In This Issue
• Fastnet Course World Record*
• 8th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge
• Introducing Air Vang From Harken
• Cruising Association Log & osCA competition winners
• Allianz Regatta 2021 adjusted
• Spanish skipper Pep Costa and England's Will Harris start the Sardhina Cup on Cybele Vacations-Team Play to Be
• Dinghies & Dunmore East with Flica in the Rare Old Times
• Charlie Enright looks ahead to The Ocean Race Europe
• Love at first sight for the latest addition to the Solent Sunbeam Fleet
• Team racing back on course for 2021
• Featured Charter: Noisy Oyster
• Featured Brokerage:
• • Baltic 45 - "Flomali"
• • Botin 65 King Marine HIGH SPIRIT
• • Excess 12 - Catamaran
• The Last Word: George Carlin

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

Fastnet Course World Record*
MOD70 Trimaran PowerPlay, led by Peter Cunningham and skippered by Ned Collier Wakefield, has completed the original Fastnet Course of 595 nautical miles in a new world record of 25hrs 04mins 18secs. *Subject to ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.

"It was kind of ambitious, but the conditions were right, and the team was ready to go," commented Peter Cunningham. "The PowerPlay crew was fantastic. Miles (Seddon) did a brilliant job navigating, we had two wonderful drivers in Ned Collier Wakefield, who set up the boat and runs the programme, and the fastest sailor on Earth, Paul Larsen, who drove in some incredibly bad conditions."

Shortly after midday on Monday 05 April, in a bitterly cold strong northerly wind. PowerPlay started their Fastnet record attempt on the Squadron Line at Cowes. PowerPlay made short work of racing to Lands' End and powered across the Celtic Sea at speeds in excess of 30 knots. PowerPlay rounded the famous Fastnet Lighthouse and raced through the night. On Tuesday 06 April, at 13:42 and 19 seconds BST, PowerPlay reached the Plymouth Breakwater, where the team celebrated their amazing run of 25 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds.

PowerPlay Crew for Fastnet Course Record: Peter Cunningham, Ned Collier Wakefield, Tom Dawson, John Hamilton, Paul Larsen, Jack Trigger, Miles Seddon, Martin Watts.

The historic 595nm course starts from Cowes IOW, around Lands' End, across the Celtic Sea, around the Fastnet Lighthouse off the coast of Ireland, and finishing at the Plymouth Breakwater.

PowerPlay's run is over two hours quicker than the record set by Phaedo3 in 2015. The first Fastnet Race was in 1925 and won by Jolie Brise which took over six days to finish the course. -- Louay Habib

powerplay.ky

8th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge
Contestants are working hard to get their project ready for Tuesday 6th July, start of the 8th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge which invites researchers, academics, future engineers, inventors, and yachting and energy professionals to let their collective ingenuity off the leash. Organised by the Yacht Club de Monaco, alongside the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and International Powerboating Federation, the meeting showcases alternative clean propulsion systems for boats.

Iqos and Credit Suisse, long-time partners of the event are joined for the second year by BMW and YPI (Yachting Partners International). All these partners are very involved in the event as, alongside technical experts, they will be part of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge jury.

Three classes
Around 35 teams in three classes are expected. Of these, 17 teams from 12 countries including Italy, France, Netherlands, Monaco, Portugal, England, Greece and Germany, but also United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, China and Peru will be competing in the Energy Class. This is the first category to have closed its registration and numbers 17 teams.

Candidates in the Energy Class have to design a propulsion system using a renewable energy source of their choice, but with all teams restricted to using the same given quantity of energy. Each team is given a catamaran hull by the Yacht Club de Monaco. Terms like fuel cell, heat recovery to maximise propulsion efficiency and artificial intelligence are no longer science fiction, but progress and innovation. Launched in 2018, the Energy Class has proved a huge success. The Gadzarts de Hydrogadz from the Université des Arts et Métiers d'Aix in Provence, who won the Zero Emission Prize in 2019, are returning with their sights set on winning another prize.

Out in force since the first event in 2014, the Solar Class honours boats powered by solar energy alone. One-on-one duels, a slalom course and endurance races test teams to the limit. Last year, in an unprecedented edition online there were six in the Solar Class, including the Dutch from Tu Delft. They won the Spirit Prize thanks to an excellent video retracing months of work and the lengths they took to adapt to restrictions imposed by lock-down in the Netherlands. Some 15 teams from across Europe are expected this year.

Formerly called Offshore Class, the renamed Open Sea class is open mainly to vessels already on the market or about to enter it.

yacht-club-monaco.mc

Introducing Air Vang From Harken
The rigid vang that's easier to use, just got easier to specify and buy.

