Grant Simmer joins British America's Cup team | Close action forecast for Mirpuri Foundation In-Port Race Lisbon | What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine | Wight Vodka Best Yachting Bar | Golden Globe Race 2018 will be based in France | Launch of a giant of the seas | Mobile is EVERYTHING | Record Number Of Boats In Sir Durward 100 Regatta | David Gower named new Chairman of Cowes Classics Week | Nicholas O'Leary Reveals Ireland Ocean Racing's IMOCA 60 | 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
Grant Simmer joins British America's Cup team
The British America's Cup team, Land Rover BAR, led by Sir Ben Ainslie have today added a wealth of experience to their challenge with the announcement that four times America's Cup winner Grant Simmer will be joining the team as CEO.
Simmer has competed in 10 America's Cup cycles, winning sport's oldest international trophy four times. His first came as the young navigator aboard Australia II's, during their historic victory in 1983, breaking America's 132-year stronghold on the Cup. It was the first time in the competition's history that the trophy had left American shores. The Australian born sailor/designer has gone on to win the America's Cup three further times as head of design, managing director and general manager with Swiss team Alinghi and more recently with ORACLE TEAM USA.
Grant Simmer will take responsibility for the sporting and performance side of Land Rover BAR alongside Team Principal Ben Ainslie, with the focus on winning the America's Cup.
Martin Whitmarsh will continue as an advisor to the team and CEO of BAR Technologies, formed to commercialise technologies developed through the America's Cup team.
The BAR Technologies business has grown at considerable pace in the last few months under Whitmarsh's leadership, with some exciting projects already well advanced.
Close action forecast for Mirpuri Foundation In-Port Race Lisbon
The second in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 will be held in Lisbon starting at 14:00 UTC on Friday afternoon.
Seven teams will take the start of the Mirpuri Foundation In-Port Race on Friday afternoon at 14:00 local time (UTC).
This is the second in the Volvo Ocean Race In Port Race Series. In Alicante, MAPFRE beat Dongfeng Race Team with Vestas 11th Hour Racing completing the podium.
The forecast is for moderate 10 to 15 knot southwesterly winds.
For that wind direction, the length of the race course is likely to be confined by the banks of the Tagus River, so Principal Race Officer Bill O'Hara is anticipating the course will be short, with at least three, and possibly up to four, laps. The target time for the race is 60-minutes.
With so many manoeuvres required on the short course, boat handling is sure to be a determining factor for success on Friday.
Seahorse November 2017
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
World news
Maxis keep getting better (and faster), the pressure on the (runaway) favourite, back around the wrong way, bucking the (IRC) trend, big shoes to fill, Multi 50 resurgence, Hamo is rebuilt and a Caribbean we can help to rebuild. Ivor Wilkins, Dobbs Davis, Patrice Carpentier, Carlos Pich, Blue Robinson
Children of chaos
All agree that the foiling Nacra 17 is a stunning Olympic machine. Not everyone is thrilled with the problems of joining the fleet. Rob Kothe
No optical illusion
For code sails the challenge of mid girth measurement used to be all about hanging the washing off the leech…
Saving the whale (from us)
We need to hit fewer very large objects while out at sea - our largest known mammals would certainly not disagree
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Wight Vodka Best Yachting Bar
Tonight we celebrate the first winner of the Wight Vodka Best Yacht Bar competition, a lovely bar restaurant in the Azores: Peters Cafe Sport (pictured at right)
From Travelling Claus:
Cafe Sport, or Peters Bar as it is also known as, is located on a tiny island on the Azores, in the mid Atlantic, but is world famous among people who love sailing.
Once upon a time, about 20 years ago, before we all got internet, Peters Bar was the most important post office in the world for long distance sailors. This was the place where trans Atlantic sailors had their mail sent to on a Poste Restante address and this was the place where you picked up gossip about people in the sailing world, as well as changing their currency in to portuguese escudos. These days you can still pick up some gossip, but the Poste Restante thing is almost gone with the arrival of email, but the bar is still going strong and attracting hundreds of long distance sailors every year, as other foreign visitors and many locals who like to hang out there for a drink too.
