Dejected wasn’t the right word for the look on Odile van Aanholt’s face after she missed the Gold Fleet cut at the 2020 Melbourne Worlds. But it was certainly something a little angrier than that…
Monthly archives for August, 2022
Sparrow Sailing Team conducts first sea trials
Tuesday
Aug 30
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 30
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The newly formed Sparrow Sailing Team successfully conducted their first week of sea-trials for next year’s Global Solo Challenge race last week, just offshore of Portland, Maine…
that’s why
Monday
Aug 29
2022
Posted by deleteme
Aug 29
2022
Posted by deleteme
Skipper: “Why is she faster than us?”
Main trimmer: “She’s better than you.”
Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s (MHYC) popular Inshore Sprint Series starts again this spring and the Club is expecting a good roll-up when the first two Sydney Harbour races are sailed on Saturday 24 September. That’s Tracy Richardson with her Adama 10 “Artemis”. More here.
Pic by Marg Fraser-Martin.
Welcome SAIL magazine’s new Editor-in-Chief, Wendy Mitman Clarke
Monday
Aug 29
2022
Posted by deleteme
Aug 29
2022
Posted by deleteme
The Active Interest Marine Group has announced the appointment of Wendy Mitman Clarke as editor-in-chief of SAIL magazine.
A lifelong sailor and marine-industry veteran, Clarke is an award-winning writer and editor whose marine writing career began when she left her position as an Associated Press journalist to become the mid-Atlantic bureau chief for Soundings—a magazine she has recently returned to as a freelance writer. After Soundings, she rose from writer to executive editor at Chesapeake Bay Magazine. When she and her family left Annapolis to cruise fulltime aboard their 45-foot Adams sloop for four-and-a-half years, her monthly column in Cruising World documented the journey. Most recently she has been senior editor of Good Old Boat, as well as a science writer for Maryland Sea Grant College. She has been a consistent winner at the Boating Writers International annual writing contest, and in 2002 she won the BoatUS Monk Farnum Award for Excellence in Editorial Commentary.
“Sailors, by nature, are a tight-knit community with a language and culture all their own. To lead a brand like SAIL we needed to find someone who is both a media professional and someone who lives and breathes that pastime,” says AIM Marine Group Editorial Director Dan Harding. “Wendy checks those boxes and then some. I can’t wait to see where she steers the SAIL brand.”
“I’m thrilled that Active Interest Media has asked me to take the helm of SAIL,” Clarke says. “I grew up reading this magazine, it has always been inspirational, and it’s a real honor to become part of this team and this magazine’s legacy.”
Clarke is based on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, with the Chesapeake Bay as her home sailing waters…
Remembering back to Hurricane Andrew
Monday
Aug 29
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 29
2022
Posted by XS Editor
It was 1992 when Hurricane Andrew roared ashore on August 24 as a powerful Category 5 hurricane as one of only four Category 5 hurricanes in recorded history to hit the continental United States.
It was the strongest hurricane to hit Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and was Florida’s costliest hurricane until Hurricane Irma in 2015. Thirty years later, Rick Jarchow, Jr. shares this remembrance:
Hurricane Andrew was churning its way through the Bahamas heading to its ultimate landfall in South Florida that would devastate the sailing community. I was just a teenager in high school when Andrew hit, but I do remember the house shaking, the prep we did to save our family sailboat and the 30-foot PHRF racer that that I had grown up on.
Andrew was headed to Fort Lauderdale, and we were all wondering if our house would survive. My parents had just finished a complete renovation of a 1958 house just a year before and this was before hurricane proof windows and all the innovations that followed Hurricane Andrew…
Globe40: High-fives and big hugs
Sunday
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
American Joe Harris along with Roger Junet are competing in the Globe40, a multi-leg doublehanded round the world race in Class40s. The second leg started July 17, taking the five-boat fleet along the 7000nm course from Cape Verde Islands to Mauritius, with the duo on GryphonSolo2 finishing on August 26. Here’s his arrival update:
(August 28, 2022) – Well… we finally made it to Mauritius! Nearly 40 days from Cabo Verde. That was a work-out. About as varied a set of conditions as possible. The last 700 miles were hard on the wind or tight reaching through constantly changing wind and sea conditions. At times the slamming was reminiscent of our delivery from Portland to Lorient when we nearly lost our minds.
