In This Issue
• St. Thomas International Regatta
• World Match Racing Tour Extends 2018 Season
• Southern Spars & Future Fibres Rig Package Integration
• M32 European Series Sanremo
• Clipper 2019-20 Round the World Yacht Race Skippers Revealed
• Marlow Ropes new Splicing Tutorials
• Busy season planned for Solent Sunbeam class in 2019
• Istvan Kopar secures 4th place in the Golden Globe Race
• Better Safe Than Sorry When Racing Sailboats
• Darrell J. Lowrance
• Featured Brokerage
• The Last Word: Lawrence Feringhetti
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
St. Thomas International Regatta
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Some of the 50-plus boats racing on the second day of the 46th St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR), stretched their class leads. Others overtook fellow class competitors to jump into the lead. Either way, blue skies, warm seas and winds blowing steadily at 12 to 15 knots over the round-the-island and round-the-buoy courses proved fun for everyone in this St. Thomas Yacht Club-hosted event,.
A good example of a lead stretch was St. Thomas' Peter Corr's King 40, Blitz, in CSA Spinnaker Racing 1. The Blitz team, an international contingent of crew from the USVI, USA, UK and Australia, tied on points after the first day with Antigua's Pamala Baldwin's J/122 Liquid. Today, Blitz won the class's two races thus posting a two-point lead over Liquid.
Meanwhile, the USA's Ron Zarrella's team aboard his custom-designed, 49-foot, cold-molded racer/cruiser, Blackfish, maintained a middle of the class position. Yet, they enjoyed a winning day in their own way.
"The racing today, off St. John and in Pillsbury Sound, has to be the most scenic courses I've ever done," says Zarrella, who is competing in STIR for his first time. "We usually sail in the classic yacht regattas, so we weren't necessarily expecting to win. But, we really wanted to experience this (racing in the Caribbean in STIR)."
In the CSA Spinnaker Racing 2 class, it was a case of overtaking rather than lead stretching for the St. Croix-based team aboard the J/100, Bad Girl. Bad Girl, with Mackenzie Bryan at the helm, had a tough time on the regattas first race on Friday and needed to retire. The young Crucians, almost all 20-somethings that grew up sailing together in dinghies, came back strong with nothing less than first place finishes. As a result, Bad Girl pushed St. John's Mike Feierabend's J/24, Bravissimo, to second. It's a very close second as both boats are tied at 8-points each.
Stretch was the word in the CSA Non-Spinnaker class as the team aboard Canada's Rob Butler's Reflex 38 put a five-point spread between themselves and St. Thomas' Lawrence Aqui's Dufour 40, Wild T'ing. Wild T'ing is the defending champion in this class, so Sunday's final day of racing should be highly competitive in this class.
Racing concludes Sunday evening.
stthomasinternationalregatta.com
World Match Racing Tour Extends 2018 Season
The World Match Racing Tour, under new ownership since 1 January, has announced an extension to the 2018 season in order to complete the World Championship following its sale by Aston Harald in December. The revised 2018-2019 WMRT Final will take place in Marstrand, Sweden over 3-7 July, hosted by the GKSS Match Cup Sweden. The event will be sailed in M32 catamarans and the winner will be crowned 2018-2019 Match Racing World Champion, as sanctioned by World Sailing.
The decision to extend the 2018 season follows feedback from teams and stakeholders keen to complete last year's unfinished season. WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance explains: "Teams invested in the Tour last year to win the World Championship. The Tour was sold before a Final took place and we have extended the schedule to ensure the World Championship title is properly awarded. The GKSS Match Cup Sweden has always been a flagship event of the Tour and we are excited to partner with them to host the World Championship."
The top 12 teams from the current WMRT leaderboard will be invited to compete in Sweden. They include defending Match Racing World Champion Torvar Mirsky (AUS), and former World Champions Phil Robertson (NZL) and Ian Williams (GBR).
Going forwards it is the intention of the WMRT's new owners to return the Tour to its roots, with a remit for the series and an organisational structure for 2019-2020 and the future similar to how it was before Aston Harald's tenure.
James Pleasance explains: "The World Match Racing Tour was founded on a very simple premise: To grow top level match racing by bringing together a series of existing and new events under a common 'World Series' brand. Each event is run independently but benefits from the added value that being part of a World Tour brings through global exposure and partnerships – the sum being greater than that of the parts.
Our plan is to return the Tour to have 8-10 world championship events per year and generate financial value to both sailors and sponsors through international media coverage and prize money. Qualifier events will give an open opportunity for any match racing sailor to become World Champion."
www.wmrt.com
www.gkssmatchcupsweden.se
Southern Spars & Future Fibres Rig Package Integration
Thanks to North Technology Group's "Engine Above Deck" concept and our unique bespoke design suite, sourcing both spars and rigging from Southern Spars and Future Fibres is an obvious choice. Together we provide a fully integrated and optimized rig package where the entire sail and rig plan works cohesively and there is a comprehensive understanding of the loads on the rig.
