In This Issue
Argo Group Gold Cup To Challenge Crews Beginning Tuesday
All change as fleet hits speed bump
Harken At The Front - At The VOR Newport Stopover
Australian Sailing Statement Regarding 2024 Olympic Events Program
Portsmouth Regatta
Training Director
'Waterworks' - solo exhibition of art by Phil Uhl
Royal Cork's 'Beaufort Cup' Teams Seek More Boats, 20 Entered So Far Including Eight J109s
Telefonica Blue joins Legends fleet
Letters to the Editor
Featured Brokerage
The Last Word: Dalai Lama

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

Argo Group Gold Cup To Challenge Crews Beginning Tuesday
Hamilton, Bermuda: The 68th running of the $100,000 Argo Group Gold Cup commences tomorrow with round robin racing scheduled.

The matches in Flight 1 pit Poland's Marek Stanczyk against Australia's Sam Gilmour, Italy's Ettore Botticini against Women's World Match Racing Champion Lucy MacGregor of the U.K., Australia's Torvar Mirsky versus Sweden's Nicklas Dackhammar and Sweden's Johnie Berntsson against Chris Poole of the U.S.

Other skippers in the field include Joachim Aschenbrenner of Denmark, and Taylor Canfield and Charlie Lalumiere, both of the U.S. They'll take to the water in Flight 2.

The field of 11 crews will sail a round robin with the top four advancing to the Quarterfinal Round. The remaining skippers will sail a Repechage Round with the top four advancing to the Quarterfinals.

The Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Final are knockout rounds. The crews will be paired with the winner of the round robin choosing their opponent, followed by the next highest finisher from the round robin picking their opponent and so on. The winners of the Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Final will be the first to score 3 points. They're all vying for a shot at the $30,000 winner's check.

The weather for the week looks to be stunning. According to the Bermuda Weather Service the wind is forecast to blow from south or south/southeast between 10 and 18 knots through Friday, ideal conditions for Hamilton Harbour.

The return of the Argo Group Gold Cup reintroduces the legendary International One-Design (IOD) sloop to match racing. Designed in 1936 by Bjarne Aas, the 33-foot IOD weighs 7,100 pounds, has long overhangs on the bow and stern and a full keel with the rudder mounted on the trailing edge. The boats are classically beautiful and their momentum from the heavy displacement serves to level the playing field in Bermuda.

"The boats are old school. They're all about momentum," said Mirsky, who won the King Edward VII Gold Cup in 2010. "It's a challenge to play the match racing game with your momentum as well as keeping an eye on the wind shifts. But it makes it interesting. Those who understand it and follow carefully know there's a lot going on." -- Sean McNeill

argogroupgoldcup.com

All change as fleet hits speed bump
After one of the fastest 12 hours of the race, the fleet has hit a roadblock on the way to Newport and it threatens to upend the leaderboard.

On what should be the last night at sea for most of the fleet, the Volvo Ocean Race crews enjoyed extremely fast downwind sailing, with winds upwards of 35 knots, and speeds regularly exceeding 25 knots.

At least that was the case until Team Brunel became the first to hit the speed bump - sailing out of the pressure into light winds and a big right-hand windshift at about 0500 UTC.

Wind speed went from 30 knots to between 6-8 knots. And within an hour, a 12-mile lead over Dongfeng Race Team had all but disappeared.

As of 0650 UTC, the bleeding had stopped. The lead was back to 5-miles as Dongfeng slows in similar conditions, but Charles Caudrelier has his red boat positioned a few miles further east.

We're seeing the massive compression that Brunel skipper Bouwe Bekking has been warning us about for days now.

And it's perhaps thrown open an opportunity to boats positioned further east like Vestas 11th Hour Racing and even team AkzoNobel who may be able to cut the corner on those ahead.

Positions at 21h UTC May 7:

1. Team Brunel, 93 nm to finish
2. Dongfeng Race Team, 3.0 nm to leader
3. MAPFRE, 7.1
4. Vestas 11th Hour Racing, 17.1
5. Turn The Tide on Plastic, 20
6. Team AkzoNobel, 48.5
7. Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag, 84.5

www.volvooceanrace.com/en/tracker.html

Harken At The Front - At The VOR Newport Stopover
When the Volvo Ocean Race fleet charges in from Itajai, Harken will be in Newport in force. In 2015, more than 130,000 people visited the race village during the Newport stop. The Volvo Ocean Race does a fantastic job creating wonderful shore-side spectator experiences. And then there's the in-port race and finally the restart of the race leg to Cardiff. It will be completely worth the trip!