But we were finally rewarded by a beautiful sail once we sighted the volcanic peaks of the southern tip of Mauritius and sailed all day in beautiful conditions up to the finish in Port Louis. The race management team carrying GS2 family and friends came way out to meet us along with the photo-boat so we were accompanied the last two hours before a sunset finish. Very satisfying!
And when we got to the dock, my wife Kim, son Emmett, and daughter Sophie were all there as well as all our fellow co- skippers from the other four boats, so we had a small party on the pier with lots of high-fiving and hugging…
2022 Multihull Cup overall
Sunday
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Coco de Mer emerged as the deserved winner of the 2022 Multihull Cup on Sunday, finally overturning a long-running sequence in the runner-up spot…
Instantaneous Reflections
Sunday
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The gold foil wrap was easy. The opaque, light teal fresh water in Lake Neuchatel was a tremendous addition, as well. So many thanks to SSL Gold Cup Team Brazil’s Media Manager, Flávio Perez, for sharing his images with us…
2022 ILCA U21 Worlds at Villamora, Portugal overal
Sunday
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
No races were completed today on the final day of the 2022 ILCA U21 World Championships, due to lack of wind again. The scores remain unchanged from yesterday, so Germany’s U19 sailor Ole Schweckendiek and Belgium’s Eline Verstraelen were named champions…
International Canoe ‘Not the Worlds’ Day 2
Sunday
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
After the boat handling antics during yesterday’s racing, the fleet were delighted to accept the offer of Mike Hartley’s recently refurbed ‘superyacht’ as both an on-the-water coach boat, and a between races hydration station…
Tom Dolan relishing La Solitaire du Figaro Stage 2
Sunday
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 28
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Twelfth after Stage 1 of the 2022 La Solitaire du Figaro, Ireland’s solo racing sailor Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) sees the 635 miles second stage, which starts today at 1300hrs local time in Port La Forêt, Finistère, Brittany…
Lars Hendriksen DEN 138 is Dragon Gold Cup winner
Saturday
Aug 27
2022
Posted by deleteme
Aug 27
2022
Posted by deleteme
Lars Hendriksen of Denmark, sailing with George Leonchuk and Kilian Wiese, is the 2022 Yanmar Dragon Gold Cup winner…
Lighting strike in the Race to Mackinac
Saturday
Aug 27
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 27
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Sam Nedeau
The 113th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac faced a minefield along its 289nm course, and for the 244 registered boats, 29 retired or chose to withdraw, with reasons ranging from the impending weather, shredded sails, equipment failures, and minor injuries.
Sam Nedeau, Commodore of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation, shares his harrowing tale:
For the 2022 Chicago Mac, I had the pleasure and honor of crewing aboard Madcap, a Santa Cruz 52 owned by John and Marian Hoskins. I was a late pick up as my initial ride, the J/111 Striking Back, was forced to withdraw after discovering a crack in the mast just weeks before the race.
John and Marian had Madcap as well prepared as any Mac boat that I have raced aboard. And when I say prepared, I mean it through and through.
For example, the instruments work, perfectly. There was no variation of the apparent wind when the boat tacked. The Bimini compass read the same as the electronic compass (allowing for magnetic variation). The course and speed over ground (bottom) read the same as the GPS … The water maker worked. The refrigeration system worked. The safety gear was all in place.
These two are detail-oriented and their boat reflected their dedication. And thank God for that.
The pre-race prep was fairly standard, with a strong review of the pending storm, and how we would approach it. Safety, boat rules (no eating below – I love that one), watch system/rotation, and the job assignments for an all on deck situation … It was well apparent to the entire team that we would get hit by the storm, probably between one and three AM.
The assumption was that the squalls hit between one and three AM, possibly as much as 50-60 knots, then a calm again, before the Southerly winds filled in again and we would be off. In my mind, the storm would be about an hour or two, some nasty stuff, but nothing that we could not handle, followed by what should be a pretty quick ride to Mackinac Island.
I was wrong. We were wrong. The weather forecast from all the sources were wrong.
The squall(s) hit us about 10:00 PM, which was consistent with the latest update, and the severity was not as daunting as expected, but the duration of the storm(s) was considerably more and longer than we expected. We saw winds in the thirties, a lot of rain, and some good initial lightning.
