In This Issue
The Chase For #1 Is On
Four races and four winners on opening day
UBS 20th Jersey Regatta
Preparations for the Route du Rhum are in full swing
The 50th edition of Barcolana
420 / 470 Junior Europeans
Clean propulsion takes centre stage at Yacht Club de Monaco
Warnemunde Laser Cup and Musto Skiffs German Open
Tornado World Championship
Featured Brokerage
The Last Word: Robert Anton Wilson
Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, 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
The Chase For #1 Is On
With the retirement of Line Honours favourite Rambler 88 from the transatlantic Atlantic Anniversary Regatta, the cards have been shuffled for the remaining 15 racing yachts.
Whilst Rambler is on her way to Newport, RI at the nearby US East Coast, due to a lost rudder (and with all crew reported safe), Ker 56 Varuna is now fighting for the win with the slightly larger IMOCA 60 Malizia - Yacht Club Monaco. But with less than two days since the start in Bermuda, and more than 2,700 nautical miles to go to the finish line in Germany, everything is up in the air.
It will be the battle of two state-of-the-art racing yachts and two German skippers from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV): Jens Kellinghusen's sleek, all-black Varuna versus Boris Herrmann's semi-foiling IMOCA 60 Malizia - Yacht Club Monaco. Varuna has shown an outstanding performance in this race so far, and after about 36 hours is still leading on the water as well as in IRC Zero. But the uber-modern IMOCA 60 with offshore pro Boris Herrmann has her eyes on the prize as well, and is just a bit more than 20 nautical miles behind Varuna at the current stage. Kellinghusen's crew includes America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race sailors. Herrmann is one of the top offshore racers in the world, and will be the first German to ever compete in the storied Vendee Globe in 2020-21. He had delivered his yacht solo from Europe to Bermuda for the race start. It is promising to be an epic duel on eye level. And other ambitious competitors still have a chance for a podium result, especially after corrected time.
For Rambler 88, the current race has come to an unexpected early end. "This morning at 02:24am UTC, the Race Committee received a notification of retirement from Rambler 88 Navigator Stan Honey. At around 01:30am UTC, Rambler had contact with an unidentified object in the water, and lost her port rudder", says Stefan Kunstmann, AAR Race Officer of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC). "The safety and well-being of the crew is our utmost priority, and we are delighted that everyone onboard is reported safe. We regret that the Line Honours favourite had to retire from the race and wish them a safe journey to nearby Newport, Rhode Island, which is approximately 400 nautical miles away from their current position."
At 05:05pm UTC, the Rambler Crew added via another satellite message: "The boat and everybody are fine. We're just missing our port rudder. On the way to Newport. ETA 3am local time on 12 July."
The remaining fleet will need to brace themselves for potentially inclement weather conditions, as they are nearing the ice exclusion zone. The crew of Best Buddies, which already started on July 2, 2018 in a special division, reported chilly air and water temperatures as expected. In addition, tropical storm Chris is moving with about 8 knots in NE direction. "The Race Committee is working with professional forecasters and is prepared to warn the fleet if need be", adds Stefan Kunstmann.
Tracker: yb.tl/aar2018
Four races and four winners on opening day
The 2018 OK Dinghy World Championship in Warnemunde, Germany got underway Tuesday with two races in a solid 12-18 knots. Jan Kurfeld is the early leader from Andre Budzien and Lars Johan Brodtkorb. Each won a race in their groups, while the other race win went to Fredrik Loof.
Various weather forecasts threatened wind, rain, sunshine and numerous windshifts, but the day started sunny and warm with light winds. The opening race was scheduled for 14.00, and by then the weather had changed with a building north-easterly providing fairly stable winds, great waves and fantastic Warnemunde sailing conditions.
The Yellow fleet contained two of the main favourites, Loof and Kurfeld. Loof dominated the first race with a win over a fast approaching Kurfeld, while in the second, Kurfeld built a nice lead on the first beat and was never really threatened. Loof was second for a while but ended up third after being passed by Thomas Hansson-Mild.
The Blue group was arguably the toughest with Budzien, Brodtkorb, Charlie Cumbley, Jim Hunt and Bo Petersen fighting it out at the front. Budzien took first blood with a confident win from Petersen and Brodtkorb, while in the second race Brodtkorb threw down the gauntlet with a win from Budzien and Petersen.
Top five after two races
1. Jan Kurfeld, GER, 3
2. Andre Budzien, GER, 3
3. Lars Johan Brodtkorb, NOR, 4
4. Fredrik Loof, SWE, 4
5. Thomas Hansson-Mild, SWE, 5
UBS 20th Jersey Regatta
Scheduled for 14th to 16th September and sponsored for the sixth year running by UBS AG Jersey, this year sees the 20th edition of the combined clubs' Jersey Regatta, the Island's 'flagship' sailing event.
