EuroSail News #5480 - 27 December

In This Issue
• Andoo Comanche and LawConnect continue their battle
• SHK Scallywag first of three early casualties
• All in one - Vakaros
• Good Entries For The Post-Xmas Sailjuice Events
• Welcome to the road to the 37th America's Cup
• What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
• Class 40 Updates
• Christmas Race absolute winners
• Arkea Ultim Challenge Is Clearly The Highest Challenge
• Featured Charter: Dehler 30 OD
• Featured Brokerage:
• • 2012 Riptide 41
• • JPK 10.30 'Juzzy' - Winner of Fastnet 2023 (IRC 2)
• • Arcona 415
• The Last Word: P. J. O'Rourke

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

Andoo Comanche and LawConnect continue their battle
The margin between Andoo Comanche and LawConnect remains tight with 5 nautical miles now separating the two maxis that lead the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Meanwhile, in the fleet that now numbers 98 after two more withdrawals overnight (Maritimo 52 and Sticky), the first night was hectic all, including the Geoff Hill owned Santa Cruz 72, Antipodes.

At 7am, Antipodes crew member Geoff Cropley reported: "We had lightning and thunder for hours. Then there was a major wind shift which auto gybed the boat.

"The spinnaker got wrapped in the drop, along with spinnaker staysail. All the team was up and trying to untwist and get that down. It took us about 40 minutes. We were heading north-east and sailing backwards for a period of time.

"We're now hunkered down with a reef in the main. There's little bit of blue sky. It's quite nice out here. We've got about 100nm to go to Green Cape."

Cropley added that crew mate Lindsay May is also "enjoying his 50th consecutive Sydney Hobart so far."

At the front of the fleet at 7.45am, the John Winning Jr skippered Andoo Comanche and Christian Beck's LawConnect were respectively 117 and 120 nautical miles south-east of Gabo Island. -- Rupert Guinness/RSHYR Media

Current standings:

IRC
MRV, Smuggler, Chutzpah, Highly Sprung, Mayfair

PHS
Helsal 3, Insomnia, MWF Kayle, Oroton Drumfire

Two-handed IRC
Mistral, Kraken III, Cinnamon Girl - Eden Capital

Corinthian IRC
Mayfair, Pretty Woman, Calibre 12

Corinthian PHS
Pretty Woman, Calibre 12, Ragtime

rolexsydneyhobart.com

SHK Scallywag first of three early casualties from 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart
Seng Huang Lee's 100ft SHK Scallywag from Hong Kong, has become the first casualty of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, breaking her bow sprit early this evening Sydney time.

SHK Scallywag, skippered by David Witt, had recently undergone modifications and with some well-known crew added, seemed to be in great shape, but it was not to be. Without the bow sprit, flying spinnakers is impossible.

A short time later, Peter Davison's Archambault 40 RC, Arcadia from Victoria, along with the two-handed entry of Shane Connolly/Tony Sutton on the J/99, Rum Rebellion, also reported they had retired from the 78th running of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 628 nautical mile race.

Arcadia has retired with a torn mainsail, but no reason has been given at this stage for Rum Rebellion from Sydney.

This leaves 100 boats racing, including 17 two-handed entries. -- Di Pearson

Yacht Tracker

All in one - Vakaros
Vakaros's wireless instruments just got even better

The technology to provide performance information in a wireless format is not new, with on-deck display units introduced over a decade ago. The lack of cabling needed vastly reduced the hassle, expense and complication of installation, and broadened the range of boat sizes and types that could take advantage of this technology. However, Vakaros's new

Atlas 2 is pushing this field forward. Even greater is the accuracy and utility of this information due to new generation sensors that can reduce uncertainties to the scale of centimetres rather than metres and fractions of a degree. Atlas 2 achieves this with dual band L1 + L5 GNSS reception, where signals are corrected for both ionospheric error and reducing multi-path interference that can compromise accuracy. The positioning signals are from a constellation of sources: GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou systems.

The fast update rate of 25Hz is a 40 per cent improvement over previous systems with an unprecedented positional accuracy of 50cm, making the system relevant for even small sport boats as well as superyachts.

Other new sensors are also delivering improvements.

