In This Issue
Beau Geste, Santa And Pro4U Take Early Leads In The Hague Offshore Worlds
Cowes Dinard St Malo Race
Andre Budzien claims third OK Dinghy world title
Rewarding but complex
Pressure and Promise in Cascais
GJW Direct J/70 UK National Championship
Tornado World Championship 2018 - Day 6
Panerai British Classic Week: tidal tacticians triumph in Race 2
Slow Going at Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race
Huge iceberg threatens Greenland village
Letters to the Editor
Featured Brokerage
The Last Word: Andy Warhol
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
Beau Geste, Santa And Pro4U Take Early Leads In The Hague Offshore Worlds
After over 24 hours of sailing in light air off the Dutch North Sea coast, the opening act of The Hague Offshore Sailing World Championship has now concluded and the leaders are now known in each of three classes before the second stage of inshore racing begins tomorrow.
Scoring has been for a long race of 155 miles for Class A with a scoring gate at 70 miles, and a long race of 135 miles for Classes A and B with a scoring gate at 60 miles. Thus each class has two offshore races in their results: a short race worth 1.0 points weighting and a long race worth 2.0 points weighting.
After a start postponed until 12:30, each fleet started off in light 6-9 knot conditions that varied in strength and direction for the rest of the day and evening, reaching a high of about 12 knots at sunset before dropping again into single digits towards morning. With shifting breeze and currents at near springs in strength, it was a challenging night for all.
"It was a good course and a good test," said Eddie Warden-Owen, guest strategist aboard Tilmar Hansen's TP 52 Outsider. "We did not have the sail inventory options that Beau Geste had, and had to make some compromises - like going west of the windfarm on the final long leg to the finish - but it was a good race with lots of elements to make it interesting."
Outsider spent most of their race in lock-step behind Karl Kwok's Pac 52 Beau Geste, who won both races by a comfortable margin, with Outsider second and the Ker 46 Van Uden youth team in third, led by Volvo Ocean Race veteran Gerdjan Poortman and Dutch 470 Olympian Lobke Berkhout as coaches.
Phase two of the competition at the Offshore Worlds resumes tomorrow with the start of the first of seven planned inshore races. The teams will be given a respite tonight after the long race with a planned start time tomorrow in the afternoon at 1300 local time.
All results can be found at www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/OSW2018#!/results
Cowes Dinard St Malo Race
Pierre Sallenave's French X-442 Ster Wenn 5 has won the 2018 Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race overall under IRC, winning the King Edward VII Cup dating back to 1906. On board were Pierre's two sons, just 13 and 15 years old, and all of the Ster Wenn 5 crew are friends and family. A RORC member since 1993, Pierre revealed the secret to their success was taking advice from one of the grandmasters of offshore sailing, Rolex Fastnet and RORC Commodores' Cup winner, Gery Trentesaux.
Congratulations to all of the Class Winners: In IRC One, Maxime de Mareuil's Orange Mecanix2 corrected out to win ahead of RORC Commodore Steven Anderson's Cracklin Rosie, and Mark Emerson's Phosphorous II. In IRC Two, Ster Wenn 5 was ahead of Gery Trentesaux's Courrier Recommande, and Patrice Vidon's J4f. In IRC Three, Ian Hoddle's Game On was the winner and the Two-Handed division, with Louis-Marie Dussere's Raging Bee 2 second in both classes. Nicolas Gaumont-Prat's Philosophie IV was third in IRC Three and Pierre Aubert's Georgia was third in IRC Two-Handed and IRC Four. Noel Racine's Foggy Dew was the winner of IRC Four, Hugo Tardivel's Colombus Circle was second. Francois Corre's Friends and Lovers was the winner of the Multihull Class with Philippe Damour Red-Avel runner up.
The 2018 RORC Season's Points Championship continues with The Channel Race, starting on the RYS Line on Saturday 28 July. -- Louay Habib
Andre Budzien claims third OK Dinghy world title
A tight finish was expected, but no one expected the final day of the OK Dinghy World Championship to be at tight as it turned out. After two thrilling and close races, Andre Budzien claimed his third OK Dinghy world title, with exactly the same scoreline as Fredrik Loof, the tie being broken on the result of the final race. Jan Kurfeld took the bronze after a premature start in the final race cost him the title.
