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

Quantum Racing Wins Audi TP52 World Championship
Porto Cervo, Italy: The final day of the Audi TP52 World Championship brought a long and frustrating wait for the nine teams competing in the event held from 9th to 14th June 2014 and organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. The wind Gods refused to cooperate in Porto Cervo Saturday and despite the Race Committee's every effort it was impossible to set a course in the soft and shifty conditions. Yesterday's overall classification therefore remains valid with Quantum Racing, owned by Doug DeVos and with Terry Hutchinson calling tactics, taking home the World Title for the fourth time. Class newcomer Eduardo Souza Ramos takes second place with his Phoenix, while outgoing world champion Niklas Zennstrom with Rán claims third place.

Riccardo Bonadeo, YCCS Commodore, commented on the high standard of racing during the final prize giving ceremony at the YCCS: "It was a difficult week because of some unusual conditions here in Porto Cervo but the Race Committee did an excellent job and we got in some great racing. Thursday's coastal race showed just how competitive the fleet is as they raced for 3 hours and arrived within seconds of each other. This is the fifth time the fleet has sailed in our waters and we look forward to welcoming everyone back here next year with some new boats for even better racing."

Final Results

1. Quantum Racing, USA, 10 points
2. Phoenix, BRA, 12
3. Ran, SWE, 13
4. Azzurra, ITA, 21
5. Gladiator, GBR, 24
6. Provezza, TK, 33
7. Paprec Recyclage, FRA, 34
8. Hurakan, ITA, 37
9. B2, ITA, 43

www.yccs.com
www.52superseries.com

America's Cup To San Francisco: Bye Bye
With all the formality deserving of the oldest international sporting trophy, America's Cup point man Russell Coutts confirmed yesterday's rumors when he sent a letter to Mayor Ed Lee letting him know San Francisco was no longer in the running for the 35th edition of the boat race for the insanely rich.

"Given the tight timeline and demands from prospective teams to confirm the final venue, it has been necessary to continue reducing the shortlist of candidate cities," Coutts wrote. "We have therefore taken the difficult decision to no longer consider San Francisco as a possible candidate to host AC35."

According to the Chronicle, the letter offers no explanation for the diss, although it seems obvious that Mayor Lee's most recent mandates like forcing the Cup to pay rent on the piers and pay prevailing union wages for construction work were dealbreakers for Coutts and Larry Ellison.

The letter did, however, say race organizers would be open to hosting the 36th America's Cup here, in the far-off-distant future of 2021 or so. (Also, a bit of shade thrown at the other teams there, as the winner of the Cup gets to decide the next locale.) On the other hand, Coutts' letter did mention the possibility of hosting one of the smaller lead-up World Series races here, so maybe we can get one final use out of any remaining A-Cup infrastructure.

Anyway, Mayor Lee doesn't seem too down about it. As he aw-shucks'ed to the Chronicle: "I think all we can do is be proud of the fact that we hosted a really great event and that we were willing to do it again in a more rational way."

sfist.com/2014/

The World's Fastest 505 - Fact!
Rondar With 16 World Championship wins and more than 240 National titles the Rondar 505 is the most successful design to have been built, winning every major title for the past 20 years.

Rondar are not content with this proven performance record and during 2013 have been working on a new version with a number of innovative features. The moulds are being produced now and the first of the new design will be sailing at the World Championships 2014.

New 2014 Model!

Building on the success of past years, we are underway with the construction of a new set of moulds that will offer new features and performance improvements. The 2014 design will be ready for delivery from July 2014. If you are thinking of a new boat then contact us for an update on the new design.

- Proven Winning Hull Shape: Now optimised for even better performance, with major changes based on the proven championship winning design
- Less Torsional Twist : Major changes to the mouldings create less twist throughout the hull
- Bigger Chute: Easier launching and recovery
- Stiffer Deck: Improved construction techniques
- Lighter Ends: Allows hull to ride the waves better
- Stronger Centrebox: Strengthened sides
- New Deck Moulding: Now includes new innovative features - greater strength, lower weight

www.rondarboats.com

Hugo Boss Co-Skippers Pepe Ribes & Ryan Breymaier Win The Imoca Ocean Masters New York To Barcelona Race
The Spanish-American duo won the race in a time of 14 days 2 hours 44 minutes and 30 seconds. However looking at how tired they were and the relentless events that unfolded for them over the last fortnight, one might have got the impression they had been at sea racing non-stop for a month or more.