John’s call for the spinnaker down, #4 up and two reefs in the main was perfectly timed and when we were hit, Madcap was prepared and in great shape.
But, there was more than one squall line. More than one storm. In fact, the radar and other weather sources just showed more and more squall lines. More rain. More breeze, though the breeze was manageable. We had run off in the heavy stuff. Survived well and with the breeze now in the high teens to low twenties, we were back on course to Pt. Betsie and feeling okay. Wet but okay.
Due to the presence of several squall lines, we were sailing conservatively, but also enjoying what was at the time, an amazing lightning show. There was flash and atmospheric (heat) lightning all around us, but the big bolts of lightning, the thunder and really bothersome stuff was miles away. Or so we thought.
BANG!
We were struck by lightning. None of us felt a thing. Not a thing. There was a LOUD bang, the instruments went dark, but that was about it. There was no bolt of lightning out of the sky to the top of the rig, that went on for seconds. Just BANG, dark and WOW. I was at the helm, and I did not feel a thing.
Led by John and Marian, an immediate review of the boat and its systems were undertaken. The first priority was to get the instruments working again. No luck. About a half hour into the investigation, it was learned that the masthead unit had been mangled. The cups on the mast wand were gone. The wand itself looked … limp …
Australian Yachting Championships overall
Saturday
Aug 27
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 27
2022
Posted by XS Editor
There was plenty resting on the final race of the 2022 Australian Yachting Championships (AYC) at Hamilton Island Race Week today, apart from deciding the winners of each division, Sandy Oatley took the helm of Hamilton Island Wild Oats…
the giant octopus
Friday
Aug 26
2022
Posted by deleteme
Aug 26
2022
Posted by deleteme
After some disillusionment with the capabilities of his trimaran – little prepared to participate in major races – Éric, Tabarly decides to undertake a campaign in the United States to prove the seaworthiness of his trimaran. The first records follow one another and it’s a second “life” that awaits the trimaran in the hands of Alain Colas.
2022 Multihull Cup Day 1
Friday
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
High-performance multihull racing returned to the waters of southern Mallorca on Friday with the opening day of the 2022 Multihull Cup…
Letter from the Antipodes: SailGP turnaround
Friday
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
While New Zealand sailing is on the return path to a full international sailing program, with some good successes, there have been a few ruts along the way. The roughest ride has come from the performance of the Kiwi SailGP team…
Decisions: When to cover your opponent
Friday
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
by Adam Loory, UK Sailmakers
The strategy of winning sailboat races involves knowing how to control your competition— when to cover your competition and when to sail your own race. I was reminded of both during the 2022 Ida Lewis Distance Race off Newport, Rhode Island. I sailed on the Reichel Pugh 69 WIZARD chartered by David Greenstein.
Four-time Volvo Ocean Race winner Stu Bannatyne was our skipper, and WIZARD was scratch boat in ORC. The only boat that was close to us in speed was the Judel Vrolijk 66 DENALI, to which we owed about 20 minutes on the 150-mile course. There was also a TP52 in our class, but since we owed her about two hours, there was no reason to be close to her.
At the starting line we did our best to get away from DENALI. Stu Bannatyne did a masterful job of winning the start and closed out DENALI at the signal boat, forcing her to go around and start again. Watch below:
The World Sailing Show
Friday
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The World Sailing Show delivers 30-minute episodes which feature news, profiles, and racing highlights from across the world of sailing.
Episode 4 has Ben Ainslie’s return to British waters, 11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award, and VI Foundation action with Switzerland SailGP team.
For the full archive of past episodes, click here.
VIDEO: Going, going, gone
Friday
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The 129-foot My Saga sank on August 20 nine nautical miles off Calabria, Italy. A tug attempted to tow it to shore but worsening weather and further listing of the yacht led to its demise. All onboard – four passengers and five crew – were rescued…
Snipe Worlds at Cascais overall
Friday
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 26
2022
Posted by XS Editor
After a 47 year drought, the Spanish duo of Alfredo Gonzalez and Cristian Sanchez sailed a great last race of the Championship to return the Snipe World trophy to Spain…
The Future’s Electric Motor
Thursday
Aug 25
2022
Posted by deleteme
Aug 25
2022
Posted by deleteme
As electric cars become mainstream it’s only natural for sailors and boatbuilders to eye solutions that work the same way on the water. To date, only 2 percent of boats worldwide are powered by electric or hybrid propulsion, but e-mobility is expected to grow by 50 percent over the next two decades, which will likely result in electric-powered boats in the charter market as well.
