In This Issue
Rolex Fastnet Race: The Doublehanders | Youth Match Racing World Championship | A new breed of carbon racer the Ben Rogerson Yacht Design's BR31 | Dogs off Chains at Lendy's Cowes Week | ... But in Palma... Lighter Than Usual | Twenty Five Years On, 36 Copa del Rey MAPFRE Honours its 1992 Olympic Heroes | Timeless (and fast) The Swan 60 | 49er/49erFX/Nacra17 European Championship | Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag name crew for Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 | 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

Rolex Fastnet Race: The Doublehanders
Thanks to our modern day lifestyles, a frequent problem facing race boats owners is finding willing and available crew. One solution is to sail with less people, an ultimate expression of this being two handed racing. Therefore it is no surprise that the IRC Two Handed class in this Sunday's Rolex Fastnet Race has swelled, with 60 boats entered (plus nine IMOCA 60s). This was also helped by the outcome of the 2013 race, famously won for the first time ever by a two handed crew - Pascal and Alexis Loison on the JPK 10.10, Night and Day.

So far in the 2017 RORC Season's Championship, leadership of IRC Two Handed has been a fight between two Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600s: Rob Craigie and Deb Fish on Bellino and Ian Hoddle and Ollie Wyatt on Game On. Bellino won the Cervantes Trophy, Myth of Malham and Morgan Cup; Game On the De Guingand Bowl and the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race. Also in the mix were Ed Fishwick and Figaro sailor Nick Cherry on their new 3600, Redshift Reloaded. However come the Channel Race, the first occasion the Loisins raced this year, they blitzed it, winning by an hour on corrected from Game On and Bellino.

Bellino's Rob Craigie, who currently leads IRC Two Handed overall, has been racing shorthanded since the 1990, both doublehanded and solo - he was class winner and second home in the 2009 OSTAR transatlantic race from Plymouth to Newport. His co-skipper, Deb Fish was also a solo sailor who campaigned a Sun Fast 3200.

But the real grand masters of doublehanding are the IMOCA 60 sailors. And of them king is Jean-Pierre Dick, who has won two Barcelona World Races, two handed non-stop around the world and three Transat Jacques Vabres, two handed west across the Atlantic. Previous co-skippers included Damian Foxall, Loick Peyron and Jeremie Beyou. This time he is racing his foil-assisted StMichel-Virbac with three time Solitaire du Figaro winner, Yann Elies.

JP Dick: "I have better knowledge of the boat while Yann is bringing his new view and has a lot more experience of the Channel from his Figaro racing. But we also need to enjoy it and not argue too much! Fortunately we are both 'senior' sailors now and we have similar thinking."

As to their sleep - Dick says that they will have a rough watch system, while keeping it flexible, according to the conditions and the workload.

He is also looking forward to seeing how his VPLP-Verdier IMOCA 60 behaves now she is out of 'Vendee mode', substantially lightened and with better optimised ballast and keel weight.

Click for the wind predictions for the Rolex Fastnet Race from Squid and Mike Broughton.

The 47th running of the legendary 605-nm Rolex Fastnet Race starts from RYS, Cowes on Sunday 6th August. First start sequence: 1100.

fastnet.rorc.org

Youth Match Racing World Championship
Balboa Yacht Club, Newport Beach, California: Two southern hemisphere skippers, George Anyon (NZL) and Harry Price (AUS), who is the #6 ranked match racer in the world, maintained their perfect records going 2-0 on the day and are now 7-0 for the regatta.

Italy's Ettore Botticini was the only skipper to lose ground on the leaderboard today, day two of the Youth Match Racing World Championship.

But with 5 wins on Tuesday, Botticini still remains in third place after seven flights in the "round robin" stage of the championship hosted by Balboa Yacht Club.

While Price and Anyon are leading the pack and are clear favorites for semifinal slots, there are a number of competitors who could join them in that all-important stage of the championship.

Botticini is one point ahead of two American teams led by Greiner Hobbs (Tampa, FL) and local favorite, Charlie Welsh (Newport Beach, CA) who both have four points, as does Matt Whitfield from Great Britain.

