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

RORC Vice Admiral's Cup
The third and final day of the Vice Admiral's Cup organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club produced a dramatic finale in two classes. A light northerly breeze succumbed to a solid southwersterly air flow which built during the afternoon, as did the tension, especially in the 10-strong Fast40+ Class and the 12-strong Quarter Tonner Class. Race Officers, Stuart Childereley and Rob Lamb organised two races for their respective fleets, completing the eight race series for all six classes.

Fast40+ Class
Peter Morton's British Carkeek40 Girls On Film scored a win and a second place to snatch the title on the last race.

HP30 Class
Thorkild Juncker's Danish, Open 7.50 Cool Runnings revelled in the conditions today to win both races by a healthy margin but Lloyd Thornburg's Farr 280,

SB20 Class
In the SB20 Class, Forelle Estates, helmed by Joe Llewellyn kept up their perfect score line with two more bullets to win the class with a perfect score.

J/111 Class
The intense competition in the J/111 Class continued right until the last race with virtually every one of the eight race series being decided by seconds. Overnight leader Stuart Sawyer's Black Dog could only manage a sixth place in the last race but just hung on to win the class on countback from Cornel Riklin's Jitterbug.

J/109 Class
Robert Stiles' Diamond Jem had another great day, posting two wins to win the class by a big margin.

Quarter Tonner Class
Sam Laidlaw's Aguila retained their class win from last year. In a highly completive class, Aguila won the very last race to take the series by a half point.

Racing with the Royal Ocean Racing Club continues with the Myth of Malham offshore race, on Saturday 28 May

www.rorc.org

D-Marin Farr 40 Sibenik Regatta
The inaugural D-Marin Farr 40 Sibenik Regatta was a real revelation - to all the sailors that participated and quite possibly the sailing world as a whole.

D-Marin Mandalina Marina more than lived up to its billing as a five-star facility, the Island Zarin Channel provided a top-notch racing venue while the local residents offered a warm welcome.

"Everyone was absolutely delighted with the event as a whole. They not only enjoyed the sailing experience, but also the ambience and energy of the venue," said Geoff Stagg, president of the Farr 40 Class Association. "There was not one skipper I spoke with who did not love this location."

It marked the first Farr 40 class event on the continent since the 2011 European Championships, which were held in Istanbul, Turkey. Stagg credited Sena Akman, European representative for the Farr 40 Class Association, with discovering Sibenik as a viable host city with proper facilities and a superb sailing conditions.

Competition on the water was intense with the fleet of eight boats enjoying four action-packed days that delivered 10 races in light, moderate and heavy conditions.

Skipper Alberto Rossi and his Italian team aboard Enfant Terrible secured overall victory, leading from start to finish in a commanding performance. Veteran tactician Vasco Vascotto served as tactician for Rossi, who steered his familiar grey-hulled boat to first place finishes in seven of nine races in amassing a low score of 20 points.

Having opened the 2016 International Circuit in spectacular fashion, the Farr 40 class now moves across the Adriatic Sea to Ancona, Italy for the European Championship. La Marina Dorica will host the regatta, which is expected to draw upwards of 12 boats. Rossi and Mocchegiani are both residents of Ancona.

Final top three:
1. Enfant Terrible, Alberto Rossi, ITA, 20 points
2. Rush Diletta (Corinthian), Mauro Mocchegiani, GBR, 37
3. Struntje Light, Wolfgang Schaefer, GER, 38

Full results

farr40.org

S/V Adina Explores Sri Lanka - Part 1
North Sails Experience Sri Lanka with pro cruisers Tom Partridge and Susie Plume. In their first adventure log for North Sails, Tom and Susie report on the light wind journey from Thailand to Sri Lanka, and their experiences around the island (think tuk-tuks, wildlife, and ten curry meals). Next up we'll hear about their visit to the wholly-owned North Sails site in Sri Lanka, and how a tour of the eight buildings offered them a fresh perspective on their North Sails NPL TOUR cruising sails.

www.northsails.com/us/news/adina-explores-sri-lanka

Rambler 88 Scores Volcano Race 'Triple'
Despite light conditions off Sicily, George David and the crew of his racing maxi Rambler 88 succeeded in not only demolishing the record for this year's Volcano Race, but also won line honours and the overall prize based on corrected time: The coveted 'triple crown'.  

Organised by the International Maxi Association in conjunction with the Yacht Club Gaeta and hosted by the Base Nautica Flavio Gioia, the Volcano Race has an exceptional course: South down the west coast of Italy, from Gaeta, across the Tyrrhenian Sea. It then leaves to port the Aeolian Islands - Alicudi, Vulcano itself and finally Stromboli, one of Europe's few active volcanos - to the northeast of Sicily before returning, past the Sorrento peninsula, Capri and Naples, to Gaeta. The event is the second of four events in the IMA's inaugural Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge.

