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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
Canfield Lays Down Marker
After finishing the session without a win, Bjorn Hansen's Mekonomen Sailing Team will need to quickly regroup ahead of tomorrow if they are to overcome their poor start and maintain their Championship challenge at the final event of the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour (AWMRT) season. Having taken victory at the recent Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda and fourth at the Chicago Match Cup this season, Taylor Canfield (ISV) USone is looking to make the permanent step up to the top level of match racing by securing a Tour Card for next season. He did his chances no harm in the first day of Qualifying, finishing with a 100% record, before racing was abandoned in late afternoon, owing to conditions that were too light and variable. Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team has been a strong starter at all of the previous Tour events this season, progressing to the knockout stages in all seven previous regattas. Finishing the day 2-0, including a morale-boosting victory over current Tour leader, Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team, Morvan has continued in this vein. Bjorn Hansen has never been closer to an ISAF Match Racing World Championship title and he arrives in Malaysia as the man to beat, sitting top of the AWMRT leaderboard by 2.25 points. Taking no points from his first two matches, Hansen felt that he had lost out on key decisions during his encounter with four-time Tour Champion, Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing. Monsoon Cup - Qualifying Table, Round 1: Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team 2-0 Follow it live at www.wmrt.com/live.html State Of The Artemis - Lange, Peyron, Outteridge and Percy Talk Here's the view from the brain trust at the back of the boat after Saturday's sail. Santi Lange, design team liaison: "It's a challenge every day, because this is a race to learn the boat. If we are not learning a lot every day we are not doing a good job." Loick Peyron, helmsman: "This role is to use my white hairs, my experience. That doesn't mean that I won't make mistakes but we are all confident that an old guy is supposed have a bit more experience." Nathan Outteridge, helmsman: "He's one of the best skippers on big multihulls and his job is to teach me and up-skill me so that when we get to the America's Cup that it doesn't matter who drives, we'll both be good enough to do the job... He's the man who's going to teach me and the team and I'm just going to soak it up as much as I can." Iain Percy, tactician and sailing team director: "It's amazing how the two (Nathan and Loick) are working together. Both have such a good feel.. that combination is going to be superb." Kiteboard Leaders at Sail Melbourne March Further Ahead
Florian Gruber of Germany has six wins from six races leading in to Wednesday, two points clear of Torrin Bright in second place and eight points clear of Matthew Taggart in third. The speed differential over their female counterparts is quite noticeable, especially upwind. "I have three big fins, the board is fast and there is a lot of technique you learn to be able to tack quickly, for instance", said Florian of his phenomenal footwork on board. "I've been racing for four to five years now and worked a lot on tacking quickly, so that if you chose to be on Port tack at the start, it meant you had to be quick to change and then go with the fleet. "If you train hard you can learn the technique in one year and now everyone knows it, but back then it was all new. Now we share our information and tips, so the camaraderie amongst us is great. We all want to get the sport to a higher level, maybe for the 2020 Olympics", said an enthusiastic Florian. "They were tricky conditions out there with 2m seas, which made going downwind quite tough. I used my 13m2 kite for the first two races, because I like the power and you need the speed, but when it gusts over 35 knots it is more than hard. We have such a range with our gear, with our safety kite being just 7m2 and largest in the low 20s. This means we can race in just about any conditions." The ISAF World Cup, which is part of Sail Melbourne from December 2 to 8, 2012, can be found at sailmelbourne.com.au/website/home.html -- John Curnow Henri Lloyd Launch Official J.P. Morgan Bar Merchandise Collection As well as ensuring the sailors are wearing the latest marine appeal, Henri Lloyd have designed and launched a bespoke commemorative merchandise collection to celebrate the partnership. Featuring the official team and sponsor logo aswell as the Union Jack, the collection will be on sale exclusively on the all ACWS events, online at www.henrilloyd.com and within the America's Cup online store http://shop.americascup.com/section-teams-bar-uk.html The range includes the Henri Lloyd Rigger Hoodie, Cowes Polo, Mens & Ladies Atmosphere T and Fast-Dri cap. www.henrilloyd.com Possible Huge Fine For Guillemot The Maritime and Coastguard Agency are prosecuting what they describe as a 'French celebrity yachtsman' for two breaches of Colregs Rule 10 (b)(I) in his yacht Safran. He has been summonsed to appear at Southampton Magistrates Court on Thursday 6 Dec 2012 at 14.00 hours.The yacht is sponsored by the Safran Group which is a large French company. Guillemot had to retire from the Vendee Globe after losing his keel. Yachtng Monthly: www.yachtingmonthly.com Change Of Tack For Cruiser Racing Following a detailed review of the Portsmouth Yardstick Scheme the RYA has announced that from March 2013 a new performance handicapping system will be rolled out for cruiser racing. The driving force behind the upcoming change is due to a reduction of data over the past five years, particularly in relation