In This Issue
• Slingsby clinches Moth World Championship with a day to spare
• Josh Junior stays consistent to lead Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne
• Join an International fleet for Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week 26-31 January 2020
• SailGP lineup to shift for Season 2
• The Ocean Race 2021-22 announces stop in China
• 2020 Rick Tomlinson Portfolio Calendar
• Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar competition
• Not every mad dog is an Englishman...
• Industry News
• Featured Charter
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Swan 80 - Island Fling
• • HH 42/05 - Power Of Love
• • Botin IRC 52 “Fox”
• The Last Word: Will Rogers
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
The 11th annual Wight Vodka Best Sailor's Bar search is on... VOTING IS OPEN FOR THE TOP TEN
Slingsby clinches Moth World Championship with a day to spare
Photo by Martina Orsini / IMCA. Click on image for photo gallery.
After a near-perfect score card at the end of the penultimate day of racing, Tom Slingsby has clean swept another day of racing to clinch his maiden Moth World Championship with a day to spare.
The win at the Chandler Macleod Moth Worlds came after a solid sea breeze that saw the race committee commit to running the additional fourth race to get ahead of schedule.
Racing was also live streamed by Down Under Sail, well supported by broadcast partners CST Composites and Mach2 Boats.
After the first day of Gold Fleet racing yesterday, the question going around the rigging area was 'who is actually capable of knocking off Slingsby?', and today proved that if he had any kinks in his armour, they were not easily exposed.
After a total of 13 races in the event so far across qualifying and finals, Slingsby has won the last 12 with the only blemish on his score card being a second place in the opening qualifying race behind Queenslander Matt Chew.
Going into the last two races Slingsby sits on 11 points, with Australian SailGP team mate Kyle Langford in second on 22 points with a 6-2-2-3 record in today's racing.
Langford said he was happy with how he sailed however the plan of beating Slingsby just hadn't worked out.
"I said going into this event that the only person I wanted to beat was Slingers, and I mean deep down I'm sad that he won but he was a class above everyone else," he said.
"Winning every single race is pretty impressive, he's outclassed everybody so well done to him."
Just three points behind Langford is Olympic Laser gold medallist Tom Burton, who was one point better than him today with a 2-5-3-2 score card that will see the final day create a huge battle for the podium.
Josh Junior stays consistent to lead Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne
New Zealand's Josh Junior has taken a 14-point lead at the top of the Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne, Australia, after another solid day on Port Philip with a fifth and a first. Nenad Bugarin, from Croatia, is up to second with Andy Maloney, from New Zealand, down to third. The first race of the day was won by defending world champion, Zsombor Berecz, from Hungary.
The fleet was held ashore an hour to wait for the wind and once everyone got on the water it was only 6-8 knots southerly for the first race before the wind died down again, causing another wait between the two races of the day. The sailors only got back ashore at seven p.m. but managed to get two races in.
The talk all week is of some extreme weather arriving mid week. Scott explained "We've got heaps of heat coming and I think we could see 40 degrees tomorrow, though I don't know if that is a good thing for the sea breeze or not. The days we've had that in the past during training, more often that not we've just hidden and not gone out, so it's going to be a tough day tomorrow if that does come through."
The 10 race opening series continues until Friday, with the final race and medal race scheduled for Saturday 21 December.
Results after 4 races
1. Josh Junior, NZL, 12
2. Nenad Bugarin, CRO, 26
3. Andy Maloney, NZL, 27
4. Nicholas Heiner, NED, 28
5. Giles Scott, GBR, 30
6. Alejandro Muscat, ESP, 35
7. Tom Ramshaw, CAN, 41
8. Zsombor Berecz, HUN, 48
9. Nils Theuninck, SUI, 49
10. Milan Vujasinovic, CRO, 50
Join an International fleet for Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week 26-31 January 2020
An international fleet of over 30 yachts in 5 classes are bracing themselves to battle it out for the 8th edition of Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week 2020. With some of the most idyllic sailing conditions in the world. The regatta has gained the reputation of being friendly and intimate, with a focus on sharp and competitive racing out on the water and camaraderie between crews on land...many of the racers return year after year to join a regatta that celebrates the long tradition of sailing in the islands, but also retains much of the West Indian charm. The organising committee have finely tuned and improved the courses tailor made for each class. Of course it is not all about the sailing, there are some fabulous parties lined up with the final night party at a new location. Racers and party goers are invited to the 'Aquarium' on Magazine beach, a stunning location surrounded by style, sand and palm trees - there couldn't be a better place for the Mount Gay Red Cap Grand Finale party to be!