"It has been hard work, because we have been fixing a lot of things, rather than just racing," admitted Ribes. "The less time you have to race, the more stressful it is."

Breymaier agreed: "When you push a machine, the machine doesn't always like it. We didn't have any major problems, there wasn't a lot that stopped us - some computer system problems and we destroyed the scoop for the water ballast system, which affected our speed."

And the drama occurred from the start until the finish. One of the most heart stopping moments came on Hugo Boss' final day at sea, as she was approaching Barcelona, when they got struck down, literally, by a monster gust of wind.

As Ribes described it: "Today was the first time that I have seen the mast under water on an IMOCA 60! There came a puff which we thought was just rain. But it wasn't, it was 50 knots and the boat was full ballast and full keel canted and it just crash tacked. The mast was underwater for three minutes. At that moment we were charging the batteries. The engine started to burn… We might have been dead still now with no engine and no battery, nothing, so we were very lucky."

www.imocaoceanmasters.com

Bol D'Or Mirabaud
The largest regatta in the world to be run on a lake, was in line with its reputation: following a very tactical race marked by a strong northern wind,

Ladycat powered by Spindrift, skipped by Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard, wins the 76th edition of the Bol d'Or Mirabaud in 5h38, the second best time ever of the race. Realstone Sailing, skipped by Jerome Clerc, takes the second place in front of Alinghi, skipped by Ernesto Bertarelli. In the monohull category, Syz & Co wins the race after more than 8 hours of sailing, beating the previous record by almost 30 minutes. This year's edition gathered 511 boats and more than 3'000 participants, of which 96 boats from abroad, including from France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Great Britain.

In established wind conditions of up to 25 knots, Ladycat powered by Spindrift was always among the leaders of the race and was the first boat to pass the mid-race mark at the Bouveret. On the way back, Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard were able to contain fierce opposition to pass the last contender just 300 meters in front of the finish line, a few minutes before Realstone, Alinghi and Mobimo.

news.boldormirabaud.com

IRC National Championship: Antix In The Ninth
The most sensational finish in the 13-year history of the RORC IRC National Championship played out in the central Solent. In the tightly packed combat zone, the prize of overall national champion was decided in the ninth and final race of the series. Three yachts swapped the overall lead during the last three races. Keeping in clear air and playing the shifts were the big factors towards a top performance but maintaining concentration, in an adrenalin packed final day, was just all important.

IRC One
Anthony O'Leary's Irish Ker 39, Antix, continued their impressive display, winning the first two races of the day to secure the IRC One title, and third place in the last race of the regatta was just enough to secure the overall win.

Mike Bartholomew's South African GP42, Tokoloshe II, was second in class and Marc Glimcher's American Ker 40, Catapult, finished the regatta in style winning the last race to place third.

IRC Two
The fleet sail downwind in the IRC National Championship 2014. Photo: RORC/Paul Wyeth pwpictures.comGoing into the last race, Jim Macgregor's British Elan 410, Premier Flair, needed to win to secure the overall IRC National title by just half a point.

IRC Three
David Franks' British JPK 10.10, Strait Dealer, won all three races today to secure the class. Last year's IRC Three champion, James Chalmers' British J/35, Bengal Magic, was second and Willem Schopman's Dutch Bashford Howison 36, Intention, was third.

IRC Four
Peter Morton's Half Tonner, Swuzzlebubble, was the winner of the class but struggled today in the fresher breeze. Giovanni Belgrano's Whooper won the first race of the day and secured second overall. Sadly, Ian Southworth's Hamble based Quarter Tonner, Whiskers, was unable to race after yesterday's rig damage, but after being awarded redress, ended the regatta third in class. -- Louay Habib

www.rorc.org

Seahorse July 2014
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine

Seahorse Magazine

IRC column
And a visit around some of the ‘other’ areas of operation of the rating office with James Dadd

Design - Genuine dual purpose
Gino Morrelli and Paul Hakes talk to Dobbs Davis about their all-new HH66 Supercat - the latest in an exciting new genre

One stop shop
Persico celebrate the successful launch of Ran V

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Teng Tools Icra Championship Decides Five Irish Class Titles On Dublin Bay
Classes Zero and One sail four races today for event discard; good news from Cowes Winning the Class 3 title with the lowest score of any of the five classes, Jonathan Skerritt's Quest from the host Royal Irish Yacht Club counted three race wins and two second places in a highly consistent performance over the three days.

