Yacht Racing World Newsletter – Issue 40
69F Sailing – Barcelona to host 2022 Youth Foiling Gold Cup Grand Final
Barcelona will be the venue of the 2022 Youth Foiling Gold Cup Grand Final from November 3rd to the 6th, and it will welcome the event for the next three years, in cooperation with Marina Vela Barcelona and Club Nàutic Villasar de Mar.
The Youth Foiling Gold Cup, is one of the 69F circuits, the one reserved to the Under 25 sailors. Every year it ends with a Grand Final, to which the best two teams of each event are invited. With four Acts in 2022, the teams attending the Grand Final will be eight, and we are only left to know the last two to join after the upcoming mid-August event in Torbole, lake Garda.
The Grand Final will be a four-day of fierce competition on the same waters that will host the 37th America’s Cup in 2024, and after all, isn’t the Persico 69F just a shorter version of the AC75? A foiling team monohull, one design, full carbon and 6,90 meter long, this is the Persico 69F.
A boat that combines high-performance sailing in total safety and for everybody, from the very young and reckless sailors to the first time-foiler owner driver, its stability and easiness to use is a pleasant surprise to the public. Team 69F designed two different circuits for the different audience to which the boat is intended to, and the Youth Foiling Gold Cup has special conditions.
It is open to under 25 sailors only and teams who don’t own a Persico 69F can charter one with the Pay-Per-Play solution, with a really affordable budget. It’s been a great success since the start, with events both in Europe and USA constantly fully booked and an ever-growing competition level on the water.
The YFGC Grand Final will take place from November 3rd to the 6th, and the prestigious partners of 69F for the most important event of the year are Marina Vela and Club Nàutic Villasar de Mar.
Copa del Rey MAPFRE – Winners decided on spectacular final day in Palma
Marcus Brennecke’s ClubSwan 50 Hatari clinched the ClubSwan 50 class title on the final race at the 40th Copa del Rey MAPFRE but the German flagged crew endured some unnecessarily nervous moments after the nearest rivals Stefan Heidenreich’s OneGroup seemingly came back from the dead after being over the start line early.
From being a long way ahead of OneGroup, Hatari found themselves needing to cover their opponents to close out the prestigious title which last year eluded them on the final day by one single point at Mallorca’s summer showcase regatta.
“I am relieved, happy but relieved. We did not make it easy on ourselves and ended up having to keep a cover on them so it is good to win.” Smiled Marcus Wieser, German flagged Hatari’s tactician.
“We had to play it safe in the end which is a bit mad when we were third at the top mark and he was second to last, but we had to match them in the end. It was a good week, we have won three of the four events now this season, Scarlino, Sardinia and here but sadly not the Worlds and fourth at the worlds.
“I think last year we won the preliminary series last season and so this time we started defensively and caught up. It is a bit like match racing when you win the round robin and then lose the semi final.”
Brennecke said “Winning the Copa del Rey is great I am proud of the team and my son on board and I am very happy, it was close until the end in this great one design class.”
Hatari won by five points ahead of OneGroup which has Germany’s Jochen Schümann calling tactics whilst NiRaMo, of Sonke Meier-Sawatzki which had Cameron Appleton as tactician took third.
In the ClubSwan 36 fleet Giangiacomi Serena’s G Spot retained the title they won last year but this time they came from behind on the last day to overhaul Lorenzo Mondo’s Farstar which led the event from Day 2. A second with Farstar fifth was enough to give G Spot the overall win by a single point.
SailGP – New Zealand victory proves good results take time says Spithill
New Zealand’s long-awaited victory in Plymouth shows that good results take time, U.S. driver Jimmy Spithill has said.
Writing for Red Bull, Spithill recognised that last weekend’s Great Britain Sail Grand Prix offered the American team an opportunity to ‘redeem ourselves after such a frustrating’ home event in Chicago.
The team finished with a 9-6-7-6-5 fleet racing record in a performance described by Spithill as ‘a step in the right direction in terms of racing’.
“We made some solid progress - I thought our boat speed was a big improvement from past events,” he said.
However, he admitted the team is still ‘making errors in key parts of the racing’ with a ‘lack of consistency’ and ‘failed manoeuvres’.
Despite this, Spithill remained upbeat and highlighted the long-awaited success of the New Zealand team as evidence that points and podium finishes take time. Plymouth marked the first time the Kiwi team has booked a place in a SailGP Final.
Cowes Week 2022 – The Best Bits
Sail -World – America’s Cup: Multiple changes made to AC37 Protocol on dates, surrogates, chase boats
Several changes have been made to the Protocol and other documents governing the conduct of the 2024 America's Cup – writes Richard Gladwell.
Some of the changes relate to the announcement of Barcelona as the Host Venue, others close loopholes that could have been exploited, and there is a substantial section on Hydrogen-Powered Support vessels.
Changes to the calendar for staging the America's Cup and other supporting regattas were expected. The two-month racing period initially set down for May - June 2024 is now expanded to three months and is now pushed back to August - October 2024.
The reasons for the change are to avoid a clash with the Paris 2024 Olympics - held from late July to mid-August and to get into more temperate weather and a reliable breeze.
Within those three months, two America's Cup Preliminary Regattas will be sailed between the Challenger/Defender teams sailing in AC40s - the one design, approximately half size AC75 America's Cup Class, sailed by four crew.
A third preliminary regatta will be contested between the Challenger/Defender teams using the AC75s to be sailed in the 2024 America's Cup.
The Preliminary regattas are each anticipated to be spread over ten days, including two weekends. The publication of dates is required to take place a year before the first race of the America's Cup.
Maritime Executive – French sailor survives overnight in upturned Class 40 after losing keel in Atlantic
Against all odds, a French sailor in his 60s survived inside of a capsized sailing yacht off the coast of Galicia, Spain overnight Monday, breathing from an air pocket until Spanish rescue divers reached him the following afternoon.
At about 2000 hours on Monday, the Class40 sailing yacht Jeanne Solo Sailor capsized at a position about 14 miles northwest of the Sisargas Islands, west of A Coruña.
The sole occupant, 62-year-old French national Laurent Camprubi, told Spanish outlet Efe that the vessel went over in just 15 seconds. He managed to activate his EPIRB, but he was trapped inside the vessel with "30-40 centimeters of air" to breathe in heavy seas.
A rescue helicopter located the upturned yacht's hull that night and vectored in a response boat carrying divers from Salvamento Maritimo. A diver made contact with Camprubi by knocking on the hull, but the seas were too rough to allow for a rescue. They decided to wait for morning and an improvement in the weather, and they affixed float bags to the hull to keep it from sinking.
Cup Insider – America’s Cup Defender and Challenger first to pick Barcelona team base locations
America’s Cup holders Emirates Team New Zealand and Challenger of Record Ineos Britannia have chosen their respective team base locations in Barcelona, Spain – the host city for AC37 which will take place in the autumn of 2024.
The team bases for all the competing teams will be located within the Port Vell area of the city close to the site of the America’s Cup village where tens of thousands of spectators are expected during the multi-week event.
Emirates Team New Zealand has selected the World Trade Centre site at the western end of the official America’s Cup race village.
Commenting on the team’s choice chief operating officer Kevin Shoebridge said:
“It’s very nice to have first option, but to be perfectly honest any of the base sites would have worked perfectly for us. The Port Authority have been first-class in helping us get to this point in such a tight timescale and their commitment to the America’s Cup is unparalleled.”
