Brought to you by Boats.com Europe, Yachtworld.com Europe, 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 Esimit Europa 2 First Boat to Round the Giraglia Rock Stuart Bannatyne, calling tactics on Shockwave, was quite excited about the forecast: "It's actually very encouraging, calling for 20 knots for a lot of the race so it's almost too good to be true, so let's see how it turns out but at the moment it looks like we are going to have to beat up to the first mark and then a very fast sort of spinnaker ride across the Giraglia rock and then a downwind to the finish in San Remo. It sounds very easy and very simple but it turns out that way, that we just have to see." But by 21.00 CEST the dream had turned into the reality of a parking lot. Esimit Europa 2, still doing 8 knots, was able to escape her adversary's and round the rock at 22.25 CEST. The weather forecast predicts a south-easterly breeze of around 10 knots of intensity for the forthcoming 100 nm to San Remo. To beat the record the first boat has to cross the finish line by 6.03 CEST on Thursday morning (17 June). Further information on the Giraglia Rolex Cup may be found at www.giragliarolexcup.com SRBI Sailors Arrive at Lerwick The first sailors to venture on to dry land and arrive at Lerwick were Will Claxton and Matt Gill in their trimaran Paradox. Hot on her heels is the Class 40 battle, in which fortunes have changed. Fujifilm and Sungard are neck and neck in distance to go, yet each has followed a completely different strategy. Fujifilm left Castlebay three hours after Sungard, who has led for the majority of this leg. You can follow the progress of the race on the live tracking page of the www.shetlandmarinas.com website, and at www.rbandi.com where you will also find news, photographs, video and competitors blogs. * At 16:38 BST SunGard Front Arena took first place in Lerwick in the third leg of the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race overtaking Fujifilm just a few miles from the finish line. This third leg gave the fleet plenty of excitment with fast downwind sailing from Saint Kilda to Muckle Flagga. Italian Skipper Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs are extremely pleased with the result and feeling exhausted after the very close sailing between the Class 40s in the race. They are looking forward to some good food and plenty of rest. Cote Charges To Victory Going into the final day Peter Morton's Anchor Challenge, designed by Bruce Farr in 1980 and crewed by Kelvin Rawlings, John Newnham, Stuart Childerley and Jason Carrington, led the regatta by a narrow 1.5 point margin from Cote with John Greenwood aboard Rob Gray's 1990 Vrolik design Aquila third, Louise Morton sailing Anchor Challenge's sister ship Espada fourth, Bullet, designed by Fauroux in 1982 fifth and Ian Southworth's Whiskers, a 1979 Joubelt Nivelt, in sixth. The Race Committee delivered on their promise to run three final races - races seven to nine of the series - and laid on two excellent windward leeward courses followed by a final Solent round the cans course with a spectacular running finish off Cowes. With every race there were changes on the leader board. Cote opened with a win whilst Anchor Challenge took a second putting Cote into the lead by half a point. Espada came third in moving them up into third place overall with Aquila now fourth and Whiskers fifth. Alongside the main prizes there were also a number of special presentations. The Ron Holland Trophy for the top production boat went to Richard Thomas's Bolero Sergeant Pepper, the Concourse de Elegance, awarded by the Race Committee was won by Phoenix owned by the Welch/Thompson/Manser/Flemming partnership, the oldest bowman award went to Pete "Hovis" Briant. The youngest crew award went to Tiger owned by George Kenefick and George Kingston, and a special award for the boat completing the most broaches during the regatta - a fetching lime green mask and snorkel - went to Mike Webb and Tom Bailey's Flashheart. Provisional Overall Top Ten Overall 1. Cote - Darren Marston and Olly Ophaus - 17 points Full results at www.rcyc.co.uk Yachtworld Magazine Available in two formats: - Digital. Providing an electronic/digital version of the magazine that gives you additional powerful interactive features such as video clips, archiving, highlight notes etc - Print. For those of us who love and cherish the experience of a quality printed magazine, Yachtworld Magazine, delivered free of charge to your door, will be a magazine you will find essential for your buying or selling needs. Cape