In This Issue
• Aspire lift 5.5 Metre world title
• Star Vintage Gold Cup
• Unravelling the mystique - UK Sailmakers
• Karpo wins Thousand Islands Race
• Corum L'Epargne: Autopsy Of A Failed IMOCA Project
• Cannonball blasts ahead at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez
• Jake Julien's Rated X Crowned M32 World Champion
• ORC Sportboat European Championship
• ILCA Masters North American Championship
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Sly Yachts SLY 47
• • OSCAR 2
• • Maximizer. Farr 72’ Sloop
• The Last Word: Jimmy Carter

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

Aspire lift 5.5 Metre world title after tense final day in Porto Cervo
Aspire (POL 17, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Przemysław Gacek, Edward Wright) has won the 2023 5.5 Metre World Championship at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, Porto Cervo, Sardinia, after a tense final day on the water in light winds with just one race possible. They overcame a massive challenge from Artemis (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne, Trond Solli-Saether) who ended up just one point behind, while Race 9 winners Ku-Ring-Gai III (AuS 66, John Bacon, James Mayjor, Terry Wetton) protected their third overall.

The first attempt at a race was abandoned half way up the first beat when the wind died, and everyone sat around on a mirror like sea watching the dolphins play for an hour. Then, just when everyone expected racing to be called off for the day a light sea breeze came in and built to 8-9 knots and so one more race was possible before the time limit at 15.00.

In the end it was an excellent race and a fitting finale to the week of fantastic competition for the 34 boats from 10 nations. But it was a stressful and tense final race, that led to Aspire having to play catch up more than once as Artemis had gotten away at the start. With only one race possible, the title would be going to Poland or Norway.

Final top ten results after 9 races
1 Aspire (POL 17, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Przemysław Gacek, Edward Wright) 24
2 Artemis (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne, Trond Solli-Saether) 25
3 Ku-Ring-Gai III (AuS 66, John Bacon, James Mayjor, Terry Wetton) 42
4 John B (BAH 26, Gavin McKinney, Mathias Dahlman, Lars Horn Johannessen) 47
5 New Moon III (BAH 25, Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Peter Vlasov) 49
6 Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Andrew Mills, Sam Haines) 55
7 The Jean Genie (GBR 43, Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Ruairadh Scott) 57
8 Ali Baba (SuI 224, Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi, Eline Marazzi) 62
9 Caracole (SuI 214, Bernard Haissly, Daniel Stampfli, Nicolas Berthoud) 64
10 Shaolin (SuI 226, Philippe Dc̈rr, Andreas Kindlimann, Hans Von Werdt) 66

Final results

Star Vintage Gold Cup
Photo by Walter Cooper, waltercooperphoto.com. Click on image to enlarge.

The Vintage Gold Cup and ISCYRA announce the final results for the 2023 Vintage Gold Cup. For the second day in a row all races were canceled; the results remain the same as after first day of racing. The winners of the 2023 Vintage Gold Cup are Brazilians Lars Grael and Mauricio Bueno with a 5-1-1 performance. Grael is now a back-to-back winner of the Vintage Gold Cup in his boat Star of the Sea.

In second place is local skipper Josh Powell and his crew Luke Lawrence of Stuart, FL with finishes of 1-8-3. In third is the Illinois team of Joe Londrigan and John Wysockey who finished 2-10-8.

The Vintage Gold Cup is an annual regatta held at Gull Lake, Michigan in recently restored wooden Star Boats. As one of the oldest one-design classes in sailing, the Star Boat is revered for its technical sailing requiring high performance handling. It was one of the original classes chosen for the Olympics and even today its World Championships held annually attract over 90 entries including some of the world's most accomplished sailors.

Full results on Yachtscoring.com

unravelling the mystique - uK Sailmakers
A-sail design principles are often misunderstood. Top sailmakers explain…

To explain the thinking that goes into designing asymmetrical spinnakers, we interviewed three sail designers from uK Sailmakers: lead designer Pat Considine, uK Sailmakers Chicago; Geoff Bishop, uK Sailmakers Fremantle, and Stuart Dahlgren, uK Sailmakers Northwest - Sidney, BC. Their thoughts on spinnaker design fell into two buckets.

1. The boat itself
Type of boat - high-performance, displacement, one-design.
Exact measurements - pin-to-pin halyard length, sheeting position, etc.
2. The type of sailing to be done
IRC, ORC, offshore, coastal, onedesign, professional vs. Corinthian.

Key data points
When designing an asymmetrical spinnaker, a designer will focus on three primary data points:\

1. The point-to-point distance between where the spinnaker will be tacked (on a sprit or a lowered pole) and the max height for the halyard.
2. The mid-girth (SMG) luff to leech measurement, expressed as a percentage of the foot length.
3. The trim position for the clew in terms of height off the deck and where the sheet will lead.

