In This Issue
Star Worlds | New Speed Record Around Gotland | The Nations Trophy | World Sailing Show | GKSS Match Cup Sweden | Announcing the 2018 Antigua Bermuda Race | Impact of America's Cup to be tallied | UK/McWilliam Sailmakers Open New Chapter of Their International Success Story | Golden Globe | Government puts up starter $5 million to America's Cup defence | Featured Brokerage
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
Star Worlds
Troense, Denmark: Because of the weather situation with heavy winds, the Race management decided to cancel all racing for today.
Heavy winds and rain, gave the sailors a well deserved break after yesterday's tough sailing conditions with broken masts and spoiled sails ad libitum.
For many sailors, this unexpected break was a good opportunity "to heal the injured boats".
New Speed Record Around Gotland
Ludde Ingvall with crew on the 100-footer CQS made a new speed record in ÅR Offshore Race - round Gotland, when entering the port at Sandhamn Monday evening. Twenty years since he last broke the record he did it again.
CQS crossed the finish line as the first boat, but it will take another 24 hours or so before the winner of ÅF Offshore Race - around Gotland 2017, at recalculated time, can be named.
Luddes deadline to beat the record was at 21:19:23, but he crossed the finish line already at 20:51:35. He got the line honor in superior style, and also the speed record for monohulls. The record for multihull is held by the Swedish trimaran HiQ.
The recipe to be fastest ever from Stockholm, round Gotland and back to Sandhamn? Build a fantastic, hundred feet long super-maxi with all the latest race technology in Australia, build a team of dedicated sailors who thinks that every meter and inch counts, bring the boat cross the world. Sail at the very top of your, your teams and the boats ability.
CQS is equipped with foils to help her come up in the water to lessen the friction. She also has canting keel. Since she is six meters deep under the water line, the navigation through the archipelago was exciting for Ludde and the crew.
Apart from the newly set speed record in ÅF Offshore Race - around Gotland, Ludde has a fantastic list of merits with two wins in the Sydney-Hobart race, and one in the British Fastnet Race. He also had the speed records across the Atlantic for monohulls. He also was the skipper at the Finnish boat UBF in Whitbread round the World Race 1989/90.
How far the time will take him in the overall competition remains to be seen. -- Mats Olsson
The Nations Trophy
The Nations Trophy was launched this year by Nautor's Swan with the fundamental commitment to revitalize the concept of competition between nations. It is an event which celebrates the history and spirit of international sailing, and reflects the camaraderie and competiveness central to the success of the sport.
The first edition of The Nations Trophy will be held from 10 - 14 October 2017 in Palma de Mallorca hosted by the Real Club Nautico Palma and is open to three Swan One-Design classes: ClubSwan 50 and ClubSwan 42, which will also be competing for their European Championship; and, Swan 45, which will also be contesting its World Championship. Charter yachts are available, but you need to be quick!
Contact clubswan@nautorswan.com for charter information or enter online at: thenationstrophy.com
World Sailing Show
This month's World Sailing Show comes from the heart of the 35th America's Cup, Bermuda where this beautiful mid Atlantic island put on a show like no other. Flying Cup boats, Superyachts, the J-Class and the Youth America's Cup pulled the crowds. The World Sailing Show was there.
Features:
How the America's Cup was won
J-Class spectacular
Red Bull Youth America's Cup
Sailing World Cup Final
The Volvo Ocean Race's ambitious new project
GKSS Match Cup Sweden
Marstrand, Sweden: With breaking waves and gales blowing today on the Marstrand Arena, competition at the World Match Racing Tour's GKSS Match Cup Sweden will get underway tomorrow.
"This morning we had 30 knots average and gusts up to 40 knots - way outside the limit," explained World Match Racing Tour PRO, Mattias Dahlstrom. "Plus this westerly direction creates a really bad sea state." While the wind dropped this afternoon, the sea state hadn't and at 1530CET Dahlstrom cancelled racing.
Remaining ashore today allowed crews to appraise their competition. With the America's Cup just over and in a year following the Olympic Games, all manner of world class sailors have descended upon the Swedish island paradise of Marstrand for the GKSS Match Cup Sweden.
Having just finished his second America's Cup with Oracle Team USA, is Australian Kyle Langford, competing here in Ian Williams' GAC Pindar crew. Then there is Italian Pierluigi de Felice, a America's Cup campaigner since 2003 including Luna Rossa's last two catamaran campaigns. He is here with Chris Steele's 36 Below Racing.
