It’s 2 a.m., and I’m not having much luck sleeping. The wailing of Argo’s T-foil rudders cuts right through my earplugs, and I’ve become a bit too ­familiar with how the underside of the deck feels as the boat falls off wave after wave. Suddenly, it’s quiet as the central hull lifts entirely out of the water. I know what’s next—a violent deceleration as the boat touches down and noses into the wave in front. I do a reflexive deep knee bend as the boat stops, and my body keeps going. Without a word, the off watch piles out and heads on deck. It’s clearly time for the second reef. It’s a battle scene on deck as off-axis waves merge and explode around us; the rain stings like needles. OK, Reef 2 in, staysail furled; let’s hope that this is the worst of it.

Attempting the Honolulu-to-Yokohama record was a neat solution to a logistics problem. After the 2023 Transpacific Yacht Race, with our next race half a world away in the Canary Islands, we decided that the path of least resistance was to keep following the trade winds west and catch a ship in Japan. Memories of the 10-day upwind trip back to California from Hawaii in 2019 reinforced this thinking. We could also focus the voyage around chasing one of Steve Fossett’s oldest speed records along this route, set on his ORMA 60, Lakota, in 1995.

This was our fourth attempt to break one of the World Sailing Speed Record Council’s records. Previously, we had a COVID-busting trip across the Atlantic to set a new Bermuda-to-Plymouth record in 2021, and a stormy but fast trip to set a new mark from Antigua to Newport in 2022. Our sailing master, Brian Thompson, joked that he was racing himself because he had skippered the MOD 70 Phaedo for both records. Thompson was also aboard Lakota when they beat the Honolulu-to-Yokohama record in 1995, though he would miss this trip with us. We also had one miss when we stood by for an attempt on the extremely fast Newport-to-Bermuda record in 2022, but the unicorn weather that would allow it (pre-frontal westerly, calm winds before) never came to pass.  

Once through the hoops of registering with the WSSRC, coordinating with starting and finishing commissioners, and wiring in the black-box tracker, we were ready to “stand by” for a good weather window for the 3,350-mile course. Frustratingly, once we assembled in Hawaii for our first attempt, one low after another formed in the South Pacific and spun into typhoons that menaced the Japanese coast. After waiting a week, we had to call time and regroup for another try a bit later, knowing that risk was increasing as we got further into typhoon season. After a few weeks, a good window presented itself, and we went to “code green,” with the team piling onto airplanes worldwide and heading to Hawaii. Argo regulars Westy Barlow, myself, and Pete Cumming were aboard, along with Paul Larsen (the world’s fastest person aboard Sailrocket), Paul Allen, and James Dodd. Most arrived on the day of departure; we would eventually cross the start line off Diamond Head just after dark, at 8:30 p.m. on August 20.

We stormed out of the barn, knocking 500 miles off the trip in the first 24 hours in strong easterly winds, which were great for morale. But the Pacific soon lived up to its name when we sailed up to a 1,600-nautical-­mile oblong area of high pressure parked directly on the rhumb line—time to head south, way south, to stay in the trades. The jibe fest began. Sailing on starboard brought us up to the light winds on the southern edge of the high, and jibing to the south brought us into more wind but yielded very little VMG. We jibed endlessly and on the slightest shifts, anxious to spend as little time sailing to the south as possible. The jibing and our southern routing would add more than 1,200 miles to the trip, which didn’t necessarily help with morale.

A Groundhog Day vibe overcame the boat as we bounced along the southern edge of the high for four days. Nothing changed. Air temp was 92 degrees F, with water temp at 87, a few high clouds, fierce sun, a 1-meter swell, and true-wind stuck on 15 knots. The distance to go seemed to tick down at a glacial pace. Days blended.

The chart plotter, usually alive with AIS targets and land, was blank; even depth contours were gone, with the bottom miles away. We had to pan way out to pick up even the smallest (­uninhabited) atoll. We didn’t see or pick up a ship on AIS until the last 100 miles; the Pacific was empty. Empty but pristine, with no trash and no debris, just miles of orderly swells going on ­seemingly forever. Wildlife was limited to flying fish and the frigate birds that wanted to eat them—both were ubiquitous the entire trip.

Though it was pretty outside the window, living conditions were harsh on board in the unrelenting heat. Down below was an oven during the day, easily exceeding 100 degrees F, making sleep impossible. We withered away with little appetite and pined for the nights, which were just cool enough to sleep and be comfortable on deck. The night sky’s clarity was incredible, with shooting stars and the pearl necklace of Starlink satellites occasionally lighting up, making the whole scene a moving work of art.

The idyllic conditions ended as we intersected with a robust low-pressure system toward the end of the trip. This was meant to be good news because it would boost the notoriously light winds near the Japanese coast, which had slowed Lakota dramatically in 1995. It became more of a mixed blessing as the low deepened and showed signs of rotation. Eventually, it would develop into Typhoon Damrey, with sustained winds of 75 knots and gusts to 95. Very warm water made for rapid ­development and intensification—and the rapid development of ­concern on board.  

The storm lay about 175 miles northwest of us, leaving its messy tail for us to cross behind. Our first move was to slow the boat to let the storm advance away from us. We then tried to cross its path by jibing to the west to get across the strong winds and sea state as quickly as possible. It was too windy and rough when we initially gave it a go, leading us to bail and sail in the more-benign conditions near the high for another 100 miles before trying again. The second attempt stuck, but we had a very unpleasant 24 hours of it, with winds far over forecast (which occurs frustratingly often in these scenarios) and up to 40 knots. The sea state was disorganized, with the storm waves on the beam and the ­prevailing swell coming from behind. We were still sailing downwind and trying hard to slow down. We kept in reasonable control most of the time. The sea state was our biggest issue: The storm waves and swell would merge and then break; at the bottom of many of these, the boat would almost completely disappear beneath us. A unique head space was required—a Bruce Lee “total concentration” mindset—to helm the boat in these conditions. An ­hourlong stint at the helm seemed like an eternity. The MODs are famously tough boats; ours passed this stern test with ­flying colors. The ­sailors had a more challenging time; the stress and physicality of the sailing drained relatively low energy reserves to near zero.

After one last line of squalls, we finally broke back into clear weather and started our long port jibe into the finish. Though we had cursed the sun through the beginning of the trip, it was most welcome to see it again and to begin drying out. Marine life increased, we saw ships, and our reentry into civilization began. One last challenge was negotiating the Kuroshiro Current, similar to the Gulf Stream. As we approached the coast, this and the shoaling water produced spectacularly sized waves around 6 meters high. These were benign because they were well-spaced, but being in the trough gave us one last sensation of the ­indifferent power of the ocean.

A smudge on the ­horizon soon revealed itself to be Mount Fuji, with the rest of the ­striking Japanese coast ­following. We had one last ­satisfying rip through Yokohama Bay and streaked by Jogashima Lighthouse, stopping the clock at 7 days, 18 hours, 25 minutes. After finishing, we gave a quiet chapeau to Steve Fossett, a ­pioneer in our sport who ­circled the world in search of new records and adventure. He was a noble adversary, and it was a true honor to “race” him on this  beautiful and challenging course.

The post Team Argo’s Yokohama Record appeared first on Sailing World.

MerConcept, the high-performance hub for offshore sailing and sustainable technologies based in Concarneau, France, announced the launch of its racing program to provide female sailors with experience in offshore multihull racing. UpWind by MerConcept will recruit, train, and support a squad of six female sailors as they compete in the Ocean Fifty offshore sailing circuit this year, with the ambition to have a female skipper on the starting line in a multihull for the 2026 Route du Rhum.

Backed by Founding Sponsor 11th Hour Racing, UpWind by MerConcept’s overarching goal is to be a driving force in the transformation of offshore sailing. UpWind’s vision is for the sport to become a more inclusive and diverse community, providing equal opportunities for everyone while increasing the pool of female talent available for selection to join mixed multihull crews for record-setting challenges like the Jules Verne Trophy.

