In This Issue
Australia's Harry Price Steals The Show At Miami Match Cup | MAPFRE's VO65 Back On The Water In Lisbon | Seahorse May 2017 | America's Cup Test Races | Are Land Rover BAR Off The Pace? | Entire St Helier RNLI Lifeboat Crew Resign | Sailing In The Sky | Laurent Giles Celebrates 90 Years Of Yacht Design | Energy Challenge and Imerys Announce Extended Ocean Racing Partnership | The Claim That Gin 'Speeds Up Your Metabolism' Is Total Nonsense | Letters to the Editor | Featured Brokerage
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
Australia's Harry Price Steals The Show At Miami Match Cup
At times the young Australian looked to be struggling. After leading the qualifying session during the first two regatta days, today Price had a series of losses at the end of the qualifying series, but kept his calm when it mattered to sweep through the knockout stages and clinch the title. It was American Nevin Snow that Price took in the final, however both finalists earn a ticket to World Match Racing Tour Championship level event, Match Cup Sweden.
Harry Price with his Sydney based Down Under Racing is one of the more experienced teams at this event with it being their 3rd WMRT qualifier in the M32 catamaran so it was expected that he do well, however his 12-1 score at one time during qualifying shocked all.
Due to time limitations, the race committee called the final to be a sudden death, single race match-up. Price was dominant in the prestart, nailing time back to the line and leading to the reach mark. The match was decided there and then with Snow never convincingly closing the gap.
Miami Match Cup - Overall Results
1. Harry Price (Down Under Racing)
2. Nevin Snow (13 FIFTY Racing)
3. Evan Walker (KA Match)
4. Markus Edegran (E11EVEN Racing)
5. Anthony Kotoun (Kotoun Racing)
6. Jeremy Wilmot (Wilmot Racing)
7. Chris Poole (Riptide Racing)
8. Daniel Bjornholt (Youth Vikings Denmark)
9. Jo Aleh (The Magenta Project)
10. Victor Serezhkin (Gazprom Team Russia)
MAPFRE's VO65 Back On The Water In Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal: Just 16 days after dismasting during a training session off the coast of Galicia, the Spanish VO65 MAPFRE is back on the water. On Saturday 15th April in Lisbon (Portugal), home of the Volvo Ocean Race Boatyard, and where the new mast was fitted, the VO65 was out on the water undertaking its first tests.
On the afternoon of 30th March, MAPFRE was sailing in a training session close to the Island of Ons (Pontevedra) with 25 knots (46.3 km/h) of wind and 4-metre waves, when the mast, (the same the boat sailed with in the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15), snapped just below the first spreader. Once the team had ensured the crew was safe and without injury, they began an arduous two-hour task to bring the boat under control and recover the broken parts of the mast and sails, before returning without assistance to Sanxenxo, the Spanish team's base.
Two day's later, on 2nd April MAPFRE was transported from Sanxenxo to Lisbon where both the Spanish team and the Volvo Ocean Race Boatyard's shore crews were waiting to initiate the refit of the new mast, manfuactured in New Zealand.
Besides the work on the new mast in Lisbon, repairs were also undertaken to the hull, keel, daggerboards and rudders, which were damaged in the dismasting,
The next step for the Spanish team is to continue testing all the new material, before they begin with the second round of offshore training on the 18th April.
Seahorse May 2017
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
While stocks last
This summer in Bermuda promises to give us the most dramatic America's Cup in the event's history... and the ticket store is open
The same but different
Why there may be little foil symmetry under the surface on the new ACC designs. Ken Read
One (in seven years) is too many
It's been a long time since there was a serious coming together between TP52s. Rob Weiland
Step back
Not a bad year for Juan K... the Finn gold medal at Rio 2016 and four of the first five boats across the line in Hobart
Radial around the world
And things are going rather well over at Voilerie Incidence
Going to (altogether) another level
Put a top superyacht designer together with a cat legend and...
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America's Cup Test Races - The Results And What They Mean
The five America's Cup teams in Bermuda held the second series of test races in their America's Cup Class race boats - 17 races in all. In windy conditions Artemis dominated, winning all nine races, including four against Oracle. Oracle beat everyone else, including three wins against stablemates SoftBank Team Japan. Team Japan lost five races but beat Land Rover BAR and Groupama Team France once each. BAR raced each team once, beating only the French. France raced each team once, losing to everyone.
