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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 Transat Jacques Vabre: The Cream Rises Winner of this year's Barcelona World Race Jean-Pierre Dick, racing with 2011 Solitaire du Figaro winner Jeremie Beyou had a small lead on Virbac-Paprec 3 - just around a mile - ahead of PRB with the leading duo drag racing within sight of each other between morning and the afternoon. The recently launched MACIF of Francois Gabart has remained solid in fourth while Bernard Stamm's newly launched Juan Kouyomdjian designed Cheminees Poujoulat has been the first day's climber, rising from eighth to fifth with a display of fast reaching. Franck-Yves Escoffier and Antoine Koch on Crepes Whaou! had a slightly bigger lead in the Multi 50 division, whilst in the 16 boat Class 40 Aquarelle.com of Yannick Bestaven and Eric Drouglazet were progressively coming under pressure from the young British duo Ned Collier-Wakefield and Sam Goodchild on Concise 2. Collier-Wakefield and Goodchild had cut away their French rivals' lead from more than 11 miles to less than five and were quickest of the fleet this afternoon. The aggressive, contrary seas took a toll. First Thierry Bouchard revealed that he and co-skipper Gilles Berenger had turned towards France again with delamination damage to a bulkhead of Comiris Pole Sante Elior. First official abandon was the withdrawl of the Class 40 Lecoq Cuisine due to damage to skipper Eric Lecoq's back while the Mabit brothers on the Multi 50 Monopticien.com were forced also to retire due to a broken rudder pintle almost certainly due to hitting a floating object. In the IMOCA Open 60 Class Banque Populaire are compromised through the lack of their main gennaker was damaged when it went in the water when a halyard lashing failed soon after the start. L'Espirit D'Equipe Triumphs Again
"It was an amazing day for sailing. We blew out one of our spinnakers in a gust and in the end we were just 21 seconds ahead of Telefonica Black. What a great finish." After the first day of racing was abandoned through lack of wind, conditions on the second day could not have been better, with the Legends boats powering around a 22-mile course in up to 30 knots of breeze. At tonight's gala dinner and prize-giving L'Espirit d'Equipe skipper Lionel Pean will receive the Sir Peter Blake Trophy, a 1926 silver trophy made by Atkins Brothers in England. Lady Pippa Blake will present the award as a tribute to her late husband, Sir Peter Blake, who competed in the first five Whitbread Round the World Races and won all five legs of the 1989-90 edition aboard Steinlager 2. "We think it is good for the Legends that a 30-year old boat won and not a carbon fibre-boat. This has been an great event and there has been a lot of emotion on L'Espirit d'Equipe throughout the event." A testimony to the Volvo Ocean Race's 38-year history, the Legends Regatta was the largest ever gathering of yachts and sailors from previous races. On Saturday November 5, the Legends fleet will take part in a final parade of sail before joining the spectator fleet to watch the six-boat Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 fleet set off on Leg 1 to Cape Town, South Africa at 1200 UTC (1300 local time). Legends Race Results: 1. L'Esprit d'Equipe 16:32:45 Dubarry Storm - Sailing Style In On The Street Dubarry Storm - the calm within the Storm. Warm Welcome for Final Arrivals
Last Sunday the Race Committee were forced to issue a 'shorten course' instruction to the yachts placed from sixth to tenth position due to a massive high pressure system hindering their progress to Geraldton. The committee reluctantly issued the instruction and at 1800 UTC, Qingdao, Welcome to Yorkshire, Derry-Londonderry, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital and Singapore finished the race. Arriving in port shortly after 1315 local time this afternoon (0515 UTC) was Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, who claimed ninth place in the race from Cape Town. Arriving in port after Edinburgh Inspiring Capital but finishing Race 4 one place ahead in eighth was Derry-Londonderry, skippered by, Mark Light. The final entry to arrive was Singapore, led by Ben Bowley, who is optimistic his team won't see a repeat performance for the remainder of the race. "One of the things we've had to remind ourselves of is what we've actually gone out there and done. We've crossed the Southern Ocean and that is a great