In This Issue
• Golden Globe: Mark Slats closes to within 50 miles of Van Den Heede
• Etchells Australian Championship
• Fareast Boats at BOOT Dusseldorf
• The Olympian creating a new sailing dynasty
• The Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club has been put up for sale
• Industry News
• Robert Hathaway
• Letters to the Editor
• Featured Brokerage
• The Last Word: Mikhail Kalashnikov
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
Golden Globe: Mark Slats closes to within 50 miles of Van Den Heede
With less than 1,700 miles back to the finish in Les Sables d'Olonne, 2nd placed Dutchman Mark Slats has sliced a further 393 miles out of Jean-Luc Van Den Heede's lead In terms of distance to finish over the past 8 days. At 08:00 UTC today, the gap was just 49 miles, Slats having gained 205 miles in the past 48 hours.
Jean-Luc, whose Rustler 36 Matmut has led the Golden Globe Race since passing the Cape of Good Hope and at one stage held a 2,000 advantage, has seen his lead being whittled away ever since the 73-year-old Frenchman suffered a knock-down and sustained damage to his mast during a Southern Ocean storm in the South Pacific in November 1.
Van Den Heede still holds a weather advantage and once passed the influence of the Azores high pressure system, should be first to benefit from the reaching winds that will give him an easier passage north towards the Bay of Biscay.
But Slats is pushing hard despite a few problems of his own. In a satellite call to Race HQ on Monday, the Dutchman reported for the first time that he ran out of fresh water supplies a week ago, and is now using his emergency desalinator to turn salt water into fresh. It is hard work. An hour of pumping with both hands produces just 750ml of water - barely a cup full. The average daily intake is 2.5litres - 3 hours pumping!
Third placed Estonian skipper Uku Randmaa whose Rustler 36 One and All, has also been beset by barnacle growth since crossing the Indian Ocean, is today caught in calms in the South Atlantic, some 3,000 miles behind the leading duo. He dived yesterday, and reported: "I'm swimming with dophins." We hope he recognises the difference between these mammals and their more agressive distant cousins!
800 miles to the South, American/Hungarian Istvan Kopar is making great progress northwards in his Tradewind 35 Puffin, seemingly having overcome his self-steering problems.
Jean-Luc Van Den Heede and Mark Slats are expected to finish in Les Sables d'Olonne sometime between 1st-2nd February.
Etchells Australian Championship
This really is something you looked forward to. It was on the same racetrack as the super-successful 2018 Etchells Worlds. It was being staged out of the same club; namely at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. By and large, many of the same competitors were back for more. Well those who live nearby in a global sense, anyway.
Yes, all of these ingredients, plus some more tremendous weather, had the 27 entrants for the 2019 Etchells Australian Championship totally geared up.
Light Easterlies greeted the humid morning in Brisbane. Indeed the parts of Moreton Bay leading up to the docks that service the city would have been happy to have those almost zephyr like gentle wafts wandering in towards them, for they had a glass out. Still, as the morning progressed, so too did the strength and determination of the breeze to let all go racing, so by the time everyone was well and truly on station by the middle of the day, the Answering Pennant really did not spend a lot of time aloft before the first of three races for the day got underway.
It is always good to see a famous boat keep on keeping on. In this case it is John Bertrand's old Triad, AUS 1383. She won a race at the 2018 Worlds under skipper William Voermann, and now has a new owner in Kirwan Robb, who picked her up a week ago, no less. Sailing with him for this regatta are the youngest ever winning skipper of the Australian Cadet title, Hugo Allison (he's also won a World title as crew), Sam Tiederman (an SB sailor from Tasmania), and the very experienced, Darren Jones.
Racing continues tomorrow, with timing and number of races to be determined based on the weather.
www.facebook.com/EtchellsAustralia
Fareast Boats at BOOT Dusseldorf
Fareast Boats are one of the fastest growing keel boat producer globally. Founded in Shanghai, China in 2002, it all started with Optimist dinghies and in 2010 the product range extended into with our high performance keel boats. In 2015 the award winning FAREAST 28R was launched, which is a World Sailing recognized OneDesign class with over 400 boats build until today!
