Kirsten Rounds the Cape

AHOY! Welcome to I’dRatherBeSailing, we bring you the tastiest parts of sailing news, just like the crunchy bits on the edge of the Lasagna pan…

In today’s email we have:

• The Ocean Race: Cloud Hopping and Downwind Gambits.

• Curmudgeons Corner: The Future is Not Fabulous.

• Speed Demons: A New Record, and Old Hits.

Quick GGR Update:

Kirsten Neuschafer just rounded Cape Horn, a milestone in the Golden Globe Race. 45 years ago, Naomi James became the first woman to solo circumnavigate via Cape Horn, also setting a speed record at the time of 272 days. Kirsten is currently in first place, and is proving to the world what a serious skipper with a proper full keel heavy displacement boat is all about!

The Ocean Race Takeaways

The second leg of a sailing race from Cabo Verde to Cape Town ended with the first three boats finishing within 25 minutes of each other. After 18 brutal days of racing, the four boats closed the finish line so close they could see each other, but team Holcim-PRB squeaked out a win with a slightly better tack. You can watch a replay of the race tracker here, and see the final tacks. Some key takeaways below.

• Downwind Gambit: Team Holcim-PRB started with a disadvantage by not taking a Spinnaker. Bad for light downwind sailing, but that left room in their arsenal for another sail, a tradeoff that paid off.

• Cloud Hopping: Navigators plotted courses that skirted the edges of clouds to hop from one gust to another. Get it wrong though, and they risked getting stuck under a wind-dead cloud bank. This happened to GUYOT Environnement Team Europe, and they lost 100 nm to the other boats.

• Speed Records: When 25 knots of wind hit 120° off the bow, these boats were flying, hitting speeds of 35 knots.

• Finishing Finesse: It all came down to the last few miles. The winds got messy nearing the finish line, and with the lead boats neck-n-neck, some tactical tacking decided the win for Holcim-PRB.

And now, 3 minutes and 50 seconds of stunning drone shots that just got released from that race that will brighten your day.

Curmudgeons Corner

Hold my coffee, you’re going to want to see this. Volvo Penta presented this grand vision of the future of boating at the CES, and the vision is…myopic.

The video looks like some sort of dystopian salad of Airbnb + Self Driving Cars that took over the boating world. iRobot is now iYachtbot. Self driving boats get re-charged by electric Sting-Rays and dock at floating yacht clubs.

You know what would be really cool? Maybe in the distant future there will be boats so advanced that they are propelled solely by wind with fully analogue technology and globe-crossing capabilities. Wait a minute…

Anyways, here’s the video. Enjoy the eye rolls.

Speed Demons

Heidi Ulrich (SUI) was confirmed by The World Sailing Speed Record Council as the new Women’s Windsurfer World Record holder. Ulrich posted a speed of 47.06 knots on the 500 meter course, beating the previous record set by Zara Davies (GBR) of 46.49 knots. You can watch her screaming along at breakneck speed below.

And a few other notable Women Sailing Speed records, to round out todays theme.

• Ellen MacArthur, a British sailor, set the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2005, completing the journey in just over 71 days. She was the fastest person, man or woman, to sail solo around the world at that time.

• In 2008, French sailor Françoise Joyon set a new record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the world by a woman, completing the journey in just under 58 days. This record still stands today.

• In 2017, American sailor Libby Greenhalgh set a new record for the fastest women's speed sailing record in a foiling catamaran, reaching a top speed of 37.9 knots (44 miles per hour) on a specially designed boat in the UK.

• In 1978, Naomi James became the first woman to sail solo around the world via Cape Horn, completing the journey in 272 days. She also set a new record for the fastest solo circumnavigation by a woman at that time.

Interesting Reads

Nav System Retrofit: Rebuilding a yacht’s Nav system using Raspberry Pi’s. Read the full article here.

The Feeling of Legacy: Sailing from Washington to Oahu. Woody Brown Sr. is famous for building the first modern sailing catamaran. His son honors his legacy by retracing his charts in a home built catamaran. Read the local coverage here.

No Punches Pulled: Linjett 39 wins European Family Cruiser of the year, and this blogger’s brutally honest opinion will make you chuckle. Get a laugh here.