In This Issue
• Pip Hare crosses the line in 19th place on Medallia
• Kojiro Shiraishi, First Asian Skipper Ever To Finish The Vendee Globe
• The Yacht Racing Podcast: A catch up with Andy Rice
• Tidal Currents at the America's Cup
• Team New Zealand holding next regatta overseas would be a 'slap in the face'
• Alinghi. Tesla. Larry?
• Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Playbook Published
• The Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonne
• Cruising World Boat of the Year 2021
• 200-year-old Royal Navy figurehead mistakenly sawn into pieces
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Nautor Swan 601 - FLOW
• • Dazcat 1295
• • LM46 Performance Cruiser
• 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

Pip Hare crosses the line in 19th place on Medallia
British solo skipper Pip Hare, 47, fulfilled the dream that she has held since she was a teenage sailor in her native East Anglia, England when she crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe solo non-stop round the world race at 00:57:30 hrs on the 12th February, emerging from a bitterly cold Bay of Biscay night off Les Sables d'Olonne on the west coast of France to take an excellent 19th place.

After 95 days, 11 hours, 37 mins and 30 seconds of racing, Hare is the first British skipper to finish the 2020-21 race, and only the eighth women ever to finish the Vendée Globe in its history. Her performance on a 21-year-old IMOCA, the oldest boat yet to finish this edition, has drawn admiration from all corners of the world of French and international ocean racing, not just for her high level of motivation and drive throughout the race but for her intelligent, efficient courses and her ability to push her elderly but evergreen boat hard all the way to the finish line.

Her race was not without drama, and she overcame a significant technical problem in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Replacing one of her rudders in big seas and 25knots of wind allowed her to stay in the race and to still remain close to a group of four faster rivals, all sailing a newer generation of foiling boats, which she had worked hard to pass. Even today just over one month on from her rudder damage, Hare was still pushing to close every last mile on the pack ahead of her and was less than 50 miles from 18th placed Stéphane Le Diraison at the line, having pulled back more than 100 miles in the final 36 hours.

www.vendeeglobe.org

Kojiro Shiraishi, First Asian Skipper Ever To Finish The Vendee Globe
Kojiro Shiraishi, the 53 year old Japanese solo skipper of DMG MORI, crossed the finish line off Les Sables d'Olonne at 10:52:58hrs UTC this Thursday 11th February to take 16th place in the Vendée Globe and in so doing become the first ever Asian skipper to complete the famous non stop solo race around the world.

Shiraishi's elapsed time for his race is 94d 21hrs 32mins and he finishes 14d 17hrs 48m 10s behind Yannick Bestaven and 2hrs 56mins behind Arnaud Boissieres.

Completing the course is the culmination of a 34 year dream, a major triumph for Shiraishi who spent more than seven days completing major repair to a potentially race ending tear in his mainsail which occurred just six days after the start on November 8th. Since then the Japanese skipper has had to sail cautiously to look after his fragile mainsail, always sailing with one reef in the mainsail.

"For over 30 years I have been dreaming of doing this Vendee Globe, ever since Philippe Jeantot invited my master Yukoh Tada to compete in it. It has taken thirty years to complete the circumnavigation and I am proud to have been able to fulfil what Yukoh Tada wanted to do."

www.imoca.org

The Yacht Racing Podcast: A catch up with Andy Rice
Justin Chisholm's guest on the latest episode of the Yacht Racing Podcast is fellow British sailing journalist Andy Rice – creator of sailjuice.com and co-founder of the 'Road to Gold' online course on how to mount a professional racing campaign.

Andy and Justin mull over the happenings of the last few weeks on the international sailing scene, including: the unusually close racing in the Vendee Globe; whether a fully crewed IMOCA 60 will be the best solution from a communications point of view for the next edition of The Ocean Race; the quality of the TV coverage emanating from Auckland for the 36th America's Cup; the prospects for the British and Italian teams in the upcoming Prada Cup Final.

The pair also get into the detail of the Road to Gold 12 step course on how to put together a world class sailing campaign that Andy recently launched in conjunction with renowned New Zealand sailor Hamish Wilcox - the coach to Olympic stars Peter Burling and Blair Tuke and to Emirates Team New Zealand in the 36th America's Cup.

