Sailing World on Water July 07.23Ocean Race Fin, Round The Island, RC44s, 18s, INEOS, GC32, Melges24

Highlights of what happened globally in the sport of sailing in the last 7 days.
Two days after the IMOCA fleet arrived in Genoa Italy, 11th Hour Racing Team arrived at the Grand Finale venue as worthy champions of The Ocean Race. Here the crew of the second placed Imoca, Holcim PRB, welcome in the winners, led by their skipper, Charlie Enright.

Here is your weekly Sailing Highlights show, the World on Water, July 07, 2023.

The annual Round The Island race is huge, over 11 hunderd boats and 6,000 sailors on the water makes the the Island Sailing Clubs race, a spectacular event. The strong weather conditions set out to challenge the fleet which started from the famous Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes. There wasn’t a moment which didn’t test the fleet on the exhilarating racecourse around the Isle Of Wight. This is the highlights package.

Racing resumed in Europe for the eight high performance owner-driver one design RC44s with the opening rounds of the 44Cup Marstrand, hosted by the Marstrands Segelsällskap, and supported by Artemis Technologies. Day One and the sky was overcast for the first three races, and the conditions were relatively benign, with the winds never exceeding 10 knots, and more often they were closer to 6, and slowly backing from the southwest to the south, over the course of the afternoon.

The 2022-23 Australian champion Finport Finance 18ft skiff team of Keagan York, Matt Stenta and Phil Marshall added the Mark Foy Trophy to its 2023 record with a narrow victory this week over fellow Australian Yandoo team of John Winning, Fang Warren and Josh Porebski, on Lake Garda, Italy.
Both teams finished the 14-race regatta equal on 23 points, with Finport Finance taking the title after a count back.  Finport Finance had seven wins against Yandoo’s three race wins and seven second placings.

Matt Gottrell, of the INEOS Britannia Americas Cup British team, talks, generating race boat power has changed for AC 37. The cyclors are making the difference and we show their training.

Racing at the 44Cup Marstrand was blown-off yesterday due to near gale force wind and waves. Day 3 conditions had dropped to around 10 knots with a slight left-over chop and PRO Maria Torrijo succeeded in making up most of the schedule by holding four races, as the wind continually backed from the south to southeast. In this Charisma won the first and third races, and with two fourths made her not only the day’s top scoring boat but also leader of the 44Cup Marstrand with a significant 10 point lead

Four days of racing at the GC32 Lagos Cup came to a conclusion today on Portugal’s Algarve coast with a run-away victory for the Nicolai Sehested-skippered Team Rockwool Racing. Out of 15 races sailed, the Danish SailGP crew won a phenomenal ten, including an opening day of five races when they were unbeaten. In fact Thursday was the only one of the four days when the wind was blowing ‘as advertised’ off Lagos – a 13 knot offshore breeze from the prevailing northwest, permitting the sea to remain flat and the GC32s to enjoy full foiling with reaching starts.

The Melges Performance Sailboats Trophy for the Melges 24 Worlds went back to the USA after three exciting races in wind and rain.  The Croatian team won the Challenge Henri Samuel, Corinthian World Trophy, in the non-professional class and took bronze overall in Middelfart Denmark. The favorite for the gold, Drew Freides’ team, Pacific Yankee from the USA, started the final day of the event as a leader and extended their lead to win the World Championship with a margin of nine points.