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70-year anniversary

01 Sep 2017

The Optimist dinghy was first launched in August 1947

This year is the 70th anniversary of the Optimist pram, originally launched in August 1947.

The single-handed dinghy was designed by the American Clark Mills in 1947 to offer low-cost sailing for young people.

The boat was designed to be built from two 4ft x 8ft sheets of plywood and has now become one of the most popular sailing dinghies in the world with more than 150,000 boats officially registered with the class.

via Boating Business | 70-year anniversary.

Destination: Newport, Rhode Island, USA

BY ADMIN • JULY 21, 2017 • DESTINATIONS • COMMENTS OFF • 103

This small city of 25,000 people on Aquidneck Island punches well above its weight in the sailing world. In many ways it’s the spiritual home of the America’s Cup. Granted competition for the world’s oldest sporting trophy started around the Isle of Wight and it is decades since the racing took place in Newport. Yet for much of the 20th Century, before Australia ll broke the longest winning streak in sporting history, more Cup matches took place here than anywhere else. Today that legacy lives on in a big fleet of ex America’s Cup 12 Metre yachts, many of which are available for charter, and in any case make a fine sight.

The lavish summer homes and mansions both on Aquidneck Island and the scenic myriad of islands in the sheltered waters of Narragansett Bay are also fit for the very top echelons of yacht racing. Newport was the location of the “Summer White House” for both the Eisenhower and John F Kennedy presidencies, while in earlier times some of the country’s wealthiest families, including the Vanderbilts and Astors, had grand summer mansions here.

Newport is a welcoming destination for the widest possible range of sailors and boats, whether ocean cruisers, powerboats, sailing dinghies or racing keelboats. There is a whole host of small boatyards, marinas and mooring providers, many of which cater for visiting yachts, as well as a couple of small anchorages.

Given its heritage it’s perhaps also no surprise that all marine trades are available in Newport and it’s an excellent destination for top quality refit work. A number of big name marine companies are based here, while others have strategic outposts. British boat builder Oyster Yachts, for instance, has an in-house yacht management and refit facility – the company’s only one outside of Europe.

The nine clubs in Narragansett Bay include a base of the New York Yacht Club, which formerly hosted the America’s Cup racing. Newport Yacht Club has a long history of involvement in short-handed racing, including the OSTAR and the Bermuda 1-2, while competitive keelboat racing takes place a variety of others, including Ida Lewis Yacht Club, whose clubhouse is on the tiny island of Lime Rock, connected to the town by a pier.

As might be expected, Newport is also well placed for crew transfers. Providence, RI, which has the nearest international airport can be reached by coach or ferry, while Boston is 72 miles north and New York 125 miles south, both also accessible by train or coach.

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via Destination: Newport, Rhode Island, USA | Yachting News Update | The Business of Boat Ownership and Marina Berths.

Dramatic mid-Atlantic rescues

BY ADMIN • JULY 21, 2017 • RACING • COMMENTS OFF • 153

The OSTAR single-handed trans-Atlantic race has long been considered to be one of the toughest of all ocean races. Competitors have to battle 3,000 miles across the north Atlantic against prevailing winds and currents. But no one could predict the scale of devastation an unseasonal storm would wreak on the fleet this year, the 15th edition of the race since it was first run in 1960.

Of the 21 boats that left Plymouth on May 29, seven of which were two-handed entries in the double handed TWOSTAR race that ran alongside the OSTAR, a quarter would retire in the first week.

In their second week at sea four of the remaining 16 boats were lost in winds gusting 60 to 70 knots and 10-15m seas thanks to a low pressure system of 964 millibars that Canadian forecasters likened to the worst of their winter storms. Storms of this intensity are very rare in early summer, but this one was 15mb lower in pressure than the disastrous 1979 Fastnet race storm in which 15 competitors lost their lives.

Thankfully, on this occasion all the crews were successfully rescued, one lucky competitor by the Queen Mary 2 luxury cruise ship. A further five boats subsequently retired, all making port without assistance, but leaving only seven yachts to finish the race – a retirement rate far in excess of any in the race’s history.

While some readers might make initial assumptions about the seaworthiness of light weight racing yachts, the casualties included a wide variety of craft, including a 11.5 tonne displacement double ended Formosa 42 that had completed numerous previous editions of the race in the hands of owner former Royal Marine Mervyn Wheatley, who had sailed more than 100,000 miles on board.

Italian Andrea Mura took line honours in his Open 50 Vento di Sardegna, but wasn’t able to save his time on Irishman Conor Fogarty’s Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600 Bam, who won the Gipsy Moth class. A second 3600, Australian Mark Hipgrave’s Mister Lucky, was third over the line and on corrected time in the same class. Only two of the slower boats in the Jester Class, are still in the race, Christian Chalandre’s French S&S 34 and Britain’s Neil Payter in his Yamaha 33 Solent One. At the time of writing both were around 300 miles from the finish.

