and Classic yachts
Sunday, October 8: Prize-giving ceremony for Modern and Classic yachts

lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr

Featured Brokerage
2011 Elliott 57 Sport Canting Keel Cruiser. 350000 EUR. Located in Horsens, Denmark.

Costing in excess of Euro 1.5m at build, OPAL is arguably the ultimate short-handed rocket ship that money can buy. Full carbon sandwich construction, coupled with canting keel with 4,000kgs lead torpedo bulb, carbon retractable canard, full carbon Southern Spars rig, carbon standing rigging and carbon sails, this 11,000 kgs flying machine is effortlessly controlled by the smallest of crews thanks to full push-button hydraulics and powered winches for all duties.

While OPAL offers a formidable presence on the race circuit, she is still fully fitted out below decks with up to 8 berths in three cabins, a proper saloon, electric heads and a full galley. If ever there was a boat to compete for line honours in the ARC, OPAL is the boat.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
onas Renlund - Grabau International (Scandinavia)
Tel: +358408098688
Email:

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Persico Fly 40. POA EUR.

The future of owner-racer racing is here: Persico Marine has transferred its America's Cup experience to a 12-metre foiler designed for a 5-person crew.

Checco Bruni has been a key project advisor and ambassador; Caponnetto Hueber, together with New Zealand-based Pure Design & Engineering, are the designers.

Trailblazing regattas, simplicity and safety of piloting and cost control are the objectives of the circuit.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Persico Marine
Via Lombardia, 4
24027 Nembro (BG) - Italy
Ph. +39 035 520627
Fax +39 035 520829

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Dazcat 1295. From 530,000 ex VAT GBP

There's something special about them that creates the feel-good factor. Perhaps it's the fact that every aspect of the boat is expertly and precisely hand-engineered, based on design principles drawn from personal experience to develop a boat that just works as it should - a creation in understated perfection.

At 42.5 feet (12.79m) and a length to waterline beam ratio of 13-1 but still weighing-in at 5 tonnes, the Dazcat 1295 is a truly comfortable and elegant family cruiser that has been optimised for performance sailing. She has proven that she can not only provide safe, comfortable and enjoyable family time but also win on the RORC and MOCRA inshore and offshore race circuits.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

www.dazcat.com/d1295.html

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

The Last Word
People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent. -- Bob Dylan

Editorial and letter submissions to

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