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
In This Issue
Antigua Bermuda Race: Opportunity Knocks | Dream Pearls takes the De Guingand Bowl | Mans Holmberg wins Gothenburg Match Cup | What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine | Normandy Channel Race | Jonathan Lobert seals first major Finn title | Switzerland owns the podium at GC32 Riva Cup conclusion | IC37 One-Design Fleet for Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup | Rolex Giraglia Cup | Letters to the Editor | Featured Brokerage
Antigua Bermuda Race: Opportunity Knocks
After three days into the Antigua Bermuda Race, strategic decisions have been few, but that is about to change. The fleet will soon feel the effects of a low pressure system to the east and whilst there should be no big difference in wind strength, the likelihood is that the wind is due to veer to the south. The strategic decision will be whether to stay near the rhumb line and reduce the number of miles sailed, or heat up the angle of attack and head northwest. The Antigua Bermuda Race is entering a crucial stage. The reward for the teams that put in a big effort now will be to catch the breeze about 100 miles to the north, but the fresh breeze is moving east and those who fall behind now will miss the opportunity.
Two of the fastest yachts in the race continue to impress; leading on the water is Stephen Murray Jr.'s American Volvo 70, Warrior ahead of British Swan 82, Stay Calm, skippered by Lloyd Kyte. In the last 24 hours Warrior has not only passed Stay Calm, but extended their lead by 43 miles. Don Macpherson's American Swan 90, Freya has also had a spectacular 24-hour run and is now level with Stay Calm. These three powerful yachts are the furthest west of the entire fleet and will hope to get the fresh breeze before the yachts to the east. After IRC time correction, Stay Calm is estimated to be leading the race by a big margin. Jeremi Jablonski's Avanti is some 60 miles behind Simon & Nancy De Pietro's Irish CNB 76, Lilla. However, after IRC time correction, the two yachts are vying for second place, estimated to be just a few seconds apart on corrected time.
Les Crane, Race Chair and skipper of Farr 56, Monterey has been in touch via satellite: "Coasting along - It's wonderful out here. Eleonora off our starboard quarter; a mass of sail. Freya is just passing us three mile west. We had passed Freya while motoring, but she is reeling us in now. Our stereo will be louder than hers! I have drawn down some fresh GRIBS and the forecast has filled in with a bit of pick up, then light again for the last 150 to the Onion Patch." -- Louay Habib
https://www.antiguabermuda.com
Race Tracker: yb.tl/a2b2017
Dream Pearls takes the De Guingand Bowl
Arnaud Delamare and Eric Mordret's JPK 10.80 Dream Pearls has won the Royal Ocean Racing Club's De Guingand Bowl Race. In second place was Noel Racine's JPK 10.10 Foggy Dew and third overall was the British Two Handed team of Ian Hoddle and Ollie Wyatt, racing Sunfast 3600 Game On.
Line Honours for the De Guingand Bowl Race went to Piet Vroon's Dutch Ker 51 Tonnerre de Breskens, 36 minutes ahead of their nearest rival, Daniel Hardy's Ker 46 Lady Mariposa. After IRC time correction Lady Mariposa was the winner the big boat class, IRC Zero.
IRC Three was the biggest class with 27 yachts competing; Dream Pearls took the class win, as well as the overall with Game On second and Thomas Kneen's JPK 10.80 Sunrise in third.
Ian Hoddle's Sunfast 3600 Game On, winner of the 20 Strong IRC Two Handed Class. Ian Hoddle's Game On had a terrific race, winning the 20-strong IRC Two Handed Class and placing third overall. However Game On was pushed all the way. In IRC Two Handed Nigel De Quervain Colley's Fastrak XI was only two minutes behind and Ed Fishwick's Redshift Reloaded less than three minutes, after IRC time correction.
Congratulations to Angus Bates' J/133 Assarain IV, winner of IRC One, Nick & Suzi Jones' First 44.7 Lisa, winner of IRC Two, and Antoine Magre's Palanad II, winner of the Class40 Division.
The next race in the 2017 RORC Season's Points Championship will be the Myth of Malham.
Mirroring the start of the Rolex Fastnet course, the 256 nautical mile race around the Eddytstone Lighthouse, will be the first weighted race of the championship, with a points factor of 1.2.
Mans Holmberg wins Gothenburg Match Cup
Gothenburg, Sweden: This local Gothenburg team has consistently improved over three days to pull themselves to the top of the final standings at Gothenburg Match Cup and secure their second Championship level event qualification spot this season. Joining the Swedes at GKSS Match Cup Sweden will be Mirsky Racing Team, skippered by Torvar Mirsky, who end the regatta in second place with the all important ticket to Marstrand.
Being top of the leaderboard after the Round Robin series, Mirsky had the pick of opponent going into the semifinals and decided he fancied his chances against Patrik Sturesson's all Swedish team, Cape Crow Vikings. The choice proved wise as the Australians took down the Vikings 3-0. Sturesson has had a strong regatta, but the match racing experience of Mirsky proved too much today. The team topped the table during day two proving they can make it at the top level and are certainly a team to watch through the season.