The real name of the cafe is Cafe Sport, which you will see on the sign as you enter, but the cafe is actually known better as Peters Cafe. The odd thing though, is that there was never a guy called Peter there. The Peter name comes from the second World War, where the previous owner was a young man and working on a battle ship, where one of the American soldiers thought he looked like his teenage son Peter, so he called him that even if his name was Henrique.
The cafe is decorated with hundreds of flags and pennants that has been donated by the thousands of ships that has been passing by over the years, as the Azores is the natural stop over point for sailing boats crossing the Atlantic ocean from the Caribbean to Europe during spring months. Upstairs they have a fascinating collection of scrimshaw (painted whale teeth) and down in the main bar you have bar food being served during day time hours and live music a couple of times a week. -- travellingclaus.com/peters-bar/
This year we have two categories: Best in the Caribbean (to those still standing AND those who have been hit very hard by hurricanes)
Tell us your stories about YOUR favorite bar: scuttlebutteurope.com/sailors-bars
And take a moment please to donate to a terrific fund helping the sailing and tourist industry recover from the hurricanes: www.sailaiduk.com
Golden Globe Race 2018 will be based in France
Brexit is being blamed after it was announced a major yacht race will be moved to France.
The Golden Globe Race was originally in Falmouth but was nabbed by Plymouth earlier this year.
Now it will be held in Les Sables d'Olonne on Sunday July 1.
Plymouth City Council described the move as 'disappointing'.
It is the second time the event marking the 50th anniversary of the original event in 1968/9 has changed venues, with a lack of a sponsors and Brexit blamed.
Spokesman Barry Pickthall explained: 'We had major sponsors lined up, but no one knows what is happening with Brexit and because of that uncertainty no one wants to spend money. We are by no means the only sporting event affected by this. We feel that we exhausted every avenue before making this decision.
'In contrast, Les Sables d'Olonne were ready and willing to offer significant amounts of support for the start and the build up and had sponsors lined up to help pay for the event.'
The move is a blow for Plymouth as boating fans from across the Europe would have descended on the city however the city council said they could not commit to supporting the event.
The race was set to be held in Plymouth in July 2018.
"The Sables d'Olonne agglomeration, the city and the Vendee partners will be happy to offer the Vendee Globe channel and public support to these adventurers who will take off from Les Sables on July 1, 2018, 50 years after Sir Robin Knox -Johnston, Bernard Moitessier and their companions on the "long route". The Golden Globe Race is also an opportunity for Les Sables d'Olonne to reinforce its popularity with lovers of the sea all around the world. This is a maritime adventure with a capital "A". Welcome to Les Sables d'Olonne! "
Launch of a giant of the seas
Designed to be helmed singlehanded around the globe by her skipper Armel Le Cleac'h, this extraordinary boat joins the first Ultimate multihull to be issued by CDK Technologies back in 2015, Francois Gabart's trimaran MACIF. Perhaps her most striking feature is the installation of foils and rudders with lifting surfaces (fins enabling the adjustment of the boat's longitudinal trim). These appendages should translate as speeds never before achieved by boats of this size by aiming for extensive 'flight' situations.
CDK Technologies successfully launched into the manufacture of large-scale carbon masts in 2015, with the delivery of an innovative 42m mast.
Sticking to this approach and taking advantage of the supreme performance of its 50m autoclave, which is the only one of its kind in Europe capable of creating wing masts, CDK Technologies has devised for this boat a particularly innovative technique for manufacturing large masts, enabling the design of the profile to be optimised, whilst making the spar more lightweight. This 100% CDK technology has also been applied to the manufacture of the Banque Populaire IX's boom.
A derivative of the solutions fine-tuned in the America's Cup, a unique system for manoeuvring the foils (these huge aileron-style appendages added to the floats) lies at the heart of the successful, innovative approach by Team Banque Populaire in collaboration with the teams at CDK Technologies.
