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
Deliverance and Delight
Fourth place - the so called leather medal - is always the hardest result to accept for an Olympic athlete. But for both the 2012 Olympic sailors who collected their respective Laser European titles today after a thrilling final day on the sparkling waters off Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, winning the first big championship since they finished fourth in the Laser Olympic regatta marked the first steps on the long road from 2013 Dublin Bay to Rio 2016 on Guanabara Bay, with a key title victory.
For 23 year old Annalise Murphy from Providence Team IRL it was a fairy-tale win, her first ever major Laser title, won on the waters where she learned and trained as a youngster and the same sea to which returned to the Laser in the freezing cold of last November, her first time back in the boat since the bitter disappointment of losing an Olympic medal on the last race. Murphy had lead overall after the first two days of her first Olympic regatta, winning four races in succession and went in to the Medal Race finale as one of four girls who were only one point apart.
In the Men's Laser Radial fleet Australia's Tristan Brown retained the World title despite a shaky final day. Brown, from Fremantle, WA, is a regular training partner for Marit Bouwmeester who he has worked with since two years before she won the Women's Radial World 2011 title. Poland's three times World Champion Marcin Rudawski pipped 17 year old local ace Finn Lynch, who won silver at last year's ISAF Youth World Championships, to win the European Men's Radial championship.
Full results: www.lasereuropeans2013.com/results.html
Royal Canadian Yacht Club Defense of Title Begins Tomorrow
Photo by Daniel Forster, www.DanielForster.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
Newport, R.I., USA: Water, whether in its frozen or liquid form, is the common denominator providing sports fans in Canada much to cheer for this week: the ice hockey season is just gearing up, and the team representing Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) in Toronto is in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, to defend their title at the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup presented by Rolex.
RCYC will have to hold off an assault from 19 competing yacht club teams, each of whom will have a 10-member crew racing aboard identically matched Swan 42s, over the five days of racing that will take place on Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound from September 10-14, 2013. The biennial event, in its third edition, has had two winners - RCYC in 2011 and host New York Yacht Club (NYYC) at the inaugural event in 2009.
In preparation for their defense, the RCYC team travelled to Rhode Island to compete in the New York Yacht Club's Annual Regatta, Block Island Race Week, and the Swan 42 Nationals. At the Nationals, in July, the RCYC team aboard Daring, owned by John Hele, were victorious in a fleet of 15, giving them a good benchmark coming into this contest.
At the helm for the third consecutive effort will be Terry McLaughlin, who, in the Flying Dutchman, won an Olympic Silver Medal in 1984 and the World Championship in 1980.
Brest, France - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Today the Clipper Round the World Race 2 of Leg 1 got underway in Brest, France which will see the crews complete their first ocean crossing clocking up nearly 5,000 miles to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Henri Lloyd and skipper Eric Holden crossed the line first with GREAT Britain and followed by Derry-Londonderry-Doire closely behind on a close-hauled start.
Derry-Londonderry-Doire was first round the windward mark followed by Henri Lloyd and PSP Logistics and GREAT Britain opted to take a penalty 720 degree turn after touching the mark.
Legendary British yachtsman, Clipper Race Founder and Chairman, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said: "The Doldrums is the area where Race 2 is likely to be decided. The teams will have to ensure they maintain concentration and keep the boat moving.
"Between the flat calms and the squalls, the lack of wind will be frustrating at times but how they perform at this stage of the race will be worth watching as it could make a big difference to the final positions."
Clipper Race Viewer: yb.tl/clipper2013-leg2
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Sailing's Sacred Monster Roars Again
There's one heck of a difference between tests and trials, and defender and challenger selections. All we know is that two 72ft catamarans will be pushed to the limit, and the rest of the world will briefly pay attention to our sport of sailing, mainly in the hope of seeing a spectacular and very expensive crash before dinner.
