Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, 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
Katie Spithill To The Top In Busan
Busan, Korea: Racing resumed Tuesday in Busan Cup Women's International Match Race, after yesterday's postponement due to strong winds. A difficult sea state and shifting winds remained to challenge the sailors, but Australian Katie Spithill managed to come out of the day with six wins and only one loss, finishing her round-robin with a 9 - 2 total that takes her to the top of the score board.
Trine Palludan of Danish World #1 Team Ulrikkeholm finished her round-robin stage with eight wins and three defeats, after a 5 - 2 result in Tuesday's matches
For French Anne-Claire Le Berre, the swells and the shifting winds caused more trouble, as she went from undefeated at the top to a fourth position overall with her 5 - 3 score so far
Standings in the yet incomplete round-robin of the Busan Cup Women's International Match Race, the fifth and final event of the 2014 WIM Series (skipper, country, wins - losses):
1. Katie Spithill, AUS, 9 - 2
2. Lucy Macgregor, GBR, 6 - 2
3. Trine Palludan, DEN, 8 - 3
4. Anne-Claire Le Berre, FRA, 5 - 3
4. Denise Lim, SIN, 5 - 3
6. Anna Kjellberg, SWE, 3 - 2
7. Stephanie Roble, USA, 4 - 4
8. Caroline Sylvan, SWE, 2 - 3
9. Susannah Pyatt, NZL, 4 - 7
10. Urara Fujii, JPN, 2 - 6
11. Claudia Pierce, NZL, 0 - 5
11. Sung Eun Choi, KOR, 0 - 8
Star North Americans
The 2014 International Star Class North American Championship came to an exciting close Saturday with the completion of the final race in the series held at the Tred Avon Yacht Club in some of the most challenging winds Star sailors have faced in a Silver or Gold Star regatta this year. Overall success was not defined by number of race wins, but by consistency and maintaining a low point average as seen in the final results. Within the top 5 finishers, none of the teams won a race throughout the series and 1st through 5th place, with 40 and 72 total points respectively, were separated by a seemingly large 32 point gap that calculates to a mere 4 point difference in race finishing place averages. Brazilians Torben Grael and Guilherme Almeida (BRA 8210) ultimately won the Championship with a cumulative 40 points and a race average 8th place for all 8 races.
For Race 8, the final race of the 2014 International Star Class North American Championship, the Race Committee sent the Star sailors on their longest and most difficult race yet: the 5 leg, windward-leeward Course 3 with 1.8 mile long legs.
Alan Campbell and crew Steve Rollo (USA 8045) crossed the finish line in 1st place, winning one of the International Star Class's 5 North American Championship perpetual trophies: the Edward N Hay Memorial Perpetual Trophy for the 1st place finisher in the last race of the series.
Jerry Wendt and crew Ezra Culver (CAN 8389) finished the race in 2nd overall, earning Culver his first Star Class Honor of 1 Silver Bar for a Race Top 3 Finishing Crew. Tomas Hornos and Josh Revkin (USA 8177) finished in 3rd place with Paul Cayard and Brian Terhaar (USA 8460) immediately behind them in 4th, and Derek DeCounteau with crew Jamie Stewart (USA 8083) crossing in 5th place.
Top 5 after 5 races (preliminary):
1. Torben Grael & Guilherme Almeida, BRA, 40 points
2. Tomas Hornos & Josh Revkin, USA, 46
3. Arthur Anosov & David Caesar, USA, 48
4. Paul Cayard & Brian Terhaar, USA, 61
5. Jack Jennings &Jesse Fielding, USA, 72
Dubarry Crosshaven - 'Race Face' Protection
It's pitch-black. We're on the wind halfway across the Irish Sea, heading for 'The Rock' in a Force 6 - and it's building. On the rail we might look like a troop of Japanese snow monkeys on valium but we've huddled into something like comfort when skip calls the headsail change we've been dreading for the last five minutes. Three minutes later I'm clipped on with my feet on the leeward toerail with an armful of changed foresail when a wave engulfs the foredeck. The water clears and I'm still onboard thanks to the combined efforts of my tether and the stanchion lodged in my crotch. Lucky me.