Harken has teamed up with Marine Products Engineering to offer Harken Vang-Master rigid pneumatic mechanical vangs. That's right, the Vang-Master uses air to provide the extension pressure that holds booms up—no need for fluid or hoses. And they offer unlimited adjustment without springs and their squeaks. Every Vang-Master is built of hardcote-anodized 6061-T6 aluminum. Tubing and end fittings thread together to eliminate fasteners and reduce corrosion caused by dissimilar metals.

To help make the selection process easier, Harken Vang-Masters come in four cylinder diameters. There's a menu of 120+ build lengths for everything from Moore 24s to Andrews 70s to get you close. But even stock one-designs can be slightly different. So compare the list with your own pin-to-pin measurement for the perfect fit. External purchase systems are sold separately and supplied with line specifically selected for its application, pre-measured and spliced with 100% Harken hardware.

Harken distribution makes Vang-Master easy to obtain, while making sure technical support is readily available and there's fast turnaround on spare parts. Is it time to replace that aging vang? It's easier now. We're pumped!

Watch the Vang-Master video:

Cruising Association Log & osCA competition winners
The Cruising Association's (CA) annual Log Competition is one of the most important events in its calendar, dating back to the 1920s. There are nine prestigious trophies awarded to members for the best log of a cruise carried out in the most recent season in a variety of categories. The osCA, sponsored by Haven Knox-Johnston, is awarded for the best video log of a cruise.

Highlights of the entries submitted from 2020, a most unusual year, include Alan Kohler's winning log in the Yachting World Family Cruising Trophy: Best log of a family cruise.

The competition judge was Cathy Brown, a former editor of Cruising magazine, who commented:

"This was one of my favourites of all entries in this year's log competition - something completely different. Forced by Covid restrictions to abandon his plan to take his grandchildren through the Crinan Canal, Alan Kohler came up with the idea of taking them day sailing - entirely permitted within the rules.

"This log records some of the shortest voyages ever mentioned in the CA log competition - in one case only 200 metres! But as he [Alan] points out, it is not the length of the voyage that matters when cruising with young children, but the experiences gained. Short day sails and playing in the dinghy proved the ideal solution, for everybody. It neatly illustrates why the Yachting World Family Cruising Trophy is one of the most important prizes on offer in the CA log competition."

The top prize of The Hanson Cup for the best log of a cruise of any duration, goes to James Littlewood, with Judge Cathy full of praise.

The osCA goes to...Graham Keating

The osCA is awarded for the best video log of a cruise (Vlog), and it has been awarded to Graham Keating for 'The post-lockdown shakedown - a cruise west from Dartmouth'. As this category is currently sponsored by Haven Knox-Johnston insurance, Graham also wins a Hero7 GoPro, worth 200 GBP, as part of his prize.

www.theca.org.uk

Allianz Regatta 2021 adjusted
The Allianz Regatta in Medemblik is split into two events. The races in the international Olympic classes will be sailed from 2 to 13 June 2021.

The Open Dutch Championship, in non-Olympic classes, will be postponed to this autumn. In this way there is sufficient space and time for everyone to be able to continue the racing in these classes only.

In November last year, the new sailing event was announced, merging two existing ones: the Open Dutch Sailing Championships for non-Olympic disciplines, and the Medemblik Regatta for the international Olympic and Paralympic classes. The new event, the Allianz Regatta, was on the calendar from 2 to 13 June this year.

The reason for the adjustment is to be able to organise a safe tournament in compliance with the then applicable Corona measures. By applying this focus, the Watersportverbond and organizer TIG Sports think they will comply with the Corona measures. At the same time, the wish of the international sailing top can be fulfilled as an ultimate test on their way to Tokyo 202One.

Since this is an outdoor event, there cannot be a so-called 'bubble'. Therefore, a lot of space is needed, with fewer participants spread over a longer period. All top athletes are requested to travel with a negative Corona test. With all these measures, the event can be organised on shore and on the water safely and at 1.5 meters.

It is the intention to organise the European Paralympic Championship (EUROSAF) during the first part of the Allianz Regatta in June. Discussions about this are still ongoing with EUROSAF.

The second part of the Allianz Regatta, the races in the non-Olympic classes, will be postponed to October 2021. New program

Period 1 (Wednesday 2 - Sunday 6 June 2021)
Laser
Laser Radial
RS:X Men
RS:X Women
Nacra17

Period 2 (Wednesday 9 - Sunday 13 June 2021)
470 men
470 women
Finn
49er
49erFX

Period 3 (Fall 2021)
Non-Olympic classes

allianzregatta.org

Spanish skipper Pep Costa and England's Will Harris start the Sardhina Cup on Cybele Vacations-Team Play to Be
Click on image to enlarge.