But for sailing enthusiasts, mixed feelings only begins to describe it. Horrified and slightly guilty fascination is probably the most general reaction. Not to worry, folks. It has always been that way. The America's Cup is indeed sailing's sacred monster. But it's undoubtedly our monster. And it's just about the only way the general public connect with sailing. So we have to live with it with the best grace we can manage, for it's completely pointless trying to assert that it has nothing whatever to do with us.
It's grand guignol goes afloat. And it's the apogee of the times in which we live, for it's now way beyond the international. It's beyond the supra-national. It's globalisation par excellence. It may in theory be New Zealand challenging America. But the multiple-nationality mixes in the crews have made traditional concepts of sailing for your own country irrelevant. So it's completely appropriate that it's taking place in sailing waters off the world capital of electronic technological development in the American state which is home to the world headquarters of the entertainment industry.
If this all seems way over the top, worry not - be of good cheer. For just about every staging of the America's Cup has provided some of the most over-the-top events of its era. Larger than life characters. Spectacular and often dangerous maritime technology. And expenditure that does nothing whatever to reduce the popular perception that sailing is basically a rich man's sport. -- WM Nixon watching in "horrified fascination" at the America's Cup in Afloat magazine:
afloat.ie/blogs/sailing-saturday-with-wm-nixon/
Big Crowds
Saturday's opening day of the America's Cup Finals saw record numbers at the venues on the Embarcadero and Marina Green as fans onshore and on the water saw spectacular racing on San Francisco Bay.
Some 28,500 fans came to the America's Cup Park at Piers 27/29 where gates opened at 10:00am. Early visitors had the opportunity to see the competing AC72s up close and to meet the crews at the 11.15am Dock Out Show.
At the America's Cup Village at Marina Green, another 16,000 fans watched the start line action on the race course which runs along the San Francisco city-front and is defined by the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island and the Bay Bridge.
"We've already had half a million visitors to the America's Cup during the Summer of Racing," commented America's Cup chief executive Stephen Barclay.
2.4mr Worlds
Australia's Matt Bugg cuts through the chop as a squall runs through today's practice race. Photo by Mike Millard. Click on image to enlarge.
Her Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset, Mrs Anthony Pitt-Rivers, extended a warm welcome to some 80 competitors from 12 countries as she officially opened the 2013 International 2.4 Metre World Championships at the Poole Yacht Club on Monday 9 September.
Mrs Pitt-Rivers was joined by the Mayor of Poole, Cllr Philip Eades, plus other VIP guests as sailors from as far afield as Australia, the USA and Scandinavia enjoyed the traditional ceremonial flag raising accompanied by the Poole Sea Cadet Band.
The 2.4mR World Championships are unique in that they pit able-bodied and disabled sailors racing side-by-side on a level playing field. Because of the design of the boat anyone, regardless of age or ability, can lift the Worlds trophy.
The youngest competitor at this year's Worlds is 17 and the oldest 75, while among the entrants is the London 2012 Paralympic champion, Helena Lucas.
Australia's London 2012 representative, Matt Bugg, has travelled the furthest distance, hailing from Hobart, Tasmania. Bugg and the rest of the Australian team arrived in the UK over a month ago and have spent time in Ireland around the IFDS World Champioships as well as familiarising themselves with Dorset for this event.
Racing at the 2013 International 2.4mR World Championships gets underway Tuesday 10 September and runs until Friday. Three races are scheduled per day, and the first warning signal is scheduled tomorrow at 0955.
Seahorse October 2013
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
Principles
In the first part of his extended interview with Australia’s secret sailing weapon - Victor Kovalenko - Blue Robinson reflects on life immediately following London 2012
Update
Emirates take a shower, Terry Hutchinson makes it home (briefly), Steve Benjamin is working hard to promote the virtues of HPR, a new take on racing shorthanded offshore plus mangling the science... a physicist writes
Rod Davis
Just treat AC34 like any other sailboat race...