Only two boats in the TWOSTAR division finished the race – Uwe Rottgering and Asia Pajkowska Class 40 Rote 66, and Adelie Parat and Mederic Thiot’s classic 1954 Morgan 54 Midnight Summer Dream.

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Gallic rivals battle for records

BY ADMIN • AUGUST 25, 2017 • BREAKING NEWS, HOMEMOSAIC, RACING • COMMENTS (0) • 22

The friendly rivalry between French sailing legends Francis Joyon and Thomas Colville is set to continue after almost a decade of exchanging records. In the latest 2017 clash Colville once again snatched the record for the solo Atlantic crossing from Jolyn, smashing the five- day barrier and coming home in 4 days 11 hours and 10 minutes, an incredible fifteen hours ahead of the previous record.

This would have been a bitter pill to swallow for Jolyn who had improved his own 2013 record crossing record by 49 minutes in a new time of 5 days, 2 hours and 7 minutes, just three days earlier.

Francis Joyon had followed up winning the Jules Verne trophy for the fastest non-stop circumnavigation in 40 days 23 hours earlier this year with the new record for the quickest single-hander to cross the Atlantic Ocean from west to east. What’s more Joyon wasn’t even aiming to set a new record on this occasion – In his monohull IDEC he merely wanted to beat the time of the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner, so his departure from New York was timed to synchronise with the ship’s schedule, not for an optimal weather window for breaking records.

But it is Thomas Colville who has come out as the winner on this latest clash of the titans when just seven months after setting a new solo record around the world in a record time of 49 days, three hours, and seven minutes, 48-year-old Coville is now the owner of the Solo North Atlantic Record: crossing the Atlantic in less than five days in monohull Sodebo. But be sure his 61-year-old rival will not be retiring from this clash anytime soon.

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Cowes serves up a month of classic races

BY ADMIN • AUGUST 25, 2017 • BREAKING NEWS, HOMEMOSAIC, REGATTAS • COMMENTS (0) • 26

The 52ft Bojar ghosts past the entrance to Cowes Harbour. Credit: Rick Tomlinson

July was a month of almost back to back classic yacht regattas in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, a few miles off the UK’s south coast. The 2017 season kicked off in the second week of the month with the Panerai British Classic Week, organised by the British Classic Yacht Club. Consecutive days of glorious sun and solid breezes showed that Cowes can serve up superlative weather, top notch racing and a social scene to match regattas held anywhere else in the world.

This regatta for 50 stunning yachts, saw a wide mix of designs ranging from a 1904 Fife design, through both Six and Eight Metre classes, to modern Spirit of Tradition yachts. The most eye catching of the latter was undoubtedly Irvine Laidlaw’s new Spirit 52 Oui Fling, a pure racing yacht with no interior. One of Laidlaw’s other yachts, the 68-metre superyacht Lady Christine, was also at Cowes for the duration.

Classic yacht racing can be just as cut throat as with state of the art designs. Here the 1964 Sparkman and Stephens 43ft Firebrand chases the 80 year old 52ft 10-Metre Class Bojar. Credit: Rick Tomlinson

The opening day was an absolute scorcher, with barely a cloud in the sky and glorious sunshine for the parade of yachts past the Royal Yacht Squadron. Racing included round the cans courses in the Solent, which is famed for its unique combination of winds and complex strong tidal streams, as well as a 50-mile circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight on the second day.

The following week saw around 170 boats competing in the Charles Stanley Direct Cowes Classics Week. The dozen and a half classes included a range of Metre Classes including 8mR, 6mR, 5.5mR and Daring (glassfibre 5.5s), along with classic day boats including Dragons, XOD and Flying 15s, plus larger classic yachts and Spirit of Tradition yachts. This year’s event saw a bigger mix of conditions than the previous week, with a number of light airs days, but also racing lost to winds that were too strong for safe competition in the classic day boats.

8-Metres crossing tacks on the first day of Charles Stanley Cowes Classics Week. Credit: Rick Tomlinson

The event is lucky to be able to present a large collection of historic silverware to the many class winners. Murdoch McKillop’s Saskia took first place among the majestic 8-Metre fleet, while John Corby took first place in the Daring Class, also claiming the Metre Regatta Trophy. The mixed fleets of Classic Cruisers saw class wins for the 1964 Sparkman and Stephens 43 Firebrand, and Lawrence Wride’s 1967-built Sunmaid V.

The racing from Cowes continued on July 29, with Lendy Cowes Week, the world’s oldest and largest regatta that sees some 800 boats from modest 19ft day boats to some of the latest 115ft superyachts racing in almost 40 classes. This is immediately followed by the 605 mile Rolex Fastnet Race, in which many of the larger classic yachts will also compete.

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