In This Issue
• Cape to Rio Race Second Start
• Team New Zealand release remarkable new AC75 sailing footage
• USA triumph ahead of Sweden & Monaco in Monaco Optimist Team Race
• 18ft Skiffs NSW Championship, Race 5
• Wins for Shaolin and Ali Baba, but Artemis XIV extends at 5.5 Metre Worlds
• Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar -- Voting ends 2399 GMT Tuesday
• ORC 2020 VPP and Rules now available
• Etchells Australian Championship
• Clipper Race: Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam secures line honours in race to the Whitsundays
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Swan 105 RS Child of Lir
• • Marten 67 - "Caol Ila"
• • Baltic Yachts 43
• The Last Word: Elizabeth Holmes

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

The 11th annual Wight Vodka Best Sailor's Bar search is on... VOTING IS OPEN FOR THE TOP TEN

Cape to Rio Race Second Start
Start 2: Saturday 11 January 2020 in Table Bay, Cape Town
1400B:Monohulls with an ORC GPH of 600 or less.
1430B:Multihulls with a Texel/OMR TR (calculated) 140 or less.

They're off! At 14.30 local time (12.30 UTC, 13.30 Italian time) Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi 70's Team crossed the starting line of the 16th edition of the Cape2Rio, the 3.600-mile-long historical transoceanic race from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro.

In Table Bay's waters, before the South African city, Maserati Multi 70 and the competitor LoveWater set sail with 10/12 knots of Westerly wind. After a few minutes Maserati Multi 70's Team, on the wake of their competitor, reached the second turning mark, to the North, where the wind dropped abruptly to 3 knots, making the manoeuvres very slow and difficult. Having cleared the obstacle, the Italian trimaran was forced to sail with just the main sail to solve a technical problem: after twenty minutes Soldini's Team was able to unfurl the headsail and started chasing their competitor, a few miles ahead, at top speed.

The weather conditions expected are typical of this region, with a high pressure zone situated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean: for the first 36 hours there will be a Southerly wind, that will then get lighter and turn more South-Easterly first, and more Easterly later. The Italian Team will have to find the ideal route to pass the high pressure without sailing in the middle of it and without extending the course too much.

Aboard Maserati Multi 70 the skipper Giovanni Soldini is sailing with a 7-man crew: the Italians Guido Broggi (mainsail trimmer), John Elkann (helmsman and trimmer), Nico Malingri and Matteo Soldini (both grinders and trimmers), the Spanish Carlos Hernandez Robayna (trimmer) and Oliver Herrera Perez (bowman) and the French Pierre-Laurent Boullais.

LoveWater, direct competitor of Maserati Multi 70, is a 80-foot-long ULTIM trimaran, with a very skilled crew, including the skipper Craig Sutherland and the English Brian Thompson. The trimarans' start was the last one of the race: thirteen smaller boats set sail on January 4th and the big monohulls started Saturday at 14.00 local time.

cape2rio2020.com

Team New Zealand release remarkable new AC75 sailing footage
Team New Zealand haven't wasted any time since returning the to water this week, and have released a video providing a glimpse at how fast the AC75 can fly.

In the footage, Team New Zealand sail 'Te Aihe' over a camera in the water, which can be heard zooming over the top of it as they sail on past.

Team New Zealand continue training ahead of the opening leg of the America's Cup World Series in Cagliari, Italy in April, but have struggled to come to an agreement on wind limits with the other syndicates.

Team new Zealand and Challenger of Record Luna Rossa are entering arbitration over the wind range to be enforced for the 36th edition of America's Cup - a dispute set to significantly impact the design for the boats to be sailed in Auckland.

www.nzherald.co.nz

USA triumph ahead of Sweden & Monaco in Monaco Optimist Team Race
From start to finish the 11th Monaco Optimist Team Race fulfilled its promise with 20 teams from 19 nations represented by 80 sailors in competition over four days of ideal 6-15 knot conditions on a flat sea, allowing 207 matches to be completed without a pause.

Third last year and equal on points with the Swedes from KSSS, the American national team arrived determined to dominate the podium. In the lead throughout the three-day qualifying round robin, they lost only two of their 19 matches, one to Yacht Club Italiano and the other to the Ukrainians from the Odessa Black Sea Yacht Club.

