US SailGP Team hunts elusive win at Great Britain Sail Grand Prix this weekend

 The United States SailGP Team has arrived in Plymouth, UK looking to climb the Season 2 standings at the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix this weekend, Saturday, July 17 through Sunday, July 18, in the third event of the global championship calendar.

Last month's thrilling Italy Sail Grand Prix in Taranto ended in disbelief for the American team when it's F50 catamaran suffered an underwater collision while leading and with the finish line in sight on the penultimate leg of the podium finals. With the taste of that narrow loss still fresh, the United States SailGP Team is more determined than ever to return to the water.

"We've seen that our team has what it takes to win races," said U.S. SailGP Team Driver Jimmy Spithill. "That's no small feat in a league as competitive as SailGP. Momentum is on our side and this team is confident that if we keep sailing as well as we have, good results will follow."

Sail GP to reward sustainability, diversity and inclusion

 Sail GP has become one of the first global sporting competitions to reward sustainability and diversity.

The new Impact League will feature a podium for climate positivity as well as speed across the water.

The nine-event championship sees eight teams racing across the globe also measured on the actions taken to reduce their carbon footprint.

Points will be awarded for clean energy solutions, removing all single-use plastics, plus diversity and inclusion.

The end-of season, winner-takes-all, final event in San Francisco will see separate podiums across two criteria, the most sustainable team earning a funding boost of $150,000 (£108,000) for their chosen environmental partner. The winners of the actual race will receive $1m (£720,000).

Four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie, chief executive and driver of Great Britain's team, said: "If we don't act now, all the amazing sport that gives us such joy, from the grassroots all the way to the top of the professional game, is under threat from the impact of climate change."

The Impact League was launched before the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Plymouth this weekend, the third event in Sail GP's second season, following Bermuda and Italy, and will travel next to Aarhus in Denmark before reaching Saint-Tropez, Cadiz-Andalusia, Sydney and Christchurch before the grand final in California.

Ainslie's GB team currently lie second in the rankings behind Spain.

Rolex Fastnet Race - French are the pace setters in IRC One

 IRC One will be one of the toughest battlegrounds within the Rolex Fastnet Race, and the French will be a hard act to beat. Among the leading contenders are Jacques Pelletier's Milon 41 L'Ange De Milon which won IRC One in the 2019 edition.

There's a strong British contingent from the FAST 40+ class that spend a lot of time short-course racing in the Solent, but some of which are capable of gearing up for going offshore. Names to watch include Dutchman Bastiaan Voogd's Hitchhiker, although the boat has been out of the water for a year. With her water ballast and lighter bulb set-up Ed Fishwick's Redshift could excel in light winds, whereas in stronger conditions the advantage will move towards RORC Commodore James Neville's Ino XXX who has recent form in winning the 2021 Cowes Dinard St Malo race. Twin rudders and high-clew reaching sails make this HH42 well suited to fast and furious offshore conditions.

2021 RORC Cowes Dinard St Malo Race

 Ino XXX wins the King Edward VII Cup

120 boats competed in the 2021 Cowes Dinard St Malo Race. The historic race which dates back to 1906, was won overall by RORC Commodore James Neville's HH42 Ino XXX. Ed Bell's JPK 1180 Dawn Treader was second and Ed Fishwick's GP42 Redshift was third. In the modern era, James Neville is the first RORC Commodore in office to win the King Edward VII Cup.

Line Honours for the MOCRA Class was taken by Francis Joyon's IDEC. Line Honours for monohulls,and winner of IRC Zero, was Eric de Turckheim's NMYD54 Teasing Machine. Congratulations to all the class winners: Nicolas Jossier's Class40 La Manche #EvidenceNautique, Ed Bell's JPK 1180 Dawn Treader, Louis-Marie Dussere's JPK 1080 Raging-Bee", and Elizabeth Wallis' Albin Express, Expressly Forbidden.

Full results at www.rorc.org/racing/race-results/2021-results

Katie McCabe is sailing around Britain – aged 14

 Fourteen-year-old Katie McCabe is sailing single-handed around Britain anticlockwise on her 26ft Morgan Giles. 

