In This Issue
To the wire in IRC Three | Saint-Malo: here we come | Peter Burling Joins Team Brunel | Harken Celebrates 50 Years of Making Waves | RC44 Marstrand World Championship | For The Record | Four Teams Punch Tickets for Quarters in Lysekil | Reboot - Nord Stream Race | Launchings | 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
To the wire in IRC Three
IRC Three went to wire this afternoon in the Rolex Fastnet Race between two French JPK 10.80s. Coming into the finish, Timeline of past class winner Marc Alperovitch seem to be the victor, but when Arnaud Delamare and Eric Mordret's lower rated Dream Pearls arrived 33 minutes later, her time corrected to 1 minute 11 seconds ahead of her compatriots.
As Dream Pearls team manager, Christian Maby, described it: "We were not sure we were in a position to win until the finish line - so it was very exciting. We knew it was going to be close so we had to really push. Over the last 24 hours everybody was on deck, there was no sleep, just trimming sails. We made 10 or 15 sail changes, we did everything we could, so we didn't have any regrets!"
Dream Pearls has been one of the leading contenders in the RORC Seasons Points Championship this year, winning the De Guingand Bowl in May, but the Rolex Fastnet Race has been the pinnacle of the team's year.
Their victory came despite not sailing well for the upwind first half of the race. They regretted following their routing up the west side of the TSS at Land End's and by the time they reached the Fastnet Rock they were 25 minutes behind their opposition. However, by staying south en route to the Bishop Rock traffic separation scheme, they halved their deficit on Timeline. This was enough to leave them neck and neck for the IRC Three lead for the remaining miles back past the Lizard to the Plymouth finish line.
One of the most historic also finished today in Jim Kilroy's Kialoa II, the 72ft S&S design that the famous American businessman campaigned to victory in the 1965 Transpac and the 1971 Sydney Hobart. The boat is now owned by brothers Patrick and Keith Broughton, who originally herald from Plymouth. However Patrick now lives in Sydney where he usually campaigns this classic racer. Having competed in the Rolex Sydney Hobart they sailed the boat from Sydney to take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race.
This evening still two thirds of the IRC fleet remains at sea with the IRC Four podium set to be determined overnight. -- James Boyd Track the fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race: cf.yb.tl/fastnet2017
Saint-Malo: here we come
The fleet of Volvo Ocean 65s left Plymouth on Thursday for the third race of the Leg Zero qualifying series - weaving their way through waves of tired/euphoric sailors from the smaller boats still on their way to the finish line in the Fastnet.
The latest challenge for the Volvo Ocean Race teams is a short sprint from Plymouth to St Malo, via a buoy next to the Needles, and everything points to another tight finish.
For the first leg along the English coast back towards the Isle of Wight, the fleet will be sailing downwind in 10-15 knots before reaching across the English Channel where they'll arrive off the Normandy coastline in the early morning.
The fleet will sail through a famous tidal acceleration zone called the Alderney Race that will accelerate the boats by up to 8 knots, so look out for record speeds in light winds. The Volvo Ocean Race might be an ocean race, but by Friday morning they'll be sailing down a river!
Leg zero tracker: Plymouth to St. Malo: yb.tl/vor_legzero2017b#
Peter Burling Joins Team Brunel
New Zealand sailing hero Peter Burling, who won the 35th America's Cup for New Zealand in a hotly contested final against the USA team in Bermuda in June this year, is stepping up to take on the Volvo Ocean Race.
With two Olympic medals in hand already (gold in Rio 2016 and silver in London 2012), the America's Cup win elevated Burling to a national sporting hero.
Now Burling, aged 26, will race in the toughest test of a team in professional sport, the Volvo Ocean Race. This will be a totally different challenge for Burling - a daunting switch from competing in America's Cup races that last just 20 minutes to racing 24/7, weeks on end, across the oceans. In total, the Volvo Ocean Race covers 45,000 nautical miles, which is just over 83,000 kms, around the world, in a competition lasting eight months.