RORC news
Eddie Warden Owen
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Nespresso 18' Skiff International Regatta For The Mark Foy Trophy
Photo by Erik Simonson, www.h2oshots.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
San Francisco, California, USA: The first rule of sailboat racing is "read the Sailing Instructions," because the boring details will tell important little things like don't just sail from upwind to downwind but go through a midcourse gate, too, if required.
New Zealand's Alex Vallings read 'em before the Nespresso 18' Skiff International Regatta for the Mark Foy Trophy started Monday and picked up where he left off in last year's runaway win with a second and two first places in the first of 10 races running through Friday.
"Some of those boats didn't go through the mark," Vallings noted.
One was six-time winner Howard Hamlin of Long Beach, Calif., who was running second in the first race when, his bowman Paul Allen said, "[The boat] Yamaha yelled at us, 'Hey, you didn't go through the gate.' "
By the time they went back to correct their error, they were in sixth place and finished fifth on an otherwise solid day of 5-4-3 good for fourth place among 22 boats, behind Vallings, David McDiamid's Yamaha from New Zealand and Grant Rollerson's Fisher & Paykel from Australia.
Hamlin said, "We were so focused on where we wanted to go that we forgot about it. That was a definite shift in morale."
Monday the wind hit 22 knots, but it was in tune with a flood tide that made for a smooth surface. Nevertheless, there were capsizes aplenty---including one by C-Tech just past the final finish line.
Worse off was the local yellow boat, American Youth Sailing Force skippered by Mikey Radziejowski that spent most of the afternoon drifting down the course on its side or upside down. The 18s are a learning experience.
The skiffs' revised schedule, brought on by unusually extreme late afternoon wind and water conditions, now calls for racing at noon on the America's Cup off-days with three races Wednesday and the last two of 10 races Friday, with no racing on the weekend. An exception will be two races late Thursday after the AC72s are finished---one at 4:30 p.m. and the traditional and mostly downwind 5.3-nautical mile Bridge to Bridge race at 5:30 from the Golden Gate to the Bay bridge, open to a wide array of entries. -- Rich Roberts
The leaders (after 3 of 10 races; one discard after 5, two after 9).
1. C-Tech, Alex Vallings, New Zealand, 2-1-1, 4 points
2. Yamaha, David McDiamid, New Zealand, 1-5-2, 8
3. Fisher & Paykel, Grant Rollerson, Australia, 4-2-4, 10
4. CST Composites, Howard Hamlin, USA, 5-4-3, 12
5. Yandoo, Nick Press, Australia, 3-3-8, 14
Complete results, previous reports, Notice of Race, schedule and other information:
Audi SB20 World Championships
Photo by Katie Jackson / SB20 Class. Click on image for photo gallery.
Ninety SB20's took to the race course this morning to compete in the sixth edition of the SB20 World Championships, sponsored in 2013 by Audi. The event is organised by COYCH in Hyeres, France. With winds building to over 30 knots, just one of the three scheduled races was completed before the fleet returned ashore.
The race committee recalled the class twice before getting the first race underway in winds of approximately 22 knots. As the fleet headed to the windward mark for the first time, the wind pressure increased to 27 knots.
Rodion Luka (UKR) and his crew of Igor Matvvienko, Anna Stepanova and Andre Klochko representing Kiev Racing Yacht Club started to the right of the centre line committee boat with good boat speed. Craig Burlton was to windward of Luka, who headed to the right hand side of the course as soon as he could. By the first windward mark rounding, Luka had established his position as race leader rounding the windward mark ahead of Mel Collins (IRL). By the second windward mark rounding, Luka had extended his lead to almost twice the length of the spreader leg in consistent 30 knot wind.
With winds building to over 30 knots, just one of the three scheduled races was completed before the fleet returned ashore. Jerry Hill (GBR) described the conditions as some of the heaviest he has ever sailed in the class.
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The Last Word
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