Whitfield provided the most exciting moment of the day with a penalty turn at the finish line in his match with Botticini.

Whitfield had built a ten boat-length lead over the Italian skipper, and elected to take the penalty by doing a painfully slow circle around the "pin" end of the finish line as Botticini quickly closed in thanks to some breeze from behind.

As Whitfield completed his penalty turn, Botticini tried to squeeze between Whitfield and the pin, incurring two penalties in the process. Race over, win to Whitfield.

sailing.org

A new breed of carbon racer
For racing sailors seeking action packed, high level performance, Fast 40+ style racing at a fraction of the cost, the BR31 offers similar features and feel.

This high-end, affordable, semi-custom racer, from Ben Rogerson Yacht Design has been optimized so you can compete under ORC or DLR, and as a highly competitive HP30 Class contender.

Designed for a maximum crew of seven, and packed with many of the features found at the top of the sport. The BR31 appeals to sailors seeking to make the step up from smaller sports boats, and those wanting a smaller and exciting alternative within IRC & ORC racing.

- High quality construction and British build
- Lightweight carbon fibre construction
- Fast competitive IRC & ORC racing
- Performance options available
- Estimated IRC Tcc: 1.14

www.bryd.uk/yacht-designs/br31

Dogs off Chains at Lendy's Cowes Week
Photo by Ingrid Abery, www.ingridabery.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

Today delivered big winds to the largest yachts at Lendy Cowes Week, which have been competing in the Sevenstar Triple Crown series over the past three days.

A sharp shower, with gusts close to 35 knots, blasted across the start area as the warning signal for the Sevenstar Maxi Racer and Ocean Racer competitors was fired. A minute before the first start Ludde Ingvall and Sir Michael Hintze's 100ft super maxi CQS bore away in a flurry of spray to head for the line, before blasting downwind towards the more sheltered waters of the eastern Solent.

A measure of the conditions was that only seven of the 16 IRC Class 0 entries came out to play. Igor Yakunin's Ker 46 Lady Mariposa R led the fleet into the line, but it was not long before Tony Langley's TP52 Gladiator overtook, both boats surfing fast on top of the waves in the tidal race off Prince Consort, even though neither hoisted spinnakers until well east of the town. With their kites set the leaders flew downwind at speeds of more than 25 knots, reaching their first leeward mark off Portsmouth little more than 30 minutes after the start.

Gladiator took line honours at the end of their 24-mile race, with a sizeable margin on her competitors. Lady Mariposa R was next to approach the finish line, slamming heavily in the steep chop, with the hull forward of the mast leaping out of the wave crests and the whole mainsail flogging in the stronger gusts.

However, less than 200 metres before the finish line she tacked and dropped the headsail, much to the surprise of both the crowds assembled on shore and race officials at the Royal Yacht Squadron. A structural failure had let the jib tack fly free, so that sail was replaced with a tiny staysail and Lady Mariposa R tacked again to finish the race.

Next home, 10 minutes later, was Christian Zugel's MAT1180 Tschuss, followed 90 seconds later by Claudio Pasquali's Mylius 15e25 Ars Una, both of them crossing the line as the gusts spiked to 40 knots.

The breakage on Lady Mariposa meant Yakunin's team failed to beat Langley on corrected time, or to save their time against Christian Zugel's MAT1180 Tschuss and so took third on corrected time. However, a second place in the first race of the series, plus a win in the second race, from which Gladiator was forced to retire, was enough to secure the overall Sevenstar Triple Crown win.

Today's conditions were too severe for the other classes at Lendy Cowes Week to race, but Friday promises a return to perfect conditions, with south westerly winds of around 15 knots and plenty of sun. -- Rupert Holmes

www.lendycowesweek.co.uk

... But in Palma... Lighter Than Usual
Light airs continue to prevail at 36 Copa del Rey MAPFRE on the Bay of Palma where only one race was sailed for many of the monohull classes. Four divisions now have new leaders including Mallorca Sotheby's IRC Class 1 where Andy Soriano's TP52 Alegre stepped two points clear of a 16 strong division which contains ten TP52s of differing design ages.