During 2018, Fareast upgraded the production facilities north of Shanghai to be state-of-the art in the business. Major investments into new technology has increased the product quality, shortened lead times, and minimized waste during production. All under ISO 9001. Later this spring 2019 Fareast will launch the FAREAST 37R. A real Performance-Racer for full crew racing, as well a shorthanded. During BOOT Düsseldorf we are showing our entry level club keelboat, the FAREAST 19R. A perfect boat for clubs that are looking for a high performance boat, for an affordable price, meaning less than USD 20.000!
As Fareast boats are committed to sailing, we have made an agreement with S/V14.org to serie-produce the new S/V14 boat and offer if for USD 3000 to all sailors with a disability!
The FAREAST 19R, FAREAST 28R and S/V 14, will be on display at BOOT Düsseldorf. Warm welcome to visit us in Hall 15, stand D39!
www.fareastboats.com
www.fareast28r.com
The Olympian creating a new sailing dynasty
As the starters' gun fires in the country's largest keelboat regatta next week, three generations of Ferris women will race together for the very first time.
For skipper Sharon Ferris-Choat - a two-time Olympian and round-the-world sailor - drawing family together in an all-female crew for Bay of Islands Sailing Week is one way to thank her mum for supporting her, as she's dashed off to sail around the globe over the last 25 years.
And it's also a way for Ferris-Choat to show her own daughters, aged 10 and five, that sailing isn't "the devil".
Ferris-Choat, who turns 45 this week, is still a seriously competitive sailor.
Her incredible sailing resume includes competing for New Zealand at the 1996 and 2004 Olympics, sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race on all-women's team Amer Sport II, and breaking four world records on board multihull Maiden 2 on its non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.
These days she revels in offshore racing (it's her goal to establish an offshore academy in New Zealand), and she's a strong advocate for advancing women's sailing.
"I want to show my girls that racing doesn't have to be all at Olympic or world championship level. It can also be a lot of fun, quality family time."
That's why she's taking them racing, along with their grandmother Pauline. As far as the regatta organisers know, they will be the first all-women's keelboat crew in the regatta's 17-year history.
The Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club has been put up for sale
Plymouth's historic Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club is set to go up for sale.
Built in 1688 as part of the Royal Citadel, the imposing property that has its own access to the water, has been used as a club house since 1896 and it is the first time on living memory it has ever gone on the market.
It is looking for bids above the guide price of £750,000.
Michael Easton, Director at JLL in Exeter, which is handling the sale, said: "The sale will attract considerable interest due to its truly outstanding position on the waterside. This is to secure the long-term future of the club and members will be looking for alternative premises, or to continue in some capacity in the existing building if the marketing programme allows for this."
The Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club has a long history of organising Dinghy and Yacht racing in and around Plymouth.
The yacht club is thought to be one of the last remaining privately owned freehold sites on the water's edge in Plymouth Sound. It has direct access to the water from its own dinghy park and has outstanding 180-degree views across the sea from Mount Batten to Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall.
Industry News
North Technology Group (NTG) has purchased MBrands International BV, owners of the Magic Marine technical sailing apparel brand and Mystic kiteboarding accessories, creating a new division of NTG called North Actionsports Group.
Located in The Netherlands, MBrands International was successfully developed by the Blom family over the last 15 years and Magic Marine is one of the premier brands in technical sailing wear.
NTG is also the parent company of North Sails, Southern Spars, Future Fibres, Edgewater Boats, North Thin Ply Technology (NTPT), and North Sails Collection.
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After a run of 63 years, the January London Boat Show is no more. IBI speaks to four companies which traditionally would have been displaying their products this week at an event which at one time drew over 325,000 visitors.
The specialist London National Boat Show was launched in 1955 at the Olympia exhibition centre before moving to its spiritual home at Earls Court where it opened for a 10-day run on the 30th December 1959. This iconic exhibition hall – with its Olympic-sized pool – provided a great setting for the show managed by Alan Jones and subsequently David Hough during the boom years of boating in the UK, but also attracted large numbers of international buyers who enjoyed its proximity to the West End of London and the January sales.
