IN
NUMBERS THEY SAID...million pounds, the
record order book
for British luxury
yacht builder Oyster
Yachts in 2017new records were set
in this year’s Caribbean
600 where a record
gets you the skipper’s
weight in rum80
7
“The reach from the offset to the finish
is definitely quite gnarly. Being a new
class, we are all still learning to find the
best way to get across the death angle.
You can never know what can happen,
but we try our best to stay safe but race
at the same time, it isn’t easy.”
Lisa Darmanin, winner of the Nacra 17 fleet in Miami
alongside Jason Waterhouse explains that they are
still getting to grips with the newly-foiling boat.“The call to do
another Vendée is
always there in the
background. You
need the right
people behind
you, Alex
[Thomson] has a
great team
behind him and
if I had that in
place, I think I
would be going for
another shot at it.”
Vendée Globe veteran, Mike Golding admits
that when it comes to the famous solo round
the world race, he has a never say never attitude.“We’re a privately owned team and our
owner, Mr Lee, has poured his passion
and enthusiasm and vision into this
project and this win will be very special
for him... Winning this leg will be a
massive platform for Scallywag going
forward.”
David Witt comments after winning the Volvo Ocean Race leg from
Australia to Hong Kong, where its team campaign is based.“I was able to race well all week. Alican
put a great first few days in so it was
lookingcloseforawhile,butIsuppose
my good last day was enough to sneak
the 19 points.”
Giles Scott proves his idea of ‘sneaking’ a win might be somewhat
different to the rest of us, after he romped to gold in Miami.“Afterseeingmycountrymencrumble
during the Ashes, I am going to use the
SuperFoiler Grand Prix as a platform for
England to inflict some revenge on the
Australian teams.”
Paul Campbell-James is sounding feisty ahead of the first ever
Superfoiler Grand Prix event on 2 February.foot depth that the
Volvo 65 fleet sailed
over as they crossed
the Mariana Trench30,
8
Brits deliver in Miami
The British Sailing Team delivered an outstanding set of results
at the recent World Cup regatta in Miami, taking home four
gold medals and one bronze across the 10 Olympic classes.
Giles Scott in the Finn and Luke Patience and Chris Grube in
the Men’s 470 put in dominant performances to sew up
podium positions ahead of the final medal race. Things were a
little tighter for Alison Young in the Laser Radial, and Dylan
Fletcher-Scott and Stuart Bithell in the 49er, but both still
walked away with a gold in their classes. Nick Thompson,
meanwhile, put in a consistent performance to pick up a
bronze, but was only a point away from silver.
As promising as the medals are, now attention is starting to
turn towards the Olympics in 2020, just as exciting were the
number of Brits just missing the podium. Brits were fourth in
the Men’s RS:X, the Women’s 470, the Nacra 17 and 49erFX.number of boats
in and our of Hong
Kong every dayJESUS RENEDO/SAILING ENERGY; LLOYD IMAGES; BROOKE MILES/CLIPPER VENTURES
Clipper’s youngest winner
The 24-year-old British skipper of Visit Seattle, Nikki
Henderson, is now the youngest ever skipper to win a race in
the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race’s 11 editions.
Nikki and her team held off a strong challenge from three
other teams to chalk up a thrilling maiden victory in Race 6,
from Hobart to the Whitsundays on the east coast of Australia.
“This race has been really, really tough in so many ways. So
many different types of conditions and sail changes.
“The tactics have been really hard but we pushed all the
way through. The crew loved the Southerly Busters, it was
exciting,” explained a clearly tired Henderson on her team’s
arrival to Airlie Beach.
The team’s win gave them the lead position in a staggered
start as the fleet set out on Race 7 from the Whitsundays to
Sanya, China on Tuesday 30 January.sailors have been
suspended from
the J/70 fleet after
measurement
irregularities at the
World Championship
in 20171,
March 2018 Yachts & Yachting 7