Full article in the January issue of Seahorse

Good Entries For The Post-Xmas Sailjuice Events
Two events done and the next two events of the Selden SailJuice Winter Series are coming up soon after Christmas.

The first is the Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey on 27 December. Already there are 60 entries representing 26 different classes.

Soon after it's the Gill Grafham Grand Prix on 30 December, and a good number of entries signed up in advance...

Enter the events here...

41 different classes were competing in the Datchet Flyer, and 13 had three or more entries. The Musto Skiffs again dominated, with the 420s second and a strong Contender fleet third. Overall, there are now 47 classes that have achieved rankings, Musto Skiffs still top the leaderboard, with 420s moving up two places to second, and the ILCA 7s hold onto the final podium place. These rankings are based on the best three results for each class across every race.

There were 44 different clubs represented at the Flyer. Castle Cove SC with four entries again were Top Club, with Draycote second and hosts Datchet third. Overall, Castle Cove and Draycote hold onto the top 2 places respectively, with Burghfield moving up seven places, to third. Based on the best three results for each club across every race.

sailjuiceseries.com

Welcome to the road to the 37th America's Cup
Episode 3 in a regular series of features about the road to the America's Cup that will take us from the first official event in Vilanova to the Cup match itself in October 2024 in Barcelona.

With the the LEQ12, the AC40 and the AC75, it's easy to see why the 37th America's Cup is widely considered to be the most technically complex Cup cycle. With some teams choosing to run all three boats, managing a modern campaign is a demanding logistical and technical challenge. In the 4th episode of a series, which was commissioned by Yanmar (www.youtube.com/@YANMARMarine) we take a look at the boats involved in this Cup cycle and find out what role they play on the road to the 37th America's Cup.

planetsail.co.uk

Matt Sheahan's blog

Seahorse January 2024
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine

It's a Wow!
The design brief for the 65m ketch Aquarius II posed challenges for the rig and winch designers at Rondal – who delivered some creative solutions. The 65-metre Dykstra designed ketch Aquarius II will be one of the stand-out performance superyachts of her generation when launched next year.

Promoting participation
Announcing an Admiral's Cup event is one thing, getting boats to come is another. Rob Weiland

The best just got better
As of late 2023 the Bieker VM B1 Moth was still the fastest thing out there. But that's no reason not to make it even faster. Paul Bieker

The finest vintage of all - Part II
Dan Houston revisits the 'first' Voiles de St Tropez before savouring the latest 2023 edition

Sailor of the Month
Youth vs experience, or is it the other way round?

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Class 40 Updates
Estelle Greck : "Launching the boat, an unbelievable moment"
Alternative Sailing - Constructions du Belon, n°196

"My best moment of the year was launching the boat. Before that it's not easy to plan ahead, we know that any one day lost immediately becomes one important day less to prepare for the Transat Jacques Vabre. But when you see your boat in the water, it's concrete, you can really get into it from there on. And there is a great joy and pride at being able to say ' we have a new boat'. The weather was nice, we were able to do measurement and that stuff at the same time, there were great people there with us. It was really a special moment. Not all skippers have the chance to follow a boat build so closely, to launch a new boat, to sail aboard it. I consider myself so lucky!"

Anatole Facon : "My best moments are starts!"
L'Envol - Kermarrec promotion n°161

"My best moments are starts! The start of the Rolex Fastnet Race in July and then the Transat Jacques Vabre in completely crazy conditions. Both were a foam up, the wind blew and they were powerful moments. Off Le Havre, we set out in 35 knots though it was a bit less stressful as we were heading towards Lorient and not directly over the Atlantic. It was fabulous: we crossed the line at 20 knots, under sparkling sunshine it was very beautiful. There was a lot of joy and exhilaration! This year, I learned a lot, especially two up with Severine (Amalric), about the human side, navigation, setting up the boat...

My year 2024: "I don't know yet, except that the end of the season was busy with the Transat Jacques Vabre and the return delivery. I hope to continue to vibrate at sea and synthesize everything I have learned"

class40.com

Oskar Madonich & Gilda Dondona crowned Christmas Race absolute winners
Palamos, Girona, Spain: The 47th edition of the Christmas Race came to a close in the waters of Palamos bay after four days of competition. Ukrainian Oskar Madonich and French sailor Gilda Dondona, first and second in the ILCA 6 class, were the overall champions, winning the Diputacio de Girona awards for the best youth and the Manuel Albalat award for the best in Olympic classes. In the ILCA 4 class, British sailor Ben Anderson claimed victory, while in the double handed classes, British team Neil Barsden/David Bromilow won in 420 and Dutch saiors Tjed Wildeboer and Lars Van den Berg triumphed in the 29er.

