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In This Issue
• Stronger together: IMOCA and The Ocean Race
• 10-15 IMOCA teams expected and 5-7 VO 65
• Seahorse for the Holidays
• Sail Melbourne International 2018 wraps up with full day of Racing
• 18ft Skiffs NSW Championship, Race 4
• Paris 2024 Men's and Women's Windsurfer - Invitation to tender
• Mothquito nominated best design Foiling Awards 2018
• HP30 Class
• Good Championship Year for HISC Sailors
• British yachtswoman eager to race again after capsizing in storm
• Featured Brokerage
• The Last Word: Jack Kerouac
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
Stronger together: IMOCA and The Ocean Race
Good progress was made and celebrated in Paris this week with IMOCA ratifying a version of their class rule for fully crewed events.
There was a celebration in Paris this week as the IMOCA world joined forces with The Ocean Race in looking ahead to the start of the next edition in October 2021.
On Tuesday morning, the IMOCA general assembly passed a newly written version of the Class Rule for fully crewed events, defining the characteristics of yachts that will compete in the IMOCA 60 class of the next race.
The rule defines a boat that respects the open design philosophy of the IMOCA class as well as balancing crew safety and performance the same way the short-handed version of the rule does.
Following the IMOCA general assembly, Richard Brisius, the President of the race, spoke about the next steps.
“We intend to issue the Notice of Race and open the entry period in the coming days,” he said. “The Notice of Race is a technical document, but in reality these rules are an expression of our vision for the event and will affirm our commitment to youth and crew diversity as well as a robust sustainability programme.
“We will see two classes in the next race, the IMOCA 60s which will push the frontiers of design and engineering and bring the larger maritime industry back into the race. And the one-design VO65 class will return, with close racing and a larger crew size that allows for youth rules. Both classes will have women on board.”
Brisius noted the host city procurement process is already underway, with the race route to be defined and host cities announced by the summer of 2019.
10-15 IMOCA teams expected and 5-7 VO 65
Tuesday's presentation featured a Who's Who of French and international sailing: Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier, Alain Gautier, Paul Meilhat, Vincent Riou, Fabrice Amedeo, Stewart Hosford and Ross Daniel for Hugo Boss, Sam Davies, Louis Burton and Servane Escoffier, Eric Péron, Boris Herrmann, Conrad Colman, Marcus Hutchinson, Romain Attanasio, Alan Roura, Pierre-François Dargnies for Team Charal, representatives of Offshore Team Germany but also teams from the last Volvo (Dongfeng Race Team, Mapfre, Brunel, AkzoNobel) and Charlie Enright, former skipper of Vestas 11th Hour Racing ...
How many will actually make it to Alicante in October 2021? Johan Salén hopes for "10-15 Imoca and 5-7 VO65 [the latter being only for young crews, Ed], He says, "Right now, today, no one has a funded project, but we have good levels of interest from the teams who participated in the last Volvo, from completely new teams and we try to work as much as possible with the current Imoca teams ".
For the Imoca teams the priority, as Antoine Mermod points out, is that "The Ocean Race, is financially accessible to them". The Ocean Race has already made significant progress in areas such as the reduction in the number of team members (for the moment, five plus one mediaman ) and stages. Other topics are under discussion including technical aspects, like there being one single set of foils allowed on the race plus a spare, limitating the number of days of "two-boat testings". These issues will be resolved in the Notice of Race which is due soon.
Will this all be enough to bring five teams from the the Imoca circuit, the goal of the organizers? Most teams or skippers remain cautious such as Stewart Hosford (Hugo Boss) who says: "The project is interesting, but it's still difficult to assess today how much it will cost and if it's commercially interesting for our partners. For now our only priority is to win the Vendée Globe ".
