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Sailing
Kjaer and his crew qualified for the Congressional Cup which began on Sept. 14
Denmark Skipper Wins Ficker Cup at LBYC and Advances to Congressional Cup
By: JORDAN B. DARLING
LONG BEACH— Emil Kjaer, representing the Royal Danish Yacht Club, won the 2021 Ficker Cup hosted at the Long Beach Yacht Club.
Kjaer battled it out on the water with Jeffrey Petersen (US) representing Balboa Yacht Club and David Wood (US) also from Balboa Yacht Club for the firstplace spot. The skippers have been duking it out on the water all summer long, in June, Petersen won the US Youth Match Racing Championship for the Rose Cup and followed it up with a victory in July where he just edged out Kjaer in the finals.
Wood turned around and won the International Youth Match Racing World Championship in mid-August where Petersen placed second and Kjaer placed fourth.
Kjaer really turned it around this week and won three out of the four matches in the semi-finals against Wood and then repeated the feat against Petersen in the petite finals also winning three out of four matches and successfully securing the Ficker Cup, placing Petersen in second place and Wood in third.
“We are really very happy,” said Kjaer in a Sept. 12 press release from Long Beach Yacht Club. “Our main goal was to do as good as possible and try to qualify for the Congressional Cup, but this is better. And we are so grateful that there’s qualifiers for events like this – it gives young guys like us an amazing chance to join the event and I can’t wait to be able to sail against sailors like Taylor Canfield and all great sailors like that, it is really exciting for us.” Kjaer went on to credit his team of Gustav Wantzin, Mads Poder Witzke, Bastian Sorensen, Nicolai Baekgaard and Joachim Aschenbrenner.
All three skippers and their teams have qualified for the Congressional Cup which began on Sept. 14.
U.S. SailGP Team Climbs Leaderboard in Saint Tropez
By: JORDAN B. DARLING
SAINT TROPEZ, FRANCE— The U.S. SailGP Team qualified for its third podium on Sept. 12 at the France Sail Grand Prix, this bumped the U.S. team up on the leadership board putting them two points away from an overall first place for the SailGP Season 2 Championship standings.
According to a Sept. 12 press release from SailGP the team narrowly missed its first event win of the season, losing out to the Japan SailGp team after a large wind shift that favored the opposing team.
“It was a great race and a great regatta for our team,” said U.S. SailGP Team Driver Jimmy Spithill in the press release. “It was dynamic – there were lots of minefields on the racecourse and we need to give credit to Japan for sailing a who made an incredible return after sustaining a broken leg during practice runs in Denmark just three weeks ago.
All teams were also navigating a new 29-meter (95-foot) wing, which premiered across the league’s F50 catamarans, this is the largest wing ever flown in SailGP competition and is designed to provide greater lift in lighter winds. There are two more events before the Grand Final at the United States Sail Grand Prix in San Francisco, the next event will be the Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cadiz, Spain October 9 and 10. Current standings have Japan in first place with 37 points, the United States in second place with 35 points, and Australia in third place also with 35 points. Follow the U.S. SailGP team on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter under SailGPUSA.
The United States barely missed out on their first event win but jump to second in the overall leader board at the France Sail Grand Prix.
SailGP Photo
Shutterstock photo
The AC75 is current model for the America’s Cup and will continue to be the center piece for at least the next two additions according to the America’s Cup website.
America’s Cup Introduces New Boat for Future
By: JORDAN B. DARLING
NEW ZEALAND — The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Defender Emirates Team New Zealand, the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, and Challenger of Record INEOS Team UK announced the introduction of a new boat to be added to America’s Cup.
The one-design AC40 foiling monohull is being introduced as a new multipurpose class which coordinators hope will expand the pathways into the main event.
