RACING

In June, the Spirit fleet descended upon Guernsey in the Channel Islands for the biennial Spirit owners’ regatta. After a week of champagne sailing and competitive racing, Spirit C72 Gwenhyfar II took home the overall regatta winner trophy.

Gwenhyfar II continued her successful summer, placing first in class at the Taittinger Regatta on the Isle of Wight.

Also on the Isle of Wight, five Spirits ranging from 37 to 72 feet raced at the UK’s leading classic yacht regatta, British Classic Week. Having travelled from her home port of Mallorca, Spirit R52 Happy Forever won Class 1, beating Gwenhyfar II by one point.

In the USA in June, Spirit C47 Luna set off on an adventure, and whilst she wasn’t racing the trip is well worth mentioning. A previous Newport to Bermuda double-handed race winner (2018), Luna set off on the same route, again double-handed, but this time leisure sailing and attempting to use only celestial navigation (albeit with the GPS on as a safety net).

Luna’s owner commented, “The conditions were not that tough (basically 500nm of 18-24kts at an 70-80 true wind angle) but the Gulf Stream created a 120nm meander with 3+kts current that created short steep waves. It was a long return trip of 735nm, or 100nm more than the direct route. The diversion was due to the need to avoid adverse current from a Gulf Stream meander, which we had used to our advantage on the way to Bermuda (this is an old life lesson: giveth and taketh away). It was really wonderful trip.”