In This Issue
• Sir Ben Ainslie's big call
• Regate Di Primavera - Portofino
• Spot on - Sea Ventures
• The RWYC Round Britain & Ireland Race Entry Opens on Friday 2nd April
• Rolex Fastnet Race doublehanding goes supernova
• Offshore Race Ankle Injury Sees Tom Dolan Retire from Maitre Coq
• The Rebecca Chase Herreshoff Award
• M32 Miami Winter Series
• International Wing Sports Association
• Industry News
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Charter: JPK1180 - Sunrise
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Jeanneau 64 Yacht
• • Black Pepper Code 2.1
• • Reichel Pugh 45 - "Katsu"
• The Last Word: Philip Berrigan

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

Sir Ben Ainslie's big call
British yachting star Sir Ben Ainslie wants the current America's Cup class of boat retained for at least the next 10 years.

Ainslie’s Team UK have taken on the major assignment of being challenger of record, working on the future of the Cup alongside defender Team New Zealand.

They have already signalled that the radical foiling monohulls that make up the AC75 class will be used for the next two versions of at the sport’s pinnacle event.

But Ainslie has made a plea for even more continuity on the back of their successful debut at Auckland 2021.

“The fact that we’re committing to the AC75 Class is a massive boost for the Cup, I’d like to see that class committed to for the next 10 years or more,” Ainslie told the Shirley Robertson Sailing Podcast, believing history had shown the benefits of consolidation as the Cup desperately looks to get more teams involved.

“One of the most successful Cups we’ve seen in the modern history of the Cup was in Valencia 2007 with version five of the IACC class, so sticking to the AC75 class is really key for the short to medium term future of the Cup.”

www.stuff.co.nz

Regate Di Primavera - Portofino
The big yachts are back in Portofino. The Regate di Primavera - Portofino is back with a significant new name: Splendido Mare Cup, an explicit link to the Splendido Mare, a Belmond Hotel, Portofino, a new hotel from the luxury hospitality group Belmond. The iconic structure overlooking the Portofino piazzetta has been completely renovated over the past two years. This will be a unique and special occasion to celebrate the renaissance of the town and the life of the people who make Portofino such a unique and legendary destination.

Thanks to the collaboration between the Yacht Club Italiano, the Municipality of Portofino, the International Maxi Association, and Belmond as title partner; flanked by the world’s main superyacht yards such as Wally, Southern Wind Shipyard, Nautor’s Swan and Mylius Yachts, together to bring to life four days of splendid races on the sea and celebrating the ancient ties between the town and the sport of sailing.

“Racing again at Portofino,” says Yacht Club Italiano president Gerolamo Bianchi, “with which we are united by an ancient bond, is of very great satisfaction. Here for 23 years we have organised the Bombola d’Oro Trophy for Dinghy 12s, for many years we have had the ‘Zegna’, the Pirelli races, the Portofino Rolex Trophy, and other high-ranking regattas, but the first engagements from the then Regio YCI go right back to 1890 and since 1965 the Plant has its summer headquarters on the Molo Umberto I. Portofino is also a perfect natural environment for hosting sporting events, and in unpredictable and very technical racing area, especially at this time of year. So heartfelt thanks to the willingness and effective participation of all those involved for managing to organise such an important event, despite the complexity of the historical period we are living through.”

The Regate di Primavera - Portofino - Splendido Mare Cup will begin officially on Wednesday, April 28 with the arrival of the yachts and registration procedures. The boats will be moored in the Portofino Marina as long the port of Santa Margherita Ligure and at anchor in the beautiful surrounding bays. Action on the water begins on Thursday, April 29 with the start of the first race and will end on Sunday, May 2 with the final race and prize-giving.

The Race is for yachts of more than 18 m and participation is exclusively for yachts built by Wally, Southern Wind Shipyard, Nautor’s Swan, and Mylius Yachts.

