In This Issue
• Wetsuit Outlet and Zhik International World Championship
• Rolex Giraglia - Day 3
• Harken Zircon
• Melges 24 Pre-Worlds
• Cape 31 National Championships
• Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race
• Team Europe lead the way
• Rolex United States SailGP Chicago Preview
• Flagships of the Year
• Featured Charter: Sunreef 50 Eco - TIRIL
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Cookson 50 - "Furiosa"
• • ClubSwan 36-022
• • Kinetic Catamarans - KC62
• The Last Word: Niels Bohr
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
Wetsuit Outlet and Zhik International World Championship
Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy, UK: Two days in, and no races sailed. Once again, the wind failed to rise above 6 knots for any significant period of time. This isn't what the 140 sailors from 24 countries around the world came for.
Frustration inevitably surfaces, and there was much talk this morning between the sailors about relaxing the pumping rule to allow racing to take place in lighter winds. Once a Moth is foiling it's possible to stay up and fast for a long time, but transitioning from lowriding to foiling takes some effort in the light stuff. This is something for the class to discuss over time, in conjunction with the working party on foils, to make sure they can sail in as wide a wind range as possible and make the best of use of time at events.
Wednesday's racing has been brought forward to the much earlier start time of 8am to make use of any early breeze that may appear.
"You can't control the weather. Everywhere you go you hear 'It's never normally like this' right? I'm getting phone calls from my wife who's in the south of France saying, 'Why don't you just come here?'."
Harry Melges has travelled from the U.SA., but has been over in the UK for a while training on Portland Harbour and hopes that the early start will result in racing finally starting:
"It's definitely been quite light for the past few days, but hopefully the next couple of days look better. I've been here for quite a bit training, and we've had some easterlies early in the morning. If we get out at 8, we'll have some good races." -- Mark Jardine
Rolex Giraglia - Day 3
Light winds persist on the racecourses of Saint-Tropez for the two fleets which today were back racing on the same course, of 19 miles for the bigger yachts and 13 for the smaller. For everyone, it was the third and last race in the French phase of the Rolex Giraglia which ends today with the start of the offshore tomorrow at midday. On the water today, a light E/SE wind of 7/8 kn was not constant, influenced by several thunderstorms that in the early afternoon hit the area.
First the start was Group 0 followed by Groups 1 and 2. At 1105 the Maxis started with the big 100' Black Jack which took the lead of the fleet and finished the course in one hour 52 minutes. Among the 0s, the result in corrected time proved a business reserved for the 72 and 75 footers with today's rankings confirming the winners of the past days: Dario Ferrari's Pepe Cannonball won in the IRC 1, Wallyno owned by Benoit de Froidmont in the 2s and Valter Pizzoli's Swan 601 Les Amis in the ORC class.
In the other groups, the starts were very tense with several protests that delayed the publication of the rankings, in this case the final ranking was the formalisation of the provisional one with the two 52' Jolt and Red Bandit first and second with just one point apart and so, with rankings remaining open right to the last second among the IRC 1s. In third place was the Ker 46 Lisa R owned by Giovanni di Vincenzo, overall winner of the Rolex Giraglia 2022.
The long race will start Wednesday at midday. The Rolex Giraglia 70 will be live on the RolexGiraglia website from June 14, 2023 at 11.15 with technical commentary by Rachele Vitello and James Boyd who will follow all the starting phases, while on the water there will be Bacci del Buono and Matteo Capurro.
Harken Zircon: #40 in the Periodic Table of Elements. #1 in Trimmer's Hearts.
In the early 1970s, Peter Harken changed the way sailors trim and ease forever when he dropped a handful of little white Delrin® ball bearings on the floor. They bounced like crazy. Peter understood they changed direction very quickly - exactly what was needed in responsive blocks. The first Harken blocks with those white balls began the quest: How much inertia can we overcome while safely delivering ever-increasing performance?
Introducing new Zircon blocks - named after the element Zirconium - #40 on the periodic table and more commonly known as ceramic. Inside Zircon are just seven ceramic balls. They're so microscopically smooth and so hard, if they didn't travel in bearing races of the same metal, they'd destroy the block from the inside. Zircon blocks overcome rolling resistance so easily, information flows acutely through the sheet. In the lightest air, trimmers feel they can actually push the sheet out. Sheet in hand, they respond quicker... better matching sail shape to the new condition - often the difference between winning and not.
Most of us here aren't material scientists. With Zircon, you understand it when you feel it.
Now available in 40 mm sheave size. 57 mm shipping July 1.
Pacific Yankees Take the Victory at the Melges 24 Pre-Worlds in Middelfart, Denmark
Middelfart, Denmark: Champagne sailing – that's how the participants were describing the Melges 24 Pre-Worlds in Middelfart, Denmark over two days this weekend! A high-quality field of 15 competitors with many championship wins and podium places between them met in Middelfart, which led to competition between the Pro teams Pacific Yankee, Nefeli, Panjic, Stig, Melgina and the Corinthian teams of Gill Race Team, Helly Hanson II Lisa, Storm Capital, and Blow.