privilege and not a lot of people get to do that. I think the challenges involved along the way at every step, every little thing that went wrong, we generally overcame; the final thing was the lack of kites. I think as a crew we dealt with it incredibly well and didn't give up hope until the very last minute. It wasn't until the result came through that we knew we were tenth. "It was a very frustrating race. I think if we were to zone it down to one specific area that really cost us it was not having enough sticky Dacron to finish repairing our spinnakers which put us at quite a disadvantage once the wind came aft in the final week. Race 5 from Geraldton to Tauranga, New Zealand, will begin on Sunday 6 November. Vanity Celebrates Her 100th Birthday Back In Hobart
Vanity, which had been lovingly restored in Queensland by her current owner, now Hobart-based Robert Virtue, returned to Hobart late last year and was one of the significant attractions at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart last February. For owner Virtue, a hydrogeologist with a passion for old wooden boats, this was the end of a five year restoration of Vanity, one of seven wooden Tasmanian One Design class yacht built in Tasmania between 1910 and 1912. Remarkably, all are still afloat or under restoration. The first to be launched, Weene, raced in the Classic Yachts division of the 175th Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour. Another 'One Designer', Canobie, has also been restored in Perth, WA. The Tasmanian One Design class was based on plans published in the USA magazine The Rudder in 1910 for a 'knockabout' yacht designed by William Hand Jr. Hobart naval architect Arthur Blore modified Hand's design to suit local sailing conditions, and by 1910 had persuaded several prominent yachtsmen to build these identical boats, for the sum of about £200. They became known simply as 'One Designers', and they went on to dominate racing on the River Derwent until the late 1920s. Vanity was launched on November 3, 1911, for W F Darling, G S Crisp and Dr E J Ireland, who raced her successfully for several seasons, including three times placing second (to other One Designers, Pandora, Curlew and Weene) in the 89 nautical mile Bruny Island Race and winning the North v South Cup on the Tamar River at Launceston - after being taken there by train. Several Tasmanian One Designers were lengthened in the 1930s to make them more competitive against the new and larger A class yachts racing in Hobart. Vanity was extended from 32ft 8in (9.96m) to 40ft (12.0m) under the direction of naval architect Arthur Blore and continued racing with success, including winning the RYCT's Dewar Shield Challenge four times in the 1930s. She was still racing on the Derwent in the 1970s. The Tasmanian One Designer Vanity has been re-born as a magnificent looking gaff-rigged cutter, sailing and social racing again on Hobart's River Derwent where she since she first 'took the water' a century ago. -- Peter Campbell Laird Hamilton to Join Puma Ocean Racing Team for Start First Leg
Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race begins at 12:00 UTC (14:00 local) on Saturday as PUMA's Mar Mostro and its 11-member crew will face five other boats when the starting gun fires for the journey to South Africa. Race Start will be streamed live online at www.volvooceanrace.com and on the live section of the Volvo Ocean Race YouTube channel: youtube.com/volvooceanracevideos. Streaming begins five minutes before the 10-minute warning signal, and the broadcast will run for approximately one hour. A complete online race experience can be found at new.livestream.com/volvooceanrace, or for mobiles/iPads, visit livestream.com/volvooceanrace. Also visit www.volvooceanrace.com for television broadcast information in local markets. Further TV Schedule information will be posted online in November. PUMA and Hamilton, a professional surfer, introduced the PUMA/Laird Board, a limited-edition carbon fiber stand-up paddleboard (SUP) in June. The new board features the same Volvo 70 boat hull design - both ergonomically and through the use of the same ultra-lightweight materials - seen in PUMA's Mar Mostro, the yacht set to compete in the nine-month around the world Volvo Ocean Race. Hamilton teamed with renowned boat designer Juan Kouyoumdjian (Juan K), of Juan Yacht Design, to create the unique SUP. www.puma.com/sailing High Performance Sailing Requires High Performance Logistics!
