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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 Thomson Takes Third Place The files can be deceptive, and it will be a week, or so, before we see how the leaderboard will juggle with any certainty when the fleet converges and heads into the north Atlantic. We still have the Equator and the Douldrums to cross before the final fate of the race is decided. * Alessandro Di Benedetto / Team Plastique has rudder problems. The top axis of the starboard rudder is broken. I just secure it with some straps and tape. It’s upper part of the axis that broke. I have two spare axis, one for the top and one the bottom. But at the moment, I cannot do the repairs because of the weather conditions. It’s the rudder which works the more right now. I'll keep an eye on it. I also pull up the hydrogenerator because there is too many seaweed at the moment and I think it’s going to be like that until Burdwood Bank (after Cape Horn). My batteries are ok and in order to avoid the breaking of my hydro, I'll load my batteries via the engine. Rankings as of Thursday 10 January 2013, 20h00 (FR) 1. MACIF, Francois Gabart, 4831.3 nm to finish Etchells Head For The Protest Room Others to earn black flag disqualifications were Chilli Plum (Torvar Mirsky), Triad (John Bertrand), Bandwagon (Skip Lissiman) and Marmalade (Marino Evangelisti). With a discardable 29 in their score, all these skippers will be forced to reconsider their starting tactics, which may make life a little easier for the race committee. The good news of the day was the successful recovery of Ray Smith's St John's Dance, which sank during yesterday's second race. Damage to the yacht is minor, but will take time, so Smith has been permitted by the race committee to sail substitute hull for the remainder of the regatta. Mirsky was in the wars in one of the general recalls, when his yacht was hit from behind, holing the transom. Mirsky's team continued in the day's racing with a sticky back patch covering the hole, and made more substantial repairs after coming ashore. Today's conditions were similar to yesterday, with a fresh south westerly building up to close to the class limit of 25 knots and some nasty waves near the leeward end of the course. -- Bernie Kaaks Crash and Burn, Gusty Action at Wangi The sailors were again a little too keen at the first start resulting in a general recall, however they all got away cleanly in the re-start. As the forecast for Saturday was looking very suspect, with very light shifty winds, and as the conditions were still quite reasonable, the race committee decided to run a fourth race, much to the dismay of some of the tired sailors. Peter Burling, was very impressive today. He said ‘The first race I got a really good start off the boat and done some right pressure and just led the whole way and just kept it pretty simple and managed to hold off Scottie and then in the second race I think it was pretty similar. Looking forward to another good day tomorrow. A disappointed Nathan Outteridge commented ‘I had a bit of an issue today. In the first race, I broke the rear wing bar and it took a while to get it fixed so I missed all three races today. It is a bit disappointing but we are going to fix it up tonight and get it out there tomorrow and fight another day. ‘ After 10 races, with two drops, Pete now leads on 10 points from Scott on 21 points, Josh on 29 points, Dave Lister on 32 points, Joe Turner on 37 points and Tom Slingsby on 44 points. Racing continues on Friday from 1pm. -- Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=105477 Full results: www.yachting.org.aum Harken UK Has Decided Not To Have A Stand At The 2013 London Boat Show The full range of Harken products will be available to purchase on Piplers of Poole stand throughout the show. You can also find further advice about our products can be found at the show on the following stands: - Allspars You can also telephone our service helpline, on 01590 689122, to discuss any technical requirement with a member of our tech team. For 2013 we are delighted to confirm an on-going and busy programme of talks, road shows, open days, regattas and rallies. We are looking at a number of other possibilities and plan to continue working with a variety of clubs and associations. You can find the latest information about our “on-the-road programme” on our new website www.harken.co.uk , so please check back regularly. 10 New Sailing Yachts To Look Out For At London Bavaria B One While some manufacturers aren’t at this year’s scaled-down show (which runs from January 12-20, 2013) in person, there has been a real effort by the organisers to get plenty of boats on display, so you’ll find some brands, like Beneteau, represented on stands of boat-share or holiday companies. As well as the brands mentioned above, you’ll find models from Dragonfly, Drascombe, Elan, Foxer, Hanse, Hawk, Hobie , Jeanneau, Moody, RS and Southerly. -- Gael Pawson in boats.com (details and photos of the boats in the full article): Richard Gladwell's Take On The AC45 Changes Under the Protocol governing the 34th America's Cup, the teams are not permitted to sail their AC72's, used for the 34th America's Cup, when there is an America's Cup World Series underway. The US team is expected to launch their second AC72 in April 2013, however they - like all other teams have to sail in the Naples ACWS from April 16 - 21. The team's penalty imposed by the Int Jury was that they could not sail in the period April 26-30, meaning that there was a five day window available for sailing the AC72 - part of which would have been lost returning from Italy to San Francisco. As matters stood, the team, along with the three Challengers, would then have had the disruption of a further no-sail period of six days around the end of May when the New York ACWS regattas were to have been held. The US team now has a clear run in their preparation for the Defence once they exit their penalty period on April 30. For the Challengers they are now clear to concentrate exclusively on their AC72 programs from April 22, 2013, with the first day of sailing in the Louis Vuitton Cup getting underway over two months later on July 4, 2013. The staging of the Naples round of the America's Cup World series April 16-21, is expected to overlap with the transition period for Emirates Team NZ and Luna Rossa to pack up their AC72 programs in Auckland and move to San Francisco. Challenger of Record, Artemis Racing are the least affected of all the teams - being already San Francisco based, and with only the Naples round of the ACWS as their no-sail period in the AC72's. Stephen Barclay also commented that while no withdrawal had been notified by Team Korea from the America's Cup Regatta, the event organizers had seen no discernable building activity from the team, despite having ordered the requisite materials. It was therefore assumed that they would not be competing in the Louis Vuitton Cup and the first Challenger would not be eliminated until the conclusion of the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. -- Richard Gladwell in Sail-World.com Full article at www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=105413 boats.com Forms Strategic Partnership With The Royal Yachting Association This is a unique opportunity for boats.com and the RYA to work together to support the marine leisure industry and promote the buying and selling of used boats. boats.com’s advertising platform for private sellers has been developed during their many years’ experience and has been adapted to provide the RYA with an online classifieds service; a request that was highlighted during the RYA’s 2011/12 Membership Survey. The RYA Classifieds service is available to members of the general boating public, but exclusive benefits will be available to RYA members. All classified adverts placed on the RYA website will have the exclusive benefit of also being listed on boats.com, providing exposure to an additional 400,000 unique visitors each month. -- James Nolan Website Launched for 2013 Finn Gold Cup in Tallinn, Estonia The Finn Gold Cup will be the fourth world championship for an Olympic sport hosted in Estonia. The Finn class previously sailed its very successful 1994 Gold Cup at Parnu, and the event website includes a video of that event, together with an interview with the winner, a very young Fredrik Lööf (SWE), who of course captured the Star Gold medal at last year’s Olympic Games. Hosting the Finn Gold Cup is a remarkable event in the history of Estonian sports. It is only the fourth occasion that this small northern European nation has organised a world championship for an Olympic sport, following the 1922 weightlifting world championships, the 1988 Tornado world championships and the 1994 Finn Gold Cup. Estonia has strong traditions in Finn sailing. Aleksander Tsutselov from Tallinn won the Olympic silver medal in Rome 1960. Today, Deniss Karpak (EST) is the leading Estonian Finn sailor and a former world number one. Also in the world top 50 is Lauri Vainsalu (EST). The Notice of Race will be published soon. Check out the website and the 1994 video at: www.finngoldcup.org/2013 Ocean Safety and Exposure Torches Are Lighting Up The London Boat Show The torches, from Exposure Marine, cover all the bases from night time sail trimming to general illumination, and most importantly are powerful enough to illuminate a man overboard. Exposure torches are incredibly powerful, superlight, buoyant and corrosion resistant, and therefore ideal for marine conditions. They are already being used on trans-ocean racing yachts, including the Vendee Globe and the recent Volvo Ocean Race. Four models at the show include the powerful X2 and Pro 3 searchlights, yet both only 134mm long, plus two micro-sized 48mm length torches, the XS and the XS-R (Red), which give high definition, low intensity light, designed to be worn around the neck for single hand operation. The torches are small enough for multiple uses, and are especially suitable for challenging and competitive situations where ultimate quality and functionality is required. They are easily charged using a USB connection direct to an onboard computer. Visit Ocean Safety on Stand No. C122 at the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show from 12-20 January. Weekend Warriors Out In The Cold To reflect the economic mood of the country, ticket prices have been cut to £ 15 with £ 5 of this going to the John Merricks Sailing Trust. A proportion of the bar profits is also going to the Trust along with 50% of the regatta fee. It is hoped that people will stay and support both the club and the trust. Rod Carr CBE, past