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In This Issue
• Halfway across!
• Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini in a Match Race in the Atlantic
• The Royal Thames Yacht Club Job Vacancy
• First All-Female Professional Crew Announce Campaign In Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
• WIM Series Finale at Carlos Aguilar Match Race
• Gaff-Cutter Lady Min
• Front foot - UBI Maior
• Safety at Sea Seminars
• 12 footers gearing up for NSW Championship
• America's Cup: Flurry of Challenger action 48 hours before deadline
• Featured Brokerage
• The Last Word: Barry Miles
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 [AT] scuttlebutteurope [DOT] com
Halfway across!
The leading multihulls are now approximately halfway along the course in the RORC Transatlantic Race having already sailed 1,700 miles. Conversely, the smaller boats have only covered between 500 and 600 nautical miles and still have around 2,500 miles to go. The chasing pack made up of Black Sheep, Sirius, Xtra Staerk and Kali are now firmly in the trade winds and all are making good speeds in a south-westerly direction.
Around 500 miles astern of the two multis is Pier Luigi Loro Piana's Baltic 130 My Song which is a mere 18 miles behind the current monohull record at this stage of the race. My Song is the new overall leader under IRC as Franco Niggeler's Cookson 50 Kuka3 continues to head south towards the Azores; presumably with the aim of finding the strongest pressure. Trever Middleton's Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep is following a similar course to Kuka3 and continues to hold a comfortable third place in IRC.
The battle of the Class40s continues with Catherine Pourre's Earendil edging further ahead of Henrik Bergesen's Hydra and currently holds a lead of around 16 miles.
Current Race Records:
Monohull Record:
10 days 07 hours 06 minutes and 59 seconds
NOMAD IV, FINOT-CONQ 100
In 2015, Jean-Paul Riviere's French Finot-Conq 100, Nomad IV set a record for the RORC Transatlantic Race and was also awarded the International Maxi Association Transatlantic Trophy for Monohull line honours
Multihull Record:
5 days 22 hours 46 minutes 03 seconds
PHAEDO3, MOD70
In 2016, Lloyd Thornburg's MOD70, Phaedo3 set the multihull record for the race
Class40 record:
12 days 12 hours 36 minutes 32 seconds
TALES II, CLASS40
Gonzalo Botin's Spanish Class40, Tales II was the first Class40 to complete the race in 2015, setting a Class40 record
Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini in a Match Race in the Atlantic
Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini in a Match Race in the Atlantic On Wednesday November 28th, at 08.00 UTC, fifth day of RORC Transatlantic Race, Maserati Multi 70 reclaimed the first place and is now sailing towards West, with a speed between 26 and 28 knots. Between Giovanni Soldini and the finish line there are still 1545 miles to go, with two miles of advantage over PowerPlay, who is sailing towards South.
The two MOD 70s have been swapping the lead in the Line Honours Multihull leaderboard right from the start of the regatta, on Saturday November 24th: a real match race in the Ocean.
With a steady East-Northeast wind between 18 and 22 knots of speed, the Italian Team has to study the right moment to tack. Skipper Giovanni Soldini explains: "We will have to gybe on the shift and gain speed. During the night we gybed very effectively twice: we gained many miles towards South with a good angle, now we're sailing West following the rotation of the Trade Winds. PowerPlay made a different technical choice and last night they gybed towards South 4 hours after us."
Yesterday afternoon, Maserati Multi 70 finally found the right conditions to rise above the water: "We are on starboard tack and for the first time we were able to fly well for a couple of hours," explains Giovanni Soldini. "Now there are steep two meters high waves which are not letting us fly well and we will have to slow down, but we can still stand up to PowerPlay. On port tack, without the flying rudder, we're suffering a little."
The Royal Thames Yacht Club Job Vacancy
Sailing Office Events Coordinator
The role of the Sailing Office is to deliver the Club's Sailing Programme and all the supporting communication and administration.
The role is primarily office based at 60 Knightsbridge but also involves running events both in Cowes and at Queen Mary reservoir in West London. A certain amount of flexibility is required such as occasional weekend working and evening events/meetings (for which appropriate days in lieu are given).
The sailing office at Royal Thames is a busy small team and the role requires:
- Good oral and written communication skills
- Ability to cope under pressure in a wide variety of situations both in the office and at events maintaining a friendly and effective demeanour.
- Tolerance to different working styles within the office to ensure good teamwork.
- Good creative skills to ensure the best communication to a wide diversity of members.eg creating the weekly newsletter to members.
- Managing social functions that are sailing related
- Keeping the website up to date.
- A knowledge of sailing is desirable as is a willingness to learn more about the different disciplines within sailing such as fleet racing, team racing and cruising.
The role is varied and requires the ability to get involved in a wide variety of tasks where a friendly, constructive attitude to the members of the club are key.
Send CV to include current salary and covering email to Sailing [AT] royalthames [DOT] com.
Closing date 10thDecember.
