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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 Winning Appliances JJ Giltinan Championship
The champion USA team of Howie Hamlin, Fritz Lanzinger and Paul Allen finished second on CST Composites,3m34s behind the winner. Third place went to the early race leader Smeg, sailed by Nick Press, Dan Phillips and Dave Ewings, which was a further 37s behind CST Composites. Australian champions Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas finished fourth in Thurlow Fisher Lawyers, with UK skiff Hyde Sails (Andy Budgen, Dan Wilsdon and Matt Wark) fifth, just ahead of Western Australia's SLAM (Grant Rollerson, Anthony Young and Peter Nicholson). On Sunday Australian 18ft Skiff champions Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas fought back strongly in Thurlow Fisher Lawyers to score an impressive win in Race 2 of the Winning Appliances JJ Giltinan Championship on Sydney Harbour. Thurlow Fisher Lawyers took the lead from the first windward leg of the course and put on a wonderful display of light wind sailing to defeat Race 1 winner, Gotta Love It 7, by 1m23s. Gotta Love It 7's Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Scott Babbage had set a challenge to all challengers after a brilliant win yesterday but were unable to match the light wind speed of the winners. Former Giltinan champion John Winning and his Yandoo crew of Andrew Hay and Dave Gibson were near the head of the fleet all day and finished a further 3m17s back in third place. Western Australia's SLAM (Grant Rollerson) finished fourth, followed by Red Claw Wines (Matthew Searle) and TF Collect (Mark Kennedy). The race was another light day with an easterly breeze which fluctuated between 5-12 knots. After two light wind days, most crews are hoping for more breeze on Tuesday for Race 3 of the seven race championship. Early predictions are for 15-18 knot north east winds, which would be ideal conditions for great skiff action. If you think you can correctly select the first three placegetters in each heat, go to www.18footers.com.au and click on 'video' to register for "Pick the Podium". -- Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League www.flying18s.com You can follow all the race action LIVE on www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=138 Kilroy Crowned Miami Melges 32 Champion
The first race of the day took place under, what was considered, more civilized conditions than days past. The seas were still pretty lumpy, yet the breeze was absolutely perfect. Sunshine and 15-18 knots at the start allowed Vincenzo Onorato's Mascalzone Latino (Francesco Bruni, tactician) to get into a winning groove. He rounded the top mark in the lead and extended throughout the race. By the final run, on his way to the finished, his Melges 32 was launched by a mile. Onorato won, Dalton DeVos on Delta found some success taking second, while Kilroy maintained a solid third place position." Jason Carroll had another great day on the water scoring another bullet in the final race of the day and event. Kilroy, ultimately sealed the overall deal with a second place finish, while Dalton DeVos continued his top three streak finishing in third. Top Ten Results (Owner/Tactician) Full results: Katusha Closes
Things didn't look too good first thing this morning with heavy and ominous cloud over San Diego Bay, but the sun quickly broke through and the crews were sent out on time. The westerly built in the warm sunshine to around ten knots for races 1 and 2. The wind then made the racers and the big crowd on Broadway Pier wait for the grand finale. The delay lasted just over half an hour and when it got going it was in the lightest conditions of the week. Katusha made sure they were in the same piece of water as the only boat that could beat them overall - ORACLE Racing. Katusha's helmsman Bob Little commented, 'We just sailed real conservative and didn't push anything, just got the job done. That was it. Getting the two seconds [places] helped us out a lot, [we stayed consistent by] not pushing the line too hard, and not getting ourselves too separated from the boats we were close on points with... just sailing smart.' Katusha may have had their worst race of the week, but they did what they had to do and followed in behind ORACLE Racing, who finished seventh. Both Team Aqua and Artemis came desperately close to taking advantage of ORACLE Racing's result - Artemis finished third and Team Aqua fifth, both just one place short of forcing a tie-break that they would have won. Overall Results after 14 races 1. Katusha, 47 Dubarry Crosshaven - Born In The South Dubarry Crosshaven - boots born in the Southern Ocean. Climbing North The only thing that Loick Peyron and Jean-Pierre Dick seem to be struggling with on their ascent of the south Atlantic on Virbac-Paprec 3 this Sunday afternoon is deciding if their nearest rivals MAPFRE are indeed following in their wake, or whether Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez will break to the west of the high pressure system. In Wellington, New Zealand, Juan Merediz and Fran Palacio are desperately trying to convert their huge motivation and desire to finish their Barcelona World Race into a solid, workable plan: a means and methodology to successfully re-join the two broken halves of the mast they broke in the Tasman. In fact their mandatory 48 hours stop will expire tonight with little real progress. Saturday was spent with Southern Spars assessing the damage to their Central Lechera Asturiana rig