As the excited people throng the streets of Monaco the port Hercule dresses up once more for the most fabulous yacht show of the season. The luxurious witnesses of prosperity and success adorn the harbours. But there is something special in the sir this year. The Solar 1 races and Vripack are combining the most hyped about Formula One craze and the yacht show to launch the first ever solar-powered yacht Grand Prix at the solar one race. This is set to take place from July 10 to July 12 in Monaco.

This race began in Holland eight years ago, then known as the Dong energy solar challenge. It comprised of two levels, first the hobby level cruising class and then the professional yachting class, whose cost made it almost prohibitory for most of the entrants. So after competing for three years in a row in the hobby level cruising class, Vripack decided to come up with a third level, that would judge the expertise of the skipper and not the boat builder. They would be tested on a fair and uniform platform. For this purpose they came up with the V20 series. When compared (on the plain sailing facebook page) to the Navy vessels Vripack make “there’s not that much boat” Droogsma has been quoted saying. And why not? While a fully equipped yacht may take over a year to build the 19 foot V20 takes only six weeks, because it lacks the complex on-board systems.

The boat has a molded carbon shell and as many solar panels as feasible as this is the prime source of energy for the yacht. Set to reach a maximum of 18mph. It comes for a mere 55,000 Euros where as a professional yacht can cost as much as 130,000 Euros. So a mere compromise in the top-speed seems acceptable especially when there’s no cost for fuel.

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Latvia has reportedly emerged victorious at Yachting Russia championship this time. The regatta was held last week with j/80 International on-design sportsboats.

It was the 9th edition of the Yachting Russia championship which is hosted by Fraglia Velva Riva, one among the oldest of yachting clubs from Europe. The race is meant for Russian-speaking sailing community.

Around sixty athletes from Ukraine, Russian, Latvia, Italy, Germany and Belarus were distributed into 11 squads for the race. The championship allows each of the skippers to pick 1 crew member from all the participants & the remaining crew is decided by a lottery. Given such a selection method, each squad is somehow forced to get involved in team training, organization  & a unified team-work culture. The winner is the squad which shows up with great team work with least mistakes. It’s quite a unique and fun format leading to amazing camaraderie & fun parties among the team members as sun sets.

The initial 3 days feature an unusual ambience for Lake Garda with lighting, heavily overcast sky & variable breeze blowing from all wind direction. However, it was the harmonious and accurate operation on part of the racing committee that finally enabled the sailors to take part in forty0three matches to decide the top 4 crews. It was followed by semi-final meetings & selection of championship participants & consolation finals.

Since the very start of the championship, the participants have shown signification escalation of skill. The final day of the race featured the perfect ambience with the shining sun and nice wind. The finalists had quite an intense fight and finally it was Riga’s Sergey Pervushkin who won the honor for Latvia on Baltic Sea. Russian sailor Sergey Ezhikoy came second while it was Dmitry Zaritsky who was the second runner-up.

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With the 2013 season coming to a close the sailors would be welcomed to the new season with some changes in 2014. The regulatory bodies have come to a conclusion that there needs to be some change for this year and the changes are for the better sailing. One of the most important changes that will be seen is the percentage of fuel sulfur which should be 1000 ppm.

This would help to reduce the airborne particulate matter resulting in less emission of sulfur dioxide. According to the Load Line Convention the southern limit of the allover load will soon be moved by 50 miles towards the south which would give more room to the yachts and ships to pass from the allocated area. Previously this was always planned but it was not incorporated but from this year it will be taken care of and it will help the sailors a lot.

Apart from this there will be some other changes as well such as the length of the yacht can be changed and each yacht will be able to have either a shore based support or an onboard stability computer that would be having more than three vertical fire zones.

There will be changes in the fire safety systems as well and as per the changes that have been made a yacht can only have a radiotelephone apparatus that too in the two way portable mode so that it becomes easier for the firefighter’s communication. The communication will be done via radio and the radios should be intrinsically safe with explosion proof facility. In addition to this the yacht should also have some spare cylinders with a facility for onboard recharging and breathing apparatus cylinder. Changes in the noise level are also been looked into but the definite information about this has not yet been updated.

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