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Read and Honey Lead Comanche to Bermuda Record
Hamilton, Bermuda: Skipper Ken Read said that there were four main factors that led to Comanche's record run to Bermuda which ended early today with the 100ft racer chopping almost 5 hours off the previous best time. He pointed to the total commitment of the owners Jim and Kristy Hinze Clark, to a boat that was built especially for breaking records, to a crew of seasoned professionals, and to Stan Honey, who Read called the world's best navigator.

Comanche had just set a Newport/Bermuda Race line honors record with Read, Honey and a group of sailors who make up a good portion of Who's Who in offshore sailing.

Read called the tactics on Jim and Kristy Hinze Clark's 100-foot screamer which crossed the line off St. David's Lighthouse June 19th at 4:22:53 EDT. Her elapsed time is a provisional 34hrs 42min 53sec, almost five hours ahead of the previous 39:39:18 set by George David's Rambler in 2012. It was Honey who found a crack in the high pressure ridge stretching across the rhumbline on the opening night that trapped the rest of the fleet north of the fresher breeze above the Gulf Stream.

bermudarace.com
onionpatchseries.com

* One of the privileges of this trip is the opportunity to race with a father and son team, Drew and Nick Kellogg. Nick is 14 or so and I believe this is his first ocean race. I can't imagine what he was thinking beforehand, when everyone was discussing the rather ominous forecasts. But so far, it's hard to imagine a better first ocean race: relatively benign wind conditions, warm weather, a well-balanced yacht, and great shipmates. Nick has handled himself well, making his watches without any fuss and doing whatever is asked. It's great to see the ocean racing tradition passed down to the next generation.

Defiance is a comfortable Swan 56 orned by Peter Noonan. Like many boats in the race, racers and cruisers alike, she is crewed by sailors from many areas, including members of the same family.

On to my report. Showering has never been an option on my previous three distance races, so I wasn't sure whether crew boss Carsten Peterson was joking when he asked me if I'd yet secured my towel. Was he already planning ahead for the finish? No. With a strong watermaker and Swan-level amenities, showering is part of the distance racing SOP on board Defiance. So far I have resisted. I sort like the idea of going a few days without a shower. As we've finally gotten to the easterly breezes, I may have missed my opportunity. No marine shower is made to handle a 30-degree heel, which we are nearing. -- Stuart Streuli's latest report:

bermudarace.com

Tip At Top Of Giraglia Rolex Cup
The 2016 Giraglia Rolex Cup will be archived as one of the most challenging. Starting light with a tactically demanding middle, it ended with a flourish; at times an alarming one. For many yachts the final leg from the Giraglia to Genoa will last long in the memory as a bruising south-westerly wind built rapidly to 30 plus knots and whipped up the seas. Lasting from late on Thursday night to Friday morning, this wind added serious gasoline to the efforts of the slower yachts to overhaul the fastest in the race for the corrected time, and overall, win.

When Gilles Pages and the French crew of Tip crossed the finish at in the early hours of Friday morning they moved to the top of the podium. On Saturday morning Tip was confirmed as the worthy winner of the 64th Giraglia Rolex Cup.

The 2016 race will be noted too for a record total fleet of 268 entrants and its eclectic composition. Yachts represented 18 nations, ranged in size from 9 metres to 30.5 metres, comprised solo crews and crews of 20 or more, and included yachts from the early 1900s and those launched this year. And, as always, it will be revered for its generous dose of camaraderie, for its unfailing ability to live up to the philosophy of its founding fathers.

2016 Giraglia Rolex Cup Provisional Results

IRC Overall:
1. Tip (FRA), Gilles Pages (winner Rolex Challenge Trophy & Rolex Submariner)
2. Give Me Five 5 (FRA), Adrien Follin
3. Epsilon (FRA), Jean Rameil

ORC Class:
Scricca (ITA), Leonardo Servi (winner Trofeo Challenge Nucci Novi)

Line honours:
Magic Carpet Cubed (GBR) (26 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds
(winner Rolex Trophy, Rene Levainville Trophy & Rolex Yacht-Master)

Current Course Record:
Esimit Europa 2 (SLO): 14 hours, 56 minutes and 16 seconds set in 2012