and many others on board looking at their other jobs and problems. And Sunday has been equally frustrating with strong gales not even allowing them the chance to lift out the remaining upright section. First priority today is rest and recuperation for Jaume Mumbrú and Cali Sanmartí on We Are Water. They had to abort their entrance in to the Cook Strait in rising winds, big breaking seas after suffering further sail problems. After having seemingly made the clear decision that they would be fighting on and not stopping in Wellington, the duo were exhausted and at a low ebb when they finally managed to take refuge in a sheltered area of D'Urville Island, to the west side of the entrance to the Cook Strait. As long as they do not accept outside assistance they may stay on the mooring they have found there and leave in less than 48 hours, to return to the race track. But by all accounts some of their repairs which they made since being knocked down in the Tasman last week, have been negated and the duo anticipate making enough running repairs to get the boat moving safely again. French solo-skipper Thomas Coville passed within an estimated 3 miles of Estrella Damm today, making clear visual contact with the IMOCA Open 60. Rankings at 1400hrs Sunday 7th March 2011 AC34 Racing Rules Issued The rules have been simplified to take into account the significant investment in technology that will improve the experience of watching America's Cup racing. Some examples of amendments to the Racing Rules for the 34th America's Cup: - Simplified systems providing viewers access to the on-board communications during racing. - Increased likelihood of the first yacht crossing the line of being the winner. This has been achieved by providing greater powers to officials to make real time decisions coupled with the reduction in the issues that are determined after the race in Protest rooms. The Racing Rules can be found here: Sail-World.com has some interesting observations: Students of the Match Racing Rules will quickly see that there are no penalty turns - 270 degrees or otherwise. The penalty under these Rules is for the boat to slow under umpire instruction until she has got behind an imaginary line known as the Penalty Line. The Penalty Line is a new term which is defined as 'a line perpendicular to the line through the marks defining the leg at a specified distance from the center of the yacht towards the mark defining the beginning of that leg.' We all know that there are no lines drawn on the sea, much less lines that move with boats. So the assumption is that these rules are referring to a GPS driven system using screen overlays to provide the lines necessary for the umpires to make calls as to both who has broken a rule, if any, and then how the penalty will be applied. The need for this system is born out of the reality that it is impossible to accurately umpire yacht races, from power boats, when the competitors are sailing at speeds of greater than 20 knots. The options are then to use an electronic system or helicopters. The attraction of the electronic system is that it can be dropped onto a television screen so the viewers can see what the umpires are viewing. To be honest there is noth new in this, The systems have been under development since 1991 by Animation Research Ltd and were used 20 years ago - but not for umpiring. While much will be made of dropping lines over real video images without the use of animation, that assumes that theer is a camera in the optimum position to make the umpiring call - unless the umpires use a simpler version of the ARL animation system. Full article at www.sail-world.com 
Get A Deal On The Racing Rules! To order the Rules DVD or learn more about it, go to: www.LearnTheRacingRules.com Karol Jablonski Wins DN Ice Yacht Europeans On the first day, I sailed seven races, in order to qualify for the Gold group. I won the two qualification races without great difficulty. In strong winds, on the smooth as glass ice, the blades reach speeds of 120 - 140 km/h. The races consist of 3 rounds, up and down, with a distance between the marks of 2 to 2.5 km, and last about 10 to 14 minutes. The last day was decisive. A lot could still happen, and we had to wait for the wind strength to drop such that it was "only" 5-6 Beaufort. As we were only able to start sailing in the afternoon, with just two races planned, my goal was two finishes in the top ten. Easier said than done... In the first race, all went to plan, but as I rounded the windward mark in second position, I got a strong gust and 100 metres later my blades had lost contact with the ice. I "corkscrewed" around and thought that it was all over. Fortunately the equipment held together, and none of the boats that rounded the mark behind me cut through me. I only managed to finish this race in 4th place. The last race also became very exciting, as there was just one wind shift and everyone sailed very close together, which led to a lot of collisions. I sailed carefully and conservatively, and crossed the finishing line in third place, which was enough to secure me the European Championship title. -- Karol Jablonski (in translation from the German by SailRaceWin) Full article at SailRaceWin.com Moving Day: St. Maarten Heineken Regatta For CSA Classes 1-6, the second day of action brought two very different races, a morning windward/leeward affair around the buoys off the south coast of St. Maarten, and the traditional Saturday afternoon point-to-point destination race from a starting line off the Dutch harbor of