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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 Four Winners In Five Races Four winners in five races, along with a tight mix of competitors finishing second and third in individual races, has resulted in a tight battle at the top of the scoreboard, as some of the most elite women sailors in the U.S.A. strutted their stuff in J/22s on Lake Ontario. Overall standings after five races have Barkow's team holding the lead. Their 18th-place finish in the final race of the day has been counted as their drop score, for a total of 13 points. Tied at 17 points each is Cronin Racing followed by Sertl's Team Lucy. Tunnicliffe's Team McLaren stands fourth overall with 18 points and Faust's Team WWJD is fifth with 21. Racing at the 2011 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship continues tomorrow, Wednesday, August 30, for the 36 competing teams, with the warning signal for the first race sounding at 10:00 a.m. riwkc.ussailing.org/RIWKC_Home.htm UK 18 Foot Skiff Nationals
The final scores resulted in a convincing victory for Team Pica (Stewart Mears, Tristan Hutt and Jamie Mears) who continue their season of success. Simon Hamilton, Jon Noonan and Mason Woodworth on Investec just beat Team Carsington into 2nd. As their first 18ft Skiff regatta, Richard Bland, Peter Shaw and Richard Allen of Team Carsington can be very content with exceptionally well sailed 3rd in a wide range of challenging conditions. National Championships Final Overall Results (Nine Races, 1 Discard): www.uk18footer.org Schull Village Welcomes World Sailors Already, the Australian team , early midweek arrivals, have expressed their wonder and appreciation at the West Cork welcome afforded them, the beauty of the Mizen Peninsula and its proximity to that iconic sailing landmark - the Fastnet Rock. They have now been joined by teams from the USA, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Japan, Thailand and Ireland to contest the ISAF World Team Racing Championships throughout this week. Action on the water kicked off on Monday with a training and familiarisation day in the new and locally built TR3.6 metre dinghies. Practice Race Day took place on Tuesday with Championship Racing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. World Youth Finals take place on Saturday and World Open Finals and Prizegiving Ceremony on Sunday, September 4. Southern Spars at Audi Medcup For more information on Southern Spars' TPT (thin ply technology) carbon fibre and TP52 rigs, please visit www.southernspars.com Spinnaker Tales The normally windy Whitsunday Passage was whipped into a frenzy of hull tormenting waves that destroyed the ambitions of several top performing crews while the specialist 'brute breeze' sailors excelled in what was a supreme test of skill and endurance. Flying spray over the deck and gusts to 32 knots was a constant reminder that the downwind run from a relatively calm start in Dent Passage north to the Double Cone Islands was not to be one for the faint hearted. As expected there was a long and expensive list of damage including spinnakers exploding under the load of the stronger gusts while fittings were ripped out of the deck masts and spinnaker poles snapped and spars bent Unfortunately the defending Audi Australian and Hamilton Island Race Week champion the Stephen Ainsworth owned and Gordon Maguire skippered Loki was among the list of causalities. Loki which had sailed brilliantly to close the gap on the series leader Hooligan (Marcus Blackmore) by winning the two previous races in fresh winds was ruled out of the 63 n/ml Island passage race when her expensive $80,000 dollar mainsail exploded in tatters minutes after the start. Predictably the Bob Oatley owned and Mark Richards's skippered Rolex Sydney Hobart Race record holder left a white water wake when the 30m super maxi Wild Oats X1regularly registered speeds above 20 knots on the wave surfing run to the Double Cone Islands. The Grand Prix fleet were the last to start with Wild Oats X1 because of her power and speed outpacing the maxi rivals Investec Loyal and Lahana while the smaller David Turton skippered 10 m Mooloolaba sloop Likatiger which had sailed on the fine edge between distinction and disaster expressed the heavy breeze sailing skills of the crew to be among the overall fleet leaders. Crewed by a team of good Sunshine Coast sailing mates including former Olympian and World Etchells champion Greg Torpy allowed skipper David Turton to experience a career best downwind ride. They were still on a high after suffering a slow and gruelling slog on the return leg to the finish. There was a similar expression of