INDUSTRY NEWS No sailing for LA28 Paralympics 31/01/2023 Save article Sailing will not be reinstated for the LA28 Paralympic Games. SHOW FULLSCREEN LA28 Paralympics will not include sailing, photo courtesy RYA The International Paralympic Committee’s governing board made the decision after assessing applications from International Federations wanting a place. The decision has been met with dismay from the RYA which has been working to reinstate the sport into the games. “We fully respect the verdict of the IPC and recognise the difficulty the IPC Board faced throughout this process,” said World Sailing CEO, David Graham. “However, we must also acknowledge that this is an extremely disappointing day for our whole sport and, in particular, for Para Sailors around the world.” But he added: “Despite this setback, our commitment to our Para Sailors, to the continued growth of Para Sailing, and to the wider Para Sport movement will only grow stronger.” And he explained that other events are including Paralympic sailing with the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships the first championship event. Sara Sutcliffe MBE, RYA chief executive added: “We welcome World Sailing’s commitment to inspire generations of Para Sailing athletes to discover sailing, as it is one of the few sports where men and women can compete alongside and against each other on a level playing field.” Topics Industry NewsLA28Para SportParalympic GamesParalympicsRYA

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NEWS RS Sailing switches identity for growth 11/01/2023 Save article RS Sailing has renamed itself as RS Marine Group to unify all of its brands under one umbrella and help drive growth going forward. SHOW FULLSCREEN Source: RS Marine Group The companies in RS Marine Group’s portfolio include RS Sailing, RS Electric Boats, Cheetah Marine and the all-new Ocean Play zoom inzoom out The companies in RS Marine Group’s portfolio include RS Sailing, RS Electric Boats, Cheetah Marine and the all-new Ocean Play, which will be making Picos and more with Jo Richards. “Each of the companies will retain its individual identity while functions such as finance, marketing, design and business growth will be shared. Common drivers such as sustainability will be brought to the fore as the group expands and utilises its significantly widened network base,” said Jon Partridge, CEO – Commercial, RS Marine Group. Unified approach All RS Marine Group’s current sales and production locations will continue to operate. Alex Newton-Southon, CEO Technical, RS Marine Group, said that a more unified new group will bring benefits to all of its brands and companies. “We have technical expertise across such a wide range of products; imagine the insight we can gain from sharing our experience and ideas. The collaboration benefits are endless as we push toward innovative, sustainable, accessible craft for our customers,” he said. The growth figures detail the need to move ahead in line with the group’s expansion. In 2014, RS Sailing was a £5 million operation, in 2023, the group’s total revenue is forecasted to be £25 million and the aim is to significantly grow this over the next five years. RS Marine Group’s companies share a common goal to improve handling, performance and user friendliness across the sailing and power boat sectors, including specific focus on ever greater sustainability and accessibility attributes. These will build on, for example, Cheetah’s heritage of creating boats for the Wet Wheels Foundation, RS Sailing’s RS21 and RS Electric Boats’ development of the all-electric Pulse 63 RIB.   Topics Industry NewsRS Sailing

