In This Issue
• Figaro Stage One Reaches Final 100 Miles
• Sled's Race Win Moves Them To Second Behind Leaders Quantum Racing
• Finally - International Maxi Association
• Belgian Amaury de Jamblinne is the 30th entry in the GSC
• Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
• Aspire Merlin Rocket National Championship
• Q&A Live Call looking at Lessons from the Olympic Regatta
• The Sailing Champions League Cup
• Lipton Cup
• Featured Charter: Swan 78 Azzurro
• Featured Brokerage:
• • CUILAUN McGruer 55 ft Bermudan Ketch 1970
• • Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300
• • Outremer 5X
• The Last Word: Rod Serling

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

Figaro Stage One Reaches Final 100 Miles
With less than 100 miles to the Lorient finish line of the 627 miles Stage 1 of the 52ns La Solitaire du Figaro positions fleet tightened up this afternoon with leader Xavier Macaire (Groupe SNEF) seeing his advantage slowly eroded to just 1.8 miles.

However the 40 year old from the Vendee Formation teams has done an excellent job of covering the fleet and when the front-runners settled down after tacking to clear the southern edge of an exclusion zone. Macaire was back up to his earlier 2.8 mile margin. At 1800hrs CET he was leading a cluster of tightly-packed boats holding a similar line along the bottom of the zone.

This afternoon Pierre Quiroga (Skipper Macif 2019) was going well too, consolidating his second. The third podium place remained wide open, with three skippers - Tom Laperche (CMB Performance), Corentin Horeau (Mutuelle Bleue pour l'Institut Curie) and Pierre Leboucher (GUYOT Environment - Ruban rose) - almost neck and neck, with only a 400-meter difference in their distances to the finish.

Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa - Kingspan) climbed consistently through the fleet to 8th place this afternoon, 6.2 miles behind Macaire. Having taken a tactically conservative route, he's now in the leading pack, alongside training partner Glidas Mahé (Breizh Cola).

It will be a confidence boost for the Irish skipper if he can maintain this position into the finish - he was third round the Fastnet Rock on the opening leg last year, but slipped to 12th by the finish.

The leaders are predicted to cross the finish line into Lorient between 0800-1000 Thursday morning.

Abandonment of Benoît Mariette with sail damage
This evening at 1645hrs local time France skipper Benoît Mariette (Génération Seniorales) contacted the race management to confirm his retirement due to sail damage. He was under engine heading for Lorient when he became entangled in a fishing net and was attended to by the race safety boat Kriter.

www.lasolitaire.com/en/

Sled's Race Win Moves Them To Second Behind Leaders Quantum Racing
Photo by Max Ranchi, www.maxranchi.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

With the wind blowing offshore for the one race which was sailed at the 52 SUPER SERIES Puerto Portals Sailing Week & 20th Anniversary Invitational tacticians and strategists had a more challenging day than might be usually expected on the Bay of Palma.

In the 52 SUPER SERIES fleet it was Adam Beashel supported by Jeremy Lomas at the back of Sled who made the most of the opportunities on the first beat and the team which conclusively won the Porto Cervo regatta in 2019 took their first win of the regatta to move into second overall.

With the breeze at a promising 12-15kts on the start line it was the Plattners' Phoenix which made the best opening at the pin end of the line working the early left along with Bronenosec and Platoon. But as this trio pressed each other across more to the right Phoenix left just enough of a gap for Sled and Quantum Racing to squeeze inside and ahead at a very tight first mark rounding.

Takashi Okura's team, which has Murray Jones steering this week and welcomes America's Cup winner and double Olympian Josh Junior to the crew, were able to extend away to build a comfortable lead which proved more than enough as the late afternoon breeze dropped away and became even more unsettled. Phoenix was judged to have fouled Quantum Racing on the first run and had to take a penalty, leaving Quantum to a comfortable second which allowed them to extend seven points clear at the top of the leaderboard.

