In This Issue
Etchells Pre-Worlds
2018 Melges 32 World Championship Kicks Off in Cagliari Cagliari, Italy
Join the Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week 2019
The Multi50 class: The little racing cars of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe
British American Cup 2019 Team Selection
Two for One! St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR) & Round the Rocks Race - March 21-24, 2019
Industry News
Letters to the Editor
Featured Brokerage
The Last Word: Timothy Leary

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

Etchells Pre-Worlds
Former World Champ secures Etchells Pre-Worlds It has certainly been testing times in Brisbane for the 2018 Etchells Queensland State Championship. This regatta served as a warm up for the main event, the World Championship, which begins on October 21 for the 95-boat armada that has amassed to find out who is the best One Design crew on the planet.

Winning the five-race pre-Worlds (as the QLD State Championship is known this year) is Iron Lotus (AUS 1442). Olympic Gold Medallist, Tom King, skippers her with crew, Ivan Wheen, David Edwards and Greg O’Shea. They are no strangers to the podium either, having previously won the 2012 World Championship, which was staged off Sydney Heads. Owen McMahon was on board then, instead of O’Shea, and Iron Lotus has also won the prestigious Australasian Championship in Mooloolaba, as well as the fiercely contested Victorian State Championship on the testing waters of Port Phillip.

Iron Lotus (AUS 1442) is one of the new Pacesetter Etchells built by Australia II crewmember, Phil Smidmore. In this regatta they had two race wins, a tenth place and a third with an 18th as their discard, to secure a two point win over John Bertrand, Ben Lamb and Noel Drennan on board Triad2 (AUS 1440). In third place and a further six points astern was another boat, Havoc (AUS 1461) with another crew brandishing some real CV power. Namely, Iain Murray, Grant Simmer and Richie Allanson.

Race Management was very keen to conduct three races on the final day, today, so as to secure a complete regatta and also allow for the drop. An early start was therefore arranged.

2018etchellsworlds.org

2018 Melges 32 World Championship Kicks Off in Cagliari Cagliari, Italy
For a third and final week in a row, Melges mania will storm the shores of Cagliari, Italy for the 2018 Melges 32 World Championship hosted by Yacht Club Cagliari. After last weekend's crowning of Drew Freides as the 2018 Melges 20 World Champion, the hallowed waters off Cagliari will hail to another supreme team this week. Starting on Wednesday, October 17, running thru Saturday, October 20, a maximum of ten races will be held.

Eighteen teams representing eight nations (Germany, Italy, Japan, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Russia and Switzerland) are in attendance. Of those teams, it is highly anticipated that an Italian victor could be the predictable winner. From 2018 Melges 32 World League, European Champion Matteo Balestrero's GIOGI (Branko Brcin, tactician), to the legendary Vincenzo Onorato's MASCALZONE LATINO (Paul Goodison, tactician), and of course to 2017 European Champs Edoardo Lupi and Massimo Pessina's TORPYONE (Lorenzo Bressani, tactician), all eyes will be watching as this is the one title that has eluded them all so far.

Defending Champion Pavel Kuznetsov at the helm of TAVATUY is back for more with the ultimate goal of claiming yet another amazing World Championship victory.

Ten races will be conducted over four days, with the first warning taking place on Wednesday, October 17. The Melges 32 World Championship is supported by Moby, Tirrenia, Helly Hansen, Garmin Marine, North Sails, Toremar, Norda, Lavazza, Rigoni di Asiago and Melges Europe.

yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=6012

melges32.com

Join the Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week 2019
The Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week 2019 runs from the 27 Jan - 1 Feb. This six day regatta kicks off the start of the racing season in the southern Caribbean with four days of exciting racing plus a lay day, all in the beautiful blue waters of Grenada. The race committee have put together a thrilling mix of windward and leeward courses encompassing the different challenges Grenada’s coasts have to offer. From the shifting winds on the protected west coast to the gustier winds and open waters on the south coast. The 2019 edition will have CSA classes; Racing, Racer Cruiser 1/2, J24’s, and the ever elegant Classics, battle it out on the start line.

Consideration will be given to PHRF or other classes provided there are sufficient entries in that category (register your interest by Nov 30 2018 - ).

