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
Back In The Game
A little before 18:30hrs CET after a technical pit stop of around four hours in the Portuguese port of Peniche to replace their starboard rudder blade, Francois Gabart and Michel Desjoyeaux have rejoined the race course.
The Vendee Globe winning duo were leading when they stopped but return in fifth place with a 42 miles deficit over the new leaders Jeremie Beyou and Chris Pratt on Maitre CoQ. But, rather ominously perhaps, Gabart and Desjoyeaux have hit the course at speed, making 19 kts compared to Maitre CoQ's 15, MACIF's VMG polled at a very useful 18.9kts down the track.
In the Class 40's GDF SUEZ remain good leaders with a margin close to 10 miles over Alex Pella and Pablo Santurde on Tales Santander 2014, though the leaders are fastest early this evening.
In the MOD70's that lead of Sebastien Josse and Charles Caudrelier is now 85 miles over Sidney Gavignet and Damian Foxall.
But closest battle of all remains in the Multi 50s where only 12 miles separates the top three boats Actual, Arkema Region Aquitaine and FentreaA Cardinal.
* The four classes of the Transat Jacques Vabre fleet were in full race mode today Sunday after the Class 40's return to the fray as of early this morning when the first boats re-started again from Roscoff after their enforced layover to avoid the Biscay gale. It was at 0400hrs local time that GDF SUEZ lead the fleet back into action. After suffering damage to the bow of their starboard float the Multi 50 Maitre Jacques was due to arrive in La Coruna just around daybreak.
And for the IMOCA Open 60's and the MOD70's the worst of the gales are gone. The IMOCA leaders are just touching the first of the Portuguese trade winds while the MOD70's are 240 miles offshore, west of Cabo St Vincent on the SW corner of Portugal.
The racing conditions were still brisk enough in the Channel south of the Isle of Wight with 25 knots of NW'ly winds but the breeze is gradually going to drop back to be around 12kts at Sunday lunch time off Ushant.
Damaged Multi -50, Master Jacques ( Fequet - Escoffier ) should get to La Coruna at around daybreak after making slow speeds ( 7 knots ) to preserve the structural integrity of the trimaran. The duo are doubtless very disappointed since they had just taken the lead when they suffered the damage. Meantime Arkema ( Roucayrol - Riffet ) is in command Sunday morning, but not with a very big margin.
Mini Transat - Douarnenez To Sada
30 days have now elapsed between the theoretical start date from Douarnenez and the new start date from Sada, close to La Coruna, for what will be the longest leg ever sailed in the history of the Mini Transat. It's been almost a month of tough times and misfortunes before a positive way forward could be found.
On the pontoons of Sada, the competitors are steadily getting into race mode. Computers are operating at full capacity, the latest weather files and the analysis of the best experts are tracked, compared, disected ... only a few competitors remain at sea, the last have left the port of Moras, where Jean-Pierre Dick took refuge during the Vendée Globe before crossing the Bay of Biscay, and they should arrive tonight.
Right now, everyone is in a hurry to the long wait to be over. They first had to wait in Douarnenez pending an unlikely weather window. A wait that was all the more infuriating because the two weeks of preparation for the Mini Transat took place in idyllic weather conditions. Two days earlier and the fleet would have comfortably been passing Cape Finisterre and then hurtling on Lanzarote. This is something that the organisers will be exploring for the next edition, to be able to adjust a possible start by bringing it forward a few days if weather conditions require.
Start from Douarnenez (leg abandoned).
Re-starting Sada (Spain) - Finishing at Pointe-a-Pitre: 3700 miles
The race to Pointe-a-Pitre will start on the afternoon of Tuesday 12 November
Eileen Ramsay - The Queen Of Yachting Photography
Eileen Ramsay was at the centre of a unique period in yachting history, and this wonderful book, featuring her classic photography, celebrates an extraordinary woman and her extraordinary subjects. Eileen's heyday was between 1950 and 1970 - a time when eccentrics ruled, records were there for the setting, and women weren't often to be found behind the lens.
But Eileen established herself as one of the greatest yachting photographers of her time, taking famous portraits of sailing icons like Francis Chichester and Eric Tabarly, Olympians, including Rodney Pattisson and Keith Musto, and historic pictures from the first Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic (OSTAR) Races.
