Contents April 2020 FEATURES
4 A question of balance ROBERT DEAVES
32 Things that go bump Some (important) people have yet to be convinced about the merits of carbon rigs… ROB WEILAND
Where did it all go wrong, George? … as the waiter said on entering genius footballer George Best’s hotel room to find him sprawled on the bed with Miss World, drinking champagne and with a big stack of notes on the dresser. Sailing too used to be a more stylish affair. But it still only takes a touch of magic to get sailing into the public eye and it doesn’t always need to be a billionaire papped on their yacht with the wrong arm candy. It’s 1968 and screen idol Alain ‘women are all obsessed with me’ Delon and girlfriend Brigitte Bardot join good friend Eric Tabarly on Pen Duick II in St Tropez, the ketch on which Tabarly won the 1964 solo Ostar race, taking 13 days off the time of 1964 race winner Francis Chichester. After that times would come down more slowly and it would be the 2000 edition before Francis Joyon finally got the crossing time just 39 minutes under the 10-day mark on his Orma tri Eure et Loir. The Ostar as was is no longer a premier event though its replacement is a respectable Corinthian contest – another case of Les Froggies nicking a great ocean race invented by Les Rosbifs. Tabarly’s epic performance would, of course, come eight years later in the 1976 race as he somehow manhandled his unwieldy, tiller-steered 73ft Whitbread ketch Pen Duick VI solo across a very rough North Atlantic without a working autopilot. The man responsible for today’s French sailing success –who never wore a harness at sea – was lost overboard in 1998. Efforts to save him were hindered by the fact that he also did not believe in radios, so none was fitted to his 100 year-old cutter Pen Duick I
COVER: Jean Pierre Bonnotte/Rapho/Getty INSET: Gilles Martin-Raget
38 Dynasty JULIAN EVERITT looks at the far-reaching influence that three generations of the FRERS family have had on yacht design
44 Proven concept next stage
LEONARDO FERRAGAMO explains to MATT SHEAHAN the thinking behind Nautor’s Swan’s bold leap into the future
48 Time to take stock When someone else has a go at adding a different keel to your own well-proven yacht design… then it falls off, well, that is not helpful. JASON KER
52 Phenomenal phenomenal TOM WHIDDEN is the sailor who was closest to DENNIS CONNER through that extraordinary America’s Cup career. He talks to his Magic Carpet3
shipmate BLUE ROBINSON about the pain of Newport and getting it right in Fremantle
61 You’ve got it (so use it) RICHIE WILSON has done extraordinary things during his two Vendée Globe campaigns. BRIAN HANCOCK suggest others should follow his lead
65 Surprise ‘Honey, I bought a wreck’ – DETLEF JENS
REGULARS
6 Commodore’s letter STEVEN ANDERSON
9 Editorial ANDREW HURST
12 Update Going bonkers with DON MCINTYRE, lifting smoothly with TERRY HUTCHINSON, nailing (more of) it down with JACK GRIFFIN, clearing it up with ANDY CLAUGHTON, remembering our friend PAOLO MASSARINI and the audience wades in on stinky ribs and low-hanging fruit
20 World news Strong in the Atlantic (and la Manche), refining the water ballast, an IRC get-together, ghosting in Mahurangi, upping the pace for Newport and preparing for the worst. PATRICE CARPENTIER, DOBBS DAVIS, CHRIS SALTHOUSE, JEAN-PIERRE KELBERT, IVOR WILKINS, BLUE ROBINSON, JEAN-PHILIPPE CAU,
GERY TRENTESAUX, DANIEL ANDRIEU
30 Rod Davis – Hold the line Make the plan, don’t be phased, focus on the war
34 ORC – One for us Building a boat for Newport but more important we’re building a boat for us. MARTIN BILLOCH
37 TP52 – Windy start And opening the TP52 Super Series in Cape Town has changed the game… ANDI ROBERTSON
68 RORC news – Time to get moving EDDIE WARDEN-OWEN
69 TechStreet 70 – Technology 78 – Design 80 – Environment 82 – Events
75 Seahorsebuild table
– Now there’s a thought But why did it take so long... MATTEO POLLI 86 Seahorse regatta calendar
111 Sailor of the Month We’re glad it’s not us who has to choose
Designed, built and owned by Germán Frers Snr, Fjord III is loaded onto a ship in Buenos Aires to carry her to New York for the start of the 1952 Bermuda Race. However, Evita Peron saw those graceful lines as too tempting a billboard and decreed that the yacht carry her political slogan to America along its topsides. When German Frers Snr refused, the yacht’s export licence was revoked and Fjord was immediately and inelegantly dumped back on the dock. This piece of yachting art did, however, win class two years later
FRERS ARCHIVE/PPL
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