Scuttlebutt Europe #2545 - 8 March
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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 Phesheya-Racing Complete the Podium in Punta
Phehseya-Racing entered the channel between the Puerto de Punta del Este and Isla Gorriti, crossing the finish line in the blistering sunlight of late afternoon. Escorted into the marina by two RIBs from the Yacht Club Punta del Este (YCPE), Leggatt and Hutton-Squire were welcomed by a crowd of well-wishers including the YCPE's Secretary, Pablo Elola. It has been an immensely tough Leg 3 for Leggatt and Hutton-Squire with a series of upwind gales, severe autopilot problems and knockdowns in lightning storms. But despite becoming separated from the leading two Class40s, the team on Phesheya-Racing doggedly stuck with the course and completed Leg 3. In the very early part of the leg, the South Africans passed south of the Chatham Islands in fourth place, dropping back to fifth as Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon re-joined the pack of five Class40s after a southerly flyer with Financial Crisis. With the Fields on Buckley Systems turning back to New Zealand due to injury after four days of racing, followed by Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron on Campagne de France, Leggatt and Hutton-Squire withstood 35-50 knot headwinds, moving up to third place, opting to hove-to for 13 hours as strong easterlies lashed their Class40. While the South Africans begin celebrating on the balcony restaurant at the Yacht Club Punta del Este courtesy of Tony Lawsons' Class40 campaign, Team Concise, Nico Budel and Sec. Hayai are in reaching south in easterly breeze averaging ten knots 1,000 miles north-east of Punta del Este and one week away from re-joining the GOR fleet. Due ast of the Brazilian coastal city of Florianopolis by 700 miles, Budel is enjoying his single-handed delivery from Cape Town: "We've just had lots of rain and a lot of wind!" reported the 72-year-old Dutchman late on Tuesday. "After days of very little breeze, I had to put a reef in the mainsail," he adds. "It was raining cats and dogs and I was outside in the pouring rain. After days of reading books and having nothing to, this suddenly meant a lot of work!" Averaging just under ten knots on Wednesday afternoon, Sec. Hayai has a Punta del Este ETA of Wednesday 14th March when Budel will be met by family members and his co-skipper for Leg 4 to Charleston, Carolina, Erik van Vuuren. GOR leaderboard at 21:00 GMT 07/03/12: Maserati Sets Sail from U.S. to Conquer 24 Hour Speed Record "The meteorological challenge is finding a cold front with the right winds from the south-west, not too strong but at the same time not too weak," Soldini explains. "Ideally, we need 28 knots of wind from the cold front and it has to be astern. The other critical element is the waves. We have to sail in front of a depression where the sea is not heavy, as with heavy seas it will be difficult to keep the speed." The team is working with weather experts to determine the best time and location for this challenging endeavor. Weather forecasts currently indicate the right time to start the 24 hour sprint may be between March 9th and 10th. "We are setting offshore to a waypoint about 500 miles away," said American crew member Brad Van Liew. "We want to give ourselves plenty of time the get there. It looks like a good location to pick up favorable winds and current for the record." The record attempt, monitored by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, is currently held by the VOR 70 Ericsson 4 for monohulls. Between October 28 and October 29, 2008, during the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, Brazilian sailor Torben Grael and a crew of ten people on board Ericsson 4 sailed 596.6 miles in 24 hours at an average speed of 24.85 knots. The challenge is being sponsored by Maserati as main partner and inspiration for the boat's name, by the Swiss bank BSI (Generali Group) and by Generali itself as co-sponsor. -- Meaghan Van Liew The record attempt can be followed live on Giovanni Soldini and Maserati's website www.maserati.soldini.it
