In This Issue
• Andersen hits back at critics
• Tall Ships Cork-Belfast in 1991 Evokes Sailing Memories
• The value of traditional pyrotechnic flares
• Pound warns IOC should plan for coronavirus impacting Beijing 2022
• Huge task elegant solution - Reckmann
• Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week 2020 Canceled
• Conrad Humphreys: "Don't Fear The Isolation, See It As An Opportunity"
• RNLI urges people not to use the sea for exercise or recreation
• The Ocean Race: Off Watch with Ken Read - a Zoom video interview
• Vendee Globe: Alex Thomson video series Episode 2: At the Helm
• Not sailing... but very cool
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Cape 31 One-Design - FLAME
• • Gunboat 57 - VAI VAI
• • RIO 52
• The Last Word: Marcus Aurelius
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
Andersen hits back at critics
World Sailing President Kim Andersen has hit back at his "disrespectful" critics after confirming he will seek a second four-year term at the helm of the organisation.
Andersen told insidethegames he will stand for re-election during a vote which is set to be held later this year but remains in doubt because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dane, who unseated incumbent Carlo Croce to become World Sailing President in November 2016, is facing at least one challenger after Spanish official Gerardo Seeliger announced he would run against Andersen last September.
It had been widely expected that Andersen would seek re-election but he had not publicly revealed his intentions.
The 62-year-old has faced widespread criticism in recent months owing to sailing's financial situation, which vice-president Scott Perry told insidethegames was "precarious" and admitted had been made more acute by the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
A costly move of World Sailing's headquarters from Southampton to London has also been the subject of denunciation from some sectors of the organisation.
Andersen was dealt a blow after a package of governance reforms, which he urged Member National Associations to support, failed to pass at the Annual General Assembly in Bermuda in November.
Tall Ships Cork-Belfast in 1991 Evokes Sailing Memories
Tiller girls. Excelsior making knots in a rising sou’easter off the County Down coast. Photo: W M Nixon. Click on image to enlarge.
Lock-down leads to break-out. I hadn't heard from Graham Diamond in years. But a pre-coronavirus DBOGA talk in Poolbeg Yacht Club in January by Peter Lyons and Stu Spence of Strangford Lough about racing the latter's 34ft 1910-built Vilia as the smallest boat in the 1991 Cork-Belfast Tall Ships Race had jogged memories of doing the same race aboard the restored 1921-vintage 77ft Lowestoft trawler ketch Excelsior.
And now Graham Diamond, watch leader and ace ship's cook on the same vessel for the season of 1991 under the command of Rob Bassi of Belfast, has been in touch out of the blue from Trinidad. He's been Caribbean-based since 1992, and earns a crust doing – among other things - yacht deliveries, the last one before the clamp-down being a New York to Trinidad hop starting in November with a Frers 38, which sounds a very attractive type and size of boat, whatever about the time of year for sailing from New York to Trinidad.
However, these days the only deliveries anyone is concerned about on either side of the Atlantic are from the few neighbourhood core supplier still allowed to operate, while online trade is rampant. But in cyber-space, people are sailing everywhere with shipmates old and new in boats of all types and sizes, and thanks to the September/October 1991 Afloat, we can wallow in the report of the doings of the Tall Ships in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races of 1991, for in those somehow sweetly innocent days, nobody thought it all odd that a booze company should be very actively sponsoring sport for young people.
Full story by WM Nixon and plenty of photos at afloat.ie/sail/tall-ships/
The value of traditional pyrotechnic flares
Ocean Safety's MD Alistair Hackett presents a look at the value of traditional pyrotechnic flares
Ocean Safety are the exclusive distributor for Hansson PyroTech, who are world class producers of IKAROS pyrotechnic distress signals, for both the commercial and leisure marine industry.
Pyrotechnics are a crucial part of any vessel's life-saving equipment, used predominately to signal for help, but can also be used to make other vessels aware of your position to avoid collision.
You can't beat using traditional pyrotechnic flares for being found during a search and rescue operation at sea. They are unmistakably visible as distress flares during a visual search and can't be confused with a strong navigation light. They are also unbeatable when the search is using infrared cameras which pick up the heat of the flare. Keeping pyrotechnics on board is vital for sending a clear and unmistakable distress message if in need of rescue at sea. – ends -
Pound warns IOC should plan for coronavirus impacting Beijing 2022
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should be planning for the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic impacts Beijing 2022 and leads to a loss of revenues for an entire Olympiad, according to the organisation's most senior member Richard Pound.
Pound told insidethegames the IOC must "consider the overall consequences of the unwelcome possibility that, in a worst-case scenario, both 2020 and 2022 could be affected" amid widespread concern over the coronavirus pandemic.
The COVID-19 virus forced the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, a decision the IOC and Organising Committee officials have admitted will result in "massive" additional costs.
It has also placed additional financial pressure on International Federations (IFs), particularly those which rely heaviest on the share of Olympic revenue from the IOC to survive.
The IOC has refused to detail how much Federations will be given from Tokyo 2020 and when they will receive their payment.
Huge task elegant solution - Reckmann
There is something immensely satisfying in taking the massive loads of a superyacht furling system and by exquisite engineering reducing the task of controlling those loads down to the touch of a button or joystick
When you venture offshore in a high-performance superyacht with a Bermudian rig and a small crew, you are quite literally entrusting the safety of the vessel and the people on board to the reliability of the sail furling systems. If they were to jam, malfunction or break when you need to shorten sail urgently in a rising wind, the consequences could be severe. It's a shrewd investment to fit the very best, strongest and most reliable hardware that's available, which is why so many large ocean-going yachts are rigged with Reckmann furling gear.