After a week of close competition, the world title came down to three sailors. The conditions on the final day in Warnemunde were perhaps the best yet with 14-18 knots of breeze with perfect waves. The only thing lacking was the sunshine, but that didn't really matter.
Going into the deciding race, there was one point separating the top three and it could not have been closer.
Coming into the finish, it was really close and the three boats approached the finish line from different directions. In the end Kurfeld crossed just seconds ahead of Budzien with Loof 10 seconds back in third. It was perhaps the closest finish to an OK Dinghy world championship ever.
However Kurfeld was world champion for less than 30 minutes until it emerged that he was a premature starter. This left him third overall while Budzien and Loof had exactly the same scoreline. Countback of results failed to break the tie, so it was decided on the result of the final race. Loof’s decision to attack Kurfeld rather than defend against Budzien had cost him the title.
But what an incredible finish; it was a close, exciting finish by three outstanding sailors; a brilliant display of boat handling, tactics and intense competition.
Is it time you found out what it means to be OK?
Final top ten results
1. Andre Budzien, GER, 12
2. Fredrik Loof, SWE, 12
3. Jan Kurfeld, GER, 13
4. Charlie Cumbley, GBR, 20
5. Thomas Hansson-Mild, SWE, 21
6. Bo Petersen, DEN, 24
7. Lars Johan Brodtkorb, NOR, 28
8. Greg Wilcox, NZL, 46
9. Martin V Zimmermann, GER, 48
10. Luke Gower, NZL, 50
Rewarding but complex
Each of these events has its management structure and it is not as if the IMA aims to be part of that - the IMA just tries to help the event organisers to reach out to Maxi owners as well as to be available to Maxi owners and their representatives as a link to individual event organisations. Technical support, like helping with the text of NoRs and Sailing Instructions, is given and often appreciated as Maxi sailing is complex, no two boats are the same and the range of diversity is huge, which is reflected in the rules of the IMA and its associated classes as well as in the variety of rating systems and class rule peculiarities that we see in Maxi racing.
It is no wonder Maxi sailing is a bit of a rule-maze with boats varying in size from 18.29m hull length... to no upper limit. Some are pure racers, some pure cruising yachts, and many are aiming somewhere in between these two. In the IMA rule these are respectfully referred to as Racer Cruisers but this surely includes yachts that would more aptly be described as Cruiser Racer... or even Cruiser.
In practice we see boats up to 200ft joining events, yachts by their sheer size complex in almost every aspect of running and sailing them, let alone racing them.
Full article by Rob Weiland in the August issue of Seahorse: bit.ly/IMA-Aug18-TB
Pressure and Promise in Cascais
Cascais, Portugal: The Rolex TP52 World Championship fleet today had a welcome taste of what the forecasters promise to be a “to order” typical week of northwesterly wind and waves as the nine-boat fleet completed their Official Practice Race.
After the light winds of Croatia and the stifling temperatures that have prevailed in Northern Europe for the last few weeks, a decent brisk, cool Atlantic breeze of 15kts with puffs up to 20kts for the practice race, which was won five times world titlists Quantum Racing, was very welcome.
Nine all-new 2018-built TP52s will be competing at the world’s leading Grand Prix monohull yacht racing circuit, including Luna Rossa (ITA), challengers of record for the upcoming 36th America’s Cup, Doug de Vos’ Quantum Racing (with Dean Barker returning to the helm), Platoon and twice world champions Azzura.
Predictions are for winds averaging 20kts for the first days of the Rolex TP52 World Championship, with moderate sized waves.
Entries:
Alegre - Andy Soriano (USA/GBR), 2018 Botin
Azzurra - Roemmers Family (ARG/ITA), 2018 Botin
Luna Rossa - Patrizio Bertelli (ITA), 2018 Botin
Onda - Eduardo de Souza Ramos (BRA), 2018 Botin
Phoenix - Hasso/Tina Plattner (RSA), 2018 Botin
Platoon - Harm Müller-Spreer (GER), 2018 Vrolijk
Provezza - Ergin Imre (TUR), 2018 Vrolijk
Quantum Racing - Racing Doug DeVos (USA), 2018 Botin
Sled - Takashi Okura (USA), 2018 Botin
GJW Direct J/70 UK National Championship
33 J/70 teams will compete for the 2018 GJW Direct J/70 UK National Championship, including the reigning Open and Corinthian Champions, Wilson & Marshall's Soak Racing and Patrick Liardet's Cosmic, who will be representing the host club, The Royal Southern YC. The championship will also feature youth teams including Fiona Hampshire's Royal Thames Academy Team racing Elizabeth. The 2018 GJW Direct J/70 UK National Championship is a non-discardable event in the J/70 UK Grand Slam Series. Doug Struth's DSP, with Geoff Carveth on the tiller, leads the series. Soak Racing is second, Clive Bush's Darcey third, and Martin Dent's Jelvis and Phil Rees' Bryn are fourth and fifth respectively. All will be in action for the GJW Direct J/70 UK National Championship.
