In This Issue
• Francois Gabart : We should quickly get to Cape Finisterre
• IMOCAs are put in a safe mode
• Alla Grande Pirelli leads Class40 fleet
• Built to work - Rigging projects
• Tom Dolan Round Ireland, 'Life is good.'
• Mini Transat
• Melges 24 European Sailing Series
• Te Rehutai Signs Off In Barcelona In Style
• Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Rac
• Featured Charter: Caribbean Racing with "The Project"
• Featured Brokerage:
• • J112E - "Aquaplay"
• • RM1080
• • Finngulf 41
• The Last Word: William Wordsworth

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

Francois Gabart : We should quickly get to Cape Finisterre this evening by midnight
The leaders of the five strong ULTIM fleet were already nearly across Biscay this afternoon 200 nautical miles or so NW of Cape Finisterre at 1500hrs this afternoon. Francois Gabart and Tom Laperche on SVR Lazartigue were leading by over 20 miles. Making over 30kts averages the ULTIMS are well up to schedule to outrun the first of the storms. Gabart and Laperche had profited from sailing more directly out the Channel, staying offshore and climbing NW to break through the front first into the NW'ly breeze which freed them progressively as they have sped south.

Gabart, whilst slowed near the centre of the system, reported this morning: "We're not far from the centre of the low, where there wasn't much wind, but now on the starboard tack, we've got some more wind again. I'm trying to get the speed up and there are times when she flies, but then the wind drops off to 10-11 knots. The sky is blue with a few cumulus clouds, so a pretty view. It was surprising that in the Channel was fairly variable with some smoother patches. The worst was off the coast of the Channel Islands where we slammed a lot. Later in the night, the swell was a bit longer.

The charts weren't that clear about the route around the TSS. We were a bit afraid about changes of tack close to the TSS. Even to the north, the wind was variable. We went north to be the first to pick up the wind change. In the next couple of hours we'll probably be getting back together. We are more or less with the timing we imagined before the start. It's not far off what we imagined. We should quickly get to Cape Finisterre this evening by midnight. Tomorrow, it will be Portugal, so in comparison with the position of the nasty weather, we should be Ok, if we don't have any problems, as we'll be down at the latitude of Gibraltar by then."

transatjacquesvabre.org

Ahead of Storm Ciaran the 40 IMOCAs are put in a safe mode
Storm Ciaran is set to sweep across the north-west quarter of France, during Wednesday night. It is this huge system which has required the 40 strong IMOCA fleet that was set to start the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre on Sunday tied to the dock in Le Havre. It looks set to be an exceptional storm with winds of over 80-90kts off the coast. And so today the IMOCA fleet were moved and more fully secured ahead of the storm by their skippers, teams and helpers, so that all will be in the best shape to deliver a great show off the start line when they do go.

This Monday morning at the Paul Vatine basin, the IMOCAs were in the middle of moving. "Since the others have left, they left us a little more space," jokes French skipper Benjamin Dutreux.

In reality because of the storm forecast it was necessary to position the boats to moor them side to the docks rather than stern on.

"We all try to point the bows more into the wind," comments Dutreux skipper of Guyot Environnement - Water Family, "Our boats have a lot of wind resistance so we put them all alongside the dockside"

And the IMOCA community banded together, all helping each other to secure each boat. On board his boat, Maxime Sorel is at the helm while Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) and a technician from MACIF are are helping with the docking procedures.

transatjacquesvabre.org

Class 40: Alla Grande Pirelli leads the fleet towards Lorient
Italy's Ambrogio Beccaria and French co-skippr Nicolas Andrieu, who were tipped as favourites pre-start, are leading Class40 as they have done more or less since the first mark off Le Havre yesterday. They had a margin of around six miles with just under 80 miles to sail to Lorient, where the Class 40s will join the Ocean Fifty fleet sheltering. They expected into Lorient around midnight.

Britons Brian Thomson and Alister Richardson on Tquila were 19th, struggling after a crack developed in their water ballast tanks rendering them unusable and flooding the inside of the boat.

