Brought to you by Boats.com Europe, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to editor@scuttlebutteurope.com
Dodging Turtles To Become World Champions
Claas Lehmann and Leon Oehme lived the longest day of their sporting lives on Friday-and came away champions.
With Lehmann steering and Oehme out on the trapeze wire, they went to the line of race nine of the 2013 SAP 5O5 World Championship as one of three teams with a chance at the title, all of them German, all of them veteran, one of them a five-time champion who would have been the house bet to win.
No one else in the 69-boat fleet could crack the top three, no matter what. Tensions ran high, ratcheted higher by a delayed start, and then-
"Both my opponents got poor starts," said Lehmann, in his other life a surgeon from Hamburg. "Right away we knew we had a shot, but it's a long race. So much can happen. We wanted to be safe in every move, and then-"
Right in the middle of the celebration came word that Boehme and Roos believed they had been prejudiced at the start by a marker boat moving at an unsteady speed. Boehm was requesting redress. Suddenly, Claas Lehman and Leon Oehme might as well have been back on the racecourse, looking over their shoulders, and then-
It was over. The regatta's international jury took a full hour to consider the request but declined to overturn the results on the water. Lehmann and Oehme, who'd had a few instances of turtle dodging during the week-Barbados is an important breeding ground for hawksbills-had dodged their last bullet.
Boehm, who dropped out of race nine when he determined that the outcome of the race was already settled, came second in the final standings. Hunger was third, completing the all-German top three.
Full results at www.sap505worlds.com
Win For Trentesaux In Cervantes Trophy
Gery Trentesaux's MC34 Patton, Courrier Vintage, finished the course in under 10 hours to win IRC Two and was declared the overall winner of the Cervantes Trophy. Photo by Peter Mumford-Beken of Cowes. Click on image to enlarge.
The RORC domestic offshore season sprang to life with a fast and, at times, furious 100 mile race to Le Havre for the coveted Cervantes Trophy. Sam Marsaudon and Gery Trentesaux's MC34 Patton, Courrier Vintage, finished the course in under 10 hours to win IRC Two and was declared the overall winner. Racing under IRC rule, the French team of seven included UNCL President, Marc de Saint Denis and was skippered by Gery Trentesaux.
Andrew Budgen's Volvo 70, Monster Project, took line honours and the IRC Canting Keel class in an astonishing elapsed time of just over 7 hours. Averaging close to 14 knots for the race, Monster Project was out of sight of the rest of the fleet shortly after the start.
Piet Vroon's Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens, led the chasing pack out of the Solent with Ker 40, Magnum III, in hot pursuit.
Magnum III was declared the winner of IRC One with Tonnerre de Breskens second and Edward Broadway's Ker 40, Hooligan VII, taking third.
Runner up in IRC Two was one of the two Figaro II entries from the Artemis Offshore Academy raced two-handed by Sam Matson and Robin Elsey, Artemis 21. RORC Admiral Andrew McIrvine's First 40, La Reponse was third in class.
IRC Four was dominated by French yachts; Noel Racine's JPK 10.10, Foggy Dew, corrected out to win the class with Philippe Auber's JPK 9.60, Tusen Takk II, taking second place, a phenomenal effort as the boat was raced two-handed. Jean-Baptiste Crepin's Sun Fast 3200, Jubilon, was less than a minute behind after time correction, to take third.
19 yachts raced to Le Havre in the Two-Handed class with the entire fleet completing the race. The two pairs of young graduates from the Artemis Offshore Academy took the top two positions. Artemis 21, skippered by Sam Matson and Robin Elsey took the win from Alex Gardner and Dyfig Mon in the second Figaro II, Artemis 43, followed by Philippe Auber's Tusen Takk II in third place.
The RORC Season's Points Championship continues with the North Sea Race which starts on Friday May 10th, the 210 mile course taking the fleet from Harwich to Scheveningen.
In IRC Three, the top two boats on corrected time are subject to protests and therefore we await the decision of the Protest Committee before any trophies can be awarded. -- Louay Habib
www.rorc.org
www.facebook.com/RoyalOceanRacingClub
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Audi Sailing Series In Porto Ercole
Porto Ercole, Italy: The Audi Sailing Series is ready for big fleet racing in Porto Ercole. Event No. 2, happening May 10-12 will commence with twenty-one teams on the starting line, representing 8 nations.
