In This Issue
• Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini cross the finish line of the Cape2Rio 2020
• Francis Joyon set sail on the Tea Route
• Brutus on target at 7th Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series
• Australian 5O5 Championship
• 18ft Skiffs Australian Championship, Races 1 & 2
• Farr 40 One Design Trophy: Edake wins third in a row
• Persistence required - Banks Sails
• Entry now open for the 2020 Finn Gold Cup in Palma
• Juan Kouyoumdjian Interview
• Patrick Pym: 6th September 1936 - 4th December 2019
• Featured Brokerage:
• • SW100RS Cape Arrow
• • Frers 57 Day Sailer - SASKIA TOO
• • Ice Yachts ICE 52
• The Last Word: Sam Ervin
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
Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini cross the finish line of the Cape2Rio 2020
The Italian Team concludes the race with an elapsed time of 8 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes and 34 seconds
At 12.39 34" local time (15.39 34" UTC, 16.39 34" Italian time) on Sunday January 19th, Maserati Multi 70 crossed the finish line of the Cape2Rio 2020 off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Giovanni Soldini and his crew conclude the race with an elapsed time of 8 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes and 34 seconds.
The Italian Team's direct competitor, the 80' trimaran LoveWater, arrived in Rio de Janeiro at 5.54 2" local time (8.54 2" UTC, 9.54 2" Italian time), with an elapsed time of 7 days, 20 hours, 24 minutes and 2 seconds.
Aboard Maserati Multi 70, the skipper Giovanni Soldini raced 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.
Maserati Multi 70 and LoveWater set sail for the 16th edition of the historical transoceanic regatta from Table Bay, before Cape Town, South Africa, on Saturday January 11th at 14.30 local time (12.30 UTC, 13.30 Italian time).
The official times will be ratified later by the organizers of the race.
Francis Joyon set sail on the Tea Route
The IDEC SPORT maxi trimaran is back racing. Francis Joyon left Hong Kong this morning at 08:00:47 hrs UTC and is on his way to London in the framework of another record attempt: the Tea Route, for which the reference time has been held since 2018 by the Italian, Giovanni Soldini and the crew of the Maserati trimaran, who completed the voyage in 36 days, 2 hours and 37 minutes. To beat the record, Joyon and his crew have to finish in London by 11:36:58 on Sunday 23rd February.
The fourth Act of the IDEC SPORT ASIAN TOUR, the Tea Route is without doubt the longest and hardest of the races. A voyage of around 17,500 miles lies ahead of the IDEC SPORT red maxi-trimaran, which won the last Route du Rhum when sailed solo and is still holder of the Jules Verne Trophy for the crewed round the world record.
Soon after returning to China by plane last week and following on from some pleasant PR operations with the Chinese in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, Francis and his crew of four, Antoine Blouet, Christophe Houdet, Bertrand Delesne and his son, Corentin, decided to cast off on Saturday morning and cross the start line for this new adventure in the IDEC SPORT ASIAN TOUR, an attempt to beat the Tea Route record between Hong Kong and London. The start took place in moderate conditions, with the monsoon generating 15-knot NE'ly winds along the coast of China. More than 13,000 miles separate the IDEC SPORT maxi trimaran from the finish in London. This is a huge voyage that the big clippers completed in several months. Francis and his men will have to complete the voyage in less than 36 days, 2 hours and 37 minutes to add this record to their list of achievements and finish their Asian tour in style.
Brutus on target at 7th Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series
The 45 teams of 13 nationalities who made the trip were not disappointed, with five races completed in a 5-12 knot westerly ending on a 10-14 knot easterly. For the 180 sailors it was another chance to build experience on the race area that will host the J/70 World Championship in October 2021. They included a Corinthian team from the Seattle Yacht Club and 11 Nordic boats.
The Russians on Arttube led by Valeriya Kovalenko pulled out all the stops in an attempt to snatch victory, but two race wins and a 2nd were not enough to dethrone Charles Thompson's men on Brutus. They may be in the Corinthian category but proved they have what it takes at the highest level. Impeccable from start to finish the Royal Southern Yacht Club crew kept up the pressure showing remarkable consistency: 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 3rd and 5th.
The Danes on Upupup clinched 3rd, equal on points with the YCM's Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio (G Spottino). Among Monegasque entrants Ludovico Fassitelli's Junda fought hard, but was foiled by a 19th place to finish 6th overall.