MerConcept is based in the heart of the international offshore sailing world in Brittany, France, and was founded by François Gabart, the fastest person to sail around the world. “Our mission at UpWind is to support and empower female sailors to excel in high-performance, multihull offshore racing, breaking down barriers, and creating a welcoming and safe space for everyone,” Gabart said. “Teams perform at their best when they comprise diverse talent. A first step to achieving this is to support the growth in the critical mass of talented female sailors with offshore multihull experience so that all teams taking on challenges like the Jules Verne Trophy will have mixed crews in the future. As the sailing industry, we have to change the status quo, and at MerConcept, we are excited to be part of the solution.”

The application process to join the program is now open, and female sailors from anywhere in the world are invited to apply by completing the form on the UpWind by MerConcept by March 24, 2024.

Cécile Andrieu, MerConcept’s Director of Racing, outlined the candidates they are looking to recruit. “We’re very excited to launch our worldwide call for applications today. The spirit of UpWind is both performance and diversity and therefore we’re open to a wide range of profiles and backgrounds. Ideally, our applicants will have some good racing experience, whether it is offshore, inshore, match-racing, or Olympics, and have a genuine desire to get involved and bring this new racing team to life.

“At the end of selection week, we hope to have recruited two groups. A performance-focused squad to take part in the Grand Prix and transatlantic races and a second which will support in the training and on deliveries, with a view to gaining valuable sailing experience and miles for their CV.”

Francesca Clapcich, the only Italian to win The Ocean Race – racing as part of the winning crew with 11th Hour Racing Team in 2022-23 – has been appointed as the Skipper, leading the sailing squad.

“Francesca is the perfect skipper for UpWind by MerConcept,” Gabart said. “Her sailing CV is impressive, with experience at the Olympics, the Women’s America’s Cup, the Solitaire du Figaro, and The Ocean Race. She is competitive and driven on the water and is a champion for supporting women in the sport at all levels. We are really pleased she will be leading what we hope will be a truly international squad of female sailors.”

At the end of 2023, MerConcept acquired the Ocean Fifty trimaran previously owned by Armel Tripon, which is currently undergoing a complete refit. The boat is scheduled to be launched at the end of March. The race schedule for the 2024 Ocean Fifty circuit is still to be officially announced and is anticipated to include four events between June and October, including a transatlantic race from west to east.

“The Ocean Fifty is the ideal high-performance training and racing trimaran for UpWind by MerConcept,” Clapcich said. “The platform is big enough that can have a rotation of sailors throughout the campaign, allowing more access and opportunities for the sailors to get hands-on experience on the boat.

“When racing, the series has long offshore courses as well as short inshore, round-the-buoys-style racing, so we’ll need the skills and ability to quickly switch between the two modes. It’s going to be a lot of hands-on learning, and I can’t wait to see the application process open and get started.”

A shortlist of 12 applicants will be invited to Concarneau to be put through their paces during a selection week in April, with the aim of identifying six female sailors to join the team.

11th Hour Racing has joined UpWind by MerConcept as the Founding Sponsor as the Newport, RI, USA-based organization broadens its ocean health-focused work to include diversity, opportunity, and access in sailing.

Michelle Carnevale, president of 11th Hour Racing, said, “Sponsoring MerConcept signifies our commitment to increasing diversity in high-performance sailing and aims to set a precedent for other sports organizations. For more than a decade, our sponsorships have centered around sports, strategic innovation, and sustainable technologies. UpWind by MerConcept marks a substantial progression for women in sailing, and we look forward to witnessing its positive influence on the future of ocean racing.”

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On a dark St. Patrick’s Day morning—some 15 miles from the Lorient, France, finish line for the Globe40 doublehanded round-the-world race—Joe Harris sat down at the bumpy navigation station of his extremely well-traveled Class 40 yacht, Gryphon Solo 2, and commenced to type his final blog post from a cold and rainy Biscay Bay.

“We are loping along at 7 knots of boatspeed without our foot on the accelerator for the first time in forever, as we are going to be in third place for this leg no matter what. So we are timing our arrival for daylight, and I thought this last night at sea might be a good time to digest and try to make sense of these past 10 months,” he wrote in the last of dozens of posts that chronicled the eight-leg, 35,000-nautical-mile voyage he shared with mate Roger Junet.

“Trying is a word that comes to mind. Tumultuous is another, as is turbulence, but maybe I just like words that start with a T?”

As he closed the circle on his second circumnavigation on the boat—the first had been a solo record attempt for a Class 40 in 2015-16—tenacious is another appropriate adjective. That’s because, for Harris, these last few miles were but the latest chapter in an epic nautical journey that started some five decades earlier, commencing with junior sailing, then learning the ropes on a collection of race boats from his rock-star bowman dad, to amassing his own series of racers, including an old, leaky wooden boat, a C&C 40 and an Aerodyne 38. Finally, he moved into the elite realm of shorthanded offshore sailing, first on a canting-keel Open 50 before moving into the Class 40 battles and knocking off a pair of circles around the planet.

And that’s not even counting the seven summers he spent in Alaska’s Bering Sea crewing aboard and then skippering commercial fishing boats out of Bristol Bay. How to sum up this maritime odyssey? It had certainly been a lot of things: technical, taxing, transforming, thorough, tremendous.

Harris comes from strong saltwater genes. For fun, his Dutch grandfather, Dr. Hans Rozendaal, conducted regular transatlantic voyages throughout his life, a total of six in all. His old man, Woody, was a sought-after crewman in his day, winning the Triple Crown of yacht racing—the Transatlantic Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet—in the late 1950s aboard Richard Nye’s famous Rhodes Yawl, Carina. That was before Woody bought his own 75-foot Chesapeake Bay skipjack to tool around Long Island Sound.

Born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, Harris’ own path to the sea began in the junior program on Blue Jays and Lightnings at the Indian Harbor YC. In his teens, however, sailing took a back seat to other sports, particularly hockey and lacrosse, the latter he played four varsity seasons at Brown University. A road trip to Alaska his junior year, which started a string of seven lucrative summers in his own version of The Deadliest Catch, rekindled his passion for the water, especially the gnarly offshore stuff.

A year at The Landing School in Maine gave him the woodworking and carpentry skills he parlayed into winter boat­building gigs at Shannon Yachts in Rhode Island and Ted Hood’s Little Harbor yard in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Somewhere in there, he also built and sold a home on Block Island. It was all good fun, and he was making decent coin, but it wasn’t the career path of your typical Ivy League grad.

Approaching his late 20s, Woody hit him with the age-old, fork-in-the-road question that’s been posed down through countless generations of fathers and sons: What the hell are you doing with your life? When Woody offered to pony up half the tuition to business school, Harris matriculated to Babson University for his MBA, which led to not only a long, lush career in real estate finance and development, but also provided plenty of the cold, hard cash that was its reward. That gave him the means, almost immediately, to invest in sailboats.

The first was a little woody (no pun intended) named Corus, which he soon began calling Pourus in recognition of the steady ingress of water through its seams. Next up was Shiva, so named for a Hindu god, the C&C 40 aboard which he started his skippering career with coastal races, eventually becoming the platform for his initial forays into doublehanded racing with, appropriately enough, Woody as crew. After that came Gryphon, a 38-foot sportboat designed by the late Rodger Martin, aboard which he continued racing two up and also started competing in solo events like the Bermuda One-Two.

For a sailor with ever-­growing long-distance ambitions, it had been a steady, ascending trajectory in the sport. The next step was a major one into a certified big-boy boat, a carbon-fiber, canting-keel, twin-daggerboard, water-ballasted Open 50 rocket designed by French aces Finot-Conq. It was a veteran of two round-the-world solo contests, the most recent by American Brad Van Liew under the handle Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America.

The goal was a round-the-world race called the Velux 5 Oceans Challenge, organized by the famed British solo legend Robin Knox-Johnston. After originally calling his new ride Gryphon Solo, Harris slapped on a new name, Wells Fargo American Pioneer, after securing a sponsorship deal with the prominent bank with which, not coincidentally, he was conducting a ton of business—a win-win situation.

