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Issue #2239 - 13 December Brought to you by Boats.com Europe, Yachtworld.com Europe, 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 Vote now for in the annual Wight Vodka Best Yachting Bar contest. Jordy Walker
Jordy was one of the founding fathers of the World match Racing Association now know as the Match Racing Association (MRA), founded in 1985 as a California company. He was the force behind having the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) reorganize the Gold Cup from an amateur invitational event to a world class professional skipper event with prize money. Jordy not only ensured the boats for the event (IOD's, mainly his) but also put up the seed money to make the initial event take place. The RBYC then became one of the founding members of the MRA as a result of Jordy's push. Jordy brought the first professional team (Scott MacLeod) to organize a match racing event in Bermuda, with sponsors, which pointed the way for other events to follow. Under Jordy and Scott's direction they brought the MRA championship to Bermuda in 1991 and also under their direction numerous innovative events took place, like starboard mark roundings, on water umpires, on shore viewing etc., all of which were not only picked up by other events but also incorporated by the Americas Cup. Jordy was one of the original Directors of the MRA and became president (twice) and until his untimely death, Secretary. Jordy was also instrumental in ensuring that the MRA be incorporated in Bermuda, which it still is. In summary, I think Ted Weisberg said it all by stating " Jordy had an unwavering vision for the MRA and its mission. So much of what Match Racing is today is a byproduct of his vision. He was such a big part of the program from the very beginning. He was always there for the sport and the MRA and its member events through thick and thin. He was the compass of the MRA and most importantly the most wonderful person and we all feel that it was truly a privilege to be his friend." The Match Racing Association sends its sincere condolences to Mary, his loving wife, son Blythe, daughters Samantha and Elizabeth and their respective spouses and grandchildren. -- Brian Billings on behalf of the executive of the MRA. BMW ORACLE Racng Secure 2010 RC 44 Season Championship
Coupled with the team's sixth place in the match racing portion of the regatta, BMW ORACLE Racing placed fourth overall in the Miami regatta, which equated to a 2-point victory over Artemis Racing for the season championship. While Ellison got the spoils for the season championship, Vincenzo Onorato's Mascalzone Latino won the ORACLE RC 44 Cup Miami title. Mascalzone Latino showed great improvement at this regatta after rejoining the class in July. The Italian crew placed third in both the match and fleet racing for the overall victory with the low score of 6 points. Yet a third winner today was William "Doug" Douglass aboard the RC 44 World Champion yacht 17. Douglass, sailing with Australian James Spithill as tactician, won the fleet racing portion of the ORACLE RC 44 Cup Miami with the low score of 39 points. The 2011 RC 44 Season Championship begins in March in San Diego, Calif. ORACLE RC 44 Cup Final Standings RC 44 2010 Season Championship Velux 5 Oceans Second Sprint Delayed due to Adverse Weather Race director David Adams said: "The race committee has taken the decision to postpone the start of ocean sprint two of the Velux 5 Oceans. Currently there are 35 to 40 knot south westerlies and big swells off the coast of Cape Town. The local weather forecast is for the wind to build through the day. The Cape Town harbour master has stopped all shipping movements after midday because of the weather. "It would be unsafe to send seamen into a known storm. If they were already at sea and a storm hit there is nothing we can do about it but to knowingly send the skippers into a storm is irresponsible." The race had been due to start at 2pm from Cape Town, the first stopover of the 30,000 nautical mile round the world yacht race. The race committee will constantly monitor the weather and restart the race when they feel it is safe to do so. Ocean sprint two, the second of five, will see the fleet sail through the Southern Ocean to Wellington in New Zealand. Latest J Class Calendar Now Available Cost: Calendars: £15 inc UK/Europe postage, £17 Rest of the World Discounts are available for quantity orders and for members of the J Class Supporters' Club. For more information see: www.jclasssupporters.com 2012 Vendee Globe Officially Launched at the Paris Boat Show Bruno Retailleau, President of the Vendee Council, Louis Guedon, MP and Mayor of les Sables d'Olonne, Luc Talbourdet, President of the IMOCA class and Patricia Brochard, CEO of Sodebo officially launched the seventh Vendee Globe on Wednesday 8th November at the Nautic, the Paris Boat Show. After reminding everyone of the unique character of the Vendee Globe, an event which is a major sporting event, but also important in terms of the media coverage and the