Sailing Anarchy

Not sure how this could be any closer! The MOD70 Zoulou sailed by Erik Maris (FRA) has taken Multihull Line Honours in the 2023 RORC Caribbean 600 in an elapsed time of 30 hours 55 mins 45 secs. Zoulou’s time was under two hours outside the Multihull Race Record.

Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi70 (ITA) was the second multihull to finish the race just 11 SECONDS behind Zoulou!

Pretty damn close in the Class40 fleet in the RORC Caribbean 600…

That’s Albi Bona’s IBSA (ITA) pictured above in pole position, just over five minutes ahead of Ambrogio Beccaria’s Alla Grande – Pirelli (ITA). Marc Lepesqueux’s Curium life forward (FRA) was 11 minutes behind IBSA. James McHugh’s Tquila (SUI), skippered by Brian Thompson was less than two minutes behind Curium.

It is worth noting that the star-crossed DSS Infiniti 52 Tulikettu has dropped out.

If this isn’t the worst sailing video ever, I’d like to know what is!

Big Pimpin’

Seldén Mast continues to perfect the art of delivering fast lightweight carbon spars… and at accessible levels of cost

If there’s one area where the benefits of weight saving are frequently underestimated, it must surely be in the rig. When it comes to the additional performance-sapping inertia that is created when a boat is heeling or pitching, weight aloft has an exponential effect the further it is from the waterline. Rig experts Seldén know this well and like many other spar manufacturers, they have invested considerably in carbon spar building technology to reduce weight aloft. But the gains go much further.

Seldén’ s starting point when compared with an equivalent alloy mast is a 30 percent reduction in weight. But this is just the headline figure, refining the design can improve the savings considerably. And while the motivation to reduce weight is the same for all carbon spar builders, the Seldén approach to building carbon spars is significantly different and has been delivering impressive results. More here.

Well, what the hell, I’m finally doing podcasts for SA. Likely because of neverending slackerism, I never did them earlier, although we did have a short-lived series of Retro Boat videos.

We’ve only done 3 so far, and in my classic style they are semi-interesting ramblings mixed in with healthy doses of ADHD, free-floating hostility, a dislike for almost everything, and all of it for your listening pleasure!

We’ll start doing interviews at some point if I can find anyone who likes me enough to join in. Otherwise, it’s all me, all the time. Feel the magic. – ed.

Title rip-off thanks to The Smiths.

And with this, we say goodnight to the seemingly unending pissing match between these two.

It would help if Shanghai Sailor confined himself to the simple, undisputed facts rather than making lofty appeals to the principles of democracy, the presumption of innocence, and accusing me of positions I’ve never espoused. 

For the record:

*  The CYCA, as the organizing authority for the Sydney-Hobart, has limited jurisdiction on handicaps before the race. They must take the rating certificates of all entrants on face value. It is not their role to audit or challenge the IRC or ORC numbers. It is the competitors who can institute a rating protest, but to do so they would need to have had knowledge of all the current and previous measurement data.     

*  The IRC rules allow for a rating review to be requested at any time. However, this is only a right to request, not a right to an actual review. The RORC has denied requests for a review of the ratings of both Celestial and Crux.

*  At no time have I ever stated, or even implied, that the pre-race measurements of Celestial’s hull or sails were faulty. Rather, the issue is the unexplained anomaly between the stated reduction in keel/bulb weight of Celestial and the difference between the previous all-up hull weight and the weight recorded on the December 16 certificate. We are still waiting for an explanation.    

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I watched the finish of the Leg 2 ending of The Ocean Race (formerly the Volvo Ocean Race) in my home port of Cape Town, South Africa on a bright sunny Sunday morning. It was a nail-biting affair. Well not really. It was kind of a dead loss end to a dead loss leg of what’s pretty much become a dead loss race. I am trying to be kind here but I do have a small say in the matter having sailed in three of the races back when it was called the Whitbread Round the World Race. For all its hype and pomp as the world’s greatest offshore ocean race, it has turned into nothing more than a damp squib (a squib being a firecracker for those in the Northern Hemisphere – different from a squab.…:)

There are five IMOCA 60’s racing and I do admit that the racing was close and frankly you only need two boats to make it a race, but this once grand event that used to get 30-plus entrants is now down to five. And one of them – 11th Hour Racing – suffered major damage to their foils and is asking the race organizers if they can change them out. They had just sailed the easy “Milk Run” part of the race. Ahead of them is a 12,750 nautical mile, one-month marathon to Itajaí, Brazil across the Southern Ocean which regularly eats boats for breakfast.