It was musical chairs for the Monaco team, comprising Noah Garcia, Leonardo Bonelli, and Alessandro and Matteo Asscher, who from lying 4th behind the Finns from Helsingfors Segelklubb on day one, climbed to 3rd on Friday then were over-taken by the Ukrainians on day three.

But a suspenseful day of quarter- and semi- finals saw final victory go to the USA, despite fierce competition from the Swedes and Monaco snatching 3rd place from the Ukrainians to make the podium.

Organised by the Yacht Club de Monaco with support from FxPro, Eventica, Fon, SLAM and Erplast, the first three teams from this MOTR will be heading to Sanya, China, in August 2020 as guest participants for the finals of the Monaco Optimist Team Race China Regional Qualification Trail, organised by the Visun Royal Sanya Club, which decides who will make up the Chinese team for the following year's MOTR.

Next on the sports calendar at the YCM: Act III of the Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series (16-19 January) for the J/70 and Melges 20 fleets in the run-up to the 36th Primo Cup - Trophée Credit Suisse (6-9 February).

Monaco Optimist Team Race 2020 podium:
1st: USA Optimist National Team (USA)
2nd: KSSS - Royal Swedish Yacht Club (SUE)
3rd: Yacht Club de Monaco (MON)

www.yacht-club-monaco.mc/en/home-en/

18ft Skiffs NSW Championship, Race 5
Rag & Famish Hotel outruns the Many Ferry in the 15-knot Southerly. Click on image for photo gallery.

Sydney Harbour: The Winning Group team of John Winning Jr., Seve Jarvin and Sam Newton didn't start in today's final race of the NSW Championship as the team had already won the title title but today's winner Tech2 showed that the Winning Group may have a tougher battle on their hands when they line up in next week's Australian Championship on Sydney Harbour.

Jack Macartney, Charlie Wyatt and Trent Barnabas handled the 10-15 knots SSE wind brilliantly in Tech2 to score an easy 2m25s win over the very consistent The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines team of Aron Everett, Courtney Mahar and Charlie Gundy.

Noakesailing (Steven Thomas, Ed Powys, Nathan Edwards) was with the leading group throughout the race and finished a further 31s back in third place.

Birkenhead Point Marina (Tom Anderson) held the lead midway through the first lap of the long Southerly course but faded over the final leg of the course to finish in fourth place, ahead of Appliancesonline.com.au (Brett Van Munster) and Shaw & Partners Financial Services (Harry Bethwaite).

Final pointscores in the NSW Championship showed that Winning Group finished with a score of five points, ahead of The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines on 12, Shaw & Partners Financial Services on 15, Appliancesonline.com.au 17, Tech2 on 18 and Smeg (Micah Lane) on 21.

The Oak team continued to show very consistent form and held a narrow lead over Noakesailing, Smeg and Dal Zotto (Jack Sprague) at the first windward mark off Clark Island, but the experience of Jack Macartney and his team proved a winner when they elected to reach with just two sails before setting their spinnaker on the long run to Obelisk Bay.

The Australian 18 Footer League's 2019-2020 Season continues next Sunday when the club will stage Races 1 and 2 of the Australian Championship.

AeroMedia Live Broadcast team will be out on Sydney Harbour to capture all the action. For those who can't make it onto the water, livestreaming is available at www.18footers.com and clicking on the '18 Footers TV' link. -- Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League

www.18footers.com

Wins for Shaolin and Ali Baba, but Artemis XIV extends at 5.5 Metre Worlds
Artemis XIV (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne, Anders Pedersen) has extended their lead to nine points with just two races to sail at the 2020 5.5 Metre World Championship, at the Royal Prince Alfred YC, in Newport, Australia.

New Moon II (BAH 24, Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Peter Vlasov) is up to second while Girls on Film (GBR 40, Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Andrew Mills) is up to third. The race wins on the fourth day went to Shaolin (SUI 226, Cyrus Golchan, Andreas Kindlimann, Hans von Werdt) and Ali Baba (BAH 23, Craig Symonette, Flavio Marrazi, Will Alloway).