The conditions on Saturday on the Little Belt (Lillebaelt) in Middelfart were forecast to be a NE breeze of 10-15 knots but which peaked at 20 knots in bright clear sunshine with four races run in quick succession by the race management team of Christian Lerche made for a great day of sailing on conditions the mazing Melges24 excels in, with fierce competition at all parts of the fleet and at the end of which there were lots of smiles despite the fatigue on the sail back to Middelfart.
Sunday was another early start with lighter breezes at about 8-10 knots but a similarly bright and sunny day which led to more challenging racing in shifty conditions with a strong current running across the course that led to many position changes on both upwind and downwind legs, with only the final race subject to four re-starts before the fleet got away on a black flag.
Drew Feides and the Pacific Yankee (USA) team deserved the win with a dominant performance with 5 race wins hotly pursued by Peter Karrie's Nefeli (GER) in second place, Miles Quinton's Gill Race Team (GBR) and Luka Sangulin's Panjic (CRO) tied for 3rd place on points decided on Gill Race Team's 2nd place in the final race of the regatta and Alessandro Rombelli's Stig rounded up the Top Five.
The results of the Melges 24 Pre-Worlds regatta in Middelfart:
1. Pacific Yankee - Drew Freides, USA, 5 Pts
2. Peter Karrie, GER, 9 Pts
3. Gill Race Team - Miles Quinton, GBR, 20 Pts
4. Panjic - Luka Sangulin, CRO, 20 Pts
5. Stig - Alessandro Rombelli, ITA, 22 Pts
6. Melgina - Simon Sivitz Kosuta, ITA, 27 Pts
7. Helly Hansen Ii Lisa - Børre Hekk Paulsen, NOR, 29 Pts
8. Storm Capital - Peder Jahre, NOR, 34 Pts
9. Blow - Peder Nergaard, NOR, 36 Pts
10. Fusion - Peter Havn, DEN, 48 Pts
11. Ballyhoo Reloaded - Martin Thiermann, GER, 56 Pts
12. Hedgehog - Stefano Lapo, DEN, 56 Pts
13. Crazy Ivan - Søren Blume, DEN, 66 Pts
14. Froken Marie - Kristian Juel Thomsen, DEN, 76 Pts
15. Rene Noack, AUT, 76 Pts
melges24.com/europeansailingseries
The Big Gig in the Bay - Cape 31 National Championships
Three days of tricky and tactical racing, three days of very different conditions and 26 Cape 31s, all vying to be national champion. Held in the open waters of Christchurch Bay just to the west of the Isle of Wight and hosted by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club this was Round 2 of the UK Cape 31 season. This, was the big gig in the bay.
Matt Sheahan was afloat and reports from the action.
Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 - An Entire Saga Of Sailing In Just Twenty-Six Hours
It was that noted offshore yachtsman and rail travel enthusiast Vladimir Ilyich Lenin who observed that ten years can go past with no significant history occurring at all, and then suddenly ten years of hectic history can happen in just one week or even less. Certainly, anyone who was trying to follow the fast-moving incident-filled 270-mile Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race staged so successfully by the National Yacht Club's Adam Winkelmann and his team this week may well have reflected on Captain Vlad's thoughts, but any hopes we might have of racing in haste and analysing at leisure will go out the window.
For there has been total concentration for a week, and by Saturday's heroic prizegiving in the Dingle Skellig Hotel, it will all have been dissected, analysed, parsed and held up to the light for microscopic examination from every possible angle. Then in the days, weeks, and years ahead, anyone who claims to recall the permutations of the prize-giving will be bluntly informed that if they think they can remember it, then clearly they weren't there at all.
Fortunately, being D2D addicts for all of its 30 years at Afloat.ie as participants, observers, reporters and analysts, we carried a continuing stream of D2D reports. But that can only be part of the picture when a 270-sea-miles non-straight-course race has been seen off by the two leading boats in less than 24 hours – up to five hours within the previous record set by a 94-footer. And on top of that, the major prizes have gone to two boats – one of them one of the largest in the 43-strong fleet, the other one of the smallest.
WM Nixon's full report in Afloat magazine
Team Europe lead the way in fast and furious foiling conditions
The Hague served up some of the best racing conditions the IMOCA fleet has seen in this edition of The Ocean Race on Tuesday afternoon. Bright sunshine and strong winds approaching 20 knots made for fast and furious foiling for the In-Port Race.
Benjamin Dutreux's GUYOT environnement - Team Europe hit the starting line at top speed, on the foils, and he was able to sail directly over the top of Team Holcim-PRB and poke in front of 11th Hour Racing Team for good measure.