Baltic Yachts has forged an enviable reputation and is arguably the most innovative superyacht shipyard in recent years, with an amazing array of groundbreaking engineering solutions and game-changing technologies on every new custom build that leaves the yard.
Full article in the latest issue of Seahorse
Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week 2020 Canceled
Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and Long Beach Yacht Club, the organizing authority for the Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week, regretfully announce the cancelation of the regatta scheduled for late June 2020. Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it was decided it would be difficult to hold the event while following current health protocols. Organizers say they hope all their sailors, volunteers and sponsors remain healthy and safe, and look forward to hosting the event June 25 to 27, 2021. All current paid entrants will be automatically refunded their entry fees.
ABYC and LBYC also offered thanks to sponsors for their continued support of Long Beach Race Week, and appealed to sailors to continue their support of them: Ullman Sails, Swinerton Construction, Coral Reef Sailing Apparel, The Moorings, The Boat House, Bruce Ayers, Mt. Gay Rum, The Oriana Shea Group, Gelson's Market, Evan's Manufacturing, Long Beach Marine Bureau and Long Beach City Council Representative Susie Price.
Conrad Humphreys: "Don't Fear The Isolation, See It As An Opportunity"
When there appears to be dozens of solo sailors giving us their positive ideas for surviving or indeed profiting from isolation it is interesting to turn to Conrad Humphreys. Humphreys has a unique background. His peak as a solo racer was a very tough Vendee Globe in 2004-5 placing seventh in 107 days, after repairing and replacing his rudder off South Africa and finishing with no power. He has two round the world crewed races under his belt, winning the 2000-1 BT Global Challenge as skipper and he raced on Odessa in the 1993 Whitbread Race. But in 2016 Humphreys was sailing master on Mutiny a 4000 mile reality TV 60 day voyage from Tonga to Timor with a crew of nine on a 23 foot (7m) open boat recreating Captain Bligh's voyage after mutineers cast them adrift from the Bounty. He is an accomplished motivational and team building coach and consultant working for many blue chip companies.
Conrad, what is the essence of harmony and working together as a team or a small family unit for example. Not everyone has had the choice of who they are spending time with in an enclosed space. And what is common to building a strong crew which will cope well with adversity?
In essence we had a metre of space each over the course of 60 days. That is not too very dissimilar to what some people are being asked to do here. The starting point was starting out and stating what we were hoping to achieve. Bligh would have said 'our objective is to get food and water and we stay safe and of course that is what people are doing now. He would have painted a very clear picture about how they were going to survive and where they were going to get to. Daily briefings and debriefs are important, we have them from our leaders (Prime Minister), this is about being present and people seeing a leader every day who gives confidence that things are happening. I remember the first night, we spoke about how we would survive, the discipline needed and the way people needed to be honest and open about how they are feeling.
How to avoid conflict?
The key to avoiding conflict is to really understand what makes people tick. You have to be open and maintain dialogue to understand what people's motives, what their hopes and dreams are. In most family and team environments you know each other well enough to leave each other alone if people are clearly not feeling great, for example in the mornings. Some people are morning people some very definitely aren't. People came to Mutiny with different agendas. Mine was to make sure people were safe and got to the end with as little conflict as possible. My interest was in the team dynamics and maintaining harmony on board. I look a lot at the experience of the Volvo and you put nine or ten super pro sailors together but you don't give them a mechanism to download then what you get is a very stiff upper lip type 'we are professionals, we don't need to talk about problems, we get on with the sailing' and I think you will find the top, best performing teams they are the ones who have the ability to share their experiences and not keep everything bottled up. I think we saw that in the last race.
RNLI urges people not to use the sea for exercise or recreation
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is advising the public that they should not take part in any water based activity on or in the sea, to reduce the risk to the lifesaving charity's volunteer crews and other emergency services being exposed to COVID-19, and the pressure on their time.
Under normal circumstances, many people would be heading to boatyards over the coming weekends to prepare their boats for the season and get afloat. Given the current COVID-19 outbreak, the RNLI is urging everyone to follow Government instructions, which are clear: stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.
While we are allowed out for daily exercise, the charity does not recommend that this exercise is on or in the sea. The RNLI lifeboat service is still available but every time a lifeboat crew is called to an incident, it puts additional pressure on RNLI volunteers and other front line emergency services as well as potentially exposing them to COVID-19, the charity says.
The Ocean Race: Off Watch with Ken Read - a Zoom video interview
The Ocean Race's Niall Myant-Best talks with Ken Read, in a wide-ranging interview, Read who is a top Volvo Ocean Race and America's Cup skipper/commentator as well as being President of North Sails.
Read covers his career, from youth champion to America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race skipper as well as his approach to leadership and managing crisis situations.
Myant-Best also explores the link between sailing and business, and gets Read's opinion on the latest updates from The Ocean Race
Vendee Globe: Alex Thomson video series Episode 2: At the Helm
British solo skipper Alex Thomson is doing an outstanding job of sharing the work he and his support team are doing to prepare for the 2020-21 edition of the Vendee Globe single handed around the world race with fans of the campaign. Case in point the regular series of video updates the communications team have...
Members of the team discuss 'Alex' and the many roles that he takes on – from skipper and team leader, to friend and mentor
Not sailing... but very cool
The Dalai Lama dancing to Dr. John and Allen Toussaint at a Tulane University graduation in 2013.
God bless New Orleans.
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The Last Word
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
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