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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 The Waiting Game Evolves At the front of the 18 boat fleet the advance of Francois Gabart continued again this afternoon. The skipper of Macif, somewhat against the expectations of his rivals, has been fastest of the leading group, still eking out speeds of 10-11kts in the relatively light breezes. His position as the most southern of the top group was expected to see him slow into the unpredictable soft breezes of the high pressure ridge but so far Gabart seems to remain immune from the slowdown. Otherwise the pace is right down. The middle order battlers, sixth to 13th, were suffering with boat speeds down to very low single figures. A S'ly routing has continued to pay for the British skipper Mike Golding on Gamesa who has spent most of the day up in fourth position. Golding's maxim has been to make hay while he could, carefully working down the best lane of breeze that he could find. He was locked in battle this afternoon with longtime rival Jean Le Cam on SynerCiel tussling over fourth and fifth. Their route back to the west is looking more time consuming with lighter and more variable winds, but the consensus among the skippers who have aired their views is that there will be little real change in the order after this stage - northwest v southeast - plays out. Alex Thomson has been busy repairing a blown ballast tank hatch, Sam Davies has been in full Mrs MacGuyver mode, with a main halyard jammer problem on her list of require repairs, whilst Golding has some small gremlins to iron out. With strong winds and fast conditions ahead, making sure the boat and skipper are back to 100% is vital. * Groupe Bel arrives in Cascais The monohull Groupe Bel reached the port of Cascais (Portugal) at 20:00, on Monday evening, following its retirement from the Vendee Globe caused by a collision with a trawler ten hours earlier. The impact has greatly damaged the hull to the fore, and level with the mast's port anchorage point. Kito de Pavant tautened the various lines to ensure the mast stayed upright and was able to sail his boat back to Portugal under mainsail. A very close call A little before the crash, the skipper, who had kept watch all night in this area of heavy traffic, decided to allow himself a few minutes' sleep. Up on deck and on screen, nobody for miles around seemed likely to cross his path. Scarcely ten minutes later, a trawler struck Groupe Bel. The fishermen were apparently not keeping watch on the VHF, and were not indicated by the AIS (real time automatic tracking system for boats). The impact broke away Groupe Bel's bowsprit to the front and the deck was torn open on the port side, only a few centimeters from the bunk in which the skipper could have slept. Fortunately, Kito had dozed off on the other size, to starboard. The skipper is working with his technical team to decide on a schedule for the next few days. At midday, Kito will contribute to the Vendee Globe radio session which will start at 12:30 (UT+1). * After the huge popular success of the Sable d'Olonne village, with around one million visitors during the three weeks it was open and more than 300,000 people in Les Sables d'Olonne on start day, the Vendee Globe Race HQ has moved to the French capital. Today, Tuesday, Bruno Retailleau, president of the SAEM Vendee, visited the extensive Montparnasse Race HQ which has a surface area of 1000 sq meters and is comprised of Bodard modules. Open every day during three months (radio vacations from 12.30PM to 1.15PM) the Montparnasse Race HQ is made of three main spaces: - The radio vacations room. Open to the public from 10AM to 7PM, it can welcome up to 200 people. It has been made as a true television studio with a TV stage for five participants, a control room, etc... - The office space which is reserved for the organisation, the Race officers, the editors of the Vendee Globe website and journalists. - A VIP room, dedicated to the Vendee Globe sponsors, the teams and their guests. The Montparnasse Race HQ is to open to any visitor, media and echoes the same dynamism seen in Les Sables d'Olonne, where 1,110 journalists and media technicians were present. The race has now started and around 2 billion houses will be able to follow the race every day thanks to an exceptional TV broadcast gathering 65 channels in 195 countries. The Les Sables d'Olonne village will open its doors once again on January 25, 2013, as the first Vendee Globe skippers will arrive. Southern Spars at METS 2012 Visit Southern Spars at Stand number 01.108 in Hall 1 to have a chat to our sales and marketing team. You can see our extensive and innovative technology first hand; including the new and now proven-in-competition TPT technology, CF (Carbon Foils), AC72 Wing technology and our EC6 composite rigging. Southern Spars specialises in the design and construction of carbon fibre spars and components, rigging, and rig servicing. As the industry pioneer, Southern Spars built its first carbon spar in 1990. Since then the company has pursued a passion for delivering world class superyacht and racing spars, carbon rigging and service. Its operation extends to four corners of the world with centres in the USA, Denmark, South Africa, Spain and Sri Lanka, with headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand. Let us take you on a journey of pure excellence... PASSION. TECHNOLOGY. DESIGN. PERFORMANCE. For more information on Southern Spars please visit www.southernspars.com or email news@southernspars.com J.P. Morgan Asset Management Extends Race Title Sponsorship to 2014 J.P. Morgan Asset Management has been title sponsor of the Race since 2005 and during this time has helped the Race celebrate its 80th year in 2011, introduce free tracking for all competitors and achieve a record entry of 1,908 boats, establishing it as the largest yacht race of its kind in the world. The Race organisers