Yachting World January 2022

Online www.yachtingworld.com YouTube Yachting World Facebook @yachtingworld twitter @yachtingworldmagazine Ocean crossing departures can be emotional moments. For some crews there is trepidation about what lies ahead, for others emotive farewells with those left behind. For the sailors who set off on the ARC last month that emotion will have been heightened by sharing the experience with near-900 others. Being part of a fleet creates a sense of occasion that’s hard to replicate cruising alone. This year there was another layer of emotion for crews who had postponed their dreams – perhaps decades in the making – due to the pandemic. Sailing through the start line will have felt like a very distant prospect at times, and the moment it happens made all the more special for it. Bonds are formed…

Outteridge signs for NZ Nathan Outteridge is the first major signing by America’s Cup defenders Emirates Team New Zealand. The Australian Olympic gold medallist, Sail GP Japan skipper, and former Artemis Racing America’s Cup helmsman lives in Auckland but was unsigned for the last Cup. DAME award winners The annual marine product innovation prize, the DAME Awards (Design Awards METS), was awarded to the Volvo Penta Assisted Docking System in recognition of a product designed to bring new people into boating. See page 68 for our pick of other equipment which won at the 30th DAME Awards. Forty-boat limit for Vendée The Vendée Globe solo round the world race is to limit its fleet size to 40 IMOCAs for the next edition, starting in November 2024, which would make it…

The long-awaited Protocol for the 37th America’s Cup was unveiled in November by the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and the Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia for the Royal Yacht Squadron. The Protocol confirmed some key details regarding the classes of boats to be used, crew eligibility, and preliminary regattas. It also contained some surprises such as antispying legislation, and eco initiatives. Yet some fundamental details – namely where, and when the 37th Cup will be held – are still missing. Those decisions now have to be confirmed by 31 March, 2022. Central to the Protocol is an ambition to reduce barriers to entry, with rules apparently designed to reduce costs (albeit still requiring very large sums of money). The AC75 from the…

The publication of the 37th America’s Cup Protocol delivered an eagerly awaited blueprint for the next event. From the next generation of AC75s to the new AC40 one-design class, the overall mission was clear – to take the last Cup and tweak it to make it better, more accessible and more appealing to stakeholders and spectators alike. This is a bold Protocol in that it seeks to go further than just the next Cup, something that few, if any, have made stick before. By entering the 37th Cup, a team undertakes that if it is successful in winning it will continue with the AC75 class for any Challenger series and the 38th America’s Cup. That fundamentally changes one of the cornerstones of the America’s Cup in that the winner doesn’t…

The 42nd Rolex Middle Sea Race, the 600-mile offshore that starts and finishes in Malta, proved ferocious both on and off the water. Big wind conditions saw course records fall, with the MOD70 trimaran Argo taking multihull line honours and setting a new overall course record of just over 33 hours. Three giant maxi yachts were in contention for monohull line honours, with the 100ft Comanche taking the win ahead of the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios and smaller Rambler 88. Neal McDonald, former Volvo Ocean Race skipper and part of the crew on Skorpios, commented: “The chances of going downwind across the top [of Sicily] and then downwind across the bottom again is zero.” Mitch Booth, skipper of Comanche, agreed: “It’ll be a tough one [to beat]. I don’t think we…

The next edition of The Ocean Race will feature the longest Southern Ocean leg in the event’s 50-year history, a 12,750-mile marathon between Cape Town, South Africa to Itajaí, Brazil. The course change removes the New Zealand and China stopovers, replacing them instead with one non-stop monster leg. Richard Brisius, Ocean Race chairman, says the route has prompted crews from the original 1973/74 Whitbread Race to get in touch. “[They’re] saying that it will be an outstanding experience. The amount of time the crew will spend in the Southern Ocean, 30 or 40 days, is what they spent in the first race – because the boats were much slower then. “Of course, it will be testing and trying, but it’s also going to be a wonderful sporting and team experience.”…