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Brought to you by Boats.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 Fastnet Race: Multihull Record, Rambler 100 Capsized In the process, skipper Loick Peyron broke the race record of 1 day, 16 hours, 27 minutes he previously set in 1999 aboard his 60 foot trimaran Fujcolor in 1999. Banque Populaire holds the world record for the most number of miles covered by a sailing boat in one day - 908.2 miles, roughly one and a half times the length of the Rolex Fastnet Race. * Statement by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, issued 2053 BST Monday, 15th August 2011 The yacht Rambler 100 has capsized between the Fastnet Rock and the Pantaenius Buoy. The Irish Coastguard services are coordinating the rescue. The Baltimore RNLI lifeboat is on the scene. Two Sikorsky helicopters have been scrambled and an Irish Naval vessel is en route to the scene of the accident All 21 crew have been rescued. A further statement will be released when more information becomes known. Ian Loffhagen Jeremie Beyou Keeps Smiling The Lorient based skipper, and provisional overall race leader, at 15:38:33 crossed in first the line between Wolf Rock lighthouse and Runnel Stone mark, taking the Grand Prix GMF Assistance for the second time in a row. Jeremie Beyou (BPI) was followed a handful of minutes later by Nicolas Lunven (Generali) and by first leg winner, Fabien Delahaye (Port de Caen Ouistreham). Strong Jersey sailor Phil Sharp on The Spirit of Independence scored the best performance among the non-French group, crossing in tenth position, and was also first rookie to go past Wolf Rock. Portoguese Francisco Lobato (Roff) , was 16th, Nigel King (E-Line Orthodontics) 27th, Sam Goodchild (artemis) the youngest skipper competing, 30th and Conrad Humpreys (DMS) 34th. After reaching for 24 hours, the 46 solo sailors are now beginning the Channel crossing on an upwind tack, in a south-westerly of around 10 to 12 knots heading to Ouessant. On this long stretch, where speed will be crucial, the key tactical option will be to arrive either to the Four or the Fromveur channel with the right current, tonight or early tomorrow morning. As the Solitaire skippers were rounding the GMF mark at Wolf Rock another huge fleet was sailing in the same area, on opposite tacks. Some 300 boats from the Rolex Fastnet Race were on their way to Land's End. French sailor David Sineau, who had to abandon the race shortly after the start of the second leg and who was racing on one of the Fastnet boats, fully crewed this time, immediately spotted his fellow solo skippers. Words of encouragement were exchanged on the VHF, before the two fleets took separate ways. The organising staff arrived today in Les Sables d'Olonne, where the weather is far more summer like than in Ireland. The Solitaire du Figaro race village has opened to the public which already is coming in big numbers. In Port Olona, the marina that every four years welcomes the Vendee Globe, the world-famous non stop solo round the world race, everything is ready for the 46 skippers who will probably start to come in on Wednesday morning. Marlow Ropes Release Free iPhone App. The Marlow Ropes App is the first comprehensive rope information app to be released for the iPhone. It's free and easy to use, wherever you may be. Overview The Marlow Ropes App consists of five tabs: 2. Technical. Understand your ropes with 3. Catalogues. The latest Marlow Catalogues in PDF format - Use the inbuilt interactive barcode reader to scan the QR barcodes found on Marlow's new point of sale chandlery racking to discover further information Login to the iTunes store and search Marlow Ropes to download your free copy of the App and start discovering everything it has to offer. Download the Marlow App here: Finn Gold to Ainslie, Silver to Lobert, Bronze To Postma
And he did just that. Though the medal race for him was a mere formality, having only to finish the race to be assured gold, he tackled it like any other race and ended a fantastic week with another race win. For Pieter Jan Postma (NED) and Jonathan Lobert (FRA) it was a game of chance and risk to secure the silver and bronze medals, with four sailors below then mathematically capable of snatching away the podium positions that these two had held onto for most of the week. So Ben Ainslie continues his domination of the class. Mid week it looked to be quite tight at the top, but in typical Ainslie fashion, he is never more dangerous than when he is under threat and went on to win five of the next six races. Quite what the rest of the fleet have to do to catch him is beyond most pundits and the sailors are no doubt scratching their heads too. Of course, the true test will be a year from now - assuming he is selected for the GBR team - and this week he has made a clear statement of his intent when that times comes. Results after medal race (medal race position in brackets) Event website: www.sailing.org/london2012/2011-test-event.php Gold For Australia in the 49er, for Brazil in the Star Spain's Iker Martinez and Xabier Hernandez led the Australians by four points before the Medal Race meaning that for the Australians to win they had to finish ahead of the Spaniards by two places. And in winds of 9-11 knots Outteridge and Jensen did exactly that as they finished in fourth with the Spaniards coming in sixth. Both teams ended on 63 points but the Australians took the gold after they finished ahead in the final race. The next big event for the Australians is the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and the pair will want to continue their form, "We will go home after this and do a little bit more training and head across at the end of November," said Outteridge. "Our main goal is to go there and get selection spot for the games and it would be great to get a victory there and continue our form heading into the Olympics." New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won the Medal Race by seven seconds ahead of Emmanuel Dyen and Stephane Christidis (FRA) to take the bronze medal. Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) wrapped up the Star gold medal ahead of the Medal Race. The Brazilians went into the final race with an unassailable 24 point lead. However the competition for the silver and bronze medal in the build up to the Medal Race was significantly closer with just two points separating Peter O'Leary and David Burrows (IRL), Mateusz Kusznierewicz and David Burrows (POL) and Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR). A race win in the Medal Race handed silver to Percy and Simpson with the Polish team finishing in bronze medal position after they finished in seventh but ahead of the Irish pair who came down in tenth to finish fourth overall. www.sailing.org/london2012/2011-test-event.php Old Guys (and Gals) Rule! In the Standard Apprentice Masters fleet, it was not an old guy, but 35 year old Benjamin Richardson (USA) who soundly won his class. Richardson trained with several accomplished Masters Worlds Champions, Peter Shope, Scott Ferguson and Brett Beyer in preparation for the racing here, watching the weather forecasts to find the biggest wind days in Marblehead, MA to go sailing. In the Radial Apprentice Masters, New Zealander Scott Leith planned to go sailing on the final day, even though he didn't have to. Leith, who travelled here with a 16 -strong contingent from NZL, had an impressive 11 points going into the day. In a tight battle for second and third, Ian Gregory (GBR), Edmund Tam, another Kiwi, and Joe Burcar were all within four points of each other in advance of the final race, ultimately Tam and Gregory finished the week in second and third. Buff Wendt (USA) was the top female finisher. Another competitor, Keith Wilkens, also had a great enough point spread between himself and the second place in the Great Grand Masters Radial fleet. In his case, he decided to put his boat away and watch the racing from shore as a now five time world champion. Peter Seidenberg (USA ) finished in second with two bullets today, and James Quinn (NZL) finished in third. Colin Dibb (AUS) locked in his win in the Standard Grand Masters against Peter Vessella (USA) who was just one point behind him. Vessella finished in second, and Malcolm Courts (GBR) in third. Bill Symes finished his regatta in the Radial Grand Masters with two more bullets/ Bruce Martinson (USA) and Bob Lowndes (AUS) finished second and third, respectively, after going into the day tied in points. Canadian Al Clark, sailing in the Radial Masters, had to hold his top position in the fleet and that he did. Marcelo Fuchs (BRA) finished third overall. Diane Sissingh (AUS) won the women's division in the Radial Master's Fleet. The Standard Masters, the deepest and largest fleet in the regatta proved to be a nail biter to the very end. Arnoud Hummel (NED) will leave the regatta as the winner, but it wasn't without a fight. Going into the day, Brett Beyer (AUS) and he were tied for first and they never left contact with each other for either race. "I had a bit better start, he's a bit faster upwind and I'm faster downwind, so it all works out to be pretty close." Hummel said. "At the leeward mark, I pushed him up causing him to have to gibe twice which gave me that first race." Hummel then had no choice but to sail the last race, lest Beyer win it and then in a tie breaker, win the regatta. So in the second race, "I had to beat him, and I did, but just by a very little bit." Scott Ferguson held his third place position with a sixth and seventh in the last two races. Full results: www.sflaserworlds.com/page/Laser-Masters-Worlds
Get A Deal On The Racing Rules! To order the Rules DVD or learn more about it, go to: www.LearnTheRacingRules.com All Nine World Tour Card Holders in Argo Group Gold Cup Bermuda's Argo Group Gold Cup is the penultimate event on the Tour. Championship points gained here will be critical going into the Monsoon Cup, the Tour finale in December. At the top of the skipper's list in Bermuda, leading the Tour after five events, is Francesco Bruni (Bruni Racing) from Italy. He leads the Tour today with 81 points and is second in the ISAF Match Race Open rankings. Peter Gilmour (AUS) of YANMAR Racing now stands second on the WMRT leaderboard. He took the Gold Cup three times - in 1995, 1997 and for the last time in 2003. The last time he was in the Bermuda event was in 2009. He had a tough time that year with penalties and was knocked out in the early rounds. Gilmour will be a tough competitor in 2011, as always. Ian Williams (GBR), Team GAC Pindar, is now third on the Tour and hopes to redeem himself in Bermuda after missing the cut in the Repechage Round in 2010. Williams is hot this year with two firsts and a third in the last three WMRT events. Other Tour Card Holders on the Bermuda list with their names already on the Gold Cup are Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team who won in 2008, Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team who won in 2007, and Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners who won back in 2002 and then was runner-up in 2010. Rounding out the group of nine WMRT Card