Yachts & Yachting magazine December 2021

WINTER CAN SEEM LIKE a sort of extended lockdown some years but, given what we have endured recently, it's perhaps worthwhile breaking out of that mentality and grabbing whatever opportunity that comes to get out on the water over the winter months - even if your fingers are a bit numb. To this end we provide a rough guide to going cruising over the winter on p22 and a look forward to some winter racing on p86. It must be said that there are moments when you have to question your sanity when venturing out in sub zero conditions, but the rewards are also great. It's a subject close to my heart because, what seems many centuries ago now, I signed up to do a number of yacht deliveries across…

The RYA Dinghy Show is expanding to feature paddleboards, kayaks and other watersports at its 2022 event, on top of the vast range of dinghies and dinghy kit already on show. The show will now be known as the RYA Dinghy and Watersports Show presented by Suzuki, for its first edition at Farnborough International conference centre, Hampshire, over the weekend of 26-27 February. The move is in-line with sailing clubs often now having a fleet of SUPs and other watersports kit, to attract new members from the wider community and to keep existing members active on non-sailing days. The trend has proved popular and successful for many clubs. RYA Director of Sport Development Rob Clark said: “For many of us, our time afloat has been extra valuable over the past two years so…

We are delighted to announce BoatLife Live as a sponsor of our British Yachting Awards. BoatLife Live is the new pre-season boat show launching at Birmingham NEC in February 2022. The event will take place 17-20 February, occupying three halls and over 20,000sqm, with sailboats up to 45ft ranging from wooden craft, to dinghies and yachts, as well as RIBS, inland craft and watersports, plus equipment and holiday companies. There will be live talks, demonstrations, bars and restaurants. BoatLife Live sponsors our Young Sailor of the Year category. BoatLife Director Richard Dove said: “We are grateful for the opportunity to sponsor The Young Sailor of the Year award. Supporting the boating community is important to the BoatLife team and seeing the talent of the future generations is inspiring.” The category features round Britian sailors…

Just eight months after completing her first Vendée Globe, Pip Hare was in central London with the boat she aims to sail in the race’s next edition, in 2024, naming it Medallia. The technology company has backed Hare since coming in as her partner in May 2020. And Medallia’s CEO Leslie Stretch was in London, having flown from his home in San Francisco to help Hare sail the boat up the Thames and to pour the champagne over the bow in front of a phallanx of photographers, a far cry from just a year previously when Hare’s name was unknown to the national press and little known in ocean racing. Hare’s new boat was built as Banque Populaire VIII for Armel Le Cléac’h, who won the 2016-17 Vendée Globe in it. The Verdier-VPLP…

Joff Brown, of Lighthouse Yacht Services, is the campaign’s technical director, having worked on previous IMOCA and Vendée Globe campaigns with Dee Caffari and others. Comparing this new boat and the previous guise of Medallia, he said: “We’re definitely in chalk and cheese territory. The last boat was launched in 1999. Top end speed [on this new one] will be quicker and then it’s just consistency, so you get consistent highs, 20s that you can maintain for a long time. You just couldn’t do that on the old boat. The old boat you could get a wave but then you’d fall off it. This one will just keep going in steady 20 knots foililng. “The foils are retractable, which is probably one of the reasons why this boat did well in the…

SailGP made good on its promise to introduce female athletes into the series, as double Olympic champion Hannah Mills joined Ben Ainslie and the Great Britain SailGP Team onboard the British F50, at the Cadiz event in early October. And it was an action-packed first event for Mills, who arrived fresh from her historic win at Tokyo 2020. Great Britain were doing well until a dramatic, high speed capsize on the final day put paid to their chances of an event win. Mills’ arrival meant the Great Britain team now boasts the most successful ever male and female Olympic sailors on board. She said: “I’ve been incredibly excited to be racing this weekend, it’s a really great step forward for the female athletes to be in the thick of it, witnessing it all,…