Harken is proud to be an Official Race Supplier. We're deep inside the race's execution.

Harken winches, Battcar systems, traveler equipment, blocks and deck hardware have been aboard the Volvo Ocean 65s in each of the last two laps of the planet. Our Harken Tech Team colleagues have been performing tech service and maintenance at every stop, too. If you're in Newport, come say hi at the Harken container inside the Race Village Boatyard.

And if you've missed what the Tech Team's been up to check it out right now: www.Harkenatthefront.com

Australian Sailing Statement Regarding 2024 Olympic Events Program
As World Sailing revises the events program for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Australian Sailing (AS) wishes to reaffirm its support for policies that seek to expand and develop the sport in Australia and elsewhere.

AS believes it necessary to strike a balance between the history and traditions of our sport and the reality that we need to adapt and modernise. We recognise that sailing, as a sport and community, must remain agile and innovative if it is to retain its place in Olympic competition and avoid being marginalised. The right decisions taken now should ensure sailing has a bright and healthy future.

Consistent with these beliefs, AS supports options within submissions from Member National Authorities and others that pursue the following goals:

• ​Gender equality in terms of number of events and total athlete numbers competing at the Olympic Games
• An increase in the number of mixed gender events in the Olympic sailing program
• Events that display the diversity of skills, equipment, format and athletes within sailing
• Events that perpetuate the traditions of sailing
• Events that are innovative and exciting for sailors and non-sailors
• Events that require and demonstrate the tactical and technical elements required in sailing
• AS's stance is derived from recommendations within two vital documents: the IOC's Gender Equality Report and Agenda 2020. Agenda 2020 is the roadmap for the future of the Olympic movement, a goal of which is for the Games to move from a sport-based program to an events-based program. The IOC is also focused on improving the appeal of the Olympic Games to a younger audience.

Consistent with the IOC's gender equality recommendations for 2024, World Sailing policy requires gender equality in athlete numbers and events. This gives men and women the same number of events in which to compete, either as separate gender or mixed events. World Sailing policy also requires the number of mixed events for 2024 to increase to either two or four.

The Olympic Sailing event program does not currently meet the requirement for equal medal opportunities for men and women. The sailing community is aware that the additional men's event is the only event that currently caters for men at the upper end of weight range and World Sailing policy also requires that different physiques are accommodated in the event program.

With these factors in mind, the World Sailing Council, on February 19, 2018, placed the following events under review:

​Men's Windsurfer
Women's Windsurfer
Men's One Person Dinghy Heavyweight
Men's Two Person Dinghy
Women's Two Person Dinghy
The following events were retained with their current equipment for 2024 (subject to a separate anti-trust review of the single-handed equipment):

​Men's One Person Dinghy
Women's One Person Dinghy
Men's Skiff
Women's Skiff
Mixed Two Person Multihull
With no additional medals available at this stage to add events to the current 10-event program, at least one of the current events must change to meet the key requirements for the 2024 Olympic sailing program. There are a number of options that will be debated and, unfortunately, there is no single option that accommodates the interests of all stakeholders.

AS appreciates this is a highly-charged environment and we will work hard to achieve a positive result for our sailors and for the Australian sailing community.

AS, represented by myself as President and Sarah Kenny as Vice President and Chair of the World Sailing Events Committee, will participate in upcoming discussions and deliberations. It is our goal to ensure we get the right balance by achieving the goals set out above.

Matt Allen, President
John Lee, Chief Executive

Portsmouth Regatta
Entries to the 2018 Portsmouth Regatta in June, sponsored by Sunsail, are up and running.

The two day Regatta will be run over the Weekend of 9/10th June 2018. Classes will be organised in 2 groups and include IRC1-4 SIRCOA Championship, Club Class, Sunsail Match First 40 Fleet, J109s, Little Ship Club Summer Regatta, Victory Class, Squibs, Tempest Nationals and Bembridge One Designs.

Russell Peace Sailing Secretary gave the order of events: Saturday 3 races, first start 1100hrs. Sunday will see a 1000hrs start with 2 races followed by the prize giving, including the Portsmouth Regatta Cup for the overall winner at 1400 in Hornet Services Sailing Club Gosport.