Oh, they did have some VO60’s, the boats from earlier races, but they are only doing three legs. They did the one from Alicante to the Cape Verde islands and will rejoin the fleet later this summer in Europe for a couple of legs.
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We’d say their weekend is shot.

A response to Anarchist David’s latest article…

“Why didn’t they question our boat before, because they didn’t know it as fast, that’s why”

A fair response from Sam Haynes to all this except it wasn’t from him. It was from Warren Jones in 1983 in response to the New York Yacht Club’s demand that Australia 2 be remeasured because (they claimed) her rating certificate wasn’t in order. (Source: The Challenge – Golden Dolphin Productions)

So you see this witch hunt is not new or original at all, it has been done before and the club, in this case, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (or one of Celestial’s competitors) had the opportunity to call her rating into question before the 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race started which they all declined to do.

Thing is they all knew she was fast in any case only losing out in the last race due to a technical infraction.

It is not just the integrity of Celestial’s crew being called into question but also the skill & professionalism of the official measurer, the national NMA and the rating system itself. Indeed, by inference, any boat that re-rates shortly before a big event.

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The Environment

Antarctic sea ice cover has hit a record low level, according to Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute, and the melt season is not yet over. As of February 8, Antarctic sea ice cover stood at 850,000 square miles, the lowest extent in forty years of recordkeeping.

“Since the sea ice melting in the Antarctic will most likely continue in the second half of the month, we can’t say yet when the record low will be reached or how much more sea ice will melt between now and then,” said Prof. Christian Haas of the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Helmholtz Centre. “The rapid decline in sea ice over the past six years is quite remarkable since the ice cover hardly changed at all in the thirty-five years before.” Read on.

A “race” that we will never fully understand, this is still awesome news…

After more than five months alone at sea, 40-year old South African Kirsten Neuschäfer made history last night as the first woman to round Cape Horn at the head of the solo round-the-world Golden Globe Race.

Kirsten Neuschäfer (ZA) on MINNEHAHA currently leading the race © Kirsten /GGR2022
Kirsten Neuschäfer left Les Sables d’Olonne 164 days ago, without a telephone, GPS or technology with one goal: to win the ancestor of the Vendée Globe. The only woman on the starting line, she has survived the odds without assistance – drinking rainwater, braving storms and diving into the middle of the ocean to clean her hull. She has even saved fellow competitor Tapio Lehtinen, whose ship had sunk.

Kirsten’s feat goes further than a token win, it is an incredible achievement given the difficulty of the Golden Globe Race. Among the breakages, despair, abandonments, and shipwrecks, the flame has been extinguished for most of the competitors. Last September, there were 16 participants at the start in Les Sables d’Olonne. Now there are only four. With only a simple sextant to orient themselves, they have had a very turbulent season, worthy of a Netflix series.

The conditions became even tougher two weeks ago. Read on.

Big Pimpin’

The eXtreme High Load block range continues to grow with the addition of the new Allen Brothers 20mm XHL double blocks, available with or without a becket.

The new A2022XHL & A2023XHL follow the success of the 30mm XHL ILCA Top Block. A block that was explicitly designed for the ILCA vang system. The two new 20mm doubles are no different and have been developed alongside the world’s best ILCA sailors and riggers. However, they are more than suitable for any application which requires working loads up to 600Kg.

Using a block with a 600Kg working load may seem like overkill for a boat such as the ILCA, but with top-level sailors continuing to work harder and drive their kit to the limits more often it would come as no surprise that sailors are now pushing the kit beyond its normal limits, which has left to top-level athletes wanting a block that can withstand the punishment without compromising on performance.

I wonder if any of you may be interested in my 7.5 m foiling trailer sailer project. I know strictly speaking it is not a sport boat but it does have twin trapezes!! And headroom for short people! And I could use some help sourcing a 150-175 kg keel bulb and a 9.5 m carbon mast.

7.5 m long plus 350 mm boarding platform 2.5 m wide, draft 2.0  headroom 1.75m sleeps 4 nominally light displacement 850 kg sailing 1100 with 2 crew 115 kg !!!  2 Invert T hydrofoils with 35% flaps and 2 t rudders with variable AoA like a moth or maybe like an A class.  Sail area main 20 m2 jib 13.2 m2  Fro and kite to be determined.