In the ILCA 6 class, Madonich secured the title emphatically, winning the final race and finishing 34 points ahead of the second-place finisher and female champion in this class, Dondona. They both claimed the major awards of the Christmas Race.

Top three results

ILCA 6 (68 participants)
1.Oskar Madonich (UKR), 10 points
2.Gilda Dondona (FRA), 44
3.Abel Melens (NED), 55

ILCA 4 (61 participants)
1.Ben Anderson (GBR), 29
2.Àlvar Vila (ESP), 34
3.Iiris Sepponen (FIN), 39

420 (62 participants)
1.Neil Marsden/David Bromilow (GBR), 10
2.Simon Prot/Berier Joyet Sean (FRA), 12
3.Alice Davis/Oliver Rayner (GBR), 19

29er (36 participants)
1.Tjed Wildeboer/Lars van den Berg (NED), 15
2.Federica Contardi/Lorenzo di Pietro (ITA), 17
3.Santiago Nunez/Ricardo de March (ESP), 19

Full results

christmasrace.org

Armel Le Cleac'h: "The Arkea Ultim Challenge Is Clearly The Highest Challenge"
For this 400th issue, Tip & Shaft spoke to Armel Le Cleac'h, just over two weeks before the start of the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest, the first ever single-handed Ultim round the world race. An event that the skipper of Banque Populaire XI is approaching with ambition, desire and, inevitably, a little apprehension.

You won the Transat Jacques Vabre with Sebastien Josse, how did that taste?
It was a great joy to win this difficult race with a long course and quite varied weather conditions. We're really happy with the way we sailed and managed to hold off our rivals throughout the race. Banque Populaire XI is now two years old and we're starting to reap the rewards of our work, bearing in mind that Ultim boats take a long time to perfect. What's also very satisfying is that after the Route du Rhum 2022, we focused on the reliability of all the systems, we did a lot of work on that, and at the finish, the boat finished in super condition, we were able to use all the systems optimally throughout the race. It's my first major victory in a multihull since the start of my career, so it's obviously pleasing, but it's also good for the whole team, because we've had a complicated start to the year, with some stories that have hurt us, so it's good to have a positive attitude again and to do what we do best, sport and winning

Did the stories you mentioned (the Clarisse Cremer affair) also affect you?
Yes, of course they did. I was touched for a lot of people in the team who felt betrayed and were very disappointed, but also by all the comments around them, they didn't understand. These are people I know very well - I've worked with some of them for more than ten years - who give more than 100% of themselves to the team and are there day and night when they're needed.

The full interview in Tip & Shaft

Featured Charter
Dehler 30 OD. Located in the Mediterranean.

The Dehler 30 One Design is an uncompromising double-handed offshore boat designed for maximum performance with the highest possible level of comfort. This “little rocket” has been created to strike the optimum balance between speed and handling through the use of the latest design technology.

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Lucy Jackson - LV Yachting
Call: +44 (0) 20 3920 6261
Email:
lvyachting.com

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
2012 RIPTIDE 41. PRICE REDUCTION 439,000 USD.

Blue- is an exceptional, turn key, offshore racing sailboat designed by Paul Bieker. Built using Carbon Fiber and Divinycell core by Jim Betts in Anacortes Washington.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Fraser Yacht Sales Ltd.
Brian Huse-BCYBA

Tel: +1 250 516 4393

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JPK 10.30 JUZZY - Winner of Fastnet 2023 (IRC 2). 245000 TVA paid EUR. Located in Lorient, France.

JUZZY: JPK 10.30 first-hand, launched in June 2019 (FRA 53162) - N° FR JPK OJ C 03 D 9 19 The boat has been gradually optimized for simplicity, lightness and performance.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Visible at the BSM of Lorient

+33(0)6 07 16 14 00

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Arcona 415. POA EUR