The crew of the Class 40 SEAFRIGO SOGESTRAN, Guillaume Pirouelle and Cédric Chateau are aiming to bring their damaged boat to Lorient, where a number of experts are ready to do what is required to allow the boat to continue the race. A collision between the two Class40 boats, SEAFRIGO SOGESTRAN and CAFE JOYEUX at the coastal marker buoy yesterday at around 1300hrs UTC led to a 90cm x 50cm hole in the forward starboard section of the hull.

transatjacquesvabre.org

Built to work - Rigging projects
Structured luff sails have created fresh challenges for deck and rig hardware designers with working loads going through the roof. This has spurred Rigging Projects to develop some creative solutions

Load-sharing sails have generated a lot of excitement at the cutting edge of sailing - first code sails, then headsails, now mainsails - and with good reason. Their performance boosting potential is significant and their ability to give a huge range of depth and camber to sails is leading a revolution of tech trickling down from the America's Cup to all boat platforms, even superyachts. The ability of structured luff sails to reduce loads has been grabbing headlines but the load has to go somewhere else. That creates new challenges for designers of deck and rigging hardware. Rising to the challenge, Rigging Projects has developed some creative, forward-thinking solutions.

Full article in the November issue of Seahorse

Tom Dolan Round Ireland, 'Life is good.'
After starting at 1500hrs yesterday, Sunday, Irish sailor Tom Dolan has made good progress through his first night at sea as he attempts to set a new solo record for sailing round Ireland. Sailing counter-clockwise, leaving Ireland to his port hand side, at around 0830hrs this morning he was already on the NW corner and ready to attack the west coast in very breezy conditions.

He reported, "The night was good, a bit breezy, but there was not too much sea and so it was alright. I had 40kts of wind just off Bangor. It got a bit hairy. But I have a good reef in the mainsail and have an old J3 jib up so I don't have very much sail up and am making good speeds. I am feeling fine. I had a lot of naps last night. The wind is quite up. I have 33 kts at the moment and the wind is up at the moment. I have only the two sails up - no spinnaker - as the wind is quite dense, this cold Irish damp air is really pushing the sails. I am going to gybe in a few minutes and start heading down the west coast. All good, life is good."

At 2145 UTC Monday, Tom was 100 nm ahead of Michel Kelinjans' record time of 4 days, 1 hour, 53 mins, 29 seconds

Race Tracker

tomdolanracing.com

Mini Transat
This Monday, they are everywhere! Only forty-eight hours after leaving La Palma, the fleet of the 24th edition of La Boulangere Mini Transat has, in fact, literally exploded, with some in favor of a northern route, others of a southern route and Still others have a trajectory as close as possible to the great circle. It is difficult, in these conditions, to see clearly, but what is certain is that not all loners are currently in the same boat. As proof, if a large majority of them operate upwind in a dozen knots of south-westerly wind and average between 7 and 10 knots, a few - the furthest to the east - are literally stuck. and risk eating their black bread over the next 24 hours. Enough, no doubt, to generate significant differences even if it will only really be in a few days that we will be able to make the first accounts.

South of El Hierro, yesterday at midday, the La Boulangere Mini Transat fleet was completely scattered. As it stands, it is not easy to give the advantage to some rather than others even if, in scoring, the privilege is logically given to the sailors positioned closest to the direct route.

Caroline Boule (1067 - Nicomatic), who had stopped at Puerto de la Estaca, started the race again at around 12:30 a.m. last night after having resolved an autopilot failure. If this is excellent news, the restart is however complicated for the sailor who is clearly experiencing very light airs to the south of El Hierro but who, without a doubt, will not fail to come back to the score when the fans have returned to service with his flying boat.

minitransat.fr/

Melges 24 European Sailing Series
Split, Croatia - Three fantastic days of sailing in Split at the Melges 24 European Sailing Series regatta, organized by the Split Sailing Club, brought together 19 crews from Croatia, Austria, Italy, and the United Kingdom from October 27th to 29th. The crew of Razjaren with helmsman Ante Cesic took first place ahead of Universitas Nova and Ivan Kljakovic Gaapic. In contrast, the third place on the podium went to the crew of Mataran 24 with helmsman Ante Botica. The gold went to the British Gill Race Team of Miles Quinton in the Corinthian category, followed by the Croatian crews Razjaren 2 of Stipe Cesic and Tutta Forza of Niko Jakovcev.