Her unique archive records the explosive growth in dinghy and offshore sailing during post-war years, and includes pictures of the first Enterprises, Mirrors, Ospreys, Optimists and the first America's Cup 12 metres Sceptre and Evaine.
Eileen, now into her 90s can remember just about every photograph she has taken and relate an anecdote or story about each one. Many of these memories are also recorded in the book.
Eileen Ramsay - the Queen of Yachting Photography, is a spectacular celebration of a pioneering photographer and a fascinating time in yachting history.
160 pages, 123 classic pictures. £25 + postage & packing
southatlanticpublishing.com/er_intro.htm
Tommy Bahama Around The Island Race
Photo by RHKYC / Guy Nowell. Click on image for photo gallery.
Hong Kong: What a day - with the replenishment of the northeast monsoon filling in overnight, many competitors took one look at the conditions and decided that discretion was the better part of valour. This included the majority of the beach cat classes, where even the most battle hardened sailors took one look at the conditions whipped up by the 15-18kt easterly in the harbour and decided that the 25kts plus and 2 to 3 metre seas at Cape D'Aguilar were not for them or their boats.
With 258 entries, this was the biggest prospective fleet recorded for the modern-day 26nm circumnavigation, which Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club has been privileged to run since 2003.
The first starts today were at 0830hrs for the slowest boats, while the last start on the outer line was reserved for Aberdeen Extreme 40, brought into town by sponsor Aberdeen Asset Management.
Just over an hour after starting, Aberdeen Extreme 40 passed through Stanley Gate to enjoy the relatively flat stretch along the south and south west of Hong Kong Island before passing Cyberport Gate 20 minutes later to get onto the home stretch.
According to team member Ting Chan, the Aberdeen Extreme Team was pushing the boat to the limit, and was forced to drop the main twice, once beyond Lei Yue Mun and once at Stanley as it was too windy to bear away - in fact possibly the windiest conditions the helm had faced on an Extreme 40. The spinnaker got a less than five-minute airing along the south side but the catamaran came into Victoria Harbour with FreeFire just in its sights and overhauled the TP52 to finish second on the water after Jelik (which had a 30 minute head start) in a ratified elapsed time of 2h13m11s, placing their name on the HKSF Cariad Trophy, as well as recording the fastest elapsed time for the 2013 Tommy Bahama Race.
As news of dismastings and other misfortunes filtered in throughout the afternoon, the finish team stayed on station to record the remainder of the 170 finishers, with the last boat edging over the line just five minutes before the 1700hr cut-off.
Provisional Results show the winner on ATI corrected time to be Cosmas Grelon on a 29er dinghy
Full results at rhkyc.org.hk
Forging Ahead On The 35th America's Cup
With existing and potential America's Cup teams working in the background to secure sailors, designers and shore crew for the 35th America's Cup, efforts are also being made to forge the Rules for the next event.
The Protocol for the 35th America's Cup must be agreed between the defender and the challenger of record and will detail the timing, location, format, type of boat and other rules for the event.
Russell Coutts, the CEO of ORACLE TEAM USA, has been working on all of the above.
"One aspect we're working very hard on is cost reduction," he continued. "If we can reduce costs, we will increase the number of the teams, which will have a positive impact on all aspects of the competition."
"The boats will likely be smaller than 72-feet with some one-design components, which will reduce the number of sailors and designers.
"We believe the competition still needs to remain a test of sailing, design and boat building talent so we are carefully evaluating reductions in each category."
Meetings have already taken place with city officials in San Francisco, which is the front-runner as the venue for the America's Cup Final. Those discussions are expected to continue through the end of the year.
Race Onboard a Volvo 70
Exciting opportunity to join Volvo 70 Monster Project (ex Team Russia) for Transatlantic ARC race starting on 24th November from Grand Canaria, finishing in st Lucia. Hoping to beat the record time of 11 days. Be part of the crew and experience extreme ocean racing.
Project Racing are offering places on our Volvo 70 "Monster Project". We are hoping to smash the ARC record if the weather is right. There will be a maximum of 10 guests and 6 crew, Ocean Master skipper Andy Budgen and his 5 qualified crew will be there to make the trip both safe and enjoyable.
Check out www.volvo70charter.co.uk
18ft Skiffs: NSW Championship, Race 1
Photo by Frank Quealey. Click on image for photo gallery.
