In This Issue
• Gran Canaria shines on SSL Gold Cup 1/4 Finals Day 3
• Official Practice Raceday in Jeddah
• The best of everything - Wessex Resins
• ARKEA Ultim Challenge
• Sailing Artwork For Sale
• Retour A La Base: The Big IMOCA Test Of 2024
• Sam Goodchild's first solo IMOCA race
• RORC Caribbean 600 - Stellar cast building
• Taylor Canfield Named USA SailGP Team Driver
• Featured Charter: Mane et Nocte
• Featured Brokerage:
• • J112E - "Aquaplay"
• • Gunboat 72
• • Kinetic Catamarans - KC54
• The Last Word: Robert F. Kennedy

Brought to you by Seahorse magazine and YachtScoring.com EuroSail News is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to

Gran Canaria shines on SSL Gold Cup 1/4 Finals Day 3
Tuesday's light winds meant we only had two races, so Wednesday was catch-up time, with the wind playing ball, delivering a beautiful 8 knots. A daunting six races were scheduled - physically and mentally draining for the teams and race organisers alike.

For Fleets 1 & 4, only one race was scheduled, but Fleets 2 & 3 had it all on, with two races in the day, including Fleet 3 sailing back-to-back races - the equivalent of a team having to play two matches in two days at the football world cup.

Gran Canaria was at its absolute sparkling best, with wall to wall sunshine and a superb sailing breeze. Game on. Some days at the SSL Gold Cup provide drama, some frustration, but today sailing was the winner. Exceptional conditions, racing of the highest calibre, and smiles all round.

Six races seemed like a tall order at the beginning of the day, but Gran Canaria came up trumps. Follow us LIVE each day as we present you with all the latest SSL Gold Cup news from on and off the water:

starsailors.com

Official Practice Raceday in Jeddah
After the swells and wind of yesterday's race management practice, today the Red Sea served up flat water and a northerly airflow with a windspeed that hovered around 10 knots for the Official Practice Races at the start of the America's Cup Preliminary Regatta Jeddah, presented by NEOM.

Technique of a very different kind was the order of the day today but after three races, an indication of the front-runners in contention to lift the magnificent trophy at the end started to be formed. 100% flight time was an absolute must and a determinant of outcome in all three fleet races, and indeed the match races, with the trim teams really earning their keep. Full-on concentration was required from those sitting behind their helms in the AC40s but equally, smooth helming through the manoeuvres was paramount and by the time racing concluded, a pattern emerged.

The race committee initiated three match-race practice starts with ITA vs USA, FRA vs SUI and GBR vs NZ, all remarkable for the errors that crept in to all three race flights. In the first start, Luna Rossa came off their foils on a circling gybe, losing grip on the rudder, nose-diving and ending their race. In the second start the French were OCS and so too in the third race, INEOS Britannia were called over. The format of these practice match races was for the boats to sail for just three minutes upwind and then head back. Little to take away other than all teams were a way away from perfect so the team coaches will have much to discuss in the debriefs. The best by a mile were Emirates Team New Zealand, NYYC American Magic and Alinghi Red Bull Racing- and there was a sense that time in the simulator and on the water was paying dividends for these three teams. -- Magnus Wheatley

americascup.com

The best of everything - Wessex Resins
When Spirit Yachts and Ben Ainslie's BAR Technologies set out to create a wooden foiling motor launch, they chose West System and Pro-Set epoxies

Wood is not a material that's typically associated with the very latest technologies. Yet the Spirit/ BAR 35ft electric foiling motor yacht is proof that timeless natural materials can be the perfect choice for bleeding-edge projects when it is combined with appropriate resin and reinforcing systems.

An ethos that's always driven Spirit Yachts is one of innovation. The Spirit/BAR foiler is a collaboration of like-minded thinking that combines founder Sean McMillan's design and styling flair with the yard's outstanding constructional skills, the expertise in high-speed foiling craft at Ben Ainslie's BAR Technologies and a visionary, receptive owner.

Full article in the December issue of Seahorse

ARKEA Ultim Challenge
There will be six "Giants of the Seas" to set off from Brest, with a solitary skipper on board, who will attempt to complete a circumnavigation of the world from West to East, via the 3 capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn). . A human and technological challenge carried by the sailors of the Ultim 32/23 Class accompanied by their shipowners and partners.

Some of them have already completed the journey in a multihull and single-handed: Francis Joyon, Dame Ellen MacArthur, Thomas Coville, Francois Gabart; notably as part of solo round the world record sailing campaigns, but no one has ever done it in a race!

