Contents January 2024 FEATURES
4 Romping JEAN-MARIE LIOT
32 Promoting participation Announcing an Admiral’s Cup event is one thing, getting boats to come is another. ROB WEILAND
36 The best just got better As of late 2023 the Bieker VM B1 Moth was still the fastest thing out there. But that’s no reason not to make it even faster. PAUL BIEKER
Boat-busting Actually it wasn’t… This TJV was a big challenge for organisers as well as for the racers, when the scheduled start coincided with the arrival of three deep lows coming in from the USA (one of which set an all-time record for a low pressure recorded in northern France and the UK). After the race team had finally threaded their way through and got the three delayed classes away, the fleet battled through a rough Biscay, typical of the time of year, before settling in for a tactically challenging race with big splits among gaggles of Class40s and Imocas (there were few splits in the Ocean Fifty fleet as only three boats were still racing at the start of week two). In stark contrast with their unballasted cousins, after some issues on the sprint to Le Havre (for the Class40s) and then the Biscay crossing, the 2023 TJV saw the lowest rate of retirements ever in a major Transat. Only seven of the 44 Class40s failed to finish, while the comparable figure for the Imocas was just six retirements from 40 starters. Today’s boats are better built and prepared and crews have learnt the hard way when to back off. But there is a cost to this much improved reliability, and not just in better-engineered boats. In the once partly amateur Class40 big shore crews are now common as sponsors trade down from the eye-watering Imocas… just the inevitable price of success. Harder to control and even harder to criticise when 44 Class40s line up for the longest Transat course of all. It’ll all work itself out. In la belle France it somehow always does!
COVER
Jean-Marie Liot INSET Gilles Martin-Raget
42 Dropping little white
plastic balls After spending more than a few months chasing shadows CAROL CRONIN eventually managed to pin down mid-west king PETER HARKEN for her latest two-part profile
48 The finest vintage of all – Part II DAN HOUSTONrevisits the ‘first’ Voiles de St Tropez before savouring the latest 2023 edition
REGULARS
6 Commodore’s letter JAMES NEVILLE
9 Editorial ANDREW HURST
12 Update Whirlwind tour, an unmatched contribution, global pursuit racing, foils, foils and more foils! JACK GRIFFIN, TERRY HUTCHINSON, PETER MORTON, HAROLD CUDMORE, PATRICE CARPENTIER, KEITH WALKER
20 World news ‘Internationals’ are coming, stupid-fast Mini, a complex TJV, a great non-Olympian, keeping kids involved, rapid but sad Coastal Classic, changes in Spain and hotting up for Transpac. NICK CRAIG, IVOR WILKINS, CARLOS PICH, MAGNUS WHEATLEY, BLUE ROBINSON, PATRICE CARPENTIER, DOBBS DAVIS, DIEGO BOTIN, GREG STEWART AND MIKE SANDERSON
30 Paul Cayard – Holiday Edition Lots to look forward to, lots to be grateful for
33 IMA – All good up top And the Maxis are thriving. ANDREW MCIRVINE
34 ORC – Submissions! ANDY CLAUGHTON has certainly been keeping busy in 2023
54 TechStreet
59 Seahorsebuild table – Seen leaving Are you all ready for this? JOE LACEY
68 RORC – Better swim for it JEREMY WILTON
72 Seahorse Regatta calendar 106 1974 and (more) keelbolt troubles
103 Sailor of the Month Youth vs experience, or is it the other way round?
Well, it’s called the SSL Gold Cup. In late November crews from 23 nations travelled to Gran Canaria for the final rounds of the SSL Gold Cup, run in identical 47-footers which were specially built for the Gold Cup programme. Teams from a total of 56 nations entered the early rounds, but the ‘Best Sailing Nation’ will be decided in a Grand Final with just the final four taking part. Series founder, Star sailor Michel Niklaus surely deserves his own World Sailing award for such an extraordinary commitment to sailing?
GILLES MORELLE
MATIAS CAPIZZANO
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