After three Acts, Brutus now tops the series' provisional ranking with 43 points after 15 races with Junda in 2nd and two-time-winners of the Series, Arttube, in 3rd.
Next up: the one-design 36th Primo Cup-Trophee Credit Suisse (6-9 February 2020) with six classes in contention: L30, Longtze Premier, H22, Smeralda 888, Melges 20 and J/70.
Australian 5O5 Championship
Royal Brighton Yacht Club, Melbourne: Sunday was a typical Melbourne day. Some cloud, some sunshine, some warm and some cold, hail storms and some lightning. Above all bloody good wind and near perfect 5O5 sailing.
Results, great photos and video from Christophe Favreau at www.int505.org/au-2020-australian-championship/
Top five after six races, one throwout:
1. Mike Holt / Rob Woelfel, USA, 6
2. Robin Deussen / David Snoad, AUS, 10
3. Christopher Paterson / Thor Schoenhoff, AUS, 19
4. Sandy Higgins / Paul Marsh, AUS, 20
5. Michael Babbage / James Mcallister, AUS, 20
18ft Skiffs Australian Championship, Races 1 & 2
Finport Finance cruises to victory in Race 1 of the Australian 18ft Skiff Championship. Click on image for photo gallery.
York and his team won the start with a risky port hand start at the pin end of the line in Race 1 and were rarely challenged as they led at every mark of the three-lap windward-return course set in Rose Bay.
Finport Finance increased her led at every mark before crossing the finish line 2m27s ahead of Tech2 (Jack Macartney, Charlie Wyatt, Trent Barnabas), with Shaw & Partners Financial Services (James Dorron, Harry Bethwaite, Tim Westwood) a further 25s back in third place.
Brett Van Munster's appliancesonline.com.au was near the leaders throughout the race to finish in fourth place, ahead of Noakesailing (Sean Langman), R Marine Pittwater (Marcus Ashley-Jones) and the NSW Champion Winning Group, sailed by Seve Jarvin.
It was an outstanding performance by the winner and onlookers were left to wonder could the Finport Finance team repeat the effort in the latter race.
The results have now set a challenge for the Winning Group, Shaw & Partners Financial Services and Smeg teams over the following seven races of the championship.
There is no club racing next Sunday as the fleet will contest the Lord Mayor's Cup as part of the Australia Day Regatta.
It will be back to normal on Sunday, 2 February when Australian 18 Footers League club racing resumes with Races 3 & 4 of the Australian Championship being contested. -- Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League
Farr 40 One Design Trophy: Edake wins third in a row
The final day of the Farr 40 One Design Trophy was sailed on Sydney Harbour and PRO Phil Yeomans got four races away resulting in Jeff Carter's Edake winning their third Farr 40 regatta in a row.
Competition between the top three; Edake, Outlaw and Double Black was tighter than ever and it was right down to the last race where Edake secured the regatta win. The team are on a roll and peaking right on schedule as the hot favourite for the upcoming NSW State Title and National Championships.
The father and son team of Tom and Alan Quick divided and very nearly conquered today with Alan taking over the helm and Tom spectating. When Quick (Snr) quickly punched out the first win of the day, there was cheering from Tom on the support boat, which was quickly backed up with banter from his fellow rivals retorting, "He's better than you are."
PRO Phil Yeomans and the race management team did a great job getting the fourth race away, just before the final warning signal of 1500hrs. "Excellent sailing conditions compared to yesterday and it was great to watch. We had two races at a course of 200 with a little shift and two with the breeze shifting left, which allowed for four races." Yeomans said.
Third place went to Rob Pitts and Double Black, who had a really consistent regatta, except for just one race. They were unlucky being caught on the wrong side of one ferry, forcing them to tack away, only to be caught by another ferry passing in the other direction.
The strong Australian fleet of ten boats are prepped and more competitive than ever for the pièce de resistance, the NSW State Title held at Middle Harbour on 22 & 23 February followed by the National Championships, John Calvert-Jones Cup held at RSYS in March.
Results: www.farr40.asn.au/results
Persistence required - Banks Sails
'You wouldn't use anything other than Dyneema for your halyards or sheets,' says Banks Sails' boss Paolo Semeraro. 'So why accept anything less in your sails?' There are good reasons why most sailmakers don't offer sails reinforced with Dyneema despite its well-known strength, durability and toughness. Instead, they tend to use sailcloth made with carbon or aramid fibre. Dyneema may be stronger than carbon, much less brittle and three times lighter for the same diameter, but it's slippery, which makes it awkward to laminate into the body of a sail – and you really don't want a sail with load-bearing filaments that are liable to slip around when it flogs. 'Nobody else is using it,' Semeraro says. 'But we have found a way to make it work.'