The Regatta schedule provides racing for sportsboat, IRC and NHC cruiser/racer, Quarter Ton, dayboat, dinghy, sport catamaran and windsurfer classes, a veritable 'catch-all for both local and visiting sailors alike. In this special year, the fifth Spinlock IRC Channel Islands Regional Championships for IRC-rated Classes 1 & 2 cruiser/racers will be a major feature of the programme.
The event opens on the Thursday evening with a welcoming reception followed by a distance race for the sportsboat and cruiser/racer classes on Friday morning. Saturday and Sunday sees these classes racing in and off St Aubin's Bay over round-the-cans and Olympic-type courses. The 'small boat' classes race over Olympic-type courses entirely within this beautiful Bay.
As ever, Jersey Marinas will be providing complimentary berthing for competitors during the lead-up to the Regatta whilst Condor Ferries is offering discounted fares for those competitors wishing to ship their boats to the Island to join in the event.
The Regatta is an open event to which visiting boats are assured of a very warm welcome.
The Notice of Race is available on the website, www.jerseyregatta.com. Enticingly low entry fees are made even more attractive with an 'early bird' fee for those entering no later than 6th August. The definitive closing date is 7th September.
For further information, e-mail info@jerseyregatta.com.
Preparations for the Route du Rhum are in full swing
With fewer than 120 days to go to the start of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe, which begins on 4th November in Saint-Malo, time is slipping by for the twenty or so IMOCA skippers lining up for this prestigious transatlantic race. So far, nine sailors have already obtained their qualification for the Rhum. The others will be tackling that important matter very shortly. Some will be taking advantage of the Dhream Cup (which starts from La Trinite sur mer in Brittany on 23rd July) to get their entry sorted out. In the coming weeks, we can also look forward to seeing some boats launched, in particular Jeremie Beyou's Charal, the very first new generation IMOCA.
In the IMOCA class, nine skippers have so far obtained their qualification, four of whom did so by completing the Bermuda 1000 Race between Douarnenez (Brittany) and Cascais (Portugal) : Paul Meilhat (SMA), Sam Davies (Initiatives-Cœur), Fabrice Amedeo (Newrest-Art et Fenêtres) and Manu Cousin (Groupe Setin).
Others sailed the qualifying distance outside of a race - Yann Elies (Ucar-StMichel), Ari Huusela (Ariel 2), Damien Seguin (Groupe Apicil), Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) and more recently, Isabelle Joschke (Monin), who set sail alone from Cadiz on Saturday 16th June and reached the coast of Brittany six days later.
Some sailors are about to set off sailing solo to complete their qualification for the Route du Rhum, while others are looking forward to the Dhream Cup to get that magic ticket…
Twelve skippers competing in the Dhream Cup
After Douarnenez-Cascais and the Monaco Globe Series, the next major sporting event for the IMOCA sailors will be the Dhream Cup, raced between la Trinite-sur-Mer in Brittany and Cherbourg (via the Fastnet Rock), which starts on 23rd July. Twelve IMOCAs are registered for this race, which counts as a qualifier for the Route du Rhum. Among them, five have not yet obtained their precious ticket for the Rhum: Alan Roura, Romain Attanasio, Stephane Le Diraison, Arnaud Boissieres and Erik Nigon.
Alex Thomson will not be competing in the Dhream Cup, but in the coming weeks, he is planning to attempt to smash the North Atlantic record.
drheam-cup.com www.routedurhum.com/en/s01_home/s01p01_home.php imoca.org
The 50th edition of Barcolana
It all started 50 years ago, when 51 sailing boats lined up on the startline in light winds for the first edition of Barcolana. There were no illusions of grandeur, it was to be a simple. pure, regatta, open to everyone, held at the end of the racing season on the second Sunday of October. The only requirement to join was to have, or to join, a sailing boat!
Since the beginning, Barcolana has been organised by the yacht club Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano (SVBG), a small club, whose club burgee was inspired by the peace flag, set up just a few months earlier in December 1968. Barcolana has grown in stature over the past fifty years and now welcomes competitors from all over the world in a festival atmosphere to celebrate together the spirit of sailing.
October 2018: SVBG, a breeding ground for some of the world's very best sailors with world champions, Olympians and America's Cup sailors in its alumni, now has over 600 club members and continues to organise the largest regatta in the world - Barcolana. In 2017, 2,101 yachts lined up for the start - a world record - and with over 25,000 people on the water and 300,000 on land, the city of Trieste comes alive for this unique spectacle.
