Issue #4265 - 30 January
In This Issue
• Van Den Heede receives huge welcome back in Les Sables d'Olonne
• Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week
• Marlow Ropes Announces Official Supplier Status To 36th America's Cup Challengers INEOS Team UK
• Spindrift Jules Verne Record Attempt: The First Cap
• Warren Jones International Youth Regatta
• Match Race Super League
• Ian Walker Among The 100+ Entries For Tiger Trophy
• King Bungaree - the first Australian to actually circumnavigate the country
• Featured Brokerage
• The Last Word: Klingon Honor Guard Manual
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 editor [AT] eurosailnews [DOT] com
Van Den Heede receives huge welcome back in Les Sables d'Olonne
Photo by Christophe Favreau/PPL/GGR. Click on image to enlarge.
Jean-Luc Van Den Heede wrote his name into the record books by not only winning the 2018 Golden Globe solo non-stop round the world race today, but becoming the oldest in history to complete such a race. The 73-year old French veteran of six solo circumnavigations takes over both titles from Britain's Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the sole finisher of the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race 50 years before. Until the finish gun fired at 09:12 UTC, Sir Robin had held the title as the oldest solo circumnavigator in a race, after completing the Velux 5 Oceans Race in 2007 at the age of 68.
Age is clearly no barrier, for Van Den Heede has led this race ever since rounding the Cape of Good Hope. At one point he and his Rustler 36 yacht Matmut had built up a 2,000 mile lead over second placed Dutchman Mark Slats, until pitch-poled during a ferocious southern ocean storm some 2,000 miles west of Cape Horn. He and his yacht survived the ordeal but when she righted herself, Jean-Luc was devastated to find that the pressure on the bolt holding the lower shrouds had torn a 10cm long hole down the mast section.
His first reaction was to head north to the Chilean port of Valparaiso to replace the mast, which would have put him out of the running for the main prize, but two days later, he had worked out a way to repair the damage and headed back towards Cape Horn once more under reduced sail.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, one of the first to welcome Van Den Heede at the finish, said: "Jean-Luc is to be congratulated for a magnificent performance, made all the greater by the jury repairs he had to make to his mast to stay in the Race. I'm sorry to lose my record as the oldest to race solo around the world, but it couldn't go to a better person."
The original Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968/9 had 9 entrants and only one finisher - Sir Robin Knox-Johnston who became the first to sail solo non-stop round the globe. This race has also had a high attrition rate with five of the original starters still in the hunt. Jean-Luc's performance has beaten Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's time by 100 days - a remarkable achievement. Four gave up for personal reasons, one suffered steering failure and five were rolled, dismasted and rescued in the Southern Ocean, including British yachtswoman Susie Goodall. Another set a jury rig and successfully made it to Cape Town unaided, and two more were forced by circumstances to stop in Australia.
Position of skippers at 17:00 UTC 29.01.19
Skipper - Distance to finish
1. Jean- Luc VDH (FRA) Rustler 36 Matmut, Finished
2. Mark Slats (NED) Rustler 36 Ohpen Maverick, 349
3. Uku Randmaa (EST) Rustler 36 One and All, 3520
4. Istvan Kopar (USA)Tradewind 35 Puffin, 4389
5. Tapio Lehtinen (FIN) Gaia 36 Asteria, 7797
Chichester Class
1. Igor Zaretskiy (RUS) Endurance 35 Esmeralda - stopped in Albany, W Australia
Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week
Photo by Tim Wright, www.photoaction.com
Racer were welcomed to Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week 2019 at Camper & Nicholson's Port Louis Marina with Skippers Briefing and Welcome Party. 43 boats have registered from 14 different countries locally, regionally and internationally. This year sees's the first Grenada Sailing Association National Youth Team made up of 16 - 18 years from local youth sailing teams around the island.
The first days racing was on the west coast protected from the easterly Trades but racers still saw a good F5 out on the water, making for an exciting days racing.
Overall Race Results for Monday 28 January
Racing:
1st Nickatime - Jason Fletcher - Grenada
2nd Liquid - Pamela Baldwin - Antigua
3rd Taz - Bernie Evan-Wong - Antigua
Racer/Cruiser
1st Jaguar - Peter Morris - Trinidad
2nd Julie Rule - Peter Evans - Grenada
3rd C-MOS - Norman Decosta - Trinidad
Classics:
1st Galatea - Judd Tinius - Grenada
2nd Shangri La - Jonathon Gittens - Barbados
3rd The Blue Peter. - Mathew Barker - UK
J24:
1st Attitude - Fredrick Sweeney - St Lucia
2nd Die Hard - Robbie Yearwood - Grenada
3rd Hawkeye - Stephen Bushe - Trinidad
grenadasailingweek.com Marlow Ropes Announces Official Supplier Status To 36th America's Cup Challengers INEOS Team UK
Marlow Ropes, the World-leading British manufacturer of high-performance rope is delighted to announce official supplier status to the British Challenger for the 36th America's Cup INEOS Team UK. This announcement marks the continuation of the relationship that Marlow have had historically with the British challenger, following their Technical Partnership for the 35th America's Cup cycle.