After five years making Dyneema-reinforced sails with no problems, there is no longer any doubt that they have indeed cracked it. Banks Sails is also very unusual in keeping a film inside its membrane sails while almost all other sail lofts and sailcloth manufacturers have abandoned that method and moved on to filmless membranes following an embarrassing spate of problems, including some high-profile incidents in which state-of-the-art sails suffered sudden, disastrous delamination failures during major races and regattas, sometimes after very little use.
Full story in the February issue of Seahorse
Entry now open for the 2020 Finn Gold Cup in Palma
The 2020 Finn Gold Cup will be organised by the Club Nàutic S'Arenal from 8-16 May in the Bay of Palma, Mallorca. Entry for sailors and coach registration is now open through the event website at http://2020.finngoldcup.org.
The Notice of Race has been published here.
The Real Club Nautico de Palma is also organising the Palma Finn Cup from 12-15 February for those sailors arriving on Mallorca early to train for the Finn Gold Cup and the Trofeo Princesa Sofia, which runs from March 27 to April 3. -- Robert Deaves
Juan Kouyoumdjian: "It Is Very Difficult, If Not Impossible, To Design Boats And Foils That Work Well At All Speeds"
With the design of the new Arkea Paprec and Corum L'Epargne, Juan Yacht Design returned to the IMOCA class during 2019, coming back to a class which has not yet really yielded the big successes that Juan K enjoyed in the Volvo Ocean Race. 48-year-old Juan Kouyoumdjian remains one of the most interesting architects of this generation. His spectrum of interest spans everything from Olympic class optimisations (Finn and previously the Star) to the America's Cup, including record breaking monohulls and production yachts (including the latest ClubSwan 50 and ClubSwan 36). Speaking to Tip & Shaft, he majors this time on the IMOCA and the America's Cup.
You hadn't designed a 60 footer since Cheminees Poujoulat in 2011. What precipitated your comeback to the Imoca?
Sebastien Simon's project (Arkea Paprec) was the trigger. They asked me to work with them at the end of 2017 with very specific conditions. I had a second offer soon after that which I had to decline because I had signed a non-competition agreement. Before we launched last summer, a third project was proposed to us for Corum l'Epargne. I got authorization to embark on this new boat due to different reasons and it will be launched at the end of next month. It shares the same hull mould as Arkea Paprec.
Was your collaboration with Vincent Riou on the PRB foils also decisive?
Yes, I started there. We have been working with Vincent since 2014. We optimized the old boat quite a bit, not only the foils which are the most visible part. We had adapted PRB to the new rule, working on the evolution of ballasts and we made a lot of progress on the boat which had been very well designed by Guillaume Verdier and VPLP.
How do you assess the first season of your new IMOCA?
The season is positive in general because we always learn things and we include the excellent performance of PRB, I don't think we can really separate the two. In sporting terms, Arkea Paprec's season was obviously very disappointing. All these boats are so technical and pushed by the skippers that damage does occurs. I hope that for Sebastien Simon and his team the problems came at the right time and are now behind us. That said the boat has shown great potential. If they hadn't broken the second foil, Sebastien and Vincent would probably have finished on the podium of the Jacques Vabre, which with a single foil would have been a remarkable performance. But from the start, we had to face a lot of technical problems, especially in the foil control system. From the start, these appendages did not have the desired efficiency at all speeds.
Patrick Pym: 6th September 1936 - 4th December 2019
Patrick was a long standing member of Hamble River Sailing Club and one of the six HRSC members selected for the 1972 Great Britain Olympic sailing team, competing in the Finn single-handed class. Hugh Welbourn, who describes Patrick as "the one that welcomed an awestruck young (National) 12 sailor to the Club", has written a full obituary, describing Patrick's multi-faceted life, which focused throughout on boats and sailing. Heartfelt condolences go to Patrick's family from HRSC members and many others. -- Steph Merry, Commodore HRSC.
www.hrsc.org.uk/article/patrick-pym-obituary-
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The Last Word
Divine right went out with the American Revolution and doesn't belong to the White House aides. What meat do they eat that makes them grow so great? -- Sam Ervin
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