The 2022 Star Masters Zagarino Cup was hosted by Coral Reef Yacht Club on February 5-6 in Miami, FL. Twenty-five teams, with Europeans and South Americans among the fleet, were only able to complete one race in the extremely light winds on Biscayne Bay. John MacCausland and Arnis Baltins got the gun, also claiming the Master division win. Other division winners included Exalted Grand Master Jack Rickard and AJ Brown, Great Grand Master John Dane and Tim Ray, and Grand Master Scott Barnard with Payson Infelise. – Details
J/70 Midwinter Championship at Tampa Bay overall
Fernando Perez Ontiveros’ Black Mamba topped 62 other boats to claim the title of 2022 J/70 Midwinter Champion…
100th Australian 18 Footers Championship – Day 3
Andoo of Seve Jarvin, Matt Stenta and Sam Newton extend their lead to six points after races 4 and 5 of the Australian 18 footer Championship on Sydney Harbour…
2022 J/70 Midwinter Championship
Tampa, FL (February 6, 2022) – Fernando Perez Ontiveros’ Black Mamba topped 62 other boats to claim the title of 2022 J/70 Midwinter Champion. The team from Mexico, including Gonçalo Almeida, Bernardo Freitas, and River Paquin, won without needing today’s lone race. They finished with 38 net points, four better than Brian Keane’s Savasana. Richard Witzel’s Rowdy placed third with 46 net points. – Full report
Billionaires do what they want to do
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wanted a sailboat, and when you’re one of the wealthiest person in the world, that means it will the largest sailing yacht in the world. But he isn’t making any friends in the process according to this report that’s sizzling the internet:
Construction is underway for Jeff Bezos’ latest billionaire toy, a sail-assisted megayacht that comes with a reported price tag of $500 million, not including the cost of a matching shadow vessel that is, by all intents and purposes, another megayacht.
The problem is that the ship in question, for the time being referred to as Y721 or Project 721, is under construction at Oceanco, at Alblasserdam, near Rotterdam (see video). Once launched, it will have to reach the sea by passing through Rotterdam which means it would have to clear the Koningshaven Bridge, affectionately known to locals as De Hef.
De Hef is not just any bridge, but a historic monument and a local landmark that stands for rebirth. After it was damaged during WWII by the Nazi in 1940, it was one of the first structures in Rotterdam to be rebuilt once the war was over…
100th Australian 18 Footers Championship races 2&3
Gusty 18-23 knots South-South-Easterly winds produced spectacular, action-packed 18ft Skiff racing for the large spectator fleet on day two of the 100th Australian 18 footer Championship on Sydney Harbour today…
Gilbert and McGrane Tame the Tiger
Overnight leaders Roger Gilbert and Ben McGrane sailing a 505 took overall victory at the John Merricks Tiger Trophy with four points from a 2, 1, 1 score line…
America’s Cup: First look at hydrogen chase boat
Construction of the boat started in August 2021 at the team’s North Shore build facility, the appendage construction is in its final stages and the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powertrain installation is underway at the team’s base in Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour…
Olympics for UK in 2040?
According to the newly published Levelling Up White Paper, Britain could launch another bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games…
Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Awards
Five men and four women have been shortlisted for US Sailing’s 2021 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards…
100th Australian 18 Footers Championship – Day 1
The 100th Australian 18 Footers Championship kicked off on Sydney Harbour on Saturday 5 February…
VIDEO: The best life on the hard
This video by Sean R. Heavey opens as iceboaters glide across Wisconsin’s Lake Monona with Madison’s skyline in the background, and then picks up the tempo at the 2022 DN US Nationals on Lake Senachwine in Putnam, Illinois.
PHOTO: The good ole days
Carl Sarnoff shares this image from the “good ole days” when IOR designs, such as the S&S 45 Vago, proved hard to control in the high winds of the 1980 Big Boat Series in San Francisco, CA…
big boat energy
Energy Observer is a multi-partner project that gathers companies involved in all sectors of the eco-energy transition. Among the Odyssey’s new supporters: Qair, an independent producer of renewable energy, and GUYOT Environnement, a regional leader in waste recovery in Brittany.
