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In This Issue
Etchells Worlds Day 4
Transatlantic Race 2019 Fleet Growing Steadily
Legend - Mer Agitee
Four boats on World Sailing Boat of the Year Award shortlist
British Skipper Alex Thomson Breaks 24 Hour Distance Record
Sustainability For Rights Holders And Brands
Industry News
Featured Brokerage
The Last Word: William Burroughs
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 Worlds Day 4
Out on the track today for the 2018 Etchells World Championship, we did see everything from 110 early on, to 050/060 degrees, with the latter being where it would settle in and allow two more races to be conducted. This brings the tally to six so far, which is a series, so well done to the entire Race Management team under the peerless Wilson Brothers.
One more race and the drop comes into play, which will make many of the crews happy, especially those already pinged under Code Flag U over the last couple of days or the dreaded Black that made its first appearance yesterday. So you would think that everybody would be playing nicely today, but alas there was more punishment to be handed out, with half a dozen receiving a soft rap over the knuckles and having an early lunch break as they watched, not partook, in race five. When Race Six finally got underway, with the Black Flag out once more, just the one crew had an early visit to the bar at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron mandated upon them.
Friday's weather is also set to play its part, too. It is going to be hot. 35˚C warm, actually, and there is 15 knots on offer, with 25-30 later in the day, and the chance of a thunderstorm too.
To follow the racing live go to either Etchells Brisbane Facebook page for frequent posts or watch on the tracker
Update: seven races now sailed, 1 discard.
Top ten:
1. Martin Hill / Sean O'Rourke / Julian Plante / Matt Belcher, AUS, 39 points
2. Matthew Chew / Brian Donovan / Ben Vercoe / Ashley Deeks, AUS, 42
3. Mark Thornburrow / Mike Huang / Alexander Conway / Will Ryan, HKG, 49
4. John Bertrand / Ben Lamb / Noel Drennan, AUS, 53
5. Jay Cross / Mike Buckley / George Peet / Eric Shampain, USA, 65
6. Chris Hampton / Sam Haines / Charlie Cumbley, AUS, 70
7. Lawrie Smith / Richard Parslow / Goncalo Ribeiro / Pedro Andrade, GBR, 79
8. Stephen Benjamin / Michael Menninger / Ian Liberty / Jonathan Goldsberry, USA, 88
9. Peter Duncan / Andrew Palfrey / Victor Diaz de Leon / Sasha Ryan, USA, 92
10. Bruce Ferguson / Cameron Miles / David Sampson, AUS, 100
Transatlantic Race 2019 Fleet Growing Steadily
Newport, R.I. - In nine months time, on June 25, 2019, the latest edition of the world's oldest, most respected and most challenging of oceanic races will set sail from Newport, Rhode Island, bound for the Old World.
Organized between the Royal Yacht Squadron, New York Yacht Club, Royal Ocean Racing Club and Storm Trysail Club, the origins of the Transatlantic Race 2019 date back more than a century and a half.
The 2019 edition has some modifications to its format. There will just be one start, on June 25, with a first warning signal at 1100 EST. The course will run across the North Atlantic to a finish off the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, a course of just under 3,000 nautical miles. A gate will be included off the Lizard, as the Newport-Lizard course has been established as a record course with the World Sailing Speed Record Council. The present race record time of 6d:22h:08m:02s was set by George David's maxi Rambler 100 during the 2011 race.
While in theory the route follows the prevailing winds, typically conditions are extremely tough, from the scary shoals and fog off the New England coast and the Grand Banks to the profound cold and humidity midway, to the tricky tides around the headlands along England's south coast. Competitors will likely meet at least one gale on the way across.
The Transatlantic Race 2019 once again will form the central part of the Atlantic Ocean Racing Series 2019. Other components of the series include the RORC Caribbean 600, Rolex Fastnet Race, Rolex Middle Sea Race and a new addition, the Antigua Bermuda Race. Of these, participation in at least three, including the Transatlantic Race, is mandatory.
The Transatlantic Race is open to IRC yachts, classics, superyachts, multihulls, IMOCA 60s, Class40s and other open class yachts of with a LOA no less than 40 feet.
The race attracts the international cream of the IRC fleet, from grand prix boats such as Bryon Ehrhart's Reichel/Pugh 63 Lucky and German Tilmar Hansen's canting keel Elliott 52 Outsider, winner and second overall under corrected time in 2015, respectively, to the very well-traveled and heavily campaigned Scarlet Oyster, the Lightwave 48 of Ross Applebey and former New York Yacht Club Commodore Rives Potts' McCurdy & Rhodes 48-footer Carina.