Grenada Sailing Week is proud to have been awarded bronze as part of the 'Sailors for the Sea' clean regatta program. But this year are taking this further and are ticking off the 'steps to sustainability' with the 'Sailors for the Sea' program and going for gold with the help of the 'Green Team' lead by Richard Beadle of Premier Marketing Grenada.
With two host venues, four days or racing and six nights of parties this is an event you don't want to miss.
NoR is posted online www.grenadasailingweek.com
Email: info [AT] grenadasailingweek [DOT] com
Facebook: GrenadaSailingWeek
Twitter @grenadasailweek
SailGP lineup to shift for Season 2
SailGP today announced the addition of the Spain SailGP Team to the global championship's Season 2 lineup. Replacing China, Spain will join Australia, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan and the United States in the world's fastest sail racing as the league visits six iconic venues across the globe in 2020.
China was one of SailGP's six league-funded teams for its inaugural season, and finished third overall. The F50 catamaran used by China will transfer to Spain, which will begin competing at the start of the 2020 season in Sydney (February 28-29).
SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts said: "We're thrilled to welcome Spain to SailGP and very much look forward to the new team's involvement in the league.
"Though the China SailGP Team had a successful first season, we were unfortunately not granted the permissions necessary to continue operating the team within our existing structure. With numerous active discussions around future teams, we were fortunate to be in the position to make an immediate substitution, allowing us to deliver on our promise of seven teams for Season 2 as our global championship continues to grow.
"SailGP remains interested in continuing to support both a Chinese team and the development of a sailing academy in China as planned if a future agreement can be reached.
"The members of the Chinese team have been strongly committed to SailGP, and they represented the team, the league and the country very well. We wish everyone involved all the best and look forward to our continued work with some members of the team."
The lineup for the Spain SailGP Team will be announced in Madrid in late January following training in New Zealand.
Tickets for Sydney SailGP are on sale at SailGP.com/Sydney.
The Ocean Race 2021-22 announces stop in China
The 2021-22 edition of The Ocean Race will make one stop in Asia, with the city of Shenzhen proudly serving as the host city for the iconic, fully-crewed, offshore race.
Located directly north of Hong Kong, in an area known as the Great Bay, Shenzhen has been among China's most prosperous and fastest growing cities for the past 30 years. As a home to many top multinational companies and manufacturers, as well as leading Chinese companies, it is an important hub for many race stakeholders.
The Ocean Race has been visiting China since the 2008-09 edition. Now, it will stop in Shenzhen, also known as China's Silicon Valley, and home to a population approaching 20-million, ranking it among the top five most populated cities in the country.
"This is the fifth consecutive edition of the race where we have brought a stopover to China," said Johan Salén, the Managing Director of The Ocean Race.
"In 2018, the Chinese-flagged Dongfeng Race Team won the race, in the closest finish in history, and the stop in China was important in increasing the local fan-base for both the team and the event."
The 2021-22 edition of The Ocean Race will feature two classes of boats – the innovative, foiling, IMOCA 60 class, along with the one-design VO65 boats that produced the close and compelling competition of the last race.
2020 Rick Tomlinson Portfolio Calendar
Click on image to enlarge
Now in its 32nd year the ever-popular Rick Tomlinson Portfolio Calendar features 12 spectacular images from recent assignments around the world.
Action and art has always been the Portfolio Calendar theme and this years pictures include action from the 8M Worlds, SailGP and the 49ers in Weymouth, plus art from the Round the Island race and a beautiful Solent sunset. There is something for everyone in the 2020 Portfolio edition.