That is the strength of this technological, innovative, and human project: cooperating with players who act on all the vectors of the ecological and energy transition, with a wide range of skills, which include hydrogen, green financing, climate risk insurance, hospitality, training for the professions of tomorrow, sustainable mobility, software intelligence, the circular economy, renewable energies, etc…
Giles Scott explains the 37th America’s Cup Protocol changes
The 37th America’s Cup Protocol revealed that the AC75 will continue for a second generation with an emphasis on evolution rather than revolution. Here Giles Scott highlights the major changes . . .
A Bridge too Far for Jeff Bezos?
The city of Rotterdam has agreed to remove a section of historic bridge in the Netherlands to make way for a superyacht, reportedly built for Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos…
44Cup announces 2022 season
For its 15th season, the 44Cup will see ten teams on the start line for the first event of 2022 in Lanzarote, (Canary Islands) over February 9-13. Alongside the long-term regulars within the fleet, the new additions have come about thanks to the 44Cup’s own boat, which was made available last year for teams interested in joining the circuit. Among the enthusiastic group of owners, who remain staunchly committed to the one-design yacht there are a few changes in tactician for the 2022 season that will see fresh challenges for the fleet on well-known race courses. – Full story
One down, the rest of the season to go!
69F buoyed by a successful participation in the first round of the Bacardi Winter Series the fleet now tools up to welcome the future of sailing in the Youth Foiling Gold Cup (Feb 4-10)…
100th Australian 18 Footers Championship preview
When the 23-boat fleet from NSW and Queensland lines up for Race 1 of the 100th Australian 18 footers Championship on Sydney Harbour next Saturday…
Six more weeks of winter
At the 136th gathering of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club on February 2, 2022, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow at the annual Groundhog Day event, predicting six more weeks of winter…
2.4 Meter CanAm Series 1 and 2 wrap up
The largest gathering of 2.4mR sailors just occurred in “sunny” Florida during the CanAm #1 and CanAm #2 Regattas. 18 boats were battling it out on the starting line with some new faces among the regular fleet members…
puttin’ on the ritz
A maritime investment company that is helping to launch a Ritz-Carlton brand cruise operation announced plans to expand through the purchase of niche cruise operator Sea Cloud Cruises. Douglas Prothero’s The Yacht Portfolio has entered into a letter of intent to acquire Sea Cloud Cruises of Hamburg, Germany suggesting that it could use the brand to expand its relationship with hotel and lodging giant Marriott International.
Sea Cloud is a unique niche operation in the cruise industry running one of the world’s most famous sailing vessels as well as two newer sail cruise ships. Started in 1979, the company markets cruises and charters of the 64-passenger sailing yacht the Sea Cloud. Launched in 1931 as the Hussar V, the three-masted barque was built in Kiel, Germany for U.S. heiress and businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather Post and her then-husband Wall Street tycoon E.H. Hutton…
Why not AC37, Bermuda?
When the 2021 America’s Cup defender plotted out the path for the next edition in 2024, Team New Zealand had a venue announcement pegged for September 17, 2021. However, the riches they hoped would come from host fees lagged, and when more time was needed, the deadline for the Match Venue and approximate event dates became March 31, 2022.
While their home waters of Auckland are an option, the team’s pursuit of greener pastures has them reviewing bids from Ireland, Spain, and Saudi Arabia. Recognizing an opportunity, factions within Bermuda are showing interest. In this opinion column for Bernews, One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) Senate Leader Ben Smith makes his pitch:
If you repeat a lie enough times some people will start to believe it’s the truth. The Progressive Labour Party (PLP) did a great job of repeating to everyone that the 2017 America’s Cup was bad for Bermuda. They continue to repeat this lie every time they feel the pressure or don’t want to answer probing questions…
setting the record straight
It has taken a while – in fact a whole month – for the Chairman of the Sydney-Hobart Race Committee to finally respond to the controversy following his protest against Celestial and the Committee’s grant of redress to Ichi Ban. Perhaps retired Rear Admiral Lee Goddard was hoping that the heat of this incident would cool with time.
