Yachting World December 2020

Online www.yachtingworld.com YouTube Yachting World Facebook @yachtingworld twitter @yachtingworldmagazine As we went to press, President Macron announced that France would be in a reconfinement, a new lockdown across the country. The Vendée Globe village, having already restricted numbers on site, bolted its gates. Organisers were quick to assert that the race would start on November 8 as scheduled, and I hope by the time you are reading this that it will have gone ahead smoothly. It will be a strange Vendée Globe without its famous departure, which usually sees skippers head out through a cacophony of thousands of well-wishers cheering their names. But the crowds that normally stand shivering in the November rain are not just there for the spectacle. They are there to give every boat a rousing send-off,…

Les Voiles de St Tropez hosted one of the only international regattas of 2020 in late September and early October, when 150 yachts and 2,000 sailors gathered for two weeks of mixed conditions off the famous backdrop of the boutique fishing village. Although this is only half the normal fleet, and crew sizes were down to a minimum, at least the 22nd edition of Les Voiles went ahead. And with the 20 Maxis and two schooners separated from the rest of the fleet, the race committee could use a start line off the harbour’s Tour du Portalet, which helped ensure some stunning pictures. Here the bowman of the 51-footer Marga contends with a tricky headsail change. Marga was designed to the 10m Rule in Sweden in 1910 by CO Liljegre,…

Offshore doubles A new Offshore Doubles Sailing Association was launched in October and saw over 1,000 people sign up in its first two weeks. This non-profit association aims to ensure the Olympic Offshore Mixed Doubles class keeps its place for Paris 2024. Visit www.offshoredoubles.org Swan’s 360° experience Nautor’s Swan held its first ‘Swan Experience’ in Tuscany in October, which included the Swan One Design Worlds regatta. The yard’s complete current range was exhibited at Nautor’s Marina di Scarlino alongside the regatta – described by vice-president Enrico Chieffi as “the full 360° Experience”. First foiling electric powerboat series The world’s first electric powerboat championship, the UIM E1 World Electric Powerboat Series, has been launched featuring futuristic foiling boats. The ‘RaceBirds’ will be driven by single pilots and are capable of speeds…

Maintaining the tradition that the America’s Cup is as much about the machinations off the water as the racing on it, Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand and Challenger of Record Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team have been embroiled in an angry exchange over race areas. Following a request by Luna Rossa, an arbitration panel has ruled that two of the most shore-side race areas should be removed from the race schedule. Luna Rossa lodged an objection after discovering that the B and C course areas couldn’t be used for the round robins and semifinals of the Challengers selection series, even though they were designated as the preferred courses for the final match. This, they believed, was in breach of Rule 3.1 of the America’s Cup Protocol, which specifies that all…

While boat shows around the world have been cancelled this summer and autumn, boot Düsseldorf is still on track to go ahead in January with 90% of its usual exhibitors. The world’s largest indoor marine show, and the single biggest gathering of boats, takes place in over 17 huge halls and the sheer scale of this custom-built exhibition centre has been its saviour. The show will run from 23-31 January 2021 and has bookings from 756 exhibitors, including 112 new exhibitors. The case for a safe running of the show was demonstrated in September when the Düsseldorf centre successfully ran a large caravan show attracting 107,000 visitors, and boot Düsseldorf project director Petros Michelidakis has been working hard on a formula that can go ahead as near normally as possible.…

A 15-year-old schoolboy became the youngest person to sail solo round Britain in October. Tim Long, from Aylesbury, sailed back into the Solent on his Impala 28 Alchemy, two-and-a-half months and 1,600 miles after leaving Hamble. “The idea first came to me two years ago and I was thinking of things that would be an adventure and would push my limits and make me a better sailor,” Long told us. He originally planned the voyage in a Hunter 19 but found it too small and worried that an outboard engine could be unreliable. So he sold the boat and, with the help of mum and dad, bought the larger Impala. “It allowed me to do it more efficiently and a bit quicker; half a knot quicker makes a big difference,”…