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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 Brad Van Liew Claims Victory
"I feel the exuberance and joy of winning an incredible race and experiencing the unforgettable journey of sailing around the world alone," said Van Liew while waiting outside the locks to enter La Rochelle's historic Harbor. "There is just nothing else in the world like it. The challenges are unique and can be dangerous and invigorating at the same time. It is a test of the soul and involves reaching deep to overcome physical and mental challenges I have seen nowhere else in sport or life." Brad's site: www.oceanracing.org * British ocean racer Chris Stanmore-Major 'CSM' has crossed the finish line of the final sprint of the Velux 5 Oceans singlehanded round the world yacht race in second place to secure at least fourth place overall in his first solo circumnavigation of the globe. The 33-year-old sailed his 60ft yacht Spartan into La Rochelle, France, and across the ocean sprint five finish line at 11.06am local time (0906 UTC) in second place, his best result in the race so far. Born in Lancaster, UK Chris now calls Cowes on the Isle of Wight home and has now completed two circumnavigations in two years after skippering a crewed boat around the world just last year. The Velux 5 Oceans 2010-11 was his first solo attempt. Chris completed the 3,600-mile final sprint from Charleston in South Carolina to La Rochelle in 13 days, 14 hours and 06 minutes. * Polish ocean racer Zbigniew 'Gutek' Gutkowski has crossed the finish line of the final sprint of the Velux 5 Oceans singlehanded round the world yacht race in third place, to secure second place on the overall podium in his first solo circumnavigation of the globe. He becomes the 183rd person to complete the gruelling feat and the first Pole ever to do so. The 36-year-old sailed his 60ft yacht Operon Racing into La Rochelle, France, and across the ocean sprint five finish line at 1507 local time (1307UTC) having overcome a catalogue of disasters throughout the race including two serious injuries and major boat damage. Gutek completed the 3,600-mile final sprint from Charleston in South Carolina to La Rochelle in 13 days, 18 hours and 07 minutes. * Derek Hatfield today proved why he is Canada's top solo sailor as he took the final podium position in the Velux 5 Oceans solo round the world yacht race. The 58-year-old sailed his Eco 60 Active House across the finish line of the fifth and final ocean sprint of the 30,000-mile race at 0907 local time (0707 UTC), bringing to an end a 14-day passage across the North Atlantic from Charleston. Derek finished fourth in the final sprint, beating race rival Chris Stanmore-Major into third place overall by just three points. Derek's arrival into La Rochelle brings to an end the 2010/11 Velux 5 Oceans which saw four of the five starting skippers complete the gruelling solo circumnavigation. Derek becomes the only Canadian to have sailed solo around the world twice, having also raced in the 2002/3 edition of the Velux 5 Oceans. During that race his Class 40 yacht was capsized attempting to round Cape Horn and the mast was lost but after carrying out repairs in Argentina he was able to finish the race. First Ever Tour Win for Bruni at Match Race Germany
The win means his Bruni Racing team trail Damien Iehl's French Match Racing Team by just two points in the World Match Racing Tour standings after two stages of the 2011 series. Bruni was in consistent form throughout Match Race Germany, winning Qualifying to earn a direct ticket to the Semi-Finals which he won against Phil Robertson's WAKA Racing team on count back. In the Final against Gilmour, he upped is game even further and benefited from a series of great calls by his tactician Massimo Bortoletto to win 2-0. Bruni, who has several America's Cup and Olympic campaigns to his name, said after his first Tour victory: "I believe our races against Peter Gilmour in the Final are the best we've sailed. After 12 events we finally won one. My guys have been brilliant and patient with me to give them a win. We're a bunch of friends with a great team spirit." Results from Match Race Germany: 1. Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing, 25 points 2011 ISAF World Match Racing Tour Standings (after 2 stages): 1. Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team, 39 North Sails UK Are Recruiting North are looking for two highly motivated professional sailmakers to help with their Grand prix orders including Volvo work. The positions will be located in Gosport, the UK's head office. North Sails offer excellent remuneration and benefit packages. All communication with North Sails will be in the strictest confidence. Apply to Martin Lee or call 02392604271 to arrange a confidential meeting. An Electric Finish to Act 3 Istanbul
