Contents September 2019 FEATURES
4 Olympians MATIAS CAPIZZANO
32 Still captivating… What makes a successful class? ROB WEILAND
34 Interesting times HUGH WELBOURN looks on as rating systems try to keep pace during some fast-moving times
Winter is hell The Southern Wind 78-footer Whisper lies neatly along the edge of the shallow water in the Caribbean in February… at about the same time that many of us in Europe were coming out of the office into the damp gloom of early evening. Good on them. Given how recently the twin hurricanes Irma and Maria had laid waste to the region it is massively praiseworthy how fast the islands’ residents – with generous outside support of feet on the ground as well as money –managed to pull things together in time to run many of their annual regattas in spring 2018 – ensuring a boost to local economies that was now more essential than ever. The sailing community did well in 2018, ‘turning up’ in spite of often rudimentary facilities, and also back home in North America where emergency fundraisers became a new feature at boatshows. For winter 2019-2020 things will be more or less back to normal at the major venues, though, if you look closer, evidence of the events of September 2017 is still all around. With the rebuilding of essential infrastructure well advanced much missed sailing centres like the Bitter End (and adjacent Yacht Club Costa Smeralda) are also turning their efforts to rebuilding operations. But there remains one elephant in the room… the thousands of tons of wrecked grp boats, many having been pushed well out of sight while the more urgent work is completed. A few months’ loan to the islands of a suitable chartered shallow draft freighter with a big crane and a powerful crusher might be a fine gesture coming from an environmentally conscious superyacht racer – a perfect thankyou for the good times spent on the same waters?
COVER: Carlo Borlenghi INSET: Gilles Martin-Raget
36 Nothing new CHARLES LAWRENCE goes back to where what we call ‘composite boatbuilding’ really all started
40 Unstoppable force BRIAN HANCOCK has accepted the inevitable as the last great solo race departs from British shores
45 Days, weeks, months… JO RICHARDS spent a while winning the 2019 Round the Island UK classic but – as per usual – getting to the startline was more than half the fun
48 Airborne (and accessible) The demise of the long-running Extreme Sailing Series is doing the expanding GC32 Racing Tour no harm at all. CHRISTIAN SCHERRER
50 Time to revisit As the big-catamaran offerings proliferate, are out-of-date preconceptions holding back similar growth with three hulls? MARC LOMBARD
55 Under the sun… With another America’s Cup class reset have we nailed down the history books or might we be missing more useful clues? DAVE HOLLOM
59What’s not to like? Do your Caribbean planning Seahorse-style
REGULARS
6 Commodore’s letter STEVEN ANDERSON
9 Editorial ANDREW HURST
12 Update Why is there still one critical danger to the sport that people refuse to talk about? New Cup class means big sail burn, reflections on a year spent Solitaire and good, bad or irrelevant… another thin cycle for America’s Cup teams. PETER HEPPEL, JACK GRIFFIN, TERRY HUTCHINSON, WILL HARRIS
18World news La Grande Route… one of several new temptations seemingly on offer, metal fatigue never sleeps, fattening up (a little) for Tokyo 2020 and Block Island deals a
blow to the naysayers. WILL RYAN, CARLOS
PICH, IVOR WILKINS, BLUE ROBINSON, PATRICE CARPENTIER, DOBBS DAVIS
30 Paul Cayard –Multi-tasking Is there no limit to the man’s ambitions
62 RORC news – Fast and slow EDDIE WARDEN-OWEN
63 TechStreet
77Seahorsebuild table – Top man top result Multiple Volvo Race winner STU BANNATYNE gets stuck into another big DSS project
80Seahorse regatta calendar
105 Sailor of the Month Peerless champion or enthusiast par excellence?
Keep up at the back. Netherlands entry New Nexus won the Solar Open Class at the Yacht Club de Monaco’s 2019 Solar Energy Challenge – this year’s contest also added a 20nm non-stop coastal stage. Thirty-four teams from 14 countries took part in the sixth edition of a steadily growing – and increasingly important – event. Top speed went to Italian entry Anvera Elab at 46.9mph – an eye-catching 51 per cent year-on-year increase. The first entry is already in for 2020… from China (we did say keep up)
CARLO BORLENGHI/YCM
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