Sailing World on Water Aug 25.23 Maxi Cup, French AC40, TP52 Worlds, 5.5s, US Womens Match Racing

Highlights of what happened globally in the sport of sailing in the last 7 days.
A fleet of around 50 maxi yachts is due to gather in Porto Cervo, from 3rd to 9th September, for the 33rd edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, in collaboration with title sponsor Rolex, and the International Maxi Association.
Completely new to the event for this year will be a division reserved for the increasingly popular class of multehull yachts. Enrolled for this debut outing are, : Allegra, a custom design by Nigel Irens, owned by YCCS member Adrian Keller, and winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race in her class, the Gunboat 80, Highland Fling 18, owned by YCCS member Lord Irvine Laidlaw, and the Gunboat 68, Convexity 2.

This is your weekly Global Sailing Highlights show, the World on Water, August 25, 2023.

The Orient Express Racing Team’s newly arrived AC40 one-design foiling monohull, has taken to the water, — and the air, — in her first test sail, off the America’s Cup venue in Barcelona.
After a ‘tow test’ at the weekend behind the team’s chase boat, to check and test the AC40’s onboard systems, the full-on racing machine went into sailing mode , — with exactly a year to go to the America’s Cup Challenger Selection Series.
The Skipper and pilot are Quentin Delapierre, fellow pilot Kevin Peponnet, and trimmers Matthieu Vandamme and Jason Saunders.

The Battle lines are drawn for the 2023 Rolex TP52 World Championship in Barcelona.
When they open next week on the 37th America’s Cup waters off Barcelona in Spain next week, there will be no clear favourite. And as Cup teams ramp up their training and testing off Barcelona, eyes will inevitably focus on the white hot TP52 fleet, with which many sailors have personal history, a national allegiance, or are just interested, discerning fans.

It’s Day 3 of Hamilton Island Race Week in Australia’s beautiful tropical, whale infested, Whitsundays, and the 2,000 plus sailors are enjoying the tight racing. Even the ones who are wrangling spinnakers. As the mighty Super Maxis are finishing off the Yacht Club all declare that they have enjoyed the days racing.

For INEOS Britannia it was a day that promised much with around 7-8 knots of breeze at sea level, just off the Barcelona beachfront, and a very flat sea-state. Unfortunately for the sailors, the breeze died and on the tow out to find better breeze, near where the TP 52 fleet were racing, a small tear occurred at the clew of the port skin of the mainsail, whilst under tow, and after investigation from the shore team and boat captain, the day was canned.

The top women’s match racing teams in the US battled for the US Women’s Match Racing Championship at Annapolis Yacht Club. The Championship, held in J 22s, got under way with a clinic for competitors organized by US Sailing, and round robin racing beginning the next day.
The four teams with the best records upon completion of the round- robin, advanced to the semifinals and finals.
The four top ranked US Women’s Match racing skippers were, , Team BAAM, skippered by USA number 4, Allie Blecher, looking for a repeat win. Blecher led Team BAAM to victory in the 2022 event, beating Janel Zarkowsky in the final.

The 5.5 meter fleet are looking forward to the Scandinavian Gold Cup and World Championship at the Yacht Club Costa Smerelda, in Porto Cervo Sardinia, in just over a month’s time, so last week in Grandson, was the last opportunity for most of the fleet to race together. The fleet of 15 moderns from six nations, all came to get in some practice, and test their gear, ahead of the world titles. They were treated to four days of sublime weather and hot competition, with the temperature past 30 degrees every day and winds from 5-10 knots.