Call for entries, registration, and information on the website yachtclubitaliano.it

Spot on - Sea Ventures
When Daniel Andrieu and Guillaume Verdier designed a new shorthanded racer for Jeanneau even they couldn’t have dreamt what a stunning success they were about to set in motion

No less than 70 Sun Fast 3300s have been built, with fleets in the UK, France, Norway, Australia and the USA. As many as 15 will be on the start of the Fastnet later this year. Being a veteran double-handed campaigner himself, Nigel Colley of Sea Ventures in Swanwick, UK, will be ready to support any and all who are interested in double-handed sailing, this newest and most exciting sector of our sport.

Whether an aspiring Olympian, a keen amateur tired of full-crew racing, a couple looking for a new way to enjoy sailing, or any other number of different permutations, the Sun Fast 3300 rises as the perfect choice for two-handed sailing.

Full article in the April Issue of Seahorse

The RWYC Round Britain & Ireland Race Entry Opens on Friday 2nd April
With its new format and course recently announced, the RB&I entry list is to open on Good Friday.

Commodore of the Royal Western Yacht Club, Chris Arscott, said, “The new format now allows for either double-Handed or 4-handed crews. As the RWYC was the first club to introduce shorthanded offshore racing in the world, it is in our DNA to continue to develop and support this discipline. We are introducing a 4-handed class to offer a step change from fully crewed to perhaps tempt others to join the ever-growing double handed and solo racing world. Partial crew changes are also allowed in each stopover, allowing for more crews to enjoy this amazing race, if not in its entirety but to be part of a Round Britain and Ireland team.”

The course has also been revised to 3 stop overs which will offer a more balanced, accessible race both to the sailors and supporters alike. From starting in Plymouth, the venues have been announced as Galway, Lerwick and Blyth. The compulsory stopovers will remain at a minimum of 48 hours allowing crews to rest, repair, replace (whether that be kit or crew), refuel and finally return in top shape to take on their next leg. Lastly, the race will do away with IRC certified handicaps and will instead revert to class splits on Length overall.

Race Director, Adrian Gray said, “Besides crew work, navigation is key to success in these races, so we are moving away from the IRC mentality and returning to our original format of classes based on Length over all as well as multihull and of course Monohull. It is a format that we feel will attract real interest. We are also balancing the course to make the race more accessible, more comfortable and less of a time draw to the teams generally. We have also received some interest from the 2 handed Olympic offshore hopefuls to join us. After all, this is a race of 4 stages, all of similar leg lengths to that which will be on offer in FRANCE2024.”

The race starts on 29th May 2022. Spaces are limited so do not hesitate in getting in touch with the RWYC team and express your interest to enter on

Rolex Fastnet Race doublehanding goes supernova
Rounding the Fastnet Rock: Cherbourg-based Alexis Loison and Jean Pierre Kelbert on JPK 10.30 Leon - back this year to defend their Two Handed title. Photo by Carlo Borlenghi/ROLEX. Click on image to enlarge.

Doublehanded offshore racing had been gaining popularity with the Rolex Fastnet Race’s IRC Two Handed class almost doubling in size between 2009 and 2019. But for this year’s edition of the world’s largest offshore yacht race its entry has soared to 89 yachts, a giant step up from 2019’s 64.

With events like the Route du Rhum and Vendee Globe and classes like the Figaro, Class40 and IMOCA, France is the world’s stand-out nation when it comes to shorthanded offshore racing, but surprisingly in recent Fastnet races, it is the IRC Two Handed class where French teams have faced some of the toughest competition. In 2019, of the top 10 in IRC Two Handed only five were French compared to eight in IRC Four and seven in IRC Three. This was probably because the A-list French talent mostly has confined itself to the Ultime, IMOCA and Class40 and not the IRC fleet. However one consistently has.

Cherbourg-based Alexis Loison has finished in the top ten in yacht racing’s unofficial solo offshore world championship, La Solitaire du Figaro no less than six times, which makes him one of the best offshore sailors in the world. However Loison’s father Pascal is a keen IRC racer and father and son entered the history books in 2013 when they became the first doublehanded crew ever to win the Rolex Fastnet Race outright, ahead of the fully crewed fleet. Alexis holds the record for the most victories in the IRC Two Handed class. He won it three times with Pascal and is its defending champion after winning it for a fourth time sailing with Jean Pierre Kelbert on the French boatbuilder’s latest JPK 10.30 model Leon.

