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
Storm Forecast Cancels Opening Day Of GC32 Racing Tour Finale
Competition was scheduled to get underway Thursday at Marseille One Design, the final event of the 2016 GC32 Racing Tour but has been cancelled due to high wind warnings. The forecast called for a solid 45 knots with storm-force gusts of 55.
The foiling one design catamaran fleet, that now numbers ten at Marseille One Design following the late entry of GC32 Founder Laurent Lenne's Orange Racing, is due to lock horns 13-17 October. At the end of this not only will the third Marseille One Design champion be crowned, but also the winner of the overall 2016 GC32 Racing Tour.
Teams competing in the GC32 Racing Tour at Marseille One Design
ARGO (USA) skipper Jason Carroll
ARMIN STROM Sailing Team (SUI) skipper Flavio Marazzi
GUNVOR Sailing (SWE) skipper Gustav Petterson
Malizia - Yacht Club de Monaco (MON) skipper Pierre Casiraghi
Mamma Aiuto! (JPN) skipper Naofumi Kamei
NORAUTO (FRA) skipper Adam Minoprio (NZL)
Orange Racing (NED) skipper Laurent Lenne (FRA)
Realteam (SUI) skipper Jerome Clerc
Team ENGIE (FRA) skipper Sebastien Rogues
Team Tilt (SUI) skipper Sebastien Schneiter
Eighth Boat Under Construction For Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18
In the third of 10 announcements over 10 days, Volvo Ocean Race has confirmed that, in an unexpected boost to the next edition of the race, an eighth boat is being built at Persico Marine, Italy.
As a One Design class, it will of course be identical to the existing fleet of seven Volvo Ocean 65s in every way, and will be launched in May next year, five months before the start of the next edition. The team behind this new build will be announced early in 2017.
"It's exciting to welcome an addition to the fleet ahead of the next edition, as this was not necessarily expected," said Nick Bice, the Volvo Ocean Race's Director of Boats and Maintenance. "We now have a real prospect of starting the next race with more boats than in the last edition."
Persico Marine is the lead contractor for the new boat, and will use the same moulds, materials and process of building the original fleet of Volvo Ocean 65s. After completion, the boat will be delivered to the Boatyard facility in Lisbon, where it will undergo rigorous measurement tests.
An extensive refit process is currently underway on the original Volvo Ocean 65s. That process is designed to ensure that the components make another 45,000 nautical miles around the world, but also includes significant upgrades in communication equipment, safety, energy generation, and performance electronics as well as new designs of sails which will level the playing field again to some extent.
The Volvo Ocean Race starts from Alicante in October 2017 and finishes in The Hague over eight months later, taking in a total of 11 landmark cities.
The 30th Anniversary Quantum Key West Race Week Is Scheduled January 15-20, 2017
The regatta that started as a mostly fun series among casual racers and grew to the most important international regatta hosted in the U.S. is shaping up to be memorable: A new host venue in Old Town, the Waterfront Brewery, brings the nightly action back to the waterfront, Quantum Sails is back as title sponsor, the Florida Keys return as presenting sponsor and entries are building with the regatta just four months away.
Enter before October 1 to save between $3 and $5 per foot on your entry fee. Starts will be hosted for one-design and rated classes, and for the second year running monohull and multihull cruising classes. Don't have a boat? No problem. Charter opportunities are available through the National One Design Sailing Academy of Canada.
Also, all Quantum Sails customers are eligible for free entry to race week with the purchase of a new suit of racing or performance cruising sails from Quantum before October 31. (Contact your sail consultant for full details.) Visit the regatta web site, Quantum Key West Race Week, for more information
Or to go directly to the online entry application form
Controversial Irish Challenger Inducted Into America's Cup 'hall Of Fame' - After 121 Years
The two America's Cup Challenges made through the Royal Yacht Squadron by Lord Dunraven of Adare in County Limerick in 1893 and 1895 both had elements of controversy writes W M Nixon.
And such serious ill-feeling emerged after his challenge of 1895 that Dunraven was subsequently relieved of his Honorary Membership of the defending New York Yacht Club, an extreme and unprecedented step which led to international diplomatic moves to smooth the waters between the UK and the US.