The pressure was on and Barker kept his nerve to steer the Kiwis to a convincing race win. They then had an agonising wait only to see Artemis Racing climb up to 3rd place on the final gybe of the final downwind leg to win Act 3 by the smallest of margins - 1 point out of 307. Act 3 has been another 'stand-out' event in terms of its location in the bustling centre of Istanbul, home to 13 million on the boundary between Asia and Europe. The first three days delivered challenging and gusty conditions for the 11 Extreme 40 teams, racing at the limit, over the short courses laid out on the Halic estuary. The most dramatic moment came in the fourth race of day 3 when Alinghi careered into the side of Team Extreme throwing a crewman from each boat into the water. The impact of was heard clearly in the race village over 500m away, and Team Extreme left with an un-repairable gaping hole in their port hull. A total of 43 races were staged over the 5 days, a record number for the circuit. Act 3 was covered live by Turkey's national TV broadcaster TRT and streamed live online for the first time. Extreme Sailing Series Act 3 Istanbul Current overall standings after Day 5 (29.5.11) 1. Artemis Racing (SWE), Terry Hutchinson / Rodney Ardern / Morgan Trubovich / Julien Cressant 307 points Overall Standings Extreme Sailing Series 2011 Position / Team / Skipper & crew / Points www.extremesailingseries.com/leaderboards/2011 Dubarry Storm - Designed To Perform Dubarry Storm - the calm within the Storm. Dutch and Australians Claim Top Medals in Medemblik
Laser and Laser radial defending champions retain their title in the 2011 Delta Lloyd regatta: Tom Slingsby (AUS) offers a second Gold to Australians and defend his title in Medemblik. Despite a slow start into the Medal race, Slingsby caught up to speed, to finish in fourth place. Milan Vujasinovic (CRO) won the medal race with Bruno Fontes (BRA) close behind in second. "In Australia we like wind and waves! I often perform well here. I won last year and other years as well. I like Medemblik, I feel comfortable here." The ISAF Sailor of the year was out of pace on the first beat but came up closer to his opponents: "I struggled to find rhythm in the shifts on the first beat but found my pace later in the race. The Olympic sailing world is now moving to Weymouth to prepare for the 6th Sailing World Cup event, staged on the Olympic arena from the 5th to the 11th of June. Final top three: Top 3 results 24mr 470 Men 470 Women 49er Finn Laser Laser Radial RS-X Men RS-X Women Star Dark Star Extends Lead; Piranha Bites Itself
But while Dark Star scored a third and a first---its third in five races---to seize an eight-point lead with three races remaining Monday, his arch rival in the class dropped out of contention in spectacular style. Dave Voss's Piranha is a class icon with the cartoon of the mean little creature on its spinnaker, but the angry fish turned on its master with a vengeance Sunday, costing him ninth and seventh places in the 10-boat fleet. Piranha, a recent class winner of the Newport to Ensenada offshore classic, was at the front of the fleet approaching the leeward gate in Sunday's first race, but the takedown went awry and the chute was left billowing alongside and then trailing in the water. The crew finally had to cut it loose as the rest of the fleet headed upwind. Then, in the next race, Piranha got a break when the on-water judges whistled Dark Star for tacking too close near the first windward mark---a way of suggesting that Piranha should protest, which it did. Dark Star immediately did a 360-degree turn, which cost it only a place or two en route to third place. No complaint, said Janov: "It was the right thing to do." Then, as Dark Star ran away with the next race, Piranha's backup chute went berserk in the big breeze near the top of the 1.5-nautical mile course and rolled the boat into a classic starboard broach. "That could have happened to anybody today," Janov said. "I certainly had my hands full all day." -- Rich Roberts Racing continues on Monday. Results after 5 races: 1. Dark Star, Jeff Janov, 11 points Race tracking (including archives) and complete results at Bob's Bolt
