In This Issue
• Rolex Middle Sea Race
• The Largest IQFoil Event Kicks Off In Campione, Lake Garda
• Superdocious! Racing Insights and Revelations from Legendary Olympic Sailor Rodney Pattisson
• J/111 Class returns to Key West
• Marlow's Blue Ocean Sustainability Mission
• The Dream Of Kojiro
• Optimist European Championship
• Oman Sail to host 2021 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships
• Eight teams to go head-to-head in the eSailing Nations Cup Quarter Finals
• 43rd Sydney Short Ocean Racing Championship open for entry
• Featured Charter: Kallima - Swan 82
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Ker 40 - "Icebreaker"
• • Aquarius Alfa - Swan 100S
• • HH 50
• The Last Word: Galileo Galilei
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
Rolex Middle Sea Race
1700 CEST The story of day three of the 41st Rolex Middle Sea Race was undoubtedly the dogfight between Maserati and Mana, which finally concluded last night (Monday) at just after 2030 CEST. A classic tale of boat for boat competition between two well-matched crews. Both going at it, hammer and tongs, for the entire length of a 600nm offshore race. The story of day four is less dramatic but, from a yacht-racing perspective, is still gripping. As the multihull chapter nears its end, the monohull one is getting interesting. The 2020 Rolex Middle Sea Race is far from over.
The overview sees three multihulls in the clubhouse, with two left to finish, while 42 monohulls are spread from Lampedusa all the way back to Stromboli. For the crew of the German yacht, Logoff, it must feel like they are on the set of Groundhog Day given they have yet to round the volcanic island mark. It may feel the same on the leading monohulls, the Grzegorz Baranowski skippered I Love Poland and Martin Jozsa's Wild Joe.
On Monday evening, the two were well on their way to Pantelleria and sailing at over 10 knots. 24 hours later, they are only 120 nm further on, having reached Lampedusa. If it was painful during the night, the daylight hours today (Tuesday) will have been excruciating. The Polish VO70 reached the southern-most mark of the course at 1100 CEST this morning. Six hours later, they are past the pancake flat island, but only just. The crew on Wild Joe used the Poles' discomfort to make up ground lost at Pantelleria, but they too are now stuck. It has taken four hours to sail the length of the five and half mile-long island.
At 1700 CEST, 16 teams, racing under IRC, had passed the island of Favignana. TP52 Freccia Rossa (RUS), skippered by Vadim Yakimenko, was leading overall after time correction. Less than 19 minutes behind, on corrected time, Eric de Turkheim’s NMYD 54 Teasing Machine (FRA) continues to press hard. Dominique Tian’s Ker 46 Tonnerre de Glen (FRA) was in third, an hour behind. 12 of those boats are also past Pantelleria, where Freccia Rossa has extended her lead by six minutes on Teasing Machine, but nearly three hours on Tonnerre. The wind does looks to be filling in, but from the south. Those heading to Lampedusa will be upwind, those on the leg to Malta will have a much more favoured angle.
The Largest IQFoil Event Kicks Off In Campione, Lake Garda
Fierce competition on Day one of the iQFoil International Games in Campione, Lake Garda, for the almost 200 riders coming from 29 nations, at what it was supposed to be the first IQFoil World Championship for the Paris 2024 Olympic sail board. A revolution for Olympic windsurfing, now foiling over the waves instead of surfing them, faster and with a new format: not just the windward-leeward racecourse, still run when the wind is above 10 knots, but a Sprint Slalom - very familiar to athletes coming from the PWA and foiling generation - and even a Marathon. Two worlds are converging here in the IQFoil; the very tactical, technical and light weighted RS:Xers and the powerful, strong and skilled riders from the PWA circuit. The level of energy is sky-high, with everyone thrilled to see who, from both worlds, will better perform in a big fleet, and with everyone just excited to be back racing.
Four Course races finished for both men and women - with the men divided into two 59 board fleets - in the morning with a nice 15-20 knots ‘Peler’, the local AM wind from the North, and choppy water state.
Tomorrow, Day two of the IQFoil International Games organised by the iQFoil Class and Univela Campione, the first signal is scheduled to blow at 9am with the long distance race planned for the 184 competitors who will race on Lake Garda until Saturday October 24th when the Medal Series among the best 12 boarders of the week will take place. -- Rachele Vitello
Superdocious! Racing Insights and Revelations from Legendary Olympic Sailor Rodney Pattisson
SIGNED LIMITED EDITION - GREAT XMAS GIFT for any aspiring sailor
What makes an Olympic Champion tick?