Attention will be focused on Gaeta Champion Valentin Zavadnikov's Team Synergy. Currently seated second overall in the Series is Andrea Pozzi at the helm of Bombarda (who is just back from the victories at the Pirelli-Coppa regattas with Carlo Negri aboard a TP52, chartered for the special occasion), and third place Lanfranco Cirillo on Fantastica are equally two very strong teams that should not be overlooked.
This stage will be a great opportunity for the Audi Ultra Giacomel of Mauro Mocchegiani to get back on track. Marc de Antonio's Bribon-Movistar, Carlo Alberini's Calvi Network and last, but certainly not least is Deneen Demourkas' Groovederci from the USA are all expected to have big roles in the results this weekend.
Returning to the European stage is newly appointed IM32CA Vice President Richard Goransson on Helly Hansen Inga From Sweden 3, Yukihiro Ishida aboard Yasha Samurai and Wolfgang Stolz on Opus One from Germany.
Porto Ercole happens this weekend hosted by the Circolo Nautico e della Vela dell'Argentario. The next events are Portoferraio (Event No. 3 on 31 May-2 June), and Torbole (Event No. 4 on 12-14 July). The final event will be the 2013 Melges 32 World Championship on 18-22 September in Porto Rotondo, Italy.
Round Texel
On June 15, 2013 the 36th edition of the legendary Round Texel will be held. The international race for catamarans is known as 'the Biggest Cat Race in the World'. The Round Texel is the culmination of a week of festivities organized along the beach at 'Paal 17'. For the 36th edition, the organisation has dug up the original logo. This logo symbolizes the origins of the early Rounds; a sailing festival for sailors.
Round Texel itself remains the most important race of the Texel Sailing Week, during which a number of other challenges will be organised such as the Texel Dutch Open, the Horstocht and Tour around the North. These last two races being of particular interest to recreational sailors.
In 2013 a number of new measures have been introduced to meet the wishes of participants. This as a result of a survey held in 2012:
1. reduction of the registration fee
2. 20% discount on the TESO ferry
3. sailors village, exclusively for participants and supporters
4. abolition of gold and silver fleet (continue with Texel rating)
5. close cooperation with coastal sailing clubs De Cocksdorp and Westerslag
Dirk Pool (68) has not missed one Round Texel since it started. This year he will compete for the 36th time. Pool is very happy that the Round Texel race, even during these difficult economic times, still goes ahead and that the focus is back on the competitors again. Pool won the race in his class in 1999, and in 2009 he was second.
"This new approach, including the Texel rating, makes me happy. Now I can again win a prize in a small boat. And I think I can say, on behalf of all sailors, that we are very pleased that the Round Texel continues and that we go a bit back to the basics. Of course we cannot turn the clock back completely. But we should hold on to the best of the past. It is therefore good to see that the original logo has been brought back. The tide may be against us at the moment, but for the Round Texel things look promising.
As per 1st May, the 2013 Round has already seen registrations from more than 100 entrants, from four different countries.
Event site: www.roundtexel.com
Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup 2014
The event based in Cowes will start on Saturday 19th July 2014 and follow a similar format to previous years. A mixture of inshore races in the Solent, an offshore race in the English Channel and a race around the Isle of Wight, will finish with a final race and prize-giving on Saturday 26th July 2014.
The Commodores' Cup, which started in 1992 is an international three-boat team event using the IRC Rating system and is open to boats rated between 1.020 and 1.230, with only one boat rated above 1.150. It is a vigorously protected Corinthian regatta where the number of Category 3 sailors is restricted to one per boat, except for the boat rated above 1.150 which can have two.
It is an event popular with teams coming from all corners of the world and a number of countries having trials to select their respective participants. With numerous IRC boats based around the Solent, teams are able to charter competitive boats to reduce the cost of shipping boats to the UK.
The Notice of Race can be viewed on the Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup website: commodorescup.rorc.org
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Austrian Youth Team Surprise Leaders After The Great Cup's Debut Day
Photo by Christophe Launay, www.sealaunay.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
The first day of racing for The Great Cup, and the GC32 catamarans competing in it, went without too many hitches.