But... All of the teams will continue improving!
France has good straightline speed but are still mastering their boat and the control systems.
BAR has great crew work on a slow boat that they will continue to develop.
Team Japan, like the French, has a fast boat and will continue to improve.
Oracle has heaps of resources and experience at making a comeback.
Artemis will keep getting faster.
And... then there is the mystery team - Emirates Team New Zealand.
We will find out how competitive the Kiwis are during the next training race series - five days beginning Monday 24 April. All reports say they are fast, smooth and confident.
Results charts:
www.cupexperience.com
"I think Artemis came out on top and really just made fewer mistakes" - Jimmy Spithill
ORACLE TEAM USA skipper James Spithill weighs in on recent practice racing period, saying "we learned a heap out of this, as I'm sure that everyone did,"
Now the real work begins- debriefing and applying lessons learned.
Are Land Rover BAR Off The Pace?
Yachting World's Elaine Bunting chats to columnist Andy Rice about the America's Cup team preparations, from early signs of a lack of speed in Land Rover BAR to clues there may be some structural issues at Artemis Racing.
Listen to the interview:
soundcloud.com
Entire St Helier RNLI Lifeboat Crew Resign
All 25 members of the St Helier Lifeboat crew on Jersey have resigned along with five members of the admin & management team. It follows a meeting between the boats Coxswain, Andy Hibbs and the RNLI yesterday where he was asked to stand down, according to an ITV News report.
The Lifeboat organisation have released the following statement:
Due to breaches of the RNLI's Volunteer Code of Conduct, the RNLI has asked one volunteer at St Helier lifeboat station to stand down with immediate effect. Other volunteers have chosen to step down, which has forced the RNLI to declare the St Helier lifeboats off service temporarily.
The RNLI has a duty of care to our volunteers and those we rescue, and must provide a safe and effective lifesaving service. We understand the impact of standing down volunteers and we do not take such decisions lightly.
We are working hard to bring in extra support and put the St Helier all-weather lifeboat back on service in the next couple of days.
In the meantime, we are working with our colleagues across the emergency services to provide an effective maritime rescue service.
Out of respect to all those involved in this confidential process we cannot go into more detail.
- RNLI Spokesperson
The official crew statement reads in part:
We as a crew all devastated by the position that we have been put in. Each of us loves lifeboating and the camaraderie that comes with it, but because of this strong bond, and just like when on a shout, you stand behind the man at the wheel.
We therefore feel we are unable to return to our roles at this time without Andy returning to his and we await the result of his appeal, hoping that a sensible outcome will allow both sides to move forward for the good of both the RNLI and St Helier Lifeboat Station and hopefully we can return to the good relationship of old.
For the avoidance of doubt, if Andy was reinstated to his former position while the appeal process is undertaken then we would return to our posts immediately, saving the charity and the Island of Jersey considerable cost. Equally, if there was an emergency of a serious nature which required the expertise of Andy and his crew, all the Coastguard or RNLI need to do is to call Andy on his mobile and we would all respond immediately.
Yours, the crew of St Helier Lifeboat
A petition to "Bring Andy Hibbs back"
Sailing In The Sky
Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, has transported New Zealand Aotearoa - Emirates Team New Zealand's race boat - from Auckland to Bermuda in advance of the Louis Vuitton America's Cup sailing competition.
The high-tech sailing boat had to be disassembled into smaller parts - two hulls, two wings, beams, rudders and other equipment. The loading process took four hours.
Emirates Team New Zealand's complete shipment weighed slightly more than 44 tonnes.
At more than eight tonnes, the team's chase boat was the heaviest individual component in the shipment. The largest items in the shipment were the ship's two hulls which measured over 15 metres each in length.
Three ground crew from Emirates Team New Zealand travelled with the equipment onboard the plane for the flight which lasted 18 hours and 50 minutes, including a 90-minute stopover in Los Angeles.
Emirates said it would have taken six weeks to transport the boat over sea from Auckland to Bermuda.