In the 20th Anniversary fleet Karl Kwok's Beau Geste has so far proven untouchable and leads with three wins from three starts.

www.52superseries.com

Finally - International Maxi Association
The Maxi world is at last having a chance to return to some more normal life. Despite the major disturbances caused by the pandemic yacht clubs and owners have gone to great lengths to manage events in a Covid-secure manner. Nevertheless, we yet again had to cancel our joint Transatlantic Race even though it was pushed back to January. With luck next year it will happen and as well as RORC we have taken on the Yacht Club de France as another club promoting this venture.

The whole Caribbean season was also lost so we have yet to be able to start our new IMA series there. Again we hope that in 2022 the three events making up our new series will go ahead normally – the Heineken St Maarten Regatta, Les Voiles de St Barth and the largest and oldest Caribbean event, Antigua Sailing Week. They have all been popular with Maxis in the past and we are sure will be again.

Full story in the September issue of Seahorse

Belgian Amaury de Jamblinne is the 30th entry in the GSC
Amaury de Jamblinne from Grez-Doiceau in Belgium dreams of participating in a Vendée Globe, but he is aware it is an event that is out of reach for most, unless you have been thrown into ocean racing since a younger age and became a top sailing professional. The Global Solo Challenge offers the possibility of setting off for a circumnavigation by the three great capes single-handed for a reasonable budget while also offering the (relative) added safety of sailing within a fleet in the framework of an organised event.

Amaury is the is the 30th entry in the Global Solo Challenge, a milestone that, as organisers, we are absolutely thrilled with and didn't expect to reach this early or perhaps even at all. With more than 2 years to go to the start of the event and enquiries still rolling in regularly, the interest for this challenge and the momentum are truly amazing. There are many other skippers in the background whose intention is to announce their participation in the coming months. We expect the total number of entries to grow further, possibly giving rise to one of the most popular round the world sailing events ever staged, only time will tell. Even making it to the start line is part of the challenge and requires relentless dedication and focus on preparation and training. When we launched the GSC we couldn't have hoped for a better response, the format of the event is unique and didn't know how it would be taken but it seems to have drawn the attention of a very wide and global audience of experienced skippers from many countries.

Interview

globalsolochallenge.com

Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
This month's nominees:

Katie Mccabe (GBR)
It's only fair... Timothy Long was duly acknowledged here for becoming the youngest person to sail around the British Isles – aged 15. Katie McCabe recently completed her own solo circumnavigation aged 14. What is so great about these achievements is the energy with which they move offshore sailing onto the news pages. Remember too the friends and family who have worked so hard to support every one of these attempts. 'Stewie Griffin, please come to the dock...'

Martine Grael/Kahena Kunze (BRA)
Following her previous success at Rio 2016 Martine chilled out for a while by competing in the Volvo Ocean Race on AkzoNobel –which she was aboard when the Dutch entry broke the 24-hour record set by her father Torben 10 years before. Now there is talk in Brazil of Martine hooking up with Dad and her now double gold medal 49er FX crew in the 2022 Ocean Race. There are plenty more fast Graels to make up the numbers if needed

Last Month's winner:
Eric Doyle (USA)
'Eric is the Honey Badger of Star Sailing!!! A force to be reckoned with! And an all-around great guy. Proud to race against him and call him a friend' – Marnie Jenkins; 'He's been on the water as a competitor, coach, or sage if you will, for most of his life. I also know he has been steering those sail designers in the right direction for years! So I say good on you, Eric' – Johnny River; 'He just works extremely hard at his craft... so he deserves to win as often as he does!' – Alex Curtis.

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

Aspire Merlin Rocket National Championship
Click on image for photo gallery.

Day 4 of the Aspire Merlin Rocket Nationals host by East Lothian Yacht Club was looking to be a windy one, and the first warning signal was moved forward to try and get an extra race in if the forecast looked poor for Thursday, however on arrival at the boat park it was already consistently gusting 26knots at 10am, so we were postponed for two hours ashore while the breeze continued to build, and unfortunately the call was made to cancel racing for the day, so competitors were able to do a little sight-seeing, lobster lunching, gin tasting, golf etc, before beach rounders in the evening.