In the 2019 French domination at the top of IRC Two Handed was partly halted by British Figaro and Volvo Ocean Race sailor Henry Bomby and Hannah Diamond, who finished second. This time Bomby returns with a familiar figure, but one largely new to offshore racing, in double Olympic gold medallist turned TV presenter, Shirley Robertson.

Having only taken up doublehanded offshore racing last season, Robertson is looking forward to getting back on to the water. They are racing a new Sun Fast 3300, provided by Sea Ventures, the UK dealer for Jeanneau, which numerically has managed to make great inroads into the class: this year their turn-out exceeds even the JPKs with twelve Sun Fast 3200s, ten 3600s and twelve 3300s (plus two more racing fully crewed) entered. -- James Boyd

www.rolexfastnetrace.com

Offshore Race Ankle Injury Sees Tom Dolan Retire from Maitre Coq
An ankle injury sustained midway through the 340 nautical miles long offshore race curtailed Irish solo sailor’s Tom Dolan’s chances of a top 10 overall finish in the first solo race of the French Figaro season, the Solo Maitre Coq

At the Ile de Re, the southernmost turning point of the course, the skipper of Smurfit Kappa was comfortably racing among a strong breakaway group of ten leading the 29 strong fleet, when he overbalanced while stepping back into the cockpit of his Figaro Beneteau 3 and landed heavily, hurting his ankle and injuring his hand.

At first, in the light airs he tried to carry on but as the wind and seas built with the arrival of a front, the pain was scarcely bearable and it became obvious to Dolan that he had no alternative but to retire into Lorient. A medical examination has subsequently confirmed his ankle is badly sprained with some nerve damage. He has been told to rest his leg for three weeks to one month.

Having finished seventh and 13th in the two inshore races last Monday and Tuesday, Dolan had started the offshore race in ninth place. Even counting the ‘RTD’ (retired) from the offshore race he still finished 18th, still his best result in the season opener yet.

“Look I am pretty happy nonetheless. I was good allround and was with the breakaway group and was going well. Overall I have good speed. I am still not very quick under gennaker and so that is a work in progress, I am not slow but neither am I the fastest. Meantime I have two or three weeks of physiotherapy to get on with and will be taking it carefully.” Tom Dolan concluded today.

Dolan is confident he will be fighting fit for the double handed Transat en Doible Concarneau to Saint Barthelem which starts May 9th.

tomdolanracing.com/en/

The Rebecca Chase Herreshoff Award
In advance of the museum's 50th anniversary, we created the Rebecca Chase Herreshoff Award, an award named for the museum's founder, the amazing Becky Herreshoff, to be awarded to women who best personify her energy, creativity, passion and dedication to the mission of the Herreshoff Marine Museum.

At our virtual Perseverance Gala on December 10th, we honored the inaugural recipient of the "Becky Award", HMM's Registrar, Archivist & Librarian, Norene Rickson, for her commitment to the museum's collection. Please take a few minutes to watch the video of Norene's introduction by Halsey, Bill and Evelyn and her heartfelt acceptance speech.

M32 Miami Winter Series
The 2021 M32 Miami Winter Series began in February in Biscayne Bay and ran a prolific 31 races throughout four weekends in February and March. Eight teams competed in at least one weekend and, going into the 4th and final weekend, Don Wilson and his team Convexity held a commanding lead in the overall series scoring.

In last year’s Miami Winter Series Pieter Taselaar on team Bliksem narrowly edged out Wilson for the series trophy when Wilson capsized rounding the last mark of the last race. This year Taselaar and his team of Amanda Taselaar, Hayden Goodrick, Ricky McGarvie, and Julius Hallstrom fought hard to defend their title, but Wilson had the upper hand. Convexity’s team of Don Wilson, Taylor Canfield, Ted Hackney, Josh McCaffery, and Kinley Fowler finished 1st or 2nd in all but one race across the first three events on their way to redeeming last year’s disappointing finish.