Today there are multiple players in electrification. Germany’s Torqeedo launched its small electric outboard technology in 2005 and then expanded into high-voltage systems for inboard use. The company’s Deep Blue 25kW and 100kW inboard motor applications have also been combined with saildrives in various power and sailboats. At this year’s Miami boat show, Torqeedo launched a 50kW version, which is paired with a folding propeller and a regeneration feature that produces power when you sail at speeds as low as 6 knots.
Swedish engine manufacturer Volvo Penta is also experimenting with electric motors installed inline between their diesels and IPS pods. As part of this effort, they’ve been working with Fountaine Pajot production catamarans on driving a Lucia 40 sailing cat. Meanwhile, Dutch bow and stern-thruster manufacturer Vetus has developed inboard electric motors for small powerboats, and the Finnish company OceanVolt is now powering a number of J/Boats and Alerion daysailers…
Elida, the wooden sailing yacht, launched
Thursday
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Launched in Germany this August, Elida is a 15m offshore racer cruiser featuring a timber hull and carbon fibre deck, designed for the Baltic and Northern seas…
HIRW 2022 | Day 3 Big Boats Video
Thursday
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Day Three big boats before the lay day at the 2022 Hamilton Island Race Week…
All systems go for the 2022 Multihull Cup
Thursday
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The crews have gathered and the yachts are ready – it is all systems go for the 2022 Multihull Cup with three days of friendly and competitive racing set to start this Friday in the sparkling waters off Mallorca’s southwest coast…
2022 ILCA U21 Worlds at Villamora, Portugal day 2
Thursday
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
No races were completed on Wednesday at the 2022 ILCA U21 World Championships due to lack of wind. The race committee waited until 15:00 to send the sailors out, but once on the water, the wind picked up to about 7 knots and was too shifty…
Use Bart’s Bash to transform lives through sailing
Thursday
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 25
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The ASF aim is to transform young people’s lives through sailing. Each year, we enable 1000’s of young people to get out on the water and experience the joys and challenges of sailing. We can only do this with the support of amazing people – like you…
Going offshore for the adventure
Wednesday
Aug 24
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 24
2022
Posted by XS Editor
A characteristic of Southern California racing is a noon start because the seabreeze takes a while to generate the onshore flow. While this makes for a good sleep after the Saturday night party, overnight racing can be a lottery.
The 49th Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race knows this reality all too well, and in this report by Zafar Khan, he shares the triumphs and torture from the 2022 edition onboard his 29-footer:
“We’re in that pesky 1-knot cyclone!” I hollered as we rounded the first rocks of Anacapa Island to port with our big “pink squid” spinnaker full of 18-knot wind — which suddenly transformed into a 1-knot wind swirl…
Jimmy Spithill: The future is really bright
Wednesday
Aug 24
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 24
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Before the fourth event of the 2022-23 SailGP Season, league CEO Russell Coutts questioned changes to the US Team’s program which had thus far performed far worse than the previous season. Skipper Jimmy Spithill shares an update after finishing fifth among the eight teams competing in Denmark on August 19-20:
The second day of racing at the Rockwool Denmark Sail Grand Prix in Copenhagen was one of my favorite days since joining SailGP.
It was one of those days where it all just comes together – great conditions, a perfect venue, heaps of action and thousands of fans on shore making noise…
VIDEO: THIS is a REAL Land Yacht!
Wednesday
Aug 24
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 24
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Designed by Pippa Garner, this 1968 Buick LeSabre and 1970 Datsun combination takes the term Land Yacht to a whole new level. Called ‘Long Time No Sea’, it is in the exhibition ‘Land Yachts: Cruising the Interstate Highways’ at the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, RI…
Extreme approach will not revive sailing
Tuesday
Aug 23
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 23
2022
Posted by XS Editor
At Scuttlebutt HQ, we consistently cringe at the claim that ‘foiling is the future’ as we know the expense, complexity, and skill required is not how to sustain a sport. Australian Chris Thompson dives further into the topic:
We cannot keep on hoping that a hyper-performance elite approach will revive sailing.