Laurent Giles Celebrates 90 Years Of Yacht Design
It's not often that yacht-design spheres get to hear of a monumental milestone that is the 90th anniversary. Unfortunately, the fickle and unforgiving nature of our industry can create an unsettling environment for independent studios, especially those that prefer to stay slightly below the radar. But for Laurent Giles Naval Architects, the portfolio is flourishing with new opportunities, as well as a new direction for the naval architects.
'Understated' is the word that comes to mind as we sit in the bare brick Laurent Giles studio, surrounded by numerous tank test models of previous projects. "I don't really realise how busy we are, or how busy we've been, because we don't go around telling everybody what we're doing or how we're doing it," says David Lewis, who believes that a modest approach to marketing is a key ingredient to the company ethos.
"Although it may not look like it, we're currently working on a 24m fast boat, a 98m, a 120m and a 150m, says Lewis, who points out that his small team of seven are quite capable of coping with this high volume of projects."
Laurent Giles has gone through numerous different stages since the company was established in 1927. "When the company was founded, yacht designers would also be the naval architects, so the role has completely transformed," explains Lewis. Now, however, there are countless roles in the industry that work together to pull a project through the design phase, which can often lead to a stagnation of a project, when the shipyard team is presented a concept where the naval architecture is yet to be developed or accounted for. As Lewis points out, in this scenario, "custom projects can be altered so much that shipyards give what they want to a client, rather than what the client wants" he says.
Full story in SuperYachtNews
Energy Challenge and Imerys Announce Extended Ocean Racing Partnership
Following a successful podium place in last year's Class 40 Championship, the continued support of Imerys as Title Partner will enable skipper Phil Sharp and the Energy Challenge to aim for top results in the highlights of the offshore racing calendar, including the 2017 Transat Jacques Vabre and the 2018 Route du Rhum. Through the offshore racing circuit, the Challenge aims to prototype a stand-alone hydrogen-electric energy system as a practical zero-CO2 solution for replacing fossil fuels in the boating sector.
The partnership aims to advance efficiency and energy security of the clean hydrogen-electric prototype through the application of Imerys minerals. This includes the development of a new performance battery pack, as well as the application of their materials in non-slip solar technology and fuel cell membranes for increased efficiency.
The renewed partnership is a significant step towards the Energy Challenge's intention to compete in the next 2020 Vendee Globe, for which it is looking for additional partners to expand the project further in order to progress to the IMOCA 60 race class.
Through a competitive entry in the Vendee Globe, the Energy Challenge aims to become the first yacht to complete a non-stop circumnavigation without fossil fuels, and importantly demonstrate the performance and reliability advantages of renewable, hydrogen-electric technologies over conventional diesel power units.
The Energy Challenge aims for podium results on zero CO2 © PS Racing
Oh Well...
The Claim That Gin 'Speeds Up Your Metabolism' Is Total Nonsense
Gin is the in-vogue drink of choice for everyone from hipsters and city slickers to the yachting classes, nowadays. So, if you recently came across the headline "Drinking gin can speed up your metabolism, scientists say," you'd probably like to buy a shot for the obscure Latvian researchers who made the discovery.
However, the story has been both shaken and stirred. According to news reports, the study found that a shot of gin can speed up your metabolism and can be used to burn off calories and lose weight. The researchers from the University of Sigulda in Latvia supposedly published their findings in the journal Food & Nature, where they concluded this health kick was likely to be associated with gin's antioxidant-rich juniper berries.
Study author Professor Thisa Lye reportedly said: "Consumption of gin resulted in a marked increase in metabolic rate, which indicates the spirit may have a slimming effect on the body."
Before you crack out the tonic water and a lemon, there's something very off about all this.
We snooped around a bit and found that the lead author, Professor Thisa Lye, doesn't appear on PubMed - an online database of references and abstracts on life sciences studies. A quick search on Google also shows that the University of Sigulda and the journal Food & Nature do not exist, other than in news stories about this weightloss-miracle discovery.
The story first gathered steam through an article on Yahoo Style, originally written and syndicated by Prima magazine, published on April 1...
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The Last Word
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