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

Double Dutch Gold In Laser and Laser Radial at Santander 2014 ISAF Worlds
Photo by Richard Langdon/Ocean Images, www.oceanimages.co.uk. Click on image to enlarge.

A live crowd of thousands and a worldwide TV audience watched the Laser and Laser Radial fleets conclude racing at the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships with Dutch dominance afoot.

Marit Bouwmeester (NED) took a ten point lead into the Laser Radial Medal Race and finished third to seal the deal with Josefin Olsson (SWE) taking silver and Evi Van Acker (BEL) picking up bronze.

Nicholas Heiner (NED) dominated the Laser Medal Race as he emphatically sealed the world championship title. Tom Burton (AUS) had to settle for silver whilst Nick Thompson (GBR) takes bronze.

Medal races for RSX Men and Women on Friday. 470 Men and Women on Saturday, 49er FX/49er/Finn/Nacra 17 on Sunday.

www.santander2014.com

Santander 2014 ISAF Microsite
www.sailing.org/2014-ISAF-Worlds.php

Followingn the races:

Live Blog: www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/live-blog.php

Live Tracking of gold fleet racing:
2D Tracking
3D Tracking

Mobile
Live Tracking via the Sailviewer-3D Tablet App will be available for devices with 7" or greater screens.
Download via the Apple App Store
Download via the Google Play Store

Will Ocean Racers Follow Franklin To The Ends Of The Arctic?
Robert Molnar has a vision: an ocean race from New York to the Canadian Pacific city of Victoria, via the Arctic.

"Because of climate change, we can do this race," Molnar told CNN.

He pictures oceangoing sailboats hugging the Atlantic coast up through Halifax to western Greenland, then heading west through the Northwest Passage to Tuktoyaktuk on Canada's Arctic coastline, before rounding Alaska to Dutch Harbor and, at last, Victoria.

In 2017, Molnar plans to make this a reality in the form of the Sailing the Arctic Race, or STAR.

Molnar tells CNN he has Volvo Ocean Race participants prepared to take part in the inaugural race through the Northwest Passage, scheduled to begin in June 2017 and end in late September or early October. "We already have more people willing to attend than there are spaces for boats," he adds. "I want to go with 20 to 25 boats and the good thing is we have so many people wanting to go.

edition.cnn.com/2014/09/15/sport/arctic-sailing-race/index.html

Event site: sailingthearcticrace.org

Four Go Through To Quarter Finals
As the wind came up today so did the tight match racing action in the second day of Qualifying at the Chicago Match Cup, the only US stop on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. Securing their Quarter Finals places are defending Chicago Match Cup champion Taylor Canfield (US One), Ian Williams (GAC Pindar), Pierre Antoine Morvan (Vannes Agglo Sailing Team) and Phil Robertson (Waka Racing). The remaining eight teams will try again in tomorrow's Repechage to take the final four places, while the four victors from today will wait to see who they face in the Quarter Finals.

Today the top two teams from yesterday continued their winning ways and ended up well clear of the field of twelve teams from nine nations. Taylor Canfield (ISV) US One continued to lead the pack from yesterday, achieving a nearly undefeated record by falling only to Phil Robertson (NZL) Waka Racing and accumulating 10 points.

Next on the leaderboard was Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar, who fell to fellow Tour Card holders Canfield and Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Sailing Team to score 9 points and get his invitation to the next stage

The Repechage continues tomorrow at 0930.

Stage 4 Chicago Match Race, Alpari World Match Racing Tour Qualifying Results
Taylor Canfield (ISV) US One 10-1
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar 9-2
Pierre Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team 7-4
Phil Robertson (NZL) Waka Racing 7-4
Mathieu Richard (FRA) LunaJets 7-4
Chris Steele (NZL) 36 Below Racing 5-6
Tom Slingsby (AUS) Team Tom Slingsby 4-7
Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) Team Trifork 4-7
Keith Swinton (AUS) Team Alpari FX 4-7
Björn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Sailing Team 4-7
Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Sailbox 3-8
Don Wilson (USA) Chicago Match Race Center 2-9

ChicagoCup.org
wmrt.com

South Coast Excitement Builds For Farr 280
With the first UK boat about to arrive, Activate, the UK Sales agent, is ready for a busy programme of boat testing and demonstrations.

The inaugural viewing of this exciting Grand Prix racer will be at the Royal Thames Yacht Club, Knightsbridge, on the 25th September. This will be the first chance for prospective owners to see the quality and craftsmanship of this Premier Composite Technologies, built race boat. With more than 100 guests attending, spaces are however, short and further enquiries should be directed to John Taylor in the Activate office, to confirm attendance at this reception ().