Goddard today issued a statement to all offshore competitors via the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia titled “Monitoring VHF and Assistance”. The bulk of his release emphasizes the requirement for continuous monitoring of VHF16 and the specific rules and maritime safety regulations that apply…
How to become a sailmaker
The business of sailmaking has changed. Enter one of the big brands and you’d once be among the leading edge of people, production, and ideas. But as production moved offshore and paid crew increased, so did job opportunities at the sail loft. The rock stars aren’t all sailmakers anymore.
But even with this change, there is no better place to improve sailing skills than working at a sail loft. Aside from the typical employee benefits of health care and retirement savings, working with sails and sailors keeps the mind ticking and opportunities flowing.
In this report by Quantum Sails, Global Director of Customer Care Charles Saville provides an update on the job roles and the approach for employment:
Charles Saville explains that no matter the sailmaking position you aspire to, it is helpful to begin by gaining experience in sail repair and service, as it will give you a solid foundation to build on. Look for a position as a service technician or apprentice at a loft to get a sense for the lay of the land in a sailmaking facility.
While it could take up to a year for this initial training, traditional sailmaking continues to evolve with service technicians rapidly expanding their skillset to include outdoor, client facing engagement and selling.
From traditional sails to cruising, racing, and mega-yacht sails, sails are vast and varied, and it takes time and dedication for an aspiring sailmaker to learn all the intricacies and skills required. Anyone new to the profession should be prepared to spend time familiarizing themselves with the products both on and off the water.
If this sounds like a large investment of time and energy, that’s because it is. “Be aware that you’re not going to walk into a loft and become a sailmaker right out of the gate,” says Saville. “While you can pick up the basic concepts and skills within a few months, it takes years to master the profession, but if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded with a fulfilling lifelong career.”
Apprentices and service technicians will be exposed to many facets of sailmaking, from repairing existing sails to building new sails. As opposed to working in sail production facilities, service facilities offer the best opportunity for beginning sailmakers to work on the greatest variety of sails and build their foundational understanding of sailmaking more quickly…
Door closes for Jules Verne Trophy
Dona Bertarelli, Yann Guichard, and their team have ended their standby period for a fourth attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy around-the-world sailing record. The team has been ready to tackle the record since November 1, but there has not been a suitable weather window for the crew of the maxi trimaran Sails of Change (ex-Spindrift 2) to set sail with a realistic chance of beating the record.
With limitations within weather forecasting, it is key to maximize the team’s chances during the first section of the route for any hope to beat the around-the-world record under sail. The primary challenge is to make a very fast passage from the island of Ushant to the equator (within the record time of 4 days 19 hours and 57 minutes set by Spindrift 2 herself in 2019).
The crew would then need to make the southern tip of Africa in under 12 days, to be level with the previous record. With this in mind, since November 1, Guichard (skipper), Benjamin Schwartz (navigator) and Jean-Yves Bernot (onshore router) have been analyzing the weather in a bid to pinpoint the perfect configuration for linking these two sequences together…
All-star British team take podium place at J/70 Bacardi Winter Series
An incredible passage of play from Charles Thompson’s all-star British team on Brutus III (GBR 1123) who came together as a crew for the first time for their debut appearance in Miami…
new one design
Tired of paying grouchy a-holes $1,200 a day to yell at you on your J/70? Here’s your solution; an unmanned surface vessel! Sure they prolly cost around a million bucks each, and you’ll likely need a full-time engineer, but at least you don’t have to buy all those lunches…
2021 WMRT Final postponed (again)
The 2021 World Match Racing Tour Final, scheduled for March 15-20, has been postponed due to ongoing border closures and COVID-19 restrictions for the venue of Shenzhen, China. This is the second postponement for the Final which was initially to take place December 15-19 until health restrictions in China required the delay.