First All-Female Professional Crew Announce Campaign In Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
In a bid to encourage stronger female representation in Australian sailing and to promote ocean health and sustainability, the first all-female professional crew to enter the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race has announced their campaign to lift the Tattersall Cup in Hobart.
The 13-strong crew, led by skipper Stacey Jackson and supported by team Ambassador, the Honourable Julie Bishop MP, will race under the team name of 'Ocean Respect Racing', in partnership with 11th Hour Racing, an international organisation that promotes sustainability through sport. Sailing on the 66 footer Wild Oats X, Ocean Respect Racing is a serious contender for victory with a combined experience of 68 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Races and 17 Volvo Ocean Races.
Ocean Respect Racing's crusade to Hobart became a reality at Hamilton Island Race Week in August 2018, when Sandy Oatley gifted Stacey Jackson the use of Wild Oats X for the race on behalf of the Oatley family. Wild Oats X is a smaller version of the supermaxi Wild Oats XI, which has been decorated with line honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race a record breaking eight times.
Both Wild Oats yachts are confirmed to be on the starting line, adding to the fierce line-up of competition expected in this year's race.
Sandy Oatley said when Stacey presented her proposal to enter Australia's first all-female professional crew in to the race, the Oatley family instantly decided to support Stacey's campaign.
Ocean Respect Racing will be promoting the UN Environment's Clean Seas campaign, a grantee of 11th Hour Racing, growing the momentum of Australia's recent commitment to the campaign to reduce ocean plastics
The Ocean Respect Racing crew will make their first debut in the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, which will be held on 11 December in Sydney Harbour.
WIM Series Finale at Carlos Aguilar Match Race
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands: Drivers and pedestrians traversing Waterfront Drive in Charlotte Amalie on Wednesday got a sneak peek of the competition to come in the Women's International Match Racing Series (WIM Series) finale held at the Carlos Aguilar Match Race (CAMR), on November 29 through December 2. The twelve teams, all of which who have flown into St. Thomas this week from France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA, used the practice day to acclimatize to the welcome tropical conditions and accustom themselves to the often-tricky always-challenging wind conditions in the harbor. For one team, led by skipper Renee Groeneveld and her crew from the Netherlands, it was more of a re-acquaintance.
"We'd certainly like to be on the podium again this year," says Groeneveld, who won the 2016 WIM Series Finale at the CAMR in St. Thomas. "There were light winds last time and I think we might get those conditions again on Thursday, but after that the winds are forecast to pick up so we need to be patient and ready for everything."
Groeneveld's 2016-winning Dutch team of Annemieke Bes, Lobke Berkhout and Mijke Lievens are all back.
This is the first WIM Series event of 2018 that the USA's Janel Zarkowsky has sailed and the first time she's taken the helm. However, this will be Zarkowsky's fourth time competing in the CAMR, having served as a trimmer with the USA's Dave Dellenbaugh twice and in 2016 on bow with the USA's Stephanie Roble.
One WIM Series team making its first appearance at the CAMR and in the U.S. Virgin Islands is Sweden's Sanna Mattsson, and her team of Niki Blassar, Therese Berg and Louise Lindkvist.
The remaining nine skippers competing in the 2018 WIM Series finale at the CAMR are: France's Pauline Courtois, Margot Vennin and Margot Riou; Sweden's Anna Ostling, Johanna Bergqvist, Linnea Floser and Helena Nielsen; Great Britain's Octavia Owen; and the USA's Morgan Collins.
About the Regatta
Carlos Aquilar Match Race (CAMR). Namesake for the late Carlos Aguilar, who was an avid Virgin Islands' sailor, the CAMR traditionally features highly ranked men's and women's match racing teams. Past winners of the Open Division in the CAMR reads like a Who's Who of sailing: the USVI's Taylor Canfield (2008, 2015), USVI's Peter Holmberg (2009), Portugal's Alvaro Marinho/Seth Sailing Team (2010), USA's Sally Barkow (2011), Finland's Staffan Lindberg (2012) and the USA's Don Wilson (2013). Women's Division winners are just as renowned: the USA's Genny Tulloch triumphed in 2008 and 2010 and France's Claire Leroy in 2009. In 2016, the first year the CAMR hosted the WIM Series, Groeneveld and her Dutch team won. The Virgin Islands Sailing Association (VISA) and St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) are the organizing authorities for the CAMR. Sponsors for the regatta include the US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism.
* Your humble narrator has wondered for a long time who Carlos Aguilar was. Here's a well written account of his life and death. Sure wish I'd met him; there aren't enough like him in our world.
Gaff-Cutter Lady Min
Lady Min in the 50s. Photo by Dermot O’Donoghue. Click on image to enlarge.
When the 30-ft gaff-cutter Lady Min was newly-launched in Schull in 1902, she was something of a sensation writes W M Nixon. Designed by local sailing enthusiast Maurice O'Keeffe and built to his requirements by local shipwrights under his own direction such that Lloyds Register lists him as both designer and builder, she had a hull which was seen by traditionalist as being of the fast but fragile skimming dish type.