This relationship continues to thrive and Marlow will once again be working with the British America's Cup team led by Sir Ben Ainslie and his technical team to develop bespoke, sustainable rigging solutions to race the latest generation of 75' monohull foiling Americas Cup Class boats.
INEOS Team UK is skippered by Sir Ben Ainslie, whose relationship with Marlow stretches back many years from its his days of competitive British sailing and Olympic successes, which culminated in winning four Olympic Gold medals for Great Britain.
Innovation is key to the Marlow and INEOS relationship as Leisure Marine Director, Paul Honess comments: "We are very proud to be the official supplier to INEOS TEAM UK. Our collaboration with the America's Cup teams in the past has contributed to the development of the Marlow Grand Prix range that is used on the wider race boat circuit at all levels. Developing sustainable products and bespoke rigging solutions that are tested on some of the most demanding systems found on yachts today is crucial to Marlow's future product innovation."
Sustainability is of great importance for both the UK rope manufacturer and INEOS Team UK, and 2019 sees Marlow pushing for greater change in the rope industry to drive their reuse, repurpose, recycle mission. This year sees the launch of the first eco-conscious dockline range made from 100% recycled plastic, and the company will be reporting sustainability KPIs for the first time.
Chris Noble, INEOS TEAM UK rigger commented, "It was an easy decision to partner with Marlow Ropes in our challenge to win the 36th Americas Cup. As a world leading rope manufacturer the quality of their standard product and development capabilities allows us to work together to fully optimise the rigging on all our platforms.
Noble added; "As a British team it also makes it that much better to partner with a UK manufacturer - we look forward to developing the relationship further over the next few years as we head towards New Zealand"
Marlow's history in world class British rope manufacturing dates back over 200 years, and has earned its reputation as the world-leading manufacturer of high performance rope. Now the premier sailing rope brand will again be featured in the heart of the most spectacular sailing competition in the world.
Spindrift Jules Verne Record Attempt: The First Cap
After 12 days, 14 hours, 58 minutes, Spindrift 2 reached the longitude of Cape Agulhas on Tuesday at 0240 UTC (0340 French Time), sailing from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Whilst maintaining the lead on Francis Joyon and his teams' world record of 6 hours 43 minutes. In order to reach this point of Africa, Yann Guichard and his eleven crew members had to sail around the Saint Helena anticyclone to be able to benefit from the downwind sailing of the Southern Ocean, in other words, a 700-miles round tour...
The first of the three symbolic Capes of this round the world sailing race, the Cape of Good Hope, was reached after just 12 days 13 hours 8 minutes: one of the best ever times of the Trophee Jules Verne, which first started in 1993. But it was several miles away to the South East, at Cape Agulhas, where the time reference comes into its own as this point of Africa marks the entrance into the Indian Ocean. However, in order to reach it, Spindrift 2 had to navigate around the Saint Helena anticyclone, go through an oceanic ridge and finally, take a left before heading towards Cape Agulhas.
Despite this detour, which forced the black and gold trimaran to dive South up to 43 degrees, Yann Guichard and his 11 crew members keep a lead: 6 hours and 43 minutes, (equivalent to 300 miles) on the reference time of IDEC Sport, the current record holder. As a result, Spindrift 2 took 12 days, 14 hours, 58 minutes from Ushant to reach Cape Angulhas, and from the equator, 7 days 17 hours to go beyond this point in Africa.
If this southerly course enables the team to shorten their route while benefiting from a sustained current, going down to 53° South would present them with the problem of drifting ice and where a number of icebergs have been clearly located by the CLS satellites. On this stretch of the route, Spindirft 2 needs to be very fast because Francis Joyon and his crew made the Indian Ocean crossing extremely quickly as they still hold the WSSRC record (5d 21h 8m)! Having said that, the capabilities of the black and gold trimaran in the breeze give hope that it will retain the lead on IDEC Sport's timing to South of Tasmania, the hot spot between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
Warren Jones International Youth Regatta
The 2019 Warren Jones International Youth Regatta began today with ten flights of four races completed. All twelve teams got to experience typical swan river sailing conditions, the sun was shining and at 39 degrees, the heat was on. The racing started in a light eight knot seabreeze which waxed and waned as the day went on, creating perfect match racing conditions.