Soriano is keen to complete his third win in three different boats and classes at the Copa del Rey after triumphing in the Soto 40 class in 2012 and the Mini Maxi in 2013. Today they finished second behind the Marseille crew on Alizee who became the third different TP52 crew to win a race after six starts. The crew from the south of France which sails the former Paprec Recyclage have a young core team which are enjoying the benefits of Alizee's initiative to bring on more young, local ex Olympic classes sailors or match racers.

After their third place today behind Bella Mente and Proteus, Maxi 72 leaders Momo still hold their five points advance but the tussle behind them becomes ever closer. Now just one point separates second overall Bella Mente from Cannonball which dropped to fourth on the leaderboard because of their fourth in today's race. A good start and better speed in the lighter airs today contributed to Bella Mente's win, passing Proteus on the second beat of the one race sailed.

The new Club Swan 50 class had a new winner today in Andrea Masi's Italian team on Ulika. They another crew who have made the jump from being a top team in the Swan 45, adding the tactical talents of Portugal's three times Olympian Diogo Cayolla who most recently won the ORC World Championship on Airis.

H.M. King Felipe VI still leads BMW ORC 1 with a substantial 17pts margin now after their fourth palce in the lighter airs today. The Spanish Navy's Farr 45 may have a big lead but poised in sixth are the Swan 45 Rats on Fire of Rafael Carbonell which has J/80 world champion Rayco Tabares on tactics. Their scoreline is ballasted by a weighty 36pts BFD which they will discard if or when racing takes place Friday which will tighten up the pursuit of Aifos.

There is no net change at the top of BMW ORC 2 or ORC 3, the Rodman 42 Maverta still leading as does Grupo Ceres in ORC 3, so also the Swan 42 leader is still Pez De Abril.

In the GC32 four races were sailed after a long delay, Jason Carroll's Argo winning three times. Pierre Casiraghi's team won the fourth race but Naofumi Kamei's Mamma Autio leads overall by ten clear points.

Full results

Twenty Five Years On, 36 Copa del Rey MAPFRE Honours its 1992 Olympic Heroes
Twenty five years on exactly from the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, nine Spanish sailors who competed at the games and are being honoured at the 36 Copa del Rey MAPFRE this morning. Four of them won gold medals, Domingo Manrique in the Flying Dutchman crewed for Luis Doreste.

Palma's Jordi Calafat took gold as helm in the 470 men. Jose Maria Van der Ploeg sailed to gold in the Finn and (English born!) Theresa Zabell won 470 women's gold with Patricia Guerra. Natalia Vía-Dufresne won silver in the Europe. SM el Rey Felipe VI sailed in the Soling with Fernando Leon. Asier Fernandez raced the Mistral and Jaime Piris was in the Star with Fernando Rita Larrucea.

All were honoured at a reception at the RCNP this morning.

www.regatacopadelrey.com

Timeless (and fast): The Swan 60
The Swan 60 has proved to be one of today's more discrete yet highly successful dual-purpose yachts

There are few marine brands that simultaneously conjure up style, quality, comfort and performance like Nautor Swan. For over half a century Swan have in every sense been delivering value to their owners, whether it's racing, cruising or, most commonly, a combination of both, in ways that have made the dozens of designs built by this Finnish company symbolic of a timeless style of yachting.

Many of the world's best naval architects have contributed experience and expertise to Swan yachts, as they each work to capture a unique balance of style, grace and functionality rarely found in other production builders. Meanwhile, uncompromising attention to detail in build quality allows the yachts to be actively enjoyed for decades rather than years.

Another value to Swan ownership is a professionally managed schedule of racing and cruising events tailored to cater to the high standards expected from Swan customers. Located in some of the most beautiful sailing venues in the world, Swan regattas are rarely less than memorable events!