Despite some forecasts predicting good conditions all day it turned into a largely bumpy, sloppy day with more rain than most Australians have seen in the last three months. The southerly also brought lots of smoke to Pittwater again, one of the worst days of the past few weeks. Combined with the low cloud and rain fronts, it was a gloomy and dark day, with bad visibility for much of the day.

There is just one more day to go in Newport. While Artemis XIV has a good lead, there is only five points between the next four boats, so there is still a lot of racig to be done. Racing concludes on Monday with two more races scheduled to decide the 2020 5.5 Metre World Champion.

Results after 5 races
1 Artemis XIV - Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne, Anders Pedersen, NOR, 10
2 New Moon II - Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Peter Vlasov, BAH, 19
2 Girls on Film - Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Andrew Mills, GBR, 20
4 Ali Baba - Craig Symonette, Flavio Marrazi, Will Alloway, BAH, 21
5 John B - Gavin McKinney, Mathias Dahlman, Lars Horn Johannessen, BAH, 24

Full results

Wight Vodka Best Sailors Bar -- Voting ends 2399 GMT Tuesday
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Voting continues for just two more days, the winner announced on Thursday.

eurosailnews.com/sailors-bars

ORC 2020 VPP and Rules now available
London, UK: With numerous improvements prompted by user input and internal research over the past year, the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) is pleased to announce its new 2020 VPP and 2020 Rules books are available now for download from the ORC's website at www.orc.org/rules.

The VPP and the new 2020 version of the ORC Manager software has been distributed to the 35 Rating Offices that issue ORC International and ORC Club certificates around the world. This update will allow these offices to start issuing their new 2020 certificates according to their own needs and timelines, which for some is immediate: the first regatta of the year to use 2020 ratings is the Rolex Circuito Atlantico Sur 2020 in Argentina and Uruguay being held over 12-18 January, followed by the Ft Lauderdale - Key West Race one week later in Florida, USA.

The race to Key West will be the first of the year to use the new ORC Double Handed Certificate, specially developed to meet the demand for this growing trend in offshore racing. Double Handed certificates feature lower crew weights, a simple one-page layout, and a variety of simple scoring options available to race managers to better match the ratings with the course type.

The 2020 VPP has resulted in small changes - 85% of the fleet has +/- 0.5% GPH change and 96.5% is within +/- 1% - in rated speed for most of the >2000 boats in the ORCi test fleet, so CDL definitions of class divisions in the Continental and World Championships have also changed for 2020 to:

Class A: 16.40 >= CDL > 11.59
Class B: 11.59 >= CDL > 9.77
Class C: 9.77 >= CDL > 8.56

The 2020 ORC European Championship in Capri will use not only CDL limits for the ORCi fleet, but will also feature an ORC DH Class in the Tres Golfi Race - photo courtesy Rolex Capri Sailing Week

Among the many 1000's of boat types that receive ORCi or ORC Club certificates, ORC also offers standard certificates for boats from one-design classes that are in their class trim. This year the list of these classes has expanded to 45 one-designs eligible for these certificates.

Access to the 2020 ORC VPP is also now available in the ORC's public portal to the rating system, ORC Sailor Services, where free certificate copies, test certificates, polar performance Speed Guides and Target Speed outputs are all available after obtaining a free login credential at orc.org/sailorservices.

Etchells Australian Championship
Two races in good wind with improving skies closed out the 2020 Etchells Australian Championship from the Royal Brighton Yacht Club.

Certainly the shifts were there for the astute crews to use, and a sailing lesson was certainly delivered by the great John Bertrand, with Noel Drennan and Jake Lilley as crew, when on the last work to windward of the day they nearly came away with the win. As always, it is a delight to watch this crew at work.

The full roster of seven races were completed in the typically for Melbourne whole range of conditions. This year it was all even more eerie when the smoke from the bushfires came in, went, and then returned once more. Many thanks to all those who have donated through the page, and you can still do so now if you are so inclined, all the way up to the end of the Victorian State Championship 6-8 March, 2020. Presently we are at $6500.