to cruiser racing, that has been detrimental to the RYA Portsmouth Number list. "Whilst the Portsmouth Yardstick Scheme for dinghies has been prospering via the website collection of race results, there is unfortunately little that the RYA has been able to do to increase the amount of data for the cruisers despite best efforts and the difficult decision has been made to implement a new system", explained RYA Technical Manager, Bas Edmonds. "The Technical Department has been looking at a number of different systems which have been implemented both in other countries around the world as well as around the UK and we have started work on a performance handicapping system which will be rolled out in March next year". When reviewing the situation as to why clubs were no longer returning, a common thread was that clubs had turned to either publically available measurement systems via the internet or had looked to start their own local measurement based scheme. These looked to give clubs a single number for a boat derived from its basic measurements which could then be further adjusted based on any differences made to the boat such as bigger sails or added equipment to the boat. The new scheme will be under development during the winter and will be released in March 2013. The RYA have accumulated a large amount of boat measurement data to be able to publish a significant base list and will be working with a number of scoring programs to make sure that any adjustments required are able to be incorporated before the launch. Irish Olympic Sailor Dodges Betting Ban O'Leary placed two bets worth a total of 300 euros on the British boat to capture the gold medal in the Star class at odds of 12-1, and won 3,600 euros. "There was no proof of any match-fixing," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters. "The athlete was unaware he could not bet on Olympic events. "It is not something we agree with and we condemn it but we will not take any more action." The IOC bars athletes from betting on Olympic events but the organisation's ethics commission said competitors in 2008 may not have been as familiar with the regulations as they are now. O'Leary failed to qualify for the medal race on which he had bet. uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/sailing Sailing Legends - The Story of the World's Greatest Ocean Race The Whitbread Round the World Race - now the Volvo Ocean Race - spans 40 years, ten races and more than 300,000 miles across the most inhospitable seas. From gentlemanly competition in yachts designed more for graceful living than screaming around Cape Horn, the race has progressed to purpose built craft with few creature comforts, crewed by fanatical, professionals. Millions have been spent, legends created and six men have died. No one takes the race lightly and no one tells the story better than journalists, Bob Fisher and Barry Pickthall who have been there for every race from the first in 1973. They mark the anecdotes, highlight all the major stories, and provide biographies of sailing's greatest names from the first handicap and line honour winners, Ramon Carlin and Sir Chay Blyth, to double winner Conny van Rietschoten, French legend Eric Tabarly, those great New Zealand rivals Sir Peter Blake and Grant Dalton, through to the latter day Volvo race winners. They also detail the awesome advances in design and construction that make today's yachts formidably tough, surfing greyhounds capable of hitting 40knots + and sustaining 600 mile daily runs. The book also lists every crewmember to have taken part. 176 pages. 128 colour pictures and illustrations. By Bob Fisher and Barry Pickthall - Endeavour Books Order online: www.southatlanticpublishing.com/sl_intro.htm Divers Use Latest Technology To View Wartime Shipwrecks Off Donegal The survey onboard the RV Celtic Explorer led by Dr. Daniel Toal, University of Limerick (UL) captured photo images as well as multi-beam sonar images at two archaeological sites. The survey planning drew on the knowledge of technical diver Dr Ger Dooley, a member of the survey team who has dived on many wrecks on the northern approaches off the Donegal Coast. High resolution sonar imaging was used to create new images of the S.S. Empire Heritage, a cargo ship which had been carrying dozens of Sherman Tanks when it was torpedoed and sank in 1944 with the loss of 113 lives. New images of the S. S. Empress of Britain, a passenger liner, thought to have been carrying gold when it sank in 1940 were also created. The survey was supported by the Marine Institute through the 2012 Ship Time Programme as part of the Sea Change Programme funded under the National Development Plan 2007 -2013. The shipwrecks surveyed were previously mapped from the sea surface by the Geological Survey of Ireland and Marine Institute during the INSS and INFOMAR national seabed mapping programmes. Further details and information on the shipwrecks are available in the new book published this week by government publications, entitled "Warships, U-Boats & Liners". Spinnaker Tales
