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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 Louis Vuitton Trophy
With just two days of racing remaining before the end of the round robin, a hungry pack of four teams is in equal second place, each with three points and fighting to catch the thus-far unbeatable Kiwis. They are All4One, representing Germany and France, Azzurra and Mascalzone Latino Audi Team from Italy and the British-based TEAMORIGIN. Conditions were ideal for racing with almost flat water and a southerly breeze that ranged from 12 to 20 knots with some big shifts and puffs. Peter Reggio's race committee from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron got off four races with time to spare even after pauses for boat repairs and commercial shipping. Emirates got an extra share of the limelight today when it hosted All Black rugby football star Dan Carter as 18th man, and when it broke a spinnaker pole during a hoist, the third fracture in the regatta in as many days. The Kiwis shrugged it off, losing only a few seconds in their match against Azzurra and setting their spinnaker without a pole. Provisional leaderboard after Flight Five: 1. Emirates Team New Zealand, 5-0, 5 pts *Penalty point deducted LIVE Sport Sailing 103.0 FM is featuring all-day live coverage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. On television, during the seven days of the round robin, TVNZ is carrying nightly reports on its sports news. From March 16, during the elimination rounds, TVNZ will feature nightly half-hour reports. For the finals on 20th and 21st March there will be live coverage of the racing from noon to 4:00pm. Live streaming web coverage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland is available on the event website, www.louisvuittontrophy.com *Editor: You have to check out the live video feed... when there's no sailing. Really, it's remarkable, they have this terrific video of New Zealand, with music that clearly has didgeridoos and at least one bull roarer in the sound tracks. The latter was made famous in popular culture by Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee 2, it's an eerie and unmistakable sound. Editor's award for coolest sailing video "on hold" footage. Bertarelli To Turn His Back On The America's Cup Butterworth cut his teeth as a global gladiator, racing aboard Peter Blake's all-conquering 'Steinlager 2' maxi ketch as a watch leader. They won every leg of the 1989/90 Whitbread Race, the precursor to the Volvo event. He competed in the race again four years later as co-skipper to Dennis Conner in the Whitbread 60 'Winston'. It was not such a happy experience, but the new Volvo 70 has Butterworth licking his lips. Interviewed on the Volvo web site, Butterworth says: "The Volvo 70s are what the sailors always wanted...and now they have a class of racing machine that is truly dynamic. It is like any other class of boat, from Olympic dinghy to Transpac sled, in that you have to have a complete package, a well thought out programme, and then some great sailors." Key to this Swiss challenge however, is the inclusion of Ras al Khaimah, which was to host the 33rd America's Cup until the New York Supreme Court had its say, as the Gulf stopover port for the Volvo race. Bertarelli has a debt to pay the small Emirate for the money wasted preparing for last month's court imposed America's Cup match and the politics at play here could yet unseat Abu Dhabi, the obvious choice for the Volvo stopover in the Gulf. Word from the desert suggests that the deal in play Ras al Khaimah paying to bring the race to their shores, while Bertarelli picks up the tab for a new boat and the race campaign itself. Could this be the way Alinghi utilise their unused investment in the Gulf? -- Barry Pickthall For pictures of Brad Butterworth and his Whitbread race campaigns and the most recent America's Cup, go to www.pplmedia.com 
Get A Deal On The Racing Rules! To order the Rules DVD or learn more about it, go to: www.LearnTheRacingRules.com Equator: 41D 21H 09' The last mission for Franck Cammas and his nine crew is to set a minimum time of 8 days and 19 hours to devour the North Atlantic, which amounts to an average speed of 15.9 knots along the optimum course. Such a speed is totally within the grasp of the giant trimaran, which is likely to enjoy some favourable weather conditions for this final sprint, since the NE'ly tradewinds are in position after the Doldrums, the latter of which is situated at around 4°N. Reasonably worried by this transition of hemispheres, the skipper of Groupama 3 should soon find something to smile about again as the zone of high pressure, which had stabilised over France, is curling up on itself as it shifts across towards the Mediterranean. As such Groupama 3's trajectory towards Ushant could well be very pure: "It's true that the forecasts are rather encouraging for the end of our trip. However, it's also true that there is sometimes a discrepancy between the forecasts and the reality. The past few hours have been proof of that" continued Franck, who was preparing for a tricky night ahead: "I'd have preferred to traverse the Doldrums by day rather than night as it would have been less active. However, fortunately Groupama 3 is at ease in the light airs." -- translated by Kate Jennings Groupama 3's log (departure on 31st January at 13h 55' 53'' UTC) Jules Verne Trophy record Puma International Moth Worlds: Payne, McDugall and Funk Take 1, 2, 3
