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

Defending Champion On Top At Chicago Match Cup
As defending champions of the Chicago Match Cup, Taylor Canfield (ISV) US One today have shown they've lost none of their prowess at this venue, leading the pack in Day One of the Qualifying Series on an undefeated 4-0 record. Current Tour leader Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar lost his last match of the day to Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Sailing Team for a 3-1 record, a record also held by Mathieu Richard (FRA) Lunajets, Phil Robertson (NZL) Waka Racing and Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) Team Trifork.

After a morning delay awaiting a light 6-7 knot breeze to fill from Lake Michigan, six flights of this series were sailed today, with 11 remaining to complete this stage of the competition among twelve teams from nine nations. Racing is being held near Chicago's Belmont Harbor, the home port of the event organizers, the Chicago Match Race Center (CMRC), who are hosting this only US stop on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour (AWMRT).

Qualifying Series racing resumes Thursday at 0930 CDT on courses set at Belmont Harbor.

Competing teams in the Chicago Match Cup include the following:

Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar 
Mathieu Richard (FRA) LunaJets 
Taylor Canfield (ISV) USone 
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Sailing Team
Keith Swinton (AUS) Team Alpari FX 
Phil Robertson (NZL) Waka Racing 
Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) Team Trifork 
Pierre Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team
Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Sailbox 
Chris Steele (NZL) 36 Below 
Don Wilson (USA) 
Tom Slingsby (AUS)

ChicagoCup.org
wmrt.com

Steady Quantum Edge Closer To 2014 Title
Photo by Max Ranchi. Click on image for photo gallery.

Steady consistency across the opening three races of the ZENITH Royal Cup MARINA IBIZA sees Quantum Racing ahead of target as they seek to close out their second overall BARCLAYS 52 SUPER SERIES title.

The series leaders scored a 1,2,3 in Ibiza's light and shifty conditions on a race course area which is laden with very subtle changes in wind direction and pressure. While the crew which is skippered by Ed Baird would definitely like to finish their 2014 season with a third regatta win, that would be the icing on the cake. Their primary goal is simply protecting their overall points cushion - or increasing it - over nearest rivals Azzurra and Ran Racing.

Meantime three different crews won races today including race victories for the two teams which are new to the BARCLAYS 52 SUPER SERIES, Takashi Okura's Sled - which was flown to Europe for this one regatta only - and Marc Blees all star cast on Gaastra Pro. Winds were light and shifty, small changes in pressure and direction proving important to read.

Standings: ZENITH Royal Cup Marina Ibiza
Overall after 3 races

1. Quantum Racing, USA, (Doug De Vos USA) (1,2,3) 6 points
2. Azzurra, ITA, (Alberto Roemmers ARG) (3,5,2) 10
3. Ran Racing, SWE, (Niklas Zennstrom SWE) (2,4,4) 10
4. Sled, USA, (Takachi Okura JPN) (4,1,6) 11
5. Gaastra Pro, NED (Marc Blees NED) (6,6,1) 13
6. Provezza 7, TUR, (Ergin Imre TUR) (7,3,7) 17
7. Gladiator, GBR, (Tony Langley GBR) (5,7,8) 20
8. Phoenix, BRA, (Eduardo de Souza Ramos BRA) (8,8,5) 21

www.52superseries.com

Last Weeks: Win A Trip To Any Of The Round The World Race Stopovers In 2015 - With Ecsix Carbon Rigging.
Do you want to win a trip of a life time to any port of call along the Round the World Race in 2015? Great, because it is simple! All you have to do is design, scribble, write or draw a T-Shirt design and submit it online atwww.ecsix.com/contest

"The beauty about this competition is that everyone and anyone have a chance to win an expense paid "trip for two" to one of seven ports-of-call along the Round the World Race. You don't have to be a designer to win, we are after the best creative idea that fits our brand" says ECsix's Scott Vogel.

"Our entries so far have been drawn up and submitted on a range of things, from napkins at restaurants through to fully computer generated designs, some humorous and some not quite so much."

The winner can take a guest to either Sanya, Auckland, Itajai, Newport, Lisbon, Lorient or Gothenburg.  "This is an opportunity of a lifetime."

