Yachting World January 2023

Online www.yachtingworld.com YouTube Yachting World Facebook @yachtingworld twitter @yachtingworldmagazine For anyone feeling a bit jaded – and frankly, you’d be forgiven if you were right now – I think I’ve found the perfect tonic, and that’s to head out to a rally departure. Even if you’re staying firmly onshore on send-off day, it’s impossible to spend time with people on the eve of the biggest adventure of their lives and not experience a bit of a lift. This sort of vicarious excitement is apparently called mudita – a Buddhist word. The opposite of schadenfreude, if you like. On my recent trip out to Las Palmas for the 2022 ARC start I met sailors who’d experienced all kinds of hurdles on their route to the rally – lightning strikes, being stranded…

This image shows the power of the Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed Rambler 88 battering through strong wind and waves during Les Voiles de St Barth in April 2022. Photographer Bertrand Duquenne recalls that the conditions also put a camera into retirement, but not before it captured this shot, shortlisted for the prestigious Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award 2022 And the winner is… a black and white image could fool you into thinking at first glance these other-worldly sails are from a bygone era of sailing. Look again and you’ll see it’s fleet racing during the Rolex TP52 World Championship at Cascais, Portugal, in June 2022. The photo by Nico Martinez was strikingly different enough to win the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award 2022. See the 20 images shortlisted for the prize along…

Jangada wins RORC Yacht of the Year Richard Palmer’s JPK 1010 Jangada, which was raced double-handed with two co-skippers during the season, Jeremy Waitt and Yachting World regular boat tester and writer Rupert Holmes, has been named RORC Yacht of the Year 2022. Jangada won the RORC Season’s Points Championship in a season that included an overall win under IRC in the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race. Finnish solo skipper Tapio Lehtinen was rescued by fellow Golden Globe Race competitor Kirsten Neuschäfer after Lehtinen’s boat sank “in minutes” and he spent over 24 hours adrift in the southern Indian Ocean. Lehtinen and Neuschäfer were both racing in the ‘retro’ single-handed non-stop around the world Golden Globe Race, in 2nd and 3rd place respectively before the incident. On the morning…

Najad returns to Orust Traditional cruising yacht manufacturer Najad Yachts of Sweden is returning to its roots in Henån on the island of Orust after the purchase of the maintenance yard Orust Yacht Service AB. It will also offer a full service and maintenance scheme. Najad’s recently announced 450CC Next Generation (left) will be the first model built in Henån. An ‘attack’ by a pod of orcas has caused a cruising yacht to sink, the second this year. The incident marks a further escalation in dangerous interactions between sailing yachts and the cetaceans in the seas around Portugal and Spain. Incidents of orcas damaging yachts have been on the rise since 2020, with 230 interactions being reported in the last two years off the Spanish and Portuguese Atlantic coast. It…

boot Düsseldorf sustainability focus Boot Düsseldorf, Europe’s largest boat show, has launched a new stage focussing on sustainability and the future of boatbuilding. The Blue Innovation Dock (BID) aims to bring together investors, inventors and policy makers to focus on green technology innovations, changing industry standards and the economic impact of sailing. After a two-year hiatus, boot Düsseldorf returns from 21-29 January 2023. The 37th ARC rally set sail on Sunday 20 November in lively conditions including a 1.5m swell and 18-20 knot north-easterlies, making for a white sail reaching start for the 143-boat fleet. Over 800 crew are taking part in this year’s transatlantic rally, on board a diverse fleet of monohulls, multihulls and one motorboat, with established tradewinds forecast for a classic crossing on the 2,700-mile sail to…

Former Discovery Group boss fined over £1m Sean Langdon, ex-director of the Discovery Group, has been ordered to pay £1.12m after losing a court appeal. Andrew and Maria France were awarded over £1m in compensation and costs in 2019 when they sued the Southampton-based boatbuilders over the poor condition of their Discovery 58. Mr Langdon challenged the High Court decision but was unsuccessful, and has been ordered to pay out after Discovery Yacht Sales Ltd and Discovery Yachts Group Ltd went into liquidation. A report into the death of a sailor during the Newport Bermuda Race last year, has reopened the debate of whether wearing a lifejacket is a matter of personal choice. In the conclusion to its report into the death of Colin Golder, who died when he went…