For this sixth edition of the Volcano Race, the Maxis sailed a 398 mile course. Setting off on Wednesday, Rambler 88 finished at 03:25:18 CET Friday in a time of 1 day, 14 hours and 20 minutes. This beat the previous record set in 2015 by Igor Simčič's 100ft European-flagged maxi Esimit Europa 2 by a massive six hours and 42 minutes. 

Rambler 88's record time came as a shock as a zone of high pressure had been long forecast as lying over the Aeolian Islands, with conditions expected to turn wind-less in this area.

As usual Rambler 88's crew comprised many yacht racing A-listers on this occasion including legendary America's Cup tactician Brad Butterworth, veteran round the world navigator Andrew Cape and New Zealand multiple Volvo Ocean Race winner, Brad Jackson. 

Second home in two days, one hour and 32 minutes was Wild Joe, of Marton Jozsa, while on the Hungarian Mini Maxi's heels was Carlo Puri Negri's Atalanta II, freshly returned to the water this season after an extensive 'restyling' by Felci Yacht Design. 

The welcome home for Fra Diavolo, the Mylius 60 of Vincenzo Addessi, President of the Yacht Club Gaeta, didn't come until 20:41 CET on 20 May. "Off the Aeolian Islands we saw dolphins, whales and sea turtles," recounted Addessi. "And the weather...we experienced everything - squalls and calms, lightning storms and hours of pleasant spring breeze."

The defending champion of the Volcano Race, Giuseppe Puttini's classic Swan 65, Shirlaf, skippered by former America's Cup helmsman Paolo Cian, crossed the finish line a few hours later at 02:20 on 21 May. 

www.internationalmaxiassociation.com
www.yachtclubgaeta.it

Samui Regatta
Samui, Thailand: Weather reports predicted mid to high teens as the fleet left the anchorage for Day 1 of the Samui Regatta 2016 but by the end of today's racing sailors had experienced everything from a steady 10 knots for Race 1, to 15 knots and building in Race 2, to a squall with 30+ knot gusts in Race 3 finishing in a mid-race abandonment and boats and crew limping their way back to shore.

An IRC Zero Class of six of Asia's best includes four TP52's (which are also to be scored in a TP52 division), the Custom Welbourn 52 of Sarab Singh and Frank Pong's ever youthful 75-foot Jelik. Five 40-footers and the Corby 36 Jessandra II make-up IRC One while a four-strong Cruising class ranging from 23-foot to 74-foot rounds out a varied, quality and international fleet.

In just their second competitive outing, the new generation TP52 of Kevin Whitcraft, THA 72, showed their speed differential today with two bullets and a two minute winning margin in both the short windward/leewards raced. Last year's class winner, Windsikher II skippered by Sarab Singh, finished second in the first race but dropped to fourth in Race 2.

With a mix of planing and displacement racers in the IRC One Class expectations were that course choice and prevailing conditions could dictate the outcome this week. However, after shaking off the cobwebs with two short windward/leewards, double first blood went to defending champion Jessandra II, skippered by Roland Dane and with Steve McConaghy onboard calling tactics.

Showing how evenly matched the "40-footers" are, a little over two minutes separated the entire class in Race 1.

As the sailors take stock of their boats and equipment back onshore, Windfinder is predicting 20+ knots throughout the day tomorrow.

www.samuiregatta.com

The World's Largest Model Ship Marks 100 Years
Worlds Largest Model Ship The story of the world's largest ship model and her "brick berth" involves a businessman's fortune, a fabled ship, a determined daughter and philanthropist, and a labor of love. Lagoda, a half-scale model of a 19th century whaleship, sails into her second century this year as the New Bedford Whaling Museum's signature exhibit and a unique learning tool.

Ensconced within the equally impressive Jonathan Bourne Whaling Museum building (Bourne Building), the world's largest ship model and its story are no less remarkable today than in 1916 when the Lagoda was dedicated. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is marking the 100th anniversary all year with lectures, tours, presentations and family programming, supported by the National Park Service: Maritime Heritage Program, and Kenneth T. and Mildred S. Gammons Charitable Foundation. On Saturday, August 6 the Museum hosts the Lagoda Centennial Gala, supported by BayCoast Bank and Bristol County Savings Bank.

The original whaling vessel Lagoda, purchased by Jonathan Bourne of New Bedford in 1841, was one of the most profitable whaleships in Bourne's fleet. In 1916 Jonathan's daughter Emily Bourne (1835-1922) donated funds to build the Jonathan Bourne Whaling Museum building on Johnny Cake Hill, as well as the half-scale model of the Lagoda, in memory of her father.