During the six races held in various conditions, the highlight was on Sunday, the "day of big swell," when the solid southern wind churned the sea, making the agile Melges 24 boats dance like Fred Astaire. The dominant force was Razjaren, which practically turned this regatta into their private competition. A nine-point lead over the closest competitor underscores Ante Cesic's superiority in this regatta compared to the rest of the fleet.

Split European Sailing Series & CRO Melges 24 Cup Top 10 (6 races sailed, 1 discard):
1. Razjaren - Ante Cesic, CRO - 6
2. Universitas Nova - Ivan Kljakovic-Gaspic, CRO - 15
3. Mataran 24 - Ante Botica, CRO - 18
4. Gill Race Team (Corinthian) - Geoff Carveth, GBR - 18
5. Pointone - Karlo Kuret, CRO - 21
6. Panjic - Luka Sangulin, CRO - 28
7. Cezibordo - Enia Nincevic, CRO - 33
8. Razjaren 2 (Corinthian) - Stipe Cesic, CRO - 38
9. Fjonda - Goran Ivankovic, CRO - 39
10. Tutta Forza (Corinthian) - Niko Jakovcev, CRO - 51

Complete results

cromelges24.hr

Te Rehutai Signs Off In Barcelona In Style
Emirates Team New Zealand's intense 4 month sailing block in Barcelona has wound up with the America's Cup winning boat Te Rehutai signing off its scheduled sailing and testing program for the 37th America's Cup.

A moment of reflection for the team as all focus starts turning towards 'boat three' which is currently in construction in New Zealand and will be used to defend the America's Cup in Barcelona in just under one year's time.

Skipper Peter Burling has been on the helm of Te Rehutai every day since its launch and was sentimental on the final day sailing. "You know, never say never, but it'll probably be the last time we ever sail Te Rehutai. It's been an amazing tool for us this campaign to help see things in full scale. The last couple of days we've found things incredibly challenging on board but have really enjoyed the time out there sailing and trying to figure out how to get around the course on those kind of sea states."

Sea states that the team were eager to test itself in, as the weather conditions coincided with the window of the America's Cup match in October next year and could easily be those which the 37th America's Cup could be decided in.

"The last two days have been unbelievably epic actually," said trimmer Blair Tuke. "Good conditions to push us as a crew and Te Rehutai stood up to the challenge once again. The team's stepped on a long way since the last campaign already, so it's an exciting year we've got ahead of us."

The construction team are working around the clock to hit their deadlines for the launch of 'boat three' in 2024.

emiratesteamnz.com

Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race
Hong Kong's Biggest Annual Celebration of Sail, the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race took place on Sunday 29 October. The racecourse is a 26nm clockwise circumnavigation of Hong Kong Island and in ideal conditions, boats race all the way around Hong Kong Island and finish back where they started. And yesterday was the perfect day!

218 boats took part in the 2023 edition and Race Officers David Norton and Inge Strompf-Jepsen set two start lines in front of Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Kellett Island Clubhouse, with the line closest to Kellett Island used to start the day boats and the outer line for the cruiser, racer and beach cat divisions. The first of 17 starts in total commenced at 0830hrs with the Pandoras, PHS Monohulls and Multihull Cruisers setting off in an easterly breeze of around 8 to 10kts and all the boats sailed out of Lei Yue Mun without much delay in the harbour.