One of the most competitive fleets will be the Class40s. Former Mini Transat winner Armel Tripon, competed on the winning Class40 Stella Nova in 2015. -- Stuart Streuli
www.facebook.com/TransatlanticRace
transatlanticrace.com
Legend - Mer Agitee
An interesting innovation for offshore sailing comes from France, where digital technology is married to one of oldest tools in performance sailing: telltales. With this clever product from Mer Agitee, the offshore sailor can remain in perfect trim in any wind and sea conditions.
In an age where nearly everything is digitised, one would have thought that the simple act of steering the boat and trimming the sails to the guidance of telltales would remain an analogue activity. We were taught as young sailors to adjust our trim and/or our course to where these simple indicators of laminar flow over the sail membranes were streaming straight aft with no dancing or stalling, and we've been trained to use this a priori knowledge for steering and trimming ever since.
There are problems with this simple approach: you can't see telltales at night without a high-powered torch, and even in daylight, some boats are so large and their rigs so high that the small yarns or ribbons are just not visible from the deck or cockpit.
Now Dimitri Voisin and his team in France have devised an elegant digital solution for this problem called TrimControl, and yes, these are digital telltales. But how is this possible?
Full story in the November issue of Seahorse
Four boats on World Sailing Boat of the Year Award shortlist
The DNA F1x, Figaro III, L30 and Ran VII - Fast 40 have been shortlisted for the inaugural World Sailing Boat of Year Award.
The World Sailing Boat of the Year Award recognises outstanding boat design, innovative concepts and ground breaking technological advancements that are changing the face of sailing, pioneering change across the world.
A judging panel consisting of Gary Jobson - World Sailing Vice-President, Matt Sheahan - Head of Performance Sailing at Sunset+Vine, James Boyd - sailing journalist and Carlos de Beltran - World Sailing Director of Technical and Offshore reviewed the applicants before voting on a shortlist.
The selection committee will vote on who should receive the Boat of the Year Award and the winner will be announced at the 2018 World Sailing Awards, set to be held on Tuesday 30 October 2018 in Sarasota, Florida, USA.
DNA F1x
An evolution of the F1 A-Catamara, the DNA F1x is the ultimate single handed boat. Incredibly fast, agile and powerful, the DNA F1x is optimised for aero, has improved ergonomics and is a demanding design with a high level of execution.
Four point foiling was introduced on the DNA F1x with a Z-foil configuration ensuring the total design is fully optimised for stable and fast foiling upwind and downwind. Further improvements have been made on the tapered mast, hulls and beams and more weight has been added to ensure a stronger structure.
Figaro III
The Figaro Beneteau 3 was designed for and with the top singlehanded sailors in the world.
It is the first production foiling one-design monohull ever to be designed. A distillation of technology and innovation, group Beneteau's best experts and the Van Peteghem Lauriot-Prevost (VPLP) office, the architects of the last two boats to win the Vendee Globe, worked in collaboration to design the boat.
At one of its first outings, the Figaro 3 took line honours in the Pacific Cup between San Francisco and Hawaii. Set for global distribution in 2019, with more than 50-boats on order, the boat will join the mighty Figaro professional racing circuit.
L30
The L30 was designed by Justin Yacht Design and was created to provide greater accessibility and affordability for yacht club members to sail both inshore and offshore.
A fast, modern one-design with racing character, the L30 can easily be transported via a trailer with minimum maintenance costs. A spacious cabin and head make it suitable for racing as well as corporate sailing events and for use within sailing schools.
Furthermore, the boat has the environment in mind with a sail drive electric motor that can operate in the hydro-generator mode.
Ran VII - Fast 40
Designed by Carkeek design partner and launched on 13 April 2018, Ran VII is a pioneering boat that continues the succession of Niklas Zennstrom owned boats named Ran.
With a unique boat shape and electric powered sail drive system, Ran VII has won every race she has entered including the prestigious One Ton Cup where she scored an unprecedented six firsts and two second places.
Ran VII utilises smart geometry to increase performance but the prototype electric sail drive system is a technologically advanced and was developed for environmental purposes that will pave the way for future developments.
British Skipper Alex Thomson Breaks 24 Hour Distance Record
British skipper Alex Thomson and his crew have officially broken the 24 hour distance record for a 60ft Monohull.