Full article in the October issue of Seahorse

Karpo wins Thousand Islands Race
Rijeka - Tivat - Rijeka: Thousand Islands Race is like any sailboat race, small or big: preparation, challenge, adventure, respect for nature and concern for the safety of the boat and the crew. All this was demonstrated by this year's jubilee 10th edition of the regatta, which passes between more than 1,000 islands in the Croatian part of the Adriatic, and which brings something new every year, attracting 77 sailboats from 17 countries in the past 10 editions.

This year, there were 7 boats at the start in Rijeka, both legs will be talked about for a long time as completely opposite, summarizing the essence of navigational sailing. After the slowest first leg in the 10 years so far, which required a lot of patience and fighting with strong winds, the weather forecast before the second leg from Tivat to Rijeka announced completely opposite conditions with a strong southerly (jugo) in the southern Adriatic and a transition to northerly (bura) in the central and northern Adriatic.

The winner of the first leg, the Slovenian "Karpo" with a two-member crew consisting of father and son Maks and Matic Vrečko, remained the only one still racing with a strong desire and will to reach the finish line in Rijeka. After fighting first with the south and then with hard wind and sea with only two crew members throughout the night, at 05:41 "Karpo" sent a message to the race committee: "We tried to pass through the Vir Sea while there was a 25-35 knot gale, now it increased to 35 – 44 knots and continue sailing in such conditions, unfortunately, is no longer possible. The waves are up to 2 meters and the sailboat experienced several strong hits. With the forecast we have that the wind will not weaken soon, the decision to retire from the second leg is the only prudent one. We are going back towards Zadar."

Thus, the second leg of this year's race will be recorded as the first that no one finished. The safety of sailboats and crews comes first, and all decisions to retire are made based on the correct assessments of the helmsman and crews. The results of the first leg thus became the final ones, where the leaderboard of the Thousand Islands Race is:

1. Karpo, Elan 450, Max Vrecko, Slovenia
2. Emilia, X4.6, Alfred Vorderegger, Austria
3. Talanta, Pogo 40 S2, Micheal Puehse, Austria

Full Results

Corum L'Epargne: Autopsy Of A Failed IMOCA Project
Since being launched in May 2020, the IMOCA Corum L'Epargne has suffered a whole series of different damages. A dismasting last week during the Azimut Challenge has now proven the final nail in the coffin, a mechanical failure which pressed Corum L'Epargne to announce the end of the project on Tuesday. Tip & Shaft looks back at the reasons that led to this decision.

So in less than a week, the Corum L'Epargne sailing team has suffered two major blows. The first happened during the night between Thursday September 21 and Friday September 22, a little more than 12 hours after the start of the 48-hour Defi Azimut Lorient Agglomeration race. The IMOCA being sailed by the duo Nicolas Troussel and Benjamin Schwartz was dismasted "in manageable conditions, a wind of 25 knots and big seas", according to the race press release.

The boat which was designed by the Franco-Argentinian architect Juan Kouyoumdjian and built in 2019/2020 under the project management of Mer Agitee, Michel Desjoyeaux's company, was put back in the water at the end of July after a seven-month project, one which was intended to make it more reliable and more efficient.

There was a change of bow and new foils (see our interview with Frederic Puzin, boss of Corum L'epargne, back in April). "We were obviously all very disappointed by the dismasting, but the team immediately were mobilized to find solutions so as to be at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre," Nicolas Troussel tells Tip & Shaft.

But the second knockout blow came on Tuesday morning when Frederic Puzin, the founder of Corum L'Epargne came to Lorient to tell the skipper then the team that the project was at an end.

Full report in Tip & Shaft

Cannonball blasts ahead at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez
Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez set sail today with the race committee led by PRO Georges Korhel and assisted by the International Maxi Association's Ariane Mainemare, defying predictions in managing to get a race in for the 39-strong maxi fleet, despite light winds. Through the afternoon the breeze barely touched six knots and was more usually closer to four.

Starting and finished immediately off Saint-Tropez, much to the delight of spectators crowded around the Tour du Portalet, the maxis sailed what was supposed to be a windward-leeward with the leeward mark in the mouth of the Golfe de Saint-Tropez and the weather mark to the east. Two laps of this, culminating into a run back to the finish off Saint-Tropez would represent a 25 mile course. In the event only the Maxi A1 and A2 classes sailed the full distance with the course for the smaller classes shortened after one lap.

In three out of the five classes, the winners were familiar. The last time the maxis raced on the Golfe was at Rolex Giraglia in June where IMA President Benoît de Froidmont's Wally 60 Wallyno and Dario Ferrari's former Maxi 72 Cannonball scored straight bullets in three races. Both continued their winning ways today in their respective classes.