Sydney Harbour, Australia: The Gotta Love It 7 team took out the season's first championship race with a brilliant victory in Race 1 of the NSW 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour today.
Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Scott Babbage were superb as they raced away from the highly talented fleet for a 2m54s win.
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon, Trent Barnabas, Daniel Nixon) finished second with Smeg (Nick Press, Gary Phillips, Dave Ewings), a further 1m2s back in third place.
Sydney City Marine (David Witt) was always in contention for the top placings and came home fourth, ahead of Appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane) and Lumix (Jonathan Witty).
18 boats faced the starter, who sent the fleet over the South-East course in a 15-18-knot breeze.
Many of the new teams suffered from a lack of racing so far this season and will be better for today's race. -- Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League
JFK'S Last Sailboat Sketch Goes Up For Auction
Click on image to enlarge.
New York City: A sketch of a boat, done by president John F. Kennedy the day before he was assassinated, is among some 200 JFK items on sale Thursday in an online auction.
The pencil drawing, doodled on stationary from Houston's Rice Hotel, will fetch an estimated $30,000 to $40,000, said the RR Auction house, based in New Hampshire.
It is accompanied by a typed note on White House letterhead, signed by Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy's personal secretary.
Lincoln explained that the president had spent three and a half hours at the Rice Hotel on November 21, 1963. He then went to dinner before spending the night at the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth, near Dallas.
He was shot and killed in his motorcade the next day in Dallas.
The shape of the boat in the drawing is reminiscent of the president's sailboat, the Victura, according to RR Auction, which said Kennedy "was known to cover entire sheets of paper with stacked boxes, repeated words, and small drawings -- most frequently of sailboats."
Bidding will run through 7:00 pm on November 13 (0000 GMT, November 14) on the website www.rrauction.com
AFP, via Google News: www.google.com
Wight Vodka Favourite Yachting Bar
Click on image to enlarge.
A flood of letters in the past few days since our fifth annual contest opened... We've heard from fans of dozens of bars, some familiar to your humble narrator, some I'm just hearing about.
Here are a few of the new ones...
* University of Wisconsin Madison Terrace (pictured, click to enlarge).
Words don't do it justice. Overlooking Lake Mendota, seats for over a hundred, any time the sun is out it is packed, just check the reviews. Best place to have a beer in the world
www.yelp.com/biz/memorial-union-madison
* Yacht Club Micalvi is an ex-navy supply ship docked at a local pier in Puerto Williams, Chile.
The Bar is filled with adventurers coming or goingoing to Antarctica or other points south along with a few boisterios Naval officers singing raunchy sea shanties. The Pisco Sours are the best in the world and go down much too easy. Adventure stories are shared around a crackling fire in the wood burning stove in the middle of a tilting grand room decorated with burgees, sailor caps and other memorbilia left by explorers that passed through Puerto Williams.
* Mahogany Shoals
The best Mudslide (liquid heroin) ever made at a dockside bar that can serve hundreds during Block Is. Race Week without delay! It does not get much better than that, now does it?
* Jack Halyards - Oyster Bay, NY
A terrific bar/restuarant near the waterfront in this quaint northeastern village run by a gregarious sailor named Bernie Delbello. JH hosts many national and international sailors from events at nearby Oakcliff Sailing Center and Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club. On any given night you can run into top Team and Match Racers, Ocean or Classic Yacht racers and usually a sprinkling of Olympic hopefuls.
* Waikiki Yacht Club
No walls - open air all year long. Great bar tenders, been there 25 years, know you and your drink. Watch boats docking a few feet away. Watch the Friday evening fireworks from your bar stool 52 times a year. Everything from skippers meetings and trophy presentations to wedding takes place here. Never a dull moment.
We're accepting messages and nominations until Monday December 2nd... Then we all vote on the top ten selected bars...
Tell us stories about your favourite:
scuttlebutteurope.com/sailors-bars.html
Tropic 4 Cancer Atlantic Crossing: Preparing To Resume
Richard Mayon-White and his 21 ft (6.5m) yacht Haskapa is set to leave La Gomera tomorrow to resume his solo bid to follow the latitude of the Tropic 4 Cancer across the Atlantic. Richard was forced to put into the small Canary Island off the coast of Africa after he suffered damage to his mast in strong conditions.
"The delay is very frustrating for me," says Richard. "It puts me about 1000 miles behind where I could have been by now and also extends my planned arrival schedule."