Mobile is EVERYTHING
To solve that, Google engineers built two new technologies: Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Progressive Web App (PWA). AMP gets cached and served BY google. Your page loads in 1-2 seconds. And gets some prime real estate in google search. A superb entrance into your site.
PWA turns your website into an app. One that you can add to screen and acts like a "native" app.... without having to go through App stores. It solves the second / third / subsequent page load time issues. And works "offline".
We connect AMP and PWA.
Read our case study: sailingsource.com/case-study
If your website is built in either WordPress or Joomla, contact us for a quote and get onto the next revolution on the web.
Record Number Of Boats In Sir Durward 100 Regatta
The Sir Durward 100 Regatta - a joint effort by the National Family Island Regatta, the Bahamas Sailing Association and the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources with responsibility for regattas - featured the top talents in sloop sailing and international sailing in the country.
Winners in the sloop sailing segment of the regatta included A Class - Red Stripe; B Class - Ants Nest; C Class - It Ain't Right and E Class - Judgement Day.
The regatta also featured international Olympic-style boats in the regatta with participation from all of the clubs across the country. This field will feature Optimist sailing for children aged 8-15, Sunfish, Laser, International 420s and Snipes.
This segment featured 81 boats making it the largest event including international sailing the Bahamas has ever hosted.
Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Renward Wells, whose portfolio includes responsibilities for regattas, outlined the impact that he expects the regatta will have.
"Too often we are not given our due while we are alive and it is so wonderful to see a man who has lived for nearly 100 years, the world's oldest Olympian, made the Bahamas proud through his life had an impact on my life as a track and field athletes and contributed to many others who have gone on to Olympic and world championships fame. You never know how far your contribution can go or boost the person you are assisting, but I say with certainty that it is because of individuals like Sir Durward and their contribution I can stand here as the Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources.
The legendary Olympic sailor celebrates his 100th birthday on November 2 and competition in the free-for-all regatta serves as a means of "giving back and saying thank you" to Knowles, the oldest living Olympic champion in the world.
Sir Durward was present at the regatta for much of Saturday evening to award the winners of the essay competition so was not present for the finale, but his daughter Charlotte accepted the honour of the regatta on behalf of the family.
David Gower named new Chairman of Cowes Classics Week
The event is managed by the Royal London Yacht Club with support from the other Cowes Clubs for both on and off the water organisation. Gill Smith, the first ever lady Rear Commodore of the Royal London since its foundation in 1838, is PRO for the second year running. She is supported by a team of around 80 dedicated volunteers.
Part of the success of Cowes Classics Week is the organisers' close relationship with the competitors. A representative from every class along with the event's race officers gather for a wash up meeting held towards the end of October each year, enabling comments to be considered and changes to be made if required.
Cowes Classics Week will be held on 23 - 27 July 2018.
Nicholas O'Leary Reveals Ireland Ocean Racing's IMOCA 60
Ireland Ocean Racing, the team behind Nicholas O'Leary's 2020 Vendee Globe Challenge, are back in Dun Laoghaire, this time with their own IMOCA 60 racing yacht.
O'Leary has just completed the Rolex Middle Sea Race where with Alex Thomson in the IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss they have turned in a virtuoso offshore performance to be third home across the line, bested only by the significantly larger Rambler and the 100ft Leopard.
The new boat for O'Leary is the former Great American IV, an Owen Clarke designed boat from 2006 aboard which Dominique Wavre took part twice in the Vendee Globe (retired in 2008/2009, 7th in 2012/2013). This 60-footer has clocked up an impressive number of miles. She has taken part in two Barcelona World Races, the double-handed round the world race and one Route du Rhum.
Bought by the American solo sailor Rich Wilson in 2013, the boat underwent an important refit in late 2014-early 2015 after being struck by lightning.
For his debut Vendee Globe, the young Irish skipper has a boat which has shown herself to be reliable if he intends doing the race in her or just using her for a training boat. Aboard this very same boat, Dominique Wavre completed the race in 90 days in 2013.
Only 100 sailors have succeeded in sailing single-handed non-stop around the world and no Irish sailor has yet completed the Vendee Globe.
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The Last Word
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