Large format Size 56cm x 42cm
Price £19.95 +p&p
Available online on www.rick-tomlinson.com
Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar competition
One of our top ten nominated bars this year is the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. Your humble narrator has visited many times, including the boats.com launch party there nearly 20 years ago. Here's what another boats.com alum has to say:
St. Francis Yacht Club's bar is located literally right on the water, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the western entrance to the famous San Francisco Bay... sailboat racing on evening beer can races is literally "stadium sailing" right in front of the vast expanse of floor to ceiling glass windows on the north facing bar/ restaurant....truly an amazing place to sit for lunch or dinner and watch the sunset as sailboats and foiling kiters fly by all the time.. very entertaining!
One of the club's many specialty cocktails is the Sloe Gin Fizz.
Sloe Gin is a liqueur made from the sloe berry, while gin is an alcohol distilled from grain and flavored with juniper berries. Sloe gin is a reddish colored liqueur. The sloe (or blackthorn bush) berries are too sour to eat raw, so they are made into a liqueur. Waste not... etc.
It's a lighter drink, alcohol content ranges from 15-30%. This makes for a great hot day drink, tall glass and lots of ice.
To make a sloe gin fizz the way they did in the 50's:
2 oz Sloe Gin
1 tablespoon of simple syrup
3/4 oz of lemon juice
3/4 oz of lime juice
Add to Boston Shaker with Ice
Shake well.
Pour into a glass and top with club soda, serve.
A sail around the bay and under the Golden Gate, a couple of drinks at St. Francis, followed by an hour or two at City Lights Bookstore in North Beach, then a walk around the corner to the House of Nanking and have chef Peter Fang choose your dishes for you. That is, quite simply, as good as it gets in San Francisco, or anywhere else.
Voting for our top ten is now open: eurosailnews.com/sailors-bars
... and we welcome more stories and drink recipes from the top ten!
Not every mad dog is an Englishman...
Meanwhile, in adventure news, Colin O'Brady, the current record holder of the fastest times for the Exploder's Grand Slam and the Seven Summits and the first person to cross Antarctica solo and unsupported, has embarked on a new and equally audacious endeavor, dubbed "The Impossible Row" involving the Southern Ocean and sailing's greatest landmark.
On Friday, December 13, O'Brady and a team of two other adventurers departed from Cape Horn for the open waters of the Drake Passage, the bow of their ocean-going rowboat aimed at the Antarctica Peninsula.
If they succeed, they will become the first people to row this body of water, which is widely regarded as one of the planet's most treacherous patches of brine. Interested readers can follow the Impossible Row (including a position tracker and lots of onboard media) here: www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblerow
Sail-World wishes O'Brady and his team the best of luck as they attempt to ply these frigid and storm-tossed waters, and we look forward to watching the Youth America's Cup 2020-2021 unfurl.
May the four winds blow you safely home. -- David Schmidt
https://youtu.be/kwQPbHCohc8
Industry News
Click on image to enlarge
Emirates is pleased to announce its appointment as official 'Presenting Partner' of the Emirates America's Cup World Series (ACWS) event in Portsmouth, taking place in June 2020.
As Official Presenting Partner of the ACWS Portsmouth, Emirates has helped secure the event during which world-class America's Cup sailors will return to the Solent for a thrilling preliminary regatta from 4 to 7 June 2020 as part of the competition to win the oldest sporting trophy in the world.
The 2020 America's Cup World Series will see all participating teams race their AC75 America's Cup class yachts. The first ACWS event will take place in Cagliari, Sardinia from April 23 to 26 2020, the second in Portsmouth, then concluding in Auckland as part of the Christmas Race from December 17-20. The ACWS is then followed by the Prada Cup Challenger Selection Series which will determine which foreign yacht club will take on the Defender of the America's Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand, in the 36th America's Cup Match presented by Prada from 6 to 21 March 2021 in Auckland.
Having raced at the two previous ACWS events in Portsmouth, Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton said, "Portsmouth was a fanatically supportive city for the ACWS in 2015 and 2016, so we are looking forward to getting back there. The difference this time is the racing will be in the new AC75's which will be a spectacle like nothing seen before on the Solent.
With the dates now also confirmed for the ACWS to climax in Auckland between 17-20 December next year, as part of the Christmas Race, we are now really set up for an intriguing year in 2020 as the run in to the main event in 2021."