Mooloolaba already well recognised among Australia's best ocean racing destinations has a long history associated with the sport including hosting the finish of the Sydney to Mooloolaba blue water classic and the SCOR (Sunshine Coast Ocean Racing) championship. This enterprising new event officially launched under The Mooloolaba Yacht Club burgee as the Mooloolaba 200 promises to become a signature regatta offering a testing offshore racing format including a 200 nautical mile classic to be set over a tactically demanding course involving rounding marks at Laguna Bay (Noosa Heads), Wolf Rock (Double Island Point) and Flinders Reef (Moreton Island) with the start and finish line set off Mooloolaba's Pt Cartwright. The official Mooloolaba 200 notice of race documents will be available on March 1st while entries close at 5pm on October 3rd 2013. Wisely the organising committee headed by dual Audi Australian Ocean racing champion Rod Jones and highly respected Mooloolaba Yacht Club skipper Gary McCarthy have expressed their experience to present an open format of racing for all classes including Multihulls, IRC and Performance Handicap rated yachts, Sports Boats, SB20 One Design and cruising class mono and multihull divisions. While the IRC handicap rated yachts and Performance Multihulls will compete over the long offshore race course for the Mooloolaba 200 class trophies the exciting SB 20 and Sports boat classes will contest the 40n/ml. Laguna Bay Challenge on Saturday October 5 followed by two windward leeward races off Mooloolaba Beach on Sunday October 6th. As expected Rod Jones and his Audi A5 Heaven Can Wait crew and Gary McCarthy's Brilliant Pearl crew have recorded the Mooloolaba 200 race in their respective diaries. A entry is also expected from the Peter Harburg owned and Mark Bradford helmed 2012 Qantas Brisbane to Gladstone Race winner Black Jack while the popular Royal Geelong Yacht Club skipper Robert Hanna who generally races in all of Australia's major regattas is expected to be interested in contesting the event with his TP52 Shogun. Former Mooloolaba Yacht Club Commodore Bob Robertson is also expected to be a certain starter with Lunchtime Legend while an entry from Queensland's fastest sports boats headed by the Mark Buchback skippered Telcoinabox Airlie Beach Race Week champion Raptor promises to set a high standard of class racing. -- Ian Grant G.L. Watson - The Art and Science of Yacht Design Designing four challengers to bring the America's Cup home might be a lifetime's work for mere mortals, but during the Golden Age of yachting G.L. Watson became widely recognised as the greatest all-round designer. From racing cutters and schooners heavy with clouds of canvas, via pro-bono pioneering work on lifeboats, to sumptuous steam yachts - the super yachts of their day - and America's Cup challengers, Watson's adage: straight is the line of duty, curved is the line of beauty... was consistently evident. Perhaps uniquely, the book also describes the emergence of the modern independent designer, of any discipline. Watson's career spanned a seminal period of transition from instinctive and evolutionary craft work to the application of disciplined technological innovation, using new materials and tank testing. It's a passionate combination of knowledgeable sleuthing, high production values, sheer good looks and a rattling good yarn. 496 pages, over 300 images, €89 including worldwide shipping. SB20 Grand Slam Circuit For 2013
The SB20 Grand Slam will kick off in Hyeres at the beginning of May (3rd - 5th) with three days racing before heading to Malcesine, Lake Garda for the second Grand Slam event (24th - 26th May). The third SB20 Grand Slam will take place at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week (3rd - 6th August), where a special race format has been agreed with the organisers. Each SB20 Grand Slam will have a winner in its own right and while sailors will be encouraged to take part in as many events as possible, there will not be an overall Grand Slam Champion. "One of our missions when we formed Sportsboat World was to provide events that would appeal to sailors internationally; in top locations with great socials" explains Alan Hillman. "The SB20 Grand Slam will do just that and we're really looking forward to kicking these events off in 2013." sportsboatworld.com RS100 Awarded ISAF Class Status
ISAF status marks a significant step in the development of the 100 Class, with acceptance in many countries heavily influenced by it. Only ISAF classes are allowed to hold world championships and the RS100 Association is now planning their first Worlds, late in the 2013 season, on mainland Europe. Around forty competitors are expected from central Europe, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, the USA and of course the UK - full details will be announced shortly and posted on the RS100 Class Association website. The 2013 event calendar includes a series of events across Europe - some on the established open skiff scene and some alongside other successful RS classes. Sweden looks set to become the latest nation to start RS100 racing in 2013, while on the other side of the world the Australian fleet has grown significantly over the last six months. Builder: www.RSsailing.com Letters To The Editor - editor@scuttlebutteurope.com * From Don Wood: Read some "protest" stuff re AC which seemed to hinge on when a vessel is "navigating" and if not so when stopped. International Collision regs , under section 19 d iii state - "...or if necessary stop, and navigate with extreme caution until there is no risk of collision". They state "stop and navigate" not stop then navigate" - so by definition within the regs a vessel is still being navigated when stopped !! - simple. Featured Brokerage This exciting 45' high performance yacht was outright winner of 2007MelbournetoOsaka2 handed race. Built in composites by the acclaimed Hart Marine, she is superbly presented, professionally maintained in race ready condition and ready to continue her winning ways. She has enjoyed a fantastic race history in IRC, AMS, short handed and fully crewed, inshore and offshore. The yacht was extensively refurbished with all-new equipment and handling systems for Melbourne - Osaka '07, has recently had her hull and appendages race faired and is perfectly positioned to be a front runner in the next Melbourne to Osaka in 2013. Brokerage through David Bray Yachts: www.yachtworld.com/justsail/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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Scuttlebutt Europe #2732 - 5 December
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