“Creating pathways and increasing participation for women, youth and emerging nations is something that has been a priority since winning in 2017,” said RNZYS Commodore Aaron Young, in a Sept. 9 press release. “In fact, universally it is seen as something that will only benefit everyone in the sport of sailing and was illustrated in the 20 entries, we received to our mixed crew Youth AC that was initially planned for 2021, prior to COVID19. To now be announcing the AC40’s as the exciting class that will be used by AC teams for their scale testing and development, Match Race training, Preliminary Regattas, and then for the Women’s and Youth events makes complete sense.”
The AC40 is a scaled-down version of the AC75, the current centerpiece for at least the next two editions.
The intention is for the new class to be a catalyst to accelerate participation from female and youth foiling via separate AC37 Women’s and Youth America’s Cup regattas as part of the overall 37th America’s Cup event schedule.
Competing teams will have to purchase at least one AC40 which will be used in the preliminary regattas and then will be made available for respective independent Women’s and Youth regattas to be held at the venue of the AC37 match. “Furthermore, once the teams AC40’s are delivered by the end of 2022 and early 2023 our hope is that private owners will purchase their own AC40’s as we start to build an exciting and accessible class for the future,” said Grant Dalton CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand. Official protocol for the next America’s cup is set to be published on Nov. 17.
ON THE HORIZON
By: JORDAN B. DARLING
King Harbor 2021 Twilights Series Race #23 Sept. 23
Race 23 in the King Harbor Yacht Club Twilights Series will be held on Sept. 23. The race is ruled by the Racing Rules of Sailing and is open to all sailboats with a LOA of 20 feet or more.
PHRF rating handicaps will be applied and boats without a PHRF rating will need to notify the HRF Fleet Captain 48 hours prior to the race in order to obtain a rating based on boat handicaps.
Boats can enter and pay the $8 entry fee per race at the Regatta Network, fees have to be in by 5:30 p.m. the day before the race.
This is part of a long-running series that started on July 8 and will end on Sept. 30, the signal for the first start will be at 6 p.m.
Boats that wish to compete as a Non-Spinnaker Class must declare their intention to the Race Committee at check-in.
Boats that have a crew of one or two can use electrical or mechanical self-steering devices.
Trophies will be passed out at the King Harbor Yacht Club on the night of the race.
Channel Islands to Marina del Rey Race Sept. 25
Channel Islands Yacht Club and Del Rey Yacht Club are co-sponsoring a race from the Channel Islands Harbor entrance to Marina del Rey on Sept. 25. The race is governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing, US Sailing Safety Equipment Requirements for “Nearshore” apply. The race is open to all boats with current, valid PHRF of Southern California ratings. There will be two divisions PHRF and Cruising. There are pre and post sailing activities at the hosting clubs and slips are available for reservation, the entry fee is $35 and will be due by 6 p.m. on Sept. 20. To learn more information, see https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/23100#_home.
Southwestern Yacht Club will host the San Diego to Ensenada 57th International Yacht Race on Oct. 1. The race will start from Coronado Roads and go down to Ensenada, Mexico ending two nautical miles west of Hotel Coral Marina. The race is governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing and is open to all members of organizations affiliated with US Sailing. Entries have to be completed by Sept. 28 at 5 p.m., there is an entry fee of $100. Class break downs will be announced by Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. For this race participating boats will need valid third-party liability insurance and they will have to fill out the proper immigration documents as listed on the website. To learn more, see https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/23204#_docs.
Santa Barbara Yacht Club Fall Regatta Oct. 2 & 3
The Santa Barbara Yacht Club will host the third regatta in their Challenge Cup Series on Oct. 2 and 3. The regatta is governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing and US Safety Equipment Requirements “Near Shore” for PHRF classes. The regatta is open to club members and members of other clubs that belong to the US Sailing Association. Only Santa Barbara Yacht Club members are eligible to enter the Challenge Cup series, but other racers can enter into the individual regattas. There will be two days of racing, PHRF classes will race on Oct. 2 and One Design classes will race Oct. 3. The regatta will take place two miles off of the Santa Barbara Harbor entrance with post-sailing activities at SBYC. To compete, register online at https:// www.sbyc.org/web/pages/racing-schedule by 10 a.m. the day of the regatta.
