In This Issue
Wild Oats XI first across the line in battle on Derwent | Clipper Race - Rolex Sydney Hobart ETAs | Where Sailing Comes First but the Rum is a Close Second? | HP30 Class | World Sailing Show | Wight Vodka Best Yachting Bar | AkzoNobel completes tortuous third leg of Volvo Ocean Race | Omega 24h speed record in Leg 3 Volvo Ocean Race for Team Brunel | Crew Changes for Leg 4 | A Unique Race for All | 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
Wild Oats XI first across the line in battle on Derwent
Mark Richards has steered the Oatley family's Wild Oats XI to her ninth Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours victory after a protracted battle with Jim Cooney's LDV Comanche on Tasmania's River Derwent this evening, reclaiming the race record Anthony Bell's Perpetual LOYAL took from her last year.
Wild Oats XI smashed last year's record of one day 13hrs 31mins 20secs by after crossing the Castray Esplanade finish line at 21:48:50 this evening, in the new time of one day 8hrs 48mins 50secs, taking 4hrs 42mins 30secs of Perpetual LOYAL's time.
This is a record ninth line honours for Wild Oats and a third record - nobody in the history of the race has achieved this honour before.
But will she hold on to line honours? LDV Comanche is flying the protest flag she raised after an incident after the start and then advised in the first sked she would be protesting Wild Oats XI. LDV Comanche must file her protest within six hours of finishing.
But in the meantime, Richards and his 20 crew members were celebrating their victory to huge cheers at the dock in Hobart tonight, spraying Champagne Mumm over each other as the huge crowd waited for LDV Comanche to also finish.
The J.H. Illingworth Trophy looked set to be in the hands of Jim Cooney, who recently purchased the 2015 boat dubbed the 'aircraft carrier' due to her girth. Boat and crew revelled in the strong north-easterly wind, but in the end, Wild Oats XI held her ground and showed her superiority in the extremely light breeze both boats found on rounding Tasman Island that at times stopped both yachts in their tracks. -- Di Pearson
Clipper Race - Rolex Sydney Hobart ETAs
Just 16 nautical miles separate the top half of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race fleet, as the eleven teams begin their final 24 hours of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Australian Skipper of Sanya Serenity Coast and veteran of eleven Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Races, Wendy Tuck, has some work to do, with the reigning Clipper 70 Class champion dropping out of the lead overnight.
Wendy, who was the first female Skipper across the line in Hobart in 2015, and her Sanya Serenity Coast team are currently estimated to finish sixth, arriving between midday and 1600 on Friday 29 December (0100 - 0500 UTC).
PSP Logistics, whose Skipper Matt Mitchell is competing in his second Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, is currently in line to take out the Clipper 70 Class win, after gybing away from the rest of the pack. Whilst the move initially saw the team drop from first to eleventh position, it has certainly paid off, with the team currently estimated to arrive first between 0900 and 1300 Friday 29 December (2200 - 0200 UTC).
Visit Seattle's Nikki Henderson, who is both the youngest Skipper in both the Clipper Race and Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, is currently battling Qingdao, GREAT Britain, and Unicef for a spot on the podium, and is estimated to arrive between 1100 and 1500 Friday 29 December (0000 - 0400 UTC).
More than 200 crew from all walks of life and representing 26 different nationalities are taking part in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, which doubles as Race 5 of the Clipper 2017-18 Race.
The Clipper Race fleet will be berthed at the King's Pier Marina. After ringing in 2018 in Hobart, the teams will then turn their attention to the final stage of the All-Australian Leg 4, from Hobart to Airlie Beach, where the crew will be welcomed by the Whitsundays Clipper Race Carnival, which will run from 13 to 29 of January.
Where Sailing Comes First but the Rum is a Close Second?
Big warm seas, consistent trade winds, challenging round the buoys racing and the best shoreside parties in the Caribbean sum up the phenomenon that is Antigua Sailing Week. Preceded by an optional race, the Peters & May Round Antigua Race featuring 52 nm of perfect pre-ASW tune up for new teams, followed by five days of racing off Antigua's south coast and interrupted by a beach day, this is a regatta not to miss.
Classes include Big Boat, Racing, Sport Boat, Cruising, Multihull, Bareboat and Club Class. Daily prize givings at Antigua Yacht Club are legendary as is the final awards party hosted in historic UNESCO-accredited Nelson's Dockyard.
Bragging rights, the best silverware and a photo op with the Queen's representative, the Governor General mean you get the best of all worlds - professionally run race management, incredible history and Caribbean beaches, parties and English Harbour Rum.
Mix that with a Fever-Tree ginger beer and you have the Perfect Storm.
HP30 Class
Class numbers have grown substantially in the last five weeks, since RORC Rating agreed to support the class; generously helping to re-establish the class limits.