Giraglia Rolex Cup Inshore Series (Saint-Tropez):
IRC 0 Wallyno Benoit de Froidmont
IRC A Team Vision Future Jean Jacques Chaubard
IRC B Easy Jean Marie Vidal
ORC 0 Southern Star Luigi Cimolai
ORC A Samantaga Philippe Moortgat
ORC B Aria di Burrasca Franco Salmoiraghi

www.yachtclubitaliano.it

Seahorse July 2016
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine

Design - The light way but a hard way
Maurizio Cossutti finds he can build fast boats or winning boats... but trying to do both has been proving to be immensely frustrating

A game of contrasts
Quirky best describes some of the 'old English' small boat classes. Well, one is on the front foot again. Phil Morrison and Jeremy Vines

134 years and counting
RA pre-Olympics Kiel Week is always a bit special

Update
Not so good in Noo York, says Jack Griffin, 4 wins weren't enough for Terry Hutchinson and Jochem Visser launches a new initiative

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Figaro Leg One To Cowes
As forecast the SW'ly breeze has kicked inat 15 to 20kts and a fast passage to Cowes is under way. Making 7.6 to 7.8kts towards the mark the ETA according to Race Direction on the water is now around 0200hrs. There is the option to sail the direct rhumb line on a tighter sailing angle or to work high and sail a faster lower angle later with a more eased spinnaker. It is drizzling and it will be a long first night at sea for the 39 skippers

They are racing right now with the full west going ebb. Low water was around 1630hrs this afternoon and so they are racing with the full flood tide just now, looking to get to St Cats before the tide turns against them at around 0515hrs Monday morning.

Leading the pack on the first published ranking on the 1700hrs TU ranking was Pierre Quinoga on Skipper Espoir CEM, a rookie from La Grande Motte. Alan Roberts lay fourth less than one mile behind the leader with Mary Rook in seventh. Charlie Dalin's recovery continues to 10th place after taking an early penalty for hitting a mark.

Top Ten (all within 2 miles of each other)

1. Skipper Espoir CEM / Pierre Quiroga
2. Guyot Environnement / Vincent Biarnes
3. La Solidarite Mutualiste / Damien Guillou
4. Alan Roberts Racing / Alan Roberts
5. Team Vendee Formation / Marc Noesmoen
6. Generali / Nicolas Lunven
7. Artemis 37 / Mary Rook
8. Groupe Fiva / Alexis Loison
9. Armor Lux / Erwan Tabarly
10. Skipper Macif 2015 / Charlie Dalin

www.artemisoffshoreacademy.com
www.lasolitairebompard.com

* At 3:34 Monday morning, the rookie Aymeric Decroocq contacted the race director of the Solitaire Le Figaro Bompard to announce the breakage of his top port spreader on Britain - CMB Hope. A few minutes later, at 3:40, the young sailor contacted Gilles Chiorri to confirm the case of the upper part (above the second spreader) of the spar. He was sailing in a South West wind of 23-25 knots and a short sea caused by conflicting currents.

The skipper of Britain-CMB Hope is not wounded and will motor to the port of Cowes, the end of the first stage. He should reach the Isle of Wight in 3 hours, around 7:00.

Coutts Quarter Ton Cup
Cowes, UK - The competitors in the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup 2016 found themselves sitting right in the centre of a very slow moving low on their final day of racing off Cowes and were forced to watch as the wind went frustratingly round and round in circles. Race Officer Rob Lamb and his team from Royal Yacht Squadron Racing managed to get the fleet underway once, but sadly had to abandon on the first beat as the wind shifted from a 7 knot northerly to a 2 knot southerly.

The only members of the assembled company seriously disappointed by that decision were Ian Southworth's Whiskers crew, who had just reached the weather mark a country mile ahead of their nearest rival, and Diarmid de Burgh-Milne in Lacydon Protis who was in second when the abandonment came. The Race Committee persevered shuffling marks around the Solent constantly as breeze sprang up from different directions, but eventually ran out of time at the 14.30 cut off.

With no racing the winner of the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup 2016 was confirmed as Bullit, helmed by owner Louise Morton whose name will now be engraved on the trophy for the fourth time, a record equalled only by her husband Peter Morton. The podium for the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup 2016 is completed by second placed Blackfun, designed by Laurie Davidson for the 1980 Quarter Ton Cup in Auckland where she finished 8th, helmed this year by 2007 Etchells World Champion Oscar Strugstad who got a late call up to stand in for owner Tony Hayward; and Sam Laidlaw's Aquila, which was designed by Rolf Vrolick, in third. Despite their moral victory in today's aborted race eight Ian Southworth and the Whiskers crew had to be content with the leather medal in fourth place.