That has been the party line of World Sailing since they started squeezing popular types out of the Olympics in favor of tiny niche types like foiling cats; the approach taken up by the America’s Cup since it went from monohulls and into classes that create far smaller fleets; and the approach taken by much of the industry and sailing media over the past 25 years.
During that time, there has been enormous promotion of high-performance sailing as the future of the sport. High speed sailing is great (I’ve done it for many years) but excessive promotion of the inaccessible and expensive side of the sport clearly is NOT working.
It’s time to check the numbers that prove that “extreme” sailing is not popular (look at the tiny number of extreme boats racing or selling) and return to promoting the types that can actually become popular enough to sustain the sport…
Survival begins before the accident
Tuesday
Aug 23
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 23
2022
Posted by XS Editor
For his 44 years as a military pilot and Commercial airline Captain, Craig Warner has had the benefit of the most intense safety training available. He is also a 40-year-long racer (who was on the winning J/105 SEALARK – owned by Clark Pellet – in the 2022 Chicago Mackinac Race) and has always tried to bring his safety background knowledge and commitment to sailing. In this report, Warner shares a compelling case for prevention:
On the Chicago to Waukegan Race back in 1992, a good friend of mine, a fellow Soling sailor, crewed on one of the boats in the race. She had been racing for some 20 years, and she loved the sport. To quote her, “I can count on two hands the times I wore a life jacket. This year’s beat to Waukegan was not one of them.”
The skipper ordered life jackets, and she handed them to the crew while she was down below navigating. When she came on deck, she forgot to wear hers. At some point during the race, she went overboard.
When she hit the water, she began to find it increasingly difficult to breathe due to inhaling water. Her clothing quickly became saturated and impaired her swimming ability. As she struggled, she saw another boat pass by with crew members pointing at her. When they left without rendering aid, she felt despair. The survival clock started ticking, and for all practical purposes, it was fait accompli…
Gul Fireball Worlds at Lough Derg day 2
Tuesday
Aug 23
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 23
2022
Posted by XS Editor
After the loss of two races on Sunday due to insufficient wind, IRO Con Murphy advised the fleet at the GUL Fireball Worlds that three races would be on the agenda for Monday with an earlier start time of 11:00…
Dragon Gold Cup Day 2 – Bailey and Bluebottle retain lead
Tuesday
Aug 23
2022
Posted by deleteme
Aug 23
2022
Posted by deleteme
Dragon Gold Cup 2022 – Gery Trentesaux of France sailing with Christian Ponthieu, Jean Queveau and Morgan Riou was the winner of race 2…
Global Solo Challenge welcomes 52nd entry
Monday
Aug 22
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 22
2022
Posted by XS Editor
At 37 years of age, he is in his prime physical condition to take on this challenge, which he hopes to be a stepping stone for his ultimate dream: participating in a Vendée Globe…
Globe40 Race Leg 2 Finish
Monday
Aug 22
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 22
2022
Posted by XS Editor
After 35 days 10 hours 42 minutes and 42 seconds of racing, Craig Horsfield and Oliver Bond aboard Amhas took line honours in Mauritius in this the second and longest leg of the GLOBE40 round the world race…
18ft Skiffs: The 1980s, a decade of innovations
Sunday
Aug 21
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 21
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The 1970s is regarded as the ‘golden era’ of 18 footer racing with large fleet and champion competitors competing each week on Sydney Harbour, strong fleets in New Zealand and Queensland and emerging fleets in Western Australia, UK and the USA…
Character building day for Canada SailGP Team
Sunday
Aug 21
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 21
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The grandstands sold out and fans filled the shoreline to watch the Rockwool Denmark Sail Grand Prix in Copenhagen on Saturday…
Australian Yachting Championships Day One
Sunday
Aug 21
2022
Posted by XS Editor
Aug 21
2022
Posted by XS Editor
The Australian Sailing’s 2022 Australian Yachting Championships (AYC) began in fine style at Hamilton Island Race Week today, brilliant sunshine and ideal winds set the scene for the Rating and the Multihull Racing divisions…
Fireball Worlds – Breeze-On for Pre-Worlds event
Sunday
Aug 21
2022
Posted by deleteme
Aug 21
2022
Posted by deleteme
The 2022 Fireball Pre-Worlds and Irish Nationals was a win for Isaac Marsh and Oliver Davenport…
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