In recent weeks the fleet size has increased from a committed five boats, to eight solid entries for the whole season. With six more coming from overseas to participate in the bigger events of the series, including, the Round the Island Race and Lendy Cowes Week, the fleet size is expected to be in the mid-teens, by summer.
The class has now been offered class starts for the International Paints Poole Regatta 2018, Round the Island Race and Lendy Cowes Week, where the boats will enjoy a four day mini-series regatta at the beginning of the week as well as the more traditional courses for the balance of the competition.
In addition to these events, the HP30 Class is continuing to discuss Class starts and extracted results at the other events listed.
The consensus is that the Points Series competition must be easy to enter, with teams having to participate in no fewer than five events to qualify. The final score for the season will be determined from each team's best four scores from the events listed below:
- Royal Southern May Regatta
- Vice Admiral's Cup
- International Paints Poole Regatta 2018 & HP30 Nationals
- Royal Southern June Regatta
- Round the Island Race
- Royal Southern July Regatta
- Lendy Cowes Week
- Dartmouth Regatta
- Royal Southern September Regatta
- HP30 Points Series Finale
London Boat Show 10th : 14th January
The HP30 Class will be represented at London Boat Show, on the boardwalk at the heart of the show. HP30 Class Manager Joe Hall will be on stand LD090B ready to answer any questions and talk through the various options available to owners and teams wanting to get involved.
World Sailing Show
The World Sailing Show gets aboard Phil Sharp and Pablo Santurde' s Class 40 Imerys for a full-on, double handed 4,000 mile sleigh ride south to see how the pair took the coveted overall season title.
Also heading south, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet descended on Cape Town. With 7,000 miles under their belts, stomachs were starting to churn among the crew at the thought of the next 6,500 across the notorious Southern Ocean - they tell the World Sailing Show why. What will make the new America's Cup boat be so quick? Cup guru Grant Simmer explains in an exclusive interview.
We take a look at two major new world records set at very different ends of the scale. We also find out how to compete in a world championships without getting your feet wet. Plus, were back in China, this time for the Youth World Championships.
- Volvo Ocean Race Leg 2 & 3
- How & why the new America's Cup boat will work
- Aboard Imerys - How the Class 40 season title was won
- eSailing World Championships
- Gabart smashes solo world record
- Youth Worlds Sanya, China
Wight Vodka Best Yachting Bar
In support of SailAid UK
A close race for the Best Caribbean Bar with four bars within 50 votes of each other.. St. Thomas Yacht Club, Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke, Willy T's on Norman Island BVI and The Soggy Dollar also on Jost Van Dyke.
Jost Van Dyke is a short hop from St. Johns (your humble narrator did it on a Mistral Superlight sailboard MANY years ago... ) and years ago, the bar got its name from the soaked currency pulled from pockets... as patrons had to anchor and swim ashore. The "Painkiller" drink was born at the Soggy Dollar.
They took a hell of a hit from hurricanens this past fall.
While declaring "the bar isn't going anywhere," the bar's owners have set up a fund to rebuild not just the bar but the other businesses and beaches on JVD. From a statement sent out October 18:
"We are currently in the demolition & stabilization phase here at Soggy Dollar Bar after the devastating visits from Hurricane Irma & Maria, but we assure you that the bar isn't going anywhere! The destruction and tragedy wrecked upon the Virgin Islands are shocking, yet the spirit of the islands will never quit and its a miracle to witness. Our little island of Jost Van Dyke is true to this spirit. Its tiny community is strong and determined - even in the face of this devastation. 'And though she be but little, she is fierce.'- Shakespeare"
Information on where to send funds to the Soggy Dollar - Virgin Islands Community Fund:
To vote for your favorite bars (one from the Caribbean, one from Elsewhere...)
Go to scuttlebutteurope.com/sailors-bars
* A note to the techies and mobile readers headed to that URL to vote.... A faster experience in store for those who prefer to read Eurobutt on the web: If you're using Chrome as the browser on your mobile device, you'll get a prompt to "Add to Screen". That will add an icon, which fires up our Progressive Web App. Faster than normal mobile web and the ability to read pages "offline" without a connection... a bit of whizbang code written by Google and enabled by your humble narrator. Who can do this for YOUR website, chat me up at
AkzoNobel completes tortuous third leg of Volvo Ocean Race
Team AkzoNobel has arrived in Melbourne, Australia at the end of the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race around the world - a punishing 12,000 nautical-mile passage through the wilds of the Southern Ocean from Cape Town, South Africa.
The international crew of seven men and two women led by Netherlands yachtsman Simeon Tienpont finished the leg in seventh place, well behind the rest of the fleet, after badly damaging the mast and mainsail of their Volvo Ocean 65 racing yacht in strong winds and big seas four days after leaving Cape Town.
The damage occurred when the boat capsized during a gybe in 45 knots of wind and mountainous waves on December 14 deep in the Southern Ocean close to the Volvo Ocean Race's Antarctic Ice Exclusion Zone.
