Yachts & Yachting magazine January 2020

It is not a great time to be Plymouth. Two years ago the port lost out on hosting the start of the Golden Globe Race, which instead went to Les Sables d’Olonne. Then the new TRANSAT organisers moved their start from Plymouth to Brest. And as I write, RORC has just announced that the Rolex Fastnet Race will finish not in Plymouth, as it has since the days of EG Martin and Jolie Brise, but in Cherbourg. The Cotentin harbour apparently comes with the hefty financial backing of the French authorities, something no port in the UK could even consider in 2020. Cherbourg also offers far greater berthing space in the centre of the town and will create more of a festival ashore. It’s a major change that will benefit…

Sir Ben Ainslie and members of INEOS Team UK will join the Great Britain SailGP boat in 2020. The unexpected development sets up a mouth-watering head-to-head between Ainslie and some of his greatest rivals including Australian helm Tom Slingsby and Team Japan helm Nathan Outteridge, against whom he competed in the last America’s Cup. Ainslie’s arrival is a coup for SailGP, which was launched last year by Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts. The series, with events in Sydney, San Franciso, New York, Cowes and Marseilles, and possibly one more to be announced for 2020, is raced in F50 foiling cats, developed from the boats that raced for the 35th America’s Cup. The winning team takes home $1 million. But the news will have been a blow for Dylan Fletcher, who helmed the…

The Ocean Globe Race has announced a class for ‘classics’, to enable some of the iconic Whitbread maxis to go round again. The Ocean Globe Race will take place for the first time in 2023, on the 50th anniversary of the first Whitbread Race. It is being organised by Don McIntyre, whose ‘retro’ Golden Globe Race for solo circumnavigators was successful in 2018/19. McIntyre says the new class will create another eight places in the race, open to former Whitbread maxis over 71ft and W60 racing yachts from 1985 to 1997. Crews will compete over a longer course (than the standard ‘retro’ class) for the Big Red Trophy, named after Sir Peter Blake’s Steinlager II, the only yacht ever to win all legs – line honours and on handicap. Meanwhile the race’s ‘retro’…

Alex Thomson and co-skipper Neal McDonald were forced to sail 800nm to the Cape Verde Islands without a keel, after crashing into a submerged obstacle on the race debut of the new £6m IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss. The two were racing in the 4,350 mile double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre (full feature p32) and escaped with cuts and bruises when the collision brought the yacht to a sudden stop. The incident left them with no choice but to detach the damaged 4.5m long keel. It was cut free after several hours of work with a grinder, and the pair set sail for the Cape Verde islands 800nm away, undertaking a nerve-wracking voyage that relied on the yacht’s foils for stability. Thomson said: “It was a pretty scary experience for both of us and…

The International Finn Association (IFA) delegation to the World Sailing conference in Bermuda has returned empty-handed after eight submissions to reinstate the Finn in the slate for the 2024 Olympic Games were rejected by both World Sailing committees and its Council. “What the Finn delegation did take from away the conference was that there is hope for a return, even if not at the current juncture,” said an IFA statement. “The overwhelming response from other delegates was that the Finn was an essential element of the Olympic Games and many hoped that it would return.” The IFA has now pledged to try to find opportunities for Finn sailors to compete at the 2024 Games in Marseilles.…

“There was a lot of pressure coming, which we anticipated, but it hit us at the bottom of a very big wave. The bow went in and in and continued to go in... The stern of the boat came out so far that the rudder was completely outside of the water. The bowsprit broke and eventually it fell over on its side with the mast in the water. I got spat out along with Ed [Baird, tactician] and Jose Maria [Lara]. It was a bit worrying, because I went into the turbulent wash, and it took ages for me to come up and I was swallowing water. I am so happy to be alive! This has never happened before on an RC44 I’m told...” Peninsula Petroleum owner John Bassadone on ‘going…