are also pleased to announce that after a successful two years as the sole Official Race Charity, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust will continue in this role for a further two years through to 2014. This year's Nautica Outstanding Seamanship Award winner is Jeff Blue owner of Espresso Martini, a Farr 45 that took part in the 2012 Race . Jeff and his crew undertook a difficult rescue in tough conditions and the panel of judges from Nautica, Britannia Events and the ISC was unanimous in selecting him as this year's recipient. The Nautica Seamanship Award will be presented to Jeff on Saturday 12th January, the opening day of the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show, on the Henri Lloyd stand (A112). Meanwhile, the Award itself is being re-branded the 'Timex Outstanding Seamanship Award' from 2013's Race in line with the company's global brand marketing strategy. 2013 Race Entries open 4th January The Race website goes live to coincide with entries opening and the Notice of Race being available on 4th January 2013. Early Bird entry will remain open until midnight on Saturday 2nd February. Next year's Race takes place on Saturday 1st June with a first class start of 0500hrs. A Foiling Breakthrough? The C-Fly project uses an innovative foil configuration that it's designers claim makes it impossible to pitch pole. I went to Weymouth to sail her and the cat is our Boat of the Month feature in the current Dec issue of Yachting World The use of four foils is certainly an unusual configuration. Most surface piercing foilers are arranged in a triangular arrangement where the main foils are forward and the aft foil acts like the tail plane on an aircraft, balancing the boat fore and aft as well as resisting any forward pitching force caused by the rig. The trouble is that if this aft foil lifts out of the water, the stern is no longer held down and the boat can pitch pole. Which is precisely what happened to the French team in 2009. "Our configuration means that the boat is supported in each corner," he continued. "The further the bows are pressed down, the more foils are immersed and the greater the lift they produce. In fact each foil can exert a maximum of 1.5 tonnes of vertical force at a speed of 40 knots on a boat that weighs around 500kg." But this is just the start. "One of the problems with any high speed foil is that of cavitation," explained Richard Varvill. "When a wetted section starts to cavitate you lose control. With the extreme pitching and high angles of attack as the foil hits and breaks clear of the water through waves, we knew we had to design a ventilated foil so that the foil worked without being in direct contact with the water as wetted sections are." Matthew Sheahan's full report: www.yachtingworld.com/blogs/matthew-sheahan/ Triumphant 2012 For Musto Look out for the new and improved Musto Technical Sailing Collection, available to buy in January 2012. Click here for a sneak preview: www.musto.com/pws/Catalogues/SS13Lookbook/ The 50 Knots Barrier In Windsurfing Is Broken! First, the Swedish Record Holder Anders Bringdal broke the 50 knots barrier twice, with 50.41 and then 50.46 knots improving the world Record on Production Board as well! After that Antoine Albeau surpassed Anders' performance with 50.62 knots recovering his position of World Record holder in Windsurfing, which was also shortly held by Cedric Bordes in the afternoon with 49.66 knots. Zara Davis has also improved her World Record in Windsurfing with 44.92 knots and also Lena improved her Turkish Record with 43.81. The record on Tandem has been also broken (1 board / 2 sails / 2 riders) with 38.12 knots! And lots of other National Records were smashed! Mark Grinnell from South Africa and Matthias Röttcher from Namibia were successively improving their national records which they had already broken earlier during the day. Mark: 46.49 kts and Matthias: 46.69 kts. Jurjen Van Der Noord, the Dutch competitor who has just made his first runs today broke the Dutch Record with 47.53 kts. Patrick Diethelm has improved his Swiss Record and is the 3rd time in the Windsurfing world as well with 49.71 knots! Nick Vardalachos from Greece and the British Farrell O'Shea improved their record. Nick: 48.84 kts and Farrell: 48.21 kts. This incredible day has now gone into the windsurfing history books.The world's windsurfing community was waiting for a "come back" in Speed Sailing. The goal of the 2012 "Luderitz Speed Challenge" was to work on that point and offer the best conditions to finally break this mythical barrier. We can expect even better results during the coming days. Salt and Speed
Frenchman Alexandre Caizergues, three-time World Speed Champion and two-time World Speed record holder all categories combined, has been thinking about this for a long while. Re-establishing a speed spot in France had become a goal for this native of Port Saint-Louis-du-Rhone, as has the mission to reach an average of 60 knots over 500 metres... "We found the spot using Google Earth. As is always the case with this type of speed attempt, it had to be well-positioned in relation to the strong Mistral in our region. We've set our heart on a lake situated on one of Groupe Salins' production sites in Salin-de-Giraud, which is an important site for salt production in Europe. We managed to come to an agreement and very quickly we began work to firm up the banks of this 800-metre stretch of water, which is some 10 metres wide." "It will be a private affair. Initially, over a period spanning 17 November to 10 December, we're inviting the current holder of the outright World Sailing Speed Record, Rob Douglas, to join us." A WSSRC observer, Christophe Simian, assisted by Jean-Pierre Brun, (former organiser of the famous Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer speed records along with Pascal Maka), will also be present. "Volkswagen will be our official transporter, whilst the