Burling is joining Team Brunel, skippered by Dutch sailing legend, Bouwe Bekking who is looking for a victory that has eluded him so far in seven previous participations in the race.
In a twist of fate, his Olympic partner and America's Cup crewmate Blair Tuke is racing on another Volvo Ocean Race entry, the Spanish team MAPFRE, making them competitors as opposed to team mates this time.
Burling steps on board Team Brunel for the first time today (Thursday) as the Volvo Ocean Race fleet race from Plymouth (UK) to Saint-Malo (France) in Leg Zero, a qualifier for the race itself.
Harken Celebrates 50 Years of Making Waves
Since our beginning in 1967, Harken has offered some of the highest performing sailboat hardware on the planet. The two founding brothers - Peter and Olaf Harken - began the company with innovative ball bearings blocks and racing dinghies.
Today, 50 years later, we've grown our business into a diversified sailing equipment company. Without the support of the sailing community, we wouldn't be where we are today - from all of us at Harken, thank you.
In celebration of these 50 wonderful years, in typical fashion, we're throwing a party for Harken family and employees.
As Harken celebrates 50 years, we will continue to strive to be where we must - At The Front - for the next 50 and beyond.
RC44 Marstrand World Championship
Vladimir Prosikhin has steered Team Nika into the lead of the RC44 Marstrand World Championship after a solid opening day in Sweden. The Russian crew notched up scores of 2,6,1 in the nine-boat fleet to hold a two-point advantage over defending World Champion, Team Ceeref from Slovenia.
After the rain of yesterday, today was a welcome change as Marstrand delivered stunning conditions - blue skies and breezes of 10 to 12 knots.
Igor Lah steered Ceeref to an easy win in race 1. After finishing last in the first heat, Artemis Racing bounced back with a victory for Torbjorn Tornqvist and the Swedes in race two. Nika seized the early advantage in the last race of the day, sailing away to a comfortable victory and the overall lead of the series.
For full results visit: www.rc44.com/results
For The Record
The WSSR Council announces the establishment of a new World Record:
Record: Transatlantic. Singlehanded
Yacht: Sodebo4. 31m Trimaran
Name: Thomas Coville. FRA
Dates:.11th to the 15th July 2017
Start time: 06;18;37 UTC on 11/07/17
Finish time: 17;29;01 on 15/07/17
Elapsed time: 4 days 11 hours 10 minutes and 24 seconds
Distance: 2880 NM
Average speed: 26.87 kts
Comments:. Current record: IDEC. Francis Joyon. FRA. Jul 17 5d 2h 6m 53s.
John Reed
Secretary to the WSSR Council
Four Teams Punch Tickets for Quarters in Lysekil
In bright sunshine and shifty westerly winds, the round-robin stage of the Lysekil Women's Match concluded Thursday afternoon. Trine Palludan of the Royal Danish Yacht Club took nine matches to win it: "Now we appreciate getting a little rest before the quarters" says Palludan, who, thanks to her top spot, can choose her quarter-final opponent.
Alexa Bezel, SUI, was the only skipper to beat Palludan in the round-robin, by taking the start and leading all the way to the finish of their match. The Danes came up close at the bottom mark, but touched the Swiss boat with their gennaker to get penalized.
Palludan, Courtois, Groeneveld and Sylvan are now qualified straight into the quarter-finals, while the remaining seven crews have to continue fighting for the other four spots, in a repechage round-robin.
Event organizers Sailnet and Lysekils Yacht Club Gullmar will conclude the Repechage Round Robin stage of Lysekil Women's Match, the 2nd event on the 2017 WIM Series, Friday morning. Quarter-finals are to be raced Friday afternoon, with semis and final to follow Saturday.