With the race committee shifting the course down to Ebensee and the 'Little Garda' area of Lake Traunsee, the most significant blow came when SPAX Solutions suffered gear failure within seconds of the start of the first race. Sadly this was deemed serious enough for her to stand down for the rest of the day, along with the two Dutch teams due to compete on board her - Laurent Lenne's Spax Solution Sailing Team and the Firefly Team for whom Ditch ex-Olympic Tornado sailor Pim Nieuwenhuis helms.
This left the Swiss teams of Flavio Marazzi and Adam Minoprio and the Austrian AEZ teams of Andreas Hagara and Max Trippolt's youth squad to spend the rest of the day match racing.
Thankfully even with two boats, the brand new GC32s put on a breathtaking show with crews screaming past the VIP spectator ship on one hull, with the breezes occasionally gusting to 13 knots but more often around 10 knots.
While there were some races were one team gained a considerable advantage through a gust or their competitor being OCS, in others there was place changing between the one design catamarans. In a memorable one the young Austrian crew on AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team overhauled the Flavio Marazzi steered Team Marwin on the final run, only for the Swiss Olympic Star sailor to pick up a gust, the two boats crossing the line overlapped.
The surprise of the day is that the team to come out on top was AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing, with the same crew that narrowly missed out in February's selection trials for the Red Bull Youth America's Cup. The team skippered by 22-year-old Max Trippolt even ended the day with a score line of 2-1 against former Match Racing World Champion Adam Minoprio.
Tomorrow all six teams will be racing and a program of windward-leewards similar to today is expected.
SB20 Grand Slam at Hyeres
The first SB20 class Grand Slam event of the season was held this weekend in Hyeres, France. 3 days of racing were scheduled between 3rd and 5th May. A quality fleet representing 7 nations arrived to warm sunny 22 degrees - a welcome change for sailors from our rather cool Spring in the UK.
Day one was sailed in a building sea breeze that increased from 12 knots at the start of race one to 22 knots at the end of race four.
Saturday was a bit hazier and lighter and it looked clear that the sea breeze was unlikely to settle. Instead after a short delay the Race Officer managed to get in 3 races in 5 knots of patchy shifty breeze. The Brits of Pollard and Hill struggled to find the best way up the first beats in all 3 races, however Kirill/Frolov and Russo clearly had a much better handle on the conditions, Kirill winning the first two races and Russo scoring a top three in each race.
With no racing on Sunday, as the breeze was even more unsteady and rarely reaching 3 knots the fleet headed back into port with the Russian team of Kirril/Frolov helmed by Alexey Murashkin winning on countback from Ed Russo, John Pollard was left in 3rd place.
The Russian team were popular winners and this win bodes well for a packed season for this new team. Helena Lucas in her first event picked up the Clarins sponsored prize for first Lady helm/crew team finishing in 5th place, and Michel Boussard's team from Monaco picked up the Masters prize.
The next Grand Slam is at Malcesine on Lake Garda where 40 boats are expected to compete at the end of May.
EUROSAF Announces Teams for the 2k Championships
The teams to compete in the 2nd Eurosaf 2 boat keelboat team racing championships (2K) to be held at the Bataviahaven, Holland on 21-23 June have been announced
1. Batavia Sailing Center Team, NED
2. Dutch Match Team Race Association, NED
3. Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, ITA
4. Itchener Sailing Club, GBR
5. Snipe Team, BEL
6. Oxford and Cambridge team, GBR
7. Royal Thames Sailing Team, GBR
8. Serpentine Team Racing Club, GBR
9. Bavaria Sailing tea, GER
The 2K circuit is developing fast. The next event, again fully subscribed with teams from Monaco, Israel, Germany, UK and Italy will be held at Anzio just south of Rome 24-26 May.
The 2K formula, of two keelboats team racing against another two keelboats on the standard match race course is attracting competitors from fleet, match and team racing. With a near 50:50 gender rule the socials are a high point, while white sail allows for greater tactical racing.
With new events scheduled for the Canaries, Hamburg and Antibes in addition to others in the UK, Tuscany, Ireland, and Monaco 2K is establishing itself as a major presence in international team racing.
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