In This Issue
• The Soggy Dollar wins Wight Vodka's 12th Annual Favourite Sailors Bar Contest
• Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Win The Prada Cup Semi-Final
• An exciting opportunity to join Spinlock as a Project Manager
• Eight boats in 24 hours
• Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
• 18ft Skiffs NSW Championship, Races 4 and 5
• So you like to go fast...
• 44Cup 2021 Debuts in Cowes and Scarlino
• CAPE2RIO 2023 Notice of Race
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Ker 40+ "Arabella"
• • Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300
• • X-Yachts X-50 Modern
• The Last Word: Morgan Freeman

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 Soggy Dollar wins Wight Vodka's 12th Annual Favourite Sailors Bar Contest
Click on image to enlarge.

What a race! This year's Wight Vodka contest had absolutely everything going for it, including some of the best stories of never-forgotten friends, unbelievable fish-tales, questionable protests and 'minds-eye' paintings of mahogany bars, white-sand beaches and ice-cold cocktails. But alas, amongst the many competitors the world over, there can only be one favourite yachting bar, as there is indeed no second place, right?!

This year's First Class prize and line honours goes to one of Wight Vodka's favourite watering holes, the Soggy Dollar on Jost van Dyke's beautiful White Bay! Woohoo! Congratulations to the team for always being there with smiles on their faces, ice in the blenders and Painkillers at the ready.

Dan Hiza and Ritu Manocha, the team behind Wight Vodka, last visited the Soggy Dollar in August 2019, before the hurricane season got under way and the bars started to shutter their doors and windows. "The Soggy Dollar won the 2010 contest, and we can not believe they're back on the podium ten years later!" said Dan Hiza. "We had the good (great!) fortune to visit the Soggy Dollar two summers back, enjoying painkillers on the beach, playing giant jenga and throwing the bean bags a bit too hard during a heated cornhole match. We also exchanged a fine bottle of Wight that we had onboard for a few bottles of the Soggy Dollar's own, extremely smooth rums! I'll take that barter agreement any day of the week!"

The Soggy Dollar won the 2020 Favourite Sailor's Bar Contest, and with over 10,000 votes counted, were pursued heavily by the second place runner's up the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago, Illinois. Well done for all of the competitors, and indeed for all of those who waxed lyrical about your favourite bars.

For the record the top ten finishers this year are:

1. The Soggy Dollar on Jost van Dyke, BVI
2. Columbia Yacht Club on the (perhaps currently frozen?) Lake in Chicago, Illinois
3. Foxy's Tamarind Bar, another favourite on Jost van Dyke!
4. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in Hamilton
5. The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club with the best views over the harbour by far
6. The Swizzle Inn in Hamilton, Bermuda
7. The Royal Ocean Racing Club in the heart of London
8. Glenwood Pines on Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, upstate New York
9. The Pier View in Cowes on the Isle of Wight…where it all started back in 1851
10. One Bar Playa Blanca in Lanzarote in the Canaries

Here's to the Top 10 finishers, and indeed to the Soggy Dollar for winning this year's contest. Dan continued: "With Covid19 likely putting the brakes on many of our sailing dreams and destinations this past year, we can at least revel in the stories of season's past, and look forward to 2021 and beyond as we gain control over this pandemic, and set sail for that one, particular harbour, with that one, particular bar which we can call home for a day."

wightvodka.com

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Win The Prada Cup Semi-Final
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli finally got the redemption they were looking for and, scoring four points in a row, win the PRADA Cup Semi-Final. The Italians started firmly in the driver's seat ahead of today's races and needed only two more wins to claim a place in the PRADA Cup Final against INEOS TEAM UK.

The Americans, who had already won their race against the time after their AC75 almost sunk less than two weeks ago, had to find some magic to bring PATRIOT back to the performances she had before and had to win at least one match to keep their Semi-Final alive. But there was nothing American Magic could do. The Italians won the starts and were just faster, steadier and confident. Without any real pressure they didn't make any mistakes and sailed to two easy wins.

This was it, do or die for the American campaign and the chance for the Italians to move straight to the Prada Cup final. The breeze was now up to 16kts throwing another set of conditions into the mix. Could this deliver the difference required to keep the Prada Cup semi-final alive for another day?