Day 5, and the final day of racing was light, but 9-10knots was forecast to come in at 10am, so the fleet duly launched in little wind, and as if on cue, the breeze filled in.

The overall results were close, but not close enough in the end, meaning Stu and Tom claimed the Championship title. Christian and Sam did put up a great fight to finish second with a consistent score line even with no practice sailing together this year. Ben and George certainly found their mojo on the last day, and without the gear failures on day one, it may well have been a different story, but they finished in third. Taxi and Pippa came in a very credible fourth, Tim and Mary were fifth and Ian and Charlotte finished much better than they started the week, ending up sixth.

First silver fleet was James and Anna, who had some excellent results all week, and first bronze fleet were new comers in the Merlin fleet, Tom and Ed Low.

The Merlin Rocket Nationals 2022 will be hosted by Mounts Bay 31st July to 5th August. -- Lottie Fildes

Final top ten
Sailed: 8, Discards: 1, To count: 7, Entries: 45
1. Stuart Bithell Tom Pygall Parkstone YC, 18.0
2. Christian Birrel Sam Breary Parkstone YC, 22.0
3. Ben Saxton George Yeoman Itchenor SC, 27.0
4. Andy Davis Pippa Kilsby South Staffs SC, 36.0
5. Tim Saxton Mary Henderson Itchenor SC, 45.0
6. Ian Dobson Charlotte Fildes Burwain SC, 55.0
7. Tim Fells Fran Gifford Salcombe YC, 57.0
8. Caroline Croft Chris Gould Lymington Town SC, 61.0
9. David Lenz Victoia Lenz Lymington Town SC, 63.0
10. Ian Sharps Alex Warren Burghfield SC, 63.0

Full results

Q&A Live Call looking at Lessons from the Olympic Regatta
Last week's Live Q&A session on Lessons Learned from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Regatta raised so many questions that Road To Gold is going back for seconds.

Olympic medal winning sailors and coaches shared their insights into what worked and what went wrong in Enoshima, it was a big learning experience for everyone who joined the call.

Among the surprise guests who popped up last week were Anton Dahlberg who with Fredrik Bergstrom won a 470 silver medal for Sweden. Anton shared his insights into the mental challenges of winning race one followed by a race deep in the teens, and how he used his emotions to his advantage.

So join the call this Friday. It's free, and you can take part and ask questions if you want, or you can sit and take notes to apply to your own sailing.

The call is co-hosted by top coach Hamish Willcox and sailing journalist Andy Rice, who were both there in Tokyo, observing the action from close quarters.

Here's the Zoom link to join the call free:

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 843 5003 7945
Passcode: 422693

When?

The Q&A kicks off on Zoom at 0900 hours UK time/ 2000 hours NZ time on Friday 27 August.

Make sure you're signed up to the Road To Gold Facebook Group to get further info on the call. www.facebook.com/groups/roadtogoldsquad

The Sailing Champions League Cup:
Entries Invited For Qualification Act In St.Petersburg
Photo by Andrey Sheremetev. Click on image for photo gallery.

Entries Invited For Qualification Act In St.Petersburg

St. Petersburg Yacht Club invites crews to take part in the Russian qualification CUP of the SAILING Champions League and fight for the right to represent home country in the 2022 Champions League's Series' Final Qualifier. The qualification CUP will take place in St. Petersburg on September 23-26, 2021.

The General Partner of the Sailing champions League Cup is GAZPROM.

In September 2021, the qualifying CUP of the SAILING Champions League returns to St. Petersburg. As the number of competitors is constantly growing, for the 2022 season, the SAILING Champions League introduces multilevel qualification. The SAILING Champions League CUP in St.Petersburg selects initially the three crews to proceed to the SAILING Champions League Finals' qualifier. At that stage, the SAILING Champions League finalists will be selected.

The SAILING Champions League CUP in St.Petersburg is open to all teams from any country. Besides the fight for the right to proceed to the next level of the Series qualification, the winners will share the prize fund of 10 000 Euros.