Making the top two ensured the Mirsky's team qualification to WMRT Championship level event, GKSS Match Cup Sweden.
The story was similar in the other semifinal where Måns Holmberg was left to face off against Denmark's Joachim Aschenbrenner of ART Sailing. The Swedes took three straight wins.
With the morning's unstable breeze now holding at around 6knots, race control proceeded with the final in a first-to-two-point series. These light conditions made every manoeuvre critical. The Swedes took an early lead going 1-0 up. In Race 2, with wind dying further back down the racecourse, CFA Sports extended to a convincing win to take the series 2-0 and win the regatta.
GKSS Match Cup Sweden will be the third Championship level event on the 2017 World Match Racing Tour, to be sailed July 3-8th on the Swedish sailing hotspot island, Marstrand.
Overall Results
1. Mans Holmberg (CFA Sports)
2. Torvar Mirsky (Mirsky Racing Team)
3. Patrik Sturesson (Cape Crow Vikings)
4. Joachim Aschenbrenner (ART Sailing)
5. Kim Kling (Caprice Match Racing Team)
6. Rasmus Rosengren (Artemis Youth Racing)
7. Jonas Warrer (AARHUS Innovator)
8. Anna Ostling (Team Anna)
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine Seahorse May 2017
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
World Sailing - The fightback starts here Scott Perry and Betsy Alison are two of the many people working tirelessly to ensure sailing's early return to the Paralympic arena
Trickledown... and up America's Cup cats to superyachts... technology flows both ways
Giant among regattas Yet the organisers of Kieler Woche never rest on their laurels
A race like no other ... or the best alternative to a cold winter at home, you will find!
Don't be a lemon Get ready... Sailors for the Sea has signed up over 1,000 regattas
Update Bill Ficker really was quicker, simpler dinghies and why those bicycles are only one small part of the Team New Zealand story. Tim Jeffery, Jack Griffin, Terry Hutchinson
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Normandy Channel Race
The Normandy Channel Race got off to a splendid start with breeze and sunshine. From noon, the 24 competing duos on their pacy Class40 monohulls launched into the traditional parade along the Orne canal, bound for Ouistreham and its lock gates.
Ahead of them lie an abundant supply of hazards between the Solent, the Scillies, Tuskar and Fastnet, before they return to their starting point in France's Calvados region, most likely at the end of the coming week.
Region Normandie, skippered by Olivier Cardin - Cedric Chateau, took control of the fleet the second the starting gun fired, leading the way in a short triangular inshore course towards Les Lucs. Very soon after this coastal course off Hermanville and a potentially tricky transition phase, the wind is set to shift round to the South-West with the arrival of the first low pressure system.
The Channel hop will take place Sunday tonight in freshening downwind conditions. A highly tactical gybe will likely be triggered mid-Channel, amidst the intense maritime shipping. A short session of upwind conditions is forecast as they escape the Solent via the Needles, at which point the sailors will ease their sheets a little en route to Cornwall. The first somewhat virulent episode in this NCR 2017 will play out off Land's End, when the powerful swell is picked up by a strong W'ly wind.
Once they manage to extract themselves from this area, made all the trickier by the Traffic Separation Zone (TSS), which is forbidden to the racers, they will hook back up with some favourable downwind conditions in the climb up to Tuskar.
Set to be an enjoyable section for once, a welcome relief after last year's rollercoaster ride, the crews will then get a serving of upwind conditions on their way to Fastnet, in what will be a strong wind throughout the 140-mile sprint between the two Irish lighthouses.
www.normandy-race.com/index/followrace
Jonathan Lobert seals first major Finn title
After a fabulous finale to a challenging week, Jonathan Lobert of France won his first ever major title in the Finn class. Ed Wright and Ben Cornish of Great Britain, both survived the Semi-Final to meet Lobert in the Final and secured silver and bronze.
Henry Wetherell made it three medals for Great Britain by winning the U23 European Championship. Arkadiy Kistanov of Russia took silver and Oskari Muhonen of Finland won the bronze.
Like the rest of the week, it was a long day with three races to get in. It started windless and with a long postponement onshore before the final race of the Opening Series could be sailed.
Results After Final
1. Jonathan Lobert, FRA
2. Edward Wright, GBR
3. Ben Cornish, GBR
4. Anders Pedersen, NOR
5. Zsombor Berecz, HUN
Results After Semi Final
6. Henry Wetherell, GBR
7. Milan Vujasinovic, CRO
8. Ioannis Mitakis, GRE
9. Alican Kaynar, TUR
10. Nicholas Heiner, NED
2017.finneuropeans.org/results
Switzerland owns the podium at GC32 Riva Cup conclusion
Photo by Max Ranchi, www.maxranchi.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
Despite an impressive late charge from their compatriots on Team Tilt, the Jerome Clerc-steered Realteam hung on to its lead to win the GC32 Riva Cup by four points after another three race day held in perfect 10-16 knot conditions on Italy's Lake Garda. Flavio Marazzi's ARMIN STROM Sailing Team managed third place, making the podium of this first event of the 2017 GC32 Racing Tour a 100% Swiss affair.