A special to all boats crossing the Atlantic especially those arriving with the RORC to Grenada, the ARC to St Lucia and the Route du Rhum to Guadeloupe, that registration is open and we will hold the discounted fee which closes the end of November 2018 for those who sign up before crossing the Atlantic

Our two fabulous host venues with fantastic parties every night showcase the best Grenada has to offer, making this is a regatta one you do not want to miss.

Sign Up NOW! yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=5886

Come ‘Spice It Up’ in Grenada - we are big enough to matter but small enough to care.

Two host venues, Four days of racing, Six nights of parties!

www.grenadasailingweek.com

The Multi50 class: The little racing cars of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe
There may not be many of them but the quality is certainly not lacking in the Multi50 class that will start the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race from Saint Malo on November 4th.

Sailing their 15-metre foiling trimarans, the six competitors in this class all have their own points to prove as they make their way across the Atlantic on the 3,542-nautical mile course to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

In this division proven older boats will take on newer designs that represent the latest thinking in the class. For each of the sailor-boat combinations, whatever happens, it will be a full-on and highly competitive Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe because the Multi50s are wet and fickle racing machines that can achieve average distances of over 500 miles in 24 hours.

The Multi50 class brings together trimarans of up to 15 metres in length and 15 metres width, that are subject to a class rule that leaves some freedom to attract different designers. In its desire to embrace the latest technological developments, the class has now separated from its "vintage" era and in 2017 authorised the addition of foils for the first time.

Five of the six multihulls in the running - all except that of Gilles Lamiré - are therefore equipped with foils this time. Three of them added one-design foiling kits to old hulls, while the two newest trimarans, Ciela Village and Solidaires en Peloton Arsep, were designed from scratch around the new "flying" game.

The foils have boosted the speed of the boats by about 20% on a reach, with regular accelerations to over 35 knots. Thibaut Vauchel-Camus even surpassed the 40-knot mark during a delivery this year.

The Multi50 class at a glance

Armel Tripon, Chocolate Rite, Verdier design 2009*
Erwan Le Roux, FenetreA-Mix Buffet, VPLP 2009*
Gilles Lamire, French Tech Rennes Saint-Malo, Irens/Cabaret 2009
Lalou Roucayrol, Arkema, Neyhousser 2013*
Thierry Bouchard, Ciela Village, VPLP 2017*
Thibaut Vauchel Camus, Solidaires in Peloton Arsep, VPLP 2018*

*Equipped with Foils

www.routedurhum.com

British American Cup 2019 Team Selection
The 2019 edition of the British American Cup (BA Cup) will be sailed at Queen Mary Sailing Club, West London from the 19th to the 21st September in the J80’s supplied by the Royal Thames Yacht Club. Spinnakers will be used and the crew size is four with the requirement for a minimum of 4 persons of each gender in a team. ( Team is 16 persons)

In order to select the best possible team to represent the UK there will be three selection/indicator events held at Queen Mary as follows:

Sunday 11th November 2018 Sunday 2nd December 2018 Carmela Cup 19th and 20th January 2019

At the end of these three events the selectors will identify a team of 4 or 5 helms and some individual crewmembers.

The selected team will attend the Baldwin Cup, to be held at Newport Harbor Yacht Club, California 4th -6th April 2019. (Entry fee and some travel costs will be paid by the RTYC)

In addition to attending the Baldwin Cup the selected team will be expected to attend training events and shall attend the pre BA Cup warm up event on the 14th and 15th of September.

Applications may be made either as a full boat crew (4 persons), or as an individual. The cost for attending the trials is £10 per person per day, which may be paid at registration.

To apply visit www.research.net/r/DNYNNDG

Two for One! St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR) & Round the Rocks Race - March 21-24, 2019
Register now to sail in St. Thomas in March and get two exciting opportunities to race and win in one trip! Round the buoy courses are great, but it’s even more fun to race round the islands! That’s what you’ll enjoy about the Round the Rocks Race. Set for March 21, 2019, this is a stand-alone event with its own prizes. It makes a wonderful warm-up for the STIR, which follows on March 22 to 24. The Round the Rocks Race features a beautiful circumnavigation of the 20-square-mile island of St. John, home of the Virgin Islands National Park. Prizes for first, second and third place in each class! Then, set sail in STIR. World-class racing, the chance to trade tacks with America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean and Olympic crews on the water and nightly parties, live music, food and drink ashore is what earns STIR its reputation as the ‘Crown Jewel of Caribbean Yacht Racing’.