Group test sailing weekends

For groups of people keen to test the boat and develop their local fleets, the Farr 280 will be sailing regularly on the South Coast and in the Solent, as follows:

Poole: 4th and 5th October
Lymingtom: 11th October
Hamble: 18th October
Cowes: 25th and 26th October

Andrew Palfrey, multiple world champion to sail the Farr 280

Activate is delighted to announce that it has brought multiple world champion, AC Coach and former Olympic sailor Andrew Palfrey on-board, to help with the demo days. Andrew, who specialises in one-design tuning and coaching, is excited about this boat and he will also be available to help owners develop and sail their own boats to maximum effect. "Having looked at the polars for this boat, I am excited about the prospect of tuning and sailing it," comments Andrew. "From what I have seen, the boat should perform very well in UK conditions, with upwind speeds touching 7 knots and downwind well in excess of 20. Irrespective of the type of racing undertaken; one design or IRC, I will expect to see everyone getting off the water with a big smile and I look forward to seeing the class grow rapidly in the UK."

To book to attend the Royal Thames Reception or to discuss a test sail, please contact Activate on +44 1983 200901.

farr280.com

Quantum Racing Moving On Up
As the ZENITH Royal Cup Marina Ibiza regatta rolls into Friday's coastal race Quantum Racing have now more than doubled their overall lead in the Barclays 52 SUPER SERIES on the difficult, hard to read race tracks off Ibiza Town.

Light winds wrote the same story again for the second day of racing. Azzurra won the first race of the day to become the fourth different crew to have won in Ibiza at this regatta, but Quantum Racing again proved supreme in the second contest, winning their second race of the week to also increase their leading margin in the regatta, firmly on course now to add to their event wins in Porto Cervo and Palma.

Quantum Racing's second and first today is the best scoring aggregate from the two races. But Sled are proving themselves well able to mix it with Azzurra and Ran Racing, posting a third and fourth for the day to lie third overall for the regatta, just one point behind Azzurra.

Light winds are expected to prevail again for Friday's coastal race which should be between 20 and 30 miles.

Standings: ZENITH Royal Cup Marina Ibiza
Overall after 5 races

1. Quantum Racing, USA, (Doug De Vos USA), 9 points
2. Azzurra, ITA, (Alberto Roemmers ARG), 17
3. Sled, USA, (Takashi Okura JPN), 18
4. Ran Racing, SWE, (Niklas Zennström SWE), 19
5. Gaastra Pro, NED (Marc Blees NED), 23
6. Gladiator, GBR, (Tony Langley GBR), 28
7. Provezza 7, TUR, (Ergin Imre TUR), 30
8. Phoenix, BRA, (Eduardo de Souza Ramos BRA), 36

www.52superseries.com

Who Will Be The 36th J/24 World Champion?
Newport, Rhode Island, USA: The legend lives on 37 years after Rod Johnstone built the first J/24.

Seventy-one teams from 13 nations are registered to compete in the 2014 J/24 World Championship in Newport, Rhode Island. The J/24 Class continues its legacy of comprehensive International representation at its World Championships, with the following countries on hand this year: Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and the United States. Sail Newport is proud to be hosting the 2014 J/24 World Championship. Open to those who have qualified, this event will bring together the best of the best from around the world for five days of fantastic competition in the waters off Newport.

Racing commences Monday, September 22 and continues through Friday, September 26. Photos will be available on the J/24 Class Facebook page, as well as complete results at www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=982. The fleet boasts an impressive array of talent and past champions from around the globe. A full list of entrants may be found on the regatta website.

Past J/24 World Champions include: Mauricio Santa Cruz, Alejo Rigoni, Tim Healy, Andrea Casale, Anthony Kotoun, Jens Hookanson, Lorenzo Bressani, Brad Read, Kazuyuki Hyodo, Vasco Vascotto, Terry Hutchinson, Vince Brun, Chris Larson, Bill Fortenberry, Ken Read, Jim Brady, Larry Klein, John Kostecki, Francesco de Angelis, David Curtis, Ed Baird, John Kolius, Mark Bethwaite, Charlie Scott.

GPS Failure
It did not get a lot of public media attention at the time, though it was well-known in maritime circles, when the satellites in the Russian GLONASS GPS system failed for 11 hours last April. It was an unprecedented total disruption of a fully-operational satellite positioning service. As a result, the Russian GPS system was completely unusable to all worldwide GLONASS receivers.

The extent of the disruption has become clear following information released by the General Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and Ireland. GLA readings from their GLONASS receiver in Harwich showed location errors of over 30 nautical miles off the UK coastline.

Apparently the problem occurred because of what were described as "bad ephemerides" being uploaded to satellites. Navigation messages from every satellite requires ephemeris data which is used by the satellite to check its orbital position and information about the time and status of the entire constellation. This data is then processed by user/receivers on the ground to compute their precise position. Less than a fortnight after the first failure, a second malfunction occurred temporarily knocking-out nine GLONASS satellites.