Final top five
1. Magpie - Graeme Taylor / James Mayo / Tom Slingsby, AUS, 13 points
2. Havoc - Iain Murray / Colin Beashel / Richard Allanson, AUS, 22 (Masters - Grand Masters)
3. Triad 2020 - John Bertrand / Noel Drennan / Jake Lilley, AUS, 22 (Masters)
4. Fumanchu - Mark Roberts / Jake Newman / Matthew Johnston, AUS, 28
5. Adam Magpie - Peter Merrington / Steve Jarvin / Ian McKillop, AUS, 31

Full results

etchellsmelbourne.com

Clipper Race: Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam secures line honours in race to the Whitsundays
After 19 tough days at sea racing around the coast of Australia, the Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam team, skippered by Josh Stickland, has secured line honours in the fifth race of the global circumnavigation. The team, crewed by 16 non-professionals, crossed the finish line in the Whitsundays at 09:23:49 UTC.

Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam took the lead on Christmas Eve and had held on since.

Race 5: the Whitsundays, Heart of the Great Barrier Reef, has seen thrilling competition with crew battling a full variety of conditions on the 3,415 nautical mile race. The teams have experienced the rolling swells, infamous huge waves and freezing temperatures of the Southern Ocean to the upwind beat, rising temperatures and variable weather systems heading north from Tasmania. The leaderboard has consistently shifted as different tactics have played out and the East Australian Current played its part in making this one of the most strategic races of the circumnavigation to date.

Despite claiming line honours, the Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam team will have a nail-biting wait over the next two days to find out its placing. Race 5 is being run on elapsed time, following three teams; Punta del Este, Visit Sanya, China and Unicef departing Fremantle exactly 48h hours after the first eight. If 48 hours passes, and these teams are still racing then Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam's first race victory in the 2019-20 edition will be secured. All race points will be critical as the team currently sits in second place on the overall leaderboard.

The fleet will be berthed in Coral Sea Marina Resort, Airlie Beach for the duration of the stopover and awaiting the crew is a relaxing stopover in Whitsundays on the beautiful tropical coast of Queensland, Australia.

This, the third time the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race route has stopped in the Whitsundays, will see the return of the Whitsundays Clipper Race Carnival with public events taking place throughout the stopover from the return of the White on Whitehaven, in addition to wine and dine Events, crocodile safaris to Rodeo by the Reef.

www.clipperroundtheworld.com

Featured Brokerage
2014 Swan 105 RS Child of Lir. 7,900,000 VAT Paid EUR. Located in Calpe, Spain.

Swan 105 CHILD OF LIR was commissioned by an experienced owner who sought a modern performance cruiser utilizing the very latest technology while maintaining a high level of comfort and the ability to sail with minimal crew. Nautor’s Swan was chosen as the builder and the design is a unique collaboration of Frers Naval Architecture and Beiderbeck Design. Drawing on a long and successful experience, Frers developed a hull form and sail plan that allowed for excellent performance and sea keeping abilities while Beiderbeck implemented their forward-thinking expertise to create an innovative arrangement that maximizes volume and comfort on deck and throughout the interior. Special attention was paid to the low noise level throughout the Yacht. There is a special night mode generator to guarantee restful sleep.

See listing details in Nautor's Swan Brokerage

Contact
Nautor's Swan Brokerage - Thomas Perry

Tel. +377 97 97 95 07
nautorswanbrokerage.com

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2009 Marten 67 - "Caol Ila" 1,500,000 EUR. Located in Sardinia.

Occasionally a jewel of a yacht is built. Coal Ila should be seen and sailed to truly appreciate her exquisite detail and thrilling performance. Simplistic arrangement allows for short handed sailing, as well as competitive fully crewed racing. Lifting keel arrangement, really ticks the boxes.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats
+64 277733717
+44 2380 016582

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Baltic Yachts 43. 140,000 EUR.

The Baltic 43 was the second serial production model where Baltic co-operated with Judel/Vrolik as Naval Architects. Judel/Vrolik had at this time been successful on the racing scene with similar yachts including Admirals Cup contenders like 'Container'.

The Baltic 43 was developed using experience from these successful racing projects combined with Baltic Yachts known capability in building light constructions. Detailed weight studies were carried out in order to establish a light but still realistic and achievable displacement.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
GRABAU INTERNATIONAL
Lead broker - Alex Grabau
Tel: +44 (0)1590 673715
Email:

See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/

The Last Word
I think the minute you have a backup plan, you’ve admitted you’re not going to succeed. -- Elizabeth Holmes

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