The Notice of Race and online entry is now open. Full details and documentation is available on www.portsmouthregatta.org

* The Portsmouth and Southsea Regatta took place along the Southsea seafront and included entries from local fishermen, rowing clubs, local yachtsmen and more distant Yacht Clubs. Members of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, then based in Ryde and one of the premier clubs in the world, often took part. Our regatta was already very well established when it attracted the interest of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in about 1850. In 1853 it was granted the title Port of Portsmouth and Southsea Royal Regatta.

The Navy entered into the competitions and races, held over several days and attracting great interest from an area far greater than that of Portsea Island. Records show something of a decline in activity in the early 1860s, which was rectified very successfully in 1864. Mr Charles Napier-Pearn was honorary secretary with a committee composed of "The right men in the right place, who set to work in earnest to produce a first rate programme." The local press recorded that "the regatta attracted an immense concourse of spectators, who lined the Ramparts, Beach and Piers. The weather was delightfully fine and produced a race seldom equalled in yachting annals."

Later that year those men formed the Albert Yacht Club, soon to receive the Royal Warrant. Charles Pearn was honorary Secretary and the future of the Club and the Regatta became inextricably linked. In 1865 the principal race was for a cup value 50 guineas open to yachts of 30 tons but not exceeding 75 tons from any Royal Yacht Club. That was the forerunner of the famous Royal Albert Gold Cup raced for by a host of great yachtsmen including the Prince of Wales (Edward VII), King George V, the Kaiser, Sir Thomas Lipton and many other famous sailors.

The Royal Albert Gold Cup was always a centre piece and closely contested. In 1866 it was won by the cutter yacht Sphinx owned by H C Maudsley, she flew an experimental large bellied masthead sail, which came to be known as the Sphinx acre and thence the Spinnaker.

In 1895 the race was as ever very hotly contested with Britannia, Meteor II (owned by the Kaiser) and Saint, together with the smaller yacht Isolde in a very tight leading group. Isolde was owned by Baron von Zedwitz a confidant of the Kaiser. As these yachts rushed toward the anchored committee boat, Saint luffed out on to the weather quarter of Isolde to take her wind but caught her boom, slewing her to port, out of control toward Britannia. The resulting avoiding action ended in Meteor II's enormous bowsprit driving straight through Isolde's main and bringing down the rigging. Baron von Zedwitz died as a result of head injuries.

In 1932 in half a gale many competitors dropped out but Britannia, with George V on board and Westward raced so closely that after 47 miles the result was a dead heat!

The Regatta continued strongly until WW2. The Royal Albert Cup was run until 1950.

In 2014 it was decided that the Royal Albert Yacht Club, together with the Victory Class and Portsmouth Sailing Club would reintroduce the Regatta to celebrate the Royal Albert's sesquicentennial and in 2016 the 150th anniversary of Sphinx's triumph and the invention of the Spinnaker. The reborn Regatta continues to grow in numbers of classes and entrants.

www.portsmouthregatta.org

Training Director

Clipper Ventures Plc is seeking a suitably qualified Director to develop the current RYA training centre in the UK and to open and develop new centres in Asia. The Director will also have overall responsibility for all Clipper Ventures training including the iconic Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

The successful candidate will hold a minimum of an RYA Yachtmaster (Ocean) Certificate and Instructor qualifications, plus proven experience and management record.

The position will be based in Gosport but will require visits to Asia.

Salary negotiable, and will recognise the increased responsibility as the centres expand.

Please send your CV and covering letter to William Ward, CEO, at

'Waterworks' - solo exhibition of art by Phil Uhl
Click on image to enlarge.

Those who were around for the glory days of the Clipper/Kenwood and the heyday 12 metre America's Cup times will no doubt remember Phil Uhl, whose beautiful photography bought these events to life - and now will host a solo exhibition ' Waterworks' at the Fredrick Harris Gallery, Tokyo, Japan from June 13 to July 9 this year and all are welcome.

Uhl, a multimedia marine artist who still calls Honolulu home, will show more than 30 examples of his paintings, original prints and photographs in the exhibition. He is best known for his dramatic still and video coverage of major yachting events such as the former Pan Am Clipper/Kenwood Cup Series, the TRANSPAC, and Bill Koch's America's Cup and Maxi Boat campaigns.

After the last Kenwood Cup in 2000, Uhl decided to shift focus back to his fine art roots and concentrate on painting and print making. In 2007, he served as coordinating producer for Leslie and Roy Disney's feature film documentary, 'Morning Light'.

Over the past 40 years, Uhl's work has been exhibited in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Tokyo, Auckland, Cowes, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Mystic CT, Palm Beach, Paris, and Sydney.