Initially funded and then sponsored by the Daily Express newspaper and organised by the Ship and Boat Builders National Federation, a forerunner of today's British Marine, it was a must-see event for vast numbers of enthusiasts. However, with attendances sliding in the 1990s and talk of redevelopment of the site, the show directors evaluated a number of alternatives including the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, before deciding to move in 2004 to the new Excel centre in East London – with high hopes for a revival.
The first 10-day edition in the new venue was considered a success with the show filling most of the North and South Halls and a credible uptick in visitor numbers at around the 200,000 mark, but subsequent shows saw both floor space bookings and visitor numbers falling regularly until eventually in 2018, the then five-day show was confined to the South Hall only and attracted less than 60,000 visitors. Having lost money for a number of years, its fate was sealed.*
The manager of Boot Dusseldorf Petros Michelidakis, while regretting the loss of the London show for the industry in general and as a catalyst for getting new people into boating, has readily accepted the challenge of making as much space as possible available to British companies this year but with the promise of substantially more once a new hall comes on stream next year.
*In November the Informa group, the largest exhibition organisers in the world, announced it had purchased the summer in-water London Yacht Show which was created by Peter Bryant in 2014. The industry association British Marine has now become a partner in the event which is due to be held in St Katharine Docks near Tower Bridge from May 8-12. In time the show could act as a replacement for the traditional London indoor winter exhibition, but berthing space is limited and it will need the commitment of some key UK-based companies for it to succeed. Informa already owns the Monaco Yacht Show, the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, The Miami Yacht Show, the Palm Beach International Boat Show, the St Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show, the Suncoast Boat Show in Sarasota and are also co-owners of the Shanghai Boat Show with Sino Expo.
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Boot Dusseldorf and European Boating Industry (EBI) have announced that the fourth edition of the International Breakfast Meeting will be held at boot Dusseldorf on Tuesday 22 January from 08:45-10:30.
The focus of the 2019 International Breakfast Meeting will be on the booming business of charter boats and its challenges.
Boot Dusseldorf director Petros Michelidakis, Robert Marx, president of boote Dusseldorf, and Piero Formenti, EBI president, will welcome the participants and introduce the panel as well as the topics.
The keynote address for the conference will be from Felix Leinemann, Head of Unit, DG Mare, and European Commission who will address the lack of recognition between the different national qualifications of professional skippers and how this constrains the potential of the charter market.
The main session of the conference will focus on the issue of how the charter business is impacting boatbuilders, how they are adapting to the new demands of charter customers, and the specifications required and future trends. This session will include presentations from Josie Tucci, vice president of sales and marketing at The Moorings and Sunsail, Fabian Escude, sales manager of Spanish charter firm Hermanos Guasch, and David Irvine, co-founder and chief technology officer of the Enaviga boat rental platform.
The International Breakfast Meeting will take place at boot Dusseldorf on Tuesday 22 January in the Congress Centre Dusseldorf (CCD) East Room M from 08:45-10:30.
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International boat show producer, Informa Global Exhibitions, has promoted Andrew Doole to head up its boat shows in the US, including the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Miami Yacht Show and Palm Beach International Boat Show, as well as the St. Petersburg and Sarasota Suncoast shows in Florida.
Doole immigrated to Florida from London in 1982 where he joined Show Management, previous owners of the Ft. Lauderdale and Miami yacht brokerage shows. Informa purchased Show Management in 2017 and named Doole vice president/general manager of US Boat Shows.
He is also an active member of Florida's marine industry as a member of the International Super Yacht Society's board of directors and has served on the boards of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida and Fort Lauderdale's Winterfest.
Informa's Fort Lauderdale-based US Boat Shows division employs a full-time staff of 60, which rises to more than 200 with part-time staff during the shows.
Informa also owns the Monaco Yacht Show and announced in October that it would be organising the new London Yacht Show in cooperation with British Marine and scheduled May 9-12, 2019 at St Katherine Docks.
Informa Exhibitions is a part of Informa PLC a leading, international Business-to-Business Information Services Group, operating in over 30 countries, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100.
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Two Turkish boat shows whose February dates overlap - the CNR Eurasia Boat Show and the newly launched Boat Show Eurasia - have made changes to their respective events following poor attendance and confusion amongst visitors and exhibitors at last year's shows.