Alone, on their giant multihulls, for 40 to 50 days, the skippers will be subjected to extreme variations in weather conditions and will have to deal with wind, waves, swell and ice. Anticyclonic systems, with little wind, as well as depressions, most often causing strong winds, will punctuate the life of sailors on board and influence the trajectory strategies adopted.

Sailing around the world is above all a climatic journey: the descent of the Atlantic, the crossing of the Indian Ocean and then the Pacific until heading north again up the Atlantic...

arkeaultimchallengebrest.com/en

Sailing Artwork For Sale
Another one from your humble narrator's soon-to-be downsized art collection. This one another rarity, a poster from the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup, signed by the artist Gerard Courbouleix-Deneriaz, also known as Razzia.

Razzia is one of the last poster artists to remain in an era dominated by computer-generated images. He began his career in what can be called the golden age of poster art. Razzia is unique in that he still uses the same old style to make his posters. He continues to make posters from an original painting, as opposed to computer graphics.

His work evokes Art Deco. He is best known for his work for Louis Vuitton. A retrospective of his work was published in 2007. * Source: Wikipedia

Shows the challengers battling on the Mediterranean Sea. The event was won by Team New Zealand, 30.75" x 25.25", linen backed.

Price reduced to $350 and includes shipping (in a tube, without frame) to anywhere in the world.

Contact

Retour A La Base: The Big IMOCA Test Of 2024
The 3,500 nautical miles solo IMOCA race, the Retour a La Base, from Martinique back to the famous epicentre of French ocean racing Lorient La Base without doubt represents the toughest test of the 2023 season, a fitting finale before the fleet is lifted out for their winter refits. The 33 solo skippers leave the warmth of the French Antilles and head back across the Atlantic to the December chill of Europe and the west coast of France.

From the trade winds belt the racers climb north, ideally to hook into a fast moving Atlantic low pressure system three or four days after the start, which they should ride back eastwards to France. In many respects it is a good test of boats and sailors for next year's Vendee Globe.

For Conrad Colman (MAIL BOXES ETC.), this "mixture of upwind, depressions and surfing could be good for the daggerboard boats, they often do well in mixed conditions and headwinds," emphasizes the New Zealander Colman.

The Retour a La Base is in effect a good "final test run before the 2024 season and the Vendee Globe" says Romain Attanasio. "The solo round the world race is already on everyone's minds and this transatlantic race will be invaluable in our preparations."

"We will find conditions which will be close to what we get on the Vendee Globe," agrees Fabrice Amedeo (Nexans- Art & Fenetres). "The North Atlantic solo and in winter will be really useful to prepare for the big south which I don't know at all yet ," says Antoine Cornic (Human Immobilier).

"And everyone who will be racing north in the Vendee Globe will have to go up the North Atlantic in winter, in January 2025, in similar conditions," concludes Hubert Lemonnier, the Race Director.

The Retour a La Base starts Thursday 11:00hrs UTC…

retouralabase.com

Sam Goodchild's first solo IMOCA race
When he starts the Retour a La Base solo race back to France on Thursday lunchtime, for Britain's Sam Goodchild the pressure will be off in terms of delivering a result. An excellent third place on the outward Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre, sailing For The Planet, means that the primary focus of the first solo IMOCA ocean race of his career will be about developing his solo game and not pushing the risks to achieve a result on a course which promises to be fast and gnarly.

Describe the course and the key stages?
"It is broken into three stages, going upwind or close to upwind to go north. And there is a light winds zone to get through on the Azores or North Atlantic high and then we try and hook into a low pressure coming off the eat coast of the USA. Ideally it is going at the same speed as us and we ride it all he way to France. I guess where the variation is what sort of low pressure do you get, how fast is it going and how south it is. That will determine very quickly what sort of conditions you have. It is going to be interesting. The first four days could be quite chilled out then it will be full on."

Do you foresee there being strategic options which will split the fleet?
" At the moment I don't think there will be huge splits. I think, again, everyone want to compare themselves to each other, the split will come when we go east when you decide how much wind you want to be in, some might want to be in 40kts some in 20kts, I imagine it will stay fairly close together."

facebook.com/samgoodchildracing/

RORC Caribbean 600 - Stellar cast building
The 15th anniversary edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 starts in Antigua on 19th February, and since its launch last year, the RORC Nelson's Cup Series provides an additional action-packed event with racing starting on 13th of February.