Simpson Bay to a finish off Marigot on the Caribbean isle's French side. Meanwhile, the Bareboat fleets; CSA divisions 7 and 8; and racing and cruising Multihull classes enjoyed a single afternoon race to Marigot. Hoisting as much sail as possible seemed to be the order of the day for the leaders, with the 115-foot Sojana, flying a big mizzen spinnaker as well as her regular kite, towering above the 82-foot Nikolita as she rolled past her to weather. Moments later, two of the quickest mid-size Grand Prix racers - the Aussie 50-footer, Jazz, and the British 54-footer, Oystercatcher XXVIII - flew down the racecourse with the latter in steady pursuit of the men from Down Under. When all was said and done, the new canting-keel 50-footer, Jazz, was one of the day's big movers. With a pair of bullets today, the hot Aussie Cookson 50 canting keeler moved to the top of the CSA 1R leader board. But as steering committee chairman Robbie Ferron pointed out, the division's second-place boat, the Caribbean-based Peake Yacht Services Storm, a Reichel-Pugh designed 43-footer built several years ago, was more than holding her own; with two second-place finishes today, she remained ahead of Richard Matthews' new Tom Humphries-designed Oystercatcher XXVIII. In CSA 1C, Wendy Schmidt's Swan 80, Team Selene, with two wins today, was also moving in the right direction. Team Selene now leads the 8-boat class, with the Swan 82, Nikata, holding second place. In CSA 2, another Caribbean-based boat - Mark Plaxton's Melges 32, Team INTAC - crewed by a host of local rock stars, including Peter Holmberg, Maurice Burg and Ben Beer - retained their lock on first place with their third consecutive victory in three races. During the 1970s and 1980s, Jim Kilroy's string of Kialoa's dominated the maxi-boat class. And the last in the family of that famous line of boats, the 80-foot Frers designed Kialoa V, reminded sailors of those bygone days of glory today by moving up to third in CSA 3 following a 1-2 scorecard in a pair of races. Full results of all classes at www.heinekenregatta.com Open Nacional Snipe Regatta The last race started with a general recall that led to a black flag start for the real start. We had a wonderful start just up from the pin end. We tacked off the line and looked great. But unfortunatley for us, the wind kept winding left and the boats that took our stern (crossed behind us) and went to the left layline ended up rounding way ahead of us. We rounded the top mark in around 50th place, but we played the next two upwinds smart and caught up to 20th by the finish. We knew the points would be close between us and the Argentinian girls, Trixy and Yuyu for the overall top Women's Team award. They sailed very well today, so we fully expected them to have overtaken us with their scores. Luckily though, we passed just enough boats on the last leg of the last race to catch up and beat them by 2 points overall. Our overall experience at the regatta was most enjoyable. It has been a long time since we have done fleet racing (since Worlds in November last year), so it was an eye opener again and reinforced that we really need to keep practicing this part of the sailing game. We know we made many silly mistakes, but we also did many things quite well and we are happy about those. We really enjoyed sailing the Snipe again, and really want to do more Snipe regattas when possible. -- Anna Tunnicliffe, teamtunnicliffe.com Top ten final results: www.opennacionalsnipe.com/en/index.php Seahorse April 2011 Modern honeycombs The long game Rod Davis ORC column Superyacht Industry Fundraiser Raises $55,000 for Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
Hosted at HQ Bar in Westhaven, Auckland, the fundraiser event was attended by superyacht crew, owners, industry and guests. The evening began with a Maori blessing followed by a live rendition of the New Zealand national anthem. Chef Hamish Watson of MY Galaxy, who was in Christchurch during the earthquake and who remained there afterwards assisting the Red Cross by helping feed those affected, spoke of his experience. "It was shocking seeing streets I had driven down the day before just destroyed," said Watson. Following the welcome and reminder of the need to dig deep into pockets, a live auction fronted by Peter Montgomery, the voice of sailing in New Zealand, got underway. Montgomery stirred the crowd to bid generously on a number of high-end lots donated by members of the marine industry. A silent auction also took place during the night, whilst the live auction was followed by music from local blues band Stingray. The generosity of all involved - from those who donated items for auction, to all the bidders, to those who had given up their time to make the event happen - was overwhelming. Thanks must go to all who attended and took part, but especially to those who organized the event in such a short amount of time. Namely Jeanette Tobin of Superyacht Support Ltd, and Di Dobbs and Dean Morris of Freelance Media. Thanks also to YachtAid Global and to Peter Montgomery for his time Anyone wishing to donate to this very worthwhile cause can still do so online by visiting the YachtAid Global website: www.yachtaidglobal.org/ChristchurchReliefEffort.htm Featured Brokerage "Papalapap" is in good conditions and is well maintained. The owner wants to sell because of time constraints. Brokerage through Moosbrugger Yachts: www.yachtworld.com/moosbrugger-yachts/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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