Finishing second in the overall series was Larry Phillips and his team Midtown Racing, who have been getting faster all year. Taselaar finished third in the overall series to complete the podium. New members and veterans of the M32 both contributed to a strong fleet that kept racing exciting. Ryan McKillen on Surge, Jerry Kirby and Bill Ruh on Rule Number #1, Joel Ronning on Catapult, Dan Cherish on Extreme 2, and Jason Carroll on Argo all showed themselves worthy of stealing a race from the leaders.

Full Results

More Racing m32world.com/calendar/

International Wing Sports Association
Over the past 2 years, a new discipline of sailing called "Wing Foil" has emerged.

Winging can be see as a crossover between windsurfing, kiteboarding, sailing and standup paddling, and the current participants in the sport are coming equally from these communities.

While the sport is still in his infancy, there is a strong demand from stakeholders around the world to organize and govern the sport properly from the very beginning to ensure safe and fair competition in compliance with the established rules of World Sailing.

A group of accomplished athletes and sport managers with a wide range of backgrounds have worked over the past 12 month to form an international association, who's members are national associations governing the sport in their country and represent the athletes.

During the inaugural meeting on 14 March 2021, the constitution of the International Wing Sports Association was approved together with the class rules for the Wing Foil Class, and the appointment of an interim Executive Committee.

Former olympic windsurfer Maayan Davidovich (ISR) has been appointed President, with the chairman of the German Stand Up Paddle Association Phil Mandeau (SUI) beeing appointed Vice-Chairman.

The athlete's interests are represented by Gunnar Biniasch (GER), Nils Stolzlechner (USA) is leading the Technical Committee. The Executive Committee is completed by Australian's Youth Sailing Coordinator Ryan Palk and the President of the Italian Kiteboarding and Wingsport Association, Mirco Babini. The day-to-day business of the association is handled by Markus Schwendtner (GER).

www.wingsports.org

Industry News
The Transpacific Yacht Club in California, has appointed London based 1080 Media TV as Host Broadcaster for the 51st edition of this famous biennial Los Angeles to Honolulu yacht race.

It’s regarded as a classic ‘Open Water’ race, stretching 2225-miles across the Pacific Ocean from the USA’s west coast to the finish in front of the iconic ‘Diamond Head’ volcano in Hawaii. It was first sailed in 1906 as an idea inspired a decade earlier by Hawaiian King David Kalakaua, and has been an attraction for all avid ocean racers and adventurers ever since.

Director of Media Operations for the Transpacific Yacht Club, Dobbs Davis, said of the agreement, ‘’this is a new departure for us as part of our concerted drive to bring the race to a broader international audience beyond our traditional following in the US and around the Pacific Rim. Given the history of this race, the scale of its organization, and it’s continually growing reputation as a spectacular race to compete in, we are keen to harness 1080 Media TV’s skills and sphere of operations to begin that process. We already have 60 entries confirmed, including many previous winners, and we are hoping that new records can be set this year for the fastest crossing, weather permitting.”

The event begins with three race starts, the first beginning July 13th, with different classes taking part each day, the largest and fastest yachts starting last on the 17th. In 2017 multiple race records were broken, with Jim Clark’s VPLP 100 foot yacht Comanche skippered by Ken Read, setting the new ‘Merlin Trophy’ elapsed time record at 5 days 1 hour 55 minutes 26 seconds for an impressive average speed on the course of 18 knots. Comanche also set the best 24-hour distance record at 484.1 nm, a 20.2 knot average speed.

transpacyc.com

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Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, Group Beneteau has started 2021 with robust finances and is seeing the benefits of its Let’s Go Beyond! plan.

The group is forecasting a stable level of business for 2021 with a 60% growth in income from ordinary operations compared with the previous year.

The Boat Division has performed particularly well thanks to a strong interest in recreational boat use which has led to an increase in sales of motorboats under 40 feet and a similarly buoyant market for larger boats. The group is currently forecasting growth of 10% in this segment.