Final top five
Place - Name - Type - Helm - Nation - Points
1. Bullit, Jacques Fauroux, Louis Morton, GBR, 17 points
2. Blackfun, Laurie Davidson, Oscar Strugstad, NZL, 18.5
3. Aquila, Rolf Vrolick, Sam Laidlaw, GBR, 19
4. Whiskers, Joubert Nivelt, Ian Southworth, GBR, 25.5
5. Illegal, Ceccarelli, William McNeill, GBR, 32

Full results
www.rys.org.uk/assets/Overall-Day-2-Final.pdf

Round Ireland
The Volvo Round Island Race started in 10 to 11 knots of southerly wind and a fair tide. The first fleet away were the 55 monohulls consisting of a vast mixture of boats and crews. From one of the fastest offshore race boats in the world, George David's Juan K designed Rambler 88 to Darryl Hughes's Shepherd 43' Classic, Maybird.

Volvo Round Ireland Race office has received twp reports of retirals:

Trilogic reported that they were retiring due to gear and sail difficulties and are heading to Dún Laoghaire

Xanadu have also reported retiral and are pulling into Kinsale

During the night Phaedo^3 held onto to their 2nd place. Sunday morning they passed close to some of Ireland's most iconic islands on the South West coast, passing by the Skellig Islands going an average speed of 25 knots at 6am this morning. It's early stages in this long distance haul with Phaedo^3 now pulling close to the lead at 31 knots off Loop head in Co. Clare.

roundireland.ie
yb.tl/wicklowroundireland2016

Tornado Worlds
The old ones are the new ones: World Champions of the Tornado class are Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis from Thessaloniki (Greece). They impressed with a series of six wins and one fourth place. They are again World Champions of the Tornado Class.

For Paschalidis, two times Olympic games participant, this is his sixth title - in a row! During the last racing day, Gavin Colby and Billy Leonard climbed up to rank two - the Australians now are new Vice Champions. Third overall - and also Mixed World Champions - are the Australian Brett Burvill (47) and 14 years old German Estela Jentsch from Schwangau (Bavaria). A total of 29 teams participated in the Worlds.

Last years Mixed World Champions, Roland and Nahid Gaebler from Bremen, couldn't start because of a horse back riding accident two weeks before. So, this time a new crew won the title: The Australian-Bavarian team Burvill/Jentsch. They performed well in the strong wind conditions in the first race on Sunday, which was very surprising considering they had only some hours of training in light winds. "I explained all maneuvers and she followed", Burvill said, the Tornado boat builder from Perth. The 14 year old Jentsche has been sailing Optimists and 29ers in recent years. "She has a good feeling in light winds", Burvill stated.

Overall
1. Iordanis Paschalidis/Konstantinos Trigonis, GRE, 10 points
2. Gavin Colby/Billy Leonard, AUS, 20
3. Brett Burvill/Estela Jentsch, AUS/GER, 34
4. Bob und Marc Baier, GER (Fussen), 41
5. Nikolaos Mavros/Alexandros Tagarapoulos, GRE, 44
6. Mirco Mazzini/Andrea Ciavatta, ITA, 58 Mixed (12 teams)
1. Brett Burvill/Estela Jentsch, AUS/GER
2. Maria Tsaousidou/Michaelis Papadopoulos, GRE
3. Zdenek Pavlis/Michaela Pavlisova, CZE
4. Markus Betz/Monica Schuster, GER

www.tornadoworlds-2016.lsc.de

Letters To The Editor -
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* From Ginny Jones: Good job Bill Benns! And Dennis! Yesterday afternoon I was wondering about fires caused by Lithium ion batteries, and when you read what Bill has to say (he is a very knowledgeable boat systems and mechanical person) you may start to wonder, too, if this was another fire caused by those problematic batteries................!?!

www.mvtimes.com

Those boaters were SO lucky because they could have been further offshore and/or in any number of other situations. Obviously they didn't have any tender or other way to get off, and it sounds as if they didn't have a clue. It is also incredibly lucky that this fire did not occur inside the harbor which was full of boats with a beach full of folks, and a LOT of people milling around, and a brisk breeze to fan the flames. There could have been a real disaster. I'm surprised that the CG boat doesn't have some sort of fire monitor (Nelson writes that they were using a dewatering pump) to fight fires.

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