Neighbouring club sailor Nigel Biggs on Checkmate V had a similarly low-score with four race wins and though a fifth in yesterday's third race spoiled the straight run, the Class 2 national title went to the Royal St. George YC.

The smallest of the national classes was won by Declan Ward's 28-footer Chouskikou from Dun Laoghaire Marina competing on ECHO handicap.

A fourth race was added to yesterday's programme that then ran late into the afternoon for the two big-boat classes with the Royal Cork YC taking both national titles.

Denise Phelan's Jump Juice won Class Zero with a comfortable ten-point lead thanks to four race wins and two second places. Ian Nagle's Jelly Baby won the Class One title for the second time since 2012 though with 26 boats in this fleet, the win was less straight-forward despite three race wins.

Full results:
cruiserracing.ie/icranats/racing/results/

Hugo Boss Co-Skippers Pepe Ribes & Ryan Breymaier Win The Imoca Ocean Masters New York To Barcelona Race
The Spanish-American duo won the race in a time of 14 days 2 hours 44 minutes and 30 seconds. However looking at how tired they were and the relentless events that unfolded for them over the last fortnight, one might have got the impression they had been at sea racing non-stop for a month or more.

"It has been hard work, because we have been fixing a lot of things, rather than just racing," admitted Ribes. "The less time you have to race, the more stressful it is."

Breymaier agreed: "When you push a machine, the machine doesn't always like it. We didn't have any major problems, there wasn't a lot that stopped us - some computer system problems and we destroyed the scoop for the water ballast system, which affected our speed."

And the drama occurred from the start until the finish. One of the most heart stopping moments came on Hugo Boss' final day at sea, as she was approaching Barcelona, when they got struck down, literally, by a monster gust of wind.

As Ribes described it: "Today was the first time that I have seen the mast under water on an IMOCA 60! There came a puff which we thought was just rain. But it wasn't, it was 50 knots and the boat was full ballast and full keel canted and it just crash tacked. The mast was underwater for three minutes. At that moment we were charging the batteries. The engine started to burn… We might have been dead still now with no engine and no battery, nothing, so we were very lucky."

www.imocaoceanmasters.com

Jostling For Position In Figaro Leg 2
On Sunday the Solitaire fleet left the English coast in this, the 45th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro - Eric Bompard Cachemire. They won't return to this side of the channel until Leg 4 at the end of the month. As of 1500BST Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert) was in the lead and fastest in the fleet, racing at 12kn, almost 4kn faster than Yann Elies (Groupe Queguiner-Leucemie Espoir) in 2nd and Gildas Mahe (Interface Concept) in 3rd.

Morvan led the fleet as the solo sailors passed Land's End around 0500BST this morning.

Before the sailors left Sutton Harbour they described Leg 2 as a pretty straight-forward speed race. However, in the first twelve hours of the Leg the tides have played a significant part - 14 miles now separates the fleet from front to back.

The fleet has around 100nm to go to the next mark, the Stags South cardinal buoy off the Irish coast, the solo sailors are due to arrive there on Monday morning.

This leg takes the fleet out around Fastnet Rock, then to Roscoff, France. Arrival 17 or 18 June.

www.lasolitaire.com

Fastest Dinghy Sailor In The World
A former American Fireball dinghy sailor has become the fastest dinghy sailor in the world, clocking up a time 36.5 knots on a foiling Moth dinghy. Charleston's Ned Goss who is well known in performance sailing circles is a pro racer in both inshore and offshore disciplines.

Video in Afloat magazine afloat.ie/sail/

160th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta Presented By Rolex
Though light, shifty winds had an unusual stronghold on this year's 160th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex, most of the 189 teams competing knew how to take it all in stride.

The New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex is the oldest regatta in the country, and this year's event has entered the history books as the largest Annual Regatta on record. Engraved overall trophies in each class were given at tonight's (Sunday) Rolex Awards Party. Rolex also awards a timepiece to the overall winner (determined by the organizers) of Saturday's and Sunday's combined series of races, which officially constitutes the 160th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex. This special prize, as well as the Great Corinthian Trophy for yacht club teams of three or more boats posting the best class finishes, will be awarded at the Annual Awards Dinner, held on November 13 at the New York Yacht Club's main clubhouse in New York City.

Full results of all classes at nyyc.org

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