Among the other teams or skippers showing signs of interest are those of Sam Davies and Boris Herrmann, but also organisations like MerConcept (see our interview with François Gabart) and BeYou Racing. With Eric Péron, Fabrice Amedeo makes no secret that he wants to start from Alicante with his current boat. The skipper of Newrest Art & Fenêtres, who has already begun to work on the proposal, estimates the budget needed to participate in The Ocean Race at 7 to 8 million euros over two years. -- Andi Robertson in https://mailchi.mp/tipandshaft/tip-shaft-9-the-ocean-race-21-22-is-starting-to-take-shape-figaro-3-ticket-to-ride?e=89d62bd956 (great new newsletter from France available in English)
Seahorse for the Holidays
Our friends at Seahorse and running a fantastic offer this December and don't want Scuttlebutt Europe subscribers to miss out.
For a limited period on they are offering their best available price on a Seahorse subscription and have also bundled in a 'great night in on them' with a free rental copy of Coyote - the excellent Mike Plant story (it's one not to be missed).
This great offer can be accessed on this link - bit.ly/SECOY19
Sail Melbourne International 2018 wraps up with full day of Racing
Racing at Sail Melbourne International 2018 wrapped up with a full final day of racing across all Olympic and Invited class fleets. After challenging race disruptions over the four-day event, caused by the current weather system sitting over Australia’s east coast, it was a welcome finish for the close to 400 competitors from all across Australia and from 18 countries.
One and half years out from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Australian Sailing Team sailors presented themselves in strong form on home waters and took home the wins across most of the Olympic classes.
Australian Sailing Team’s Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallists Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (NSW) continued their winning series on home waters and took home the win in the 470 class at Sail Melbourne. The pair won all but one race of the seven race series ahead of the two boats from Japan with Daichi Takayama and Kimihiko Imamura in second and Kazuto Doi and Naoya Kimura in third.
The 470 fleet was one of the most competitive fleets including sailors from seven countries and featuring Spanish 2018 World Championships bronze medallists Jordi Xammar Hernandez and Nicolás Rodrigues Garcí-Paz, who finished fifth, behind Germans Simon Diesch and Phillip Autenrieth in fourth.
2018 Laser World Championships silver medallist Matt Wearn (WA) won the last race of the day in a world-class laser fleet to take home the overall win ahead of New Zealanders Thomas Saunders and Sam Meech.
Port Phillip will be hosting the 49er/FX/Nacra17 World Championships out of Geelong Royal Yacht Club in February 2020 and local Victorian Tess Lloyd is already looking forward to more international events on her home turf.
The Kevin Wilson Award went to Royal Brighton Yacht Club Commodore and member of the organising committee Paul Pascoe. The Kevin Wilson Award is annually given to someone who has contributed to Sail Melbourne International timelessly, with passion and great energy.
Full results of all classes: bit.ly/SailMelb18Results
18ft Skiffs NSW Championship, Race 4
Sydney Harbour: The Smeg 18ft Skiff team of Michael Coxon, Ricky Bridge and Mike McKensey gave an awesome display of power sailing as they tamed the 25-knot, gusting to 30-knots, North East wind to take out Race 4 of the NSW 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour today.
Smeg grabbed the lead from the start and dominated the fleet before going on to record a 2m41s victory.
In a day which required the very best racing skills, the next two teams to finish behind Smeg were loaded with the very best.
Bing Lee, skippered by former Australian champion Micah Lane, with former Giltinan champions Peter Harris and Scott Babbage in the team, chased Smeg all day but were unable to match the winner's speed.
Third place went to Winning Group, which had John Winning Jr, and two more Giltinan champions, Seve Jarvin and Sam Newton, in the team.
Winning Group finished 1m14s behind Bing Lee, and more than four minutes ahead of the fourth boat, Ilve (Jonathan Whitty).
Today's race was the final race before the fleet takes a break over the Christmas-New Year period. Racing resumes on Sunday, 13 January 2019.
Live streaming of each race is available on 18FootersTV
www.18footers.com.au/18-footers-sailing/18-footers-tv/
Frank Quealey
www.18footers.com
Paris 2024 Men's and Women's Windsurfer - Invitation to tender
Class Associations and Equipment Manufacturers are invited to tender for the Men's and Women's Windsurf Equipment for the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Competition.
The Invitation to Tender follows from World Sailing's Olympic Re-evaluation Policy, detailed in Regulation 23.6 and approved by World Sailing's Council at the 2017 Annual Conference in Mexico.
