IMOCA 60s, UFOs and Class 40s—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 31 May 2016 While the Big Apple is always a busy place, the past few days have seen a spike in sailing-related activity near and around the city that doesn’t sleep. For starters, the Transat New York – Vendee Race, which brings the fleet of 14 IMOCA 60s from New York to Les Sables d’Olonne, France, began on Sunday, May 29. While the racers enjoyed a fine start to their 3,100 nautical mile contest, some skippers reported collisions with unidentified floating objects (UFOs) and were forced to divert to Newport, Rhode Island to make repairs.

For starters, Yann Eliès (FRA), sailing aboard Queguiner-Leucemie Espoir, called his shore team on Monday to report that he had suffered a collision involving a UFO and his port daggerboard. According to reports, this impact damaged the bottom of Queguiner-Leucemie Espoir’s port daggerboard and also ruptured its daggerboard case, requiring a stop to prevent further destruction.

This was quickly followed up by calls from Morgan Lagravière (FRA), sailing aboard Safran, and Pieter Heerema (NED), sailing aboard No Way Back, who also sustained damage and were headed to Newport.

In all three cases, damage to the different boats’ daggerboards and daggerboard cases forced the boats to stop for repairs. While designers don’t have too many options for making these daggerboards light, strong and capable of withstanding an impact at top speed, this helps to shine even more light on the fact that the world’s oceans are becoming progressively dirtier and clogged with an increasing number of “UFOs”.

Just ask Heerema, who reportedly hit four different UFOs before suffering daggerboard-breaking damage.

Still, for most of the sailors who are participating in this grueling race, the Transat New York – Vendee Race is more about preparing-and shaking down-their boats and their systems before the start of this fall’s around-the-world Vendee Globe (November 6, 2016) than it is about scoring top honors in Les Sables d’Olonne next month.

Meanwhile, as the fleet of IMOCA 60 charges northeast across the Pond, the fleet of nine Class 40s that are racing from Charleston, South Carolina to Brooklyn, New York in Leg 1 of the Atlantic Cup have either crossed the finishing line or are preparing to make landfall after a grueling race that saw testing conditions. Gonzalo Botin (ESP) and Pablo Santurde (ESP), sailing aboard Tales II, took top honors, followed by Catherine Pourre and Antoine Carpentiere (FRA), sailing aboard Earendil, and Liz Shaw (CAN) and Libby Greenhalgh (GBR), sailing aboard Oakcliff.

While this was a less-than-splendid showing for American-flagged sailors, who comprise the majority of the fleet, it certainly lends a strong air of international credibility to this event, which is evolving on both the domestic and international sailing scenes.

Speaking of the East Coast, this long weekend also saw the start of the ongoing World Match Racing Tour event in Newport, Rhode Island (May 30-June 3), where teams are competing for bragging rights aboard identical M32 catamarans. Thick fog created an interesting opening salvo to racing, and while NOAA is calling for improving visibility in Newport as the week wears on, the breeze is expected to be fairly light, thus testing each team’s light-air modes.

Stay tuned for the latest news from the World Match Racing Tour, as it unfurls, and be sure to also stay current with the website for the latest news from the Atlantic Cup and from the Transat New York – Vendee Race, where the solo skippers will be “enjoying” even less sleep than the young and restless in the city from which this 3,100 mile “offshore sprint” emanated.

May the four winds blow you safely home,