Construction is 6 and 9 mm ply over stringers with 100 gm carbon biaxial inside and 300 gm carbon biaxial outside with 100 gm glass cloth on the outside. Plywood 1.5 to 4 mm with high-density styrofoam 60 psi and carbon for the bulkheads and berth tops and sides. galley and loo similar construction .cabin top is carbon styrofoam 60 psi carbon with   Foam replaced with shear webs and uni carbon caps.I only wish  Julian B had started his 89er sooner and I would have reduced a lot of my laminates and used more Basalt and pet foam. However, I got the carbon really cheaply. Currently weighs 520 kg with all interior in place and most of the fairing done.

I have been working on this for 2.3 yrs so this is slow going for me after building the NZ tris Dragon and Timber Wolf much faster . Guess I am getting old, but it is taking longer than building Free Radical  10.5 m cat .

Jump in the thread!

Big Pimpin’

More speed but also more space, more payload and better handling… as the booming multihull market continues to evolve, Outremer keeps on refining its winning formula. Ask the movers and shakers in the design world what defines performance and many will say that it is not always about straight-line speed. Instead, handling frequently comes top of the list. Multihull builder Outremer would be among the first to agree.

Throughout their 37 years, the French shipyard has created a reputation for producing cruising cats with a focus on performance. And while their models have a habit of going well in a straight line, how they handle is just as important. The fact that their earlier boats often had tillers instead of wheels is just one of the clues as to what makes their boats so different. Helming for the hell of it is a core part of the Outremer philosophy and in this respect, the tiller says it all. Read on.

As seen at the Alabama Yacht Club aka Buc-ee’s, the World’s largest gas station.  “You best get that Chinese thing outta here, son”. Thanks to anarchist John.

The Environment

New Zealand declared a national state of emergency for only the third time in its history on Tuesday as Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread flooding, landslides and huge ocean swells, forcing evacuations and stranding people on roof tops.

“It has been a big night for New Zealanders across the country, but particularly in the upper North Island … a lot of families displaced, a lot of homes without power, extensive damage done across the country,” Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters after the declaration. Gabrielle is 100 km (60 mile…

More here.

Alistair Murray, the President of Australian Sailing, says he thinks a rules loophole that allows yachts to be re-rated unlimited times is “ridiculous”. 

“I can’t understand that,” he said of the multiple-certificate tactic, “I think it’s ridiculous.”

Murray was speaking to Sailing Anarchy in response to the disquiet over Hobart-winner Celestial’s last-minute IRC certificate change ten days before the race. 

The President is one of the few people involved in this protracted saga prepared to talk ‘on the record’. His frankness in such a heated debate is welcome. 

“I’ve been well aware of the conjecture about the rating”, Murray told SA. “Australian Sailing has no agenda here. We’re not trying to protect anybody. Celestial’s just another boat as far as we’re concerned. 

  “The measurement of Celestial was completed by an experienced, accredited measurer following our normal procedures and it’s been checked by Australian Sailing and the RORC. As far as we’re concerned, as the authority, our job’s done.”

The President did, however, concede that legitimate avenues of inquiry were available to test the validity of Celestial’s rating.

 “It frustrates me that there is all this discussion when all the competitor has to do is put up their hand and say ‘There’s something fishy here and I’m protesting’. 

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So this super long but pretty awesome video should give you reason to live.

Big Pimpin’

Simpson Bay, St Maarten: With a record-setting number of participants and a whole new element added to the festivities—a dedicated cruising rally run in conjunction with the racing regatta that’s been the hallmark of the event—the fifth running of the annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally, which took place from February 3-5, was an unqualified success. As the CMC continues to grow and evolve, it’s an ideal time to look back at what transpired this year and ahead to the next edition, scheduled to take place next February 2-4, 2024.

The Racing: Principal race officer Rein Korteknie needed perfect Caribbean trade-wind conditions to pull off what amounted to a Triple Crown of offshore contests, the CMC Trifecta of point-to-point races for the CSA 1 class, and the weather gods fully cooperated. Looking at the weekend forecast, he decided to run the shortest race of the three on the windiest day and scheduled the CMC 27 Mile Around Island Circle Race sponsored by Amstel Bright for Sunday’s finale. With that date established, he then sent the fleet on the Around Saba Dash sponsored by the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau on Friday and the Caribbean 60 Mile Multihull Sprint, a power reach around St. Barth’s sponsored by FKG Rigging, for Saturday.