Equipment selected for each Olympic Event shall be subject to re-evaluation at least every eight years to ensure that:
- Competing equipment and competing manufacturers of existing equipment can bid to be selected for Olympic Events and therefore access the market on a fair and objective basis;
- Reduce the risk of monopolies;
- Manufacturers do not become complacent, remain price-competitive, produce high-quality equipment, and do not abuse their market positions.
- The review process will allow the existing Olympic Equipment for the Event, along with any new Classes or manufacturers who wish to have their equipment included in the Olympic Games, to tender for inclusion.
The tender process will review all aspects of the equipment (including suitability for the Olympic Event and its competitors, prices, manufacturing, availability and supply around the world).
The full process and procedure in the Olympic Equipment Re-evaluation procedure is available here.
Mothquito nominated best design Foiling Awards 2018
Foiling Awards, organised by Foiling Week, are the greatest recognition a foiling boat can achieve worldwide.
The prize categories are broken down into different categories such as production series, upcoming designs, racing, etc. The public gets to pick the winner for each category, and the mere fact of getting shortlisted is in itself worthy of international prestige.
Shortlisted for the Design category is one pioneering initiative, the Mothquito, which boasts an innovative design aimed at foil sailing from its inception with its Increased Foiling System (IFS). Patented by the company developing the Mothquito, IFS Foiling, the IFS design extends the dynamic length and beam on flight, affording greater performance and stability compared to it's hull size.
The Mothquito is a foiling dinghy 3.05m long and 1.8m wide that can be transported on a roof-rack. Once in the water and with the foils deployed the equivalent length on flight becomes 5.5m and its dynamic beam reaches 4.8m, which allows the Mothquito to punch above its weight.
Even with its light carbon fibre construction, the righting moment afforded by the wide dynamic foiling beam means it can be balanced with little effort. Designer Toni Blanc explains its 15m2 sail surface area might seem somewhat aggressive for a 3m dinghy, but that thanks to this IFS system it is in fact rather moderate.
The Mothquito presents itself as a highly stable, easy handling performance dinghy that's suitable for sailors of all levels. Currently in first prototype phase, the Mothquito is being tested in Valencian waters with the enthusiastic support from the Valencian Sailing Federation (FVCV) and the Javea Yacht Club (Spain) for this unique design which has been shortlisted for the Foiling Awards 2018, alongside great names like the America's Cup AC75, the Swan 36, the Nacra 15, the 10 ft pocket foiler and Philippe Briand's Flyacht.
Vote in the Foiling Awards 2018 until the end of December (You will find the candidacy of Mothquito in the Design category).
The winners will be announced at the Foiling Awards ceremony in Milan on the 29th of January 2019.
HP30 Class
The HP30 Class delivers high performance racing in 30’ sailboats. Defined by the IRC rating and HP30 Class Limits, the fleet guarantees highly competitive, affordable, close racing.
With an action packed 2018 season now behind us the HP30 Class is turning its attention to the next two years of racing, consolidating the continued growth of this exciting fleet of race boats, from all over Europe.
All of the 2018 competitors have agreed to race in 2019 which means that the fleet will start the season in rude health, with ten boats lining up to race at the events. With five months to go until the start of the new season, there is also plenty of time for new teams to join the programme.
New developments for the 2019 season, include the formalisation of the Class Constitution, with the election of officers and the introduction of a technical sub-committee and officers to provide experience and guidance as the class evolves.
In summary, these enhancements, underpin the future of this owner-run Class and will ensure an economical and level competitive playing field in the years to come.
The HP30 Class racing calendar has been created to provide two main competitions over the course of the season, with a national season points championship, and an HP30 Solent Series, running across the whole season.
The HP30 Class Nationals will be staged at Cowes Week where the competition will comprise several days of windward leeward racing, as well as several classic orienteering courses around the Solent.
New Fleets are also developing in Falmouth and Weymouth & Poole. Watch out for future announcements.