Sail change over I'm back on the rail but my feet are cold and wet and my enthusiasm for this caper ebbs quickly away, unlike the sea water - the boots were still wet a week after the finish in Plymouth. It's 1989 and, though the stylishly weathered Shamrock boot is much in evidence, the Crosshaven is but a dream. Had I been wearing Crosshavens, the gaiter and drawstring would have kept my feet dry and my race face on. Funny how something so simple can be so incredibly effective.
Dubarry Crosshaven - Born at sea
Breeze On At The 2014 Sunfish World Championship
Arapahoe, North Carolina, USA: After a light air day one, day two brought big breeze and plenty of chop to the race course. Principal Race Officer, Hal Smith put the fleet through their paces to get in four races and bring the throw out to the score sheet.
Francisco Renna of Argentina was untouchable all day, winning all four races to lead the seventy two boat fleet with eight points overall. Single digit finishes in all four races moved USA team members Conner Blouin and David Mendelblatt into second and third. 2011 Sunfish Youth World Champion Jean Paul de Trazegnies of Peru also put up great scores with three seconds and a fifth to move up to fourth overall. USA's Hank Saurage rounds out the top five.
Race seven of the series is scheduled for 1000 on Wednesday. A total of twelve races are scheduled in the World Championship running through October 16 with October 17 as a reserve day if necessary.
Top five after six races
1. Francisco Renna, ARG, 8 points
2. Conner Blouin, USA, 22
3. David Mendelblatt, USA, 28
4. Jean Paul de Trazegnies, PER, 30
5. Hank Saurage, USA, 33
Bronenosec Triumphant On 2014 Gazprom Swan 60 Class Circuit
Swan 60 Bronenosec has won the Gazprom Swan 60 Class Circuit for a second consecutive year. Vladimir Liubomirov's team is relishing a clean sweep for 2014 having won all three events in the circuit series, sitting on top with a clear 6 points in their favour.
The team representing Saint Petersburg Yacht Club, Russia won the Nord Stream Race, 2014 Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship held in conjunction with Copa del Rey MAPFRE and were the top Swan 60 at the Rolex Swan Cup.
Tim Kroger's Spirit of Europe has also excelled in consistency throughout the 2014 circuit taking a highly coveted second at the World Championship this year which puts her in second place overall.
Renowned yacht racing names involved with the Gazprom Swan 60 circuit continues to grow since the conception of the class in 2012. USA'S Olympic gold medallist Carl Buchanan and pro sailor Jack Slattery were new comers to the fleet this year. New Russian racers for Bronenosec included pro Anton Sergeev from the 470 and 49er dinghy classes with experience in the Russian national match racing team.
2014 RS:X Youth World Championships
Less than week to go before Opening Ceremonies at the 2014 RS:X Youth World Windsurfing Championships in Clearwater Florida.
The start of the event is October 18. Preparations are in full swing and more than 85 competitors from 20 nations and 4 continents have already registered. These championships are limited to Olympic Class athletes under 19 years old.
"Windsurfing has been an Olympic sport for thirty years." said Jerome Samson, President of United States Windsurfing, "The worldwide youth pipeline has never been this strong. We're absolutely delighted to welcome the best young windsurfers in the world to the US. "
Event website: www.rsxclass.com/youthworlds2014/
Matt Allen: America's Cup Threatens Olympic Gold Medal Charge
The president of Yachting Australia has revealed the America's Cup is the biggest challenge to the ongoing success of Australia's Olympic sailing program.
"Quite honestly the America's Cup is our biggest challenge in the sport," Allen told The Australian. "If you're swimming for Australia that's the pinnacle if you're in the Olympics. For sailing there is actually another financial level and that's the America's Cup.
"So our challenge is to make sure that we don't lose our best athletes to the America's Cup."
While the Olympic competition is decided athlete vs athlete using identical equipment, the battle for the Auld Mug is often settled by big cheque books and the designers' drawing board.
Following the London Games, Australia's gold medallists were all signed by America's Cup teams.
Allen, alongside the Oatleys, who was originally the America's Cup Challenger of Record, moved to lock in a more Olympic-friendly timeframe for the America's Cup regatta. -- Simon King in The Australian
www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/
'Important Piece Of History' at Spanish Armada Wreck Beach
A rudder from a ship that formed part of the Spanish Armada discovered at a beach in Co Sligo recently has been transferred to the care of the National Museum for preservation and study.
