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

The Storm Before The Storm
Today saw 40 knots of wind blast out of nowhere and hit the Olympic sailing venue from the south-west. With sand whipping across Flamengo Beach, it was an eye-watering reminder that in Rio, you really do have to be prepared for anything.

An Angolan 470 ventured out for some high-wind practice, but no one else was showing much interest. With less than 24 hours before the RS:X Men and Women kick off the Olympic Sailing Competition, along with the Laser and Laser Radial, this was not the right time in the four-year cycle for putting bodies and equipment in jeopardy.

Later on in the afternoon the breeze dropped away to almost nothing. The calm after the storm. The forecast for Monday and the first day of competition looks favourable, with moderate winds and sunny skies

Results / Entries
A full list of sailors racing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is available to view here . Results will be available on World Sailing's Olympic Website when racing starts on Monday 8 August here

Live Tracking
The racing will be available to watch in 2D and 3D via the live tracking. Live tracking will be available when racing commences here

Live Tracking via the Sailviewer-3D Tablet App will be available for devices with 7" or greater screens.

Click here to download the iOS Application
Click here to download the Android Application

www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/home.php

Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week
Photo by Ingrid Abery, www.ingridabery.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

Competitors enjoyed a second day of sunny, stunning conditions at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week today. The early starts saw the wind gusting an adrenaline pumping 25 knots, before the breeze settled down to 16-20 knots for the rest of the morning.

The dayboats in White Group had a challenging downwind, downtide start heading towards the east from the Royal Yacht Squadron line. Each fleet in turn congregated in the strongest favourable stream close to the outer distance mark, but different teams - and indeed different fleets - varied in their attitude to the risk of being swept over the line early. The first few starts, particularly the J/70s and SB20s had a strong breeze that peaked with 25 knot gusts that saw them fly down the their first leg at double-digit speeds.

In the 21-strong Sportsboat fleet two of the smaller entries, Livingstone and Lewis' 1720 Rum n Cork and Jo Gillespie's Viper 640 V1 were first away. However, they were quickly overtaken by the highest-rated boat in the fleet, Thorkild Junker's Danish Open 7.50 Cool Runnings. The latter was also among the first boats to gybe offshore towards the strongest favourable tidal stream. -- Rupert Holmes

Overall results of all classes

www.aamcowesweek.co.uk

Fast40+ - Race Two AAM Cowes Week
Invictus wins the 1840 Challenge Cup

After nearly five hours of racing, it all came down to just 12 seconds. Sir Keith Mills Ker40+ INVICTUS came from behind to win the prestigious Royal Thames YC 1840 Challenge Cup on the second day of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week. The Royal Thames Yacht Club has the largest collection of silver in private hands in the United Kingdom and the cup, which pre-dates the America's Cup, is one of the finest and most valuable in the collection.

The 13 strong FAST40+ fleet had a competitive start in the Central Solent and the lead changed hands four times during the Stewart Whitehead's British Carkeek 40 Rebellion had a pitched battle with Mike Bartholomew's South African GP42 Tokoloshe for the Committee Boat end with Jonnie Goodwin's British Harlequin on 42 South.

After a terrific duel back to the Royal Yacht Squadron Line, INVICTUS had the upper hand, and held on to win the race, just over a boat length in front of Girls on Film. Tokoloshe crossed the line a minute later to take third. Otra Vez led the chasing pack to take fourth. Unfortunately for Andrew Pearce's KER40+ Magnum4, a backstay issue put the team out of the race.

Racing at AAM Cowes Week, the Third Round of the FAST40+ Series continues tomorrow, Monday 7th August. INVICTUS leads on Countback from Girls on Film. Johnny Vincent's KER40+ Pace is third.

www.fast40class.com

505 Worlds
The final and deciding race of the SAP 505 Worlds may not have had the epic qualities of some of the earlier rounds, but still produced some fine sailing in Weymouth Bay. Although Americans Mike Martin and Adam Lowry went into the race with a seemingly comfortable points margin of 22 points over the rest of the field, they could not afford any mishap. If their best currently discarded result of 30th in Race 1 came into play, any one of six rivals could overhaul them for the title.

After the heavy winds of the previous three races, the 130 starting boats had a gentle breeze of 6-8kts to take them on the hour long sail east out of Portland Harbour to the starting area.

Hunger and Kleiner took the finish gun with a comfortable advantage over Holt and Smit, with Treichel and Roos third. However, the new SAP 505 World Champions Mike Martin and Adam Lowry proved their mettle by crossing in fifth place, a considerable achievement after being apparently buried on the first leg.

The Classic fleet also enjoyed the more benign conditions, with Michael Wilson and Phil Hardisty (GBR) completing a clean sweep of first places in the seven races held.

The day proved a fitting end to a superb championship, with the only bad weather falling on the lay day and with winds ranging from 6kt to 28kts on the race days providing a true test for the competitors.