His inaugural Grand Prix event was the 2004 edition of Artemis Transat (formerly called the OSTAR), a brutal 16-day upwind slog across the North Atlantic from Plymouth, England, to Boston, in which he scored second in class. With veteran English sailor Josh Hall, Harris then knocked off an Open 50 class victory on the 21-day voyage from France to Brazil in the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2005, a trip designed to be the serious tuneup before the Velux race.

But there was a hiccup, and it was a momentous one: More or less at the last minute, the organizer pulled the plug on the Open 50 class. Harris was, quite literally, all tuned up with nowhere to go. It was time, as they say, to pivot. And the timing was fortuitous, for there was a relatively new boat and game on the shorthanded offshore racing scene: the Class 40.

Harris purchased his Marc Lombard-designed 40-footer, Gryphon Solo 2, in 2011, aiming to be on the starting line of a dedicated Class 40 round-the-world contest, the Global Ocean Race, in the fall of 2014. In preparation, he knocked off a trio of Atlantic Cup races—a dash up the Eastern Seaboard from South Carolina to Maine—winning it in early 2014. And then the unthinkable happened: the Global Ocean Race was also canceled.

“Once again, I was all dressed up with no place to go,” he says. “After all the time and money I’d put into the new boat, I couldn’t believe it was happening again. So, I said to myself, ‘I’m not getting any younger, and I’m tired of waiting for these races. I’m going to do a solo,
unassisted round-the-world record attempt.’”

It turned out a Class 40 record of 138 days was on the books already, established by Chinese sailor and explorer Guo Chuan in 2013. (Chuan was tragically lost at sea during a singlehanded transpacific record attempt in 2016.) Unfortunately, Harris’ 2015 record run unraveled in the South Atlantic on his approach to South Africa, when the converter box on his hydrogenator fried and forced him into Cape Town for repairs. After resuming the voyage, GS2 hit what Harris called a USO, unidentified submerged object, which punctured the hull and forced an unscheduled haul-out in Uruguay to make repairs. But between those stops, he made a memorable rounding of Cape Horn in a 50-knot gale. Ultimately, he closed the circle on his lonely circumnavigation in mid-2016 after a 33,000-­nautical-mile spin of 152 days.

For many ­marathon solo ­sailors, if not most, it would’ve been the crowning achievement of a noteworthy sailing career. For Harris, however, there was still unfinished business to attend to, a missing check mark on his personal, proverbial bucket list: He still hadn’t raced around the planet. That is, not until the recently concluded Globe40 affair.

Organized by Sirius Events, the doublehanded Globe40 was not your typical round-the-world race. Beginning in Morocco and finishing in France, the 33,000-nautical-mile event was significantly longer than previous traditional, four-stop round-the-world races. This event rounded the great southern capes before heading north into generally lighter, upwind conditions, which extended the length and time of the legs.

The winding, eight-leg ­racecourse, with a decidedly French accent, included stopovers in the Cape Verde Islands; Mauritius; Auckland, New Zealand; Tahiti; Ushuaia, Argentina; Recife, Brazil; and Grenada. Crew swaps were permissible (the Canadian entry Whiskey Jack rotated through six co-skippers); an initial entry list of 15 boats was whittled down to seven starters, of which there were a quartet of finishers. The Dutch duo of Frans Budel and Ysbran Endt on Sec Hayai were the winners; Gryphon Solo 2 notched a fourth after an extremely eventful voyage of 173 days.

For crew, Harris recruited Junet, an Italian born and bred in the Alps who’d moved to Portland, Maine. “He was an excellent partner,” Harris says. “We got our onboard routines down pretty good. Having the continuity was a real benefit. Our sail changes became very slick.” That said, racing a Class 40 offshore is no picnic. “Actually, it’s very uncomfortable,” he says. “The motion of the boat is very violent. Particularly upwind, the boats just slam horribly in a seaway. They have a really flat forefoot, and they just pancake.”

The opening leg from Morocco to the Cape Verde islands was, “just fabulous,” Harris says. “First a reach and then downhill, which is when you’re loving life on a Class 40.” But the second leg, around the tip off Africa and up to the isle of Mauritius? “A nightmare,” he says. “It was supposed to be about 32 days and ended up being almost 40. You get around the Cape of Good Hope and you’ve got a foul current and you’ve got a thousand miles upwind in light air.”

A series of gates the fleet was obliged to honor, ostensibly in the interests of safety, chopped up the next legs in what in most round-the-world races are straight shots through the Southern Ocean, a section of the trip Harris had reveled in during his previous circumnavigation. So too did the side trip to Tahiti, again off the beaten track, but at least with the addition of a pleasant visit to French Polynesia.

The leg to Ushuaia ended off Cape Horn before a detour up the Beagle Channel, which was unusual but interesting. Next was a long journey to Recife, with the bulge of Brazil positioned well east in the South Atlantic, which made the ensuing leg back to Grenada somewhat of a non sequitur because it sent the racers in the opposite direction of the finish line in France.

And then there was just one last passage back across the North Atlantic. “Twenty days,” Harris says. “One low-­pressure system after another, just continuously slammed, 30 knots and above most of the time. Cold and getting colder. Reduced sail, three reefs in the main. We saw a 63-knot gust, the highest of the whole race. Luckily, we were going downwind nearly the whole way, which was great. But then came the end, the finish.”

And, of course, the last thoughts on that last blog post: “As we come down the home stretch, it is a bit of a melancholy feeling to know that this adventure will soon be over. I am glad I did it for sure, but I am also glad to move on to the next challenges… I love our little GS2 space module/biosphere, where we make fresh water from salt water, produce electricity from moving through the sea and from the sun, and move across the water only through the power of the wind in our sails. I will miss it for sure, as it is a natural high and feels right just being at sea in this fine craft.”

The only thing left to say to sum up the whole crazy sprint of his sailing life, with that last circle now closed, perhaps needed just one more “T” word.

Triumphant.

The post An American Sailor’s Odyssey appeared first on Sailing World.

Mixed-doublehanded distance racing was supposed to be the next great Olympic discipline. Sailing’s equivalent of the marathon, the International Olympic Committee recently nixed it. This, of course, was bad news for fledgling teams with dreams of Paris 2024. One such squad was that of American sailor Jesse Fielding and Francesca Clapcich, the 33-year-old two-time Olympian and Volvo Ocean Race veteran from Trieste, Italy. In the summer of 2020, Clapcich and Fielding had kick-started a campaign with the backing of a private donor and State Street Bank. Their two-boat Beneteau Figaro 3 training was going full-speed when the Olympic rug got yanked, as did most of their funding. Now what?

Their backers were still keen to support a mixed-­gender offshore team, so off to France they went with one last handful of dough to the University of Shorthanded Sailing and a Vendée Globe Ph.D. Over the spring and summer of 2021, with a mixture of doublehanded and singled races on State Street-branded Figaro Beneteau 3s (Fearless for Clapcich, Opportunity for Fielding), they cut their teeth as both teammates and quasi rivals, earning the attention of the elites and future elites of shorthanded sailing.

In two humbling years, Fielding says, they’ve jelled to be a formidable team, intent on changing the perception in sailing that only testosterone-fueled egomaniacs can win races. It’s not about Jesse or Francesca, he says, nor egos and skillsets. It’s now about the common cause of showing what diversity in ­sailing can be.

Fielding considers their first race together, off the coast of Rhode Island, as a defining marker on their timeline. “We left the dock well-prepared, after only three days of sailing together,” he says. “Francesca was on the helm, and I was supposed to be the head-out-of-the-boat local guy dealing with the sails. At the start, Clapcich checked a few teams head-to-wind and won the pin. We set the kite and were a mile ahead at the first mark, ripping downwind at 18 knots.”

When it came time for Fielding to douse the spinnaker, it wasn’t pretty. Neither was his second attempt. “I tried to do over-the-boom letterboxes, and it didn’t work,” Fielding says. “And I just refused during the race to change my preconceived notions of how I was supposed to do it.”