The races will take place on September 23-26 in the home waters of the hosting Yacht Club of St. Petersburg. In addition, the host club supplies the participants with a fleet for the competition and renders all the visa support if needed. The competition will be held on MX700 class boats (analogous to J70 class).

Notice of race yacht-club-spb.ru/SCL2021/en

Lipton Cup
Click on image for photo gallery.

Langebaan, South Africa: Sunday) saw the traditional "Mixing of the Waters" ceremony take place, with four Clubs presenting their burgees and mixing water taken from their home waters, whether an inland dam or the sea in the vicinity of their club. The mixed water was then slowly emptied into the Club Mykonos marina and the event officially opened.

After 9 races the final, 10th race of the Lipton Cup, was a crunch race, which was expected to go down to the wire, as just a single point separated the top three boats. It was that close, with basically the winner between those three boats winning the coveted Lipton Cup.

The final race started in light-ish winds which vacillated throughout the race. There was never much in it with the top contenders covering each other closely all the time, and the rest not giving them an inch.

It was the Aeolians Club team which changed the face of the race when they broke away from the fleet as they saw some new pressure on the left of the course, and went in search of it, and took the lead.

The others were dueling away apparently unaware of what the Aeolians team were up to. The Royal Cape Yacht Club had the lead until then, and were looking good, but this was always going to be a race with a twist.

The twist came on the final 8th leg of the race, the downwind leg to the finish line.

Aeolians Club crossed the finish line. A boat length behind was Royal Natal Yacht Club. Witbank Yacht & Aquatic Club, the defenders of the Lipton Cup, were a hair's-breadth behind, as were Zeekoevlei Yacht Club and then the Royal Cape Yacht Club. There was less than a handful of seconds in the finish between all 5 boats, and less than a few boat lengths too. It was that close, that intense, and that exciting.

The Royal Natal Yacht Club were the victors by a mere single point from the defending champions, Witbank, and Royal Cape Yacht Club, who had led at the end of every day's racing was third overall.

Full results

liptoncup.com

Featured Charter
Swan 78 Azzurro. Located in Marina di Scarlino- Tuscany (Italy)

Delivered in 2019, AZZURRO sporting a clean, special satin black finish above deck and high gloss clear coat below deck. All of Nautor’s know-how and experience in racing and cruising yachts have been incorporated into this new Swan 78, a direct descendant of the original Swan 80 and 82 models of the past.It features an iconic Hall V-boom and full Future Fibres EC six multi strand rigging package. The new boat is faster, safer, easier to control and, more comfortable at sea. The appearance is that of neatness and efficiency. This new Swan is and will be, the best of her kind for years to come. Azzurro, the new Swan 78 delivered in 2019, offers big volumes areas in all her elegant and accommodating shape.Her hull form is beamy and very powerful, her big volumes host four comfortable cabins fully equipped for the guests. The sports/swim platform, off the Aft of the yacht, offers easy access to the sea, while also folding neatly up into the vessel for sleek storage. Incredible deck space not only creates a feeling of grandeur but it also provides guests with the ability to enjoy privacy.

See listing details in Nautor's Swan Charters

Contact
Nautor's Swan Charters - Nicolo Telese

Tel. +377 97 97 95 07

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
1970 CUILAUN McGruer 55 ft Bermudan Ketch. 480000 GBP. Located in United Kingdom.

For a yacht to look so stunning - like new - after so much use does not just happen by accident. It takes special owners and an occasionally deep pocket. CUILAUN demands it, deserves it, and pays it back and more. She is quite simply one of the most special yachts ever conceived at this size.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sandeman Yacht Company
22 Market Street
Poole, BH15 1NF
Email: Tel: 01202 330077
www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

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Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300. 178,837 ex Vat EUR. Located in

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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OUTREMER 5X - NEW BOAT

The Outremer 5X is Outremer’s flagship. A unique sailboat, capable of outstanding speed with unmatched safety and unequaled comfort.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Outremer Yachting
+33.467 560 263

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

The Last Word
It may be said with a degree of assurance that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears. -- Rod Serling

Editorial and letter submissions to

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