In This Issue
• Vendee-Arctic-Les Sables d'Olonne: a brand new race for the IMOCA boats
• Irish Sailing Team returns to the water
• What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
• Restart Sailing
• The Duder Cup
• The Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image of the Century
• GC32 Racing Tour makes the most of 2020
• McIlwaine Wins RYA eSailing Northern Ireland championships
• Vendee Globe: Giancarlo Pedote will be at the start
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Auction: 1926 Herreshoff sloop 'Marilee'
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Swan 45-030 Yes Too
• • Grand Soleil 56
• • MOD 70 Powerplay
• The Last Word: Richard Feynman
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
Vendee-Arctic-Les Sables d'Olonne: a brand new race for the IMOCA boats
The horizon is starting to look clearer for those aiming to compete in the 2020 Vendee Globe. On 4th July, they are due to start the Vendee-Arctic-les Sables d'Olonne, a 3600-mile solo ocean race around a big triangle reaching up to the limits of the Arctic Circle. This race with its brand new course organised by the IMOCA class in conjunction with the Sea to See company, and supported by Vendee and the town of Les Sables d'Olonne, is a real prologue for the Vendee Globe. It is something that the racers are looking forward to and will allow them to test their boats, which have recently come out of the yards, while for some it also offers an opportunity to qualify for the non-stop solo round the world race without assistance, which is set to start on 8th November. The event will take place in conditions that respect the public health measures that are in place and will also convey various messages involving medical research, the protection of the oceans and literature.
For several weeks, the IMOCA class and the organisers of the Vendee Globe have been busy finding a replacement for the two solo transatlantic races, which were unable to take place as planned this spring. This alternative has taken shape and has become the Vendee-Arctic-Les Sables d'Olonne. This event was conceived around a 3600-mile long race course, representing ten to twelve days of solo sailing for the first time on IMOCA boats between the coast of France - with the start and finish in Les Sables d'Olonne - the West of Iceland and the North of the Azores. The final list of entrants will be revealed in early June. Permits have already been applied for from the authorities with the support of the French Sailing Federation (FFVoile).
In this race, the fleet will have to sail up to the latitude of 65 degrees North on the edge of the Polar Circle, which is further north than Cape Horn is to the South.
The choice for the start date of 4th July was down to a question of timing:
1/ it offers the skippers sufficient time to test their monohulls after coming out of the yard following their winter refit.
2/ it leaves them plenty of time for technical reasons before the 8th November.
It is highly symbolic that for this dress rehearsal, the start and finish line off Les Sables d'Olonne will be in the same place as for the Vendee Globe.
Irish Sailing Team returns to the water
Olympic Silver medallist Annalise Murphy and fellow Toyko contender Aoife Hopkins in action on Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Photo by David Branigan/Oceansport. Click on image to enlarge.
The Irish Sailing Team goes back to training on the water today (Monday 18 May) as per Phase 1 of the Government's Roadmap for Reopening.
The team continued to train remotely throughout the lockdown by daily video catch ups, teaching sessions and support from the "backroom" team made up of doctors, sports psychologists and nutritionists. The coaches used the time to squeeze in many classroom based sessions that often aren't possible when athletes are competing or travelling overseas. The team also trained using stationary bikes, strength and conditioning sessions on Zoom, and homemade gym equipment in gardens, sheds and garages.
From Monday 18 May onwards, the athletes will use the Irish Sailing Performance HQ in Dun Laoghaire as their base. The PHQ containers however will be closed for all use except launching of boats from the pontoon. The athletes have all undergo hygiene protocol training but will not use the PHQ all at the same time to minimise risk (with staggered launch times for example) and will adhere to the 2 metre social distancing guidelines at all times.
The Irish team are now one of a handful of countries with sailing teams back on the water, including the UK, Italy and Denmark.
Harry Hermon, CEO of Irish Sailing said "the Irish Sailing Team go back to training on the water today, and we're working very closely together to make sure that their learnings and experiences are passed back to the sailing community, and that we all work together responsibly to ensure our safe return to the water".