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After a tight and I am sure terse battle involving virtually the whole fleet Keving Escoffier and the Holcim PRB team crossed the finish line less than 5 Nautical Miles ahead of the third-placed boat.

The last few miles to the finish saw a virtual match race between 11th Hour and Biotherm with the first one just ahead, then the other. It would have made a great video but sadly there was no coverage of the finish on the TOR website with Biotherm eking out the second lace just 1 minute behind the winner with 11th Hour Racing completing the podium just 10 minutes or so later. Cutting the corner close to the finish and ending up in the wind shadow of the land proved to be expensive for Charlie Enright’s team.

This second-in-a-row leg victory opens up a 3-point gap with pre-race favorites, Charlie Enright’s 11th Hour Racing, slipping to third in the leg and Biotherm’s second place leaving them just 1 point behind them overall.

At this stage in the race, 3 points don’t sound much but in a fleet of just 5 boats, the scoring potential difference between first and last is only 4 points so close to a leg lead already.

As I write this Team Malizia in 13 miles from the finish at 5.7 knots with backmarker GUYOT environment – Team Europe is 46.3 Nm from Capetown at 10.1kts which barring accidents should be the final finishing order. 

The next leg from Capetown to Itajai, at 12,750 Nautical Miles is the big one, what TOR delight in saying is the longest ever in the history of the race at the expense of the first time in 5 editions no China stopover and Auckland dumped as well.

The three leading skippers know only too well the dangers and challenges that the Southern Ocean can bring.

Third-placed Paul Meilhat had to retire with keel problems from the 2016 Vendee Globe although I am unsure whether this was down south or elsewhere. Current second overall Charlie Enright’s Vestas was dismasted in the last  Volvo Ocean Race. Race Leader Kevin Escoffier has certainly had his ‘excitements’ down below the great capes with Dongfeng Race Team losing the top third of their mast 2 races ago while just 250 miles short of Cape Horn meaning a trip up an unstable rig by Escoffier to cut away the debris. Also of course in the last Vendee Globe the bow of his previous IMOCA dramatically folded giving him minutes to get off the boat before it sank beneath the waves. Fortunately, a superb display of seamanship by Jean le Cam led to Escoffier’s rescue.

The leg will surely be won by knowing when to take the pedal off the gas just enough to stay in front without breaking the boat. 

Time will tell.

Alistair Skinner aka Shanghai Sailor 

Jesus bro, how many decent people you gonna get for your beater Melges 24 with this kind of ad? You sound like such a delight. Oh and nice job putting up pictures of M24’s that aren’t yours. Douche.

Boat is NOT for sale. We are looking for LONG TERM Crew to sail/race with us on our Melges 24. NO TOURIST. NO ride-a-longs. Some sailing experience is helpful but, not required. We would be willing to teach the right person if its a good long term fit.

The Melges 24 sport boats are not for the fragile. They are a very exciting and fast boats that require agility by all onboard. All Crew help from setup, sail/race and tear down of this awesome trailer boat.
Our goal is racing. Yes, we do sail for just a nice day on the water and for practice but, the goal is to race the boat.

Races are held on Saturdays February-November with approximately 20 scheduled for 2023.
Race days are long days. So, we try to launch the boat the day before and land the day after. Typically half the Crew helps on the frontend while the other half help on the backend. However, that is not always an option and everything needs to be done on race day (10-11+ hour day). Lastly, our motto is to be safe, have fun and absolutely no drama.

If you are interested ask yourself these questions:

* are you available on Saturdays (if your answer is no STOP HERE)?
* are you visiting Maui (if your answer is yes STOP HERE)?
* are you interested in sailboat racing (if your answer is no (STOP HERE)?
* do you have any back, neck or mobility problems (if your answer is yes STOP HERE)?
* are you available for practice days other than race day (if your answer is no STOP HERE)?
* need drama in your life (if your answer is yes STOP HERE)?
If you have successfully navigated through the six questions above and still interested, so are we!
Please feel free to reach out for more information. ALOHA!

Of course it’s a craigslist ad.

It never ceases to amaze what weird boats people come up with…

Saffier Yachts claims with its slogan to build world class dayboats. It is clear that in terms of style, the latest Saffier SE 24 Lite presented at Boot 2023, is indeed elegant and does not go unnoticed. The 8-meter sailboat, with its inverted bow and its metallic green hull color, is not made for boaters wishing to remain discreet. We can imagine it very well on the upscale bodies of water of the Gulf of Morbihan , the island of Ré or Arcachon, the sailboat being approved in category D. Read on.