The impact of the wipe-out wrenched large sections of the mainsail track off the back face of the mast, broke several of the horizontal carbon battens that help give the sail its aerodynamic shape in the wind, as well as puncturing the mainsail itself in several places.
Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18, a complex 11,000-kilometer northerly passage from Melbourne to Hong Kong, is scheduled to begin on Tuesday January 2 - meaning the weary team AkzoNobel sailors will have just four days recovery time ashore before they are back in competitive action once again.
Team AkzoNobel crew list for Leg 3:
Simeon Tienpont (NED) - skipper
Brad Farrand (NZL)
Justin Ferris (NZL)
Martine Grael (BRA)
Emily Nagel (GBR/BER)
Chris Nicholson (AUS)
Alex Pella (ESP)
Jules Salter (GBR)
Nicolai Sehested (DEN)
Omega 24h speed record in Leg 3 Volvo Ocean Race for Team Brunel
Team Brunel took the Omega 24 hour speed record for Leg 3 on Sunday December 25th. Team Brunel took the 24 hour record for this Southern Ocean stage with a distance of 538.1 nautical miles. A distance good for an average speed of 22.4 knots.
Bouwe Bekking: "We are getting closer to the podium. In the last days of the past leg even literally. It's nice that we take such a record, but the process is way more important. As long as every next day is better than the day before, things are going well. The learning curve of both the (young) individual sailors and the team as a whole is high at the moment. "
Huisman: "I think the Omega 24 hours record shows that we have done everything to really push the boat and ourselves. Especially in the second part of the stage when it was a little bit less windy. In the end we came close to the leading pack but it was not enough, not yet. "
www.teambrunel.com
www.volvooceanrace.com
Crew Changes for Leg 4
Dongfeng Race Team has called up Justine Mettraux for Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Melbourne to Hong Kong.
The Swiss sailor, who competed in 2014-15 as part of the all-female Team SCA, will join the Chinese entry as they sit second overall in the 2017-18 edition.
She will replace French Olympian and four-time Nacra 17 world champion Marie Riou, who is taking a break from Charles Caudrelier's crew as part of a planned rotation after a brutal and relentless Southern Ocean leg, and will return for Leg 5 from Hong Kong to Auckland.
The British sailor Annie Lush, who faced an injury last week in Leg 3, will not be part of the Team Brunel crew leaving Melbourne and heading to Hong Kong on January 2, 2018 for Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race. Lush needs to focus on her recovery first. Lush is replaced by American Sally Barkow, teammate of Lush and Ehler in the previous Volvo Ocean Race on board Team SCA.
Lush was examined at the hospital on the 25th of December after arriving in Melbourne. The research had shown that she has broken two bones in her foot and one in her back. An operation is not necessary, rest is sufficient.
A Unique Race for All
The 2018 Antigua Bermuda Race will start on May 9, 2018, organised by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in association with Antigua Sailing Week. The 935 mile offshore race is supported by the Bermuda Tourism Authority and Goslings Rum. Yachts of 40ft and over will be racing under the IRC, ORCsy, PCS and the CSA Racing Rules, with the latter amended to permit boats to use their engines, subject to a time penalty.
Early entries for the second edition of the Antigua Bermuda Race promise a variety of yachts, including hi-tech ocean racers, luxury bluewater yachts and performance cruisers. In addition, Gosling Rum continues their support, ensuring a superb party in Nelson's Dockyard Antigua prior to the start, and a memorable Prize Giving at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. It is expected that many of the 25+ Atlantic Anniversary Regatta participants will join the race in anticipation of their July race from Bermuda to Hamburg.
Fresh from their success as overall winners of the 2017 RORC Transatlantic Race, the first leg of the Atlantic Anniversary Regatta, Eric de Turckheim's Nivelt-Muratet 54 Teasing Machine has confirmed their entry and will be a strong contender for the IRC Racing Division.
Oyster Yachts Chief Executive Officer, David Tydeman has confirmed that there will be an Oyster Class for the Antigua Bermuda Race.
Jeremi Jablonski's American Hanse 43 Avanti was runner-up in both IRC and the CSA Classes last year and returns full of enthusiasm for the Antigua Bermuda Race: "First of all you have the safety of travelling in a large organised group, and the friendly competition brings more excitement to our passage making," commented Jablonski. "The camaraderie before, during and after the race makes it a very unique event, as you can meet racing and cruising sailors alike."
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The Last Word
Malaria is a disease that kills one to three million people a year. 300 to 500 million cases are reported. It's estimated that Africa loses about 13 billion dollars a year to the disease. Five dollars can save a life. We can send people to the moon; we can see if there's life on Mars - why can't we get five-dollar nets to 500 million people? -- Jacqueline Novogratz
Editorial and letter submissions to
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