economic consequences (1.7 million people attended the start and the finish generating revenue estimated to be worth more than 39 million euros), Bruno Retailleau announced the official publication of the Notice of Race. In order to encourage the public, the date chosen for the start coincides with the middle of the half-term holidays in France and is in fact a bank holiday: the starting gun will go off on Sunday 11th November 2012 at 14hrs GMT. 28 sailors are expected to line up to attempt this adventure, including one previous winner: Vincent Riou (PRB). As for the organisers, they were pleased to learn about the recent project announced by François Gabart (Macif), who will be building his own 60-foot IMOCA boat with the Vendee Globe in mind. The technical details for this project will be taken care of by a certain Michel Desjoyeaux, twice winner of the Vendee Globe. With two years to go to the start, twelve projects are already complete, or in other words one more than at the same time in the previous edition, and we can already confirm the names of nine of them: Arnaud Boissières (FRA, Akena Verandas), Kito de Pavant (FRA, Groupe Bel), Alex Thomson (GB, Hugo Boss), Vincent Riou (FRA, PRB), Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA, Virbac-Paprec), Dominique Wavre (SUI, Mirabaud), Bernard Stamm (SUI, Cheminees Poujoulat), François Gabart (FRA, Macif) and Safran (FRA). Will Tactics, Politics Be Deal-Breaker For America's Cup Hosting? Today's letter from Golden Gate Yacht Club to Mayor Newsom and Supervisors reads like a match-race dialup. Two adversaries circling, pressing for advantage. The dialup got tense this week, even as America's Cup holder Larry Ellison relished some tough, fast racing here at the Oracle RC44 Miami Cup. Worth noting: his Russell Coutts-designed 44-foot monohull racer is called Deal Breaker. The America's Cup Event Authority and GGYC must announce a venue by Dec. 31. Now we know they have given San Francisco until Dec. 17 to finalize an acceptable agreement. These players do not use the terms "bad faith" or "bait and switch" in describing the city's switch from the original satisfactory agreement to the Northern Waterfront Alternative. But the one can almost see the thought bubbles from the tone of the grousing. What happened? Outwardly, it seemed that beneath the posturing and dramatic questions from Supervisors during their nearly five-hour hearing Wed., signs were hopeful that the city was on the cusp of approving plans to host the race in 2013. The Northern Waterfront Alternative -- switching part of the Cup Village from piers 40-54 to piers north of the Bay Bridge -- had gathered amazing political momentum in a short time, and the Supervisors discarded the original plan that had been agreed to by GGYC. Northern Waterfront was sold as a win-win and would have mean rehabilitating acres of crumbling waterfront that San Francisco Port director Monique Moyer testified no other developer wants to touch on terms the city has been able to offer. The changes, while good for the city, appear to be a deal breaker given the risk San Francisco already represents in terms of environmental permitting, political change, fundraising uncertainty, and supervisorial foot-dragging. The issue is not which piers (it is known that the Event Authority likes the piers involved in the Northern Waterfront Alternative). Rather, the issue is whether the finances cover not only the infrastructure improvements but also help to fund other costs of hosting the race. The Northern Waterfront Alternative doesn't do both. Full article by Paul Oliva at Seahorse December 2010 Rebuttal Sense of style If you haven't subscribed to Seahorse already we're keen to help you attend to that! - Please use the following promotional link and enjoy the hefty Scuttlebutt Europe discount... and it gets even better for 2 and 3 year subscriptions... Give the sailor(s) in your life a gift of Seahorse magazine! 2011 Extreme Sailing Series Launch Live Press Conference On Monday 13 December at 1900 hours GMT the venues and teams for the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series will be announced on the eve of the World Yacht Racing Forum, in Estoril, Portugal. Join us online to discover which top flight professional teams and skippers will be taking part in the fifth season of this award-winning circuit; which major cities and venues the 2011 tour will be visiting; and the innovations, both on and off the water, that will continue to bring the circuit to you, wherever you are in the world. Hosted by BBC Olympic sailing commentator, Richard Simmonds, and joined by Mark Turner, Executive Chairman of event organisers OC ThirdPole, hear what some of the skippers and other key industry movers and shakers have to say about the Extreme Sailing Series™. The press conference will available to watch live online at: www.extremesailingseries.com The press conference will also be streamed on the Extreme Sailing Series Facebook page: www.facebook.com/#!