Final top five:
1. Martin / Lowry, USA, 16 points
2. Holt / Smit, USA, 36
3. Hunger / Kleiner, GER, 40
4. Moore / Buttner, USA, 40
5. Batchelor / Pascoe, GBR, 45

World Championship Results

Classics Results

Malizia & Pierre Casiraghi Victorious In Owner-Driver Category, Bagging 4th Place In Palma
After 12 races over four days, Pierre Casiraghi and his crew on Malizia won out in Palma de Mallorca, with victory in the owner-driver category and 4th place in the overall ranking for Act III of the GC32 Racing Tour, against a highly experienced field of 10. The French team Norauto, led by Adam Minoprio won the Spanish event.

"I really want to congratulate all the crew on Malizia for the work they've put in over the last few weeks. We are very happy with this stage. The amazing battles we had with Argo will remain engraved on our memories for a long time to come. Today, the Swiss on Team Tilt were the best and most consistent, winning two races and coming second in another. A performance that meant they snatched the third place we'd held onto for three days. Very well done to them and to Norauto for their performance!" commented Pierre Casiraghi, helmsman on the Yacht Club de Monaco's boat, supported by Boris Herrmann, Richard Mason, Adam Piggott and Rasmus Kostner.

The Monegasques are steadily improving, this result pulling them up to 6th place in the circuit's provisional overall ranking, just one tiny point behind the Americans on Argo and the Swedes on Gunvor Sailing.

Next event: GC32 Sotogrande Cup, 22nd to 25th September, the penultimate stage on the circuit. The field is still wide open.

ycm.org

Burning Bright
After years of white sails dominating the horizon, grand prix racing has returned to the Solent with the Fast40+ class exploding onto the scene

In under two years the Fast40+ fleet has grown from a nucleus of three boats to 14 competing in September's 2016 One Ton Cup. More new builds and uprated existing boats are set to join the circuit from the UK, Sweden and Germany with 15-20 entries expected in 2017.

The offer
The Fast40+ is an owner-driver class of very high-performing boats with a maximum crew of 11 including five professional Cat3 sailors. The 2016 circuit consists of six rounds, all to count, the highlight being the One Ton Cup. The awarding of the One Ton Cup was made possible through the support of the Cercle de la Voile de Paris (Paris Yacht Club), recognising the profile of a growing class that they consider worthy of such a trophy. Hamble Yacht Services are the presenting partner for the event.

The class president
That the Fast40+ Class is growing has a lot to do with the tremendous support from the boat owners and supporting marine companies and regatta organisers. There has been a huge effort, which has resulted in the class expanding so quickly. Fast40+ owners have a substantial appetite to compete in these very quick boats, sailing faster courses in boats with more dynamic systems than traditional fleets. That said, it is not just about the boats, we have a very capable team of professionals running our programme. Former Olympian Stuart Childerley, race director and Andrew Yates, class measurer, are both highly respected within international racing circles. -- Rob Greenhalgh

Full article in Seahorse:
www.seahorsemagazine.com

New Record Set For Fastest Sail Around Ireland
American sailor Lloyd Thornburg has set a new world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the island of Ireland.*

His MOD70 trimaran Phaedo 3 crossed the finish line at Kish Lighthouse, Dun Laoghaire, just after 4am today (Friday 5th August 2016), beating the previous world record by just over 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Thornburg and his crew, including Ireland's Damian Foxall and co-skipper, the UK's Brian Thompson (the first Briton to break the Round the World sailing record twice), set off from Dun Laoghaire on Wednesday at 3.09pm, returning just over 36 hours and 52 minutes later. The previous world record of 38 hours, 37 minutes and 7 seconds was set by Musandam Oman-Sail in last June's Volvo Round Ireland Yacht Race.

The latest record comes just weeks after Lloyd and his Phaedo 3 crew won the Round Island Race in the UK, smashing Sir Ben Ainslie's record, and setting a new record of just 2 hours 23 minutes and 23 seconds, for going around the Isle of Wight.

The full record-setting crew on board for the race:
Lloyd Thornburg - helm
Brian Thompson - Co-Skipper
Miles Seddon - Navigator, Damian Foxall - Bow, Paul Allen - Trim, Sam Goodchild - Trim, Henry Bomby - Grinder, Fletcher Kennedy - Grinder

*The new record will be official following ratification by WSSRC (World Speed Sailing Record Council).

www.teamphaedo.com

The U.S. Coast Is In An Unprecedented Hurricane Drought - Why This Is Terrifying
As you can read, Sandy -- which wreaked millions, if not billions of dollars worth of damage to the east coast -- is classified as a super storm rather than a hurricane. This has always mystified me although I have read about the reasons. Imagine a category 3 storm hitting New York at high tide ...or any other east coast city, not to mention various coastal areas and islands! Some of us religiously fill water jugs and bath tubs, haul and secure boats, fill and set out kerosene lamps and lash down or put away all the "stuff" outside, as well as keep trees near our houses pruned but one of these days one of Nature's great pruners will show us what we have neglected, forgotten, or ignored. -- Virginia Jones

Article in the Washington Post

Savelon And Papadimitriou Win The Laser 4.7 Youth Worlds
The last day of the Laser 4.7 Youth Worlds once more showed the top level of the young sailors. Dramatic fights and quick changes on the leaderbord heated things up, and some hopes for gold faded away in the very last race.