The teenager departed from the River Exe, on 30 June, followed by her dad David in his 33ft yawl, however, she is doing all of the chartwork and navigation herself.

Challenges so far have included battling leaks on board, negotiating the busy port of Dover, negotiating locks at Eastbourne and Harwich, fog, early starts in darkness, a small blow off Selsey Bill and choppy seas.

If successful, Katie could take the mantle from Timothy Long of being the youngest person to sail solo around Britain.

The teenager, who grew up on boats, found her project boat Falanda in 2019 and restored her, with the help of dad David, who is a wooden boat builder.

Last Summer, Katie sailed Falanda to the Isles of Scilly and back, around 400 miles, with her family sailing nearby in the yawl Amaryllis. 

Mum Hazel and brother Reuben, aged 10, will be chasing the round-Britain voyagers in a campervan, once the school term finishes on 23 July, and expect to catch up with them in Scotland.

Rooster & West Country Boat Repairs RS400 Southern Tour at Llandegfedd Sailing Club

 Mark and his team then did a first class job of running 4 really decent races with smart turn arounds. As the rest of fleet found ways to do some snakes and ladders racing Steve and Sarah Cockerill made it look very easy and never seemed to be the wrong side of a shift to power into some very handy leads to win the first 3 races. Steve later commented he loves shifty conditions; not half! Then in the final race Sam Knight/Chris Bownes nailed in the start and led the Cockerill's at the first mark for the two to regularly swap positions. Sam and Chris seemed to have settled it just getting water at the final leeward mark with a short beat to the finish but the Cockerill's tacked instantly and just won by the narrowest of margins.

Overall Results:

Pos Sail No Helm Crew Club R1 R2 R3 R4 Pts

1 1515 Steve Cockerill Sarah Cockerill Lee on Solent ‑1 1 1 1 3

2 1376 Sam Knight Chris Bownes Bartley SC 3 ‑5 2 2 7

3 1277 Graham Tullet Natasha Lister BCYC 2 3 3 ‑4 8

4 1292 Chris Eames Rachel Tilley QMSC 4 2 5 ‑8 11

5 1356 Pete VIncent Pete Cruikshank Llandegfedd SC 5 4 ‑7 3 12

6 1506 Paul Freeland Sharon Freeland Llandegfedd SC 6 ‑7 4 5 15

7 1446 Bill Jackson Dylan Fletcher Llandegfedd SC ‑7 6 6 7 19

8 1495 Simon Collinson Will Collinson Llandegfedd SC ‑9 8 8 6 22

9 1313 Will Willett Johnny Everett Llandegfedd SC 8 ‑9 9 9 26

Wayfarer Eastern Championship at Waldringfield Sailing Club

 Mike and Simon went off with armfuls of excellent silverware which dates right back to the Wayfarer's early days in the late 50's. Andrew and Tom Wilson secured second overall and Neil and Anne were third and won the first Waldringfield boat trophy. Matthew Lake and Rachel Parkinson won the prize for first classic Wayfarer and Liz Feibusch and Will Cleverley took home the trophy for first female helm. Mike Mac, who's funnily enough pretty good at it by now, gave the traditional winners' "Thank-you" speech to the various people from Waldringfield and the Club who pulled together for another excellent event.

Next up are the Wayfarer Europeans and Nationals at Medway Yacht Club in mid August. The fleet always gets a cracking welcome at this long-time Wayfarer stronghold and there's plenty of optimism than numbers of entries will continue to rise as the fleet emerges from its enforced hibernation.

Alan Campbell takes two super wins at Welwyn Garden City Sailing Club

 Pursuit racing was the name of the game for Welwyn Garden City Sailing Club with Alan Campbell taking the honours with an outright win.

He didn't have it all his own way though. As one of the last boats to start he made his way through all the fleet, finally catching Sheila Stowe close to the finish in both races.

And even after hitting the front he had his moments of worry. The second race saw him hit a windless area of Stanborough Lake moments after taking the lead and it looked as if he would be beaten but fortunately the hooter saved his victory.

David Lambert comfortably moved into third place in both races.

Further back there were mixed fortunes for helms depending on how often they were caught in the pockets of no wind.

