Ferrari...Sailboats?

Ahoy, and welcome to the weekly roundup! Yesterday, thanks to an announcement from Ferrari, we learned it’s possible to get boat envy from a car company for a boat that doesn’t even exist yet. Sigh… anyways, here’s the news.

In today’s letter:

• Ferrari Sailboats: From tailpipes to telltales.

• Race Updates: Champagne sailing for OGR, speed records for GSC & ARKEA Ultim.

• Sailing Snippets: DIY Sailing Demonstrator, Inside the Hydro-Cat, Zero-Impact Daysailer, & the real Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Ferrari Sailboats

The Prancing Horse is hitting the nautical racetracks.

For everyone who said sailboat racing is turning into a Formula 1 event, here’s the cherry on top. On Wednesday, Ferrari announced that they are entering the world of competitive ocean racing to “expand our racing soul”. Their Team Principal will be Giovanni Soldini, a season yachtsman with two world races under his belt, and more than 30 years of ocean racing experience.

There are no details yet, but a reasonable guess is that the boats will be designed for the America’s Cup (AC75), or SailGP (F50) races. Those are, after all, some of the fastest boats on the water, and who could blame the Prancing Horse for wanting to be the fastest on both land and sea. The program will blend sustainability and innovation, and “will be an important stimulus in the evolution of its sports cars”. You can check out the official Ferrari press release here. 

Race Updates

Highlights from regattas ‘round the world.

Ocean Globe Race: “For the moment the 40th are mewing more than roaring, another fine summer’s day under spinnaker” tweeted L’Esprit d’équipe. The fleet is neck and neck as they approach the Cape, sometimes less than 1nm from each other, so line honors are too close to call. A few of the boats are taking an easterly course, including Spirit of Helsinki, which was rewarded with a Tuna. It’s been champagne sailing for all this week!

ARKEA Ultim Challenge: Charles Caudrelier continues to set speed records in the Pacific. Anthony Marchand is making a pit stop in Cape Town for repairs, after a collision on Tuesday caused serious damage to his port side foil. At least half the fleet has already experience damage.

Global Solo Challenge: Andrea Mura set a new speed record in the GSC, covering 313,92 nm in 24 hr at an average speed of 13 knots. Skippers are tactfully dipping into the Ice Limit exclusion zone to take advantage of favorable winds. They are allowed to spend up to 72 consecutive hours in the exclusion zone before incurring a time penalty.

Sailing Snippets

The best clips & clicks from the week.

🛠️ Sailing Demonstrator: This guy’s DIY project demonstrates the mechanics of sailing using a fan, a model sailboat, and a potentiometer (a word we definitely had to look up). Best of all, he posted the whole build to Instructables so you can see the full build.

💧 Inside the Hydro-Cat: This lucky reporter took a quick jaunt aboard Energy Observer, the hydrogen and wind powered catamaran. Currently anchored in Martinique, she recently completed a round the world trip using only regenerative power.

♻️ Zero-Impact Daysailer: Speaking of environmentally friendly sailing… Grand Soleil announced their latest model, the BLUE, a fully electric 30’ weekender made from recyclable fiberglass. Traditional boat building uses Thermosetting resin which is essentially impossible to recycle, but the BLUE uses Thermoplastic resin which allows the carbon fibers to be re-used or recycled.

🗑️ The real GPGP: Contrary to popular belief, it cannot be seen from space, or walked on, and there’s barely any photos of it, even though it’s twice the size of Texas. That’s because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is more of a soup made up of microplastics, than a solid mass. You could sail through it and not know. Read more about the GPGP discovery and cleanup effort from the bbc news.

That’s all for today, stay salty and we’ll ketch ya’ next week.