Boat Show Eurasia, which launched last year, has changed its name to the Tuzla Boat Show to end confusion about the show's location. The organisers claim that many of their visitors went to the CNR Eurasia Boat Show last year by mistake due to the similarity in name.
The two shows are held on opposite sides of Istanbul, with a distance of 58.5km between them.
Meanwhile, the 14th CNR Eurasia Boat Show, Turkey's second biggest boat show after Istanbul, will be held much later in the month - beginning on 23 February instead of its usual start date of 10 February.
The organiser says the change is not related to the rival show; dates for all of its exhibitions have been reorganised in relation to other international events. They are now expecting more international visitors this year and are projecting a 60% increase in online ticket sales.
The 2019 Tuzla Boat Show runs from 16-25 February, and the CNR Eurasia Boat Show will be held from 23 February to 3 March.
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The Solent Cruising & Racing Association (SCRA) Council is pleased to announce two new appointments for vacant positions that will become effective after the SCRA AGM on 26th January.
Laurence Mead is to become Chairman; he is the Regatta Director of Cowes Week Limited and is a highly experienced sailor and racing yachtsman. As Chairman he will actively represent the SCRA and its members, which include most of the clubs and classes around the Solent, as well as the individual members.
He will also become a member of the Solent Area Safety Advisory Committee (SASAC).
The new Honorary Secretary Adrian Saunders is the current Commodore of the Royal Naval Club & Royal Albert Yacht Club and since 2014 Adrian has been leading the organisation of the Portsmouth Regatta which is now established as the largest multi class event in the Eastern Solent, growing 100% from 2017 to 2018.
He brings his extensive digital experience to the SCRA which is currently updating and increasing its on-line services for all its members. Jonathan Peel, President of the SCRA and Chairman of SASAC, comments: "In the past the SCRA and Cowes Week were joined at the hip, and we very pleased to re-kindle this relationship given the complex safety issues that have to be resolved due to developments in size and restrictions in manoeuvrability of modern shipping that will affect Solent sailing."
Robert Hathaway
A former UK marine industry businessman, Robert Hathaway, has reportedly been murdered on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. The 66-year-old was manager of the island's Marigot Marina between 2006 and 2014.
Prior to moving to St Lucia, Hathaway had been involved in the leisure marine industry in the UK and Mediterranean for 15 years. He was technical director of Victoria Yachts in Warsash, England from 1990 to 1999, and worked with North Wind Yachts of Spain from 2003 to 2006.
IBI understands that he was also manager of a leading Mediterranean marina able to berth large superyachts which led, it is believed, to his employment at Marigot. He had an engineering degree from Cambridge University.
In terms of the alleged murder, St Lucia Police are now investigating after Hathaway's body was found at his home in Grand Riviere, Gros Inlet on St Lucia.
Keats Compton, president of the Marine Industries Association of Saint Lucia (MIASL) and a close friend of Hathaway, described the death as "horrific".
Compton commented: "Apart from anything else, Bob was a pal of mine. He was on the executive committee of the MIASL and he was an integral part of it. I'm also concerned because the yachting fraternity is very close-knit, and the fact that this kind of thing can happen… if it's not reported properly, it can do the industry quite a lot of damage."
Marigot Marina is described on its website as St Lucia's 'premier marina'. The Marina Bay Resort & Marina is a luxury destination offering a wide range of facilities in addition to the marina. It has 42 berths and 20 mooring balls for yachts and superyachts up to 85m (280ft). The marina is a recognised hurricane hole and one of the Caribbean's safest anchorages during rough seas.
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Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.
* From Alessandro Castelli: re: Jeff Martin
He sure had a very important role in growing many racing sailors.
I remember Jeff used to write articles on "Beam Reach" on how to present, discuss and win protests.
One was about the propulsion rules, that in the 80s had to be lodged by competitors, not the jury.
At a national regatta in Italy I remember having followed his procedure step by step, and I came out from the jury room with the protestee (a much older and more famous sailor than I was at that time) dsq.
I applied the same procedure in many more protest hearings in the following years, mostly with success.
Thanks Jeff. You will be very missed.
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The Last Word
I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work - for example a lawnmower. -- Mikhail Kalashnikov
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