It was a tremendous fight at the top of the boys` gold fleet today: Guido Gallinaro, the Italian, finished the first race with a big lead of almost 200 metres, and expanded his lead overall. But Dimitrios Papadimitriou, who finished 11th in the first race, did not give up the fight for the podium. After a perfect start, the Greek controlled the fleet and finished first. Gallinaro started badly, couldn´t free himself from the fleet and finished 40th. When the Italian crossed the line, Papadimitriou was already celebrating his victory, which couldn´t have been tighter: His advantage on the Italian was one point in the end.

Emma Savelon was exhausted, but completely overwhelmed when she pulled her Laser ashore. "I haven´t realized yet what happened", said the new World Champion of the girls´s division. A consistent showing throughout the week saved Savelon´s Gold medal today, as the Russian Mariia Kislukhina won both final races.

Top Three

Results Girls:
1. Emma Savelon (Netherlands, 33 points
2. Mariia Kislukhina, Russia, 40
3. Elisa Navoni, Italy, 40

Results Boys:
1. Dimitrios Papadimitriou, Greece, 25
2. Guido Gallinaro, Italy, 26
3. Pere Ponseti, Spain, 50

Results U16 Girls:
1. Wiktoria Lehmann, Poland, 107
2. Ana Moncada, Spain, 121
3. Matilda Nicholls, Great Britain, 127

Results U16 Boys:
1. Emilios Monos, Greece, 109
2. Finn O'dea, Australia, 121
3. Pep Cazador, Spain, 121

The Laser Standard Men and Laser Radial Women Youth Worlds (U21 - U19): start August 9.

www.laserworldskiel2016.com

San Diego Yacht Club Triumphs In Morgan Cup Team Race
For the second time in three years there is a first time champion of the Morgan Cup Team Race, a regatta that has taken place every August since 2003 at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court. This year San Diego Yacht Club joined what had been an exclusive trio of previous winners after a long weekend of races against nine other top clubs from England and across the United States, San Diego placed themselves at the top of the heap in one of the premiere keelboat team racing championships.

While only the fourth team to ever win the Morgan Cup, San Diego is the second Californian team to do so after Newport Harbour beat out New York Yacht Club in 2014. The next year New York Yacht Club came back strong to reclaim the title. These teams, along with Eastern Yacht Club, were again the top contenders for the trophy.

Great breeze over the three-day championship allowed for 99 races. After running the 10 competing teams through two full round robins, the decision was made to put the top four teams into a mini round robin.

Final Results
1. San Diego YC, 17 points
2. New York Yacht Club, 16
3. Eastern Yacht Club, Marblehead, Mass., 12
4. Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Newport Beach, Calif., 10
5. Southern Yacht Club, New Orleans, 8
6. Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Oyster Bay, N.Y., 8
7. Corinthian Yacht Club, Marblehead, Mass., 8
8. Bristol Outlaws, 6
9. Royal Thames Yacht Club, London, England, 6
10. Intercollegiate Sailing Association All-Stars, 5

nyyc.org/yachting/teamracing/2016-morgan-cup

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A true Performance Cruiser from the successful hull shape of the Farr 52. In sparkling order and very well looked after, minimal maintenance yacht for round the world sport.

Details

Contact
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+44 (0) 1590 679222

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The boat benefits from some very attractive go-fast improvements, including a professionally faired hull (in mint condition), upgraded carbon rig package and a fixed carbon bowsprit for asymmetric and reaching sails.

"Zephyr" has led the from the front of the fleet for the last three years and is the perfect boat for some serious IRC racing in 2016 and beyond.

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Contact
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Farr Yacht Sales Europe
+44 1983 200901

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2005 Grand Soleil 37 B&C. 109,000 EUR.

The GS37 is a genuine dual purpose cruiser-racer. Not only did she immediately score impressive podium regatta finishes under IRC and IMS, but the GS37 also proves that performance and speed do not need to be gained by sacrificing either the comfort or liveability of a yacht.

The hull and deck are built in a sandwich of closed cell foam and vinylester resin in the first layers. Further reinforcements are positioned in high stress areas. An internal grid of galvanised steel is glued with acrylic glue and bonded to the hull. This grid absorbs the load of the keel mast and shrouds.

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

The Last Word
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. -- Socrates

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