Dunraven - who had been introduced to sailing by the great John Jameson aboard the famous racing cutter Irex in Dublin Bay in the 1880s - made his challenges with large cutters designed by the renowned G L Watson. And the 1893 matter of potential friction was successfully resolved when Dunraven's contention that there should not be an inshore course option was successfully upheld in order to ensure truer wind conditions.
But with the second challenge by the 129ft Valkyrie III in 1895 at New York harbour, he became so incensed by what he felt was the intrusion of the huge spectator fleet into the racing area that he made a formal complaint about about it. And after Valkyrie III was held responsible for minor collision in the second race for which which he tended to blame the spectator fleet, he withdrew from the series with further grievances.
WM Nixon's article in Afloat:
www.afloat.ie/sail/
World Sailing's 2016 Annual Conference
Online registration for World Sailing's 2016 Annual Conference, set to be held in Barcelona, Spain from 5-13 November has opened.
Click here for the online registration system
Please log on to the on-line registration system using Event Code WSAC2016
Once successfully registered you will receive an email confirmation that your registration has been received.
Should you have any questions or experience any difficulties then please contact Esther Hanson at World Sailing by email or by phone at +44 (0)2380 635 111 for any assistance.
World Sailing's Annual Conference is the central meeting point where the strategy of sailing is reviewed, discussed and celebrated.
The 2016 edition will be held at the Hotel Renaissance Barcelona Fira welcoming up to 700 delegates. They will range from International Class Associations representatives, Member National Authorities officials and Committee Members to leading Sailors, Event Organizers, Boat Manufacturers and Observers.
For the 2016 Annual Conference, the dialogue and engagement will be centred on an overarching theme of, 'Our Sustainable Future'. Sailing will be laying down plans for a healthy sustainable future for the sport, as well as the more specific subject of sustainability in the waters of the world.
Back To Its Roots
With the race heading back into the Southern Ocean, Richard Mason, veteran round-the-world racer and now operations director of the Volvo Ocean Race, talks to Blue Robinson about the evolution of the event, breaking records, getting the real story off the boats... and the smart boat choice for 2020
Seahorse Magazine: Before the last race what were the big reasons for moving from the Volvo 70 over to the 65?
Richard Mason: Money. To be competitive, campaign costs and the cost of boat development were very, very high, which created an arms race, so that really drove the move to the 65. Of course it's not just the boats - you now have shared economies in the rigging, the sails the equipment onboard, plus maintaining and running all this with a common shore team.
We are really starting to see the impact from that decision, the benefits of Nick Bice setting up the boatyard and of us now supplying everything to the teams.
SH: Was the last race essential to consolidating the event?
RM: Yes, I think so. It wasn't an easy decision for Knut [Frostad], and I was on the other side of the fence. There was no question that we were pretty resistant in moving to one-design and were concerned at losing the design and development side, the evolution of sails, materials and rigs, but there was a very big cost associated with this and, with the economy pretty flat, it could be argued there may not have been a race had we not shifted to one-design.
Now we are in the one-design world and the last race proved highly successful; some of the finish deltas were unbelievable. So the focus of this next race is to maximise the benefits of one-design while getting the race back on a traditional course and doing everything we can to open up the racing. This means looking hard at things like ice gates, their location and should we even have them; the scoring; how do we manage the weather data the fleet receives, should there be times we don't supply weather data at all and leave the crews on their own; the effects of AIS on the race. The boats stayed pretty close together last time so we are now looking at how to open up the options for navigators.
Full interview in the November issue of Seahorse: www.seahorsemagazine.com
Volvo Gill Optimist End Of Season Championship
Nearly 200 Optimist sailors took to Rutland Water last weekend for the final IOCA UK ranking event of 2016, the Volvo Gill Optimist End of Season Championship at Rutland Sailing Club.
Members of the British Sailing Team, having just returned from Rio, were on hand to inspire the youth sailors. Team Volvo's Alain Sign and Alexandra Rickham shared their grassroots to glory journeys in a bid to inspire the next generation of sailors.
For many of the young competitors, this event signified an important moment in their sailing careers with the results forming part of the selection process for the IOCA UK Squads. Training in the squads develops their skills and knowledge to enable them to excel in Optimist sailing and progress successfully towards youth and Olympic class sailing.