That was a good ego check, he says, and they both learned from it. “That race focused us on how to get better and to not be disappointed in each other,” Fielding says. “I made my share of mistakes in that race, and we both agree we live and die by the mistakes of the team. After that race, I knew Francesca was someone I wanted to continue on with. We had a good time on a course that most people did not.”

Welcome to sailing’s equivalent of speed dating. Clapcich, with a far better sailing resume than her male counterpart, was also satisfied with how the first date went. Before the race, and before she answered an out-of-the-blue call from the State Street Marathon Sailing Team, she was holed up in Utah with her wife, Sally Barkow, coaching occasionally but pretty much paying the bills and stuck waiting for the next big thing.

“Sally knew Jesse, and she said I should go for it because he’s a super sailor and a very nice guy. It’s what I really wanted to do, to sail offshore. She saw the spark in my eyes, and she knows it’s not easy for women in sailing to find year-round professional sailing opportunities.”

An attraction to the program was definitely the Olympics, she says, but when news came that Paris was off the table, they pivoted to the Figaro scene, the epicenter of singlehanded racing, to race against the best, and next, the Vendée Globe.

Clapcich is driven by goals, she says. It’s all she knows.

“Her sailing resume speaks for itself, but it’s just a piece of paper,” Fielding says. “But from moment number one, we’ve had a great interpersonal connection. She’s an outstanding talent. On the water, on the boat, pulling sheets, driving the boat—I’ve never sailed with anyone with her drive and attitude. We knew early on that it was going to work.”

The French shorthanded racing scene, Fielding adds, is where they’re now showing the dynamic they possess. So far, so good.

“Going into a weather mark the other day,” he says, describing one particular doublehanded race this summer, “with Francesca driving and me on the foredeck, we roll into a jib set and nail it. That’s not something you ever see in Figaro sailing. Afterward, people were actually complimenting us.”

One slick maneuver is impressive, but it’s early days on the trek to Mount Vendée. And while they’re now a pair, at some point, if they get there, only one of them goes. To that end, Fielding accepts Clapcich is the better sailor, and someday he’ll probably be her jumper.

“My number-one goal is to bring no ego to the table,” Fielding says, which does sound strange coming from a big, barrel-­chested guy who’s made a living as a sailmaker and professional sailor. “Francesca has become a phenomenal navigator, with strategy, routing, performance analysis, polar building, the electronics and networking—there’s so much that goes into it, and she is light-years ahead of me because she’s put the work into it.”

Her dream, she says, is to push herself hard around the world, “not just go for a ride.” But she’s realistic that Vendée campaigns are big money, and there are a lot of other teams out there asking for it. “Our skills are on the table,” she says. “I believe in working hard, and your skills are the best welcome card. You can sell a dream, but in the end, it’s about showing how hard you work and what you can bring.”

In August, they will face the ultimate test for each of them: La Solitaire du Figaro, a grueling monthlong, multileg singlehanded race around France. It’s the equivalent of doing a 700-mile offshore race every weekend for a month. There will be 34 skippers, 12 of them “rookies,” including Clapcich and Fielding, who says no American team has ever done the event with two US-flagged boats. “In the history books, this will go down as the first of something—and that has value to it,” he says.

Two working as one. That is the point.

The post From Doubehanded to Singlehanded appeared first on Sailing World.

La Solitaire du Figaro Current Tracking

Whilst the fleet returned earlier than anticipated that was no indication of ease, the three-day leg was on one of little sleep. The first competitor to finish, Pierre Quiroga, onboard Macif 2019, finished around 0830 Wednesday morning on September 3. Experienced skipper Alan Roberts, of the United Kingdom, who finished 16th overall despite having held a position within the top ten for most of the leg, won the Vivi Trophy for best international for the Figaro’s second leg.

Upon arriving, he commented on how exhausted he was considering it was a shorter leg. “Another hard leg, only less than three days at sea, but it feels like five, I’m absolutely shattered… blast reaching at night, really fast, averaging 14 to 18 knots with the Code 0, which was really fun but involved a lot of work, really playing the sheets and catching the surf.

“The upwind was really tough actually, I struggled to find speed. I was able to hold on to the fleet, but I really struggled to move forward through the fleet, so that was tough. We did a lot of rock hopping, we really went right into the rocks and there were some pretty sketchy moments there, but that was pretty fun and seeing the coastline was beautiful. It was just fantastic, and the racing is so, so close!”

For skipper Francesca Clapcich, Fearless – State Street Marathon Sailing, it was also a very challenging leg. Operating on little sleep, she felt like a number of small mistakes cost her the position in the middle of the fleet that she initially held for the first half of the race. She arrived at the dock, weather worn and caked in salt.

“I am obviously happy to have arrived at Fécamp all in one piece and with the boat in order but I am also quite angry with myself for how I managed the race. I knew that this stage was going to be very hard and there would be many pitfalls, but unfortunately I couldn’t get into the game!” said Clapcich.

Clapcich had stated at the beginning of the Leg 2 that one of her goals was to try and manage herself and be mindful of resting throughout the leg, but it seems that this might have been a particularly tough goal in this stage. The consensus from the returning skippers was that this leg demanded and extraordinary amount of concentration due to the oft fluctuating conditions.

Clapcich had a strong start, staying in the thick of the racing until her boat speed on the power reach with the Code 0 saw her slipping away from the more experienced skippers at the front on the pack. Unfortunately, in this race, with so many tidal gates and changes to contend with, any boat who didn’t hold onto the front of the pack risked being pushed further behind with the changing currents, which is what Clapcich experienced. “I had a good start and during the early part of the race I was smart enough not to take risks and remain attached to the group. But my reaching speed was not the same as the leaders. I started to lose contact as I approached Rochebonne and I was unable to recover. From then on, I tried to risk a bit to recover, but that only led me to making more mistakes. Raz Blanchard’s tide gate was one of the biggest turning points where I fell far behind with the current against me.”

Still, Clapcich continued to battle hard, trying out different tactical moves to catch up with the fleet throughout the rest of the race. She did manage to close the time gap significantly at various points. As this is a time accumulative race overall, these small gains, even if they don’t change the positioning, they are still very important.

Jesse Fielding, Opportunity – State Street Marathon Sailing, finished in Fécamp at approximately 1800 last Wednesday evening. The skipper had a long upwind battle to the finishing line against the current, which had turned after the first few boats finished. Having now successfully completed one half of the race, Fielding reflected on the team’s progress so far: “Another finish with a long upwind section, which was never going to be easy. On our team, we’re always working to better understand pilot settings, sail settings, performance outlook — to optimize our time on course and to become better at this game, which is being played at the highest level in the world. The Solitaire is clearly an endurance race. We feel that after two legs down with two to go — a proverbial half time, if you will — we’re in the locker rooms, giving ourselves a speech to go back out there, to play the second half harder and better.”

After the fleet finished this second leg early, the longer than usual respite and recovery time ashore in Fécamp is welcome. It’s a good opportunity to look back on the lessons from the first half, reignite, build stamina and look forward to the next leg, which currently is promising to be completely different again, with the wind dropping significantly by the time of the start this Sunday.

“I don’t think we left anything out there,” FieIding said. “I think we learned a lot, and I think we’re going to try and keep doing what we’re doing, which is to keep learning every minute, every hour, of every leg and to keep applying those lessons immediately to performance. We have to keep trying and be proud. We synthesize a bit of information and get a little faster every time. It’s definitely a marathon race, with a huge endurance profile that is just being discovered by us as first-time American competitors. Every day is a chance to learn something new about these boats and how you race them.”

The next stage now underway, takes the fleet of soloists  from Fécamp to Roscoff, but crossing the English Channel, sailing to the Bristol Channel and finally point to Roscoff.

Links to the live feed and La Solitaire du Figaro race tracker at openoceanracing.us.

The post Figaro’s Second Leg Tests Resilience of Soloists appeared first on Sailing World.

International ocean racing teams from around the world are assembling in Lorient, France, this week ahead of the start of the inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe on Saturday May 29. Designed to showcase professional fully-crewed offshore racing, this new European multi-stage race has attracted a top-tier entry of 12 teams representing nine countries.