Find out more about Road to Gold here: go.roadtogold.net/yachtracinglife

Tidal Currents at the America's Cup
If you're anything like us, you'll be counting down to the 36th America's Cup, hosted in Auckland New Zealand this year (March 6 - 15th if it's not already in your calendar!).

As you'd expect, wind speed and direction are going to be key factors that determine sails, foils and tactics - but what about tidal currents?

Many people think that due to the speed the boat is travelling, tidal currents are somewhat irrelevant, but that's not the case. In fact, teams are using tidal current to calculate their water speed, as they have no way of using a conventional log, since very little of the boat is in the water most of the time.

Ahead of the America's cup, we've put together a new hydrodynamic model for Auckland waters - and we're offering it to you, to try for FREE.

Try the online viewer at Tide Tech

Team New Zealand holding next regatta overseas would be a 'slap in the face'
Taking the America's Cup offshore would be a "slap in the face", according to one of Auckland's business leaders.

Auckland Business Chamber chief executive Michael Barnett and mayor Phil Goff agree the public's expectation is that racing would remain in New Zealand if Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defends the Cup.

Team New Zealand has tasked a London-based sports consultancy to run a world-wide selection process aimed at holding the "most successful America's Cup event ever seen" in 2023 or 2024.

Barnett said he believed most New Zealanders, and certainly Aucklanders, would be surprised to hear the team was considering overseas venues given taxpayer and ratepayer spending on the event and associated infrastructure.

"I think most New Zealanders would see it as a slap in the face. They've not been given an opportunity to get a return on investment this year," he said.

"The least Team New Zealand could do would be give them a chance to do that."

Emirates Team New Zealand chief executive Grant Dalton said Covid-19 and the lost revenue from this year's tournament was the driver behind the move to look overseas because the team needed to find a way to come up with the money needed to compete again.

He told the Herald this week the team's first priority "has always been to defend the Cup in New Zealand".

www.nzherald.co.nz

Alinghi. Tesla. Larry?
Preservation is the name of the game in reducing the wind limit from 23 to 21 knots for both The Match and the Prada Cup Final this weekend.

Iain Murray observed that he wanted to see them "racing rather than delivering" the boats around the racetrack and that's fair enough but Ben didn't sound best pleased about it. For now, as a Challenger, there's little he can do about the Italians, Grant Dalton and the event organisers making random decisions and shifting the goalposts at the eleventh hour but you can be damn sure that the memory banks are filling up. When we're watching the Ineos Cup for the Challengers in 2023, I suspect things will be very different…

But the behind-the-scenes action is hotting up. It's a story that is hard to keep up with. The Italian media are widely reporting that Luna Rossa are in negotiations with Ernesto Bertarelli with both La Stampa newspaper and La Gazzetto dello Sport saying that the Italian-Swiss billionaire will be back in the game if the nationality rule can be dropped.

That's great news for the Cup and its future and I wonder who's going to make the call to Larry Ellison to entice him back in – especially as he's just made $12billion off his investment in Tesla. The Cup is chump-change to Larry…and with Ineos, Alinghi, Prada and the Kiwis all in for a World Series and a quick-fire turnaround on the event, he's got to be tempted – wow this could really start to take shape. And quickly.

Alinghi coming back in would be like a shot in the arm for the America's Cup. Can you imagine what it would do for the sailor and tech team market? Salaries could be eye-popping. Ernesto doesn't do losing and it's been a duller place without him but without Russell Coutts, contracted to Larry, he's going to have throw some big money around to prise the talent. Would he have the nerve to raid Team New Zealand again? I wouldn't bet against it. How about a raid on Ineos? Blimey. Hands off Ernie! Or will he just merge into Luna Rossa which looks like the path of least resistance?

You can't take your eye off the ball for a second in this Cup. It's all happening. -- Magnus Wheatley, an excerpt from his latest Daily Grenade in Rule69blog

Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Playbook Published
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee (Tokyo 2020) today published the first Playbook, a resource which outlines the personal responsibilities key stakeholders must take to play their role in ensuring safe and successful Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.

