2003 review

The final instalment, October to December

Quarter three finished with the massive ISAF worlds in September. By contrast the last three months of the year had barely a sniff of any top level dinghy sailing. If The Daily Sail has a chosen specialised subject, then it’s James Boyd’s encyclopaedic knowledge of – and love of – the short handed offshore scene. Think Open 60s and 60 ft Tris. The Transat Jacques Vabre, which started in Le Harve at the end of October and finished in Salvador de Bahia had an all start cast and The Daily Sail was there every step of the way.

One of the most important events of the year was of course The Daily Sail's first birthday on the 1st October. A successful year, beating a lonely path in quality web coverage of our sport, with many new and re-newed subscribers making it possible. Thanks again to all our readers. To say we’re excited about 2004 is a bit of an understatement.

In September Mari Cha had slipped into the water. Just a few weeks later she was in New York getting revved up for the West-East transatlantic monohull record. On the 2nd October she was off, three days into the passage she smashed the 500 miles in 24 hours barrier. After 6 days and 17 hours the record was hers, with an average speed of 18 knots. James Boyd hot footed down to Plymouth to get the full story.

The maxi Bols had at the time been bobbing around in the Atlantic, waiting for the right patch of breeze to come along for her own attempt on the 24 hour record. Unfortunately gear failure put an early end to her effort.

The International Catamaran Trophy got under way and a day later it was still in the hands of the defenders, USA.

The Snake had decided to head to the south coast of France as the temperatures started to drop in the UK. He surfaced on a nice warm rock in St Tropez and filed his report on the rather glamorous Voiles de St Tropez.

On the 9th of October Bruno Peyron announced that The Race was to be postponed. To a stunned audience five days later Tracy Edwards unveiled her £38 million sponsorship with the Gulf State of Qatar. In one swoop she had a fully funded maxi cat (her Maiden II renamed Qatar 2006), another one scheduled to build and two new global events. The Oryx cup, which incorporates the Jules Verne course - with a US$1m prize purse to boot. The Qatar Sports Global Challenge is to start in 2006 and is open to maxi multihulls and monohulls. The course will take competitors from Doha around the world in a series of legs, again prize money is on the table.

We got the full lowdown from Edwards, and the viewpoint of Bols skipper Gordon Kaye. The maxi multihull owners came out in support a few weeks later.

October also saw a couple of big one design regattas take place. Elba, in Italy hosted the Mumm 30 Europeans and San Francisco hosted the Melges 24 worlds. The Mumms had a successful event with the hosts running out winners. Vincenzo Onorato competed and also provided the competitors with somewhere to stay when he brought one of his Moby Lines ships to the event.

The Melges worlds were more remarkable when the final race of the championship crowned the 14 year old ‘Shark’ (son of Philippe) Kahn as champion.

Another couple of big yachts came out the shed in October. First up Zana , the 30m racing maxi off the board of Brett Bakewell White. The other, the biggest sloop in the world for Mr Avis, Joe Vittoria. Although far removed from the racing thoroughbreds Mirabella V is just an amazing feat of engineering.

From maxis to Minis and the Mini Transat. The second leg from Lanzarote to Brazil was to see two of the front runners drop out of the race following dismastings. After passing through the doldrums the fleet were hard on the wind in big seas and strong winds. The first casualty was American Jonathon McKee, race favourite. Disaster struck Sam Manuard, who had taken up the lead of the race, just 80 miles from the finish when he too lost his rig. The race win went to Armel Tripon, somewhat disappointed for his competitors with their gear failure in the close world of Mini sailing.

We also caught up with a couple of big hitters involved with the business side of professional sailing. First was Offshore Challenges’ Mark Turner (Part 1, 2). We then got the lowdown from Alex Bennett’s business ‘associate’ Keith Mills. In part two of Mills' interview we got the inside track on his other task as CEO for the 2012 London Olympics bid.

The Daily Sail headed for Bermuda for the tongue twisting Investors Garanty presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup. The list of entries for this jewel in the Swedish Match Tour was pure A list. The final match was contested between Dickson and Gilmour, with Gilmour fighting to the death to win. We also caught up with Ben Ainslie (who was sailing with Dean Barker) and the Oracle pairing of Dickson and Holmberg.


Not to be out shone were the local Bermudan Skiffs, who put on a rather dramatic display.

The end of October saw the launch of the Dinghy Cat technique series on The Daily Sail. It has proved to be very popular series where the best in the business have talked through their winning moves.

And so to the main event. The double handed Transat Jacques Vabre had a mouthwatering line up of skippers, crew and the finest bateaus that Euros could buy.
The multihull and monohull form guides remain a very useful summary of all the key players in the two fleets. One of the most interesting approaches was that taken by Pindar. Emma Richards and Mike Sanderson had set the boat up specifically for double handed sailing, taking a much more aggressive approach to weight and windage up the rig.

This was also the debut of Mike Goldings new Ecover and the new Farr designed Virbac. The monohulls got off on schedule, but faced a torrid weather forecast with gales on the nose until well into the Atlantic. Just a few minutes into the start and Ecover showed everyone her fast upwind potential, taking a commanding lead.

The first big casualty was Pindar, who never really found her legs upwind and was finally taken off the course with electronic problems.


Such were the conditions that the trimarans didn’t take off until the following Thursday. They streaked along the Channel with favourable southerly winds. Ellen McAthur was sailing again with Alain Gautier on Foncia and we managed to talk to her before she set off. The 60 ft trimaran fleet really has no equal and we published a three part guide to these amazing craft (Part 1, 2, 3).

True to form it was the all-conquering Franck Cammas on Groupama that was first home into Brazil. The Open 60 title went to the brand new Virbac and Jean Pierre Dick.

Pindar also announced that it was to support the young rising star Hannah Mills. The Optimist sailor really did have a dream year. Other dinghy sailing news came from the Musto Skiff Europeans and the RS 400 Irish Nationals. We talked to two successful dinghy sailors from the year Roger Gilbert and Nick Craig. The US Olympic team was also selected.

ISAF announced their Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year. The titles going to Russell Coutts (another watch…) and to Europe sailor Siren Sundby.

Following the ISAF conference, the new framework of the Grand Prix Rule was laid out. We got the views of Farr UK’s Peter Morton and several other prominent readers.

Two big locations were announced in November. The first was for the Volvo Ocean Race who signed Vigo in Spain as their starting port along with a Pedro Campos led and Telefonica backed entry into the race.

The big one was the eagerly awaited decision of where the next Americas Cup was to be held. Perhaps you were on the moon and missed the news that Valencia in Spain was chosen! The Daily Sail was in Geneva for the press conference and got thoughts of many of the big players present. We also spoke to Team New Zealand’s Dean Barker.

Over in the States the Farr 40 Nerone continued her winning ways by taking the Rolex Farr one design regatta in Miami. We took the opportunity to corner the race officer Peter Reggio and ask him about life at the Louis Vuitton Cup and other things.

Bitten by the trimaran bug we took the new super fast Farrier C25 for a spin and also checked out the new kit at the Paris boatshow.

The Open 60s decided to head back to France with a single handed race, the Defi Atlantique. Mike Golding was to win in the final stages as conditions went light and headed in the Bay of Biscay. Alex Thomson took the opportunity to announce his debut on the singlehand scene, taking his newly purchased Open 60 Sill to a staggering new singlehanded 24 hour record.

Good news at the end of the year came with the revitalisation of the Little Americas Cup, with the British Invictus Challenge laying down the gauntlet to Steve Clarks Cogito. The C Class was back!

Bring on 2004.