Good Championship Year for HISC Sailors
Sailors from all the active HISC classes were out and about getting in the silverware this year. Firstly, eight Elites travelled to Belfast Lough where Mike & Caroline McIntyre & Simon Childs were victorious. Narrowly missing the runner up spot with third overall was Paul Fisk, Nick Peters & Pippa Jubb.
Meanwhile the clubs biggest class, the Solos, were playing at home in 2018, with a massive 110 boat Nationals turnout, no fewer than nine regular HISC club sailors finished in the top 20. Top of the pile was Stuart Godwin, Rich Bailey & Richard Lovering with 6th, 7th & 8th respectively.
The RS200 Nationals, part of the RS Games at Weymouth, saw four HISC members in the Top 10. Rob Henderson, crewing for Amateur Yachtsman of the Year, Maria Stanley, was 1st place crew. Young Amelia Hewitson, ably crewed the 4th place boat and notably brother & sister combo Tom & Charlie Darling finished a creditable 8th place & 1st family.
Notably the HISC Tasar class has grown from 3 to 12 boats & HISC hosted one of the biggest Nationals the class has had, as a forerunner to the Tasar Worlds in 2019 also at HISC. Two HISC boats were in the top 3 only beaten by one of the top Aussie’s on holiday! One of these HISC Tasar’s was sailed by the long standing and successful David Sayce (crewed by wife, Fiona) who was fresh from being the top HISC boat at the Fireball Worlds with a creditable 6th place, this time crewed by Nick Rees.
Also at the RS Games the RS800 Nationals were held, where a simply glamourous performance from Tom Morris & Guy Fillmore secured top spot with a string of firsts. Phil Walker & John Mather also finished 4th.
Regular faces at the club, International Moth sailors Ross Harvey & Mike Lennon both managed top 10 in this most challenging class. Finally, in San Francisco after 29 years of trying, Vice Commodore Sailing Andy Partington, latterly crewed by son Tom won the International 14 World Championship…Andy summed it up with “Dreams can come true!”
To finish the season off in style the HISC annual Christmas Cracker Pursuit Race takes place on Sunday 23rd December. This Open Meeting raises funds for the Friends of Chichester Harbour and is a great way to blow those Christmas shopping blues away.
British yachtswoman eager to race again after capsizing in storm
A British yachtswoman, who was rescued after her boat capsized during a solo, round-the-world race, has said she would do it again “in a heartbeat”.
Susie Goodall’s comments were made after arriving on dry land in Chile, in the southern city of Punta Arenas on Friday, where she was met by her mother and brother. The family smiled and hugged before they joined her in an ambulance for a medical check-up in the port city.
The 29-year-old was the youngest entrant and the only woman in the Golden Globe Race that began on 1 July in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France.
A violent storm ripped off her mast and overturned her boat on 5 December. Race officials were in regular radio contact with Goodall, who was near the southern tip of South America when the storm occurred. She was rescued two days later by the Tian Fu, a cargo vessel from China.
In a statement on her website on Friday evening, Goodall said: “If you asked me if I would do this again, now knowing what it’s really like, I would say ‘yes’ in a heartbeat! You may ask why?! Some people just live for adventure - it’s human nature. And, for me, the sea is where my adventure lies. Every seafarer understands the risks involved but that’s what makes us stronger and able to overcome other challenges in life.”
Goodall thanked all the people who had helped rescue her, including the captain, crew and owners of Tian Fu.
Featured Brokerage
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See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly
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Lead broker - Mark Cameron
Tel: +44(0)7988 763254
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2008 GP42 - "JUBILEE". 270000 GBP. Located in Hamble, UK.
JUBILEE is a Farr designed GP 42 that has been IRC and FAST 40 optimized. The boat is living proof that you don't have to spend the kids inheritance in order to play with the big boys in the exciting FAST 40 class and she has taken more race wins off the newest 2015/16/17 designs than any other boa
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1997 CHESSEA Volvo 60. 390,000 EUR. Located in Sete, South of France.
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
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www.bernard-gallay.com
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See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
I am going to marry my novels and have little short stories for children. -- Jack Kerouac
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