The race is open to two classes of high-performance ocean-going racing yachts: the 65-foot one-design VO65 and the 60-foot development rule IMOCA 60. Both classes of boat are capable of high speeds and in the right conditions can cover 600 nautical miles or more in 24-hours. The Ocean Race Europe’s 2000-nautical mile course will take the teams from Lorient to Genova, Italy, with stops in Cascais, Portugal, and Alicante, Spain along the way.

The race start on May 29 will be broadcast live on Eurosport across over 50 markets in Europe and can be seen internationally on www.theoceanrace.com and @theoceanrace YouTube and Facebook platforms. Coverage begins at 13.30 CEST ahead of a 13.45 race start.

The Ocean Race Europe is run by the organizers of The Ocean Race – a grueling multi-stage around the world race which takes place every four years. The first around-the-world race was contested in 1973 and over the 13 editions of the event, The Ocean Race is the pinnacle of professional fully crewed ocean racing.

This year’s inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe leads off a ten-year calendar of racing activity that includes confirmed editions of the around-the-world race taking place on a four-year cycle beginning in 2022-23.

The Ocean Race Europe is also part of the IMOCA Globe Series which runs from 2021 through to the 2024-25 Vendée Globe single-handed non-stop around-the-world race.

Many of the teams taking part in The Ocean Race Europe are also planning to compete in the next around-the-world edition of The Ocean Race which is scheduled to start in the Autumn of 2022 from the Spanish city of Alicante, where the race’s headquarters are located.

Sailors from 23 nationalities are competing in The Ocean Race Europe, with each of the teams’ crew-lists including some of the top names in international yacht racing – along with a selection of young talented newcomers, each eager to make their mark on the professional ocean racing scene.

Racing in both the VO65 and IMOCA 60 classes is expected to be close and exciting, with the overall winners in each fleet unlikely to be decided until the finish of a coastal race in Genova on June 19.

In the foiling IMOCA 60 division, three French teams are joined by entries from the United States and Germany.

The American 11th Hour Racing Team is led by Charlie Enright – a veteran of two around-the-world editions of The Ocean Race. Based out of the east coast American city of Newport, Rhode Island, the crew recently made a transatlantic crossing to take part in The Ocean Race Europe.

Joining Enright for the race as navigator is British five-time around-the-world racer Simon Fisher, along with the highly experienced Pascal Bidégorry from France – a serial around-the-world racer who won The Ocean Race 2017-18 edition with Dongfeng Race Team – and Swiss two-time The Ocean Race competitor, Justine Mettraux. Also on board will be the team’s accomplished onboard reporter, Amory Ross.

Fresh off the back of an impressive third-place finish in the 2020-21 Vendée Globe singlehanded nonstop around-the-world race, French skipper Louis Burton leads the Bureau Vallée entry in The Ocean Race Europe.

“We are very enthusiastic because the initiative between the IMOCA class and The Ocean Race is very positive and intelligent,” Burton said. “We feel fortunate to be able to go racing around Europe. I think it hasn’t been an easy event to organize in this time, so we are thankful as it’s great to be able to go to stopovers like Cascais, Alicante and Genova…It’s amazing to have five IMOCA and seven VO65 boats together on the starting line only a few weeks after the end of the Vendée Globe.”

Burton’s core crew is made up of fellow French sailor Davy Beaudart as navigator, as well as Burton’s wife Servane Escoffier – another highly experienced ocean racer. The team plans to rotate in several other experienced French offshore racers during the race, as well as British Vendée Globe competitor Pip Hare.

CORUM L’Épargne skipper Nicolas Troussel might be best known for his solo sailing success, having twice won France’s hallowed Solitaire du Figaro, but the Frenchman has assembled an equally competitive trio of talent for his tilt at The Ocean Race Europe.

Joining Troussel on board the team’s state of the art IMOCA 60 is renowned French yachtsman Sébastien Josse, as well as French pair Marie Riou and Benjamin Schwartz, who both competed in the 2017-18 around-the-world edition of The Ocean Race, and together won the 2020 EUROSAF Mixed Offshore European Championship.

French skipper Thomas Ruyant and his latest generation IMOCA 60 return to racing again after finishing sixth in the 2020-21 edition of the Vendée Globe. The team is supporting LinkedOut, an innovative initiative that helps homeless people in France find a job by giving them an opportunity to showcase their resume and to show who they really are.

Racing alongside Ruyant will be a highly experienced all-French line-up featuring Morgan Lagravière – Ruyant’s co-skipper for the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre race later this year – as well as Quentin Ponroy, Laurent Bourguès, and 2020-21 Vendée Globe competitor Clarisse Crémer.

Offshore Team Germany is led by German Olympian and experienced offshore skipper Robert Stanjek and the team has set its sights on racing around the world in The Ocean Race 2022-23. Stanjek has recruited British Olympian and two-time around-the-world racer Annie Lush, as well as the talented young German sailor Phillip Kasüske, and French solo sailor Benjamin Dutreux, who finished ninth in the 2020-21 Vendée Globe. The team’s OBR is Felix Diemer from Germany.

The VO65 class has been used for the last two around-the-world editions of The Ocean Race and the fleet is set for a third lap of the world in the upcoming 2022-23 edition. Built to a strict one-design rule, the boats are identical in every way, and therefore extremely evenly matched.

The VO65 division in The Ocean Race Europe is made up of two entries from the Netherlands, as well as one each from Austria, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, and Portugal.

Dutch-flagged entry AkzoNobel Ocean Racing is led by Australian skipper Chris Nicholson, one of the world’s most experienced around-the-world racers. The team’s international line-up blends proven experience with exciting young talent, and features Britain’s Will Harris as navigator, as well as Australians Liz Wardley and Lucas Chapman as boat captain and watch leader respectively. Also on board is British bowman Trystan Seal, as well as Rosalin Kuiper (NED), Rory Hunter (GBR), Giulio Bertelli (ITA), and Charlie Wyatt (AUS).

Lithuanian entry Ambersail-2 is led by Lithuanian London 2012 Olympian skipper Rokas Milevičius. The crew includes 2016 Vendee Globe competitor Conrad Colman (NZL) as navigator, as well as Lithuanian sailors Domantas Juškevičius, Deimantė Jarmalavičiūtė, plus Tomas and Linas Ivanauskas.

Led by Dutch skipper Gerwin Jansen – an accomplished offshore racer with a highly competitive reputation – The Austrian Ocean Race Project is a young and ambitious team of international sailors with a shared enthusiasm for big boat sailing. Despite positioning themselves as the ‘new kids on the block’ this team plans to use The Ocean Race Europe to establish its credentials. For The Ocean Race Europe the team will operate a core crew of sailors made up of Oliver Kobale (AUT), navigator Jolbert van Dijk (NED), watch leaders Michiel Goegebeur (NED) and Konstantin Kobale (AUT), and sail trimmer Anna Luschan (AUT), with other sailors rotated in on each of the offshore legs.

Portuguese entry Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team is led by the noted French ocean racer Yoann Richomme with a crew list packed with sailors from the 2017-18 around-the-world edition of The Ocean Race – plus some keen newcomers.

The Mirpuri line-up is made up of navigator Nico Lunven (FRA), watch leader Jack Bouttell (GBR), bowman Olly Young (GBR), mid bow Emily Nagel (GBR), helmsman/trimmers Bernardo Freitas (POR) and Frederico Pinheiro Melo (POR), pitman Willy Altadill (ESP), floater Mariana Lobato (POR) and OBR Martin Keruzore (FRA).

Dutch ocean racer Bouwe Bekking – a skipper who has become synonymous with The Ocean Race since he first raced around the world back in 1985-86 – leads the Sailing Poland crew which includes the highly regarded Norwegian racing navigator Aksel Magdhal, as well as experienced ocean racer Jens Dolmer from Denmark as boat captain, and the young but experienced Simbad Quiroga from Spain as bowman.