Full article in the August issue of Seahorse: www.seahorsemagazine.com

49er/49erFX/Nacra17 European Championship
Kiel, Germany: With the all-important Medal Race cutoff kicking in today for all three fleets at the 49er/49erFX/Nacra17 European Championship in Kiel, Germany, all pressure was on the 'bubble' teams to perform at their best. Some rose to the challenge, some quietly snuck in to the last spot, and many were left disappointed after a brutally hard day on the water that included a huge squall and winds from 6-18 knots.

Australia's David Gilmour and Joel Turner are lying second overall going into the final day of racing at the 49er Europeans in Kiel, Germany. Despite three tough races for the Aussies overnight, they are only one point off the first-placed team from Great Britain, Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Stuart Bithell.

Top five, 49er
1. Dylan Fletcher-Scott / Stuart Bithell, GBR, 42.5 points
2. David Gilmour / Joel Turner, AUS, 43.5
3. James Peters / Fynn Sterritt, GBR, 49.5
4. Jacopo Plazzi / Andrea Tesei, ITA, 52
5. Dominik Buksak / Szymon Wierzbicki, POL, 53

Top five, 49erFX
1. Victoria Jurczok / Anika Lorenz, GER, 42.5
2. Charlotte Dobson / Saskia Tidey, GBR, 45
3. Tina Lutz / Susann Beucke, GER, 48.5
4. Chika Hatae / Hiroka Itakura, JPN, 54.5
5. Annemiek Bekkering / Cecile Janmaat, NED, 55

Top five, NACRA
1. Ruggero Tita / Caterina Banti, ITA, 41
2. Lin Ea Cenholt Christiansen / Christian Peter Lubeck, DEN, 51
3. Ben Saxton / Katie Dabson, GBR, 53
4. Fernando Echavarri Erasun / Tara Pacheco Van Rijnsoever, ESP, 55
5. John Gimson / Anna Burnet, GBR, 63

49er.org/event/2017-european-championship/
nacra17.org/events/2017-european-championship/

Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag name crew for Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18
Hong Kong's first ever Volvo Ocean Race entry Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag have named their full crew for the upcoming edition - featuring a mix of rookies and veterans, including a winner from 2014-15 and a history-making navigator back for his sixth edition.

Australian Luke Parkinson, who won the trophy as a rookie onboard Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing last edition, will race as part of skipper David Witt's crew - and he is joined by navigator Steve Hayles, who returns to the event after almost a decade.

Hayles made his debut as a 20-year-old onboard Reebok/Dolphin & Youth in 1993-94 - and still holds the title as the youngest ever navigator to compete in the history of the event.

He went on to make it five consecutive races over 15 years, onboard Silk Cut in 1997-98, Tyco in 2001-02, Ericsson in 2005-06 and Green Dragon in 2008-09.

Also named in Witt's squad are New Zealand's Mark Fullerton, who raced with Brunel in the 2005-06 edition, Briton John Fisher, Hong Kong local Tiger Mok and Australian trio David Mann, Alex Gough and Ben Piggott.

The team, which is backed by Seng Huang Lee and Sun Hung Kai & Co., the Hong Kong-based owner of super-maxi yacht Scallywag, aims to promote competitive sailing in Asia and build a long-lasting youth sailing legacy in the region.

volvooceanrace.com

Featured Brokerage
1997 Maxi 79' Racer - 'OURDREAM'. Price on request. Located in Ravenna, Italy.

Maxi 79 Racer OURDREAM is a beautifully refitted maxi racing yacht that is easily sailed and perfect corporate or fun platform for both inshore and offshore regattas. Recent refit to a high standard means low running costs.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679 222

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She was built in 2002, refitted in 2008 in New Zeeland by the current owner and brought to France in 2012. She has been optimized for the IRC racing. 2016 Rating : TCC = 1.288. Well maintained and ready to go.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

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TRIBULATIONS was designed by Nigel Irens and built with the same mould as Fujicolor (Mike Birch) and Fleury Michon IX (Philippe Poupon). Named Laiterie du Mont Saint Michel in 1987 and skippered by Olivier Moussy, she was then taken over by Olivier Kersauzon as the Esso Super Plus.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact

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

The Last Word
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