On the second lap of the race course - extended slightly in the strong winds - Paul Meilhat's Biotherm began to make a charge, pushing into Team Malizia and putting the pressure on the German team, but Boris Herrmann and his crew held their nerve and position.
Over the rest of lap 2, Benjamin Dutreux and his crew sailed a flawless race in the challenging conditions to cross the finishing line and earn their first win of The Ocean Race.
After their emotional comeback from a dismasting in Aarhus, this will be a popular result amongst The Ocean Race family and race fans, a just reward for a team that has shown remarkable resilience in getting onto the start line time and again after numerous setbacks.
Next up is the In-Port Race for the VO65 fleet, starting at 17:40 local time in The Hague on Wednesday afternoon, with similar conditions in the forecast.
IMOCA In Port Race - The Hague
1. GUYOT environnement - Team Europe - 5 points
2. 11th Hour Racing Team - 4 points
3. Team Malizia - 3 points
4. Biotherm - 2 points
5. Team Holcim-PRB - 1 point
CAN SailGP Team - Rolex United States SailGP Chicago Preview
With just a few days until racing starts at the Rolex United States SailGP Chicago at Navy Pier, final preparations are underway for the Canadian team.
"We are all looking forward to the start of Season 4 and being back on the water in Chicago this week. With ten teams on the start line on, it's going to be a great spectacle for fans on Navy Pier. It is a tight race course and was favourable to us last year. Can't wait to arrive in the Windy City!" said Driver Phil Robertson.
Participating in the Inspire Regatta this week are seven youth sailors from across Canada who will be racing in WASZPs on Friday and Saturday. Agustin Ferrario, Program Director of WE CAN FOIL, will be supporting and coaching these up and coming sailors in their quest to win a spot at the SailGP Inspire Finals in 2024 in San Francisco.
Tune in to watch the racing live this Friday and Saturday at 1700 EST on YouTube or TSN.
Canada SailGP Team Crew List
Phil Robertson / Driver
Chris Draper / Wing Trimmer
Billy Gooderham / Flight Controller
Tim Hornsby / Grinder
Tom Ramshaw / Grinder
Jake Lilley / Grinder
Isabella Bertold / Strategist
Jareese Finch / Reserve Sailor
Flagships of the Year
Click on image to enlarge.
National Historic Ships UK has appointed six historic vessels from around the UK to act as its Flagships of the Year for 2023 and 'fly the flag' for maritime heritage.
The sole sailing vessel is 'Swan' a former Shetland fishing vessel converted to a sail training ship welcoming all ages and abilities
Awarded in recognition of her participation in the Tall Ships Race which will be hosted in Shetland this year, the projected visitor numbers resulting from this and the strength of her links with local groups and communities.
Launched from Lerwick in 1900, Swan fished under sail until 1935, by which time she was one of only five sailing herring drifters left in Shetland. Fitted with an engine, she continued to fish until the 1950s, and left Shetland in 1960 for conversion to a houseboat. Following several owners, she was rediscovered in Hartlepool submerged and neglected. The Swan Trust was formed in 1990 to save her. After a major restoration, Swan was re-launched in 1996. Based in Shetland, Swan now operates as a sail training and charter vessel and is a regular entrant in the Tall Ships Races. Each year she takes out hundreds of students from schools and youth groups, as well as members of community groups and the general public.
nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/672/swan
Featured Charter
Sunreef 50 Eco - TIRIL. From 25,200 / week EUR. Located in French Polynesia.
TIRIL delivers a luxury cruising experience with its unrivalled living space, eco-friendly design and impressive performance!
See listing details in Seahorse Charters
Contact
Charter Department
Bernard-Gallay
Phone : +33 (0)467 66 39 93
Mail : or
See the the Seahorse charter collection
Featured Brokerage
Cookson 50 - "Furiosa". 375000 EUR. Located in La Spezia, Italy.
Furiosa is a great example of the evergreen Cookson 50 design, that has been turning heads on the race course since new. She is a Turbo-charged version with taller mast, deep keel and large sail wardrobe update in 2022. A fine example of these brilliant, simple, fun, offshore orientated yachts
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats
+447759 424900
+442380 016582
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2021 ClubSwan 36-022. 395000 EUR. Located in Spain.
Unique opportunity to enter the Club Swan Racing circuit with this CS36-022 that has never touched the water.
See listing details in Nautors Swan Brokerage
Contact
Jerome Mainemare
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Kinetic Catamarans - KC62. Price: POA USD.
Pioneered for pleasure, Kinetic sets a new standard for luxury performance cruisers. Meticulously built and fully equipped to take you around the world, in comfort and style.
Each of our semi-custom catamarans is made to your exacting standards, combining comfortable, spacious living with power and grace. Even use your personal handheld device to monitor or control any number of functions on your vessel.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Kinetic Catamarans
USA Tel: +1 954 732 2836
Kinetic Catamarans
SA. Tel:+27 44 382 0439
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
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