Scuttlebutt Europe #2483 - 2 December
|
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 Tell us about your favourite Sailor's Bar for our annual Wight Vodka Best Yachting Bar contest. Into The Indian Ocean for the GOR Class40s Throughout Wednesday, the fleet continued the dive south led by Campagne de France with Cessna Citation and BSL within visual range as average speeds increased to over seven knots until, shortly before midnight, Colman and Goodchild broke away, tacking onto starboard and taking Cessna Citation east and moving into the lead. During the Cape Town stopover, Nannini's Leg 1 co-skipper, Paul Peggs, returned to the UK for personal reasons and Hugo Ramon swapped from his role as co-skipper on Cessna Citation to join Financial Crisis. Heading into the Southern Ocean on a powerful 40ft boat with a relative stranger may not be ideal, but the duo are working well: "I'm lucky I found in Hugo an excellent partner for this race," says Nannini. "The communication between us is very good, we did an excellent start and were leading in the very early part of the race," he adds. "Later, the offshore option taken by BSL, Campagne de France and Cessna paid off, so we dropped behind them, but the way to Wellington is still very, very long indeed." Meanwhile, back at the V&A Waterfront Marina in Cape Town, plans for the Dutch duo of Nico and Frans Budel with their dismasted Class40 Sec. Hayai have advanced rapidly. The team are investigating replacement rig options and aim to rejoin the race in Punta del Este, Uruguay, and compete in GOR Legs 4 and 5. GOR Leg 2 leaderboard at 06:00 GMT 1/12/2011: 1. Cessna Citation: DTF 6,729nm. Av Sp 6.9kts The Return of Team Sanya
Sanya arrived in Cape Town by container ship on Wednesday and ever since the pace of work has been incredible. Within half an hour of getting to the boat into dock the team had made a rough cut of the damaged area and since then it's been a case of cutting back and back. The six-person team from Salthouse Boatbuilders in New Zealand had to make the replacement section generously oversized as until now they had been unable to fully assess the damage. Now the boat has arrived safely back, they are ready to trim the new piece to size. "Luckily, it looks like the new bit we've built will be big enough and hopefully in two or three days' time we'll have a complete boat, an almost watertight boat, and then four days after that we'll have a structurally integral boat," said Sanderson. "Where the repairs are done will end up being the strongest part of the boat. It will be as good or better than new." The repair work will continue without pause as the team bid to get the boat back in water by December 7. That will give them enough time to test and fine-tune to be ready for the Cape Town In-Port Race on December 10, or so Sanderson hopes. "It's certainly a less than ideal scenario," he said. "The Volvo Ocean Race is all about preparation and having everything ready. There's a fairly large hole here that is only going to get larger before it gets smaller. "But we do have a timeline. The plans are incredibly tight, with no room for things going bad, but at this stage we're still on track. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing also arrived in Cape Town by container ship on Wednesday after losing her rig on the first night. PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG have sent a ship to the remote settlement of Tristan da Cunha to pick up the boat and crew and bring them back. Their best case ETA is December 6. An Absorbing Interest
This collectors, 2-volume boxed set provides a definitive history of the America's Cup from 1851 - 2003. Recently revised, this new edition covers the drama, boat design, personalities and sheer fascination of the America's Cup, from the first race around the Isle of Wight to the 2003 Cup in Auckland. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, cartoons, paintings and figures, the subject represents a lifetime's work by author and historian Bob Fisher. Complete. Lavishly illustrated The true account of the Cup Author Bob Fisher is yachting correspondent for the Guardian and Observer and writes for sailing magazines worldwide. He was chairman of the Yachting Journalists Association and has been covering the America's Cup ever since his own victory in The Little America's Cup earned him the opportunity to cover the Cup in 1967. Priced £250.00 Sterling + P&P Read in Flipping Book format: Order from: South Atlantic Publishing. www.southatlanticpublishing.com ARC Crossing Record May Tumble If Wind Holds Five boats have led the fleet since the start in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 20 November. 50' trimaran Rayon Vert (FRA), skippered by transatlantic veteran Alain Delhumeau, has set the pace in the Open Division, closely followed by 92' super-maxi Med Spirit (FRA/RUS). Classic Whitbread maxi Rothmans (SWE) leads the Invitation Racing Division, with Gunboat 66 Phaedo (USA) leading the Multihull Division. The most extraordinary performance of the ARC so far comes from Akilaria 40 Vaquita (AUT), skippered by Christof Petter. Vaquita is within 50 miles of the leading pack, and over 250 miles ahead of her closest rival in the Racing Division. Racing under IRC, 12.19m Vaquita is likely to make the fastest ARC crossing ever for a monohull under 60'. With a forecast for lighter winds as the boats approach Saint Lucia, the chances are fading for smashing the ARC crossing record set in 2006 by Rinaldo del Bono with Capricorno (ITA) of 11 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 30 seconds. To beat the record, the boats must finish before 18:17:30 UTC (14:17:30 local