Entries must be received before October 15th.  The winner will be announced at the METS trade show in Amsterdam on the 20th of November 2014.

www.ecsix.com

Santander
Photo by Richard Langdon/Ocean Images, www.oceanimages.co.uk. Click on image for photo gallery.

The Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship is the first Olympic Qualification regatta for the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition with 50% of spots up for grabs across all ten events.

Thirty five nations were in with a chance of qualifying in the Laser Radial when the fleets split into gold and silver for racing on Sunday 14 September and onwards but with only 19 places available in Santander not everyone would go home happy.

Across the seven race series the racing was tight in light and tricky conditions. The 19 nations to qualify their nation from Santander 2014 (in nation order) are:

Laser Radial
1. Belarus
2. Belgium
3. Canada
4. China
5. Croatia
6. Czech Republic
7. Denmark
8. Finland
9. France
10. Great Britain
11. Ireland
12. Italy
13. Lithuania
14. The Netherlands
15. New Zealand
16. Norway
17. Singapore
18. Sweden
19. USA

The remaining places in each event shall be qualified from the 2015 Class World Championship and in a series of Continental Qualification Events sanctioned by ISAF, to finish by 1 June 2016 at the latest.

* Giles Scott (GBR) produced the kind of form of the third day of the 2014 ISAF World Championships in Santander that most sailors only dream about. He picked up three more bullets for a perfect score after four races to lead overall from Jonathan Lobert (FRA) and Ed Wright (GBR).

The fleet split remained the same as from the first two days, so the sailors have only been able to race against half the fleet so far. From Thursday, the fleet will be split into gold and silver fleets. 

After two days of fitful, unstable, and too light winds, day three in Santander was completely different. An overnight storm has left behind some solid 15-25 knots winds that kept many classes ashore. For the Finns however it was just what they had been waiting for and they revelled in the big winds early on for three action packed, exciting races.

* All this week, the British Sailing Team has been battling the conditions at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain, in a bid for medal glory and all-important country qualification in the ten classes for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

As the competition reaches its critical stage, with the medal deciders starting on Thursday 18 September, you can catch all the medal race action on the BBC.

Medal races will be broadcast on the BBC Red Button and BBC Sport website www.bbc.co.uk/sport at the following times (UK viewers only):

Thursday 18 September: 1300BST-1500BST [Laser Radial/Laser]
Friday 19 September: 1300BST-1500BST [RSX Men/RSX Women]
Saturday 20 September: 1300BST-1500BST [470 Women/470 Men]
Sunday 21 September: 1100BST-1500BST [49er FX/49er/Finn/Nacra 17]

Viewers outside of the UK will be able to watch via the ISAF Youtube Channel www.youtube.com/isafchannel

Rolex Swan Cup
Swan 42 OD fleet on the coastal race. Photo by Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi. Click on image to enlarge.

Light-to-medium airs on the Costa Smeralda made for a tense and exciting showdown to the Rolex Swan Cup. Five of the six divisions in the 93-boat fleet were in doubt until the very end. The only runaway winner was the Romanian Swan 42 OD, Natalia, which won the 12-boat division by a good margin from the fast-improving Magical Mystery Tour helmed by Ed Leask. Two bullets from the British boat made inroads into the Romanian stranglehold on the scoreboard, but a final-race victory for Natalia Brailoiu confirmed the only female skipper as the class act in the Swan 42s.

Another come-from-behind victory was in the Classics, where the oldest and smallest boat in the regatta finished on top in the 24-boat Sparkman and Stephens division. The 1968-vintage Swan 36 Finola was the fourth Swan ever to be built, although you'd never know it by her immaculate appearance. Today she beat her biggest rival, the Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf, by a single point.

The Swan family will return to Porto Cervo for the next Rolex Swan Cup in September 2016.