Southern Spars and Future Fibres look to form long term relations with boats and race programs so that together we can maximize racing performance.
southernspars.com
futurefibres.com
M32 European Series Sanremo
Ian Williams and his GAC Pindar team today claimed the M32 European Series warm-up event in Sanremo with a race to spare, at least. The British six time Match Racing World Champion and defending M32 European Series champion and his crew of Richard Sydenham, Pete Nicholas and Will Alloway led from day one of this three day event. This was despite a late challenge from young Swede Nicklas Dackhammar, standing in as helmsman on Cape Crow Vikings for Aston Harald boss Håkan Svensson, which saw Dackhammar taking the fight to the British in the pre-start of today's first race.
While GAC Pindar was again the winning boat of the day, second top scorer with a 2-3-3 was Youth Vikings Denmark, skippered by former Hobie 16 World Champion Daniel Bjornholt.
Having won two races of the 13 sailed here, Richard Goransson's Inga Racing Team was also punching above its weight, this being the Swedish team's first event in the nimble M32 catamaran after years in the Farr 30 and Melges 32 and 40.
The M32 European Series begins properly in two months' time, with the first of five scoring events taking place in Pisa, Italy over 24-26th May
Overall results
1. GAC Pindar, Ian Williams, 21
2. Vikings, Hakan Svensson, 32
3. Inga from Sweden, Richard Goransson, 41
4. Youth Vikings, Daniel Bjornholt, 49
5. Team Shark, Andrea Vacchino, 52
Clipper 2019-20 Round the World Yacht Race Skippers Revealed
The Skippers, who have a combined total of 1,312,300nm in their log books, hail from the UK, South Africa and Spain and bring a vast range of experience to the roles; Nick Leggatt, 52, (Cape Town) already has three circumnavigations under his belt; Chris Brooks, 33, (Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex) is a high-performance racer with a 95 per cent podium success rate; Josh Stickland, 31, (Southampton, Hampshire) started his sailing career as a teenager through a Prince's Trust bursary; Ben Keitch, 42, (Eastbourne, Sussex) spent 18 months with the British Antarctic Survey, and Seumas Kellock, 26, (Edinburgh, Scotland) is a former Clipper Race Crew whose skills were so impressive he has returned to the global sailing event as a Race Skipper.
The eleven Race Skippers are as follows:
Josh Stickland, 31, Southampton
Ben Keitch, 42, from Sussex
Jeronimo Santos-Gonzalez, 44, Galicia
Mark Burkes, 54, Worcester
Seumas Kellock, 26, Edinburgh
Ian Wiggin, 30, Plymouth
Chris Brooks, 33, Essex
Nick Leggatt, 52, Cape Town
David 'Wavy' Immelman, 48, Cape Town
Mike Surridge, 55, Canterbury
Guy Waites, 52, York
Biographies at www.clipperroundtheworld.com
Marlow Ropes new Splicing Tutorials
The first in the series of Marlow Ropes new Splicing Tutorials!
Skill rating: Advanced
Application: Used for core dependent rope constructions such as D2 Racing, V2 etc. Designs where the core contributes most or all the strength and the cover provides protection to the rope.
Busy season planned for Solent Sunbeam class in 2019
The 96-year-old Solent Sunbeam classic keelboat fleet has a busy racing and social schedule lined up for the coming sailing season, starting on Saturday 30th March 2019 an afternoon race around Chichester Harbour. Based at Itchenor Sailor Club, the class offers competitive and sociable Thursday evening racing, specific weekend regattas and a number of week-long racing events at both Itchenor and Cowes, from April through to September.
32 Solent Sunbeams regularly sail from Itchenor Sailing Club ranging from 96 years in age to new all-GRP and newly epoxied yachts ensuring excellent one-design racing in a competitive and very sociable fleet. Newcomers to the class are welcomed into the fleet with tips and advice on ownership, rig set-up and maintenance freely available from the long-standing owners and enthusiasts. Two new boats will be joining the Itchenor fleet this season, V47, Kitty who has come up from the Falmouth fleet and V70, Minty a brand-new GRP boat.
As one would expect with a class spanning 96 years, many of the current events, regattas and activities of the class have their origins in the past. The Solent Sunbeam class itself originates from Hamble River Sailing Club, where in 1922 the club Commodore, Basil Lubbock MC was asked by the members to find a new one design racing yacht. Lubbock commissioned the eminent naval architect Alfred Westmacott and the Solent Sunbeam was born.
It turned out to be one of Westmacott's best designs for racing; not only is she an extremely pretty 3-man keelboat but also one that can handle the boisterous conditions of the Solent. Her original construction by Woodnutt & Co on the Isle of Wight must have been of exceptionally high quality as eight of the first yachts still actively race today including hulls V1, V2 and V3 which were all commissioned in 1922/3.
The fleet was based at Hamble River Sailing Club from 1922-1930 and also at Bembridge Sailing Club in the 1930s. Itchenor Sailing Club first adopted the class in 1932 and by 1966 all the Solent boats were based at Itchenor. A sister fleet has existed in Falmouth since 1924 and will be celebrating their 95th anniversary this year with a number of special events.