Breton Clash Of Legends Competing for the Benromach Cape Breton Clash of Legends Trophy were Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, first man to sail alone and non-stop around the world in 1969. Sir Robin is the founder and chairman of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race, which is currently enjoying a nine-day stopover on the Nova Scotian island. Joining Sir Robin on the start line were two Canadian ocean racers. John Hughes was the first Canadian to sail solo around the world in 1986 when he competed in the BOC Challenge, a fore-runner of the VELUX5OCEANS race. Dismasted in the Southern Ocean, John elected to sail around Cape Horn under jury rig, rather than give up on the chance of finishing the race. He was the youngest of the 26 competitors to take part and one of only 16 to finish, a feat that earned him the title of CYA Rolex Sailor of the Year on his return to Nova Scotia. His countryman and Canada's most successful ocean racer, Derek Hatfield, is preparing his campaign to complete a second solo circumnavigation. The former Mountie has already succeeded in the 2003 Around Alone race and is now in Nova Scotia preparing his yacht, Spirit of Canada, for the VELUX5OCEANS race which starts in La Rochelle in October. In lively conditions, with steady winds of 18 knots, gusting up to 38 knots, the three veteran yachtsmen and their crews took to the water on board three of the Clipper 68s competing in Clipper 09-10; Sir Robin in charge of Hull & Humber, Derek Hatfield taking the helm of Cape Breton Island, and John Hughes on board Qingdao. While Derek Hatfield on Cape Breton Island got the best of the start, John Hughes on Qingdao quickly chased him down until Sir Robin on Hull & Humber squeezed between the pair of them they put in the first tack. It was John Hughes who got ahead by the first mark and pulled out a lead that proved impossible to beat. The Clipper fleet will sail from Sydney on Saturday 19 June on the final transatlantic crossing of the race and are due to arrive in Kinsale, Ireland, between 1 and 4 July. Quantum Racing's Marseille Mojo Working As 2008 champions Quantum Racing rekindled their winning mojo with back to back wins in Races 2 and 3 to lead the regatta at the end of the first day, the reigning champions came off the water in ninth of ten and 2007 circuit winners in tenth. Breezes rarely topped ten knots but it was the changes in strength and direction which made life especially testing for afterguards. Taking the positive benefits of the bend generated by the steep, bluff Marseilleveyre mountains was usual key. But there was no simple strategy, there were many traps, zones of light winds which were best avoided. With Morgan Larson (USA), who won as tactician for the 2008 champions, returned to the afterguard fold for this regatta, Quantum Racing's starts were strong and their tactical sailing a good blend of pushing when they needed to and managing the risks in the patchy breezes. They were able to hold off Synergy (RUS) by only 3 seconds in a thrilling finish to Race 2. Winning, ahead of Audi A1 powered by All4One in the third race, sees Terry Hutchinson (USA) and the team end the day locked even on 10 points with the very consistent Matador (ARG) whose 3,3,4 for the day is a welcome tonic after their slightly disappointing Portugal Trophy regatta. Emirates Team New Zealand unfortunately repeated that off-key start that they made to the season's first races, tenth in the first contest which was won by Bribon. This time, in the lighter conditions which are not the powerful Kiwi boat's favourite, they failed to bounce back into the top tier of the fleet during the following two races, but so close are the points in this extremely tight class that they are only four points shy of the top half of the fleet. TP52 Series GP42 Series * Watch every race live on: www.sail.tv CYCA Releases Internal Inquiry Report of Flinders Islet Race Incident Following the establishment of the Terms of Reference, the committee tasked with the internal inquiry presented their final report to the CYCA board which has now approved the recommendations made. In a statement made to members of the CYCA, Commodore Matt Allen highlighted a number of recommendations made by the Flinders Islet Inquiry Committee have already been implemented following the release of an interim report prior to the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. He also emphasised to members the official investigation being conducted by the NSW Police Force for the NSW State Coroner which was yet to be finalised, although it is understood the investigation is nearing its completion. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has shared its internal inquiry report with a number of interested parties, including the families of Andrew Short and Sally Gordon, NSW Police conducting the official investigation, NSW Maritime, Marine Rescue NSW, Yachting Australia, Yachting NSW and yacht clubs around the country that share similar ocean yacht racing objectives. -- Jennifer Crooks The report can be downloaded here: From Sail-World.com: UK-HALSEY RULES QUIZ The answers to all the quizzes were re-written for the rules changes by Rob Overton, who has been a member of the US Sailing Racing Rules Committee since 1993. Rob was one of five international rule writers who drafted the new Section C rules that took effect on January 1, 2009. See the Rules Quiz page at www.ukhalsey.com/RulesQuiz/quiz_list.asp You can buy the Quiz program for $55 or $100 for the program plus two of the best books written on the 2009-2012 Racing Rules - Understanding the Rules by Dave Perry and The Rules in Practice by Bryan Willis. Both are reviewed in our Rules Blog. www.ukhalsey.com/store/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=4 NACRA International Championship Mixed feelings for De Koning/Visser Despite their lack of weight in the big breeze, the German Sach brothers managed to hold on to their third place. Vincent Huntelman and Herwin van der Kamp finished on equal points with the Germans. They missed out on the podium spot, because the Sach brothers scored one more third than the Dutchmen. Top five Nacra Infusion after 10 races and two discards: Top three Open class after 10 races and two discards: Top three Nacra carbon 20: In the afternoon, the Zwitserleven Sailing Week 2010 continued with the first races of the Open Dutch Championship Cat Sailing. www.nacrachampionship.com RORC IRC National Championship Friday 25th June - Sunday 27th June IRC Super Zero has the prospect of the high performance big boat class lighting up the Solent including some TP52s; Johnny Vincent's Pace, Charles Dunstone's TEAMORIGIN Rio, the British Keelboat Academy's John Merricks II and Rob Grey's, Farr 52, Bob. IRC Zero is virtually composed of Rolex Commodores' Cup contenders from six different countries. Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39, Antix, is the current Irish IRC Zero National Champion but only just beat Dave Dwyer's Mills 39, Marinerscove.ie, by a single point less than a month ago. However Marinerscove.ie is the reigning IRC National Champion and will not be letting go of the trophy without a struggle. IRC One has a highly competitive international line-up. Philippe Delaporte's, Pen Azen, is over from France and the J 122 is a proven winner; having been awarded RORC Yacht of the Year in 2008. IRC One also includes RORC Commodore, Andrew McIrvine, and Peter Morton's First 40, La Reponse, who will have their first inshore encounter with sister ship Coup De Coeur raced by Marc de Saint Denis and Gery Trentesaux. Other top contenders include Jim Macgregor's Elan 410, Premier Flair, and Robert Davies' brand new Corby 36, Roxy 6. IRC Two is the largest fleet competing and includes the biggest variety of designs including David Aisher's J 109, Yeoman of Wight, Wouter Borghijs' A 35, Tontin, from Belgium and Chris and Hannah Neve's First 35, No Chance, who have been selected for the forthcoming Rolex Commodores' Cup. The scratch boat in IRC Three is Mike and Jamie Holmes' J 97, Jika Jika, who should have a close tussle on the water with Richard Sparrow's J 92, Who's To No. There are several Quarter Tonners expected including Paul Kelsey's Runaway Bus, James Morland's Menace and Louise Morton's Espada. Early entry closes Thursday 17th June. For full information go to the RORC web site: www.rorc.org Featured Brokerage Major price reduction of ? 100.000,- showing the willingness of the owner to sell her. This fantastic 'new classic' is in a very good state. Her berth in front of the capitainerie in Antibes is also for sale through separate negotiation. A must see for anyone who is looking for a classic sailing yacht with state of the art equipment and a proven regatta record. Owner has another yacht already, wants to sell for this reason only. Always maintained by professionals, and used only privately. Family yacht, no crew accomodation. Brokerage through Ocean Independence: www.yachtworld.com/oceanindependence/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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