Only a disaster on the part of the Italians would reverse what looked like the inevitable. As it happened the breeze had built further and keeping a cool calm and collected was becoming increasingly important to avoid tripping up.

A few minutes later Luna Rossa crossed the finish line to win their fourth race in a row, a win that now launches them to the Prada Cup final against INEOS Team UK.

Despite the Herculean effort of putting PATRIOT back on the water, American Magic are now eliminated from the PRADA Cup.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli progress to the Final against INEOS TEAM UK less than 2 weeks away. The Italians who seem to have find another gear and another click of speed after a limping Round Robin will be strong opponent for the British.

The 13-race Final between the two leading teams, will start on the 13th of February, the first team to score seven points will win the PRADA Cup and face the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand in the America's Cup Match starting on March 6th. -- Richard Gladwell

www.sail-world.com

An exciting opportunity to join Spinlock as a Project Manager
Major grant funded product development projects are starting that need us to add new skills. The Project Manager will lead these exciting projects, coordinating work with our existing development team and external partners, whilst managing the compliance and deliverables with the grant funding organisations. This is a new UK based role and requires English as a first language.

To make a success of the role it would be useful to have…

Experience in electronics product development.

Knowledge of GNSS and PNT products or systems.

Engineering qualifications.

Involvement with grant funded projects.

Confident commercial communication skills.

Prospective applicants should register their interest by submitting their CV to

Eight boats in 24 hours
Bringing the ninth edition of the Vendee Globe to an incredible crescendo eight competitors arrived back in Les Sables d'Olonne within 23 hours and 44 minutes.

With a record entry of 33 boats and an atypical sequence of weather systems which meant the top 10 or 12 boats regrouped and re-started on three main occasions, the race went down to the wire with five boats pitching for the podium places at 36 hours from the finish.

Three skippers carried time compensations, Boris Herrmann, Yannick Bestaven and Jean Le Cam. And it was only on Thursday evening when Le Cam finished that the final rankings were settled. Bestaven with his 10hrs 15mins of allotted time won, Dalin – who crossed the line first was second and Louis Burton third and behind them – finishing over the next 48 hours great sailors without whom the race would not have been so enthralling.

Who could have guessed on 30th November that the search and rescue operation for the skipper of Kevin Escoffier would affect the final outcome? Jean le Cam, Sebastien Simon, Yannick Bestaven and Boris Herrmann went to the aid of Kevin Escoffier, whereas the leaders, Charlie Dalin and Thomas Ruyant were too far ahead to be called on. The redresses awarded by the Jury and the weather patterns meant that it would be a closely fought contest to the finish.

Between Wednesday and Thursday evening the first eight boats finished within 23 hours and 44 minutes, compared to a gap of 19 days and 19 hours back in 2016 between the winner Armel Le Cleac'h and the eighth placed boat.

Yannick Bestaven became the overall winner of this ninth edition. He impressed with his ability to drive hard, fast and consistently in the south and again on the final sprint with a perfect layline, but also with his sincerity and sportsmanship ashore, when he declared alongside Charlie Dalin, "There are two winners in this Vendee Globe."

vendeeglobe.org

Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
This month's nominees:

Dan Bernasconi (NZL)
Somewhere along the line someone important will have said to Team New Zealand’s head of design ‘Is this thing actually going to work?’ on seeing a first impression of the AC75. While Guillaume Verdier and Benjamin Muyl had the original idea, based on a smaller boat they were working on, it was Bernasconi the Cup Defender turned to when it came to the heavy lifting. And all the time in the background were the murmurs of doubt coming from the Challenger of Record…

Ken Read (USA)
Quite handy on the tiller, as we know, Ken Read has found his second vocation leading the TV coverage for this America’s Cup. Striking a difficult balance between patronising and intriguing his audience, regularly adding an interesting take on an otherwise normal incident, and always capable of sounding engagingly incredulous when things get unexpectedly tasty. Not an easy audience to entertain with such a wide spread of knowledge but he pulls it off with aplomb

Last Month's winner:
Natasha Lambert (GBR))
'How could I not be Tash's biggest fan?' - Geoff Holt; 'What a very remarkable young lady' - Carol Taylor; 'Pure courage!' - Jerome Santos; 'A wonderful story in times when there isn't much wonderful happening' - Barry Auger; 'An incredible achievement, by a very brave young woman' - Nick Bowen; 'Natasha was breaking down perceptions with every mile' - Ruth Goode; 'Wow, what you can achieve if you put your mind to it!' - Tony Denning.