CEO of the RYA, the person intimately associated with British Olympic sailing over the last 20 years and who helped deliver a successful Olympic regatta to the World last year as ‘Field of Play’ manager will be recounting some of his Olympic experiences as Guest of Honour. As a Trustee of the John Merricks Sailing Trust he will also provide an opportunity on Saturday evening for sailors under 25 looking to discuss the possibilities of ‘leg-up’ funding to further their sailing careers. The Rutland Challenge for the John Merricks Tiger Trophy will retain its traditional format of three races on Saturday 2nd Feb and a non discardable pursuit race on Sunday. It joins the other five venues for the GJW SAILJUICE Winter Series and is ‘non discardable’ as the closing regatta in that series. A joint prizegiving will be held for both the Tiger and the GJW SAILJUICE Winter series with lots of prizes! www.tiger-trophy.com Tess Lloyd Back To Sailing Just A Year After Brain Surgery She suffered severe head injuries when her 29er skiff collided with a boardsailor during the championships. Doctors put her into an induced coma for 14 days to save her life. Yesterday, the anniversary of that terrible accident, Tess again raced her 29er skiff with her new crew, Eliza Solly, in the final day of racing at the OAMPS youth sailing championships. Amazingly, Tess ended as the leading girl skipper and fifth overall in the fleet of 26 mainly boy crews, finishing the regatta with a second place in the last race. In the collision, Tess was knocked unconscious and her crew, Lewis Duncan held her head above water until help arrived, saving her life. Tess says the last thing she can remember was talking to her mother before that race. While her memory slowly improved during her five weeks in hospital, she had to learn to walk again and is still seeing speech specialist as part of her rehabilitation. “I consider myself lucky every day now,” she told News Limited as she prepared to compete in Sail Sydney last month. She is now in Hobart, among 217 teenage sailors contesting five classes of dinghies and sailboards and going into today’s final races has moved up to be fifth overall after two fourths and an eighth placing yesterday. What has become obvious on the River Derwent this week is that she has lost none of her sailing skills in the high performance 29-er skiff, the ‘little sister’ of the Olympic 49er skiff. Tess is serious about sailing in the Olympics - she has already ordered a 49er FX skiff, the new class to be raced by women at the Rio Olympics. -- Peter Campbell Letters To The Editor - editor@scuttlebutteurope.com * From Andy Ash-Vie : Being in the industry, I was fascinated by the IRC survey into the deterrents to having an IRC certificate. However, if they are seeking to grow their numbers, they may be missing the point. In section 3.2, they wrote: “Looking at other replies, 74% stated that they carry additional cruising equipment. This would firstly be very hard to address. IRC does not include any sort of ‘inventory’ of loose equipment. Control of what exactly was on board would thus be in practical terms impossible. Secondly, the simple fact that the boats carry this gear suggests that racing is not the prime use of the boat. This group therefore should be considered as of second order interest to us. 61% stated that the boat is fully fitted out. This confirms to me that there is a widespread misconception that to race under IRC boats need to be stripped of their furniture and fittings. Plainly this is not the case; many fully fitted out production boats are fully competitive under IRC.” The phrase “second order of interest” is the crucial point. It is self-evident IRC has virtually saturated it’s “first order of interest” market. Therefore any opportunity for growth must be in reaching out to those less serious, particularly the 74% who clearly are true duel-function cruiser racers. Those sailors don’t value racing enough to do what is necessary to be competitive under IRC. Their version of stripped out doesn’t mean removing furniture. It means the inconvenience of unloading all their cruising gear; the extra anchor and chain, the inflatable tender, the galley equipment etc. It is unreasonable to expect that of the casual cruiser racer and hence they do not choose to race under IRC. If the IRC really wants growth then they will simply have to step gently into the mine field of PY/club handicap systems to address this issue. Furthermore, I wouldn’t cut cost but extend the validity so IRC reduces operating costs and the sailor has less hassle. Featured Brokerage PANDORA is the only gaff-rigged 9mR now in existence. Designed by Johan Anker and built by the famous Anker Jensen yard, she remains impressively original. Of all the famous designers of his era Anker was probably the best helmsman. With short Nordic 5 months seasons and wintering in tented storage she has been very well looked after and as important, is a most beautiful classic yacht to the eye of any beholder – and a dream to sail. Brokerage through Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd. www.yachtworld.com/sandemanyachtcompany/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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Scuttlebutt Europe #2756 - 11 January
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