time) today, Thursday 1 December. Once the boats are within 100 miles of Saint Lucia, the positions will be updated hourly on the Fleet Viewer http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/viewer.aspx All ARC boats are fitted with a Yellowbrick Iridium satellite tracker which is polled every 4 hours as standard. The majority of the boats have passed the half-way point and are expected to arrive in Rodney Bay Marina over the next week and a half. Each boat will receive a personal welcome, including the traditional fruit basket and rum punch. The moderate tradewinds experienced by the boats this year mean that thus far there have been few breakages or other dramas. Over 90 boats are submitting blogs and pictures to the ARC website and you can read their stories at www.worldcruising.com/arc/dailylogs.aspx Of the 217 boats that left Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Sunday 20 November, 212 remain actively sailing for Saint Lucia. Two boats retired in the Canaries for personal reasons and one is making for Antigua. Two boats in the Cape Verdes are expected to rejoin the fleet later this week. 2012 RC44 Championship Dates Announced 2012 RC44 Championship Tour Calendar: The 2012 Tour will start where it finished in 2011, Puerto Calero in Lanzarote, a favourite venue for the fleet and one of the best open sea sailing venues in Southern Europe. From Lanzarote the class will head to Cascais, Portugal, a city frequented by many global sailing events including the Americas Cup World Series in August 2011, the venue will be well prepared for the arrival of the RC44's. The 2012 Championship Tour will then move on to familiar territory for third and fourth events of the season, returning to Lake Traunsee in Austria for the fifth consecutive year. Flat water, unpredictable weather conditions and a Lake that is surrounded by mountains can often catch out even the most experienced skippers. The fleet will then head north to the sailing mecca of Marstrand Island in Sweden. In 2011 the Island provided some spectacular stadium sailing for spectators to watch and a diverse range of conditions to challenge the teams. The final event of the Tour will be held again in the beautiful setting of Rovinj, Croatia. Transat B to B : Hotting Up in the Caribbean Forced to retire from the Transat Jacques Vabre and effect repairs in the Azores, skipper Vincent Riou made the delivery to Gustavia in around a week. Prior to leaving Horta, Vincent declared himself to be satisfied with the repair carried out on the watertight bulkhead. "We've redone the bulkhead just as it was before, though naturally we've beefed it up a bit. I'm satisfied, it appears to be a lot more solid than it was before. ". Aboard Gamesa meantime, the focus is now on getting the boat ready for the Back to Brittany Race. "The job list isn't massive - only 3 priority jobs - replacing the fleet broadband system, fixing the wind instruments and repairing the port daggerboard. Naturally we will be checking the mast and rigging and the whole boat but from our inspection in Costa Rica we expect no serious problems." "The course out of here could be a bit doldrums-y to begin with", says Golding "but quite quickly we should join the Altantic circulation which will speed us back towards the much colder weather as you get back to Europe and the winter! After not a great TJV, due to weather choices and wanting to ensure we made it to the finish and learn as much as we could from the race we are keen not to crash and burn. Track the race on the website www.transatbtob-imoca.org Dubarry Lahinch - Hanging Ten In Style Dubarry Lahinch - performance perfected. Industry News The marina has a capacity of servicing With 500 boats afloat and 500 boats ashore. It was designed as a city port and aims to bring a "new quality of life" to Mersin. In additional to several social facilities, Mersin Marina offers services such electricity, fresh water, sewage removal, wireless Internet, cable TV, weather forecast, laundry, shower/WC, first aid, professional divers, parking, fuel stations, a tourism agency, a car rental center, supermarkets, banks/ATMs, change/exchange offices, repair facilities, storage lockers and a yacht market. The marina cost nearly 100 million Turkish lira. Courtesy of www.hurriyetdailynews.com via Blue Water Sailing: -------------------------------------------- After reviewing its exhibition and business strategies, Beneteau and all its dealers in the UK have taken the decision not to exhibit at the 2012 Tullett Prebon London Boat Show at ExCeL. "The UK is a very important market to Beneteau and we feel that we can best serve our customers here by focussing our efforts into the PSP Southampton Boat Show," said Francois Renault, Beneteau UK area sales manager. "We can have boats on the water and show our full range, as well as supporting our dealers in order to stimulate sales through their existing customer pipelines." The company had more boats at Southampton this year than ever before and had a successful show. It will now showcase equally large exhibits at Paris and Düsseldorf shows, together with many new models, such as the Sense 55 that will be launched at December's Paris Boat Show. -------------------------------------------- Prince De Bretagne and Lionel Lemonchois entrust Multiplast with the building of their next trimaran After winning the Route du Rhum 2006 on a 60 foot trimaran, as well as the 2010 race on a 50 foot trimaran, Lionel Lemonchois has launched the building of an 80 foot (24.28 m) trimaran, in the hope of bringing off the third consecutive victory in his record of achievements, in this legendary race. For Multiplast, building this new large multihull