Taking on his first ever race in the Figaro Beneteau class over the coming days, 21 year old Barcelona skipper Pip Costa has partnered with the experienced British Will Harris, 26, as co-skipper for the Sardinha Cup which started this afternoon off the Vendee town of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie.

Like others in the 21 strong fleet, the duo are preparing for next month's Transat en Double Concarneau-Saint Barthelemy which will be the first Transat yet for the Figaro Beneteau 3 class.

After finishing eighth in the 2019 Mini Transat as Costa embarks on the next chapter of his solo and short-handed ocean racing career, he has chosen to pair up with Harris, the English skipper who has proven himself one of the best international racers on the circuit as top rookie in 2016 and finishing 22nd on the 2019 race, the first in the new Figaro Beneteau 3.

The first offshore race of the two courses which form the Sardinha Cup is the Trophee Naomis which started at 1600hrs local time today, a 300 miles race down and back to the Bay of Arcachon followed by a passage round the Ile d'Yeu. The started in 10-12kts of chilly NNW'ly breeze with bright skies. The wind is due to swing to the ESE making the course south to Arcachon - the bay south of Bordeaux - very much a straight line drag race. This race should finish in the early hours of Friday morning.

Both the Spanish and English skippers share a dream of competing on the Vendee Globe in the coming years and for Costa, who came to solo offshore racing after a successful youth career in the 29er, the Figaro fleet is the best learning arena. He supported Catalan skipper Didac Costa (no relation) in the lead up to and after the last Vendee Globe where Will Harris sails and works with Boris Herrmann and Team Malizia.

Costa sailed in the 29er class from 2017 to 2018 and was twice in the Top 10 at the world championships and then for three years he studied Engineering Physics and Mathematics in Fordham University, New York at the same time as campaigning in the Mini class for the Mini Transat. He had planned to do the whole 2020 Figaro season. -- Andi Robertson

sardinhacup.com

Dinghies & Dunmore East with Flica in the Rare Old Times
Dinghy Week at Dunmore East in 1950, with the rapidly-expanding IDRA 14 Class present in strength and lying to a line of moorings afloat, while the harbour is dominated by the sky-scraping mast of Aylmer Hall's 12 Metre Flica from Cork, and the picture is made complete with a Naval Service guardship . Click on image to enlarge.

Every so often a photo flashes across the screen, its origins unknown and its destination a mystery, yet its reality is abundantly clear. This header pic is one such. I've no idea how it came to pop up, or who sent it, or indeed who took it something like seventy years ago.

But everything points to it being an early IDRA Dinghy Week at Dunmore East, which would make it 1950 or 1955, and the guess is it was 1950 when Teddy Crosbie won the Helmsmans Championship, racing in the hot new boats of the IDRA 14 class which in 2021 will be celebrating their 75th Anniversary.

They spent that week in 1950 afloat on temporary moorings, something for which designer O'Brien Kennedy had been asked to make them well able, for when the design was commissioned in 1946, clubs such as Waterford Harbour SC at Dunmore East had little enough in the way of dinghy parks with their own launching slips.

But of course the eye-catching focus of the entire picture is Aylmer Hall's 1929-vintage Charles E Nicholson-designed - and C & N built - 12 Metre Flica, the Queen of Cork Harbour, where they still talk in hushed tones of the time she was dismasted during the Cobh People's Regatta. It certainly was an awful lot of mast to come tumbling down, and equally it seemed un-climbable without assistance.

WM Nixon's full, wonderful article in Afloat. Your humble narrator loves long-form journalism...

Charlie Enright looks ahead to The Ocean Race Europe
As he settles back into training with his team in Europe, we caught up with Charlie Enright, the skipper of 11th Hour Racing Team, to get his thoughts as the team looks ahead to The Ocean Race Europe in May/June.

Charlie, it's great to see the team getting back out on the water now with a full programme of training and racing planned for this season. It all kicks off with The Ocean Race Europe, the first opportunity to race in a fully crewed configuration in the IMOCA. Why is this race important to your team?

The Ocean Race Europe will be a great opportunity to line up with the other IMOCA 60s and for the first time fully crewed. Even though it looks like we'll have one of the only older generation boats, the plan is to have new foils and we are eager to see how they perform.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for teams and sailors who spend more time in short-handed mode as they set up with a larger crew?

Honestly, in a race like this, with shorter legs, there shouldn't be a lot of challenges. Those more used to short-handed racing just need to accept the help of more hands to do the heavy-lifting!

The Ocean Race Europe consists of three short legs, a few days at the most... how do these sprints compare to the marathon pace of the around the world race?

These sprints are very different from the typical Ocean Race legs that last 20 or more days, or the non-stop laps of the planet that take 70 plus days. In a lot of ways these shorter legs are more difficult because you're always on, and rarely get into any kind of watch system.

