Sailing Today September 2021

ARGUABLY THERE HAS RARELY BEEN a better time to dream of buying a boat. Rarely have the words 'freedom' and 'escape' played so regularly on the lips of so many people and there are few better means of dreaming about escape than by imagining untying the lines and heading out into the wild blue yonder at the helm of a yacht. Well, the good news is that this edition has that dream at its heart; featuring a list of the finest new boats on the market for you to browse through. I am continually staggered at just how many new yachts are built every year. I recall some years back when working as a freelancer being commissioned to write the Boat News section of Sailing Today and being breezily asked…

America’s Cup winner Jimmy Spithill admitted he packed his drysuit for the Plymouth round of SailGP, but the skies were blue and the temperatures were high as he and his seven rival skippers in the global championship took to the Sound for what turned out to be an epic weekend of racing. There was a race win for the Great Britain SailGP team and plenty for the thousands of fans ashore and afloat to enjoy. We report in brief overleaf and we’ll have a full round-up of the Plymouth event in our next issue.…

SailGP Plymouth was a spectacular success as the world’s best sailors put on a show to remember for thousands of fans watching from the Hoe and more than 1,200 boats along the course. The Great Britain SailGP team struggled on day 1 but came back on on the Sunday to give the cheering home fans a win, stand-in helm Paul Goodison leaving the team second overall on the leaderboard after his two events replacing Ben Ainslie, who has taken time away after his wife Georgie gave birth to a son, Fox. The event, over 17 and 18 July, was run under strict Covid safety restrictions, with the spectator boats and other viewing areas sold only to half capacity to allow social distancing. Nonetheless the atmosphere around the Sound was electric as…

The 90th anniversary Round the Island Race was celebrated by a fleet of over 1,200 participants and won by local Cowes boat Eeyore, an Alacrity 18 bilge-keeler, which retains the Gold Roman Bowl after her 2019 victory. The Island Sailing Club event, which was founded in 1931, enjoyed conditions ranging from flat calm to 25-knot gusts, fog and sun. Eeyore owner and skipper Jo Richards (pictured right with crew, the trophy presented by Pip Hare) said: “We had a shocking first leg down to the Needles and luckily there was a bit of a lull under the cliffs, when we got back into our class and from then on it was really tight. “When we got to Bembridge Ledge, having got the rating list out, we knew we had to finish a minute…

Cowes Week races will be live-streamed from cameras on board, with the footage viewable on shoreside screens and via a new Cowes Week app and website. The initiative is being run through the regatta’s technology partner aql and the 1851 Trust charity, with co-funding from the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to create a connected 5G network at Cowes. There will be 360° high-definition cameras, beaming pictures back to shore from around 50 boats, an idea that the organisers say “could become almost ubiquitous across the fleet in the future”. The 5G network allows on-board data such as wind conditions and boat speed to be sent back to shore, further enhancing the spectator experience. Laurence Mead, regatta director, said: “We’ve also changed the format of the regatta this year –…

The first ever single-handed race around the world in the giant Ultim multihulls will take place in 2023 and a number of big names have already signed up including Vendée Globe winner Actual skipper Yves Le Blevec (Actual pictured during this year’s Round the Island Race), Banque Populaire skipper Armel Le Cléac’h, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild skipper Charles Caudrelier and Sodebo skipper Thomas Coville. The boats are capable of sustained speeds of more than 30 knots. Organiser OC Sport Pen Duick said “the coming together of these 32-metre giants promises an extraordinary sporting feat that will be shared around the globe”.…