A Royal Academy of Engineering report in 2011 declared that the UK was becoming dangerously over-reliant on Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Use of space-borne positioning and timing data is now widespread, in everything from freight movement to synchronisation of computer networks. The academy found that "too few of these applications have alternatives should the primary sat-nav signals go down".

There is a detailed article about the failure of the GLONASS system and the implications for GPS in the September edition of Seaways, the international journal of The Nautical Institute.

From Afloat magazine: afloat.ie/blogs/

Caribbean Racing Circuit
Local islander and America's Cup team helmsman Peter Holmberg gives a preview of next year's premiere regattas around the Caribbean. Each featured event has its own unique attributes and flavour, allowing teams to select those that suit their style, their type of racing and their schedule...

The Caribbean racing circuit fits nicely within the international race and weather calendar. The circuit starts in January when our sailing conditions are perfect, and runs through April, which places it perfectly after Key West Race Week and before the racing season starts in Europe or America. New this year is a slight adjustment of dates for a couple of regattas which now gives each event its own time slot, so no overlapping events with conflicting dates.

First on the list of logistics is whether to sail your own boat down, ship it here, or just charter a boat. Several teams sail on their own bottoms and, providing they allow a timeframe to pick the right weather window, it's a reasonable crossing from Europe or America. Just remember, as my brother John says, the most dangerous thing about a delivery is a calendar! The other option is to select one of several shipping agents or companies that cater for the growing number of boats coming down in December-January, and returning in April-May, both to North America and Europe.

A new event this year that will serve to bring more boats from Europe to the Caribbean is the RORC Transatlantic Race, a 2,800-mile event that starts on 29 November in Lanzarote and finishes in Grenada.

Full article in Seahorse magazine:
www.seahorsemagazine.com

Scandinavian Gold Cup 5.5m IC: Markus Weiser (GER) Wins In Tuscany
Maremma, Tuscany: The 70th Scandinavian Gold Cup, the international regatta reserved to the 5.5 Metre International Class, came to a close on Thursday 18 September in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy. 1st place for Markus Weiser (GER) on Mission Possible . Second Swiss Jurg Menzi on Marie Francoise XVIII and third Norwegian Kristian Nergaard on Artemis XIV. The race was organized by the Yacht Club Santo Stefano in collaboration with the Italian chapter of the 5.5m international class.

World-class racing continues in Porto Santo Stefano with the Classic Cup and the Evolution Cup leading up to the 5.5m World Championship 2014 (21-26 September 2014), also taking place in Maremma's pristine waters. 38 boats from 9 countries have entered the regatta and sailors from Austria, Bahamas, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Italy will be racing off the coast of the Argentario and the National Park of Maremma.

The International 5.5 Metre Class was born in England in 1949 and was Olympic class from 1952 until 1968. Sailing with a crew of three, the 5.5m is still very popular both in Italy and abroad. The 5.5m IC World Fleet Online Database estimates that approximately 800 boats have been built around the World. The Class is divided into three divisions: Classic (designs before 1970), Evolution and Modern (designs from 1994).

www.5point5worlds.org

Fall Seamanship Training Opportunities at New York Yacht Club
The New York Yacht Club Seamanship Committee is offering two training opportunities on October 11 and 12. Guests and public are most welcome.

"Seamanship Saturday" is a full day of practical, hands-on training for all levels. This day will both introduce and build on principals taught at safety at sea seminars. You will walk away better prepared to handle emergencies at sea after practicing techniques yourselves during this event. Please note, this is not the same as a US Sailing Safety at Sea Seminar. It does promise to be a fun-filled day to refresh and improve your seamanship and safety skills.

Cost for this is $75, all-inclusive, and includes breakfast snack, lunch, and training materials.

The Personal Survival Course on Sunday, October 12, is geared towards serious offshore sailors. Class size is limited to the first 40 people to sign up due to the personal, detailed instruction. Graduates will earn a US Sailing certificate and fulfill ISAF 6.03 requirements for the 2015 Transatlantic Race and other European and Asian offshore races.

A discount is offered for those that have attended the April Safety at Sea Seminar hosted by NYYC and Storm Trysail Foundation.

The cost is $245 per person including a light breakfast, lunch, US Sailing fees and the course fees. There is a $70 discount for any participants who attended the NYYC/Storm Trysail Safety-at-Sea Seminar on April 4.

Sign up for either course

Featured Brokerage
2008 Mills 43. Located South Coast UK.

Full refit in 2012, including topsides Vinyl Wrap, full suit of Doyle Sails, and IRC optimization from Mark Mills. She is complete and ready to race anywhere in the world.

Details

Contact:
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679222

See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/

The Last Word
Campaign ads are the backbone of American democracy if American democracy suffered a gigantic spinal injury. -- John Oliver

Editorial and letter submissions to

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