Sailing onboard the HUGO BOSS IMOCA 60 race boat, the crew were successfully able to sail 539.71 nautical miles over the course of 24 hours, breaking the existing record - set by Thomson himself in 2017 - by 2.9 nm.
The record was broken on 19-20 July, during a transatlantic delivery from New York to the United Kingdom. Thomson and four crew members sailed at an average speed of 22.49 knots during the 24 hour period.
The new record was ratified this week by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.
Sustainability For Rights Holders And Brands
Anne-Cecile Turner is the founder of Blueshift, the sustainability consultancy helping organisations to motivate decision makers and employees to integrate sustainability throughout the whole value chain. Most recently she has been the Volvo Ocean Race's Sustainability Programme Leader assisting the round the world yacht race in its desire to reduce its environmental impact, optimise its sustainability potential and utilise the power of the race to create positive change on the oceans' health on a global scale.
Emily Caroe caught up with Anne-Cecile from her base in Lausanne, Switzerland, to find out more about the Volvo Ocean Race's sustainability programme and what rights holders and brands should be considering when the considering a sustainability programme.
Anne-Cecile Turner:
The concept of the sustainability programme of the Volvo Ocean Race was born a long time ago with the idea that a global event has a powerful voice. Combine that with the fact that our oceans are threatened, we knew we could use our voice to create positive and tangible impacts to improve the situation.
The full interview: www.mallory-group.com
Industry News
New York Yacht Club American Magic, the U.S. Challenger for sailing's 36th America's Cup, set to be held in 2021, today announced aerospace pioneer Airbus as its innovation partner. As Official Innovation Partner, Airbus will allocate engineering resources and modeling expertise to assist in the design optimization of American Magic's future AC75 racing boat - a brand new, cutting-edge, high-tech craft aiming to compete in sailing's oldest and most coveted trophy.
Airbus will provide engineering support in areas such as simulation capabilities development, systems architecture design and testing, hydrodynamic calculation and optimization, boat control and instrumentation.
"This is a true challenge for the team to see how they can optimize technological innovation under tight time and resource constraints," said Jean Brice Dumont, Executive Vice President Engineering at Airbus. "We love good, clean competition. That's what pushes us to continually improve at innovating, solve challenges, learn from experience and, ultimately, win. Our goal in this project is to help American Magic design the fastest possible flying yacht for 2021."
Dumont noted that Airbus' engineering know-how was also sought out by the U.S. Defender in previous America's Cup (2014-2017). Resulting concrete benefits for Airbus have included improved wing tip design for the A350 and new instrumentation now currently used on all aircraft development.
This innovation partnership reflects Airbus' significant and growing presence in North America. With major design, engineering and manufacturing facilities in both the United States and Canada, Airbus is a natural fit for the American Magic team. The Airbus team in North America is ready to see the America's Cup return to its historic home in the U.S.
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Russian yacht and boat distributors are hoping to increase sales on the domestic market over the next six to seven months, according to exhibitors at the recent St Petersburg International Boat Show.
The biggest hopes are related to medium-sized yachts, produced by leading EU shipyards.
According to St Petersburg business paper Fontanka, Kirill Slepov, head of Russian boatbuilder Velvette, says there is an ever-growing demand for universality among Russian customers. "In contrast to Europe, where the requests and orders for new yachts are more specialised, Russian clients usually want everything from their yachts - from fishing to spending time with their families," he says.
"Due to weather conditions, Russian customers mostly prefer cabins, rather than open models. They also try to save on size, with 6m hulls being the most popular.
At the same time, dealers said there is growing competition from the second-hand yacht market, which currently accounts for 50%-80% of all yacht sales on the local market.
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Italy's Cantiere del Pardo has undergone a management buyout. Fabio Planamente and Luigi Servidati, long-serving managers at the Italian yard, have acquired a majority share of the business from the Trevisani family.
Luigi Servidati and Fabio Planamente have both worked for the company for many years - Servidati since 2000 and Planamente since 2009 - performing different roles. Servidati will now serve as president of the Administrative Board and Fabio Planamente as CEO.
When the Trevisani family acquired the shipyard in 2014, Luigi Servidati was appointed sales and marketing director and product development manager, and Fabio Planamente as general manager. Since then, Cantiere del Pardo claims to have regained its "original leading role in the boating industry" with revenues this year of more than €30m.