Thus while everyone acknowledged the Lady Min's undoubted speed, nobody thought that she would last very long. Yet although many of the supposedly more rugged boat types which were her contemporaries have long since disappeared, the Lady Min still survives 116 years later.
Admittedly her condition has had its ups and downs during those long years. But there's something special about the Lady Min which has seen key owners at certain times lavishing the care and attention which has been needed to keep this remarkable and much-loved boat in existence. And now, after many years during which Lady Min has been preserved under cover, Simon O'Keeffe of Schull - a grandson of the original designer and builder - has commissioned noted Ballydehob boat-builder Tiernan Roe to do all the necessary work required to keep Lady Min as a viable proposition.
Front foot - UBI Maior
UBI Maior Italia supply some of the world's most advanced custom hardware to the most demanding performance racers on the planet… looking back is not an option
Nearly everyone has heard of '3D printing' or seen it in the movies: in some magical high-tech way, objects in three dimensions can be created directly from digital files with amazing accuracy. The users seem to effortlessly tap a few keys, the printing device hums and whirrs away, and "voilà", an object appears that is ready to deploy.
The technology promises amazing results and has even resulted in controversy: for example, in the US, an advocate of guns rights has made available the digital files needed to produce an operable pistol that, when made of plastic, could be undetectable in most security scanners. Scary stuff.
But what is not scary and actually rather exciting is that the technicians at UBI Maior Italia have been working with this new technology - more properly termed AM (Additive Manufacturing) - in the realisation that soon metal removal would no longer be the only metalworking process done through a tool or head moving through a three-dimensional work envelope to transform a mass of raw material into a desired shape, layer by layer.
Full article in the December issue of Seahorse
Safety at Sea Seminars
Cruising Club of America increases frequency of safety seminars 2018-2020. - The CCA, co-sponsor of the Newport Bermuda Race, is working to simplify and strengthen the safety training requirements for racing crew. Whether you are competing in the upcoming race or planning other bluewater sailing, increased frequency of training opportunities make hands-on safety training more available than ever.
For those who didn't see it, Bulletin #2 had the detail last month.
12 footers gearing up for NSW Championship
Click on image to enlarge.
Sydney, Australia: With the 12 foot skiff Upper Harbour and Parramatta Championships done and dusted, all skiffies focus is on the Your Move Conveyancing NSW Championship to start on Sydney Harbour later this month - and the all-important Interdominion in January.
In the lead up to the NSW Championship, a six-race series to be held over two weekends of December, every sailor worth his salt is fine tuning and sizing up the competition via local club races each weekend.
Organised by the NSW 12ft Sailing Skiff Association in conjunction with the Sydney Flying Squadron (host for the opening weekend) and Lane Cove 12ft Sailing Skiff Club (host of the following weekend), all eyes are expected to be on the running battle between Nick Press/Andrew Hay (Sydney Sailmakers) and Brett Hobson/Jeremy Jones (Geotherm).
So far, Hobson/Jones have come off second best at the majors, but Hobson is determined to overcome the weekly challenges he faces against Press/Hay.
Others gearing up to take part include LCC Asia Pacific, Arrogant Frog (Peter and Steve Hill), Maersk (Adam Forbes/Ben Gemmell), The Bird (Jamie McCrudden/Glenn Farquhar), Chapman High Performance Sailing (Jack Winning/Brett Phillips) and Your Move Conveyancing (Dave Winning/Joe Bourne).
Up to 35 boats are expected to take part in the Your Move Conveyancing NSW Championship for the Morna Cup, ahead of the Interdominion when they will face their Queensland and Kiwi counterparts for the major crown in 12 foot skiff sailing. -- Di Pearson
America's Cup: Flurry of Challenger action 48 hours before deadline
With 48 hours left until Challenges close for the 36th America's Cup, several new and apparently serious Challengers have emerged.
There are six teams that have been mentioned in various leaks, and so-called inside stories, mostly emanating from Italy, since the initial Challenge closed at the end of June 2018.
The six are two from USA, two from Italy, and one each from Norway and China.
Yesterday a new Challenge was reported in the Netherlands sailing media coming from the two Royal yacht clubs based in Muiden and Rotterdam.
New Zealand sources confirmed there had been discussions with the Dutch, which has also occurred with numerous parties, since the Challenge period opened on January 1, 2018.
What gives the latest Challenger more credibility is that the story on Dutch sailing website zeilen.nl, was sourced from an advisory note circulated as a heads-up" to the membership of both clubs. In the past, this has been a reliable harbinger prior to a Challenge being lodged, and to avoid the club members first hearing of the Challenge via the sailing media. -- Richard Gladwell
www.sail-world.com/news/212574/?source=rss
Hooligan
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The Last Word
I think of the 60s as a supermarket of ideas. We were looking for new ways to live. -- Barry Miles
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