/extremesailingseries You can also download the Livestream App to your iPad or iPhone here and watch it live when on the move: itunes.apple.com/us/ Groupama Volvo Ocean Race Team Since November 2009, the Groupama Sailing Team has continued to become stronger, to work on the design of the future Groupama 4 as well as sail aboard Groupama 70, winner of the last edition of the crewed Round the World with stopovers, which went by the name of Ericsson 4. The first to be named to the team is Irish sailor Damian Foxall, who has already participated in three editions of the Volvo (2001, 2005 and 2008). At 41 years of age, this most French of Anglophones resides in Lorient. Winner of the Barcelona World Race with Jean-Pierre Dick, Damian will take up the position of helmsman, trimmer and crew manager. Other team members: Groupama skipper is relying on the heads of department to bring the Groupama group's participation in the Volvo Ocean Race to a successful conclusion. At 57, Luc Gellusseau is the first of them to join the Groupama Sailing Team. In charge of relations with the organisers and, in particular, the special race rules for the Volvo Ocean Race, he keeps an eye on each stage of the project - training, construction of Groupama 4, manufacture of the sails and constitution of the crew - to ensure that the decisions made conform to the race rules. Watch leader aboard Telefonica during the last edition of the race, Laurent Pagès, 34 years of age, joined the Groupama Sailing Team back in August 2009 and is in charge of the sail programme Loic Dorez, head of the design office, Pierre Tissier, head of boat construction, Herve Le Quilliec, in charge of logistics, Australian Ben Wright, head of the shore crew and finally Olivier Mainguy, in charge of the rigging, complete this team led by Stephane Guilbaud, team manager, who has worked alongside Franck Cammas since 1997. -- Translated by Kate Jennings Rare Native American Canoe Discovered in Cornwall Estimated to be more than 250 years old, the Native American canoe was found on the estate of the Enys family and was brought to England by Lt John Enys in 1776 after fighting in the American War of Independence. It has now been moved to the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, where it will be restored and displayed in the Main Hall from late January to September 2011, before being repatriated to Canada. Wendy Fowler, a descendent of the Enys family, whose records date back to the 13th century, called the museum so they could look at the canoe lying in the estate's barn. She said: 'The estate is very special to us and holds many secrets, but I believe this is the most interesting to date. 'We knew we had something special, but having worked with the British Museum on the artefacts and the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, we now believe that this is one of the world's oldest birch-bark canoes. This is a unique survival from the 18th century.' From Yachting Monthly: www.yachtingmonthly.com Poland Bids to Organize 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships The host organizer has the full financial and organizational support of Ministry of Sport and Tourism of Polish Government as well as National Olympic Committee and Polish Yachting Association. Owing to the excellent conditions in terms of both, the wind and the infrastructure, a number of events of national, European and world scale are held in Gdynia every year. The racing areas will be located on the waters of Gdansk Bay along the shore line between Gdynia and Gdansk. Sandy beaches, partially higher cliffs, walking boulevard and Sopot pier provide great opportunity for tourists and spectators to follow racing which, together with challenging media concept, will become more attractive, understandable and media friendly. Thermal wind, typical sea breeze generating over the Bay together with cliffs, hills and funnels provide various opportunities for every sailor also requiring diversity of skills. According to Tomasz Chamera, director of racing in Polish Yachting Association: "Organizing the Championships in Gdynia gives unique opportunity to discover well developed but still unknown sailing areas and to create the bridge towards emerging countries in the neighborhood". Gdynia initiative is supported by many distinguished persons. Lech Walesa, the man who made a lot in changing the World says: "Organizing world events is one of the strength of Polish sport and the city of Gdynia is widely known for its sailing assets". Featured Brokerage A vessel with a great history and good potential for the future. Very suitable for the more adventurous charter activities. Will need work carried out on the hydraulic winch system but then any boat like this is going to require expenditure. The world class solo racers Michel Desjoyeaux and Roland Jourdain both sailed with the legendary Eric Tabarly on this yacht in the 1985 Whitbread. It was the first time either of them crossed the Equator Brokerage through Ancasta International Boat Sales: www.yachtworld.com/ancasta/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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