Proceedings got underway today with a last round of the GC32 Racing Tour's new ANONIMO Speed Challenge - an opportunity for the crews to eek out the fastest speed from their foiling catamarans and for on board guests to enjoy first-hand the thrill of going 30+ knots on a flying sailing yacht.
Today, it was the turn of Jason Carroll's Team Argo to record the high score of 27.65 knots. However this was not enough to better the speed of Flavio Marazzi's team which managed 31.02 knots on Friday.
Racing resumes at the GC32 Villasimius Cup, in southern Sardinia over 28 June to 1 July .
Final results - GC32 Riva Cup:
1. Realteam (SUI) - Jerome Clerc, 30 points
2. Team Tilt (SUI) - Sebastien Schneiter, 34
3. ARMIN STROM Sailing Team (SUI) - Flavio Marazzi, 45
4. Team ENGIE (FRA) - Sebastien Rogues, 54
5. Team Argo (USA) - Jason Carroll, 60
6. I'M Racing Movistar (ESP) - Iker Martinez, 70
7. Mamma Aiuto! (JPN) - Naofumi Kamei!, 73
8. Team France Jeunes (FRA) - Robin Follin, 77
9. Malizia - Yacht Club de Monaco (MON) - Pierre Casiraghi, 79
10. Team BDA (BER) - Mackenzie Cooper, 96
11. Codigo Rojo Sailing Team (ARG) - Federico Ferioli, 115
IC37 One-Design Fleet for Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup
Click on image to enlarge.
Newport, RI: After a decade of incredible competition with the Swan 42 One-Design sailboat, the New York Yacht Club is proud to announce the new class that will carry the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, sailing's premiere Corinthian interclub competition, into its second decade, and beyond.
Production on the IC37, designed by Mills Design with support from KND-Sailing Performance and SDK Structures, will start in the next few months. A fleet of 20 37-footers, all owned and maintained by the New York Yacht Club, will be available for the 2019 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup. The fifth Invitational Cup will be sailed this September in 15 Swan 42s.
Unlike the Swan 42, which was built to cruise and race both around the buoys and offshore, the IC37 is purpose-built for competition. The flush deck, square-top main, open cockpit and wide beam carried all the way to the transom are all hallmarks of a thoroughbred raceboat, designed to be pushed hard on all points of sail.
"It's definitely a planing downwind design," says Mills, who founded his eponymous design firm in 1996. "We tried to find a displacement that produces that outcome, but still provides a boat you can build within the determined cost envelope and doesn't leave you lacking stability going upwind. It will be an exciting boat to sail."
Since the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a Corinthian regatta sailed in supplied boats, the design brief also specified that the boat be sturdy, relatively straightforward to sail and welcoming to amateur sailors.
"One of the goals was to accommodate a wide range of ages of both genders," says Mills. "It would be easy to do a lighter boat that's very aggressive and very dynamic and required burly 20-somethings to sail it. But that would fail against the requirements of the club. We're trying to create a boat that's light and high performance, and can be sailed aggressively by a wide variety of sailors."
The IC37 - a working class title that's subject to change - will measure in at just over 37 feet, or 11.3 meters, with a 6-foot retractable sprit. The beam is just shy of 12 feet and the displacement is scheduled to be approximately 8,000 pounds with 50 percent of that in a T-bulb that will draw just more than eight feet. A two-spreader carbon rig will support 900 square feet of upwind sail area and 2,000 square feet of downwind sail area. The projected ratings for IRC, ORC and ORR are 1.180, 542.7 and 545.3, respectively. -- Stuart Streuli
Rolex Giraglia Cup
The Giraglia Rolex Cup, which celebrates its 65th edition in 2017, will soon get underway. The event, sponsored by Rolex and organised by the Yacht Club Italiano and the Societe Nautique de Saint-Tropez with support from the Yacht Club de France, the Yacht Club Sanremo and the Cercle Nautique et Touristique du Lacydon will be held from June 9th to 17th.
The Giraglia Rolex Cup will begin with races from Sanremo and Marseille to Saint-Tropez on June 9th, followed by three days of inshore competition in the bay of Saint-Tropez from June 11th to 13th. This before embarking on the famous 243nm race from Saint-Tropez to Genoa via the Giraglia rock, Corsica. Boats participating in the Giraglia, the Med's most famous bluewater race, will leave Saint-Tropez on June 14th and arrive in Genoa at the Yacht Club Italiano's clubhouse in Porticciolo Duca degli Abruzzi. The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 17th.
For the first edition of the Giraglia Cup in 1953 there were twenty-two boats at the start. The number of participants grew steadily and in 1997 the event changed its name with the arrival of an important sponsor to become the Giraglia Rolex Cup. In 1998 lo Yacht Club de France began organizing three days of races in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez before passing this part of the event on to the Societe Nautique de Saint-Tropez in 2002.
There are already well over 180 boats registered for the 2017 edition and the roster shows registration numbers from all over Europe, Russia, the United States, New Zealand and even Hong Kong.
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