Simon Payne led the fleet going into the day. Being the last day of racing, with everything on the line, we saw an aggressive start from the fleet; it appeared that a slew of boats could have been over but only one recorded OCS. Day seven showed the fleet the biggest breeze of the event. Bora Gulari (2009 World Champion, USA) won the pin at the start, showing he still has what it takes. Gulari's start resulted in him winning the first race of the day. Simon Payne (GBR) had a disappointing first race, opening the narrow gap for Brad Funk (USA) or Andrew McDougall (AUS) to make something happen in the final race, Race 14. Going into race 14 with a bad race, Payne felt the pressure. "When it dawned on me that I hadn't actually won, I put the hammer down" said Payne Race 14 brought a steady 10 knots of breeze. Fighting a battle for the top spot, Payne was able to stay in the top five, clinching the 2010 PUMA Moth World Championship. Payne's victory was more than he expected from the event; "I didn't think I had a chance here, I just came to see my mates." PRO David Campbell-James has been impressed and challenged by the Moth class. "The grand prix style racing was fantastic and exciting," said Campbell-James. "The difference in speed between the boats creates a challenge as how to be a good PRO and create fair racing for all. I have been impressed with our gracious host the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club and all they have organized here for us and all the sailors, including a slew of volunteers." Moth Worlds 2011 will be held in Belmont Bay, Australia in February 2011. Entries: 43 Races Sailed: 14 Discard: 2 Top ten final results: 1. Simon Payne, GBR, 33 points Full race results are available at Seahorse April 2010 ORC: The mighty Lola is officially now a two-pronged beast Olympic and small boat news: What it takes to win the Int 14 worlds... twice. Andy Rice and Archie Massey Design - Rise of the machines Jamie Marina takes us into the fast-growing world of full-scale CNC mould production Seahorse build table - A world of fun Tornado supremo Goran Marstrom has another (cool) new toy for the world If you haven't subscribed to Seahorse already we're keen to help you attend to that! - Please use the following promotional link and enjoy the hefty Scuttlebutt Europe discount... and it gets even better for 2 and 3 year subscriptions... Merriman, Trinter Win Final Race, Bacardi Cup Bacardi Miami Sailing Week blustered to an early conclusion Saturday on Biscayne Bay. Gusty west winds that damaged several boats prompted organizers to halt all racing by early afternoon; lightning and high winds Friday forced cancellation of all but two contests. Still, all five fleets managed to complete enough races since the event began Monday to constitute a full regatta. Sailing Week's marquee event -- the 2010 Bacardi Cup -- saw a team of first-time winners drink from the silver Trofeo Bacardi in Coconut Grove's Peacock Park. Skipper Rick Merriman, a Fed Ex pilot from New York City, and crew Phil Trinter of Charlottesville, Va., handily won Saturday's final race in a battered fleet of 84 Star-class sailboats. With a total score of nine points in five races after discarding their worst result, Merriman and Trinter beat the runner-up Irish team of Peter O'Leary and Stephen Milne by eight points. Mid-week leaders Andy Horton and James Lyne, both of Vermont, took third place. Local Bacardi Cup veterans had solid finishes. South Miami skipper Augie Diaz, the 2003 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, came in 12th with crew Bruno Prada of Brazil. The defending champions, skipper Peter Bromby of Bermuda and crew Magnus Liljedahl, 2000 Olympic gold medalist, ended up 17th after breaking a mast in Saturday's high winds. From the Miami Herald: Final top ten (84 entries) 1. Phil Trinter / Rick Merriman, USA, 9 points Full results on the Star Class site: * Editor: At press time Sunday night, there is no final report on the event site (nothing posted since Friday), apparently the new PR people for Miami Sailing Week can't be bothered to write reports on weekends (or approve applications for email updates, which I submitted days ago to no avail). I can only imagine the well deserved beating I'd have received at the hands of