Such an accomplishment, says the company, is the result of correct business decisions like the launch of the new powerboat brand Pardo Yachts and the new Long Cruise and Custom Line sailing range.
The Trevisani family and Andrea Amadori have consequently reduced their holdings while maintaining their presence in the company.
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More than 400 delegates are expected to take part in this year's ICOMIA World Marinas Conference, which runs from October 25-27 in Athens, Greece.
An impressive programme of speakers from around the world will be taking part, allowing delegates to interact and openly debate with representatives from business, academia and politics from Greece and abroad.
More than 40 speakers will be in Athens to share their views with the audience, including Ulrich Heinemann, CEO of the International Marina Certification Institute (IMCI), and Oscar Siches, yacht harbour expert and former founder director of the Global Marina Institute in Spain.
The three-day event will consist of two conference days and a day touring some of the best marinas that Athens has to offer.
The ICOMIA World Marinas Conference is specially designed for marina owners, operators, developers, consultants, equipment manufacturers and service providers who like to stay on top of the developments on the industry and become part of the evolution.
www.worldmarinasconference.com
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Hyundai Motor France join the Energy Challenge
Hyundai Motor France come on board the Energy Challenge as Official Partner;
Phil Sharp, skipper of Class40 Imerys Clean Energy joins as an ambassador for clean energy.
The clean innovations developed and demonstrated by the Energy Challenge has attracted the support of Hyundai Motor France, whose Group aim under project BLUEDRIVE is to reduce air pollution, CO2 emissions and energy consumption.
Their 2020 goal to create a full line-up of eco-friendly vehicles aligns with the Challenge's innovation accelerator mission to sail around the world in the next Vendee Globe using renewable hydrogen for power generation. For this, the Challenge are bench testing a hydrogen-electric clean energy system to replace the on board diesel engine. Hyundai Motor too see hydrogen energy as the future fuel with its release of the NEXO zero emissions car. However, as the world awaits the hydrogen infrastructure roll-out, the Challenge team will make the most of silent and cleaner driving with a new IONIQ Plug-in Hybrid car.
"We are excited to have Hyundai Motor France joining us as they are a very innovative and forward looking company, and in particular recognise hydrogen as a crucial fuel to decarbonise transport. This aligns very closely with our vision to demonstrate such cutting edge technologies in marine, and indeed there is a great deal of advanced technology from automotive that can be applied to the maritime sector.
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For the third year in a row, the innovative Australian apparel brand Zhik is up for a DAME Award at METS 2018, with its new line of ECO Wetsuits.
Zhik's range of ECO friendly wetsuits, which will be unveiled to retailers at the Show, are made from ECOFOAM a non-neoprene substitute. Sourced from sustainable, plant based natural resources and recycled plastics, ECOFOAM takes away the traditional non bio-degradable oil-based neoprenes which have a high carbon footprint.
Zhik CEO Piet Poelmann comments, "Zhik is Made for water. The 'ECO' element is a logical consequence of our activities. Water is our playground, and it covers 71% of the world! Through our involvement of many 'clean water' initiatives, like the Volvo Ocean race, we know there is still a lot to do. In the last years, we started to remove plastic from our packaging, and now we introduce the ECO wetsuit. It is our way to try and help keep our playground clean."
Zhik won a DAME Award in 2017 for their Avlare water-repelling technical tops and in 2018 with the Isotak Ocean range with its Adaptive Hydrovision hood.
Featured Brokerage
Emika is a flush deck version of the Swan 62 and has just been introduced to the brokerage market for the first time. Since delivery in 2004, she has been used for private family cruising and based in the South of France with the occasional winter in the Caribbean.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Nautor's Swan Brokerage - Jeremy Peek
Tel. +377 97 97 95 07
nautorswanbrokerage.com
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SorayAnnis is a very highly specified Swan 54 designed for the easiest of short-handed sailing.
See listing details at Nautor Swan Brokerage
Contact
Nautor's Swan Brokerage - Jeremy Peek
Tel. +377 97 97 95 07
nautorswanbrokerage.com
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Greg Elliot is a legend in the Southern Hemisphere where his fast, lean and utilitarian yachts are perfect for making fast passages through the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean. They are superb seaboats and there design and execution is simple and robust. ZINDABAR is a good example of his craft and has been substantially updated in this ownership. A big refit in 2009 has been followed by a number of smaller upgrades to ensure that she remains ocean ready.
See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
Contact
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679 222
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. -- William Burroughs
Editorial and letter submissions to
Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/advertise.html