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

Three Leading Lights Keep A Perfect Score In Lelystad
Lelystad, Netherlands: The top three teams in the Alpari World Match Racing Tour (AWMRT) were the only teams to keep a perfect score on day one of the inaugural Dutch Match Cup in Lelystad. Ian Williams, Taylor Canfield and Mathieu Richard all returned from the opening salvo of Qualifying with a 3-0 scoreline. However, not all the Tour Card holders got to grips with the Maxfun25 keelboats straight away, with Bjorn Hansen failing to get off the mark in his three matches.

Of the Wild Card and Qualifier entries, Arthur Herreman was particularly impressive, winning two of his three matches, beating Hansen and Joachim Aschenbrenner but losing to Williams.

The wind was always good today, gusting up quite strongly at times and shifting through 60 degrees during the course of today's six flights of competition.

This afternoon the seven Tour Card holders competed in 12-metre-long classic Lemsteraak Dutch fishing barges, dating back to 1876, in a Pro-Am regatta.

Qualifying continues Thursday at 1000 (CET).

Stage 5 Dutch Match Cup, Alpari World Match Racing Tour Qualifying Results after Flight 6

1. Mathieu Richard (FRA) LunaJets 3-0
2. Taylor Canfield (ISV) US One 3-0
3. Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar 3-0
4. Arthur Herreman (FRA) Team Herreman 2-1
5. David Gilmour (AUS) Team Gilmour 2-1
6. Keith Swinton (AUS) Team Alpari FX 2-1
7. Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing 1-2
8. Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) Aschenbrenner Racing Team 1-2
9. Dirk-Jan Korpershoek (NLD) Opportunity Team 1-2
10. Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Sailing Team 0-3
11. Philip Bendon (IRL) Glenmar Racing Team 0-3
12. Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NLD) Team BSC 0-3

www.wmrt.com

J70 European Championship
33 J70s and their crews began competing in their European Championship today, which is being played out on Lake Garda (Italy).

On the famously tactical race zone of Lake Garda, which is bordered by cliffs and is one of the breeziest spots in Europe, some 33 J70 crews have got together for the second edition of their European Championship with racing set to continue through until 27 September. After the first day's racing, the local are leading hostilities. Indeed Carlo Alberini's team put up a striking performance from the off with some excellent starts and with one victory and two second places, the Italians are really packing a punch.

Briton Charlie Esse is lying in second place tonight with an entirely amateur crew. Among the French contingent the President of the French J70 Class, Ludovic Senechal, has had a solid day, securing ninth place this evening.

Full results

www.fragliavelariva.it/regatta/1571/view

Dubarry Ultima - Loved By Sailors
It's hard to love a pair of boots. They either do a job or they don't. Some will have great grip and others will send you crashing down to the deck like some slapstick comedian. Some will keep the water out, others will leak like a pair of bespoke footbaths. Some will breathe to keep you comfortable, others will slowly baste your feet in their own sweat. Some will look great, others like you've just escaped from a circus.

Even if you do find a pair that ticks every box, which looks good, grips well and keeps you warm, dry and comfortable, you'd still struggle to love a boot. Unless, of course, it's a Dubarry boot. Take the Ultima, with its blend of rich, supple leather and durable man-made fibres, the hi tech GORE-TEX® liner that acts like an air conditioner, the award-winning grip of the sole - yes, those are all there, recognised benchmarks of quality, but what you can't see or touch or smell is the soul. Ultima boots have it in abundance because, like you, they change. They gain experience at sea and improve with age just as surely as you do. That's why sailors love them.

Dubarry Ultima - Where will you go in yours?

dubarry.com

Buddy Melges Challenge
Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA: Morning fog delayed the start of the Buddy Melges Challenge for a while, but as the racing went on in Sheboygan, USA, Anne-Claire Le Berre of France showed her great light condition skills. After day 1 of the event she stays alone at the top, undefeated after flawless racing.