The Pope had I done something like that during my ISAF webmaster days. And that was a decade ago, in pre-Twitter and Facebook days... To not have 100% perfect coverage of the Bacardi Cup is, frankly, an insult to one of the finest gentlemen this sport has ever known: Ding Schoonmaker, who is practically synonymous with the event. The Star is a Big Deal. So is the Bacardi Cup. Thus ends tonight's rant. Berrimilla Due In Sydney Monday Morning Members of their home clubs, the Royal Australian Navy Sailing Association (RANSA) and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, will meet Berrimilla when she sails through Sydney Heads about 11.00am and will escort her to a berth at the CYCA, where she is due about 12 noon. Berrimilla's final leg, from Hobart to Sydney, marks the end of their second circumnavigation in Berrimilla - the first was a Sydney - Hobart (Race) - Fastnet (Race) - Sydney - Hobart (Race) combination of cruising and racing, via Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. No other yacht has sailed in both the Sydney Hobart in Australia and the Fastnet Race in England in the one year and then sailed back to contest the Sydney Hobart. The second circumnavigation has been a voyage from Australia to England through the daunting North West Passage across the top of Canada to again contest the Fastnet Race, and a delayed return voyage that took Whitworth and Crozier in Berrimilla down to the French-owned Antarctic Kergelen islands before reaching Hobart on 1 March. After a week to spruce up the Brolga 33 and give her a much-need slipping and anti-fouling, Berrimilla and her crew set sail from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania last Monday, 8 March. At noon today, Berrimilla was off Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast after a fuelling stopover in Eden. Berrimilla is the first yacht to circumnavigate the world under sail via the North West Passage and the first to circumnavigate via both Cape Horn and the North-West Passage - opposite ends of the Americas. She is also the first Australian yacht to sail through the North-West Passage unassisted and in a single season, extraordinary cruises that must rank Whitworth and Crozier as Australia's greatest living seamen. -- Peter Campbell The Cup's Corporate Defender Seated in the morning sun at a Viaduct Harbour cafe, Trouble looks utterly at home. Yachts gleam expensively across the water, passers-by call out "bonjour Bruno", and shortly racing will begin again out on the Waitemata for the Louis Vuitton Trophy - a race he invented. For Trouble, this yachting is not mere competition. Since 1983 he has masterminded one of the most enduring partnerships between sport and sponsor. It succeeds, he says, because the wealthy people who raced America's Cup yachts a century ago were clients of Louis Vuitton - and the same is true today. "We are not supporting a sport. We love the tradition." Hence his issues with Bertarelli. Louis Vuitton has invested a great deal in its association with the America's Cup - an association that would have much less value if the Cup turned into just another regatta, a waterborne version of Formula 1. The irony of a corporate sponsor sheltering a sporting event from commercial exploitation is not lost on Trouble. But in the luxury world, heritage and pedigree are worth more than anything Bertarelli can come up with. "For luxury products, image is everything. It's not the price." Indeed, Trouble feigns ignorance of how much Louis Vuitton spends on sponsorship. "To tell you whether it's 2% or 5% of the gross, or more, I don't know. We don't care." It's all about relationships and global thinking, he says. "Everyone ask why we invest in New Zealand, but we see the world picture," says Trouble. "Sure the profit we make in New Zealand would not pay for what we do here - I think even the turnover would not be sufficient." But "the place an event is organised is not important". Images can be seen across the world. -- Tim Hunter in the Sunday Star Times (NZL), full article at www.stuff.co.nz/ Letters To The Editor - * From Patrick Blaney: As one who has endured the endless discussions, gloating, nastiness and vitriol that has accompanied both the competition and the reporting of the 33rd Americas Cup, I have just a few comments to make: - It's over - thankfully - and the ball is now with Larry Ellison and BMW Oracle - It always takes two sides to tangle - so there must be blame on both sides for the mess that the 33rd AC became - Regurgitating the venom that we have swallowed will just make it taste even worse - Let's hope that Mr Ellison takes on the many good things that Alinghi brought to the AC, learns the lessons of this last event, and makes the 34th AC really memorable - For the rest of us let's all go back to sailing and enjoying ourselves. 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