On a July night in 1988, he was at the wheel of the maxi-rater Drum some three miles due south of the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse in the Outer Clyde. The bowman, who was taking the spinnaker gear from the port side to the starboard side in anticipation of a possible shy spinnaker reach up the east side of the Mull, noticed something odd about 100 yards ahead and shouted back to his skipper: "Come up NOW!" Bob turned the wheel and there followed the most awful sounds and jerk, as though Drum had gone hard aground. This was impossible as the echo sounder was giving triple echoes because of the great depth of water, but Bob was aware of a strange movement as the port side "fence" was torn away. In the darkness he saw nothing until the glow of the stern light picked up what for all the world looked like an Evinrude outboard motor, but it was not attached to the transom of a vessel. Perplexed, he waited until one of the crew remarked: "Submarine." When, after making a "Pan" call and receiving replies from Clyde Coastguard and the Royal Navy's diving vessel, HMS Challenger that was anchored on the west side of the Mull, Bob, now in the navigation station with the VHF attempted to call up the submarine, but for 25 minutes there was no reply. This concerned him deeply as at that time it was known that hostile (Russian) submarines were active in the area, and the thought that it could have been one of those who would have had little compunction in completing the job of sinking Drum, the crew waited with some agitation. Eventually the submarine made contact on VHF and identified itself as HMS Otus, an Oberon class diesel/electric vessel. Details were exchanged and while Otus returned, damaged, to her base at Faslane, Drum with a 40 foot long gash down the port side and a bent shroud roller, continued to race to Crinan. It was there that she was met by a Royal Navy Commander and there was an exchange of views during which it was ascertained that the damage to HMS Otus included the optical (search) periscope, the destruction of the communications dome and the air intake periscope. Little wonder that it had taken the submarine's commander 25 minutes to make contact through a hand-held VHF. Later the Royal Navy admitted responsibility, but not liability for the collision and paid Drum's owner, Arnold Clark, around £ 40,000 for the repairs to Drum. That might have been the end of it, but one of the crew of Fisher's 1896 classic Solent One-Design, Rosenn, had been a member of Otus's crew well after the collision and knew of the incident, recently saw her in a breaker's yard in Portsmouth. Explaining that he had served aboard the submarine, he asked if he could have a keepsake and was told to help himself. He found the search periscope cotter pin, took it home and with Rosenn's co-owner, Barry Dunning, polished the chrome-plated brass pin with an hexagonal head and mounted it on an oak base. "Bob's Bolt" was duly presented to Bob by his crew after the regatta to great hilarity and much to the bemusement of the recipient. Moon Has More Water Than Previously Thought: Alas, No Wind Scientists measured seven samples of magma trapped as "melt inclusions," within crystals, according to a paper in the journal Science. The water content of the lunar magma was 100 times higher than previous studies have suggested. Lower quantities of water and volatile compounds on the moon, when compared with the Earth and other inner planets of the solar system, have long been taken as evidence the moon formed during a giant impact that had enough energy to create seas of magma, according to the Carnegie Institution's Erik Hauri, the study's lead author. Today's finding challenges that view, he said. "If our samples are representative of the entire moon, this is basically the best way to calculate how much water's on the moon," Hauri said. "And what are the chances that the first seven samples look like Earth?" The findings suggest that the impact from a Mars-sized body that formed the moon was either much hotter or much cooler than previously thought. If the moon impact was cooler, then some material including water wasn't molten and was locked in the lunar interior. -- Elizabeth Lopatto in Bloomberg: www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/ Featured Brokerage Designed by Joubert-Nivelt, whether for racing or fast cruising the A40 is entirely performance oriented. With its high righting moment it is as ease on as off the wind. The A40 has been named boat of the year 2004 by the jury of "Voile Magazine". New sails (2006). Ready to race ! Brokerage through AYC International Yachtbrokers: www.yachtworld.com/ayc-yachtbroker/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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Due to continued growth North Sails UK are looking to recruit two additional sailmakers.