“What I’m looking forward to the most is just to be our sailing and racing again,” said Bekking from Stockhom, where his team had taken part in a short prologue event. “To have this event in between the around the world races is important for all of us. We have a young team, and we want to give them an opportunity to learn about what ocean racing is all about.”

The youngsters on Bekking’s team are a group of talented young Polish sailors keen to ramp up their professional ocean racing experience: Maja Micińska; Anna Weinzieher; Alan Alkhatab; Stan Bajerski; Kacper Gwóźdź; Mateusz Gwóźdź; Gustaw Miciński. Sailing Poland’s OBR is Adam Burdylo (POL).

Skippered by Dutch two-time America’s Cup winner Simeon Tienpont, Team Childhood I features an experienced core crew comprising Dutchmen Gerd-Jan Poortman, Peter van Niekerk, and Wouter Verbraak (navigator) and former Olympian Pieter-Jan Postma.

Additionally, the team has assembled a pool of talented Dutch, Swedish and South African sailors to rotate onboard during three legs of The Ocean Race Europe, including: Jelmer van Beek; Rutger Vos; Laura van Veen; Arianne van de Loosdrecht; Matt Whitehead (RSA); Julius Hallström (SWE); Robin Jacobs; Lars van Stekelenborg; Max Deckers.

Viva México skipper Erik Brockmann is a talented Mexican sailor who previously led two Mexican teams in the Extreme Sailing Series, as well as racking up thousands of miles of offshore racing – including six editions of the prestigious Transpac Race. Brockmann is flanked by two experienced watch captains in the form of Spaniards Roberto ‘Chuny’ Bermúdez – a competitor in seven editions of The Ocean Race – and Jaime Arbones, as well as Mexico’s Juan Varela and Juan Luis Medina, Carlos Robles (ESP) Miguel Fernández (ESP), Moritz Spitzauer (AUT), Nadir Balena (ITA), and Eugenia Bosco (ARG). Viva México’s OBR is Jen Edney (USA).

The Ocean Race Europe starts from Lorient on Saturday May 29 and finishes in Genova, Italy on June 19. As well as the three equally scored offshore legs – Leg 1: Lorient to Cascais, Portugal; Leg 2 Cascais to Alicante, Spain; and Leg 3 Alicante to Genova, Italy – the teams will also race two shorter coastal races in Cascais and Genova with bonus points being awarded to the top three finishers.

As a prelude to the start of the first leg from Lorient, on Friday May 28 all the teams will compete in a non-scoring race around the nearby Ile de Groix.

The post Ocean Race Europe Unfolds appeared first on Sailing World.

I’m training in San Francisco in the 49erFX with my new teammate, Lucy Wilmot, when the phone rings. On the other end is Charlie Enright. Yeah, that Charlie Enright, and as if asking to pass the salt at the dinner table, he starts the conversation by casually asking me if I have any interest in coming to tryout with the 11th Hour Racing Team on their IMOCA 60, the one they’re using to train for the Ocean Race, which starts in 2022. My heart likely skipped a beat. Why me? An Olympic dinghy hopeful from Fort Lauderdale, someone who’s never been at sea past sunset.

Well, of course, I’m interested, I tell him. Tell me more.

Three weeks later, I board a flight to Newport, Rhode Island, excited to take on an opportunity of a lifetime.

Having never slept overnight on a boat, and knowing close to nothing about offshore racing, I did my research: pouring through videos and articles about the IMOCA 60. But what I read online does not do justice to the boat. When I step over the lifelines and onto the black-and-white honeycomb deck for the first time, I feel like I’m stepping onto a spacecraft. It must look like a ghost ship as foils across the ocean in the dead of night.

The cockpit is tiny and lines spill into the pit like a waterfall. Below is crammed with gear, sails, food, equipment and Fat Boy beanbags. It’s meant for a coed crew of four, plus an onboard reporter, to race around the world, with a few stops along the way.

After two days of getting to know the team and the boat’s systems, we set out for an overnight training session. With no clue what to bring, and having a dinghy sailor mentality, I’ve packed my wetsuit. When I confide in one of the crew, Kyle Langford, on my gear selection, he jokingly replies that I don’t need a wetsuit and hints that I should probably keep it to myself that I brought one. He grabs me a proper offshore kit from a plastic tub, and before I can find my bearings, we are flying downwind into the night.

The crew shifts are four hours on and four hours off for 48 hours. To my surprise, the shifts are not so bad. It reminds me of the workouts I’ve done during my Olympic campaign where the work time and rest time are equivalent, always allowing adequate recovery time. When I’m on watch, I try my best to soak in everything, learn, and work efficiently. I also take time to sleep and eat when I’m off. Each crew member will cycle through this schedule like clockwork to constantly keep the boat ripping along on its foils.

My shift is 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., and when I wake up, I’m sprawled out over the bean bag. I put on my foul weather gear, and make myself instant coffee in the galley. Sticking my head out into the cockpit, I feel like a deer in the headlights. The sky is immaculate with stars shining clearer to my naked eye. I’ve never seen anything like it. The moon is beaming, the water kissing the hull, the wind rushing across our sails. There’s not another boat, or a hint of land, in sight.

Up until this point, our practice and my experience is glamour. Everything seems too good to be true. Just too perfect. It’s around 1 a.m. and Charlie and I are on watch. Charlie climbs down into the galley to put on a few more layers, leaving me at the tiller. Trying to find my mug for a few more sips of coffee, I put the boat on autopilot for a brief moment while I reach into a sheet pocket in the cockpit. When I grab the tiller again and disengage the autopilot, the tiller feels light. I look out the window above me and up at the sail. Sure enough, the boat is in irons. Totally embarrassed, I try sculling the rudder to one side, as if it were a dinghy, and to try to get the boat back onto a close-hauled course.

My efforts fail.

“Uh…Charlie…”

The two of us try to the boat out of irons, but even we can’t do it alone. Charlie has to wake-up the rest of the crew. I am mortified. Here I am, a decent sailor, and I drive the IMOCA 60 into irons in the middle of the night. After the incident, I learn the autopilot can get “lost” when the hull gets a little too flat because it gauges its steering angle off the load in the keel. When the load goes light, the boat can spin up into irons. Knowing this, of course, makes me feel a bit better, but I still can’t remember the last time I was stuck in irons. All I could think was “tiller towards trouble.”

Over the next two weeks, we continue offshore training sessions and a few day sailing sessions. I am well past my comfort zone now and amazed at all the things I didn’t know about the sport. Every day, I’m eager to be more involved on the boat. I want to put my hands on everything so I could learn faster and help the team where I can. Often, I find my hands gripping the grinding pedestal because I know—physically—I can push hard and I’m unwilling to quit.

Our “off days” consists primarily of team meetings. At one, ideas bounce back and forth between the sailors and the engineers about hull manufacturing and foil shape. The language is so foreign to me, and not just because of all the different accents in the room. But sitting in on these meetings, I’m eager to understand foil designs and why one shape would outplay another. Each night, I type up pages of notes to absorb the material and follow up with questions. Surrounded by such experience and talent, I’d be crazy to waste a second of schooling. Sure enough, my learning curve accelerates upward at a rapid rate.

The experience and the exposure to offshore sailing opens my eyes to the greater areas of sailboat racing that I have been missing. Sailing the Laser Radial for 11 years of my life, I have forgotten what it feels like to reach higher levels of comprehension in the sport. I’m reminded that the feeling is exhilarating, the same rush that made me fall in love with sailing.

Thank you for the call Charlie. Sign me up.

Ed.’s Note: US Sailing Team member Erika Reineke recently launched an 49erFX campaign with skipper Lucy Wilmot; follow their campaign at www.wilmotreinekefx.com and on their social channels.

The post Foiling Into a New Comfort Zone appeared first on Sailing World.

Imagine driving a top-down convertible along a twisting and unfamiliar road, through the blackness of a starless night. Then imagine the headlights blinking out. You can’t stop. The brakes are gone too. Your neurons are now firing, all your senses redlining as you steer into the darkness. Congratulations. You’re now a better driver.

