Scuttlebutt Europe #2029 - 16 February
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Brought to you by Boats.com Europe, Yachtworld.com Europe, 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 Congrats!
Not since the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company launched Reliance for the 1903 defense of the Cup on the site of what is now the Herreshoff Marine Museum / America's Cup Hall of Fame has there been such a show of extreme engineering in competition for the Cup. Both Alinghi's catamaran and BMW ORACLE Racing's trimaran provided a spectacle of racing that kept spectators, sailing enthusiasts, materials scientists, and marine engineers on the edge of their seats. "I think for both boats the technology was quite brilliant but close to the bold edge, especially with so little sailing time here," said Herreshoff, grandson of the legendary America's Cup yacht designer and "Wizard of Bristol", Nathanael Greene Herreshoff. The America's Cup Hall of Fame will be at the celebration when the Cup arrives at the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco [ed. this Friday], with the attendance of Halsey Herreshoff at the festivities. The Hall of Fame looks forward to working with both teams to chronicle this event, and commemorate the technological advances and sailing prowess of the 33rd Cup in our archives. The Challenger Of Record We look forward to working in close partnership with CNR and their challenging team - "Mascalzone Latino" owned by world champion sailor Vincenzo Onorato - to reinvigorate the America's Cup. Mascalzone Latino competed as a challenger for both the 2003 and 2007 America's Cup. GGYC and CNR have pledged to start a dialogue and wide-ranging discussions with the America's Cup community, including existing and prospective teams. The objective is to ensure that the 34th America's Cup is built on the foundations of the competition's unique past as well as on a shared vision for its future. Celebrate Your Wins With Wight Vodka The crew at Wight Vodka salutes both the BMW Oracle and Alinghi teams for their expertise, their passion and their pure competitive spirit. However, in the ethos of 50° North, the company behind Wight Vodka, 'to the victor go the spoils,' as a bottle of Wight will be making its way from 50°45'N: 01°18'W to 37°48'N:122°24'W for the members of the Golden Gate Yacht Club to enjoy. Ritu Manocha, owner of the Wight Vodka brand, suggests one of three ways for the club to thoroughly enjoy the gift: - Warm in a balloon snifter as you would a great scotch For those 'in the know,' the idea for Wight Vodka was created while sailing the waters around the Isle of Wight. The 7 times distilled brand was launched in late 2007 and has been thoroughly enjoyed in yacht clubs around Great Britain ever since. Still only available in England, the time is drawing near for Ritu and her team to find a distributor in northern California for the next Act! Tack & Gybe Responsibly Primo Cup - Trophee Credit Suisse
Once again the Primo Cup-Trophee Credit Suisse confirmed its reputation as a demanding and top quality event for the 900 sailors (17 nationalities) who converge at the start of every season from across the world. The first three teams in each category all received clothing from the Advanced Technology Sportswear line of equipment manufacturer and event partner, Slam. The winning Surprise, Va... Rhum of Eric Monnin, was presented with the second Hublot Chronograph, one having gone to the first of the Dragons last weekend. The coveted gold ingot offered by Credit Suisse in a lucky draw was won by Gerard Garros who was racing on the J24 (Blue Eagle). Final rankings Melges 32: after 7 races Longtze Premier, 7 races Farr 30, 7 races Platu 25, 7 races J24, 7 races Surprise, 7 races Class40 Grows Apace "The foundations of the Class are strong, but there are some vital points which need to be addressed", commented Jacques Fournier By June 2010, there will be a new post, to assist the executive and secretariat with ensuring conformity to Class Rules and safety, as well as providing assistance to race organisers. The Rules remain unchanged for 2010 The Class40 fleet New countries: 12 new boats: Designers: Members: 128 in 18 countries 4 new members voted onto the executive 
Guys Don't Read This Ad! Buy them today before the holidays at: Annapolis Performance, Line Honors, Point Loma Outfitting, Sailing Pro Shop, Sound Boatworks More dealer info can be found at www.camet.com MSTV Challenger Suffers Mast Track Problem And Head Back To NZ