The current status became problematic when it was not possible to secure the necessary travel visas to China in time for the event, along with the current minimum 21-day quarantine period for all event participants on arrival in Shenzhen…
jellyfish bot?
Sailmon and Cyclops Combo
In previous articles we have spoken about the Sailmon Max and the Cyclops Marine smartlink Nano, but never the two together! We will be talking you through why they work so well together…
Very dark, Very cold, Very wet
In his January column for Seahorse magazine, Paul Cayard described San Francisco Bay as “a treacherous piece of water off the otherwise peaceful Pacific Ocean. On a summer afternoon, with the current going at 2kt out the gate and the 59° wind pushing in at 25kt, what you have is the Octagon of Sailing.”
Robert Boynton shares a memorable fight:
I had crossed the finish line of the Singlehanded Farallones Race, doused the spinnaker, and reflected on the accomplishment. I always have some elation at the end of a race, and opted to hove to and watch some competitors finish.
I don’t drink at all during the race but afterwards I do imbibe so as I sat there, decompressing after the race, I cracked a beer (my first mistake) and stripped off my foul weather gear (second mistake).
I finished my beer, and as there was a break in the finishers, it was time to head home as it was late and I was tired. I set the jib and took a northerly course back home to Richmond on what was now a light close reach. It looked to be a pleasant sail home, and as the first beer tasted great, I cracked open another one (third mistake).
However, while I was done with the Gulf of the Farallones, San Francisco Bay was not done with me.
The wind soon started to increase from an easy 5-7 knots to now 10-12 and clocking further north, my direction. This continued until I was now hard on the wind which had increased to 20-25 knots, with waves breaking over the bow. I was overpowered and needed to go forward and drop the jib…
18ft Skiff NSW Championship in Sydney overall
Tech2’s team of Jack Macartney, Charlie Wyatt and Lewis Brake became the 2021-22 NSW 18ft Skiff champion when they dominated the fleet to win today’s final race (Race 8) of the series on Sydney Harbour.
Calm before Bacardi storm
Miami, FL (January 28, 2022) – A slow start to the opening race of the day for all fleets at Bacardi Winter Series event 2 with light fluky breeze on Biscayne Bay.
Plenty of leader board shuffles saw teams jostle in the tricky and super shifty conditions, with three races for each of the J/70 and Melges 24 and six for the 69F fleets.
Racing continues tomorrow in what is forecast to be a rough and tumble breeze of around 21 knots with gusts up to 30 while the finale on January 30 expects to see the breeze ease up…
US Sailing releases safety equipment requirements
Each year the US Sailing Safety Equipment Requirements committee considers possible changes to the Requirements and proposes appropriate changes for final approval by the Safety at Sea Committee, the Offshore Committee & the US Sailing Board of Directors…
49th Mosquito Catamaran Australian Championships
It was a wakeup call for all those who hadn’t taken the chance to get some practice in the day before, getting off the beach was the first battle for many, with multiple sandbars causing breaking waves to occur close to the beach…
iQFOiL International Games – Podium for Finn Hawkins
Pilar La Madrid and Nicolas Goyard take home iQFOiL gold…
born this way
This resonated with us, we hope it does with you.
Five young people go on a sailing trip together — nothing unusual in that. What makes this adventure special is that all the participants have autism. It’s a shared experienced aimed at boosting self-esteem in everyday life.
This is a challenging step for all five. Everything is different here, no day like the last. The ship is cramped. Social contact is unavoidable. Luckily, co-skipper Corinna is an experienced support worker. It’s not long before the sparks begin to fly — but when all’s said and done, this is the high point of the year for them all…
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