“It’s the best sailing I’ve ever done,” says Sandra Askew, of Salt Lake City, UT, who raced her C&C 30, Flying Jenny, in STIR 2017 and plans to return in 2019 with other class members. Plus, there’s “sun, palm trees, beautiful water, great hospitality and an easy flight into St. Thomas.”

Register now for both events in CSA (racing, cruising, bareboat); IRC; ORC; Multihull; CSA Bareboat; and One Design classes with a minimum length of 20 feet.

www.stthomasinternationalregatta.com, Email: , Call (340) 775-6320.

Industry News
OC Sport announces Element Sports Group as major new Extreme Sailing Series partner

A newly formed entity in the Element International Group of companies, headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Element Sports Group will first join the Series as an Act Partner in San Diego, where they will sponsor the Kite Boarding Invitational and the Chat with Champions.

The Element Sports Kite Boarding Invitational will take place daily from 18-21 October before and after the San Diego event's headline GC32 racing. The Chat with Champions, presented by Element Sports Group, will take place at 17:30 on Friday 19 October, exposing young San Diegans to world-class, elite level sailors, hoping to inspire the next generation.

Following Extreme Sailing Series San Diego, presented by SAP, Element Sports Group will become Host Venue Partner for Los Cabos, Mexico - the double-points grand finale of this year's edge-of-your-seat Extreme Sailing Series, taking place from 29 November to 2 December.

www.extremesailingseries.com

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Hundreds of thousands of boaters who use Navionics electronic navigational charts had personal data - including names and email addressed - exposed to any would-be hacker who knew where to look.

Navionics, which is own by Garmin, has secured the exposed database and began notifying customers of the potential breach on Monday.

According to reporting in BCW and Tech Crunch, this latest breach is one of many exposures resulting from use of the MongoDB databases, which have been hacked and had their contents downloaded and wiped, then held for ransom.

The database was designed to sit behind firewalls and was not automatically password-protected. Since more databases are connected directly to the Internet, MongoDB refreshed its software to include a password by default, but many outdated installations are still unsecured.

The breach was discovered by a cyber risk research firm that contacted Garmin, at which time the server was shutdown.

plus.ibinews.com

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Spinlock has acquired exclusive global rights to manufacture, market and sell wireless data systems following an investment in the technology start-up SmartSail Systems.

SmartSail was founded by Rachael Tapp and Dan Primrose to help sailors become smarter about their sail inventory.

l fits onto a sail and delivers performance data to a mobile or tablet, recording the number of hours a sail has been in use, how much flogging it has had and also the amount of UV exposure it has been subjected to.

Spinlock will now work with SmartSail to further develop a range of data-driven solutions.

The products will join Spinlock’s existing Sense range of data and analysis tools with the first partnership product, Sail-Sense, to be launched at METSTRADE.

www.boatingbusiness.com

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Safety and Survival Systems International (3Si Group) is very pleased to announce that it has joined the Alliance Marine Group (AMG), Europe’s leading supplier and manufacturer of marine equipment for the leisure and commercial sectors.

AMG has acquired the 3Si Group, which includes well-known brands such as Ocean Safety, Typhoon International, ISP and Revere. The consolidation with AMG will help accelerate its international growth strategy and increase its geographical footprint and product portfolio to achieve greater exposure into new and existing markets

Business will continue as usual without any interruption to trade.

Details of AMG Group can be found here: www.alliancemarine.fr

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FOX SPORTS has signed a three-year agreement as SailGP’s Official Broadcast Partner in Australia, and will air each of the global races on the network, starting with the Sydney event live. SailGP is also working toward a partnership with a free-to-air network for additional coverage of the Sydney grand prix in the Australian market.

“FOX SPORTS is delighted to become the official Australian broadcaster of SailGP for the next three years starting with live coverage of the Sydney race in February 2019,” said head of FOX SPORTS Peter Campbell. “We look forward to following the exploits of the Australian SailGP Team led by Tom Slingsby, with FOX SPORTS bringing sailing fans all of the exciting on-water action from every race in the global league as it visits locations such as San Francisco, New York and Marseille.”

With a primary goal of growing global viewership and broadening its fanbase, SailGP and its television partners will focus on personality-driven broadcasts utilizing patented and leading-edge immersive media technologies.

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The 28th International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference in Tampa, Florida was a huge success

If ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’, then the 28th annual International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference (IBEX) was a success based on the increase in visitors and exhibitors alone.