will also be an opportunity to try to maintain their "builder title", following the victory of Franck Cammas on Groupama 3 in the last race. Vincent Lauriot Prevost, architect for this new boat: "The Prince de Bretagne Maxi project has filled our team with enthusiasm for 3 reasons: Working with Lionel, with the aim of a triple win in the Rhum, and perpetuating the supremacy of VPLP trimaran plans in the Route du Rhum for the last 6 races, benefiting from Multiplast's experience as a naval builder, and optimising the architect/builder relationship though the fact that we are neighbours". -------------------------------------------- Thanks to the generous support of Bosch Engineering GmbH, representatives of the Mansura Trophy team from the Royal Thames Yacht Club and The Green Blue, the joint environmental initiative from the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and the British Marine Federation (BMF), met at the first International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) Hybrid Marine Systems (HYMAR) Conference at Amsterdam RAI to launch Mansura 2012, the fourth biennial competition for the Royal Thames Mansura Trophy. The Trophy was inaugurated in 2007 and is the most prestigious international maritime award presented for new developments in hybrid power. Eligible vessels must use at least two independent sources of propulsive power, and the final drive system must be electrical. Full details of the award and the rules for entry are available at www.mansuratrophy.com The revolutionary "Green Motion", built in Durban, South Africa, by African Cats BV was the winner in 2010, following the 2008 win by the Lake Coniston tourist launches "Ransome" and "Ruskin", re-engined by EnviroBoat Developments Ltd and now almost entirely driven by solar power from cabin-top panels, and in 2006/7 the Lagoon 420 Hybrid catamaran which used dynamotors to generate power for the batteries when under sail. The 2012 competition will recognize the vast strides that have been made by builders since the Mansura Trophy was inaugurated in 2006/7. The judges will be considering not only the innovative engineering demonstrated by the entries, but also the marketing, distribution and servicing of the production craft resulting from the many prototypes that have been launched in the past ten years. Commercial and pleasure craft up to 122m LOA are eligible. -------------------------------------------- Lewmar is pleased to announce the appointment of Tecmar as their new aftermarket distributor in France. Based in La Rochelle, Tecmar distributes Lancelin and Mastervolt alongside the complete Lewmar portfolio. Headed up by Thierry Lambot, a greatly-experienced former Lewmar employee, Tecmar is in a unique position to draw upon extensive technical product knowledge. This will enable Tecmar to provide an impeccable level of customer support to retail, trade, refit, and OEM customers alike. Tecmar will work with Rob Crowe, Lewmar's Distribution Sales Manager, to build upon existing business in France. Tecmar will be present on the Lewmar/Navtec stand at the forthcoming Paris International Boat Show. Come along to Hall 2.1 Stand D71 to meet Lewmar's latest distributor and to preview the Lewmar and Navtec Range. -------------------------------------------- The America's Cup has undergone a shakeup of top management. Craig Thompson, CEO of the America's Cup business arm, has left the organization. Thompson's job will be taken over by Richard Worth, chairman of the America's Cup Event Authority, which oversees the commercial side of the 34th America's Cup to be held in San Francisco in 2013. Both Worth and Thompson were recruited last year from the UEFA Champions League, an annual soccer competition for Europe's best clubs. Thompson's main duty was to line up sponsors while Worth focused on broadcast deals. Sources close to the America's Cup said Thompson's exit was the result of lackluster financial performance of the America's Cup World Series. -- Eric Young in the San Francisco Business Times www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/ Featured Brokerage STARCHASER is a highly comfortable classic style cruising Swan but also with a successfull racing record. She is exceptionally well equipped for all types of sailing. She recently had a major refit, including electrical systems, reconditioned teak deck, new rigging, new sails and much more. Sleeps up to eleven in four cabins and saloon (9 is more comfortable!). British flag. Brokerage through Nautor's Swan Spain & Portugal: www.yachtworld.com/swan-spain/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at www.yachtworld.co.uk/ The Last Word |
|
Use this box to send a copy of this issue of the Scuttlebutt Europe Newsletter to a friend: Or [FORWARD] for a page where you can send copies to up to a dozen friends. [USERTRACK]
About Boats.com See the Boats Blog at Boats.com -- www.boats.com/blog/ To subscribe, unsubscribe, and select HTML or Text format visit scuttlebutteurope.com Editorial and letter submissions to Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/advertise.html |
Search the Archives
SEARCH
Search
[{{{type}}}] {{{reason}}}
{{/data.error.root_cause}}{{texts.summary}} {{#options.result.rssIcon}} RSS {{/options.result.rssIcon}}
{{/texts.summary}} {{#data.hits.hits}}
{{{_source.title}}} {{#_source.showPrice}} {{{_source.displayPrice}}} {{/_source.showPrice}}
{{#_source.showLink}} {{/_source.showLink}} {{#_source.showDate}}{{{_source.displayDate}}}
{{/_source.showDate}}{{{_source.description}}}
{{#_source.additionalInfo}}{{#_source.additionalFields}} {{#title}} {{{label}}}: {{{title}}} {{/title}} {{/_source.additionalFields}}
{{/_source.additionalInfo}}