After a wet start on day one, the sun shone down on the regatta and transition fleets as they hit the water for day two of racing on Sunday. With a steady northeasterly breeze blowing across the Rutland reservoir, the sailors completed three closely fought races.
Final top five
1. Haydn Sewell, Gurnard SC / Royal Lymington YC, 16 points
2. Callum Davidson-Guild, Trearddur Bay SC & Shotwick Lake SC, 23
3. Henry Heathcote, Royal Lymington YC, 25
4. Drew Gibbons, West Kirby, 27
5. Kai Wolgram, Llyn Brenig, 31
volvocarssailing.co.uk
optimistsailing.org.uk
Marstrand To Host Inaugural M32 World Championship 2017
The week after the World Match Racing Tour finals in Marstrand yet another World Championships with the M32 catamaran will take place in the Swedish sailing hot spot. The M32 International Class Association (M32ICA) in cooperation with the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club and Aston Harald Sports invites teams to enter the first ever M32 World Championships in fleet racing in Marstrand, July 13-16, 2017.
The entry limit of the World Championships will be 25 teams but for the first year the event has an open invitation for any team to enter on a first come, first serve principle. However in the future the M32 World Championships will change and the entry in to the event will be through qualifications in the M32 Series around the world or at specific M32 qualifying events.
The M32 class association has appointed Aston Harald Sports, owner of the World Match Racing Tour, and the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club to organize and produce the World Championships. The M32 Class is an official World Sailing class and the M32 World Championships will be sanctioned from the Swedish Sailing Federation, SSF, as well as the international sailing federation, World Sailing. The event will be a four-day regatta with the full fleet on the start line at each race.
www.m32world.com/worldchampionships
Phuket King's Cup Regatta Marks 30th Anniversary
The Phuket King's Cup Regatta Under Royal Patronage, one of the most prestigious international sporting events in Asia, will draw a huge gathering of sailors from around the world to mark its 30th Anniversary year. Yachting enthusiasts and pro teams come from every corner of the globe to compete in the sparkling waters of the Andaman Sea for King's Cup Regatta glory. The regatta program includes the Phuket Dinghy Series, International Dinghy Classes, Keelboats and Multihulls amongst its competitive classes as well as a new CRX Kiteboard class. The 30th Anniversary Regatta is to be held from 3-10 December, 2016, at Kata Beach Resort and Spa, Phuket, Thailand.
More than 190 international boats and yachts, as well as over 1,500 sailors and participants from over 30 countries are expected to join the Phuket King's Cup Regatta 2016. Local residents and small business operators gladly welcome the event because of the economic boost - and it continues to go up year on year.
This year, fleets expect to comprise different classes of Keelboats and Multihulls: IRC Zero (international 'Grand Prix' boats), the highly competitive IRC 1, IRC 2, along with Sports Boat, Modern Classic, Classic, Premier, Open Charter, Bareboat Charter, Cruising, Firefly 850 Sports, Multihulls Racing and Multihulls Cruising. Sailors and support crews will hail from many countries, including USA, Australia, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and China.
2016 will be special as it will also feature the new CRX Kiteboard Class, providing 3 days open clinic from 5 - 7 December 2016 for young riders, and its race is to be held at Chalong Bay during the regatta, expecting more than 30 riders around Asia to participate. This new element will appeal to kiteboarding enthusiasts and a younger sailing audience.
For the youth sailing races, the 30th anniversary continues a dedicated International Dinghy Class. The inclusion of dinghies has played a part in the development of youth sailing in Thailand, encouraging more young sailors to take up the sport. New this year is the long distance race for the dinghy fleet (as well as the main fleet, if wind conditions permit).Victorious Thai sailors from the Phuket Dinghy Series, which takes place from July to November, will receive trophies together with other winners at the prize giving ceremony.
Featured Brokerage
2011 Soto 40 - ALEGRE. 175000 EUR. Located in Valencia, Spain.
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See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679222
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2005 Class 40 POGO - FORTITUDE. 95000 EUR.
Immense amounts of fun for a very modest price. Little raced and never rallied, set up for exciting family sailing and in sparkling shape.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Contact
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679222
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2015 MAT 1180. 218,450 EUR. Located in Turkey.
The Mat 1180 is a new design and is very light for her size and rating.
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See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
Among all kinds of killers, time is the ultimate because it kills everything -- Krishna
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