Istvan Kopar secures 4th place in the Golden Globe Races
American Hungarian solo yachtsman Istvan Kopar finally reached the finish line off Les Sables d'Olonne, France at 13:58 UTC today to take 4th place in the 2018 Golden Globe Race.
"This is the happiest day of my life...And this [Les Sables d'Olonne] is the best place to be...The Capital of offshore sailing." He said on arrival at the dock.
The 66-year old yachtsman from Delray Beach, Florida, who suffered continuing steering problems almost from Day 1, overcame setback after setback throughout the race. The water tanks in his Tradewind 35 yacht Puffin became contaminated soon after he sailed down into the Southern Ocean, and by Cape Horn, the black mould growing inside the boat became so bad that his health began to suffer.
His biggest reward was, he says "Solving all the problems en-route." The self-steering issues led to an overload on the gearbox within Puffin's pedestal wheel, which he had to strip down and refashion broken cogs from what he had onboard. He tried to circumvent the wheel steering altogether by fitting an emergency tiller, but that too broke and the lash-up he made to strengthen it used up the last of his epoxy resin supplies.
Kopar said: "It was torture for me. My self steering failed almost from Day 1. The boat itself did not have a problem. It was I who had the problems. Luck was just not with me. I think I'm done with sailing now and will take up gardening instead" he joked.
That was today...Tomorrow it may be a very different story!
Kopar's return leaves just one more skipper at sea – Finland's Tapio Lehtinen and his Gaia 36 Asteria, still 4,227 miles from the finish. He is not expected to finish before mid-May.
Better Safe Than Sorry When Racing Sailboats
Telephoto camera lenses can play tricks with our eyes and make boats and marks appear closer to each other than they really are. Here is such a compressed photo of two boats rounding a windward mark in close quarters. Should the port tacker be better safe than sorry? The starboard tacker is in the zone and steaming toward the windward mark. The port tacker, reportedly, saw an opening to sneak inside the starboard tacker. Could she sneak inside? Would she? Should she?
Even if the first answer is yes, it would still be an imprudent tactic. Rule 18.3 (Tacking in the Zone) clearly gives the starboard tack boat right or way by saying if a boat tacks in the zone "she shall not cause a boat that has been on starboard tack since entering the zone to sail above close-hauled to avoid contact." That's the first fact. But go beyond the rule for a moment and think of the times you've tried to stick your bow inside of a mark. Hopefully you tried it in boats smaller than these 47-footers! You throw in your tack a little shy of the layline and never fully accelerate after the tack. The starboard tacker rolls you and takes your wind. Your boat wallows as you attempt to luff around the mark.
Why get rolled when you don't have to? Why risk fouling the right of way boat? Why risk not having enough way to get around the mark without hitting it?
The smart move, regardless of what size boat you're sailing, is to duck the starboard tacker and tack on its weather hip. That would prevent a foul and let you tack with a lot of speed and get around the mark cleanly.
Low percentage plays are how we lose sailboat races as well as poker hands. Anticipate your port tack approach options; come into your rounding tack with a full head of steam, and don't commit a foul. Be better safe than sorry. -- Adam Loory
www.uksailmakers.com/news/better-safe-than-sorry
Darrell J. Lowrance
Navico, parent company to the Lowrance, Simrad, B&G and C-MAP brands, announced this week the passing of Darrell J. Lowrance, founder of its Lowrance brand. Darrell served as President and CEO of Lowrance Electronics from 1964 to 2006, and was responsible for many breakthroughs in marine electronics. In addition to the first recreational sonar product for anglers the Fish-Lo-K-Tor (also known as the "Little Green Box") he led the development of the first graph recorder, the first integrated sonar/GPS unit, and many others. He was President of the American Fishing Tackle Manufacturer's Association (AFTMA) from 1983-1984. Darrell also served as a member of the Board of Directors for AFTMA from 1978-1986, and again in 1988, and was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2013.
According to Bassmaster.com, Lowrance came up with the idea for fish finders while working as pilot. As he flew over Oklahoma’s Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in the 1950s, he could see schools of fish through the clear water. He wondered if sonar - developed to find submarines - could be used to locate school of fish, too.
“He developed the famous “little green box” with the help of his father, Carl, and his brother, Arlen, to help fishermen and boaters monitor water depth and find fish. The product was introduced in 1959 and it revolutionized fishing,” Bassmaster reports.
The Lowrance Electronics Facebook page reports that Darrell J. Lowrance died of a stroke Saturday morning, March 16. He was 80 years old.
"With his passing, the world has lost a great man and a true visionary," said Leif Ottosson, CEO, Navico. "Darrell's passion for fishing, innovative design and dedication to driving the marine electronics industry forward, led to innovative ideas and products that have shaped the fishing experiences for millions of anglers globally during the past 60 years. The fishing world and our Navico family mourn this loss, and we offer our sincere condolences to Darrell's wife, Kathleen, and to his family."
Featured Brokerage
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The Last Word
Paper may burn but words will escape. -- Lawrence Feringhetti, 100 years young, Sunday March 24th.
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