The three-day show, which closed 4 October, saw a 23% increase in attendees over 2017, and a 14% increase in exhibiting companies – totalling 700, using 10% more exhibit space, according to a news release from the show’s promoters.

Fifty-five countries were represented at the show, a 10% increase from last year, with four international pavilions represented exhibitors from South Korea, Australia, France and Italy.

IBEX also provides formal learning opportunities, with a day of seminars preceding the show as well as certification sessions throughout. The IBEX Education Conference saw a 27% increase in seminars sold.

Next year’s IBEX show will again be held in Tampa, Florida from October 1-3.

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Groupe Beneteau has announced Yann Masselot’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Construction Navale Bordeaux, taking over from Dieter Gust, this subsidiary’s longstanding manager and founder, with effect from September 1, 2018.

Yann Masselot is an IEA Paris – Institute of European Affairs graduate and has an MBA from Audencia Business School. He joined the Groupe Beneteau 25 years ago and has built up unique knowledge of Construction Navale Bordeaux, where he held various sales roles from 1999 and was Deputy CEO from 2016.

He will continue in his role as director of Lagoon.

This handover is in line with the gradual transition targeted by Dieter Gust after 31 years as chairman and CEO of Construction Navale Bordeaux since it was created in July 1987. Dieter Gust will continue in his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Construction Navale Bordeaux and will help the Management Committee to meet its objectives, from both an industrial and a strategic perspective.

plus.ibinews.com

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SailGP today announced Whisper Films as the new global league’s broadcast and production partner, on a three-year deal that will bring the thrill of high-performance sailboat racing to more fans than ever before via patented, leading-edge immersive media technologies.

SailGP, which launched in London last week, has set out to make sailing entertaining and accessible for sports fans all over the world. Whisper Films will play a central role in growing global viewership and broadening the fanbase by delivering an electrifying multi-platform broadcast experience as national team crews race identical, supercharged F50 catamarans in iconic waterfront locations.

Whisper Films brings exceptional broadcast and production pedigree to SailGP’s new global endeavor. The British firm is headed by former Formula One driver and television presenter David Coulthard, BBC and BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey, and BAFTA Film Award-winning producer Sunil Patel. Whisper Films’ bespoke branded content portfolio includes work with sports rights holders such as the NFL, Premier League, Formula One and Formula-E, and blue-chip global brands such as UBS, Ferrari and Hugo Boss. In the summer of 2018, Whisper added contracts with the FA for BBC, US Open tennis for Amazon, Paralympics for Britain’s Channel 4, and magazine programs for the International Hockey Federation and UEFA.

Letters To The Editor -
Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Adrian Morgan: re: Letter from Greeenpeace to World sailing

Oh the hypocrisy of the son of a fashion designer protesting fracking from the perspective of an industry whose waste and wanton use of man made fibres is now proving to be one of the most pernicious polluters of the marine environment. It reminds me of that photo of hundreds of protesters in kayaks demonstrating against an oil company. What were the kayaks made from?

Featured Brokerage
2015 FB35 - "Young Guns". 250,000 USD. Located in Auckland.

"Young Guns" started exceeding expectations from the very outset and with a no-expense-spared attitude towards her specification, the end result has been nothing short of epic! Consistently beating boats bigger in size and budget, there is not much this pocket rocket cant do!

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson
Ancasta Race Boats
+44 2380 016582
+64 277733717

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Grand Soleil 34. New Boat.

GS 34, the legend's return The mythical Grand Soleil 34 is a true legend: designed by Finot in the 1970s, has remained in production until the 1980's, with over 300 hulls made. Today, past and future meet in this restyling, based on the same concept as a small-big boat.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
CANTIERE DEL PARDO SPA
via Fratelli Lumiere, 34 - 47122 Forlì (FC)
Tel: +39 0543 782.404 /
Fax: +39 0543 782.405

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2012 Morelli Melvin 33 foiler - "FOILED" Modified SL33. 235000 EUR. Located in Auckland,

"FOILED" is a custom built, fully foiling cat, using the hulls from the hugely successful SL33 Class. Above and below the waterline, she has been further developed in EVERY department, making her probably the fastest 30 footer in the world today. Upgraded foil package allowing upwind foiling >12kt

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats

+64 277733717
+44 2380 016582

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

The Last Word
You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind. -- Timothy Leary

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