Right from the start in both races Alex Shelley and Charles Adams were locked together putting a high premium on good positioning at the marks.

Round the world race: 100ft trimarans set for solo race

 The fastest offshore racing designs ever built, the foiling 100ft Ultim trimarans, will go head-to-head in a solo round the world race in 2023

The Ultim class has announced the first single-handed race round the world for giant multihulls, the Solo Ultim World Tour. 

This will likely be the most challenging ocean sailing race ever held. The solo skippers will need to navigate a course as arduous as the Vendée Globe, but will be doing so in 100ft foiling trimarans with complex appendages capable of sailing at 45 knots, with the ever-present risk of a split-second capsize.

Six of the fastest ocean-racing designs in the world will be taking part in the new solo race round the world, with record-breaking sailors Armel Le Cléac’h, Charles Caudrelier and Thomas Coville among the solo skippers lining up.

2021 Laser Open at Budworth Sailing Club

 ALISTAIR Coates from Budworth Sailing Club won the very competitive 2021 Laser Open run by his club.

Ian Jones, Joe Scurrah and Paul Heath were the next three places, all from different clubs of Dovestone, Carsington and Leigh & Lowton.

British Finn National Championship at Royal Torbay Yacht Club

 Allen Burrell from Thorpe Bay Yacht Club christened yet another new boat at the National Championship with a 1, 10, 2 score line in what was a typical Torbay shifty south easterly.

With the course area nearer to the Paignton shoreline than ideal due to the presence of the Queen Elizabeth cruise liner parked in the middle of the bay, the right hand side of the beat was influenced at times by the breeze coming down over the Devon hills.

Racing continues ............

Salcombe Gin Merlin Rocket Week

The champions of Salcombe Gin Merlin Week are Tom Gillard and Aaron Holman. This talented team have managed all the variable conditions that Salcombe has thrown at them to triumph in their first year in the class and on their first visit to Salcombe Week. Quite some performance!

Oldham teenager smashes 10-hour solo sailing challenge

 

The teenager's friends and family supported her from the lakeside, selling refreshments and cakes in exchange for a donation.

The challenge would be a gruelling test of endurance and stamina for any teenage girl, but it was especially tough for Ellia, who has an often-painful growth condition called patella femoral dysfunction.

Her condition means she frequently needs crutches to walk and she can suffer acute pain in her knees.

Ellia was diagnosed with her condition in September 2018 but has never let it hold her back and began sailing when she was just nine-years-old.

Ellia, who lives in Grasscroft, said:

“I’ve spent a lot of time at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital over the years so I really wanted to do something to give back.

It was an amazing experience, the weather was perfect and the support was astounding! Thank you for all your support and donations!"

After originally planning to take part in the challenge in 2020, the teenager had been practicing on the water when allowed between restrictions, and doing daily sessions on a rowing machine.

Not only is Ellia a regular patient of Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, she is also part of the hospital’s Youth Forum.

This means she is one of the young people who is involved in developing health services and influencing policies and procedures.

The group creates a link between senior managers and the young service users of the hospital.

All the funds Ellia raised will be sent to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity who, at Ellia’s request, will divide the money between the Youth Forum, the High Dependency Unit, Ward 84 (oncology and hematology) and Ward 85 (which looks after a number of young patients, including those with cardiology, cystic fibrosis, endocrinology and respiratory problems).

Ellia’s mum Joanna said: “Ellia is very passionate about helping the children’s hospital and doing all she can.

“Originally, sailing was secondary to her ballet. She took the Royal Yachting Association’s Youth Sailing Scheme courses when she was younger, but ballet was always her biggest hobby.

“Sadly her condition meant she had to give up ballet. But now she’s really developed a love of sailing, joined Redesmere Sailing Club and improved her skills. She’s also bought her own dinghy called Fantaztic.

“I’m so proud of her and what she has achieved. When Ellia sets her mind to something she gives it her all. She really wants to make a big difference to the hospital

Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity’s Community Fundraising Officer Georgia Sleigh said:

“It’s incredible that Ellia chose 10 hours of sailing for her challenge – she’s definitely not starting small and obviously wants to make a real impact for the children’s hospital".