This controversial autobiography is a must read for any aspiring champion - a warts and all account of one man's drive to reach the top and the fair and foul methods employed by rivals and established figures within the sport to undermine his continued dominance and influence.
With a foreword by Sir Ben Ainslie and introduction by Admiral Lord Boyce, the former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Defence Staff who graduated from Dartmouth Naval College with Rodney, and crewed for him in his first Flying Dutchman campaign, the book sets out to determine what makes an Olympic champion.
The winner of fourteen world and European championships in dinghies, multihulls and offshore, Pattisson also dominated the Olympic Flying Dutchman Class for more than a decade during which he won two Gold and a Silver medals
He's a perfectionist when it comes to preparation, and passionate about speed on the water, Rodney's successes stem from a selfless focus on the end goal, a ruthless desire to win and an unquenchable thirst to succeed in everything he does.
An intensely private individual, Rodney has always kept the media at arm's length, viewing press attention as an unwanted distraction from winning. His previously untold story not only charts his own trials and tribulations in becoming one of the best sailors in the world, but also reveals the double standards, deceit, political and sporting interference and outright cheating he had to overcome along the way. Superdocious! is an explosive commentary, on a lifetime of remarkable achievements in an international sport that Rodney made his own. His story will shock, amaze and inspire not just today's young sailors looking to realise their own dreams, but every sportsman and woman around the world.
Special limited edition signed by Rodney Pattisson is available only from South Atlantic Publishing www.southatlanticpublishing.com priced £20.00 + P&P
“‘Loved this book - a 'tell all' classic from one of sailing’s true greats, well written and wonderfully story rich. I was always impressed by Rodney's talent and approach and now even more so”. -- Double Olympic Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson
J/111 Class returns to Key West
Word broke last week that the J/111 class is returning to the fabled waters of Key West, Florida, for two winter regattas (Key West Winter Series; January 16-18 and March 5-7, 2021). This announcement is exciting for several reasons.
First and foremost, it's a green shoot indicating that 2021 will hopefully be a better year for yacht racing than 2020, in light of the still-raging coronavirus pandemic, but, secondly, it's also an optimistic sign that winter racing off of Key West could return following the 2017 cancellation of the (in)famous Key West Race Week (KWRW), which ran from 1988 through 2017.
Having personally attended Key West Race Week in 2008, I can, like thousands of other sailors, attest to the fact that there's no other event in sailing like KWRW, and while this announcement from the J/111 class is a far cry from KWRW's halcyon days, it would be wonderful to see winter racing unfurl on these waters again. -- David Schmidt
thesailinginc.com/thekeywestwinterseries
Marlow's Blue Ocean Sustainability Mission
As part of Marlow's BLUE OCEAN® sustainability mission we introduced Bio-based Dyneema® fibre into our Leisure Marine rope range earlier this year. But what is so special about this sustainable material?
This short animation tells you more and what using Bio-based Dyneema® fibre means to Marlow's customers and end users.
The Dream Of Kojiro
Road To The Vendee Globe #7: In the latest of our series of preview articles in the lead-up to the Vendee Globe start on November 8, Ed Gorman talks to Kojiro Shiraishi about his dream of finishing the race at the second time of asking.
I asked Kojiro Shiraishi what his biggest fear is, as a solo sailor setting out to take on the world alone in the Vendee Globe, and he gave me an answer that I was not expecting - one that indicates the mental strength required of a true single-hander.
“I don’t have any fears,”he said. “Fear is something your mind creates. I have dismasted during my last Vendee Globe but this is not something I fear. It was just bad luck. I have a strong boat now and I am sure it can be strong enough for this circumnavigation.”
Fired with that sort of positive thinking, Shiraishi is aiming to become the first Japanese sailor and the first Asian skipper to complete the Vendee Globe when he sets sail on November, 8 on board DMG MORI, a sistership of Jeremie Beyou’s Charal, fitted with Mark 1 foils.
The 53-year-old from Kamakura, a coastal town south of Tokyo who has already sailed around the world on his own three times, is focused on completing the course. “Finishing the Vendee Globe is a great achievement,” he explained. “It has been my dream since four years ago when I had to retire from the race and divert to South Africa on board Spirit of Yukoh."