Richard will complete his track of the Tropic 4 Cancer and then finish the voyage in Antigua, West Indies, rather than Ft Lauderdale, Florida as previously planned. "At some point I have to get back to work!" he says.
Richard suffered 30 knot winds and 3-4 metre waves several days into the start of his voyage, reluctantly deciding to stop off at the Canaries.
Richard, an experienced ocean sailor who has also already rowed double handed across the Atlantic, is aiming to raise £40,000 to be split equally between two great causes, the Sobell House Hospice in Oxford and the national charity Sail 4 Cancer, which gives respite to cancer sufferers and their families through days out on the water and sailing holidays. He is already more than half way to achieving that sum.
Richard's progress can be tracked by logging onto his website at www.tropic4cancer.com and clicking on "Live Tracking". This will update Richard's position every 4 hours. Updates are also on Facebook and Twitter.
To donate visit www.tropic4cancer.com and click on "Donate".
David Hanse
The Brisbane 18 Footers Sailing Club has issued the following statement following the death of David Hansa (23) while sailing on Waterloo Bay on Saturday. He was trapped under water, before being retrieved, taken ashore, however efforts to resuscitate him failed.
It is with great sadness that we have to report the passing of one of our sailors during yesterday's racing.
David 'Casper' Hansa was crewing onboard Team Pendeo yesterday. Despite the best efforts of the Team Pendeo crew, our rescue boats and the Coast Guard, David was unable to be revived.
For all the people who knew him as 'Casper' he was the most enthusiastic blokes that wanted to sail on an 18. When he couldn't get a crew position, he was often down at the Club having travelled from the Sunshine Coast to assist on the start boat or rescue boat, and was wrapped about the whole 18 thing.
Club officials and crews have been assisting authorities with investigations, and our Commodore Bruce met David's family this morning to pass on condolences on behalf of all Club members.
www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=116536
Letters To The Editor - editor@scuttlebutteurope.com
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* From Eddie Mays: All this talk of strange names has brought to mind a story I was told some years ago
I sitting in a RIB waiting for the wind to arrive at a Laser Championships in Scotland
The RIB driver was a Coastguard based at Dover in real life and he recounted an incident he had heard when on duty
A Mayday call was received from a Motor Cruiser in difficulties off the Goodwin Sands
There was a distinct pause in the Control room before the Duty Officer replied "Quack, Quack this is Dover Coastguard"
* From Edward Fryer: Further to Wiz Deas
Sunbeams (Solent or Falmouth) have names ending in Y
Bembridge Redwings are also named after birds
* From Butch Dalrymple-Smith: There was an Australian boat called "Ruthless" after Ruth, the owner's wife told him "Either the boat goes or I do".
Ron Amey named his boats "Noryema" which was his own name spelled backwards, so it was only logical that when Noryema VIII was sold to Jose Camunas he should rename her "Sanumac".
It is said to be unlucky to say the word "Rabbit" on a boat so Dick Carter was smart to call his boat that on the basis that you never refer to your own boat by name. Think about it. It's always "Our boat is going faster" or "We are pointing higher". It's the others who say "Dammit, Rabbit's beating us".
* From Daniel Charles: In 1900, a Clyde yachtsman, angered by the conservative rule changes promoted by the Yacht Racing Association, named his 20-tonner Noyra, " no YRA ". Has anybody seen a boat named Noisaf recently? What happened to contestation?
* From Brian May:
Well done to John Burnie for remembering FUJIMO as the curious acronym name on that US IOR 50 from 1989 owned by a toy boy (ex) husband of the zip heiress, I believe?
No-one has yet to mention the fabulous photo printed in Yachting World of Yarmouth based J24 KANEMBE CONNECTION competing in RLymYC women only Macnamara Bowl Trophy regatta during the 1980s. Normally crewed by boisterous hormonal males, the photo simply showed the all female crew sitting out with KANEMBE CONNECTION writ large under their legs in bold type along the whole length of the topsides - and courtesy of the cheeky editor, no caption under the photo! (Swahili dictionary needed!)
Speaking of Yarmouth, famous local yachtsman John Caulcutt had wonderful names for the first Ribs in the UK; he set many records including round Britain with the likes of ROCKIN PNEUMONIA and PSYCHADELLIC SURFER
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