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EUROPE
Stan Honey is a world famous champion in boats of every size. But that is a tiny sliver of the part he has played in global sport
USA & CARIBBEAN
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Charlie Dalin... (it really is written down) was our tip for this Vendée… Clever, fast, good engineer, Figaro star. Especially that last bit
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Juan Kouyoumdjian drew the other two Imocas we were fascinated by (and wary of). But they too will have their day in the sun
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TECHNICAL BRIEFINGS
ACCOUNTS AND CIRCULATION
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Dirk Kramers… The first America’s Cup was with Courageous in 1977 since when he has been a part of five more winning teams...
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Clarisse Cremer led the VG social media war even before it began (although Pip Hare caught her at the end!!). She sailed well too…
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New Zealand Finn sailor Bret de Thier’s first of three Olympic regattas was when he travelled to Tokyo 1964 as reserve. An architect by training he continues to design yacht interiors as well as race yacht graphics for clients including Grant Dalton, the late Sir Peter Blake and Michael Ilbruck. Back in 1964 the imagination (above) of this world-class sailor was clearly already in full flow; upwind this looks like a cracking solution to fine-trimming your Finn main… although a riding turn might prove a major distraction in anything of a breeze?
With all respect to the Vendée skippers, the America’s Cup
teams in Auckland captured most of my attention in an appar- ently endless January. For a while Ineos Team UK delivered inspiring results, but of course the capsize of American Magic was the pivotal event. Incidents like this are rarely the result of one catastrophic failure, thus this drama was due to a number of factors. I was fascinated by the crew dynamics and noted Paul Goodison, in the best position to judge the situation, at first suggesting, ‘It’s a smarter move bearaway gybe,’ before hinting the more urgent, ‘It’s going to be a hardmanoeuvre’. All this occurred in the last few hundred metres of the leg,
travelling at 40kt, so Goodison was unable to influ- ence the decision with a catastrophic outcome for the whole four-year programme. We were all truly thankful there were no casualties and the clean-up and rebuild showed the fine cama- raderie in our sport. Back at RORC we were delighted to report
record entries for this year’s Rolex Fastnet. Our focus moves to our first offshore, the Cervantes Trophy, starting on 1 May (pandemic allowing!).
James Neville Commodore
q
Commodore’s letter T
he first few months of the year are always tough for yachties – sailing tans are a distant memory and any hope of getting back on the water is still months away. In a normal year we have the consolation of competing in, or at least following, the Caribbean 600 but alas this is not a normal year. Instead we
could only watch and raise a (metaphorical) rum punch to the lucky few who completed the Transatlantic Race. Congratula- tions to winner Palanad 3, owned by Olivier Magre, finishing six hours behind the much larger Green Dragon, which took monohull line honours. Virus restrictions having diverted the finish to Antigua instead of Grenada, we could only imagine the traditional warm English Harbour welcome as we shivered at home! Thank you to supporters in Lanzarote and Antigua without whose efforts the race would not have run at all. The Vendée Globe finish was incredibly tight. Line honours
winner Charlie Dalin endured a tense few hours as a number of boats behind him had earned time allowances after helping in the search for Kevin Escoffier. In the end eventual winner Yannick Bestaven finished with a two-hour advantage after 80 days of racing. Jean Le Cam finished fourth but his dramatic rescue of Kevin Escoffier from a liferaft in ferocious seas and 50kt winds was surely the standout performance of the race.
BRET DE THIER
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