exciting experience in the spray drenched cockpit of the Queensland champion SB3 Club Marine Blue. The crew including World champion skipper Glenn Bourke and his Sunshine Coast sail handlers Rod Jones (Sheet) and Greg MacAllansmith (Bow) again showed the boat handling skills to power sail to a runaway win in their exciting class championship. Their collective skill to sail fast in the fresh and frightening winds paved the way for Club Marine Blue to win the championship over a very competitive fleet including World Olympic 470 champions Matt Belcher and Malcolm Page and former Australian 505 champion Phil Gray from Mooloolaba. -- Ian Grant Dredge It or Lose It Living Doll captain Matt Johns said the Gold Coast would follow in the footsteps of the Sydney to Mooloolaba race, which was cancelled in 2006 because of depth issues at the Sunshine Coast port, without a dedicated and regular dredging program. Mr Johns had a first-hand look at the problem as Living Doll sailed within metres of competitor Loki -- which twice ran aground in the Broadwater -- to claim provisional handicap honours in the Sydney to Gold Coast in August. "It is such a good yacht race and such a great venue,'' he said. "As far as the entry goes obviously the sand moves around a lot so (dredging) has to be regular. "It is seen as being in the too-hard basket but definitely regular dredging would solve it. They have done it in other places.'' LNP leader Campbell Newman has vowed to release a Broadwater policy, saying parliamentary leader Jeff Seeney was working on the plan. -- Henry Tuttiett, Gold Coast Sun Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup The fleet of yachts, which range from 18 to 45 metres in length, will be divided into various divisions according to their size and technical characteristics and will race off Porto Cervo for five days, with no lay day scheduled this year. The Mini Maxi fleet (yachts from 18.29 to 24.08 metres) includes many strong candidates for the title of World Champion including Niklas Zennstrom's Ran 2, winner of the title in 2010 and fresh from overall victory in the Rolex Fastnet Race. The remaining 30 maxi yachts racing in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, which have an average length of approximately 30 metres, cover a vast spectrum of designs, models and technological solutions. From new launches such as the prototype for the new F-Class one-design Firefly, the Comet 100 Shadow and the classic Bermudian sloop Annagine - all dated 2011 - to veteran competitors such as the 38-metre ketch Hetairos, launched in 1993 and winner of the Supermaxi division in 2010. Following last year's victory in the Racing and Racing/Cruising division, Esimit Europa 2 owned by Igor Simcic will be looking to repeat their impressive debut performance. The 30 metre Reichel-Pugh sloop, which boasts a crew of top European sailors, recently took line honours in the 2011 Giraglia Rolex Cup. Live tracking will be available on www.yccs.com during the event.
Get A Deal On The Racing Rules! To order the Rules DVD or learn more about it, go to: www.LearnTheRacingRules.com Richard Focused Solely on Retaining 'King of the Mountain' Title On the eve of the 2011 St. Moritz Match Race, Richard and his French Match Racing Team find themselves in a very different situation to last season when they entered the sixth stage of the World Match Racing Tour with a commanding Championship lead. A disappointing season so far leaves them languishing in eighth place, forcing them to reassess their goals: "Mathematically it is still possible for us to win but we are realistic about things. Our aim now is to get closer to the leaders to try and achieve a podium finish overall. " It will be a difficult week for Richard with a further seven of the nine Tour Card Holders competing in St. Moritz, a group headed by Tour leader Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing. While Richard may feel his chance to win the 2011 Championship has passed, Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners is only 22 points adrift of Bruni and has prepared well for what is not only his St. Moritz debut but also an event that could determine his title chances: "We've had a couple of days to practice and I've also spent two and a half weeks sailing in another light boat to prepare for these [Blu26] boats here." The first Qualifying Session will kick off Tuesday and feature Tour leader Francesco Bruni and title contenders Torvar Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat and Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team in the first flight. Teams for St. Moritz Match Race 2011 Catch the preview on The WMRT Morning Show with