Holders signed up for 2011 are Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team (winner of Match Race France 2011), Torvar Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat and Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing. The Tour Card Holders are joined by some top level ISAF ranked match racers: Bjorn Hanson (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team who won the 2011 Korea Match Cup, Taylor Canfield (ISV) Team ISV, Ruben Corbett (NZL) Black Sheep Racing, Simone Ferrarese (ITA) Farrarese Racing Team, Staffan Lindburg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team, Eric Monnin (SUI) Swiss Match Race Team, Jacub Pawluk (POL) Sailing Poland, Laurie Jury (NZL) Kiwi-Match Sailing, Terry McLughlin (CAN) McLaughlin Racing, Keith Swinton (AUS) Swinton Racing and William Tiller (NZL) Full Metal Jacket Racing. The list includes 15 of the top 25 ISAF ranked skippers. Three additional slots will be filled by skippers who receive automatic invitations by winning one of the qualifiers… the Bermuda National Match Race Championship, the Knickerbocker Cup and the Detroit Cup. If any of the winners of these events has already accepted a Bermuda invitation, the organizers will select a team from the waiting list. Bill Hardesty Wins the Chicago Grade 2 Invitational A better Finals match-up could not have been scripted between Hardesty and Jury in a best-of-three series. While Hardesty dominated Match One from the start, Jury held his opponent off long enough to win Match Two. The split wins lead to Match Three which was a dog-fight the whole way through with Jury receiving a penalty for not keeping clear in the start. The New Zealand team looked like they were going to be able to gain ground on their opponent up until Hardesty threw in a dicey tack that crossed the top of the rigs. In what seemed like a certain call for a penalty on Hardesty, the umpires gave penalties to both teams leaving Jury with his prior flag. "The way umpire calls go: you win some you lose some. I guess we lost that one," second place skipper Jury observed. Final Results: 1. Bill Hardesty, USA Dates for Next OSTAR and Round Britain & Ireland Announced The start dates are: Two Handed Transatlantic Race (TWOSTAR) - 3rd June 2012 Original Single Handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) ) - 27th May 2013 Round Britain and Ireland Race (Two Handed)) - 8th June 2014 With the re-launch of the Two Handed Transatlantic Race (TWOSTAR) after more than twenty years, this announcement confirms that the Royal Western Yacht Club intends to continue be at the forefront of organising short handed oceanic races. Race Week Favourite Challenged The 2008 Audi Australian IRC champions seemed poised to set up a strong win after they gained a perfect 1-1 result when they showed their tactical experience of racing in the stronger winds which prevailed during the first two races. But their hope of maintaining a strangled hold on the prestigious championship trophy came crashing down when The Philosophers Club failed to produce a competitive boat speed in the light windward/leeward races on Pioneer Bay. "We have never been known to race well in winds below 12 knots and that showed when The Philosophers Club struggled to be competitive finishing with a below par 6-4 " A disappointed Peter Sorensen said. They were simply no match for the cleverly sailed Victorian yacht Nutcracker which forced her way back into contention when her clever skipper Rob Davis revelled in the challenge to claim two impressive race wins. After four races The Philosophers Club with her 1-1-6-4 score leads Nutcracker 5-5-1-1 under the count back rule with skipper Peter Sorensen expected to face a test of his tactical racing experience serious over the Whitsunday Sailing Club courses later today (Tuesday) "Hopefully there will be some real grunt in the breeze which will suit us but if the breeze backs off we could be in trouble". Sorensen said. Meanwhile the struggle to win the championship vacated by the Victorian skipper Michael Hiatt's Living Doll racing team rests with the strength of the wind velocity where a breeze above 12 knots favours The Philosophers Club while the Nutcracker challenge rests with a lighter wind forecast. This sets the stage for an interesting tactical dog-fight between the two evenly matched crews who share the same 12 point scores just 3 points or 3 places ahead of the smaller Mooloolaba yacht the Gary McCarthy skippered Brilliant Pearl. -- Ian Grant Featured Brokerage Built by the world renown McConaghy's in China, their reputation for building strong, lightweight and fast racing boats is second to none. Ker designs have been winning sailboat races all over the world for the 10 years and his newest designs PEACEMAKER ( 2009 37 footer) and TONNAIR (2009 46 footer) have been extremly successful both on the East coast of the states and Europe. PEACEMAKER won her class under IRC in the Port Huron to Mackinaw Island race and then was 2nd in her class under ORR in the Chicago To Mackinaw race in 2010. TONNAIR has just finished dominating class 2 at the 2011 key West race week, beating King 40's, J 122's, J 44's, and every other boat in that class by 18 points based on 9 1st place finish's out of 10 races. Above price reflects the boat built to her standard specs with her carbon rig and carbon standard rigging included, Hull # 7 is available for this Summer of 2011 Brokerage through Thoroughbred Yacht Sales: www.yachtworld.com/thoroughbred/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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