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NEWS Multihull designer dies 03/01/2023 Save article Multihull designer and boat builder, Derek Kelsall, has died aged 89. SHOW FULLSCREEN Derek Kelsall with his wife Clare Derek is credited with creating the modern-day trimaran, introducing French sailing legend Eric Tabarly to multihulls and being one of the first to champion foam sandwich construction. Derek was born in North Wales in 1933, growing up in humble surroundings. He studied engineering at Bristol University but was unable to complete his degree when he ran out of money. After completing National Service in Kenya, he entered the oil exploration business working for BP in Libya. His career took him to Texas, at the time when his passion for boating was growing, along with an interest in multihulls, both sailing and building them in the Caribbean. This culminated in a decision to enter the second edition of the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) in 1964 racing Folatre, a 35ft plywood Arthur Piver-designed trimaran which Derek managed to prepare for the race in just two months. After the race, Derek’s interest in multihulls led to him attempting his own trimaran design. The 45ft Toria was one of the most influential multihulls ever, establishing the fundamental concept of what a racing trimaran should look like. SHOW FULLSCREEN Derek Kelsall’s trimaran Toria is believed to be the first boat in the UK to be built using foam sandwich construction The craft had twin crossbeams attaching the relatively high volume, fine bowed floats to the centre hull, their geometry such that at rest only two hulls ever touched the water. She is also said to be the first boat to be built in the UK using foam sandwich construction. Her success on the racecourse created great interest in offshore trimarans, including from French sailing legend Eric Tabarly who helped deliver the boat from Cornwall to the 1967 London Boat Show and who afterwards returned to France to work on his first trimaran with French naval architect André Allègre. Derek continued to enjoy further success with his small trimaran designs into the 1980s, including his Toria development Trifle. His greatest series of race boats were the various ‘Three Legs of Mann’ trimarans built and sailed by Isle of Mann-based Nick Keig. His use of foam sandwich construction attracted some of the top campaigns including Sir Thomas Lipson’s 1968 OSTAR victory which led to Derek building the 78ft long Alan Gurney-designed Great Britain II for Chay Blyth followed by two further large trimarans for the legendary sailor. From the mid-1980s for the rest of his career, Derek’s work as a yacht designer mainly focussed upon fast cruising catamarans, accompanied by further developmental steps in boat building techniques. KSS, the Kelsall Swiftsure Sandwich technique, used flat panels that could be laid up rapidly on a table, enabling construction time to be dramatically reduced, a process Derek first used in 1973 and constantly evolved over subsequent decades. He emigrated to New Zealand after the death of his wife Clare, from where he continued to design yachts and motorboats and promote the KSS. Derek is survived by his partner Paula, daughter Victoria Liepins and son Liam and Liam’s two children Elena and Libby. Meanwhile Derek’s designs, including many of his early work from the 1960s, thanks to their foam sandwich construction, have survived him and are still to be found in every corner of the globe. Topics BoatbuilderDerek KelsallIndustry Newstrimaran

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NEWSUp to £1.6m in damages for skipper03/01/2023Save articleA professional yacht skipper could receive up to £1.6m in damages after he was hit on the head by a 10kg steel pulley on a multi-millionaire’s superyacht.SHOW FULLSCREENAdam Prior was the skipper on board the Eleonora EAdam Prior says he had to give up a life at sea after he was struck in the face by the pulley during a race off the Isle of Wight in July 2015 on board the Eleonora E.The pulley first got stuck on some metal sheeting and then slipped free.Mr Prior, 40, sued Peras Ltd, the company which owns the boat, for £3.2m, claiming he suffered brain damage and blaming unsafe weather and lack of maintenance on the rigging for his accident.The company denied all blame and disputed the amount of compensation claimed – stating that Mr Prior was ‘the author of his own misfortune’.After a four-day trial at the High Court in London, Judge Richard Davison ruled that both Mr Prior and the ship’s owners were equally to blame. The amount of compensation is to be assessed but is set to be reduced by 50% due to Mr Prior’s own negligence.The judge said the yacht’s owners provided unsafe equipment in the shape of a metal rod attached to the 10kg pulley block.The metal sheeting was found to serve no practical purpose and was a cause of the accident as it could make the block stick in a way that was ‘foreseeably dangerous’.However, the judge also said Mr Prior was equally negligent as he crossed through the ‘danger triangle’, area of the ship – where there was extensive rigging and heavy blocks running free.The judge was told Mr Prior crossed by the shortest and most direct route, however there were safer routes that could have been taken.Mr Prior also failed to crouch or check the blocks were out of the way before moving across.The court was told that Mr Prior suffered brain damage causing long-term problems with fatigue and reduced concentration which meant he was no longer able to work on yachts.Mr Prior claimed the wind was gusting up to 30 knots on the day of the accident – a claim denied by the defence – and Eleonora E shouldn’t have been racing.However the judge stated the wind had played no part in the accident.Eleonora E was launched in 2000 and is a replica of the transatlantic schooner Westward.TopicsEleonora EIndustry NewsRegattaSchoonerSuperyacht

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