Once clear of the harbour, the yachts were greeted by a fresh breeze and big swell running along the Sheung Sze Mun Channel. With an ominous grey sky at the start, sailors were relieved when the sun came out at around noon coinciding with kites being hoisted after the fleet rounded D'Aguilar. With gusts up to 15kts it was a sight to behold! With some boats 'fully launched' and able to surf on the run towards Stanley Gate, there were a few exciting moments resulting in some retirements due to broaches.

As the easterly breeze gradually weakened blocked by Hong Kong Island, there was a slight park up off the Cyberport as the wind dropped to about 3kts, and the fleet squeezed through the Cyberport Gate. Once the fleet rounded Green Island, however, the breeze increased a little giving the fleet a fast ride back into the harbour to finish the full circumnavigation. Only nine boats could not finish before the cut off time of1700hrs.

Taking the ATI overall win was Noel Chan's TP52 Rampage 88 for the second year in a row. Rampage 88 was followed by Marcel Liedts' Ker 46 Zannekin in second place and Hobie 16 Big Car helmed by Karl Chan in third overall. In the PHS division, Chris Mang's Valuable was the overall winner, Alfred Lau's Easy Breezy II took 2nd place and Shenton Drew's Athena took PHS 3rd place overall.

rhkyc.org.hk

Featured Charter
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Join us on board the beautifully-maintained Sigma 38 for the 2024 Caribbean Racing Season.

A racer-cruiser with a brand new suit of racing sails and a highly experienced racing skipper: Andy Budgen. Available for full-boat charter (max 8 ppl) and ideal for everyone from sailing enthusiasts to complete beginners.

"The Project", our Sigma 38, is a fabulously maintained Racer-Cruiser. She is kitted out with a brand new suit of race sails and safety gear as well as all the instruments you could hope for! Designed as a safe Offshore Racer, she goes extremely well in the wild seas and steady tradewinds of the Caribbean.

Our Schedule:
Barbados Sailing Week 14th - 22nd January
Grenada Sailing Week 28th January - 2nd February
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See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Andy Budgen
Email:
Tel: +44 (0) 7866 589824

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
2021 J112E - "Aquaplay". 399950 EUR. Located in Kiel.

"Aquaplay" is an immaculately presented J112E launched in 2021 to compete at a high level on the ORCi circuit. Supplied and fitted with an enviable options list from both the factory and further race upgrades, make this a top level boat in what can only be described as "turn-key" condition.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats

+447759 424900

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RM1080. From 250,000 excl VAT EUR.

Dare to sail in a different way. Design a sailboat based on its ability to travel and sail fast and far. Draw inspiration directly from ocean racing to create a yacht that can be sailed by a single person. Choose the best equipment on the market, from deck layout to electrical systems. To design a beautiful, well-proportioned, high-quality, sporty, and dynamic boat. All the RM team is committed to this common goal and will make this brand-new RM 1080 a unique project

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
RM Yachts
Zone Industrielle des 4 chevaliers, Rond-Point de la République, 17180 Perigny, France

+33 5 46 44 73 00
rm-yachts.com

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Finngulf 41. 225000 EUR. Located in Helsinki, Finland.

Simply stunning and very highly specified example of this critically acclaimed Finnish-built performance aft cockpit cruising yacht. With upgraded rig and performance keel option plus Euro 50k in upgrades over the past two seasons, she is offered in quite remarkable ‘ready to go’ condition.

With just two private Finnish owners since new and only used in local waters, KEKE was originally ordered with a very high cruising specification which has been added to in both her original and most recent ownerships with a further Euro 50,000 in upgrades since her current owner bought her in 2021. With an upgraded Sparcraft performance rig and a Finngulf-supplied 2.05m performance keel fitted in 2010, along with more recent upgrades including electric genoa furler and furling code sails, KEKE now offers and excellent combination of Scandinavian build quality, performance and ease of handling.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Jonas Renlund - Grabau international (Scandinavia)
Tel: +358 408098688
Email:

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

The Last Word
The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind. -- William Wordsworth

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