That’s the idea, at least for the Long Island Sound-based youth squad, the Mudratz, which will soon start a night-sailing program for its more experienced kids. They’ll become better “night fighters,” says proud Mudratz parent Brandon Flack. “The rule of offshore racing is to dust them at night. To be better when the sun goes down.”

On five Saturday evenings this fall, weather dependent, says Flack, pairs will be placed into modified Melges 20, to simulate a doublehanded Olympic offshore racing sailor’s experiences, with a focus nighttime safety, navigation, and open course racing.”

The after-dark program idea, says Flack, belongs to USMMA Sailing Foundation president Ralph Steitz. “We talked about it for less than five minutes, and that’s all it took.”

To depower the boat for doublehanded harbor sailing, the organization modified the sails, cutting down the mainsails and jibs. They then added running lights, jacklines, and very basic electronics. The plan is to start practice before sunset every day to allow the youth sailors to familiarize themselves with the course and boathandling before sunset and before “doing it with blindfolds on,” Flack says.

There’s no official handbook for how to conduct the night-racing practices, Flack admits, so they’ll be essentially writing it as they go, starting with safety and navigation, then on to speed in the dark, and finally a few races when the kids are ready for it.

To ensure the kids learn to a maintain a proper lookout, and to intuitively feel conditions and boatspeed changes, there will be no electronics to keep them on their polars. “We decided it was better to take it away so they could get a feel for it first,” Flack says. “The numbers will come later.”

September 15 is the first scheduled practice; the water is still warm across Long Island Sound, and they have a good hour of twilight practice using government marks. Then off into the night, with, perhaps, a few surprises later into the program.

Jack Derry, a teenaged Mudratz long-timer, grew up sailing on the family cruising boat and fondly recalls many a night sails with his old man. So, he’s comfortable in the dark. But the whole Melges 20 thing excites him, in a living-dangerously-sort-of-way.

“To be on a boat with only one other person, without a GPS, will be really cool,” he says. “I don’t have to do dead reckoning, like my parents had to, but it’s just cool to be able to feel the boat and know it’s going fast. That make me a better sailor.”

Until Mudratz after dark, Derry had never raced at night, but he appreciates how his senses are far more elevated as his daytime visibility slips away. Flack says Derry is a lot like many of the other kids attracted to the program. “They have mostly grown up sailing on bigger boats with their families and have a safer feel for being on the water, and that’s why Jack is confident in his abilities.”

The appeal to night racing is also the unique experiences that can only happen at night, on the open sea. “It was super cool to sail at night and see the bioluminescence,” says Flack’s daughter, Lilly, “and the stars…oh man. And I’m really looking forward to sailing a sport boat at night.”

They’ll be home early enough to get to their schoolwork, Flack assures. They’ll be wide-eyed, salty, and fueled by adrenaline, like a young, doublehanded marathon sailor should be.

The post Mudratz Going Dark appeared first on Sailing World.

The summits – an integral part of The Ocean Race, the prestigious round-the-world sailing race dubbed ‘sport’s toughest test of a team’ – build upon the series of award-winning summits during the last edition of the race. The conference in Genoa will examine the vital role business has to play in stemming the flow of plastic into our seas.

Taking place in the iconic Italian port city on 20th September, the international gathering will hear from political representatives from the EU, Genoa, national and international businesses, the sport of sailing and NGOs.

Staged in the historic Porto Antico area at the Centro Congressi, speakers at the interactive event include renowned sustainability expert Dr. Wayne Visser; Anders Jacobson, Co-founder & CEO of Blue; and Angela Wiebeck, Head of the UBS in Society Program Office. All are expected to offer their expert insights into how wide-ranging collaboration is vitally important to address the challenge of restoring ocean health.

Delegates will also hear Giulio Bonazzi, the Chairman and CEO of Aquafil; Moby Ahmed, CTO, Ambercycle; and Dr. Giulia Gregori, Strategic Planning & Corporate Communication Manager, Novamont, give practical examples of cutting-edge practices to implement sustainability at the heart of business operations.

The Ocean Race Summits form a key element of the ‘Racing with Purpose’ Program, in collaboration with Premier Partner 11th Hour Racing and supported by Official Partner Bluewater, embedding sustainability at the heart of the race.

“Genoa provides a perfect opening stage for The Ocean Race Summit series – convening business, sport, science, and government in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, where maritime trade history unfolded. These waters, which are still pivotal to Europe’s history and economy, are now under severe stress and require urgent collaborative action to be protected and restored to a healthy state,” said Alessandra Ghezzi, Communications Director, 11th Hour Racing. “I look forward to meeting the solution thinkers, innovators, visionaries, and the next generation of leaders that will gather in Genoa to catalyze this positive change.”

The half-day conference will also explore the impacts of plastic pollution on the Mediterranean Sea and future trends business can adopt to move away from a reliance on plastic.

Olympic and offshore sailor Francesca Clapcich (ITA) and veteran of The Ocean Race Mark Towill (USA) will provide their views and share their first-hand experiences on the effect plastic pollution is having on our seas.

Italian adventurer Alex Bellini, who will provide the inspirational opening to the day, said: “It’s the first time that Italy will host this event that is organized by The Ocean Race, the iconic race that, since 1973, has fascinated sailors from all over the world.

“Today the real challenge we have to face, the race we must win at all costs, is not to cross the finish line first but to save our seas from plastic pollution.”

Dr. Wayne Visser added: “Over the past few years, The Ocean Race Summits have been at the forefront of the fight to protect and clean-up our oceans. This includes tracking the evolving science on plastic pollution and the growing response by business, governments and civil society. If you want to stay on top of the latest trends on sustainability and the marine environment, The Ocean Race Summits are the place to be.”

To complement The Ocean Race Summits, an Innovation Workshop concept has been introduced as part of the program of events. These seminars challenge industry leaders and experts to find new ways of working on a range of issues that link their value chain with ocean pollution. The topics to be examined in Genoa are ‘Sustainable Fashion & Textile’ and ‘Sustainable Boat Building’.

“Ocean plastic is a planet-wide crisis with microplastics now found in the food and water chains, which means we all need to get involved in saving both the planet and ourselves. At Bluewater we believe passionately in harnessing human ingenuity to develop the water purification tech that allows consumers and businesses to apply our here-and-now-solutions to access safe, clean water in a sustainable way in their homes, at work and in public places,” said Anders Jacobson, co-founder and CEO of Blue, the impact led investment company that owns Bluewater.

The race’s vital scientific program to advance knowledge on ocean health is continuing over the summer as part of The Ocean Race European Tour, a series of summer pro-am sailing events around the continent. The tour boats will be stopping off at the Genoa Boat Show which takes place at the same time as the summit.

Five of The Ocean Race Summits will take place before the next edition of The Ocean Race sets off from Alicante, Spain, in autumn 2021, with at least five more scheduled during the race period.

To find out more, register to attend for free or sign up for the interactive livestream experience.

The post Ocean Race Announces First Health Summit appeared first on Sailing World.

Leg 7 from Auckland to Itajai, day 03 on board Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag. Libby Greenhalgh at the nav station planning the next move. 20 March, 2018.

Late in the afternoon on January 6, 2018, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet was charging northward at more than 15 knots across the Coral Sea, sailing a leg of the race from Melbourne, Australia, to Hong Kong. The Volvo Ocean 65s were many miles from the nearest port. SHK Scallywag, in last place on the position reports, was crossing over the vast Lansdowne Bank. On the north end of the bank, there is an area called Nereus Reef, where the water depth is only 12 feet deep in some places. Scallywag drew just over 15 feet. Every boat in the fleet was being tracked electronically, and Rick Tomlinson, the official observer on duty in the event’s race-control office, was monitoring their tracks. According to the international jury serving as the protest committee for the race, Tomlinson was “an employee of Volvo Ocean Race who, as a member of race control, has a responsibility for the safety of all competitors.”

Tomlinson noticed that Scallywag was on a collision course with Nereus Reef, so he emailed the boat’s navigator. “Just so I can relax a bit here in race control,” he wrote, “tell me you are happy with your course in relation to Nereus Reef on Lansdowne Bank.”