The RORC Nelson's Cup Series is an ideal way to have a full racing programme of inshore and 'round Antigua' racing, as well as fun-filled social events in the build-up to the RORC Caribbean 600. The Series is also open to teams that are not entered for the 600-mile offshore. The latest stand-out teams to enter the RORC Nelson's Cup Series are Wendy Schmidt's phenomenal Botin 85 Deep Blue (USA), The Askew Brothers with their Botin 52 Wizard (USA), and James Neville's Carkeek 45 Ino Noir (GBR). Peter and David Askew, overall winners of the 2019 RORC Caribbean 600 with Volvo 70 Wizard have recently acquired the former RORC Yacht of the Year and three-time winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart, Ichi Ban. RORC Commodore James Neville's Ino Noir will be defending his overall win under IRC for the Antigua 360, won on his previous boat Ino XXX.

RORC Caribbean 600 entries and interests are approaching 50 teams, with crew from all over the world relishing the prospect of superb, warm offshore racing in the Northern Hemisphere winter months. An impressive list of returning boats that have taken Line Honours, Overall, IRC, CSA and MOCRA Class wins, including: MOD70 Argo, Irens 84 Allegra, J/122 El Ocaso, Nielsen 59 Hound, JPK 1180 In Theory, Farr 100 Leopard 3, Multi70 Maserati, Lombard 46 Pata Negra, Pyewacket 70, JPK 1180 Sunrise, PAC52 Warrior Won, and MOD70 Zoulou.

Entries and Expressions of Interest: caribbean600.rorc.org/entries

Taylor Canfield Named USA SailGP Team Driver
Taylor Canfield has been announced as the new driver of the United States SailGP Team following the sale of the team.

Canfield, who will take the wheel for the first time at next week's Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix, replaces outgoing driver Jimmy Spithill. Spithill announced he was departing the team last week, revealing his intention to set up an Italy SailGP Team to enter the league in Season 5.

Canfield is no stranger to the SailGP circuit, and most recently subbed in to replace the team's injured flight controller Hans Henken at last month's Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cadiz.

He has previously raced with both the United States SailGP Team in the role of flight controller with former driver Rome Kirby in Season 1, and with the Spain SailGP Team in Season 2.

Canfield will take charge of the American F50 for the first time at next week's Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O Marinas, where he will go to battle against the nine other national teams in the bid for glory.

The full line-up of the U.S. crew will be announced in the lead up to the event.

sailgp.com

Featured Charter
Mane Et Nocte. From 65,000 per week EUR.

A 23.84m Lagoon Seventy 7 sailing catamaran, MANE ET NOCTE is available for year-round charters in the Seychelles with luxurious facilties and excellent sailing performance.

Charter Rates:
High season: 70 000 EUR / week + VAT + APA
Low season: 65 000 EUR / week + VAT + APA

(The charter rates quoted does not include the VAT and APA)

SUMMER destination: Indian Ocean
The Seychelles

WINTER destination: Indian Ocean
The Seychelles

Cabins: 4 | Guests: 10

See listing details in Seahorse Charters

Contact
Charter Department
Bernard-Gallay
Phone : +33 (0)467 66 39 93
Mail : or

See the the Seahorse charter collection

Featured Brokerage
2021 J112E - "Aquaplay". 399950 EUR. Located in Kiel.

"Aquaplay" is an immaculately presented J112E launched in 2021 to compete at a high level on the ORCi circuit. Supplied and fitted with an enviable options list from both the factory and further race upgrades, make this a top level boat in what can only be described as "turn-key" condition.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats

+447759 424900

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Gunboat 72. Located in La Grande-Motte, France.

The first catamaran with Gunboat performance and a flybridge, the 72 design begins squarely with the cruising aficionado in mind, when nothing other than a Gunboat will do.

For full details please go to... gunboat.com/yachts/gunboat-72/

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

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Kinetic Catamarans - KC54

A performance catamaran that can be comfortably sailed by a cruising couple. The KC54 offers a modern stylish design and all of our standard features.

The KC54 maximizes living space with panoramic 360-degree views from inside its large main salon. The coach roof-mounted mast and traveler facilitate a large forward cockpit for both sailing and leisure and an aft cockpit free of sail controls. It is built for fast coastal and offshore cruising in comfort. It can also be configured as a competitive racer.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Kinetic Catamarans
USA Tel: +1 954 732 2836
Kinetic Catamarans
SA. Tel:+27 44 382 0439

See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/

The Last Word
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. -- Robert F. Kennedy, announcing the death of Martin Luther King

Editorial and letter submissions to

Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see eurosailnews.com/advertise/