Hannah White from 1100 local time (GMT +2) and a review of the day on The WMRT Today Show after racing finishes. Live coverage begins on Thursday 1 September from 1400 to 1600 local time (GMT +2) at www.wmrt.com ISAF Accepting Bids for 2013 Women's Match Racing World Championships The ISAF Women's Match Racing Worlds has been held every year since 1999 with the most recent event in 2010 being hosted by the New York Yacht Club in the USA. For 2011 the champion will be decided at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, the principal qualification event for the 2012 London Olympic Games where women's match racing will make its Olympic debut. For the 2013 ISAF Women's Match Racing Worlds, the Match Racing Committee would be receptive to the use of any appropriate keelboat. Bids must be received by the ISAF Secretariat and must include confirmation of support for the bid from the relevant Member National Authority. All bids received will be reviewed by the Match Racing Committee and their recommendations will be submitted to the ISAF Council for the final decision. Bids to host the 2013 edition must be received by 1 September 2011. To receive the full bid process and for details of the information that must be included in the bid document please contact the ISAF Competitions Manager Antonio Gonzalez de la Madrid at the ISAF Secretariat . ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship microsite America's Cup Cost Defended by Plymouth City Council The cost of bringing the America's Cup to Plymouth has been "money well spent", the leader of the city council has insisted. The yachts are due to begin racing in Plymouth Sound on 10 September. Suggestions that it could cost up to £500,000 to stage have been rejected by Vivian Pengelly, who said the council had budgeted £100,000. Plymouth City Council has estimated the second leg of the world series could generate £10m for the local economy. It said providing accommodation for the teams alone - 700 beds for 20 days - will benefit local hoteliers by £1.2m. The council has previously said it could not disclose the "fee" it paid to host the event in the city. Devon sailor Conrad Humphreys said staging the America's Cup could cost the council "at least" £500,000, but Mrs Pengelly said that was "not quite true". "It's not going to cost nearly as much as we thought, because we've got so much sponsorship from people like the university and business, who've been absolutely fantastic," she told BBC News. "It can cost anything up to £100,000, but until we know exactly what sponsorship we're getting, we're not really sure what the cost will be." A media city has been set up on Plymouth Hoe where a 100-strong television crew will beam the competition across the world. Steiner X-Yachts Mediterranean Cup 15 teams have entered the X-35 Italian Championship and 12 will be taking part in the X-41 Worlds with crews from Italy, Japan and Estonia. The Steiner X-Yachts Mediterranean Cup is organized by the Club Nautico Scarlino and Marina di Scarlino together with X-Yachts Italy and in partnership with Steiner. The new Xp 44 will be at centre stage in Marina di Scarlino: owners, customers and friends will have the opportunity to test the new model. Tiziano Nava, tactician on Azzurra in the unforgettable 1983 America's Cup edition, will be skippering the brand new Xp 44 as she sets sail every day during the competition. Results: www.marinadiscarlino.it/ita/Club_Nautico/5 Featured Brokerage This Cookson 50 has had no expense spared since new, including a thorough preparation for the 2010 Sydney to Hobart resulting in a 4th overall in IRC open and 2nd in ORCi open. Build 2004 in New Zealand by Cookson, she won the NZ Coastal Classic, around North Island Race, Auckland Race Week and Bay of Islands Race Week, before arriving in Sydney. Complete with an extensive cruising inventory for fast comfortable passages, she is a great compromise. Alternativly, in race mode she is capable of being at the sharp end of any fleet. Brokerage through Yoti: www.yachtworld.com/yoti/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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Southern Spars has again played a key role with the winners of the last two Audi MedCup regattas. At the Region of Sardinia Trophy, Southern Spars-rigged TP52s secured the top three places, with Audi Sailing Team Powered by All4One and Southern Spars' new TPT technology standing at the top of the podium. In the fourth regatta, the Region of Murcia-Cartagena, Southern Spars rigged three of the top four TP52s including overall winner Bribon, which has had an outstanding season after winning the Copa del Rey just two weeks earlier.