Several Olympic sailors are in the all-female crew on Team Magenta 32. Skipper Sally Barkow represented the USA in the Yngling in Beijing, Kate Macgregor and Annie Lush were in the British Women's Match Racing crew at London 2012, while Switzerland's Natalie Brugger raced at Rio 2016 on the mixed Nacra 17 catamaran.
GKSS Match Cup Sweden is 23 years old this year and its famous venue, Marstrand, has emerged as the new spiritual home of match racing. This is why it still attracts old hands from this discipline of sailing such as GAC Pindar's Ian Williams and Team FLUX's Johnie Berntsson, through to the new generation of youngsters.
Racing Tuesday is set to be in 10-15 knots from the north with a first warning signal at 1000.
Announcing the 2018 Antigua Bermuda Race
Start Antigua: May 9, 2018
The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club announces that the second edition of the Antigua Bermuda Race will start on the May 9, 2018.
The 935-mile offshore race is organized in association with Antigua Sailing Week and is supported by the Bermuda Tourism Authority. Yachts of 40ft and over will be racing under the IRC Rating Rule, MOCRA and the CSA Racing Rule, with the latter amended to permit boats to use their engines, subject to a time penalty. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, with many year's experience hosting the Newport Bermuda Race, will guarantee a fantastic welcome and a great party.
"We have had great feedback from the competitors who took part in the first race," commented Race Chairman, Les Crane. "The America's Cup put Bermuda in the spotlight as a superb sailing destination and the Antigua Bermuda Race is designed to carry forward this legacy. The race will start just a few days after Antigua Sailing Week on May 9, 2018, a time when a lot of boats gather in Antigua before returning to North America and Europe. The Antigua Bermuda Race gives sailors an opportunity to safely experience about a thousand miles of Atlantic Ocean racing in company, at a time of year when conditions should be ideal."
"This is exactly the result we planned for when the Bermuda Tourism Authority supported the inaugural Antigua Bermuda Race this year," said Pat Phillip-Fairn, chief product and experiences development officer at the Bermuda Tourism Authority. "The America's Cup inspired the Antiqua Bermuda Race in the first instance and Bermuda's high quality nautical experience is what has them coming back in 2018. This is an exceptional America's Cup legacy event and we are excited to welcome it back to the island in May 2018."
Competitors are invited to express their interest in the Antigua Bermuda Race at: antiguabermuda.com/contact-us/survey
Impact of America's Cup to be tallied
With the conclusion of the 35th America's Cup, an independent assessment has been commissioned to determine its economic impact on Bermuda.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been hired by the ACBDA to conduct an independent study for completion by October, according to Grant Gibbons, the Minister of Economic Development.
Giving his congratulations to victors Emirates Team New Zealand, along with all the teams that took part, Dr Gibbons added: "Without a doubt, Bermuda has never hosted an event of this magnitude, and our success has already put us in an excellent position to host future international sporting and leisure events of similar scale.
"ACBDA will produce an event report by September that will detail their work and describe how AC35 was delivered. ACBDA currently plans to wind down by the end of the calendar year.
"Some information about AC35 is already available. I am pleased to note that through this prestigious sailing event, Bermuda received extraordinary visibility on the world stage as the Cup was broadcast to 162 countries with millions of people watching. This is only a snapshot. More details about Bermuda's media exposure will be released as part of the final assessment report. Over 100,000 people visited the Village over 22 days, there were 62,315 booked tickets on the special AC ferries alone, and some 2,000 boats registered as spectators of the event.
"Bermuda hosted over 460 visiting boats, with over 80 of them being superyachts. We received extremely positive feedback from the owners and captains of these boats, some who had never been to Bermuda before. As a result of this success, we have been developing a long-term superyacht policy and legislative framework. Another positive feature of AC35 has been the development of new marinas and marine services at the Hamilton waterfront, Hamilton Princess, Caroline Bay and the facilities at South Basin in Dockyard.
"Small Bermudian-owned businesses also benefited from AC35. ACBDA formed partnerships with the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation, the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce, the Imperial Group and others to support small-business involvement during the events. More than 30 Bermudian small businesses, some of them new, were represented in the AC Village, and our food and beverage vendors enjoyed a huge volume of business.