View past winners of Sailor of the Month

Seahorse Sailor of the Month is sponsored by Musto, Harken McLube & Dubarry. Who needs silverware, our prizes are usable!

Cast your vote, submit comments, even suggest a candidate for next month at seahorsemagazine.com/sailor-of-the-month/vote-for-sailor-of-the-month

18ft Skiffs NSW Championship, Races 4 and 5
Click on image for photo gallery.

Sydney Harbour: Defending champion tech2 team of Jack Macartney, Charlie Wyatt and Lewis Brake holds a slender lead in the Australian 18ft Skiff Championship after today's incredible day's racing in Races 4 and 5 of the series being sailed on Sydney Harbour.

The two races sailed today produced two of the best finishes seen for some time as the leaders raced to the finish line with mere seconds between the charging teams.

Line honours in both races went to the Smeg team of Michael Coxon, Ricky Bridge and Trent Barnabas although a protest has been lodged by the tech2 team against Smeg for a breach of the port-and-starboard rule in Race 5.

With over half the championship completed, but without discarding each team's worst result so far, tech2 leads the provisional points table on six points, followed by Smeg on eight points, then Finport Finance (Keagan York) and Noakesailing (Sean Langman) tied in third place on 24 points.

The points table will become much more relevant after the protest decision is made and the worst results for each team are discarded.

There was a dramatic start to Race 5 when Winning Group made a late rush to get a flying start. The move almost paid off but the team was marginally over the line and declared UFD by the starter and took no official part in the race.

Despite the decision, Winning Group continued to sail the course and dominated the fleet with some spectacular speed sailing on both the windward and downwind legs of the course.

There appears to be little between the top three teams, tech2, Smeg and Winning Group, and the racing over the coming weeks should be sensational as all teams continue to tune up for the JJ Giltinan Championship in March.

Races 6 and 7 of the Australian Championship, will be conducted next Sunday (January 24). -- Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.

www.18footers.com.au

So you like to go fast...
Some of the most famous sailors in the world will tell you they'd quit sailing everything else before they'd stop ice boating. I agree.

I've been iceboating as long as I can remember. Sure, I've always sailed in soft water too. But up here in snow country, there's nothing that comes close to iceboating. The speed and the ride and the cold gives you a rush that you can't get many other ways. I believe that you develop an acute feel for how any boat (and fast cars) are going to respond to small body movements or steering changes from iceboating. I bet the guys steering the AC75s would benefit from coming ice boating and ripping around at 70+ mph. I bet it's a similar feeling. You learn to react really quickly and that helps all the sailing you do.

When I was really young, my dad, Bill Perrigo, used to put me in the front cockpit of his tandem Skeeter "Thunder Jet" for races, which was a great way to learn what to expect from iceboating. High speeds and getting hammered in the face with ice chips. Like little ice picks hitting your cheeks at 70+ mph.

You find great people in any kind of sailing. But if you're going to race iceboats, you travel all over—sometimes hundreds of miles in search of ice for one regatta. You spend lots of time in the middle of nowhere…waiting for the word on where you'll be sailing. But you do it with incredible people from all over the world and you make incredible friends. That's unique in all of sport.-- Will Perrigo, Harken Industrial Project Coordinator

The full article in the February Issue of Harken At The Front

Tour an E Skeeter and a brand new DN with Harken Director of Engineering Steve Orlebeke.

44Cup 2021 Debuts in Cowes and Scarlino
After a rollercoaster year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the 44Cup is ready to launch into 2021 with two new venues and a full fleet of nine boats.

The 44Cup will debut in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, UK, over the 11 to 15 August for event three of the 2021 season followed by the Italian resort of Marina di Scarlino for event four on 6 - 10 October.