Optimist European Championship
Moments ago, the IODA flag was hoisted by two Slovenian Olympic sailors Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol at the Opening Ceremony to mark the official opening of the 2020 Optimist European Championship in Portorož, Slovenia.
2020 has been a challenging year also for the world’s sailing. Most of the organizers were forced to cancel their events, and the formerly selected 2020 Optimist European Championship in Estonia was no exception. Due to the Corona-pandemic, the host decided to withdraw their June event. IODA found itself in a difficult situation of finding a replacement venue on such short notice, and the Slovenian Pirat Sailing Club seemed to be the best option.
269 sailors from 34 countries, including Brazil, Thailand and Hong Kong, China, managed to arrive in Slovenia for what may be the only international European event for the Opties this year.
The first two races are scheduled for Wednesday. Boys and girls race in separate fleets – there are three fleets of boys and two fleets of girls, all approximately the same number of sailors. The new Optimist European Girl and Boy Champions will officially be crowned on Saturday, October 24th. Three races need to be completed for the championship to be valid.
Oman Sail to host 2021 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships
The Sultanate of Oman will host a 400-strong fleet of the world’s best sailors when the World Championships for three Olympic classes kick off in November 2021. Taking place in Asia for the first time in its history, sailors in the 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 class will kickstart their path to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during the six-day event.
The Championship will run from 16–21 November 2021 at Al-Mussanah Sports City, driving tourism in the governorate and further enhancing Oman’s pedigree as a world class host of major international events. It is anticipated that Olympians continuing their racing careers will take part at the Championship alongside the next generation of high-performance doubles sailors, all looking to start their 2024 Olympic campaign in good form.
More information about the championships is available at organisers page https://www.omansail.com or the class website 49er.org/event/2021-world-championship
Eight teams to go head-to-head in the eSailing Nations Cup Quarter Finals
The battle to crown the top eSailing nation is now down to just eight remaining teams, following an entertaining week of First Round matches in the eSailing Nations Cup.
Earlier this year, World Sailing and Virtual Regatta, the leading digital sailing platform, launched the eSailing Nations Cup, a nation versus nation knockout challenge to crown the best eSailing nation in the world.
And Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands have all made the Quarter Finals, which are scheduled to take place between 20 – 24 October.
You can watch each match on World Sailing's YouTube channel via the links below:
Summary of the first round:
43rd Sydney Short Ocean Racing Championship open for entry
Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s longstanding Sydney Short Ocean Racing Championship (SSORC) will go ahead over the weekend of November 28-29, another positive bounce back from the New South Wales major sailing event doldrums.
Last week the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia announced its intention to keep working towards staging the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in December. The Saturday SSORC ocean race, part of the CYCA’s Ocean Pointscore Series, is a chance for Hobart race crews to meet some of their opposition on a start line for a valuable hit-out, particularly given the reduced schedule of lead-up races.
Following their Sydney Harbour start on Saturday, the Premier and Performance class and One-Design divisions, including the Sydney 38s and TP52s, will head offshore for a passage race. On Sunday November 29 the competition will switch gear to short course windward/leewards off Sydney Heads, ideally in sparkling summer sunshine and a classic afternoon nor’easter Sydney is renowned for.
Premier division 1 skipper Bob Cox (Nine Dragons) says: “Keiran and Elizabeth Mulcahy’s Soozal and Gerry Hatton’s Bushranger are among the best IRC racers on the east coast, and both have indicated that next month’s SSORC will bring them to the harbour from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.”
Bushranger beat Nine Dragons into second at last year’s SSORC, then the tables turned in March 2020 at the club’s annual Sydney Harbour Regatta, the state’s last key sailing event before the coronavirus pandemic dramatically curtailed the sport.
“Nine Dragons is also looking forward to lining up against our old adversary and sistership, Khaleesi, under new owners Rob Aldis and Sandy Farquharson. Once again Khaleesi is showing great speed and will be more than a challenge for us,” Cox added.
Coinciding with SSORC is a new Super Group Spring Regatta, six windward/leeward or short passage races for the Super 20 and Super 30 divisions over the two days. The traditional Seven Islands Race on the Saturday accommodates mixed keelboats with a really interesting course that takes the fleet into confined waterways and fickle winds west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
A call for interest and entry has gone out to the TP52 class while Sydney 38 spokesperson Mike Logan is talking up his class’ patronage of this year’s SSORC.
The Notice of Race is now available at www.ssorc.mhyc.com.au
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The Last Word
Wine is sunlight, held together by water. -- Galileo Galilei
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