Yachting World March 2022

It’s easy to forget how quickly things move on. This issue Tom Cunliffe introduces an extract from an account of a young man who put to sea in a Cal 30, sailing the Pacific in 1976 (see page 57). It spoke to Tom because he sailed away at the same time and recalls the same sense of being out of touch with the world. “Nobody sailing with all the benefits available in the modern world should forget,” Cunliffe writes, “that, just one lifetime ago, things were very different indeed.” This issue we review no fewer than 24 yachts, with our report from the European Yacht of the Year. There are five categories, which this year does not include a separate multihull award. Monohulls and multihulls are judged side by side…

The 2022 RORC Transatlantic Race turned into a nail-biting contest between one of the largest racing yachts on the water, the 100ft Comanche, and a 48ft Oyster Lightwave, built in 1987. The eighth running of the RORC Transatlantic Race saw the race come of age, attracting its strongest ever fleet, with a diverse and highly competitive line up that ranged from MOD70 trimarans to a double-handed team on the 32ft JPK 10.10 Jangada. Thirty teams, with crew from 27 nations, set off from Lanzarote to Grenada, on Saturday, 8 January. First into Port Louis in Grenada was the Italian Multi 70 Maserati, skippered by Giovanni Soldini, which finished on 15 January to take multihull line honours. The modified foil-asssited MOD70 overhauled the more conventionally set up Powerplay, which led for…

In a surprising twist, the New York Yacht Club has announced that it intends to take part in the next America’s Cup, represented once again by American Magic. This is something of a U-turn: in June 2021 the New York YC announced that it would return for the 37th America’s Cup, but would be represented by the Stars & Stripes team (a rival American challenge which failed to get off the ground for AC36). Then in October, the club announced that it was ‘pausing our pursuit of the 37th America’s Cup’ and would not compete. New York YC was represented by American Magic in the 36th America’s Cup in New Zealand. Their AC75 Patriot was widely tipped to be among the fastest until a devastating crash landing caused severe damage…

The crews of 25 Oyster yachts set off from Antigua on 9 January on the first leg of the Oyster World Rally, a 16-month fully supported circumnavigation. The 27,000-mile adventure comprises 25 stops around the world and is the third edition for the British brand. The first leg sails to Panama City, where the fleet will regroup in early February to transit the canal. There are five new yachts competing, including three of Oyster’s latest 565s and one 595. Meanwhile 44 yachts set off from Gran Canaria on the first ever ARC January. The new rally is designed to give owners the option of a post-Christmas start and a later crossing. Like the November ARC, it finishes in St Lucia, though there is no racing division. The January ARC was…

Pioneering catamaran designer and Polynesian marine archaeologist James Wharram has died at the age of 93. From a young age Wharram was obsessed with Polynesian culture and sailing, spending hours in the library and wandering museums in search of information on the classic double hulled ships of the Pacific. He was 16 when he bought the book that would remain an inspiration for the rest of his life, Eric de Bisschop’s The Voyage of the Kaimiloa. The book details de Bisschop’s voyage across the Atlantic in a catamaran in 1937, but the crossing had gone unnoticed by the mainstream sailing historians. Many still insisted that Polynesian double-hulls were not capable of long sea voyages. Wharram took this as a challenge and set out to reenact his hero’s adventure and prove…

A change to World Sailing’s Offshore Special Regulations (OSR) means that as of 1 January 2022, all yachts competing in OSR Category 0 through to Category 3 must have been inspected by a qualified person within 24 months of the start of the race or after a grounding, whichever is later. The new requirements, aimed at focussing attention on keel safety, have been brought in after several high profile incidents of keel and rudder losses that have affected both new and old yachts, cruising and racing designs. The structural inspection instructions from World Sailing specify for the work to be conducted by a qualified person with the boat out of the water, and include checks for visible stress cracks around the keel, hull/keel attachment, hull appendages and other stress points,…