Barcolana 50 will run from Friday 5 to Sunday 14 October 2018: ten exciting days on land and at sea with over 350 events across sailing, water sports, culture, art, social and educational workshops on the theme of the sea. Continuing the tradition of always racing on the second Sunday of October, the 2018 edition will be held 14 October. The traditional quadrilateral race course runs 13 nautical miles from Barcola and Miramare to the waters off piazza Unità, Trieste's city centre.
Online registrations are open at www.barcolana.it
420 / 470 Junior Europeans
Clube Navale De Sesimbra / Portugal: Race day 4 dawned with dense fog on Sesimbra beach and visibility at 100 metres - not an unusual occurrence here. Local Portuguese weather gurus assured it would lift, and after a 2 hour postponement the fog gave way to sun and breeze.
It was a totally different weather pattern that greeted the 396 sailors, with a tricky, shifty and unpredictable breeze delivering the most brutal race track challenge of the Championship so far.
Two races for each of the 420 Open, 420 U17, 470 Men and 470 Women with rollercoaster scores unseating some teams as they struggled to find their groove in the change of conditions.
Racing continues on Tuesday 10 July, with a scheduled start time of 1400 hours and two races for all fleets. In the 470 Men and Women, Tuesday's two races will decide the top ten teams advancing to Wednesday's medal race, with the rest of the fleet contesting a final race 12.
420 Open - Results after 8 Races
1. Enzo Balanger/Gaultier Tallieu Gueydan, Fra, 17 points
2. Martín Wizner Perez-Lafuente/Pedro Ameneiro Amezaga, Esp, 19
3. Niamh Harper/Ross Thompson, Gbr, 36
4. Gabriele Romeo/Giulio Tamburini, Ita, 42
5. Riccardo Sepe/Tommaso Iacchia, Ita, 43
420 U17- Results After 8 Races
1. Cole Tapper/Tyler Creevy, Aus, 32
2. Ryan Littlechild/Jack Ferguson, Aus, 37
3. Oliver Hurwitz/Ethan Froelich, Usa, 47
4. Jakub Gołębiowski/Filip Szmit, Pol, 48
5. Nikolaus Clodi/Vincent Wenger Oehn, Aut , 52.57
470 Women - Results After 9 Races
1. Theres Dahnke/Birte Winkel, Ger, 2
2. Yahel Wallach/Omer Bilia, Isr, 43
3. Luise Wanser/Helena Wanser, Ger, 45
4. Paola Amar/Marine Riou, Fra, 45
5. Marina Lefort/Lara Granier, Fra, 48
6. Maria Vittoria Marchesini/Cecilia Fedel, Ita, 52
7. Theresa Loffler/Lena Stuckl, Ger, 52
8. Elisa Yukie Yokoyama/Cheryl Teo, Sin, 53
9. Linoy Korn/Shahar Tibi, Isr, 58
10. Antonina Marciniak/Hanna Dzik, Pol, 59
470 Men - Results After 9 Races
1. Maor Abu/Yoav Rooz, Isr, 16
2. Nitai Hasson/Tal Harari, Isr, 26
3. Balazs Gyapjas/Zsombor Gyapjas, Hun, 32
4. Jules Ducelier/Clement Michel, Fra, 63
5. Maciej Sapiejka/Dominik Janowczyk, Pol, 65
2018junioreuropeans.420sailing.org
Clean propulsion takes centre stage at Yacht Club de Monaco
Click on image for photo gallery.
With 30 teams set to compete, up 25% on last year, the Yacht Club de Monaco is set for the Solar & Energy Boat Challenge for latest innovations in propulsion, 12-14 July, which this year is open to all clean energy sources.
Supported by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Hydros Foundation and International Powerboating Federation (UIM), the contest gives engineering students a chance to reinvent boating to meet future energy and environmental imperatives. This 5th edition is sponsored by Bertrand Piccard, the man behind Solar Impulse, the first fuel-less zero-emissions plane with limitless autonomy to fly round the world.
Solar boats again take centre stage for a fleet race and timed one-on-one slalom races. New this year is the "Energy Class" where students working with shipbuilders have been given an identical one-design catamaran hull on which to build a cockpit and design a durable propulsion system from a given amount of energy, be it Bio Fuel, battery, hydrogen, compressed air, LNG, etc. Also, in this class is Plastic Odyssey, a 25m catamaran powered by plastic waste which is on a round the world expedition.
Meanwhile, 5 teams in the YCM Offshore Class will race to Ventimiglia in Italy and back (16nm). Boats must be able to take 3 people and comply with technical specifications defined with the UIM. And finally, after showcasing Planet Solar in 2014, the 2018 edition hosts Sphyrna, the largest civilian oceanic surface drone in the world (17m), with an electric motor powered by solar, wind and tidal energy.