Retails sales of mono and multihull boats are expected to grow by 2% but sales in the charter market are expected to contract by 50% as a result of pandemic related restrictions. Overall the Boat Division is projected to grow by 5% in 2021.

www.boatingbusiness.com

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Oyster Yachts is to expand into an additional 27,000sq ft facility based at the Hythe Marine Park, Southampton.

The new facilities will be used for the building of the new Oyster 495 yacht.

“With several Oyster 495s already sold, investment in this dedicated production facility fits seamlessly with our growth strategy,” said Oyster owner and CEO Richard Hadida. “We have great plans for Hythe Marine Park, this location is already a centre of excellence for boat building, and it is the ideal location for our expansion of Oyster.”

The expansion will see Oyster Yachts increasing its existing facilities by 70%, and to accommodate the expansion, the boatbuilder will increase its south coast workforce by a further 70 employees.

The move into the new premises is being overseen by Oyster’s newly appointed chief operations officer, Peter Hamlyn.

The expansion follows on from growth at Oyster’s manufacturing facilities in Wroxham, and the creation of a specialist technology centre in Ashmanhaugh, both in Norfolk.

The new base is known locally as the Admiralty Shed or the Flying Boat Hangar, and produced sea planes for World War 1, before becoming a key facility for Vickers Supermarine and later the maintenance base for the pioneering Empire flying boats.

More recently it saw the production of the test boats for the 2017 America’s Cup campaign and Alex Thompson’s 2020 Vendee Globe racing yacht.

www.boatingbusiness.com

Featured Charter
JPK1180 - Sunrise

Sunrise was launched in Spring 2018 and is hull number 2 of the JPK1180. Sunrise is the only JPK1180 available for charter and is exclusively available through LV Yachting

JPK have become known for building fast and very competitive race winning yachts. The 1010 and the 1080 have both been incredibly successful inshore and offshore. The 1010 won the its class in the 2013 Fastnet and the 1080 won the Fastnet overall in 2015.

The JPK1180 will be the fastest boat in IRC 2 with a handicap of 1.099, Sunrise has 2 modes an inshore mode with a short bow sprit and symmetric pole or an offshore asymmetric mode with a 1.7m bow sprit and 10m2 of extra downwind sail area.

This is an exciting 40’ race charter option for any enthusiastic team wanting to win.

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Lucy Jackson - LV Yachting
Call: +44 2392 161272
Email:

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
Jeanneau 64. 895,000 TAX PAID EUR Located in Hampshire, UK

PRICE REDUCED FROM 995,000 EUROS

The Jeanneau 64 is a proven and highly regarded design, she truly leads the way in the market with her innovative design features, comfort and sailing performance.

This is a rare opportunity to purchase a Jeanneau 64 with an outstanding specification, including upgraded generator, air conditioning and water maker.

She is an absolutely stunning yacht and is seriously for sale. Option to continue current berthing contract.

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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2016 Black Pepper Code 2. 820000 EUR. Located in La Spezia, Italy

The flagship of the Black Pepper fleet, the Code 2 is the result of a design collaboration between Marc Lombard and Armel Tripon (winner of Route de Rhum multihull and an IMOCA 60 racer) to design an IMOCA 60 inspired offshore speed machine equally at home racing as she is to very fast cruising. Constructed in full carbon fibre with Axxon carbon rig, twin rudders, centreboard and water ballast, she is perfectly configured for racing and cruising duties on both sides of the Atlantic.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

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

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2011 Reichel Pugh 45 - "Katsu". 215000 EUR. Located in Italy.

KATSU offers a huge amount of potential on the race track, whilst not overly-compromising on comfort below decks. Great successes under ORC and IRC, she is a potent weapon offshore and is a much more forgiving platform, that is far more manageable compared to the newest breed of flyers.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

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

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

The Last Word
Lying and war are always associated. Listen closely when you hear a war-maker try to defend his current war: If he moves his lips he's lying. -- Philip Berrigan

Editorial and letter submissions to

Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.eurosailnews.com/advertise.html