2004 Review - part one

We look back through the archives and review what went on in the first quarter of the year

As with most winters this millennium, someone somewhere was circling the globe in an attempt to get into the record books. In January, while Ellen MacArthur’s B&Q was turning heads after being launched in Australia, Francis Joyon was rounding Cape Horn on his way to smashing the singlehanded round the world record.



MacArthur’s new steed got the full DailySail treatment and this makes great reading as Ellen is actually doing right now what she and her team were just talking about back in January. There are photos of the boat, a crawl around on board, an interview with Ellen and a look at the unique technology behind this purpose-built trimaran tailored for singlehanded record breaking.

Joyon, after rounding Cape Horn on the 10 January in record time, was across the Equator 13 days later after a brief sticky patch off Brazil. He was also to find a hole in one of IDEC’s floats. If anything sums a man up it was Joyon’s reaction to this eleventh hour problem.

January is also the time to drool over images of 18 foot skiffs streaking across Sydney Harbour. After a final race disaster in 2003, Rob Greenhalgh and team on RMW Marine made no mistake this year taking the JJ Giltinan Trophy in style. We also hooked up with American skiff and 505 legend Howie Hamlin (below) on his mission to bring Skiff sailing to the States.



The 420 Worlds took place as part of Sail Melbourne, with Australian Olympic 470 reps Nathan Wilmot and Malcom Page taking victory before heading north for the European circuit.

In the northern hemisphere January is also the time for the annual yachting pilgrimage to Key West. This year ‘Buttercup’ was on the menu, Rick Tomlinson was there on the water with his camera and racing was close right up until the final day.

Back on the social circuit in London, Sarah Sullivan won a brand new Dragon at the class’ 75th Anniversary Ball. Things however were not going quite so well for Australian sailor Chris Meech who got struck by lightning while in his Laser.

The weather was a little more benign, but very tricky, for sailors at the Miami Olympic Classes regatta. Familiar names came to the top in the end though and it was also the start of British Olympic Laser sailor Paul Goodison’s return to form.

Three super fast and very different yachts were launched around this time. First up was the 30m canting keel maxi Zana (now called Konica Minolta) in New Zealand that was pipped to the post for line honours in the 2003 Rolex Sydney-Hoboart Race.

In France there were two new launchings: Franck Cammas’ 60ft trimaran Groupama 2 , while approaching things from an altogether more Citroen way was the new 60ft catamaran for Yves Parlier – with its radical seaplane hulls .



72 days 22 hours 54 minutes and 22 seconds. Francis Joyon completed his extraordinary circumnavigation on morning of 3 February, smashing 20 days off the previous singlehanded record set by Michel Desjoyeaux in the last Vendee. James Boyd was in Brest to witness the historic moment and spoke at length with Joyon about his achievement.

No sooner had Joyon tied up his yacht to leave the Southern Ocean in peace than Steve Fossett and his ellite crew was on a southerly course ripping up the Atlantic. Cheyenne crossed the line off Ouessant (without stumping up the cash for a Jules Verne Trophy ‘entry’) on 7 February ( photos), with Orange’s record of 64 days and 8 hours the target.



Hot on Fossett’s heels was Olivier De Kersuason taking Geronimo across the line a day later - only to return a few days in with both big spinnakers blown. Meanwhile Bruno Peyron wasn’t sitting around watching others attempt to break his record - he was busy launching his latest maxi-catamaran Orange II. This new beast got the full treatment from The Daily Sail and James Boyd was on board for a delivery sail (although in five knots of breeze…)

Orange II crossed the line on 18 February but was forced to return soon after as the sacrificial bow structure was being too sacrificial. A few days later she was back in the water and off again, this time a few hours behind Geronimo who had also restarted. Four days later Orange II was to retire again and was not to undertake another attempt, leaving Geronimo to make her lap of the globe alone.

Meanwhile Steve Fossett was now in the Southern Ocean with the rig held up with halyards after the forestay had quit on the job. Surely they would have to give up? The first of several super human efforts from the crew to keep Cheyenne together saw the forestay fixed and the big cat motoring.

While all eyes were on the round the world start/finish line at the tip of Brittany, down in Rio history was in the making with Ben Ainslie on the helm. He won his third consecutive Finn World Championship, only the second person ever to do so in the 55 year history of the class.

Back up in Miami the US Olympic trials were taking place for the majority of classes. We talked to Carol Cronin and Tim Wadlow about the ‘winner takes all’ selection process.

Towards the end of February we took a close look at the maxZ86 phenomenom. Was this the shape of the maxis of the future, with canting keels and twin foils? Morning Glory’s Dee Smith seemed to think so. The battle between the first two sisterships was intense from the off, with Roy Disney’s Pyewacket coming through to take the first skirmish in St Maarten.



With the Caribbean racing season underway Mari Cha IV left France on her third trip over the Atlantic to join in the fun. Meanwhile in St Maarten Dick Johnson shared the logistics of the beer drinking for the Caribbean racer.

With the RYA Dinghy Show officially kicing off the UK dinghy sailing season we took a look at one of the star exhibits: Ossie Stewart's beautifully restored Thames A rater Ulva. During March we also got under the surface of the Fireball, seeing somewhat of a resurgence of interest, and the International Canoe. We also looked at the Tornado and how it was staging a big club sailing comeback.

But what really grabbed every sailor’s attention was the sight of the airborne Moth.



Foiling seemed to have come of age and Australian Moth sailor Rohan Veal was the world expert. He had demolished the competition at the Australian Nationals in January winning eight of the ten races by a margin of between three and nine minutes. We got the views of designer Clive Everest and newbie Moth sailor Adam May. In the feature Foils – the work of God or the devil? we published comments from Hobie TriFoiler designer Greg Ketterman and RMW Marine's Richard Woof.

News surfaced in March of a South African America’s Cup syndicate, and The Daily Sail dispatched the man from The Times Ed Gorman to find out exactly what was going down. March also saw the announcement of a serious two boat team entry into the 2005 Volvo Ocean Race funded by Dutch bank ABN AMRO.

The US Olympic sailing team was complete after Paul Cayard and Phil Trinter won the Star trials. It was not without incident for the pair with a broken mast on day one. The Tornado Europeans were won by Booth and Derckson in a dramatic final race.

The European Olympic regatta circuit was underway but faced a major hiccup in Barcelona. Dreadful weather matched with race management of the same quality resulted in many teams packing up and going home early. The Expert Olympic Regatta on Garda was, by contrast, a successful event made all the more appealing by Carlo Borlenghi’s photos of the action.

On 17 March Cheyenne finally left the Southern Ocean as they turned the corner at Cape Horn and headed north. They had set a new record to the (longitude of) Australia's Cape Leeuwin and then followed this by logging seven consecutive daily runs of over 500 miles a day - that’s 3,500 miles in a week! Things were looking good until 30 March when news came from on board that the crew were 25mm away from losing the front beam (and all the trouble that causes).

So did they fix it? Did they break the record? What happened to Geronimo behind? All will be revealed in the next instalment out our Review of 2004 tomorrow!