Ten races are scheduled in the Central Solent with the first race due to start at 12:30 BST on Friday 20th July. Racing will conclude on Sunday 22nd July. The Royal Southern Yacht Club will provide dockside refreshments after racing each day, with North Sails providing daily weather forecasts via whatsapp. A full social programme will include the J/70 UK Class Dinner. The Doyle Sails Prize Giving for the GJW Direct J/70 UK National Championship will take place after racing on Sunday.
For the full entry list for the GJW Direct J/70 UK National Championship: yachtscoring.com/current_event_entries.cfm?eID=4571
* Royal Southern Yacht Club commodore Karen Henderson-Williams, invited club members and their crews to gather after racing at the Charles Heidsieck RSrnYC July Regatta on Saturday, to celebrate three new J/70s for the club. On a glorious sunny evening on the terrace, past commodore Colin Hall, described to the small crowd how the original fleet of J/80s were the result of incredible generosity by previous members. He concluded “there was a time you looked out on this car park and saw a row of J/80s, those have been replaced by J/70s. Our members have changed their boats, so we have followed suit to support them.”
Named Lightfoot, Boysterous, and Excess, the new J/70s will no doubt be popular with both regular members, and Royal Southern Academy members, an initiative set up to help 18-25 year olds enjoy the many benefits of being a member of the club. Meanwhile the J/70 Class Association will hope that the new trio’s first event will be the GJW UK National Championships, which will be hosted by the Royal Southern next weekend, 20-22 July.
Royal Southern Yacht Club Academy member Emily Dresser splashed the champagne.
Tornado World Championship 2018 - Day 6
Saturday, 14th of July was the sixth and final day and the competitors’ faces were filled with sadness: storming clouds had invaded the sky of La Grande Motte, plus the end of the event was coming. At least, there was another racing day remaining!
AP went down and the Tornado fleets started perfectly aligned with 10-12 knots of winds for the 8th race of the day. AUT 3 started at full speed close to the Race Committee boat and rounded the first mark ahead of GRE 1.
Unfortunately, the wind gradually dropped enough to force the abandonment of the race.
The new start for the 8th race was given at 2:00 pm with a nice evening breeze and GRE 1 finished first.
So, that was the end of the 2018 Tornado Worlds and titles were decided.
Iordanis Paschalidis & Petros Konstantinidis, GRE 1, are the Open Tornado Champions for the second consecutive year! Another impressive performance from Iordanis Paschalidis who, alongside Konstantinos Trigonis, was winning this title since 2011. He is now a Tornado World Champion for the 8th time in a row, since nobody has managed to beat him.
Mixed Tornado Champions are the youths Estela Jentsch, the 16-year-old but also the 2016 Mixed World Champion and Daniel Brown, 18 years old Nacra 15 and F18 promising and winning sailor. They also finished third in the overall ranking.
Jurgen Jentsch, the Tornado Class President ended the prize giving ceremony organized at the "Yacht Club de La Grande Motte" by inviting all participants to join him at the 2019 World Championship, to be organized in New Zealand the coming January.
Top five
1. Iordanis Paschalidis / Petros Konstantinidis, GRE, 8
2. Brett Burvill / Max Puttman, AUS, 18
3. Estela Jentsch Steimer / Daniel Brown, GER, 26
4. Yoann Trecul / Thomas Ferrand, FRA, 37
5. Dietmar Salzmann / Silvia Salzmann, AUT, 42
www.tornado-class.org/2018-tornado-worlds/
Panerai British Classic Week: tidal tacticians triumph in Race 2
Cowes Yacht Haven was once again drenched in sunshine as day two of Panerai British Classic Week began. With the scheduled NAB Tower Race postponed until Tuesday to make the most of the forecasted stronger winds, Monday began with a briefing and a planned start for 11am.