This damage prevents the mainsail from being hoisted fully and so the crew needed to make some urgent repairs. The other two yachts participating in Exercise TRANSGLOBE, Adventure (Royal Navy) and Discoverer (RAF), converged on Challenger's position and a transfer of spares and tools to make good the damage has since been completed. The skippers of Adventure and Discoverer have checked their own mast tracks for damage and have found none and have turned Eastwards to resume the passage to Montevideo. Project HQ in Gosport has now received the following first-person account of what happened and the current situation from Challenger's JSASTC staff skipper, Becky Walford: "Much head scratching was to be had as to how we would actually repair the mast whilst in the rolling swells of the southern hemisphere, bearing in mind the difficulties the rigger had had in the yard when the boat was on the side. So Disco and Challenger had a night hove too in the Southern Ocean!!! At daybreak Adventure appeared from over the horizon and she also hove to to inspect her mast as Disco had done the previous day. Adventure confirmed that their mast was OK as was Disco's. Another perfect ship to ship transfer with the throwing line amongst the swells ensured that Challenger essentially had all the bit and bobs to do the repairs. "With the fleet having left Auckland a little behind schedule, Challenger gave both Disco and Adventure three cheers for their support and wished them fair winds and fast sailing as they continued east and we turned west. Being hove too we had much time to think about how realistically we could carry out the repairs at sea and concluded that we would have to seek shelter. The nearest piece of land is the Chatham Isles which were about half way between us and New Zealand! Off we set, but with inspection of the Lonely Planet and some advice from the New Zealand Royal Navy we concluded that perhaps the Chathams was a nice place for a cruise or holiday, but not really the place to re-fuel and re-provision a 14-man yacht. So we are to continue to Wellington. -- Peta Stuart-Hunt Industry News The UK-listed global inter-dealer broker (IDB), which sponsored the show for the first time last month, has committed to being the title sponsor of the next three London Shows. The events, from 2011 to 2013, will continue to be known as the Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show. The 2011 Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show will take place from January 7 to 16. -- Boating Business, www.boatingbusiness.com * The 2010 Gothenburg Boat Show closed on Sunday with a 2.5 per cent increase in visitor numbers. Around 79,200 people attended this year's show, which ran from February 6-14, with many exhibitors reporting strong leads. "We're really happy to see that more people visited the show," says Bengt Wallin, project manager of this year's event. "Spring is coming and the Swedish people have renewed faith in the future. Once again they want to invest in their leisure time." -- Lars-Ake Redeen in IBI, www.ibinews.com/ibinews/ * Vitters Shipyard in the Netherlands has acquired UK composite yacht-builder Green Marine for an undisclosed sum. Founded by Bill Green and Ian King in 1982, Green Marine specialises in advanced composite projects and has built a wide range of Volvo Ocean and America's Cup yachts, including Mascalzone and Prada. The company's fleet includes racing yachts such as Ran and Jethou, as well as high performance cruising yachts Sojana, Leopard, Ghost and Cinderella IV. According to a company statement, Green Marine will continue to focus on the production of racing yachts and hulls for high-performance cruisers under new ownership. Three yachts from 18m-43m (60ft-140ft) are currently in-build at the group's Lymington-based yard. -- IBI, www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/ * The Royal Ocean Racing Club is pleased to announce that Lee Overlay Partners have become an official supporter of the RORC Caribbean 600. "I want to promote offshore sailing that is why we race all over the world and what better way to do that than to support the RORC Caribbean 600. I have been looking forward to this race ever since we finished the last one, it's a fantastic event, a race like no other and Lee Overlay Partners are delighted to support it." Commented Adrian Lee, Chief Investment Officer for Lee Overlay Partners. Adrian Lee's Cookson 50, Lee Overlay Partners, won the inaugural RORC Caribbean 600 and is back to defend the title. The 2nd RORC Caribbean 600 starts on the 22nd of February in Antigua, the race course is approximately 600 nautical miles and the competitors will enjoy sublime sailing conditions around 14 Caribbean islands. -- caribbean600.rorc.org * Lewmar has named Cala Marine as its factory sales representative for the Latin American territory including Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Products represented will include Lewmar's Steering Systems, Anchoring Systems, Winches, Hatches, Hardware, Portlights, Bow Thrusters and Sailing Hardware. Cala founder and principal Ralph Masso will head the Miami based representative team. Ralph brings many years of experience in this territory through previous assignments with major distributors serving both OEM boat builders and aftermarket segments. -- lewmar.com * Boats.com and YachtWorld.com have announced a long-term agreement that will connect their comprehensive, searchable boat listings with extensive editorial content from 12 of the best marine journalists in the business. "This partnership recognizes and leads a paradigm shift," said Ian Atkins, vice president and general manager of Boats.com and