Final top three by class:

Class A1, Swan 60
1. Wohpe, Mon, Roberto Lauro, 7
2. Arobas, Fra, Gerard Logel, 11
3. Bronenosec, Rus, Vladimir Liubomirov, 12

Class A2, Swan Maxi
1. Nikata, Gbr, Ns 82 103s Ltd, 12
2. Berenice Bis, Ita, Marco Rodolfi, 12.5
3. Selene, Cay, Selene Management Ltd, 13

Class B, Swan Grand Prix
1. Yasha, Jpn, Yukihiro Ishida, 7
2. Music, Gbr, James Blakemore, 8
3. Best Buddies, Ger, Kay-Johannes Wrede, 11

Class C, Classic S&S
1. Finola, Gbr, Chris Frost, 10
2. Shirlaf, Ita, Giuseppe Puttini, 11
3. Mascalzone Latino, Ita) Vincenzo Onorato, 14

Class 45, Swan 45 OD
1. Earlybird, Ger, Hendrik Brandis, 14
2. Elena Nova, Ger, Christian Plump, 15
3. No Limits, Ned, Rw Bol, 28

Class 42, Swan 42 OD
1. Natalia, Rou, Kdf Energy Sr, 15
2. Magical Mystery Tour, Gbr, Edward Leask, 23
3. Cuordileone, Ita, Leonardo Ferragamo, 29

www.yccs.it

74 Yachts For JOG Inshore Series Poole (And Back) Races
Cowes to Poole via the back of the Island started on Saturday 13th Sept from the JOG line at Cowes with 74 entries in 4 classes going east on the building tide.

It was a fetch from No Mans Fort to Bembridge Ledge with some reaching spinnakers and then more colour as downwind sails were hoisted to get the fleet on the way to St Catherine's Point. Most boats had plenty of gybing practice while tucking in close to the Island's southern coastline going for best tide-cheating and getting just a little surfing in the wind acceleration and chop around the headlands.

Poole to Cowes on Sunday took the fleet back by the more direct route of North Head buoy and Hurst Narrows to Cowes. The breeze was north easterly and around 18 knots giving enough to think about going to windward with a bit more provided by the tide in the Poole Bay chop. Boats that struck out on port towards the Needles Channel seemed to get the best of things before taking starboard tack to North Head and the inner channel to get into the Solent.

Then it was a case of tacking to stay in maximum tide which was made easier in the flatter water of the Solent before hitting the line off Gurnard buoy with approximately half of the fleet being tide assisted all the way.

Cowes - Poole Results, winner by class:
Class 3: 1st Incognito, Paul McNamara & Tony Lowe, Beneteau 40.7
Class 4: Just So, David & William McGough, J 109
Class 5: Shades of Blue, Ed Holton, J110
Class 6: Polly, Meakins & Cudmore, Impala 28
Double-Handed: Jacana, Paul Wood, J 105

Poole - Cowes Results, winner by class:
Class 3: Dusty P, Richard Patrick, Beneteau First 40
Class 4: 1st Moontiger IV, Tim & Karen Gabriel, J 109
Class 5: Shades of Blue, Ed Holton, J110
Class 6: Xara, Jonathan & Anne Rolls, Swan 38 SR
Double-Handed: Xtract, Mrs N Gardner & Mr D Stock, X 302

Final JOG Races this year:
Cherbourg, Friday 26th September, first start 18:00
Cowes -Owers - Cowes, Saturday 11th October, first start 08:30

Entry Forms, full race programme & crew available/boats looking for crew information all now available online at www.jog.org.uk

Industry News
Over 100 players in 16 teams competed in the Marine Advertising Agency's annual 5-­‐a-­‐side tournament on Tuesday evening, which raised £1,000 for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and G4 Surgery at Southampton General Hospital.

Teams from across the marine industry took part in the tournament, which takes place every year during the PSP Southampton Boat Show, competing alongside local teams from Southampton FC's sponsorship department and a team of PICU staff. The Southampton FC staff team pulled off a transfer coup by drafting in ex-­‐Premiership player and Tunisian centre back, Radhi Jaïdi, who used to play for the club. Jaïdi, who has over 100 caps for his country, scored a penalty clinching his team's victory over Dean & Reddyhoff's Haslar Harriers in the knock out stages of the Cup competition.

Regulars, global marine transport company Peters & May made it to the final of the Plate competition but lost 2 - 0 to new entrants, National Boat Shows who took home the Plate trophy. In the Cup competition another seasoned team, Southampton Boat Show sponsors, PSP Logistics, beat the Southampton FC staff team 2 - 0 to reach the final.

Overall victory in the Cup competition went to the Matchtech 1 team, keeping the Cup at the technical recruitment agency's HQ for the fourth year running. -- Mike Shepherd, marineadagency.com

---------------------------------------------

The RS Aero was unveiled in March and has rapidly gained popularity since that first moment. Several hundred boats have already been ordered, all over the world, with the majority of owners aiming to race their boats.