Provisional programme:
Thursday 12th to Saturday 14th July from 8.30am - 8.00pm:
Solar & Energy Boat Challenge Paddocks open (free entry)
Thursday 12th July:
9.00am: Pilots briefing
10.00am: Start of trial - Race 1
3.30pm: Start of trial - Race 2
5.00pm: Tech Talks
7.00pm: Welcome Cocktail (by invitation)
Friday 13th July:
9.00am: Pilots briefing
10.00am: Start of Monaco-Ventimiglia-Monaco Endurance Race (Energy Class)
10.00am: Start of Fleet Race
3.00pm: Parade lap
3.30pm: Speed record
5.00pm: Tech Talks
Saturday 14th July:
9.00am: Pilots briefing
10.00am: Start of One-on-One Slalom qualifiers (Energy & Solar Classes)
10.00am: Start of Monaco-Ventimiglia-Monaco Endurance Race (Offshore Class)
2.00pm: Start of One-on-One Slalom finals (Energy Class)
3.00pm: Start of One-on-One Slalom finals (Solar Class)
4.00-6.00pm: UIM Workshop
8.00pm: Closing dinner
Warnemunde Laser Cup and Musto Skiffs German Open
With winds between 3 and 5 Beaufort, this Tuesday was a great sailing day. The 81st edition of the Warnemunder Woche bid farewell to the sailors of the Laser Europa Cup and the Musto Skiff German Open. Today, the OK Dinghies started the World Championship races and the A-Cats sailed the first European Championship races. Glenn Ashby, the Americas Cup winner, captured the victory of the first two races.
Altogether, 88 Laser Radial dinghies joined the competition. Elena Vorobeva (Croatia) won the match just ahead of Nazli Cagla Donertas. Donertas began her sailing career in 2004 at Marmaris Yacht Club and became Turkish Champion with the olympic 470 Dinghy in 2008. in the 2016, the 1.73m tall woman, finished fifteenth during the Olympic sailing competitions which were held in Rio.
in the Laser Standard races, Dawid Kania (Poland) had the competition under control. His results were so good, he did not have to participate in the last race. Rodney Govinden was amongst those who had to make the longest journey to Rostock. He came all the way from the Seychelles and was rewarded with the second place ahead of Jakub Halouzka and Eris Malach from Hamburg.
Local hero Lukas Schranck used his knowledge of the area and won with five first places in six Laser 4.7 races. The 14-year-old from Rostock is part of a true sailing family: His father Thorsten is currently the new chairman of the Warnemunde Sailing Club and his brother Jakob heads its youth department.
At the German Open of Musto Skiff, the Netherlands celebrates a double victory.
Top five places:
Laser 4.7 (Europa Cup)
1. Lukas Schranck, GER
2. Patrikas Tamasauskas, LTU
3. Simone Babini, iTA
4. Nojus Bestauskas, LTU
5. Amaya Escudero, USA
Laser Standard (Europa Cup)
1. Dawid Kania, POL
2. Rodney Govinden, SEY
3. 211236, Jakub Halouzka, CZE
4. Eric Malach, GER
5. Wolfgang Gerz, GER
Laser Radial (Europa Cup)
1. Elena Vorobeva, CRO
2. Nazli Cagla Donertas, TUR
3. Yvan Beaufils, FRA
4. Pia Kuhlmann, GER
5. Justin Barth, GER
Musto Skiff German Open
1. Paul Dijkstra, NED
2. Jelmer Kuipers, NED
3. Iver Ahlmann, GER
4. Yaroslav Petrov, RUS
5. Marius Knippscheer, GER
A-Cat Europeans
1. Glenn Ashby, AUS
2. Maciej Zarnowski, POL
3. Mischa Heemskerk, NED
4. Manuel Calavia, ESP
5. Sandro Caviezel, SUI
Tornado World Championship
First day of the 2018 Tornado World Championship has been completed with 48 athletes and 24 boats from 9 countries to compete: Australia, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy and of course France. All here at the venue of Yacht Club la Grande Motte to race and have fun.
With one race having taken place yesterday, at the first day of the 2018 Tornado World Championship, it was Brett Burvill and Max Putmann, from Australia, who took the victory. After a great start, they manage to stay clear ahead of the rest of the fleet and the 2017 World Champions, Dany Paschalidis and Petros Konstantinidis, managed to finish 2nd.
The first Mixed crew to finish was Jurgen and Sarah Jentsch, also finishing 4th overall.
The wind was average 8 knots with gusts reaching 12 knots of northern wind. The day finished with this year's AGM. -- Icarus Sports
www.tornado-class.org/2018-tornado-worlds/
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The Last Word
The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental. -- Robert Anton Wilson
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