Update
Today she’s in safer hands but Dennis Conner’s Stars&Stripes’ USA-55, the last 12 Metre to win the America’s Cup, was rescued only in the nick of time after being wrecked during a Caribbean hurricane and abandoned in St Maarten. A truly ‘ballsy’ design, USA-55 was totally targeted at the heavy-air conditions expected for the 1987 Match – barely scraping through the earlier light-air rounds. Indeed the following year at a light 12 Metre Worlds in Sardinia this America’s Cup powerhouse finished dead last. Today she is back ashore at New England Boatworks in Portsmouth, Rhode Island with a fundraising effort underway to restore her to full sailing glory
set of photos and videos every day that their assigned team sails. Views from astern, from bow on, from windward and from leeward show how sails are trimmed, foils are canted, masts are rotated. Teams must declare in advance any new or modified components and the recon teams attempt to photograph them when the yachts are being launched and hauled out. Display screens and the controls in the cockpits are usually out
of sight, unless the yacht capsizes, in which case the recon photographer is there frantically clicking away. There is a shared document through which each team makes requests to the respective Recon Units on what they want to see more of. Every team can see every request so there is no hiding what you are interested in if you want to find out more about it. Teams are required to notify the Recon Administrator two months
ahead of rolling out their AC75 in any venue where they will sail her. In all likelihood this means we will first see the Kiwis’ new AC75 in Auckland and all the challengers’ yachts for the first time in Barcelona. The Joint Reconnaissance Programme will give us a good look at the new yachts and how the teams sail them. The programme ends on Saturday 22 June 2024, two months before the beginning of the final Preliminary Regatta. We must wait until this third and last Preliminary Regatta,
beginning on Friday 23 August, to see the AC75s race. Thank good- ness we have the Joint Reconnaissance Programme to entertain us until then.
CupExperience.com
RETOUR A LA BASE – QUICKLY! – Patrice Carpentier Barely six months after the launch of his new Imoca Paprec Arkéa, and a few weeks after his second place in the TJV with Yann Eliès, Yoann Richomme won the first edition of the solo Transat Retour à la Base after just nine days at sea. It was the first time that Richomme has ever navigated his first new Imoca on his own. The race is sailed between Fort de France (Martinique), where the
TJV arrived shortly before, and Lorient, the City of Sails in Europe and probably in the world considering the huge number of racing boats locally. The man who has twice won the Route du Rhum in Class40 (2018,
2022) and the Solitaire du Figaro (2016, 2019) completed the course at an average speed of 20kt over the distance actually navigated
16 SEAHORSE
aboard his red and blue Imoca, designed by a group made of Finot/Conq-Antoine Koch and Gsea Design. After a long tack heading north, the sails sheeted in hard, and
in conditions that were sometimes frantic, the solo sailors took advantage of their first low, at approximately the latitude of Bermuda, to turn to the right and to run at full speed towards the door of the Azores, then on to Cap Finisterre before crossing the Bay of Biscay and arriving in Lorient. From the outset Jérémie Beyou occupied the forefront of the fleet
aboard Charal – which is very fast upwind – until encountering electronics problems depriving him of the use of his autopilot in wind mode. He soon gave way, as Yoann Richomme was sailing around the fleet to the north in stronger winds. Yoann is a brilliant strategist who focuses on the weather with a great intensity all the time he is awake (and some of his rivals say sometimes also when he is sleeping!). ‘My victory was essentially based on this tactical shift, heading
to the north early on,’ explained Yoann at the finish. ‘We have a boat that is designed to go faster in strong breeze and heavier seas than the others.’ Listening to the skipper, this Retour à la Base was a great drill for the Vendée Globe next year. ‘I’ve never been to the South Seas but if it looks like what we just saw I’m ready to go! ‘The design of this boat is exceptional, it is above what has been
done elsewhere. We are able to push it harder and then enjoy the greater speed. We know that she is made for running in heavy weather and heavy seas.’ In the middle of the Atlantic the ocean turned into a speed track.
The speed records went up and up and it was Thomas Ruyant who finally took the trophy with a 540nm run in 24 hours accomplished on his For People, almost identical to Richomme’s boat. This is another historic Imoca performance, erasing Alex Thomson’s record run of 536.81nm accomplished in 2017. But in the race itself TJV winner Ruyant’s luck deserted him. The day after his record run his mainsail was torn in two following an involuntary gybe, forcing him to continue his race on headsails only. Another skipper who fought for a podium place early on but then
fell away was Sébastien Simon. Aboard Dubreuil Group (the former 11th Hour), he first had to stop in the Azores with no electricity and then was dismasted 10nm from the race finish (Simon did finish but under jury rig). In challenging conditions the skippers were all reminded that it
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