The Environment

Greenpeace is continuing to escalate its protests against Shell and the company’s offshore oil drilling including continuing to occupy an FPSO unit being transported to join the company’s North Sea operations. Additional protestors boarded the heavy-lift ship carrying the unit for Shell and despite court orders seeking to end the protests they are currently in a standoff as the vessel is now anchored in the North Sea.

The protestors are demanding that Shell stop expanding its oil and gas production around the world and take responsibility for “fueling the climate crisis” by paying taxes. The protest began off the coast of Africa on January 31 when Greenpeace activists using small boats boarded the White Marlin, a 72,000 dwt heavy lift vessel transporting the FPSO. Greenpeace says the unit will be a key piece of oil and gas equipment that will be used to unlock eight new wells in the Penguins field in the North Sea.  Read on.

Perhaps not so ‘sustainable’, eh Ben?

Banque Populaire Dropped Me

Clarisse sur l’Atlantique

I gave birth to a baby girl November 2022 While nothing obliged me, I had informed my sponsor Banque Populaire as of February 2021 of my child’s project. They still chose me for this new Globe Vendée and communicated our mutual commitment in fall 2021.

I learned last Friday that Banque Populaire had finally decided to replace me. By their decision, and despite my constant will, I will not be part of the Vendée Globe 2024.

Vendée Globe rules for the 2024 edition require all skippers to compete based on race miles. On this note, I of course fell behind the other competitors at the start, this maternity left me out of qualifying for a year.

Today Banque Populaire decides that it represents for them a “risk” that they ultimately do not want to take.

I am in shock, other projects launched much more recently are still going on without an eyebrow. 2 full seasons left and 4 transatlantic to get back on the level I was on the edge to finish my rehab asap.

But for Banque Populaire it would be “let fate choose in their place”, while they “must” be at the start of the Vendée Globe. They’re willing to take on the risk of a giant trimaran, and all the natural, technical and human hazards of racing offshore, but obviously not motherhood.

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Holy hell, these are incredible!

We reckon the only reason North sold is that it doesn’t make any money. And a company owned by a private equity firm is only there for one thing – to make money… And why didn’t US Ailing buy this? Oh that’s right, they don’t really give a shit about doing the right thing…

American Sailing (ASA), a sailing education organization with more than 400 locations worldwide, has acquired North U, a performance sail racing education company that teaches sailors sail trim, tactics, and strategy to win races. American Sailing affiliate schools will soon have the opportunity to teach North U courses to their students, expanding the target audience from recreational cruising sailors to also include racers.

“We are excited to add North U courses to the American Sailing curriculum,” says Jonathan Payne, Executive Director of ASA. “North U has a long history of excellence and teaching high-performance sailing to those that want to win regattas and races. We have tested the waters for the last 24 months by holding online North U classes for ASA students and members and have had a great turnout. We have seen sailing get younger recently and are eager to provide exciting courses for those sailors that are looking for a bit more of an adrenaline rush.”

The acquisition brings along Bill Gladstone, Director of North U, to join the team at American Sailing. Gladstone, who has been sailing for over 40 years and raced collegiately for Yale, will continue to develop certifications, textbooks, and curriculum for racing students at ASA schools. “I’m excited to join forces with the ASA to bring performance sailing and racing programs to a broader audience,” says Gladstone. “After my experience with ASA over the last two years I look forward to working with their development team to create and refine Intro to Racing, Racing Tactics, Racing Trim, and Performance Sailing programs using the full array of modern training methods.

Jump in the thread on this.

It is funny how two people can feel differently about a movie. I watched 20 minutes of it last night, and immediately turned it off. I was expecting a documentary, not a docudrama, and a lame one at that. Zero interest.

You, on the other hand, may like it…- ed.

I watched the movie ‘True Sprit’ last night. It’s on Netflix and was inspired by the young Australian sailor Jessica Watson who, in 2010 made history when she sailed solo, non-stop around the world aboard her S&S 34 named Ella’s Pink Lady. The voyage took 210 days. Jessica was just 16 years old. 

I really enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it.