High performance sailing requires high performance logistics, which is why MCL are on the job. Combining their comprehensive knowledge of marine transport with their extensive fleet of vehicles, specialist trailers and a global logistics network; MCL provides the safest, most efficient and cost effective transportation system for race boats, powerboats, commercial craft, yachts, masts, and equipment worldwide. For more information visit www.mcltransboat.com, email or call us on 0845 520 1900 Message in a Bottle Travels 2,000 Miles "I was off the coast of Brazil headed for Cape Town, South Africa," said Van Liew. "I had cleared the doldrums and the southeasterly trades were pushing me along at 15 knots. Despite the racing, Tate's message was a priority as I crossed the equator. I videotaped myself sending off the message in a bottle, knowing full well it may never reach another human and Tate's questions may go unanswered." Nine months later the delicate glass bottle had acquired some barnacles and seagrass before washing onto the small, secluded beach of Guana Bay on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. Seven year old Michael Raczynski, a 2nd grader and a karate enthusiast from the Warsaw suburbs of Poland, found the bottle and opened it to find Tate's message. "I'm shocked," said Van Liew. "I would have expected it to maybe land on a beach in Brazil. Instead the bottle traveled more than 2,250 miles to arrive in St. Maarten. Just think, if it had travelled even further into the Caribbean it could have hooked into the Gulfstream and made it all the way to Europe." When the Van Liews received a letter at their home in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina with a return address that indicated a sender in Poland they assumed it was from the family of Zbigniew Gutowski, a fellow sailboat racer who had challenged Van Liew throughout the Velux 5 Oceans race. To their surprise inside was a letter addressed to Tate from Michael Raczynski, written with the help of his father. He explained that they regularly search the beach for "pirate treasure" and found the bottle amongst the shells and rocks along the coast that faces the Atlantic Ocean. Enclosed were photos of the bottle, Van Liew's letter written for Tate and a photo of the beach landing sight and Michael. In an e-mail exchange since receiving the news of the message in a bottle, Zbigniew Raczynski noted, "I said many times you never know whom you will meet and what will be tomorrow." Abandoned Yacht Reaches Shore Phillip Johnson, skippered the boat and he brought along his nephew and another friend on the voyage. Soon after departure they got problems with the generator, and feared that they would be without electricity if it shut down all together. That would leave them without GPS, sat phone and all other navigational and security gadgets. But the real problem occurred when a freak wave hit the boat when Johnson was below making a cup of tea. - I flew across the galley, from the right to left side and hit against the galley stove. It bent me over in pain, and I couldn't even straighten up, Johnson told the Hawaii Herald Tribune later. Help came in the form of the cruise ship The Celebrity Centur. She was bound for Hilo with more than 1,800 passengers and 800 crew aboard when the call came in. Captain Konstantinos Patsoulas turned the 815-foot cruise ship around and headed for the yacht, taking his passengers for an unexpected adventure. The 49 feet sailing vessel was left to drift on the sea with its mainsail. The usual procedure when abandoning ship is to sink the boat so it doesn't threatens other shipping in the area. This didn't happen here, and the sturdy aluminium boat sailed it self to the destination by following the current and prevailing winds. It reached Hawaii in three weeks, and ended up on a reef. But as aluminium can take a great deal of punishment, the hull was intact as the boat managed to get of the reef and then on to a popular family beach. Now the coast guard and the local authorities are working on a plan to remove the boat. The mainsail is a little shredded after the three weeks non-crew sail, but other than that she looks in good conditions. And the owner got the boat to her destination, and got the proof that she is a boat that will handle most situations – on her own. Full story and video of the rescue: thesailblog.com/?p=820 Gyres Big Trash Eddies and Rubber Ducks The American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have developed a visual tool to see and predict currents. The program is called OSCURS (Ocean Surface Current Simulator) and can be found at: http://oceanmotion.org/html/resources/oscar.htm. On 10 January 1992 a ship, sailing from Hong Kong, lost a container overboard and released 29,000 bath toys into the ocean. Caught in the North Pacific Gyre (counter-clockwise ocean current in the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Siberia), the ducks took ten months to begin landing on the shores of Alaska. By 2005 some of the toys washed up on beaches in eastern North America between Maine and Massachusetts. In 2007 the first tub toys were found on beaches in England. It is not just rubber ducks that get caught in gyres. Trash enters coastal currents and is fed into the gyres creating huge floating islands of garbage. The North Pacific gyre is often called the garbage patch. By all accounts this gyre is a mass of plastic and other debris that resists decomposition. Dead birds can be found with bellies full of plastic debris. -- Devi Sharp writingin All At Sea, full story at To read the full gyrating history of the tub toys try the following websites: beachcombersalert.org/RubberDuckies.html or www.rubaduck.com/news/ Featured Brokerage Noonmark VI has an outstanding race pedigree and has achieved excellent results in regattas and offshore races on both sides of the Atlantic and in both the north and southern hemispheres. She is also a good fast cruising yacht and may be sailed by two persons. The custom detailing on this yacht is superb - from her modified interior (to suit cruising and racing use), to her custom rig and deck plan. Carefull maintenance by the same full time crew has ensured her excellent condition. Brokerage through Nautor's Swan Spain & Portugal: www.yachtworld.com/swan-spain/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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