Portsmouth is home to INEOS TEAM UK, led by Sir Ben Ainslie, and I am sure fans will show huge support to the British team when they race in front of their home crowd on the Solent in their quest to challenge for the 36th America's Cup. When Portsmouth hosted the events in 2015 and 2016, 250,000 spectators enjoyed the spectacle, the events delivered £15.6m in media value and £38.7m in economic benefit.
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Discovery Yachts has filed notice of its intention to appoint insolvency experts and could enter administration.
The news comes less than two years after the company raised around £2.2m through crowd funding and just months after the company officially opened its new UK HQ at Lymington Yacht Haven Marina.
It is understood the notice has been filed in order to protect the company from a lawsuit bought by a customer and that discussions are taking place with a potential investor.
However those who invested money through the crowd funding could be left out of pocket. The legal move may only affect the holding company with staff and customers unaffected.
The company is headed by MD Sean Langdon who completed a management buyout following the retirement of founder and chairman John Charnley.
In June 2017, Discovery Yachts announced it had acquired the Southerly range of swing keel sailing yachts for an undisclosed sum.
In June 2018, Werner Schnaebele increased its shareholding in Discovery Yachts Group by 20% from Sean Langdon, in addition to a 10% shareholding acquisition in the group during the crowd funding.
Sean and his management team are understood to have retained more than 35% of the company.
The company employs 120 staff.
Crowd funding websites state that investors should implement a diversification strategy when building an investment portfolio in order to cushion any losses.
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Catana Group, world number three market of recreational catamarans, strengthens its industrial organization, by taking control of Magic Yachts shipyard in Bizerte, Tunisia, created in 1999 by Wally and specializes in yacht building.
While the Paris Boat Show 2019 in full swing, the surprise came this morning's announcement Catana Group, manufacturer of Bali and Catana catamarans, the Magic Yachts takeover.
This acquisition comes for the French group after 5 years average annual growth of 50% a year from 2019 to 2020 showing an order book which should enable it to exceed the threshold of EUR 100 million turnover.
Magic is a mythical Yachts shipyard, established in 1999 by Wally in Bizerte, the builder of sailboats and yachts of great luxury in Monaco and bought in 2012 by a consortium of Italian entrepreneurs
Located in the free zone of Bizerte, Magic Yachts has an exceptional industrial site by the sea of almost 30 000 m2, of which more than 10 000 m2 of modern buildings and an experienced workforce.
The expertise of Magic Yachts is renowned in all areas of high-end boat building (sailboats and motorboats up to 40 meters, including catamarans), mastery of all composite technology (infusion, injection , cooking pre-impregnated, epoxy, carbon), modeling, tools, carpentry, steel, refit vessels up to 45 meters, etc.
Following the agreement signed, Catana Group will acquire 75% stake in Magic Yachts through the company Haco, Tunisian production subsidiary of the French group, which already provides 20% of the Group's production.
This acquisition will be final after the lifting of the last suspensive conditions, no later than the end of March 2020, but the collaboration between the two companies has already intensified.
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Cowes Week Limited is delighted to announce that the Official Charity for the 2020 edition of the regatta will be Greig City Academy's, Scaramouche Sailing Trust. This six year old school sailing club, which became a charity last year, is an amazing initiative which gets young people from North London into the sport which everyone at Cowes Week, be they organisers, spectators, volunteers or competitors, loves so much.
Jon Holt on behalf of Greig City Academy commented: "It's wonderful for our charity to have the support of Cowes Week but it's also a great opportunity for all of our sailors to meet thousands of other passionate enthusiasts for this great sport. The sailing community have really taken us into their hearts and we really appreciate the support we receive and we look forward to making many new friends during Cowes Week 2020. Our sailors will be on hand racing a variety of boats and will be giving talks throughout the week about the Academy, our adventures and what it means to them as individuals."
Cowes Week entry opened on Monday 16 December.
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McMichael Yacht Yards and Brokers has signed an agreement with the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee to be an Official Sponsor of the 2020 Newport Bermuda Race. The company, based in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Huntington, N.Y., and Newport, R.I., brings with it three generations of accumulated offshore and race-prep experience to support the fleet. Its relationship with the Bermuda Race goes back over 80 years to when the company began operations in 1935. Read full press release.
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The Last Word
Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even. -- Will Rogers
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