The Buddy Melges Challenge, the fourth and penultimate stage of the 2014 WIM Series, offered light winds from the south all Wednesday. The wind was as high as six knots and as low as zero, with just a hundred metres of visibility in a thick morning fog that forced the race management to postpone racing for a couple of hours. Right after noon the first flight went off, with Anne-Claire Le Berre immediately beginning her winning strike

The Buddy Melges Challenge is planned to be sailed as a triple round-robin, followed by a repechage round on Saturday and then semi-finals and final on Sunday. Eight skippers were signed to participate, but Canadian Chantal Hearst dropped out late due to crew illness.

Standings in the round-robin of the 2014 Buddy Melges Challenge (skipper name, nationality, wins/losses):

1. Anne-Claire Le Berre, FRA, 5 - 0
2. Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen, DEN, 4 - 1
3. Caroline Sylvan, SWE, 3 - 2
4. Stephanie Roble, USA, 3 - 2
5. Anna Kjellberg, SWE, 2 - 3
6. Juliana Senfft, BRA, 1 - 4
7. Madeline Gill, USA, 0 - 6

www.wimseries.com

Will Welles Holds Advantage at J/24 World Championship
Newport, RI, USA: After a struggle to set the line square to the shifting wind, the fleet got off two more races at the 2014 J/24 World Championship hosted by Sail Newport. Will Welles' Cougar (USA) held the lead with a four, four respectively for a total score of 16 points. Mauricio Santa Cruz's Bruschetta (BRA) maintained second place with a one, seven; and Greg Griffin's Team Tarheel (USA) moved into third place with an eleven, eight. John Mollicone's Team Helly Hanson (USA) had a strong day and moved into fourth place.

Teams battled in a two to four foot chop on the ocean course in wind speeds starting at 10 to 12 and building to 14 to 16 knots out of the east and southeast. The first race of the day was won by Santa Cruz, followed by Mollicone and then Travis Odenbach's Honey Badger (USA). Odenbach won Wednesday's second race, trailed by Alejo Rigoni Gonzalez on Luca vive (ARG) and Mike Ingham's Nautalytics (USA).

Top five
1. Cougar, Will Welles, USA, 16 points
2. Bruschetta, Mauricio Santa Cruz, BRA, 24
3. Team Tarheel, Greg Griffin, USA, 34
4. Helly Hansen, John Mollicone, USA, 37
5. Gringa DC, Vernon Robert, CHI, 47

www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=982

Defi Azimut: Keeping Up The Challenge
The fourth edition of the Defi Azimut starts this Friday for the 8 IMOCAs involved in this event, which grew out of the joint ambition of IMOCA, Azimut and the Lorient water sports centre to add a new dimension to Lorient's great end-of-season meeting - the Atlantique Telegramme.

Each year it brings the IMOCA skippers together for a friendly confrontation before the big autumn meeting. In 2011 and 2013, the teams preparing for the Transat Jacques Vabre came to compete double-handed. This year as in 2012 (Vendee Globe year), single-handed racing is the name of the game with the Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe. Under the guidance of Race Director Jacques Caraes, the solo sailors will start off on Friday with a 24-hour course, returning amid the Atlantique Telegramme teams on Saturday. On Sunday there will be team runs in front of the Talut point, the Defi Azimut-IMOCA, a round-the-island of the Isle of Groix with Vincent Riou's 2011 reference time of 1h 28m 41s to beat.

Entry list
Jeremie Beyou (Maitre CoQ)
Bertrand de Broc (Votre Nom autour du Monde)
Louis Burton (Bureau Vallee)
Francois Gabart (MACIF)
Marc Guillemot (Safran)
Tanguy de Lamotte (Initiatives-Cœur)
Bernard Stamm (Cheminees Poujoulat) - sous reserve
Armel Tripon (Imagine)

www.defi-azimut.net
www.imoca.org
www.oceanmasters.com

SK2. Welcome To The New.
The fast and fun sportsboat with a canting keel. Developed by Swing Keel Sailing Ltd and built by Ovington boats.