The event brought new sailing regattas to the island, with more expected, the minister said. -- Jonathan Bell in The Royal Gazette
UK/McWilliam Sailmakers Open New Chapter of Their International Success Story
Leading Irish and international Crosshaven-based sailmakers UK/McWilliam are embarking on a fresh stage of development, with a major change in the company's ownership structure which will draw on and develop the company's exceptional range of global activities and expertise, providing customers in Ireland and abroad with an enhanced range of services and products writes W M Nixon.
Sailmaker Des McWilliam is to retire at the end of this year, and is selling the Cork loft to Barry Hayes who started his sailmaking career with the Crosshaven firm, his wife Claire Morgan, and Graham Curran who currently works in the Crosshaven loft.
Since its foundation 43 years ago by noted dinghy and offshore racing champion John McWilliam, the firm has been essentially a McWilliam family enterprise. As the business became established, its picturesque headquarters were created in a skillfully and stylishly re-configured former mill at Hoddersfield in the peaceful countryside immediately inland from Crosshaven in County Cork.
But while the scenery may have been gentle, within the loft the production pace was usually hectic as suits of top class sails were turned out for boats of all kinds which were winning races, both in Ireland and at the highest levels of international competition.
WM Nixon's full story in Afloat: afloat.ie
Golden Globe
In less than one year, up to 30 sailors will set out from Plymouth UK to recreate history at the start of a solo circumnavigation in small traditional long keeled yachts using just paper charts, a sextant and wind up chronometer to navigate by. The Race marks the 50th anniversary of the original Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and the remarkable achievement of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston in becoming the first man to complete a solo nonstop circumnavigation.
Fifty years on from the original race when only one of the nine starters managed to finish, the dramas being faced by competitors during their 2,000 mile proving trials show that the challenges remain just as great.
Six months after Australian entrant Shane Freeman was capsized and left dismasted 600 miles from Cape Horn, Frenchman Loic Lepage lost his liferaft, when it exploded from its canister stowed on deck during his 2,000 mile proving trial. It was a heart-stopping moment, but after returning to France to replace the raft and review the position and fastenings, he has set out once more to sail solo to the Azores and back.
Frenchman Lionel Regnier, who has made 23 previous transatlantic crossings and never retired from a race before, also suffered self-steering failure when racing his Rustler 36 One and All in this year's windswept OSTAR transatlantic Race from Plymouth to Newport. The damage forced him into early retirement and long hours of hand-steering back to France.
Then, just days ago, American based Palestinian entrant Nabil Amra told us of the trials he experienced aboard his Contessa 32 during a voyage out into the Atlantic to gain his 8,000 sea mile qualification. "It was a much rougher trip than I let on but it hasn't shaken me off the GGR horse. I'm still in it. I had a Shane Freeman incident with the wind vane and my drogue... Then had to hand sail the last 550 miles with a sodden cabin and clothes, spoiled food, no heat or self steering gear. It was a real test of mental and physical endurance. I'm now working on having my phone and camera, destroyed by the conditions, salvaged to get the footage off them to make a short video of the voyage."
Amra's choice of yacht for the Golden Globe Race, a Biscay 36, is currently being refitted at the Falmouth Boat Co in Cornwall and with this experience, he is likely to call for additional alterations.
And spare a thought for Neree Cornuz, the 27 year old Swiss/Italian currently sailing his engineless Lello 34 solo from Cape Town to the Mediterranean has suffered broken rigging and problems with his home made windvane self steering enroute .
Government puts up starter $5 million to America's Cup defence
The Government has put an early $5 million envelope on the table so Team New Zealand can retain its talent.
The early funding boost is similar to what the Government provided in the immediate aftermath of the disastrous 2013 America's Cup Challenge, to give TNZ breathing space while it worked to secure funding for its next bid.
It was a "no-strings" commitment, however the Government's resolve to be more involved in a defence, given the likelihood it would be held at least in part, on New Zealand waters appeared to be far stronger than four years ago.
Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges and Sports and Recreation Minister Jonathan Coleman made the announcement following Monday's Cabinet meeting, saying it would allow Team New Zealand to keep hold of its key staff, despite rival syndicates with deeper pockets circling.
Planning for the defence was still in preliminary stages, and it was not yet a given that the 2021 event would even be held in New Zealand.
The Government would be keen to see that happen however, with Bridges saying that hosting a regatta in New Zealand "has the potential to generate significant economic benefits".
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The Last Word
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