Tomorrow a coastal race is scheduled, starting at 1200 from the bay off Pampelonne Beach. -- James Boyd / International Maxi Association

lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr

internationalmaxiassociation.com

Jake Julien's Rated X Crowned M32 World Champion
The perfect ending to a perfect season: Jake Julien, Keith Swinton, Rhys Mara, Julius Hallstrom, and Jeff McCooey won the M32 World Championship. It's the crown jewel of their dominant 2023 title collection which includes the North Americans, Winter Series, and Summer Series.

Don Wilson finished second, ending his three-year win streak at the Worlds. "It wasn't how we wanted the event to go," said the Convexity owner. Just before Worlds began, two of his crew were sidelined due to injury. Still, Convexity won the most races: five.

Jen Wilson and her Convergence team rounded out the podium with the bronze medal. "We're thrilled," said Wilson. "We were right in the mix the whole week, and I think we were the only boat that didn't have four big, husky professionals." She started the regatta in the vanguard position, but after numerous lead changes with Julien and finally one with Don, Jen finished in third place.

Full results on M32World.com

ORC Sportboat European Championship
Athens, Greece: After five races varying from a 26-mile Coastal race to four hour-long Windward/Leeward courses, one winner has emerged at the 2023 ORC Sportboat European Championship, hosted by the Nautical Club of Kalamaki (NOK) with support from the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC).

Enrico Michel's (ITA) Melges 24 NEVER 2 LATE, helmed by Manu Hens, is the new ORC Sportboat European Champion on the strength of a 1-2-6-2-2 scoreline. Besides Enrico and Hans, the winning team consisted of Antonia Contin, Stefano Longhi and Paolo Lambertenghi.

The four race days featured a variety of racing conditions to test the teams, from very light air to solid seabreezes, and close race results using ORC Performance Curve Scoring. Some races were resolved by only seconds in corrected time even after an hour of racing, and some places in some races had to be shared due to ties in corrected time.

Winning Silver medals is Ott Kikkas's (EST) team on his Corsa 915 SuGAR, the defending champions from 2022, who were 3 points back on a score line of 4-3-2-4-3. And the Bronze medalists are Arif Guerdenil's (TuR) Istanbul-based Farr 25 OD ORIENT XS with a score line of 3-1-7-3-8, 9 points from the lead.

orc.org

ILCA Masters North American Championship
Newport, R.I.: A strong autumn ebb tide augmented by some record rainfall across the Northeast created a one-way race track for most of the nine races at the 2023 ILCA Masters North American Championship, hosted by the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, September 29 to October 1. However the two sailors that emerged victorious—Ernesto Rodriguez in the ILCA 7 and Christine Shope in the ILCA 6—traveled very different paths to the top of the podium.

For Shope, a local Newport sailor, this was her first North American championship title.

Top five by class:

ILCA 7 (62 Entries)
1. Ernesto Rodriguez, Master, Royal Hialeah Yacht Club, 42 points
2. Peter Vessella, Great Grand Master, St. Francis Yacht Club, 56 points
3. Peter Shope, Grand Master, Laser Fleet 413, 62 points
4. Steve Kirkpatrick, Grand Master, New York Yacht Club / Sail Newport / Laser Fleet 413, 64 points
5. Gord Welsh, Apprentice, Stony Lake Yacht Club / Rats / Lakefield College School / BBPYC, 64 points

ILCA 6 (40 Entries)
1. Christine Shope, Apprentice, Sail Newport, 49 points
2. David Waiting, Apprentice, Severn Sailing Association, 63 points
3. Tim Woodford, Great Grand Master, Bras d'Or Yacht Club, 65 points
4. Jamie Carter, Master, Portland Yacht Club, 67 points
5. Duncan Whitrow, Master, Britannia Yacht Club, 68 points

Full results

nyyc.org

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Tel: +39 333 74 89 281
Email:

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2014 OSCAR 2 - Mylius Yachts Racer Cruiser. 650,000 EuR. Located in Cogolin, France.

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1991 Farr 72’ Sloop 'Maximizer'. 150,000 EuR Located in Bridgeport, CT, uSA.

A boat with a long and interesting racing history, as well as a proven ocean-capable cruiser to enjoy navigating the oceans around the world.

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Important Race History:
-Transatlantic Race 2015: 2nd in IRC3.
-Newport Bermuda 2014: Winner in Herbert L Stone, Memorial Trophy.
-Antigua Sailing Week 2013: 3rd in Class 1.
-Mountgay Barbados Race 2014-2015: Winner in Class 1.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

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The Last Word
God always answers prayers. Sometimes it's 'yes.' Sometimes the answer is 'no.' Sometimes it's 'you gotta be kidding.' -- Jimmy Carter

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