A Class Association is being formed to organise events, communications, training and other activities. One of the first important steps has been to identify a Class Association Manager to work alongside a committee of owners and a network of club fleet captains to get things underway.

The RS Aero Class Association Manager will be Peter Barton, a talented, winning sailor across many classes and a respected coach.

An RS Aero Class website is under construction at www.RSaerosailing.org and membership will go live via the site shortly. An online registration system is already active, where all owners should enter their details to register their warranty and obtain their boat's Registration Document, required for racing and resale etc.

---------------------------------------------

On Tuesday 16th September, Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR) Team Principal, Sir Ben Ainslie, launched a new team partnership with Yamaha Motor in the UK.  The occasion was the presentation of the first of the BAR team's new 9.8m Scorpion Serket RIB chase boats, with twin Yamaha F225 engines, delivered at the Southampton Boat Show.

Both Scorpion and Yamaha are working closely with the America's Cup team to build bespoke vessels that concentrate on BAR's core sustainability goals

---------------------------------------------

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) is pleased to announce that Marine Resources has joined the Connect to Sailing initiative as a Performance Partner for 'marine recruitment services'.

For more information on what recruitment services Marine Resources offers, please visit the Connect to Sailing partner section of the ISAF website here and to benefit from the special offers provided by Marine Resources as part of this partnership quote this code in all communication: MR-ISAFC2S

The Connect to Sailing initiative of the International Sailing Federation is enabling all nations, be they emerging, developing or developed to grow awareness of, and increase accessibility to sailing in all of its many forms. Since the official launch of the Connect to Sailing initiative in 2009, alongside the creation of a dedicated Training and Development department within the International Sailing Federation, over 55 Nations across all continents have benefitted from the support of Connect to Sailing.

---------------------------------------------

Some of the biggest names in racing underwent intensive safety training with Ocean Safety in preparation for the Volvo Race, one of the world's most prestigious round-the-world races, which starts on October 11th.

Ocean Safety worked with the Volvo Ocean Race crews during the third week of August at South Shield Marine School's state of the art survival training centre.

Ocean Safety, the UK's largest independent safety supplier, has provided the majority of all the necessary lifesaving equipment to the seven yachts taking part in the 37,000 mile race, including lifejackets, liferafts, man overboard recovery systems and other vital onboard equipment.  The company's General Manager, Alistair Hackett, has been working with the crew members to ensure that they are all aware of the equipment onboard and familiar with how to use it.  -- www.oceansafety.com

---------------------------------------------

Bavaria Yachts has made changes to its management structure. It announced job promotions for three executives.

The German builder said that Daniel Kohl, who has been Bavaria's product manager since 2010, was promoted to chief product officer (CPO). Kohl will be responsible for the company's product range and marketing efforts. Kohl has also been tasked to help Nautitech CEO Bruno Voisard build that new division of Bavaria.

Sebastian Jurgens, who joined Bavaria last spring as chief operating officer (COO), has also taken over Bavaria's design and product development departments. His additional responsibilities began in August.

Former consultant Christian Hollstein was appointed as Bavaria's chief financial officer (CFO). He assumed that position on September 15.

All three executives report to Constantin von Bulow, CEO of Bavaria Yachtbau.

Featured Brokerage
2007 IMOCA Open 60. 975000. Southampton, UK

Meticulously maintained and prepared and at the forefront of previous generation design, Gamesa is without question one of the fastest and best maintained boats available today. Bearing in mind the reshaping of the 2014 IMOCA rule, Gamesa is well capable of being developed as a major player in the 2016 Vendee Globe.

Gamesa has some unusual IMOCA and has certain significant competitive and financial benefits over other boats currently available. As well as being one of the fastest of her the generation – the recent rule changes and grandfathering rules (now fixed until 2016) she remains one of the only MOCAs with a race proven/super strong carbon keel blade. The new 2014 rule requires all new boats and also existing boats with pre-existing steel keels to change them for the new (far heavier) IMOCA design prior to Vendee 2016. This represents a significant 400+kg weight penalty.

Contact:

Details

The Last Word
My type of humor is me not caring whether people know what I'm talking about or not. -- John Hodgman

Editorial and letter submissions to

Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/advertise.html