Round-robin results in Lysekil Women's Match (skipper, team, nationality, wins - losses):
1. Trine Palludan, Team Kattnakken, DEN, 9-1
2. Pauline Courtois, Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team, FRA, 8-2
3. Renee Groeneveld, Dutch Match Racing Team, NED, 7-3
4. Caroline Sylvan, New Sweden Match Racing Team, SWE, 7-3
5. Alexa Bezel, ChicaCER Women Match Racing Team, SUI, 6-4
6. Anna Ostling, Team Anna, SWE, 6-4
7. Johanna Bergqvist, Team Bergqvist Match Racing, SWE, 4-6
8. Marinella Laaksonen, L2 Match Racing Team, FIN, 4-6
9. Linnea Floser, Peregrine Racing, SWE, 2-8
10. Octavia Owen, Athena Racing, GBR, 1-9
11. Antonia Degerlund, Team Skona Vibbisar, FIN, 1-9
Reboot
The St Petersburg Yacht Club will be running another edition of their successful Nord Stream Race later this summer... with a new twist
A new and exciting concept will be used for this year's Nord Stream (NSR) race, that brings new boats, new teams and a new culture of sailors to this pan-Baltic event. Following years of past success racing Swan 60s in the Nord Stream, organisers from the St Petersburg YC and Konzeptwerft Holding GmbH, with support from Gazprom, are again offering this year's edition of this 1,000-mile race from Kiel, Germany, to St Petersburg, Russia, in four stages, but this time with new features to take the event forward into the next few editions.
First, the platform will change from the Swan 60s used in recent years to new, identically-matched ClubSwan 50s that are being provided for the event. This year's race will see five boats and teams, but the plan is to expand significantly in the future as more of these new boats become available.
Olympic gold medallist, Jochen Schumann, is the new ClubSwan 50 class president, and is enthusiastic about this new choice of boat type. Schumann says the boats will be presented in strict one-design trim, with all features - spars, appendages, rigging and even sails - to be kept identical to ensure close, fair racing.
Full article in the August issue of Seahorse:
www.seahorsemagazine.com/
Launchings
Click on images to enlarge
As offshore sailors gather momentum for a new Olympic offshore discipline, the world's largest yacht manufacturer has unveiled the first images of a radical new one-design Figaro 3 with foils.
In the new Figaro 3, Groupe Beneteau is producing the first series-built production monohull with foils leaving no doubt that foiling is making it into mainstream sailing
The foils will make the new boat up to 15 per cent faster than its predecessor and are designed to replace the traditional weighty ballast tanks used on past Figaro models.
Described as 'asymmetric tip foils' they work by creating side force to supplement the keel and reduce leeway while causing minimal drag. An important factor is also that they are able to retract within the boat's maximum beam.
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Perini Navi lauches 60m S/Y Seven
On Saturday, 5 August Perini Navi, world leader in the design and build of superyachts, launched the S/Y Seven. The 60m aluminium ketch is the 62nd Perini Navi yacht to be built and the third in the successful 60m series which includes S/Y Seahawk and S/Y Perseus3.
The launch and christening ceremony took place at Perini Navi's headquarters in Viareggio in the presence of the owners, together with their family and guests, as well as Perini Navi's shareholders, employees and valued suppliers.
S/Y Seven is a collaboration between the Perini Navi design team and naval architect Ron Holland. World-renowned Italian architects, Dante O. Benini & Partners, designed the stunning interiors of this 60m yacht.
S/Y Seven will have her international debut at the Monaco Yacht Show from 27-30 September.
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Savona, Italy: Tango, the fourth unit of the highly competitive Wallycento fleet, was successfully launched at Persico Marine facility in the Ligurian west coast. The stepping operation was completed after the yacht touched the water; Tango gets ready for the sea-trial before the delivery to her passionate owner, scheduled at the end of August.
Along with Wally's over 20 years know-how, the new Wallycento boasts Mark Mills' naval architecture, Pinifarina interior design and Persico Marine construction technology.