The 2021 season will open once again in Portoroz, Slovenia, over 19 - 23 May. Hosted for the first time in Portoroz town centre, the nine RC44s will be moored on the main town pier with the racecourse set against the backdrop of the walled historic town of Piran.

Following the season opener, the fleet will move on to Marstrand, Sweden, home of Artemis Racing and a firm favourite on the 44Cup calendar thanks to being the sole stopover in Scandinavia and its usually excellent conditions, for event two over 30 June to 4 July.

The 44Cup Cowes will take place on the Isle of Wight over 11 to 15 August as part of a busy summer schedule of racing, taking place during the week after Cowes Week and the Rolex Fastnet Race start. The 44Cup race course will be set each day in the eastern Solent by the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron, with a start or finish each day signalled by the Squadron's famous cannon.

Another new venue for the fleet in 2021 will be Marina di Scarlino, Italy. Located just a few kilometres from the island of Elba, Yacht Club Isole di Toscana lies at the heart of culturally rich Tuscany and will host the 44Cup for the first time. The Gulf of Follonica and its natural parks surrounding the marina help create a mild microclimate with ideal wind and sea conditions for sailing in any season.

To close the 2021 season in November, the 44Cup will travel south to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for the Calero Marinas 44Cup hosted over the 17 - 21 November by Puerto Calero.

www.44cup.org

CAPE2RIO 2023 Notice of Race
The Cape2Rio 2023 Race Office has been hard at work since October 2020 connecting with sailors who have previously entered the race, Yacht Clubs around the world and most recently our Virtual sailors who took part in the 2021 Virtual Cape2Rio race. It is our pleasure to include the official Notice Of Race below. We look forward to hearing from you. Make sure to visit our Facebook page for regular updates and the official website for your entry form.

Download the NoR Pdf document

Download the NoR marketing brochure by clicking here.

The Organising committee looks forward to promoting the race in Brazil and South America over the next 2 years and hope to see more entries flow in.

The Cape2Rio Race 2023 will commence 2 January 2023, please contact and keep up to date with developments on our website www.cape2riorace.com and social media feeds. For high-resolution photos or interview opportunities, contact Christa Badenhorst on or Anthony Spillebeen on .

Letters To The Editor -
Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Your Humble Narrator:

My own Bob Fisher stories… about 20 years ago we were both in South Beach Miami for a regatta, staying in nearby hotels. I invited him over to mine (the one with the antique car parked in front, very Art Deco place), for I'd discovered that they made absolutely world class mojitos there at the bar.

Bob walked over a couple of blocks... and drank me under the table. I could barely make it to the elevator. He walked to his hotel, was at the regatta center far earlier than I was, and appeared to not suffer in the least. I had a hangover so bad I felt like I was bleeding from the ears.

Then there was my SINS initiation ceremony in Savannah in 1996. Bob and the usual criminals didn't tell me at first that when you get inducted you have to pick up the bar tab. Or so I was told, convincingly. Nearly 500 bucks. Worth every dime. RIP Bob.

Featured Brokerage
2016 Ker 40+ "Arabella" FAST 40+. POA GBP.

Arabella's DNA is highly competitive IRC and ORCi racing and most recently she has been optimized with the cutting-edge technology that is being employed by the UK FAST 40 race circuit. This circuit has pushed the boundaries when it comes to IRC rating optimization and she is turn key for 2020.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats

+447759 424900
+442380 016582

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Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300. POA EUR

Welcome to the NEW Jeanneau Sunfast 3300. A new Sun Fast is born.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sea Ventures (UK) Ltd
Swanwick Marina
Swanwick Shore Road
Swanwick
Hampshire SO31 1ZL
+44 (0)1489 565444

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2008 X-Yachts X-50 Modern. 325,000 EUR. Located in Stockholm, Sweden.

2008 X-Yachts X-50 with Modern layout, carbon furling boom and great all-round cruising specification. Lightly Used only in Baltic waters and with just two owners since new and less than 7,800Nm covered since launch

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Lead broker: Matias Renlund - Grabau international (Scandinavia)
Tel: +358406861501
Email:

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

The Last Word
I found the key to happiness. Stay away from idiots. -- Morgan Freeman

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