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Big Pimpin' There is plenty to shout about in the racing world, particularly for those who are involved at the cutting edge. Pro-Set has a long list of clients that are right in the thick of it, building boats from the blisteringly quick to the jaw-droppingly beautiful. Among them is Maguire Boats, a small builder in a niche market based on the UK’s south coast that has enjoyed an impressive run of success and has played a huge part in shaping the high-performance world. The company is famous for its International Moths, in particular its Exocet. In almost 10 years it has built 170 boats and won pretty much everything in the Moth world. But many believe that the influence of the Exocet was down to far more than simply a straight line and argue instead that it redefined this popular foiling class while raising the bar among the fleet. And a look at their route to success over the last decade makes it easy to see why. Read on....

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa. Yes I know that’s a Christian (Catholic?) saying but I got it from the Jimmy Buffet song ‘Fruitcakes’. It basically means, ‘I was wrong.’ And I was wrong.  I wrote an article a few years ago about how ridiculous I thought that the new America’s Cup designs were. They were going back to monohulls when I was a huge fan of multihulls. I thought that the AC72 catamarans were just awesome, and I might have said at the time, well in fact I did say at the time, that the new AC monohulls looked like a dog taking a piss. I got some hell for my article and in fact, got a call from a New Zealand sports talk show asking me to come on and explain myself. The host gave me a hard time. It was a Saturday morning show and my brother, who lives in Auckland, caught it purely by chance. He told me later that the calls that came in after my interview were 10:1 against me. Maybe they knew something that I didn’t. My point was this. There had been a clamor for the days of old when the 12-meters used to have tacking duels up the windward leg, the boat in the lead slam-covering the boat behind. I understand longing. I long for the days when I first circumnavigated back when the world was flat, but things have moved on since then, sailing too. I really did circumnavigate back when the world was flat. It was in ’81. With the multihulls, it was pretty much bang a corner, both upwind and downwind, and hope that you had picked the right side of the course. The longing for the old days when you tacked on each shift were long...

That's the beautiful Bloodhound, shot here by friend Philippe Gadeyne....

As planned, at 12:08 this Thursday, the big race for the 20 th Solo Maître CoQ kicked off off Les Sables d'Olonne. The 30 Figarists in the running then set off for a 340-mile loop between Ré, Yeu, Belle-Ile and the Rochebonne plateau, propelled by a south-easterly breeze blowing between 12 and 14 knots. It was in close ranks, led by Alexis Loison (REEL Group), that they then began their descent towards the Ile de Ré. Where, shortly after the overflow of the Baleines lighthouse, the situation should get much worse with a transition phase to be negotiated. A delicate phase that could well be the key point of the course before a clear strengthening of the wind and, by extension, an end of the race at top speed! Photo Copyright: Vincent Olivaud. More here....

Spectators and competitors alike gave the universal thumbs-up to Cowes Week’s new Spectator app – but only after exhaustive refinement and testing to ensure it hit the ground glitch-free and operating at full capacity Many sailors will be very used to turning up at a regatta and being asked to scan a QR code to open a WhatsApp group that the organizers use for communications. Once upon a time, these were open channels filled with general competitor chitchat as well as race information from the RO. Latterly, they have become broadcast only, but they are still extremely limited in their capability. How, for instance, do you cope with a fleet of not 60 boats, but 600, spread across not half a dozen classes, but 40 different classes, all using the same race marks for their courses? In the case of Cowes Week, the answer was to write a dedicated event app and to tie that into the organization’s entry system so that from start to finish the event team can use one database of information. More here....

The scintillating performance of the four IMOCAs flying over the Southern Ocean in the third leg of The Ocean Race, has made a lot of people sit up and take notice, not least the reigning IMOCA GLOBE SERIES champion Charlie Dalin. The multiple race winner, and line honours finisher in the last Vendée Globe on board Apivia – who has been king of the IMOCA GLOBE SERIES castle for two seasons in succession – is heavily focused on his new Guillaume Verdier-designed IMOCA, named Macif and due to be launched in mid-June. More here. Photo © Amory Ross / 11th Hour Racing Team...

Smuggling Over the weekend, two migrant smuggling vessels capsized off San Diego's coast, killing multiple occupants in one of the region's worst maritime migration accidents in years. Late Saturday, San Diego's 911 center received a call for assistance from a woman aboard a migrant smuggling boat. She described a distress situation off Black's Beach, a popular surfing destination just north of La Jolla, involving two pangas. Her own boat was safe at the time of the call, but the other boat had capsized with 15 people aboard. At about 2330 hours, San Diego Fire-Rescue's responders found two boats capsized within about 150 yards of each other, and they recovered eight bodies from the beach. No survivors were found nearby, and heavy fog hampered SAR efforts overnight. The U.S. Coast Guard launched a search with a small boat, a cutter and a SAR helicopter on Sunday morning, but suspended its participation that afternoon. More here....

All New! In this week's Podcast, I reminisce about how I met Doug Peterson, 40-something years ago. Yes, I've already established that I'm old, but as a total outsider back in the day, it was a moment I'll never forget. Enjoy! - ed. Click right here to listen....