Convention says it takes five or six editions before a new 600-miler can join the ‘Classics Club’. The Aegean 600 did it in two years…

Offshore racers are always looking for new challenges to test their boat and themselves, this is a fundamental driving force for our sport. While this challenge is inherent to the game due to the inevitable changes in wind and sea even on the same race course sailed at the same time of year, sometimes new venues will be attractive for teams seeking to enhance this challenge and their enjoyment of the sport to further hone their offshore skills. The Aegean 600 offers this challenge.

Building on the success of the second edition of the race in 2022, the third edition coming in July 2023 (7-15) will offer both returning and new teams an opportunity to experience what has been called “the perfect 600-mile race”. This is a bold claim of course, but one borne out from the race’s format, its setting, and the exuberant feedback from those who participated in 2022. Read on.

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We know there are often sailboats that lose contact with shore, and that friends and loved ones share their details in hopes of a successful sighting and recovery. We don’t always share the news in such situations, but in this case, the alert about a sailboat named Unicorn caught our attention. We thought perhaps we could help by alerting our friends currently cruising in Mexico and the Pacific.

The details are sparse, but it appears that Unicorn, with possibly only one soul aboard, has encountered problems at sea and is by now likely disabled and adrift.

The alert appeared on the social service Facebook page Carlos Alfredo Godinez León and reads (in translation):

“Social Service: #BCS #PacificoNorte #SOSVelero #Unicornio #SEMAR #CapitaniadePuerto #Embarcacionesenlazona this day Thursday January 26, 2023, help alerts were received for a vessel, type sailboat named Unicorn, which is located in the Pacific, its crew report that it is [taking on] water and presenting flotation problems, is losing energy, at any time can go out of communication. Caution is recommended when browsing and being in contact with SEMAR, ENSAR, CAPTAINTY AND local authorities#PrevenirEsVivir #ProteccionCivilSomosTodos #AyudarParaAyudar #ABVVBCS”

We translated some of the acronyms and hashtags as follows:
#BCS = Baja California Sur
Velero = sailboat
#CapitaniadePuerto = port captain
#Embarcacionesenlazona = boats in the area
SEMAR = Secretaría de Marina = Secretary of the Navy
ENSAR = Estaciones Navales de Búsqueda y Rescate = Search and Rescue Stations of the Mexican Navy
#PrevenirEsVivir = Prevention Is Living
#ProteccionCivilSomosTodos = We Are All Civil Protection (perhaps equivalent to It Takes All of Us)
#AyudarParaAyudar = Helping for Helping (or Assisting)

An earlier post stated that the last communication with Unicorn was at 11:30 a.m. (presumably Thursday), at which time the vessel was located at “Lat 25 28.9 N, Long 114 18.5 W.”

The alert was accompanied by a map of sorts, of Unicorn‘s last known location.

The post Alert for Sailboat ‘Unicorn’ Possibly Adrift in Pacific appeared first on Latitude38.

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In 2010, Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail around the world solo, non-stop and unassisted.

At just 16, the Queensland schoolgirl spent 210 days at sea battling six-metre swells before pulling into Sydney Harbour where she was met by thousands of supporters and hailed an Australian hero by then-prime minister Kevin Rudd.

One of those cheering fans was a then six-year-old Teagan Croft, who would go on to play the teenage sailor in Netflix’s new film about Watson’s remarkable journey which debuts on February 3rd…

Read more on Scuttlebutt

Ben Mitchell

Only three boats started the 35th Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race, led by the modified Volvo70 Pyewacket70 which hoped to break the monohull course record for the 811 nm course from Miami, FL to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

However, after starting on January 22, their elapsed time finish on January 25 of 2 days 18 hours 20 minutes and 19 seconds missed the pace set in 2005 by the R/P 75 Titan 12 (02:10:24:42).

But it remained a good time according to Ben Mitchell, watch captain along with Gary Weisman, who figures they received their roles due to being the oldest on the boat, with a world class crew ready to make them look good. Here are Mitchell’s dockside comments:

It was a great race, super fun! We got out of Miami really fast, probably fastest crossing of the Gulf Stream we’ve ever had. For those of us that raced during the SORC era, in much slower boats, we recall how it took quite a long time to get across the stream. But in this boat, this race, it took us just three and a half hours out to Isaacs, and then to Stirrup.

So, the race started quite fast, and our goal was to try and match or improve the record set by Titan many years back. We had a pretty good exit; routing was looking good and were ahead of schedule all the way down through the Bahamas. As we passed Eleuthera we knew there was going to be a little high-pressure bubble sitting all around the Bahamas creating a convergence zone…

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Grabbed this from FB and damn, it reminds of us an old Studebaker or something similar that has not stood well under the harsh glare of time. It musta seemed pretty avant-garde at the time, but now?  Oh boy!

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This is Teasing Machine (whatever), the King-built Nivelt/Muratet 54′ IRC that just won the RORC Transatlantic race.  When the design was first listed in the race pr, it said a NMYD, but we all know Nelson doesn’t draw anything anymore. Rather, it is a 2017 design that is a powerful reacher/runner in a breeze, which proved unbeatable in this race. And the thing is gorgeous…

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Launched at the start of 2023, the Sailart 17.5 is tackling the 5m sports-boat market (we didn’t know there was one – ed). With modern shapes, this keelboat is aimed at a sporty crew who wants to go beyond a dinghy. More here.

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The 12th Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe, which started November 9 from Saint-Malo in France, had record participation for this solo transatlantic race. Six divisions competed – Ultims, Ocean Fifty, IMOCAs, Class40s, (64-feet and less), and Rhum Mono (39+ feet) – with notable attrition along the course.

Among the casualties was early leader Brieuc Maisonneuve in the Rhum Multi division on his 51-foot CMA Ile de France-60,000 rebonds. When his autopilot failed November 13 in a violent gust of wind, it caused his catamaran to bear away and capsize.

The Race Directors asked Jean-Pierre Dick to change course and head for the area where he was able to recover Maisonneuve and bring him aboard his 54-foot monohull. Dick dropped Maisonneuve off at the Azores, while Maisonneuve’s team began organizing an operation to recover the boat.

But according to French sailing publication Voiles, there isn’t much left to recover as the boat has been found January 16 on a beach in Guidel, located along of Brittany in north-western France…

Read more on Scuttlebutt