The Fredrick Harris Gallery is located on the ground floor of the Tokyo American Club, Minato-ku Tokyo

For more information, or photos of exhibition works, please contact:

Royal Cork's 'Beaufort Cup' Teams Seek More Boats, 20 Entered So Far Including Eight J109s
After the success of the inaugural Beaufort Cup for Military and Emergency teams in 2016, this year's entries are approaching 20 boats already, including no less than eight J109's for the Cork Week event. There's an excellent line up of Dublin and Cork boats now involved and organisers are appealing for further Irish boats owners to team up with Services teams.

Fancy entering Volvo Cork Week for free? Joining an exciting new fleet, having a chance to win €10,000 prize money and getting some experienced crew to help race your yacht? Maybe the Beaufort Cup is the event for you...?

The Beaufort Cup is an international sailing event, run as part of Volvo Cork Week for military and emergency service teams. Beaufort Cup teams also have the opportunity to participate in the full sailing programme for the week.

Only 50% of the team must be from the service they are representing, and there are currently a number of teams looking to team up with Irish boats.

So what's in it for you?
Free entry to Volvo Cork Week, the possibility to team up with a military or emergency services crew, join us at the Beaufort Bar in the tented village at Volvo Cork Week, which will have exclusive parties throughout the week, the unique opportunity to attend the Beaufort Cup Gala dinner on Haulbowline Island Naval Base, €10,000 prize money for the charity of your choice, plus the now famous short offshore; a 24hr race from Cork Harbour to the iconic Fastnet Rock and back.

There are currently a number of highly experienced international and national teams looking to team up with Irish boats, if you are interested in getting involved, contact Barry Byrne at or James Fegan at

afloat.ie/sail/events

Telefonica Blue joins Legends fleet
Click on image to enlarge.

Telefonica Blue will join former race winner Ericsson 4 on the startline of the Legends Race this summer. She is the second Volvo Open 70 to confirm her entry in a fleet which will consist of around 12 boats from many of the past Whitbread and Volvo Races.

In a big budget effort, Telefonica Blue , skippered by Legends ambassador Dutchman Bouwe Bekking, was part of a Spanish two-boat campaign, along with sister ship Telefonica Black who had Legends ambassador Roger Nilson as navigator.

The team made an excellent start on Leg 9. Just one point split Puma and Telefonica Blue as they set off on the 525-nm sprint, which went calamitously wrong for Telefonica Blue. Leading the fleet out of Marstrand, Sweden, and instead of narrowly passing a rock, Telefonica Blue hit it hard and her race was lost. The boat was repaired and sailed to Stockholm, for the final leg to St Petersburg in Russia, in which she finished third, enough to retain third place overall and winner of the in-port race series.

For the 2011-12 race, previous race winning skipper Mike Sanderson was tempted back to take charge of the boat, renamed Team Sanya Lan, but despite a world-class crew line-up, the boat suffered damage on numerous occasions, leading to retirement on legs 1 and 5 and missing Leg 6 completely.

Now, in Dutch hands, her home port is Scheveningen/The Hague, and she is renamed Ocean Breeze. She is in tip top condition, having benefitted from a recent full refit. From July on, she will be used for participation in some of the best regattas and offshore matches in both the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

www.volvooceanrace.com

Featured Brokerage
1996 Nautor Swan 48R - ASSUAGE. 255000 GBP. Located in Lymington, UK

ASSUAGE is an upgraded model of the evergreen Swan 48. Both beautiful to look at and to sail, ASSUAGE has a superb record of accomplishment on both the racing course and is more than proving herself as a bluewater cruising yacht from an Atlantic crossing and a season cruising in the Caribbean.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679 222

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Infiniti 46R - NEW BOAT

Pre-preg carbon speedster for crewed and shorthanded offshore racing and employing the patented Dynamic Stability System. Engineering by Gurit and available with either fixed or canting keel

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Infiniti Yachts
Gordon Kay
+33 (0) 787 061 785

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Swan 100-103 Hoppetosse. 5,200,000 EUR. Located in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Hoppetosse is a superyacht and masterpiece built by Nautor’s Swan and launched in 2006. She combines the performance of a racing yacht with world-class comfort and opulence. The Swan 100 FD's deck lines give the yacht a very impressive sleek and racing oriented look.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Nautor's Swan Brokerage - Jeremy Peek

Tel. +377 97 97 95 07
nautorswanbrokerage.com

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

The Last Word
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. -- Dalai Lama

Editorial and letter submissions to

Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/advertise.html