The series of Playbooks provide a framework of basic principles that each key stakeholder group will follow before they travel to Japan, when entering Japan, during their time at the Games and when leaving the Games. They will provide direction and set parameters that will enable people and organisations to advance their planning at this stage. A preview of the Playbook for athletes was already given in a call with the Global Network of Athletes' Commissions on Monday.

The first of this series of Playbooks is, for logistical reasons, aimed at International Federations and Technical Officials. Playbooks for the athletes, media and broadcasters will be published in the coming days. Accompanying the publication of each Playbook will be a series of briefings from the IOC, IPC and Tokyo 2020 with the stakeholders in question.

www.sailing.org

The Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonne
Welcome! For about a hundred years, from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, boats were built in Bristol, Rhode Island, under the name of Herreshoff. Herreshoff-designed-and-built sailing yachts dominated national and international regattas, and Herreshoff steam yachts were among the world's fastest. With them came worldwide fame and prestige. Nathanael Greene Herreshoff (1848 - 1938), the designer of most of these yachts, is regarded by many as the preeminent yacht designer of that time, if not of all time.

The Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonne at the Herreshoff.info website strives to be the most exhaustive source of information about Herreshoff boats, their models, and their history. Consider it a catalog which documents each and every known boat designed by or built by the Herreshoffs in Bristol - sail boats, steam yachts, military vessels, even rowboats and dinghies. It contains thousands of pages with thousands of vessel images, model photos, and facsimiles of documents. Information is provided about the boats, the half models that were used to create them, construction histories, launching dates, and ownership changes, along with much, much more. The entire catalogue raisonne is thoroughly cross-linked and offers fascinating possibilities for scholars, cognoscenti and owners of Herreshoff-built boats to study and explore N. G. Herreshoff's expansive career and production.

herreshoff.info/Menu/index.htm

Cruising World Boat of the Year 2021
In the midst of a pandemic, and with the fall boat shows - including the "big one," the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland - canceled up and down the coasts, the fate of our 2021 Boat of the Year contest was very much in doubt. But with a bit of creative thinking, some luck, and the assistance of a persistent group of builders, brokers and sailors, a fleet of 12 strong nominees emerged, and a series of terrific tests were conducted from New England to Florida.

Out of a fleet of a dozen new models, no other sailboat did as many things well as the Excess 11, which earned it the title of 2021 Boat of the Year.

nowhere did we see space used in such a thoughtful, pleasant, workable, innovative manner than in a pair of new French catamarans: the 37-foot Excess 11 and the 45-foot Excess 15.

Which made us dig a bit deeper. And we suddenly realized that no single nominee did so many things as well as the simple little Excess 11. Certainly no other boats used space so effectively. Sure, the features might be more compact, but there's a real nav ­station, a good galley, an expansive owner's cabin, tramps forward, an effective cockpit…all the boxes are well-checked. Then there was the fact that, other than the Corsair 880 sportboat, no boat was less expensive. And while plenty of boats sailed as well as the 11 - as one would expect on larger boats with longer waterlines - relatively speaking, none sailed any better.

Which is when it dawned on us: The Excess 11 was 2021′s Overall Boat of the Year.

Full report by Herb McCormick in Cruising World

200-year-old Royal Navy figurehead mistakenly sawn into pieces
Click on image to enlarge.

An early 19th-century, ten foot tall wooden figurehead from the historic Royal Navy warship HMS Victory, has been 'rediscovered'.

In 2009 contractors working on behalf of the Royal Navy incorrectly thought that the giant 1815 sculpture had been destroyed in the second half of 20th century. They believed that the figurehead, adorning the ship's prow in the early 21 century, was therefore a modern replica. Because it was showing signs of decay, they therefore decided to remove the 'modern replica', according to The Independent.

The 'modern replica' was sawn into six pieces and put into storage. But last year, the National Museum of the Royal Navy investigated the sawn-up replica and discovered it was a 206-year-old 1815 replacement. It had been installed a decade after the original figurehead was damaged at Trafalgar.

University of Lincoln scientists discovered surviving bits of paint on its surface dated from the first half of the 19th century.

marineindustrynews.co.uk

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The Last Word
No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it. -- Richard Feynman

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