The SK2 is equally a capable racer for 2-3 crew or a performance day-sailor with family and friends. Developed as a strict one design class in mind it is equally suitable for a wide range of mixed fleet racing. The SK2 has been shown to live happily and be equally competitive amongst dinghies, sportsboats and more varied inshore club fleets. A true cross-over boat.

SK2's thoroughly developed package provides a new experience. The difference is the canting keel. Easily operate manually the canting keel provides additional righting moment and allows full use of SK2's powerful sailplan. Together this makes the SK2 suitable for a wide range of wind conditions. It also offers an ideal trialling vehicle for those with an eye on something bigger.

Weighing in at only 210kg (hull & Keel) it is towable by any car. At this weight an SK2 is also easily launched by hand like a dinghy from the beach or a boat slip.

sk2sailing.com

A Perfect Ending To The Season
The EFG MothEuroCup came to a close this weekend on beautiful Lake Garda at the Yacht Club Acquafresca. The big players were repeat top finishers from previous events: Chris Rast, Carlo De Paoli, Giovanni Galeotti and Matthias Renker.

Carlo De Paoli was right on Chris Rast's heels all weekend and a great deal of the time in ahead of him. Chris Rast explained, "This was the first event that I was able to focus on tactics and not on boat handling and speed". This showed because even when De Paoli had a significant lead, Rast was able to reduce the distance with tactical calls, seeing a breeze line or shift and responding to it accordingly.

Matthias Renker had made major boat modifications since Act 4 in Switzerland. He felt that he had to relearn his boat, "I had no feeling anymore and felt lost". By the end of the 6 races he had found his pace again and felt good about his racing. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to beat Galeotti for third position.

With a total of 5 Act wins the EFG MothEuroCup grand prize of Euro 3000 was awarded to Chris Rast of Switzerland. This year we are proud to announce that 89 sailors from 12 countries took part in the EFG MothEuroCup. We thank our title sponsor EFG International ( www.efginternational.com ) for making this series possible! We hope to see more moth sailors next year!

www.motheurocup.com
www.circoloacquafresca.com

Second Finale For Star Sailors League
Nassau, Bahamas: The Star Sailors League is pleased to announce that its second grand finale once again takes place in Nassau in the Bahamas between December 2nd and 7th.

Reigning champions Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada will be tackling 19 very competitive teams in this second edition, two more than last year, with a purse of 200,000 dollars on the table. The top-ranked crew at the end of the event will take home 40,000 dollars.

Aside from the winners' prize (sponsored by the Symonette family), there will also be trophies for teams that, over the course of the year, dominated the special ranking lists drawn up by the Star Sailors League. The Dennis Conner Trophy will go to the top-ranked skipper for the year while the Andrew Simpson Trophy will be awarded to the best bowman.

A total of 12 skippers from 8 nations qualified automatically for the event through the ranking list. In order of ranking at the start of September 2014, they are:

1. Diego Negri, ITA
2. Augie Diaz, USA
3. Robert Stanjek, GER
4. Xavier Rohart, FRA
5. Johannes Polgar, GER
6. Robert Scheidt, BRA
7. George Szabo, USA
8. Mateusz Kusznierewick, POL
9. Mark Mendelblatt, USA
10. Eivind Melleby, NOR
11. Emilios Papathanasiou, GRE
12. Marco Fuchs, BRA

A further six 'special guest' participants have been invited to take part also and the first to confirm is Star gold medallist from London 2012, Freddy Loof. The other invitees number Olympic medallists, Olympic class world champions and high-profile international sailors of similar clout.

starsailors.com

ISAF World Sailing Rankings
The ISAF World Sailing Rankings for 22 September 2014 have been released.