Seahorse June 2020
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
Into the third dimension
There has been little noise around the decision to allow in autopilots for crewed offshore races. But with the latest pilots from France things are not going to be quite what many seem to think. Vincent Riou, Fred Augendre and Matthieu Robert set out the new landscape
99 years young
The Anderson course has long been a favourite among team-racers especially; time to catch up with the man who gave it its name. Carol Cronin sits down with Harry Anderson for a lifetime of sailing anecdotes in an hour
Number One
The top offshore boat in Australia... no decision there, 'mate'. Rob Kothe digs into the Ichi Ban secrets with Will Oxley and Matt Allen
Starting at the top
Holding up a superyacht mast or getting the power from the engine to the wheels on a 950hp racecar are a relative walk in the park when your first project was creating carbon cables for a 124-metre suspension bridge
A different (round the) world
Without modern media tools and satellite communications there would be no modern round the world racing... it's that simple
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Restart Sailing
It is good to see sailing restarting around the world, although a few countries are still to ease their lockdowns. A poll on #RestartSailing Facebook Group indicated that 41% of clubs have opened, with 45% in the planning stages of opening shortly and 14% unable to open due to external factors.
Simple Racing Group
As we see a return to sailing, clubs are looking at the next stages and restarting racing. With aggressive social distancing measures in place, running races with a traditional race management set-up and lots of people crammed onto a committee boat is going to be difficult. So, people have been exploring simpler race formats and a number of GPS tracking apps are emerging that allows Simple Racing to be run automatically. We have set-up #RestartSailing Simple Racing Group to consider this new format, if you are interested in getting involved
https://restartsailing.org/page/task-groups
#RestartSailing, coach yourself in these self distancing times
3 part webinar with Self Coaching guru, Jon Emmett and #restartSailing Founder Simon Lovesey, explore how this new C19 sailing world is evolving.
Wednesday 27th May 2020, 3rd June and 10th June
www.facebook.com/events/248283822900585
Tech Group meeting
The #RestartSailing Technology group held its first meeting last week making use of various technologies for communications and collaborations. You can replay the meeting here
The Duder Cup, a spectacular classic regatta before New Zealand went into lockdown
Waitangi. Photo by John Cadd. Click on image to enlarge.
On the day of the Duder Cup, 23rd February 2020, it had not rained in Auckland New Zealand for 47 days. Many were praying for rain. They got their wish. During the course of the race the rain was phenomenal. It was so heavy that a helmsman on a 6m (19ft 6ins) classic would not have been able to see the bow of his boat, never mind where he was sailing on the course or see other boats. Fortunately for the sailors in the Duder Cup it did not rain all the time. Those of us from the UK know what rain is like this year, the New Zealanders had forgotten. About 15 mm of rain fell (3/4 inch) on Auckland Harbour over that day. This did not deter a fleet of twenty six yachts, starting in five divisional starts.
The race was first run as recently as 1881 initially known as the North Shore Regatta Cup and then re-named in 1923 in honour of Thomas John Duder, a significant benefactor of the Devonport Yacht Club. The handicap race is run by the Club in association with the Classic Yacht Association of New Zealand (CYA NZ for short). The race is open to all yachts including traditionally inspired boats and classic yacht members of the CYA NZ.
Devonport Yacht Club was formed in 1905. The traditional, large wood shuttered Club was once the Auckland ferry passenger terminal expertly adapted for its present use. The Devonport YC is based on North shore of Auckland Harbour overlooking Auckland City to the South West. The club is set on Devonport village foreshore alongside a row of distinct pohutukawa trees which are hung with natural 'baggy winkle' like anti-chafe tackle (see photo above). These pohutukawa are native to New Zealand, the wood of which was highly regarded for making yacht knees in the past. The endangered trees are now strictly protected.
Sir Peter Blake was a life member, patron and long time supporter of Devonport Yacht Club.
The handicap for such a varied fleet competing in is organised under PHRF rating, which was an unknown rating system to me.
Rob Peake's full article with some great photos by John Cadd in Classic Boat:
The Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image of the Century
Australia SailGP Team. Photo by Benjamin Sellier. Click on image to enlarge.
The international photo competition dedicated to the sport of sailing proposes an exceptional edition in 2020 to celebrate sailing photography and its most committed authors.