YachtWorld.com. "People who love the water are online now, looking for boats and high-quality editorial content to go with them. Teaming up with a crew of 12 writers who have the credentials of the BoaterMouth group is an outstanding enhancement for visitors to our sites - and a privilege for us." Articles by BoaterMouth's marine journalists can be seen at www.boats.com/boat-contentboatermouth/ and will cover a range of topics, from power and sailboats to fishing, mega yachts, marine electronics, chartering, cruising, racing, and advice on maintenance and equipment. BoaterMouth.com was launched in November 2009 by Imagine Media LLC and is owned by longtime marine journalist Kim Kavin. She is among the 12 BoaterMouth writers, who include Lenny Rudow, Ben Ellison, Diane Byrne, Pete McDonald, Tom Tripp, Zuzana Prochazka, Jeff Hemmel, Charles Doane, Kimball Livingston, Matt Trulio, and Ed Sherman. -- uk.yachtworld.com Letters To The Editor - * From Chris Graham : The refusal by the SNG Race Committee to handle the flags demonstrates precisely why Bertarelli could not be allowed to win again. They had clearly been instructed not to start the race in certain conditions by Bertarelli. This gives the sport of sailing, and AC in particular, an immense problem: all those people who have been part of the Alinghi team over the past years now think that this type of approach is the "normal" way to win. Now they will take that attitude and approach back into our sport to the detriment of sailing worldwide. Beware anyone with Alinghi connections! We can only hope that GGYC will now take the crucial step of creating an independent body to run future AC events. * From John Waugh: Am I the only one who thinks the multihull cup was a bit boring. Huge boats, too big and clumsy for anything like mixing it on the course. Confined to a narrow weather window that never permitted the touted 40 knots that some suggested and caused further ridicule of the event after all the cancellations and delays. One faster than the other by at least 5% so the conclusion was never in doubt after the first ten minutes of racing. Technological marvels, maybe but for someone who relishes skill in yacht racing, one very good lay line call is not enough. For the rest it was a bit of a procession and the remarkable speeds were completely nullified by the size of the boats - they didn't look fast on the water. Besides, some of the most exciting yacht racing I've ever done has been pretty slow. By all means, loosen up the rules for the 34th edition but keep the boats down to a sensible size and please, just one hull! * From Heike Blok: Remember the reelection of Bill Clinton? The buzz phrase then was "It's the economy, stupid!" Now, with this AC, it could go like this: "It's the wing, stupid!" Brad Butterworth had it right in plain, straight forward language: "What I think? Well that's simple mate, they have decidedly much more speed than us". Refreshing for a change to hear such clear language out of the Alinghi camp. Instead of setting the wrong tone by trying to appoint that "Whatshammecallit" wreck of a Spanish Funny Club as a would be challenger, Bertarelli CS should have spent their energy on making the right decisions on their boat and sail design. In contrast to Bertarelli, Larry Ellison, a zero to zillion man who did not get there by taking wrong decisions, did in spite of al the haggling. In doing so he provided the base for his much deserved win encouraging his fine crew to give their best. The wing not only was the main weapon but seeing this beautiful contraption, this wonderful sculpture sheer over the water, was a delight. It's true emotion. It's like watching an Eagle soar in the sky, admiring it's grace and functionality, totally adapted to it's environment where it has to operate. Although I cannot quite understand the attenuated regatta in number of races I believe one should not compare this very special event with anything, other than an immense, creative effort and clash of wills. It brings color in life but it certainly is not for the faint of heart! Featured Brokerage This is a rare opportunity to own "Steak & Kidney," the recently refitted 1986 12M KA-14, America's Cup Challenger designed by Peter Cole and built by Consolidated Marine. She raced as a defender candidate for Australia in 1987. This classic has been operating as a 25 passenger charter vessel, match racing against 1977 challenger, "Australia," (also for sale), and other America Cup classic 12M yachts for half-day trips of racing or sightseeing. In 2004 she was refitted for charter and repainted to original colors of white and pale blue. If you are looking to own a piece of yachting history, or start up a day-charter business in a year-round sailng venue, then this retired racing yacht has the potential to generate positive cash flow and an excellent income. Ideally suited for a Captain & Mate, owner-operated and supplemented with part-time crew. Brokerage through Sarasota Yacht & Ship: www.yachtworld.com/sarasota-yacht/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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