The breeze took it’s time, but after a short postponement from Royal Yacht Squadron Chief Race Officer Dai Prichard, it filled in from the south west and the fleet was once again treated to some top-class racing in the Solent. Race two began with a downwind start for all classes and the 6 Metre class kicked off proceedings in glorious sunshine on the Royal Yacht Squadron inner line.
With a busy shipping channel to negotiate, the yachts also had to accurately judge the fast-moving tide trying to drag them over the line. Each of the 6 Metre and Class 1-4 starts ran without a hitch and the yachts raced to hoist their spinnakers as they crossed the start line and headed for the first mark.
Flight of Ufford had another strong day on the water and won Class 1, followed by Oui Fling and Spirit 65 Chloe Giselle. The hotly contested Class 2 was won by the 10 Metre Bojar, with Easy Glider in second and Opposition in third. Class 3 was won by last year’s overall winner Whooper, followed by Richard Matthew’s Fife Gaff Cutter Kismet in second and Sunmaid V in third. West Solent One Design Suvretta made it two wins from two races in Class four, with Cereste in second and Dorothy, a Thames Rater, in third.
Crews will undoubtedly be getting an early night this evening in preparation for tomorrow’s NAB Tower Race, with an inshore ‘round the cans’ race planned for the 6Metre class and those not participating in the NAB Tower Race.
www.paneraiclassicyachtschallenge.com
Slow Going at Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race
Detroit Michigan, USA.: The “slowest race in decades” implies and defines the light winds plaguing the Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race, which began on Saturday, July 14, albeit with four postponements that pushed back many of the 16 afternoon start times, some by almost two hours.
As of 5:30 this afternoon, only 13 of the bigger boats from the 259-nm Cove Island Course had finished. Thirty four boats had dropped out, and no team from the 204 nm Shore Course was in sight.
“The Cove Island Course finishers are all Class A and B...the closest Class C is still 60 miles out, and D, E, F, G and H are behind that,” said Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race Chair Gary Shoemaker. “As the classes go up, speed goes down because the boats are smaller.”
Though there is no time limit, organizers traditionally stop recording finishes at noon on Tuesday, but for this 2018 edition they will stay at their posts until 6 p.m.
On the tracker, a dozen boats on the Cove Island Course are less than 50 miles out, then a “big clump” of boats is between 50-75 miles out. The Shore Course is losing wind along the Michigan shoreline, so it could be a long night; the leaders are 20 miles out but spread over a 60 or 70-mile trail.
Wizard is the second boat to cross the finish line this morning in the Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race.
Huge iceberg threatens Greenland village
A huge iceberg has drifted close to a village in western Greenland, prompting a partial evacuation in case it splits and the resulting wave swamps homes.
The iceberg is looming over houses on a promontory in the Innaarsuit village but is grounded and did not move overnight, local media say.
Local officials say they have never seen such a big iceberg before.
Last summer, four people died after waves swamped houses in north-western Greenland after an earthquake.
Those of Inaarsuit's 169 residents living nearest the iceberg have been moved, Danish news agency Ritzau said.
"There are cracks and holes that make us fear it can calve any time," village council member Susanne Eliassen told the local newspaper Sermitsiaq.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44831663
Featured Brokerage
Originally launched as GROUPAMA 1 and renamed HIQ later on Winner Orma Cup 2000, 2001, 2003 & 2004 as GROUPAMA 1
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
BERNARD GALLAY Yacht Brokerage
www.bernard-gallay.com
Tel +33 (0) 467 66 39 93
-----------------------------------------
Originally built for a round world race, she was conceived by renowned architect and sailors. Perfectly suited for solo and double handed race, she is in good condition and ready to race the next Route du Rhum. Fast and reliable, clear deck layout, sleek lines, all is thought to sail her easily.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
BERNARD GALLAY Yacht Brokerage
www.bernard-gallay.com
Tel +33 (0) 467 66 39 93
-----------------------------------------
Ex CHESSIE RACING, ex ASSA ABLOY, ex BIG ONE, this Volvo 60 was refitted with new deck giving a higher headroom of 1.93m. She has fantastic performances (up to 30 knots). She successfully entered the 1997-1998 Whitbread Race and came second at the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
BERNARD GALLAY Yacht Brokerage
www.bernard-gallay.com
Tel +33 (0) 467 66 39 93
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do. -- Andy Warhol
Editorial and letter submissions to
Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/advertise.html