I followed Jessica’s trip as I have always been inspired by the quest to become the youngest person to solo circumnavigate starting back when I was just a kid growing up in South Africa and followed the voyage of Robin Lee Graham aboard 24-foot Lapworth sloop named Dove. Robin Lee Graham was of course the California teenager who set off in the summer of 1965 returning five years later. He, of course, stopped along the way but it was still an amazing accomplishment. They made a movie out of his story and it inspired me off the couch and around the world; numerous times.

Since True Sprit’s release last week, there have been various comments online about the movie ranging from “hokey” to “downright brilliant.” I fall somewhere between the two but fully understand why some sailors might regard it as hokey. I am presuming they are hard-core sailors looking for a hard-core sailing movie. What they don’t realize is that the massive audience that Netflix has is comprised mostly of non-sailors and that’s the audience the film was written and directed toward. So what if there was a brief second when I noticed that the sheet was the wrong way around the winch.

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Big Pimpin

UK Sailmakers’ lead designer Pat Considine’s capabilities and skills in the use of state-of-the-art sail design software are at world-class level. There are many things in life that you may know how to do… but can you do it on a world-class level? Sure, you know how to drive, but could you win a Formula One race? You know how the pieces on a backgammon board are moved, but can you beat a master backgammon player? You know how to sail, but can you win a foiling moth championship?

Sure, your sailmaker may know how to use a computer to design a sail, but does your sailmaker know how to make that design software perform at a level comparable with winning that F-1 race, making a living playing backgammon, or being the foiling Moth World Champ? Probably not.

Considine has been working for UK Sailmakers leading its Chicago loft for 30 years. Over the past decade, his design work has blended his intuitive artistry as a traditionally trained sailmaker with BSG Developments’ leading-edge sail design software applications. More here.

We’ve known Tom Hirsch for quite a few years, mostly through Flying Tigers. We wish him well.

It might just be a coincidence, but the release last Thursday by the Rating Office of the Royal Ocean Racing Club of its “updated” Measurement Manual for IRC handicaps brought the protracted debate over the rating of Sydney-Hobart winner Celestial immediately to mind.

Maybe that was their intention. The notion that the RORC could now feel the need to bolster its own credentials as a rating agency is difficult to avoid. The wording of the manual is a curious mixture. Some sentences read as self-congratulation; others more like attempts by the RORC to relieve themselves of direct responsibility for the veracity of the ratings they themselves finally determine. 

Thus, on the one hand, we have this:

“The IRC Rating Authority takes great care in checking the data supplied, even for standard certificates …The measurer’s responsibility is to achieve a fair and accurate result, rather than the optimum result for the particular owner.”

But, on the other:

“The international IRC rating rule has always been a self-measurement system, and official measurement is not a rule requirement unless the boat needs an Endorsed IRC certificate.”

The Notice of Race for the Sydney-Hobart does require, at 3.3 (a) (i)), that IRC boats may only enter if they have “a current, valid Endorsed IRC Certificate”. That compulsory endorsement is enabled by Australian Sailing, the national Rule Authority. The IRC Manual spells out the obligations of their key role:

“The Rule Authority carries responsibility for auditing the boat’s data file and for defining what, if any, data is to be verified. In doing this, the data and measurement standards shall be applied.”  

Those are firm principles of oversight but Australia Sailing has now three times, refused to answer legitimate questions from SA about the reporting and endorsement process in relation to Celestial. They continue to maintain the absurd fiction that “the processes through which we might present facts are defined and limited by the rules which govern the race”.  

In the face of such nonsense, it is inevitable that doubts and uncertainty about the whole system continue. We are moving into ‘What have they got to hide?’ Territory. 

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But hey, at least the foil kinda saved it, right? That’s Guyot environment during the Ocean race. More here.

Keeping track of Celestial is getting to be a bit like the search for the Scarlet Pimpernel. No sooner had the Sydney-Hobart winner returned to its berth at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia than it was gone again. 

An eagle-eyed SA reader has now spotted the TP52 up in the slings at a nearby boatyard – without a rudder, and with the keel/bulb assembly detached (see above). 

Meanwhile, the quest for answers about the boat’s December 16 IRC rating continues.

In response to the initial “no comment” from the Rating Officer at Australian Sailing, SA sent the same sequence of direct questions to the national body’s Head of Governance, Rules and Safety. This is what we asked:

* Who was the accredited measurer for the weight, inclination and overhangs of Celestial?

* When was that hull data measured?

* Who was the accredited measurer for the sails of Celestial?

* When was that sail data collected?

* When was the collated Celestial hull and sail data submitted to Australian Sailing?