Half way through the first round robin there are five stand out teams. KNOTS Racing from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Performance Program and Team Dutch Wave from Vereniging Watersport De Twee Provinciën won all of their matches today with six wins each. Following closely is Tom Grimes from The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia who won seven out of eight matches. Harry Price, world ranked number four and the current defending champion, from The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and Will Boulden, the runner up from last years Warren Jones International Youth Regatta, from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club are also showing strong performances.
Clare Costanzo and her all female team showed that they are to be taken seriously with three wins on the board after today...
https://www.swanriversailing.com
Match Race Super League
Founded in 2017, the Match Race Super League (MRSL) was able to attract 7 similar minded events around the globe to join the inaugural league season.
In the 3rd season of the Match Race Super League international top teams will be showing up on on 4 continents again this year, fighting for the crown and valuable points for the Match Race Super League. The defending champions have already announced their participation on the MRSL at this early stage. The Swiss Match Race Team headed by skipper Eric Monnin will be the benchmark for all challengers in 2019. The team won Match Race Germany 2018, the European Championships 2018 and the Thompson Cup 2018. Thus, the Swiss also laid the foundation for the overall victory in the Match Race Super League 2018 with three wins on the tour, also winning the League for the second consecutive time. The season winners prevailed against 78 opponents including sailors from 30 nations in a total of 13 events in twelve countries around the world.
The annual calendar of all regattas of the Match Race Super League is almost complete and will be finalized in the coming weeks. The organizers of at least ten, but probably up to 15 regattas want to be part of the 2019 Match Race Super League.
Definitive Tour members are
Szcecin Match Race (May, Poland)
NJK Open Spring Match Race Cup (May, Finland)
Koper Match Race Challenge (July, Slovenia)
Baltic Match Race (August)
Internationaux de France Match Racing (July, France)
Oakliff International (September, USA)
Thompson Cup (September, USA)
DBS Marina Bay Cup (September, Singapore)
Kingdom Match Race (December, Bahrain).
More well-known and also new regattas in Russia, Greece, Italy, New Caledonia and Brazil will be added in the coming weeks. The announcements of the respective organizers are planned for February/March.
Ian Walker Among The 100+ Entries For Tiger Trophy
Round six of the Selden SailJuice Winter Series, the John Merricks Tiger Trophy, is looking set for a challenging weekend for Ian Walker and the other legends getting ready for racing, not least an unlikely appearance from the commissioner of Hazzard County...
The John Merricks Tiger Trophy this weekend at Rutland Water could prove the most challenging yet, as the Selden SailJuice Winter Series reaches event six in the midst of an increasingly chilly start to 2019.
To get the early discounted entry, make sure you sign up at www.sailjuiceseries.com by this Thursday evening, to join in with more than 100 boats already registered for a weekend of tight, handicap competition. It looks set to be windy on Saturday and softer on Sunday for the no-discard Pursuit Race, so predicting a winner will be tricky.
Biggest and potentially hardest one-design battle in the fleet will be between the 20-plus 420s that have entered, a welcome return for the class from where the Tiger Trophy originated. Son of Rutland, the late Johnny Merricks, won the first ever Tiger a quarter of a century ago in a 420 and went on to win the 420 World Championships. Johnny also happened to win an Olympic silver medal in the 470, and his old crew Ian Walker is making a return to Rutland crewing for Jess Lavery in the very same 470 that he and Johnny won their silver medal.
As ever, the Series welcomes all kinds of small sailboats, with the National 18 and Norfolk Punt represented along with the Challenger trimarans, and two Moths, one foiling and one non-foiling.
The famous Tiger Dinner, tickets just £10, has the added draw of Ian Walker as guest speaker, followed by a charity auction that will include signed items from Sir Ben Ainslie and his America's Cup campaign, Ineos Team UK.
With SailRacer providing GPS tracking for the first time at the Tiger Trophy, this event will now also serve as a qualifier for the Great British Sailing Challenge which culminates with a Grand Final at Rutland Water in late September.
King Bungaree - the first Australian to actually circumnavigate the country
The Prime Minister's promise of $6.7 million to send a replica of Captain Cook's ship the Endeavour on a trip around Australia has drawn some ridicule, particularly since he initially referred to it as a 're-enactment'.
An actual circumnavigation re-enactment would involve Matthew Flinders, but how many Australians could as quickly name the Indigenous sailor who accompanied him, King Bungaree?
Co-chair of the National NAIDOC committee, John Paul Janke, says all Australians are missing out when we don't know our full history.
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The Last Word
If you cannot control yourself, you cannot command others. -- Klingon Honor Guard Manual
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