Tango introduces a new naval architect in the Wally projects, Mark Mills of Mills Design, with whom the Monegasque yachting disruptor shares the same vision of innovations that can be applied to this type of yachts.
Tango will be premiered at the Yacht Club de Monaco, on the 26 September and in the morning of the Monaco Yacht Show opening day (27 September), while she makes her racing debut at the Les Voiles de Saint Tropez, where she faces the high competition of the other three Wallycentos.
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The largest carbon fiber sloop in the world was launched back in May and since then she has been prepared for testing. Now she is currently engaged in her sea trialing regime. "Pink Gin VI" has been seen comfortably sailing with her complement of sails in Finnish waters. This 54-meter yacht is expected to be finished testing soon to be handed over to her very experienced owner by Mid-Summer.
As a reminder, Pink Gin VI has a design and Naval Architecture by Judel/Vrolijk & Co. The interior is the work of Design Unlimited. Special features include two fold-out balconies in the forward portion of the hull towards the bow. This is where the master suite is located and will allow the owner to have direct access to the water from his bedroom! She has an astonishing light weight of only 235 tonnes; bare in mind this is a 54-meter yacht! Of course this was attainable via her carbon sandwich construction.
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Doug Zurn 52 Sailboat Concept
This Doug Zurn 52 foot concept is designed as an offshore capable fast cruiser for a couple, couple with guests, or small family. The perfectly proportioned sweeping sheer is a Zurn trademark and provides for excellent, dry performance through waves. Her large main and small jib will make singlehanded sailing easy and with the optional self-tacking jib make beating upwind into a 15-knot breeze through a narrow bay a simple, fun exercise with each tack requiring only the turn of the wheel.
The retractable sprit shown here allows for incredible off-wind speed with a large asymmetrical spinnaker flying from the extended pole. The dual helm layout and low coachroof provide exceptional driver visibility from either the weather or leeward helm stations. Additionally passage aft to the opening transom is unencumbered by a central helm location and the very large wheel it would necessitate. All sheets are lead to the helm stations adding to the 52's shorthanded sailing prowess.
Featured Brokerage
Extreme 40. 65000 each GBP.
2 EXTREME 40s For Sale
Between the 2 boats have an amazing race track record!
Both boats had a major refit at the start of 2015 .
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Peter Greenhalgh
Tel: (+44) 07515 635669
Skype: peterngreenhalgh
Email: peterngreenhalgh@googlemail.com
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Spectacular Converted Tugboat. 1,799,000 USD. Located in Sausalito, CA.
If you want a unique base in the San Francisco Bay, or you have secret gearhead dreams, consider Owatonna. She is a 107' U.S. Army tugboat, built like a fortress, with converted living quarters to the equivalent of a 4-bedroom home. She is in a premium downtown slip in Richardson Bay (a lobe of San Francisco Bay). If you were to sail into Richardson Bay from San Francisco Bay, Owatonna is the first end-tie you'd see. (For a full presentation, go to bit.ly/SFBayTug.)
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Jennifer Flower via the listing URL
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Reichel-Pugh 65 "TREBUCHET". 745,000 USD. Located in Rhode Island.
First built as MONEY PENNY, then she was renamed VANQUISH, then BADPAK and now TREBUCHET.
Built impeccably by McConaghy ( Sydney) she first started life out as an STC 65 and was very successful at the 2008 maxi worlds beating her sister ships handily. Then she became VANQUISH and her success continued from the east coast of the states to right across the pond with results both in the transatlantic race that Summer as well as the Fastnet ( 3rd overall) From there she moved to California with much success in both races to Mexico and to Hawaii. In 2015, her LOA was extended to 69 feet ( similar to her bigger sister WIZARD) and the results on the race course have continued with her last major race, a 1st to finish and 1st overall in the 2016 Miami to Havana Cuba race.
She is currently stored out of the water and her owner ( a non profit foundation) is currently open to all offers
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
William Jenkins
Thoroughbred Yacht Sales
410 267 9419
410 353 7862
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
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