The World Sailing Show - September 2017
by Sunset + Vine 29 Aug 2017 11:26 BST
29 August 2017
The Rolex Fastnet Race, the sailor's Everest and this year there was a bumper entry and some fiercely close racing.
There was also a record turn out for the International Moth World Championships where the world's rock stars gathered, hot foot from the America's Cup.
The beast gets launched as Gitana 17 prepares to change the future. We visit the boat and talk to the brains behind the project.
Plus, new talent, a new trophy, new events and a new record at Lendy Cowes Week.
Features
The Rolex Fastnet Race – A record fleet
It took just 4 minutes and 24 seconds for the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race to sell out. Eight months later, another record was set as 362 boats started the 605nm classic from Cowes, the biggest fleet in the history of the event.
It was also the most diverse. From the 115ft superyacht Nikata to the 100ft carbon rocket ship CQS, the record breaking MOD70 Concise 10 and the racing maxi Rambler 88, there were plenty of large carbon machines looking for victory.
In addition, there was a big fleet of IMOCA 60s and an even bigger group of their smaller sisters, the Class 40s.
Yet the bulk of the fleet remained Corinthian. From crews focused on the silverware, to those realising a personal ambition, amateurs versus professionals, each had their own agenda in this legendary race.
So who came out on top?
International Moth World Championships
What do the World's top professional sailors do on their week off? They compete in the International Moth World Championships. Hot foot from the America's Cup in Bermuda the biggest names in the game, alongside scores of amateur sailors, headed to Lake Garda in Italy to step aboard their foiling Moths in the biggest ever World Championship fleet for this class.
A champion of champions event if ever there was.
Launching the maxi trimaran Gitana 17
She's been designed to scorch across oceans in some of the world's biggest and longest races. But her longer term goal is to set a new world record for a non-stop lap of the planet. At 32m long, 23m wide and weighing just 15 tonnes she's a lightweight beast of a boat in anybody's language. But she's been designed to fly, a move that that could change the future of offshore racing.
We meet the boat and her creators to find out the thinking behind this bold new project.
Lendy Cowes Week
It is the biggest, most diverse annual regatta of its kind in the world drawing the best sailors and their boats to an event like no other. This year a prestigious new series drew in some of the big guns including the new Volvo Ocean Race fleet.
But Cowes Week is as much about grass roots sailing as it is about the glitz and glamour and this year there was plenty of both, including some impressive and motivating performances.
In the News
- A new team takes the lead in the Extreme Sailing Series
- A new signing for the Volvo Ocean Race turns heads
- And a new transatlantic race sees sail tale on power...and luxury