"With rare exceptions, 2020 will be a blank year. Due to the global pandemic, there won't be any regattas and yacht racing photographers struggle to do their job, it's a sad reality," says Bernard Schopfer, the organizer of the award. "We have therefore decided to organise an exceptional edition of the contest and consulted some of the most renowned photographers in the industry to determine the best format for our contest."
The result is the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image of the Century; an event that aims to celebrate the best sailing photos taken since the turn of the century and their authors!
"This unique contest is a great opportunity to give a second life to exceptional images, and to position them in the context of the 21st century", says Nicolas Mirabaud, Managing Partner of the Mirabaud Group. "I am looking forward to discovering the images and how they reflect the spectacular evolution of the sport of sailing over the last twenty years."
Professional marine photographers are invited to submit the image of their choice, taken between January 1, 2000 and October 6, 2020.
The pictures submitted must have been taken during regattas (including the start procedure and the minutes following the arrival line crossing). The subject of the contest is boat racing in all its forms, from classic yachts to top-end racers, including multihulls, dinghies, windsurfing and kitesurfing. Only photos that have not yet been submitted for the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image award will be accepted.
The award ceremony will take place on November 24 during the Yacht Racing Forum in Portsmouth, UK, in front of the sports leading personalities from all over the world.
The Mirabaud Sailing Video Award, organised alongside the photo competition, will also benefit from an update in 2020. The new, specific event, will be announced shortly.
GC32 Racing Tour makes the most of 2020
With the entire sporting world having been brought to a temporary standstill this year due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, the GC32 Racing Tour has also had to revise its schedule for 2020.
During a recent multi-nation video conference between the Tour's organisers and ten of the foiling catamaran teams, a fresh plan for the 2020 GC32 Racing Tour was agreed upon. The new, inevitably abbreviated schedule for what will be the seventh season of racing for the World Sailing-approved flying catamaran class, assumes it will be possible to hold racing in southern Europe from August onwards.
Following the cancellation of the GC32 Oman Cup, originally scheduled for March this year, it comes as little surprise that this month's event on Lake Garda is having to be postponed. The GC32 Riva Cup was set to be the second event of 2020, taking place at the end of May, but has now been delayed to October. Similarly, the GC32 Lagos Cup in Portugal has been moved on from its original June date, to the end of August. The GC32 World Championship, due to take place in Villasimius in southeast Sardinia in mid-September, has been postponed until 2021.
So this season the organisers of the GC32 Racing Tour will stage two stand alone events:
26-30 August GC32 Lagos Cup / Lagos, Portugal
14-18 October GC32 Riva Cup / Riva del Garda, Italy
For those looking to join the GC32 Racing Tour, several turn-key secondhand boats are available with prices starting at 145,000 Euros at gc32.org/market-place/
McIlwaine Wins RYA eSailing Northern Ireland championships
Luke McIlwaine from Newcastle Yacht Club in County Down was the winner of the Northern Ireland region eSailing Championships held yesterday.
McIlwaine will now go on to represent the area at the finals on 30th May. Luke is a software engineer and as well as sailing has a passion for mountaineering.
Luke commented, "small adjustments make a big advantage".
His prize for this effort is a Musto Dry Tube Bag.
RYANI congratulated the competitors. "We hope you enjoyed it and we are looking forward to seeing more clubs using the eSailing as an opportunity to engage with members and have a bit of fun". And international yachtsman Mikey Ferguson from Bangor commented "Well done Luke. No catching you after you shot out of the blocks in the first two races".
Vendee Globe: Giancarlo Pedote will be at the start
The skipper of Prysmian Group has ticked all the boxes on the official race paperwork. So, now he is officially registered and joins the list of those certain of taking part in the next Vendee Globe. He is the 18th to join the list of skippers registered for this ninth edition.
Giancarlo Pedote will be racing in the Vendee Globe aboard Prysmian Group, the former Saint-Michel Virbac built in 2015, aboard which Jean-Pierre Dick finished in forth place in the 2016-2017 Vendee Globe and won the 2017 Transat Jacques-Vabre. This Imoca also displayed the colours of Ucar - Saint-Michel with Yann Elies as skipper. After finishing second in the Route du Rhum in his category, he was forced to abandon his hopes of competing in the Vendee Globe, as he was unable to find the necessary funding.