Top three by class:

Finn
1. Giles Scott, GBR
2. Bjorn Allansson, SWE
3. Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic, CRO

49erFX
1. Marine Soffiatti Grael / Kahena Kunze, BRA
2. Ida Marie Bad Nielsen / Marie Thusgaard Olsen, DEN
3. Guilia Conti / Francesca Clapcich, ITA

49er
1. Jonas Warrer / Peter Lang / Anders Thomsen, DEN
2. John Pink / Simon Wheeler / Stuart Bithell, GBR
3. Julian D'Ortoli / Noe Delpech, FRA

Men's 470
1. Mathew Belcher / William Ryan, AUS
2. Sime Fantela / Igor Marenic, CRO
3. Panagiotis Mantis / Pavlos Kagialis, GRE

Women's 470
1. Jo Aleh / Polly Powrie, NZL
2. Camille Lecointre / Helene Defrance, FRA
3. Anne Haeger / Briana Provancha, USA

Laser
1. Robert Scheidt, BRA
2. Tom Burton, AUS
3. Tonci Stipanivic, CRO

Laser Radial
1. Marie Bouwmeester, NED
2. Evi Van Acker, BEL
3. Tatiana Drozdovskaya, BLR

Nacra 17
1. Vittorio Bissaro / Silvia Sicouri, ITA
2. Darren Bundock / Nina Curtis, AUS
3. Thomas Zajac / Tanja Chiara Frank, AUT

Women's RS:X
1. Flavia Tartaglini, ITA
2. Bryony Shaw, GBR
3. Laura Linares, ITA

Men's RS:X
1. RIcardo Santos, BRA
2. Piotr Myszka, POL
3. Thomas Goyard, FRA

The full ISAF World Sailing Ranking lists, results from all ISAF Graded events, lists of Graded events throughout the year, Ranking release dates and the method of calculation for the Rankings can be found on the ISAF website at http://www.sailing.org/rankings

* The latest set of ISAF World Rankings are starting to catch up with the real world. Unlike most major sports, top sailing competitors move to the four year Olympic cycle, and are only now returning to the Olympic classes to begin their qualification for Rio 2016. Most are back on the international circuit and counting a full rack of scores, making the rankings more meaningful. -- Gerald New, Sailweb.co.uk

British Sailing Team top world ranking 22 September 2014

Finn - 1. Giles Scott
RS:X Women - 2. Bryony Shaw
49er - 2. John Pink and Stuart Bithell
Laser - 4. Nick Thompson
Nacra 17 - 4. Ben Saxton and Hanna Diamond
470 Men - 5. Luke Patience and Elliot Willis
49erFX - 7. Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth
RS:X Men - 8. Tom Squires
470 Women - 12. Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh Mcintyre
Radial - 12. Chloe Martin

Letters To The Editor -
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* From Ginny Jones: Re: the launch of the Columbia replica as noted in GCaptain.com:

The original COLUMBIA? Built of steel? I don't think so! Louie Howland's "bound to be fabulous" biography of Starling Burgess: NO ORDINARY BEING will be published [we are promised] on December 1st and at 512 pages it is sure to be full of fascinating details and wonderful illustrations. It is described as "The long awaited fully illustrated biography of an authentic American polymath." The original COLUMBIA was built at the Arthur Dana Story yard in Essex, Massachusetts -- the town where many of the legendary Gloucester fishing schooners were built. Launched in 1923 and measuring 141 feet on deck, she was lost during a gale on Sable Island in August of 1926 with all hands. Fast and able, she was know for her speed and seaworthiness.

It is disturbing that the spars were built in Nova Scotia, and the hull from steel since the original was definitely wood and all American, but it will be interesting to see her and I am very curious to know how she will be used. I am glad to see that the blocks were made by Arthur Dauphinee -- he's made blocks for many a fine traditional wooden vessel and classic yachts as well.

More details would be appreciated.

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The Last Word
War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. -- Major General Smedley Butler, USMC in 1933

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