Tactical decisions can become more important because you don't get a lot of time to catch-up if you get them wrong, but as always...speed can make you look pretty smart!

Full interview in TheOceanRace.com

Love at first sight for the latest addition to the Solent Sunbeam Fleet
Click on image to enlarge.

The 98 year old historic Solent Sunbeam class welcomed its newest addition to the fleet with the launch of a new boat at Itchenor on 30th March 2021. This latest launch is the eleventh GRP Solent Sunbeam to be commissioned in this highly competitive and growing classic keelboat fleet which is based at Itchenor Sailing Club.

The owners of V72, Adrian and Nikki Edwards have named her 'Serendipity', in keeping with the tradition of having names ending in 'y'.

The hull was moulded on the Isle of Wight and the yacht finished by wooden boat specialists, Haines Boatyard at Itchenor. Adrian is an experienced racer and is very much looking forward to the challenge of racing in this competitive and sociable fleet, having competed in a variety of dinghies and keelboats over the years, most recently in the Victory Class in Portsmouth. Interestingly the Victory Class is another local, classic design which has also embraced wooden and GRP boats racing on an equal basis.

www.solentsunbeam.co.uk

Team racing back on course for 2021
Team racing is looking ahead to a successful 2021 on the water following a year of Covid-19 restrictions and cancelled championships.

While racing generally was badly affected by the pandemic, team racing with its primarily winter-focused season was particularly hard hit, with the RYA Team Racing Championships, Women's, BUSA and Eric Twiname Youth & Junior championships all cancelled.

As the majority of team racing is run and supported by schools and universities, it was also nearly impossible for any of its key participants to get in any racing around lockdowns and closures.

But with the easing of restrictions from Monday 29th March 2021, planning is now underway for the return of team racing, with a number of high profile events scheduled and an exciting set of new RYA resources to provide lots of inspiration and know-how for the year ahead.

Keen to support team racing and all those who enjoy it, the RYA has been creating additional resources to help get sailors up to speed: a series of videos are in production looking at the specific manoeuvres and tactics for a team racing course; a coaching manual is due to be published; and online lectures will provide further opportunities for sailors to develop their skills.

The first of these lectures should be live by the end of April with the videos and coaching notes following in September in time for the start of the main team racing season.

Schools get set for BSDRA, NSSA & Eric Twiname events
With restrictions beginning to ease, some schools are already back on the water within the curriculum to train for upcoming events. The school season will get underway in mid-April, with regional competitions taking place into May and June.

Scheduled events include the two-boat National School Sailing Association (NSSA) Double Handed Team Racing Championship at Royal Hospital School (RHS) in Suffolk, 26-27 June, and the British Schools Dinghy Racing Association Finals at Bough Beach SC, Kent, 5-6 July.

Postponed from the end of March 2021, the RYA two-boat Keelboat Team Racing Championship for the Carmela Cup will now take place at the Royal Thames YC over the weekend of 8-9 May. Unlike dinghy team racing, spinnakers will be adding to the complexity and excitement, and the Carmela Cup continually attracts some of the top level talent in the sport.

To learn more about team racing and forthcoming events visit: RYA Team Racing

Featured Charter
J122 - Noisy Oyster

Noisy Oyster is a beautifully presented J122 and one of the most successful IRC racers of her generation. Quick and responsive, powerful and stable, the J122 is easy to handle and delivers all round performance.

The J122 has an upwind sail area of 97 square metres, thanks to her 110% headsail, and a 150 square metre downwind sail area. She also benefits from a carbon fibre bow sprit and asymmetric spinnaker, which makes her easier to race for most teams, especially those with fewer crew.

For full details please go to......bit.ly/LVY-noisyoyster

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

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

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
2009 Baltic 45 - "Flomali". 395000 EUR.

Baltic Yachts exceptional quality, in an easily sailed yacht for fast cruising with your family and friends or convert her to race mode and head offshore. The lifting keel reduces the draft to two meters allowing access to unlimited cruising grounds and powered winches allows easy sail control.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats

+447759 424900
+442380 016582

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2015 Botin 65 King Marine HIGH SPIRIT. 1,500,000 EUR. Located in Caribbean.

The 65-foot sailing yacht BOTIN 65 is a truly unique racing yacht with a functional, stylish interior. HIGH SPIRIT was built by Spanish shipyard King Marine and launched at the end of 2015.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
BERNARD GALLAY Yacht Brokerage

+33 (0)467 66 39 93

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Excess 12 - Catamaran. 323,484 TAX NOT PAID GBP. Located in Southampton UK.

The highly anticipated EXCESS 12 Catamaran from Group Beneteau has now arrived with Sea Ventures in Southampton. This boat is AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY.

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

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

The Last Word
I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to. -- George Carlin

Editorial and letter submissions to

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