On 8th November, Giancarlo Pedote will become the fifth Italian to set sail in the Vendee Globe, after Vittorio Mallingri in 1992, Simone Bianchetti and Pasquale de Gregorio in 2000 and Alessandro di Benedetto in 2012.
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* From Jock Wishart: re: The sadly departed, much loved Ken Newman, his hair and a fishing jacket
This seems to be a month for reminiscences.
Sailing with John Caulcutt,out of Yarmouth is always a pleasure, as over the years, John has always found the right boat at the right time and given many of us a lot of fun and a lot of success to.
It was such with the 80 ft Maxi "Maxima" in the "nineties" on which Ken was ever present as navigator always with charts clutched to him!
The race we all still talk about when ever we meet was windy tuesday of Cowes Week 1996: Immortalised round the world by the famous Beken picture of Silk 2 pitchpoling in 50 knots in the Solent and "etched" in our memories forever. (Click on image at right to enlarge)
I remember it being almost windless coming across on the hydrofoil to Cowes that morning but little were we to know what awaited.There was a lot of Maxi competition that year as Pierre Fehlmann had also bought across his fleet of one design maxi yachts to race.
We had been set a first rounding mark of SW Shingles at the very far end of the Needles Channel to the south west of the IOW but no one got there!
As we progressed down the Solent the wind built and built so by the time we had got past Hurst the wind was well over 30 knots and going along the edge of the Shingles the short waves were quite incredible as were the shock loadings as one by one the maxi fleet was decimated.
While all was ordered chaos around us I recall hanging on very tightly to our port runner winch to stop being thrown out of the boat. At one point I looked over for Ken to see him sliding overboard still clutching his charts in his right arm.
I will never forget the look on his face!
I remember just moving over and grabbing him by the hair ( there was not a lot even then) and steadying him and then and somehow got hold of his armpit and with our combined efforts getting him back on board.
I suppose it is why for years afterwards Ken always bought me a drink when ever he saw me and why ever since I am always seen around Cowes wearing a fisherman's grey waistcoat to store my charts in!
Featured Auction
59' Herreshoff NY40 1926 - Marilee. Originally Listed: $1,850,000 | No Reserve, Selling to the Highest Bidder.
Bidding Opens: June 19, 2020 4:00 PM EDT USA
Bidding Closes: June 25, 2020 4:00 PM EDT USA
The Herreshoff NY40 is one of the most admired designs of all time. This classic design represents the genius and artistry of Captain Nathaniel G. Herreshoff - a name that truly exemplifies and frames American yacht design, building, and innovation. As one of the MIT’s earliest students, N. G. Herreshoff (MIT Class of 1870) set new standards in design and manufacturing, realizing remarkable influence and success over a 75-year career. His legendary design genius, engineering innovations and manufacturing efficiency led to the production of six America’s Cup winners and hundreds of other highly regarded vessels. Nathaniel, and his older brother John B, founded the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in 1878. Among the many accomplishments to their credit was the design and build of every Americas Cup winning yacht from 1893-1934. Those yachts that defended the Auld Mug truly defined the limits of engineering, materials, and technology, much like the NY40’s.
See auction details at Boathouse Auctions
Contact
1-203-530-3870
support [AT] boathouseauctions [DOT] com
Featured Brokerage
2004 Swan 45-030 Yes Too. 285000 EUR. Located in Valencia, Spain.
The Swan 45 is a modern classic and one of the most aesthetically appealing yachts ever conceived. Hugely successful on the international regatta circuit over the past decade, these yachts are more popular then ever and have become the iconic performance cruiser.
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tel: +377 97 97 95 07
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Grand Soleil 56. POA EUR.
Fantastically well-maintained example of the Philippe Briand designed Grand Soleil 56 aft cockpit performance cruising yacht. Presented in great condition inside and out.
Launched in 2007 as ALBERTONE and very lightly used in both of her original ownerships, BLUE CORAL was bought in 2012 by her current owner. She has been used for cruising in Italy and Spain.
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MOD 70 POWERPLAY. 1,500,000 USD.
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See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
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