Zenith brand of watches, the event's timekeeper, and the FFVL (French Free Flight Federation), will also be supporting the event. The numbers: 55.65 knots: Rob Douglas 28 October 2010 Namibia NB: the outright World Sailing Speed Record is the best average speed over 500m by a sail-powered contraption... As such it is different than peak speed! Kayospruce Invest In Computer-Driven Cutting Bed The facility is designed to support sailmakers and chandlers in the provision of large volumes of sail numbers and letters, in a range of sizes. It is also ideal for volume cutting of material for sailbags, patches, panels for covers and dodgers, and other accessories. Any shapes that require volume reproduction can now be undertaken, in a range of materials providing that they can be drawn down to the bed by suction. The facility will be a great benefit to sailmakers requiring volume cutting of specific panel designs. View demonstration video here; www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4rKEevtaGQ Please call Kayospruce on +44 (0)1489 581696 or email peter@sailcloth.co.uk for more information. Spinnaker Tales
He has progressively developed an impressive career from sailing in various classes from blue water racing yachts to the stricter art form of one design racing in the clone class SB20 sports boat. Every race and championship event has provided Greg Macallansmith with the important experience and results to be ranked among Australia's more successful crew members. While his name is rarely mentioned in the media outside the Sunshine Coast he has the distinction of winning two Audi Australian Ocean racing championships and finishing fourth in the 2011 World SB20 World championship. Naturally he is proud of his career achievements but his quite nature prevents him from promoting his personal role. He is very much a team player and has the pleasant nature that instantly bonds with his sailing mates and rival crew members. His present sailing focus remains fixed on contesting the 2012 UON World SB 20 sports boat championship set down for racing over the Hamilton Island Yacht Club courses from December 12-20. As expected Greg Macallansmith is not prepared to make any predictions on what represents another supreme test of his career experience when the 2012 Australian class champion combines with the master tactician and helmsman Glenn Bourke to hopefully win Australia's first ever World championship in the highly competitive one-design class. Glenn Bourke a former Olympian and Americas Cup crew member is regarded among Australia's most successful skippers with four World Laser championships already recorded in his log book. But even with this impressive resume Glenn Bourke the present CEO of the International award winning Hamilton Island Resort and his relatively modest sailing mate Greg Macallansmith from the Sunshine Coast clearly understand the challenges of retaining or preferably improving on their ranking as the World's fourth best SB 20 racing team. Since returning from the 2011 World championship in England skipper Glenn Bourke and the Club Marine crew have dominated class racing winning the 2012 Australian championship on the River Derwent while also registering a runaway win during the AUDI Hamilton Island Race Week regatta in August. However all of these results while being important have been achieved in smaller fleets and against less experienced crews. The talented tactician Glenn Bourke and his skilled for'ard hand Greg Macallansmith can expect to face serious tactical attention when the Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson sets the racing format in place on December 12. There is no doubt that the Club Marine sailing team represents the best chance that Australia has to win the tactical arm-wrestle over the powerful English team and eventually allow Greg Macallansmith with the opportunity to finally enter a World championship Gold Medal in his already impressive personal log book after the final race is decided on December 20. -- Ian Grant I Want One
During the development analytical studies have been made on behalf of the department of fluid mechanics at the University of Ghent. As to the specific Know How: the technology is based on the basic research and the resulting know how on the "Internal Dynamics". The technological analysis was made by Louvain Measurements Systems, who confirmed the extraordinary behavior of SHARK. Its market evaluation is based on the study by Ernst & Young and by a U.K. market study that shows the market segment in the growing and fastened up growth of this market of fast and advanced craft. Dimensions of the craft: width 2.99 m, length 3.66 m, propellers 77 cm Letters To The Editor - editor@scuttlebutteurope.com * From George Morris: Groupe Bel was 'run down' by a trawler. She was doing '5 -18 knots' and her skipper was asleep. She lost her bowsprit among other things. I think we should be very careful when we use phrases that appear to describe who hit whom. A Vendee boat is a big yacht but it's quite a small ship with (probably) its lights quite low down. It would not make a very big radar return. AIS? - yes, but this is still 'emerging technology'. And 18knots, not following the N/S track of the majority of shipping in the area is asking a lot of a fishing boat crew who were probably busy gutting fish. Featured Brokerage Very well maintained X-43 for fast family cruising with small crew. This boat comes with a large list of useful extras incl. Performance package which makes live aboard most comfortable. She has never used for racing and is free from faults or defects. Ready for a new demanding owner and his family. Brokerage through Kirchner & Mares International Yacht Brokerage: www.yachtworld.com/kirchner-mares/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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Scuttlebutt Europe #2717 - 14 November
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