As Sligo Today reports, the 20-foot rudder was found on the beach at Streedagh - renowned for hosting the wrecks of three ships from the 1588 galleon fleet - by a local farmer, who contacted the Department of Heritage's Underwater Archaeology Unit.
The rudder is almost completely intact, with a piece missing which the archaeologists believe may have been picked up at random by a passer by believing it to be driftwood.
It's hoped that this part can be recovered to put together "an important piece of history".
From Afloat: afloat.ie/marine-environment/
Story in Sligo Today: www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=33155
Top British Optimist End Of Season Championship
Light winds made for challenging sailing at the Volvo Gill Optimist End of Season Championship this past weekend at Rutland Sailing Club. The event marked the end of the summer sailing season in the UK for one of the largest competitive classes in the world. Around 300 of the country's top young sailors took part, including five members of the Great Britain Optimist Worlds Team who are heading to San Isidro, Argentina next week for the Optimist World Championships.
The main fleet as always showed the talent some of the best young sailors this country has to offer. Will Hall a GBR Optimist World team member proved his worth for the second year in a row and took home the trophy of End of Season Champion.
The tricky conditions and unpredictable wind patterns on Rutland water makes these young sailors' achievements even greater.
Main Fleet:
1st - Will Hall, Cardiff Bay Yacht Club
1st girl, (6th overall) - Julia Mellers
2nd - Kai Wolgram
3rd - Archie Leckie
Transition Fleet:
1st - Oliver Meadowcroft, Upper Thames Sailing Club
1st girl, (2nd overall) - Florence Brellisford
3rd - Terry Hacker
Regatta Fleet:
1st - Alexander Cogan Sivarajan, Clyde Cruising Club
1st girl, (2nd overall) - Carys Attwell - Rutland Sailing Club
3rd - Jamie Gatehouse
Is The New Dublin Bay 24 The Best Way Forward For Old Classic Yachts?
The preservation of old boats can be a contentious issue, particularly so when the vessel is of significant historical interest at several levels, such as Erskine & Molly Childers' ketch Asgard. Technical and academic question arise as to when a refit become a major refurbishment, when does a preservation become a conservation, or when is a restoration veering into being a re-build? Alternatively, should you simply cut your losses and build from new, but using the original plans if the boat meant something very special to you and the larger maritime community? W M Nixon takes a look at three special boats of Irish interest which are currently at an important changes of course in their voyages through life.
A month ago, when I heard from an acquaintance with a Classic in the Balearics that he'd heard a rumour a restored Dublin Bay 24 had been seen sailing in the inner reaches of the Bay of Biscay, and seemed to be very much at home there. This I thought rather good news, as it seems to me to be a much more appropriate setting for these very special boats than the French Rivera with its harsh sun, where the classic yachts are so large that the Dublin Bay 24s, or whatever they were to be called, would be virtually invisible.
For once, it's good news, albeit with a slightly sad tinge. The slightly sad note is that the Dublin Bay 24 Periwinkle, which never left her birthplace in Scotland and was only united permanently with her sisters when they were all shipped to Brittany several years ago, is now absolutely no more. Well, her tiller still exists and is in use, but whether that's the original tiller from 1948 is another matter. And her lead ballast keel still exists. But the rest of Perwinkle is totally gone, burnt to ashes. Yet Periwinkle still sails, and is looking very well indeed.......
The story of the Periwinkle replica and much much more by WM Nixon in Afloat:
Safety At Sea Seminars
The 2015 Safety at Sea Symposium is scheduled for March 21-22, 2015 at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. The symposium is sanctioned by US Sailing and the seminars fulfill a part of the Marion Bermuda Race Safety Requirements:
At least 30% of those aboard the boat, but not fewer than two members of the crew, unless racing single-handed, including the person in charge, shall have attended a one-day or two-day US Sailing Safety at Sea Seminar within the last 5 years, or other courses as accepted by US Sailing.
It is not required (currently) that return crew attend, but we strongly recommend it. Safety is just as important cruising home from Bermuda as it is racing to Bermuda.
This symposium features a very experienced group of speakers to address a series of topics which are of vital interest to all serious sailors. In addition to the safety topics there will be breakout sessions for the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race and the Marion Bermuda Race. On-site registration will begin at 0700, March 21, 2015. The program begins promptly at 0730 and is scheduled to continue until 1600.
For more information, visit: bit.ly/MBR_SAS
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The Last Word
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