Yachts & Yachting magazine April 2020

Last September I joined the crew of the Royal Western Yacht Club at the British Keelboat League finals. The league’s brand of short-course fleet racing involves multiple starts per day, each race no more than 15 minutes, on one-design boats that a bunch of dinghy sailor friends could handle. It’s relatively affordable and there is no long-term commitment. There is no racing sailor on earth who wouldn’t enjoy this. It’s some of the most exhilarating racing I’ve done. For the young dinghy sailor, it is a chance to represent your club, perhaps under the guidance of a more experienced member, and get a taste of bigger boats. The organisation of the league is effectively ‘owned’ by the participating clubs – the more clubs that get involved, the better. It is a…

Small boats and their crews can participate in Round the Island Race festivities this year, with a new race announced by the Island Sailing Club. The Windeler Cup for small keelboats – including Daring, Dragon, Etchells, Flying Fifteen, Mermaid, Redwing, Swallow, Sonar, Squib, RS Elite and XOD classes – will not circumnavigate the Isle of Wight, instead racing on a course around the Western Solent. The fleet will start from the Royal Yacht Squadron line off Cowes on Saturday 30 May, 30 minutes after the last start for the Round the Island Race itself. The race will be routed to take advantage of favourable tides and return to the RYS line to finish. The new Windeler Cup is named after Major Cyril Windeler, who created the Round the Island Race in 1931. It…

John Gimson and Anna Burnet are 2020 Nacra 17 World Champions, following an extraordinary medal race victory that left Gimson “speechless”. They were competing in Geelong, Australia, in February, after being given the sole Nacra 17 place in Team GB for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which will take place in July and August. Gimon and Burnet started the medal race 16 points behind the event leaders, brother and sister Nathan and Haylee Outteridge, but streaked to a victory that scored double points. Their Australian rivals then crossed the line in seventh, giving the Brits a one-point win. The 49ers were also in action in Geelong, with Britain’s Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey taking silver in the 49erFX class. See page 50 for our interview with John Gimson.…

The America’s Cup Defender and Challenger of Record have agreed an acceptable wind range of 6.5 to 23 knots for the match races in the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland next March. The upper limit exceeds the 21-knot maximum set for the round robin stages of the competition in January and February 2021, the Prada Cup series. The agreement was carried out under the auspices of the America’s Cup mediation panel after Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa disputed the conditions that would be acceptable for racing. It has been reported that ETNZ wanted a higher limit of 24 knots to suit Auckland’s often blustery conditions, while Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli wanted a starting limit of 20 knots for the round robins and 22 knots for the America’s Cup races.…

America’s Cup teams will convene in Portsmouth on 4-7 June for the second round of the America’s Cup World Series, the one and only chance to see the spectacular new foiling AC75s race head-to-head in British waters before the America’s Cup itself in Auckland next year. Sir Ben Ainslie’s INEOS TEAM UK will be looking for home advantage as Britannia takes on America’s Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand, along with fellow challengers Luna Rossa and American Magic. We’ll already have some idea of the relative performance of the four different AC75 yachts, as the ACWS first round is set for Sardinia from 23 to 26 April. The Portsmouth ACWS race village will be open daily from 10.30-18.00, and you can buy day, weekend or four-day passes for general admission,…

$1.9m The biggest-ever donation pledged to UKSA, from the TK Foundation –›it will be used to expand facilities at Cowes 31 days, 23hrs, 36m, 46s –›a new record for the Clipper Tea route from Hong Kong to London set by Francis Joyon aboard maxi-tri IDEC SPORT 70+ teams and circa 700 sailors signed up for the RORC Caribbean 600 start on 24 February 12 boats have been put forward for a Paris 2024 Olympics Two Person Keelboat equipment assessment – the list includes the Figaro 3, J/99, L30, Sunfast 3300 and Dehler 30 OD, tested on page 60…