Full article in Blue Water Sailing: www.bwsailing.com

www.whalingmuseum.org

Team Tilt Wins Decision 35 Grand Prix De Versoix
Versoix, Switzerland: Team Tilt, the 2015 D35 Trophy champion, won the second stage of this year's series in Versoix this weekend. Racing, organised by the Club Nautique de Versoix, got underway on Saturday in superb conditions for the 10 teams and after nine hard fought races, Team Tilt came out on top on Sunday with Alinghi and Swisscom completing the podium.

"The standard of the fleet is very high, the racing is really engaging and more open than last year," said helmsman Sebastien Schneiter. "We have a way to go, but this first victory feels good!"

"We did very little training before the start of the season because this series is not our primary objective this year," added tactician and sports director, Tanguy Cariou. "We are focussed on the GC32, the 49er campaign and the Red Bull Youth America's Cup selection process. 

"We are rotating the crew frequently on the D35 but remain competitive, so that is a good sign! Over the last two years we have managed to put a good system in place and a solid team within which we can integrate youth sailors successfully," he added.

Next on the agenda for Team Tilt is the first stage of the GC32 Racing Tour on Thursday at Riva del Garda on Lake Garda in Italy. "We have done quite a lot of training on Lake Garda and are feeling comfortable on the GC32," said Sebastien. "Our boat handling is pretty good and we are really looking forward to this first regatta!"

Sebastien will hand over the helm to his father Alex Schneiter for the following three stages of the D35 Trophy while he is in Weymouth in the UK for the 49er World Championships.

www.gc32racing.com

Groupama Team Base
Lorient, France is the the home of Groupama Team France. Skipper Franck Cammas prepared here for his winning Volvo Ocean Race campaign and for his successful 2010 record-setting non-stop circumnavigation to take the Jules Verne Trophy. By the way, the navigator on board Groupama 3 for that record-setting run was Stan Honey, who led the development of the LiveLine augmented reality graphics for the the ACTV broadcasts. And, Cammas's record was broken in 2012 by Banque Populaire, skippered by Artemis Racing's Loïck Peyron.

Even with the smallest budget in this America's Cup cycle, Franck Cammas and Team France are a force to be reckoned with. Cammas is just as ferocious a competitor as the other skippers in this America's Cup cycle. Don't be surprised to see Team France in the semi-finals of the Challenger Playoffs in June 2017.

From Jack Griffin's Cup Experience newsletter

Archie O'Leary RIP
Archie O'Leary Royal Cork Yacht Club is mourning the loss of senior member Archie O'Leary who died at the weekend. Mr. O'Leary (86) was the founder of O'Leary Insurance Group in 1961, owner of racehorse Florida Pearl, and a former Ireland rugby international. Mr O'Leary, who twice skippered a boat in the Irish Admiral's Cup team in the 1970s lived in Cork Harbour at Currabinny and was a keen yachtsman. He and his family have a major involvement in Munster sailing, his son Anthony is a double winning Captain of the Commodore's Cup and his grandson Peter is a double Olympian from the Beijing and London Olympic Games.

He passed away peacefully on Saturday in Marymount Hospice after a battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Violet and two children Frances and Anthony.

afloat.ie

Featured Brokerage

Raceboats Only Raceboats Only Raceboats Only


1961 Custom Laurin 52' - ANAHITA. Located in Stockholm, Sweden.

Beautifully presented and very smartly optimised fast cruising yacht from the pen of Arvid Laurin and some subsequent wizardry below the waterline by Peter Norlin. Perfect for classic racing, but also great for cruising too. A VERY special yacht indeed!

Details

Contact
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679222

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

2011 Salona 41. 199,999 EUR. Located in Hong Kong.

This Salona S41 is a perfect combination of comfort and high performance cruiser. She has a spacious saloon and master cabin, along with a large cockpit. The boat is in very good condition and we invite you to come and visit her. She comes with tons of racing options, example: carbon mast, boom and spinnaker pole, carbon steering wheel and stand, carbon interior and all the light weight compartment to make this 41 footer at around 7,000 KG weight.

Details

Contact

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

Botin HPR40 - NEW BOAT

Marcelo Botin enters the HPR market... Good for the designers and similarly good for HPR. This production-built design takes full advantage of extensive CFD and VPP work with a very refined hull and appendages package

Details

Contact
McConaghy Boats

+61 2 999 777 22

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

The Last Word
My friends tell me I have an intimacy problem. But they don't really know me. -- Garry Shandling

Editorial and letter submissions to

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

Search the Archives

SEARCH SEARCH

Our Partners

Seahorse Magazine

YachtScoring.com

Wight Vodka

Robline Ropes

Harken

Marlow

Navico

Translate