* Who submitted that collated Celestial data to Australian Sailing?

* Who endorsed that data on behalf of Australian Sailing?

* When was that data forwarded from Australian Sailing to the RORC Rating  

Office in the UK?  The Head of Governance, Rules and Safety has now replied as follows:

“Thank you for your emails. We won’t be providing a response to your questions. The reason for this is because it’s ultimately the scoring of a race that appears to be your interest, and our roles and the processes through which we might present facts are defined and limited by the rules which govern the race.”

 – anarchist David

Big Pimpin’

McConaghy Boats have partnered with Malcolm McKeon to launch a range of stylish high-performance cruiser-racers from 78ft to 120ft in length. A conscious decision has been taken to eschew exaggerated reverse sheer lines and other “modern” design clues in favor of a minimalist, understated, and slightly classical look. The aim here is to produce a boat whose performance surpasses expectations, rather than a boat that just looks the part.

McConaghy knows a thing or two about building cutting-edge race boats; the company’s reputation is founded on building yachts such as the all-conquering Wild Oats XI, and as a result, it is no surprise to hear they are currently building nine AC40 foiling one-designs for America’s Cup teams. This sort of pedigree means they should be taken seriously when they say they want to shake up the Maxi racing scene. More here.

It appears that long-time sailing and Vendée Globe sponsor Banque Populaire has dropped its sponsorship of female IMOCA skipper Clarisse Cremer. Having just purchased arguably the best current boat in the fleet for her – Charlie Dalin’s APIVIA – Clarisse looked poised to turn in a better result than in her first Vendée Globe where she finished a somewhat underwhelming 12th place on a non-foiling two-generation old boat.

Now, however, it looks like she won’t get that shot, at least not with Banque Pop. The reason? Motherhood, of all things, at least according to an Instagram post where the new mother shared her anger and frustrations with the world. Having missed the Route du Rhum, and also the Vendée Arctique (in which Nico Lunven replaced her), Clarisse had sacrificed a couple of valuable opportunities to gain qualification miles in the IMOCA Globe Series to start a family.

Despite having nearly two full seasons and a handful of opportunities left to potentially qualify for the next Vendée Globe, the top brass at Banque Populaire have now dropped the popular female skipper due to it being too risky that she may not qualify for the next Vendée Globe; a risk that the company was reportedly unwilling to take.

Whether this is the real reason for Banque Pop dropping Clarisse, or merely just a convenient cop-out with abysmal optics is up for debate. As always, our forums were on it within minutes. What do you think? Nothing to see here, or is misogyny on full display?

The Environment

Four Greenpeace activists boarded an underway heavy-lift vessel carry an FPSO unit for saying they will occupy the equipment to call attention to their demands to stop offshore oil drilling. They unfurled a banner reading “Stop Drilling. Start Paying.”

The 72,000 dwt heavy lift vessel White Marlin was last reported off the coast of Morocco in the Atlantic just north of the Canary Islands. It is showing an AIS destination of Norway while Greenpeace is reported that the vessel and the FPSO are on the way to the Penguins field northeast of the Shetland Islands in the North Sea.

“We’re taking action today because when Shell extracts fossil fuels it causes a ripple of death, destruction and displacement around the world,” said Yeb Saño, executive director of Greenpeace Southeast AsiSo who is now on board the Greepeace vessel Arctic Sunrise. “We will take them on at sea, at shareholder meetings, in the courtroom, online, and at their headquarters. We won’t stop until we get climate justice. We will make polluters pay.” More here.

What a weird tagline for an America’s Cup team. Funny, competition usually makes me feel dumber…

Humans have been sailing the seas for a very long time. In the beginning, boats ventured at sea for fishing, but they were also the only means of transportation and connection between islands. As ships increased in dimension, they also started to be used for warfare. Ships became a means for transporting goods at sea or on rivers and eventually also for moving passengers. Over time, the reasons for shipbuilding have changed, and so have the design, materials, and construction techniques of vessels. Commercial objectives drove shipbuilders’ choices. Onboard comforts and aesthetics were not a priority.

It is also worth remembering that until around the 1700’s, there were no schools of shipbuilding, designs, or rules, and all knowledge was passed down orally by skilled shipbuilders. The construction of a ship is an ancient craft that did not evolve much for centuries.

The advent or recreational sailing drastically changed things. Sailing for pleasure is a recent practice. It is only in the course of the last two centuries that navigation for pleasure or sports did start. Read on.