It’s interesting to watch the gyrations in Scallywag‘s track immediately after the boat received the message. Before receiving the email, it had been heading just east of north at 16 knots. At about 0800 UTC it bore off to the east and slowed to around 7 knots. An hour later, it had turned through south to a westerly course, and at 1120, it was back on its original course and speed. The race committee estimated that Scallywag lost 50 miles on the rest of the fleet during the time it was off course and sailing at reduced speed while working out a way around Nereus Reef.

The race committee was aware that when Scallywag acted in response to the committee’s email the committee was an outside source, and that it had provided assistance. Rule 41 (see box) prohibits a boat from receiving such help unless one of the four exceptions in rules 41(a), (b), (c) or (d) applies. An international jury had been appointed for the Volvo Ocean Race. Rule N2.1, which applies when there is an international jury for a race, states, “When asked by the organizing authority or the race committee, [the IJ] shall advise and assist them on any matter directly affecting the fairness of the competition.” The race committee took advantage of this rule to ask the jury, “[Did our email to Scallywag] constitute outside assistance under RRS 41 as the crew were in danger? Please would you consider and advise.” The international jury answered as follows:

“The jury advises that race control’s action did not result in a breach of Rule 41 by SHK Scallywag. SHK Scallywag did receive help from an outside source, in this case the race control. However, the help given is permitted under Rule 41(d). The information was not requested by SHK Scallywag, so it was unsolicited information. The source, in this case a member of the race control, was a disinterested source for the purposes of Rule 41 because he had no personal or other interest in the position of SHK Scallywag relative to other boats in the race. Nor would he gain or lose in any way as a result of the position of SHK Scallywag in the race.

“The source was an employee of Volvo Ocean Race who, as a member of race control, has a responsibility for the safety of all competitors. Asking the question he did was therefore a proper action for him to take.”

There were never any protests or requests for redress as a result of the help given to Scallywag. However, there was discussion among judges and online pundits. Everyone seemed to agree with the jury statements about Rule 41(d), but many were puzzled that the jury did not discuss Rule 41(a). The race committee had said in its request for advice that the crew of Scallywag was “in danger.” Rule 41(a) says that a boat may receive help “for a crewmember who is … in danger.” Therefore, the exception in Rule 41(a), as well as the exception in Rule 41(d), applied to Scallywag, but the jury only mentioned Rule 41(d). If exception 41(a) applied, then the last sentence of Rule 41 also applied. That last sentence allowed any boat, or the race committee or the protest committee, to protest Scallywag if it received “a significant advantage in the race from help received under Rule 41(a).”

Rule 41 Outside Help

A boat shall not receive help from any outside source, except

• (a) help for a crewmember who is ill, injured or in danger;
• (b) after a collision, help from the crew of the other vessel to get clear;
• (c) help in the form of ­information freely available to all boats;
• (d) unsolicited information from a disinterested source, which may be another boat in the same race.

However, a boat that gains a significant advantage in the race from help received under rule 41(a) may be protested and penalized; any penalty may be less than disqualification.

If a protest had been made, then the jury might have faced a very difficult task, with no precedent to my knowledge, determining what penalty “less than disqualification” to assess.

Let’s step away from the Scallywag incident for a moment and discuss how the words “or in danger” came to be included in Rule 41(a). For decades before 2013, the words “or in danger” were not in the rules about outside help.

This wording was added in 2013, and the story behind the rule change is an interesting one.

For decades, it had been permissible for a boat to receive outside help under Rule 41(a) for a member of the crew who is ill or injured. In 2013, that rule was expanded to also permit outside help for a crewmember “in danger.” The change came about following an incident several years ago at a world championship for Cadet class dinghies near Perth, Australia. A week before the first race, a swimmer was attacked and mauled by a great white shark in the waters where the championship was to be held. Rather than cancel the event, organizers arranged for additional safety boats to patrol the course and changed Rule 41(a) with a sailing ­instruction that permitted competitors to receive outside help when they were in danger. The kids were told that if they capsized or fell overboard, they would immediately receive help getting their boats up and themselves back in the boat, and they would then be permitted to continue in the race. Ultimately, there was never a need, but when World Sailing leadership found out about the rule change made at the event in Perth, it strongly supported including it in the 2013 rule book.

Not many of us will ever be in danger of shark attacks or running onto Nereus Reef in the Coral Sea, but we’ve probably all seen situations where a crewmember of a boat is in some danger, perhaps because he or she became separated from the boat, and then is helped out of danger by another boat in the race, an official boat or even a boat that just happens by and has no connection at all to the race. Before 2013, any boat that received help for a crewmember in danger broke the outside-help rule and was expected to retire from the race. That part of the outside-help rule often led to clashes between competitors and rescuers. When rescuers offered help, competitors, not wishing to have to retire from the race, would refuse to accept the help and try to get back aboard their boat ­unassisted and continue racing.

Since 2013, a crewmember in danger that is helped does not break Rule 41 and may continue in the race. The last sentence of current Rule 41 was also added in 2013. It was added because of concern that a situation like the one I will describe now would occur: Going into the last race of a series for Optimists, Abel and Cain are tied for first place. Whoever finishes ahead of the other will win the series. On the last leg, Abel and Cain are overlapped and battling each other when a squall hits the fleet, capsizing many boats, including Abel and Cain, who become separated from their Optis. They are “in danger” because the water is cold and hypothermia is a risk. Immediately after the squall passes, safety boats hurry to place sailors back in contact with their dinghies. Abel is helped a couple of minutes before Cain, so Abel finishes ahead of Cain and wins the series. This seems unfair, and it is for just such an incident. Thus, the last sentence of current Rule 41. It permits Cain to protest Abel and enables the protest committee to penalize Abel just enough to make the outcome fair, which in this case would mean creating a tie between Cain and Abel.

The discussion stimulated by the Scallywag incident has uncovered many ambiguities in Rule 41(a) and Rule 41’s last sentence. Here is a list: Did Scallywag “gain a significant advantage” from the help it received? The answer isn’t obvious. It was in last place when the email arrived, and the rest of the fleet advanced 50 miles before Scallywag was back on course. No advantage there. It would not have finished at all, however, if it had piled onto the reef and torn open its hull. That’s a significant ­disadvantage, for sure.

Suppose someone wanted to protest Scallywag. A protest is an allegation that a boat has broken a rule, and Rule 61.2 requires a protestor to identify that rule in writing. Scallywag did not break Rule 41 by receiving outside help because all of its crew were in danger. So what rule did Scallywag break? Rules under which protests are made state, or clearly imply (see, for example, Rule 42.2), that a boat “shall” or “shall not” do something. Rule 41’s last sentence does not make such a statement. So, a boat that receives help permitted by Rule 41(a) does not break Rule 41 or any other rule that I know of.

Rule 64.1 permits the protest committee to penalize only a boat that “has broken a rule and is not exonerated.” Scallywag, therefore, cannot be penalized even if the penalty the protest committee wanted to give was substantially less than disqualification. In the Abel and Cain ­incident, if Abel realized that by accepting help, he might be penalized, he would probably have refused to accept the help. The words “or in danger” were added to Rule 41(a) in order to avoid competitors refusing to accept help. So, the last sentence of Rule 41 works against the intent of the words that were added to Rule 41(a).

The bottom line: Rule 41 has several logical and practical problems. What should World Sailing do? I have discussed these issues with several experienced judges and sailors, and the consensus seems to be that the last sentence of Rule 41 should be deleted. This would mean that if an incident like the Abel and Cain one ever occurred, an unfair result would occur. But lots of “stuff” can happen to make the result of a sailboat race seem random or unfair. Until I learned of the Scallywag incident, I had never heard of the last sentence of Rule 41 ever being applied, so its deletion would be unlikely to result in many, if any, unfair outcomes.

Email if you know of a penalty that was given under Rule 41’s last sentence. I would be interested to hear your views on whether you think deleting Rule 41’s last sentence is a good idea.

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