BoatsPOD: Deal Of The Week 66% off Harken adult's spectrum gloves (that's a pair of Harken gloves for a tenner!) To receive BoatsPOD, and to benefit from this weeks deals, register at www.boatspod.co.uk (Note: BoatsPOD is only available in the UK) Hazardous Marine Conditions Cancel Racing On Biscayne Bay Full results, photos and additional information on the 85th BACARDI Cup and BACARDI Miami Sailing Week are available at www.MiamiSailingWeek.com and www.BacardiCup.com Squalls Cause Reshuffle of Leg Leader Board Will Oxley, navigator with fourth placed CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson/AUS) explains that the low pressure system situated to the east of the fleet has a light patch associated with it. For CAMPER to try to avoid it would mean putting the bow down and extending the beat up to the cape by over 100 nm. "We're all going to roll into this light wind zone and throw the dice and see what happens," Oxley said. Earlier, at 1300 UTC, Iker Martinez and his men gained six nm and deposed the beleaguered PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA) who had lost 30 nm in the previous three hours. On the eastern side of the course, PUMA have been feeling the full effects of the light wind zone and had yet another night of struggling with heavy rainsqualls with little or no wind under them, resulting in their massive loss today. "It hasn't been very favourable for us," remarked helmsman Kelvin Harrap. The larger squalls are visible on the radar if they have some sort of precipitation within them, which helps the team to avoid them, but they are now in third place and 27 nm behind Telefonica. China Team Announces Training Base In Sanya Two Ventilo M2 catamarans have been purchased by China Team and will be arriving at the Serenity Marina shortly to train all crew prior to racing. These boats have been modified to ensure that they fit within the America's Cup requirements that they do not exceed the 10 meter length overall. China Team's international crew will be training in Sanya from March 14 to 29, 2012, before heading to Naples for the upcoming America's Cup World Series, to compete against the 9 other teams which represent the challengers and the defender of the America's Cup. Five years after China entered the America's Cup race for the first time, China is back in the competition with China Team under the leadership of chairman Wang Chaoyong and led by the 25 year America Cup veteran Thierry Barot. This new challenger team will feature mainly Chinese sailors, on a China-built boat. VR GUL Race Team is Launched at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show
The VR Gul Race Team is also sponsored by Harken/ FSE Robline and popped over to their stand to see what exciting new deckware and ropes are available for 2012. The VR Gul Race Team is managed by Virtual Rigger, the new online chandlery, which is geared towards to youth sailing in 29ers, 420s, Toppers, Lasers and is looking at expanding the team further into different classes throughout 2012. If you would like to be considered for a position on the team, please contact Simon Butterworth, Director - Virtual Rigger on with a brief synopsis of why? Farr 40 Usa Circuit Championship Event # 2 - Day 1 Later this week sailors will enjoy an exciting social schedule including a post race Owner and Crew Party at La Piaggia Beach Club on Friday March 9th, as well as an Awards Party at Monty's Poolside in beautiful South Beach at the conclusion of the event. For Live event Updates, please follow us: Twitter: Farr40Class RBYC Receives RYA Training Centre Status Mr. Herbert-Evans joined the RBYC in April 2011 and has worked passionately with the Club's Sailing Committee to develop a high standard of teaching, safety and fun. "This certification, along with the Club's optimist charter programme, not only allows us to continue to offer a high standard of sailing locally but opens the Club up as an international training venue for visiting optimist squads. The RYA standard is respected the world-over and we look forward to promoting Bermuda as a training destination" stated Tom. Along with adopting RYA Youth & National sailing schemes the RBYC Sailing Academy now offers RYA Powerboat II training and certification. Persons with this certification are recognised internationally for having a high level of competency and safety with powerboat handling. The RBYC is working closely with the Water Safety Council and several of the island's marine insurance companies to help recognise PBII certificate holders. 10% discount off boat owners' marine insurance is one of the potential benefits. Mark Turner Talks To Vsail.info Mark Turner: We are now going into our sixth year and I would say that 2011 was a pivotal year for us, to go from a European circuit to a global, international circuit. People do underestimate the difficulty of doing that, working with so many different cultures, with a rhythm of events that in terms of organization almost doesn't stop. It's not only the difficulty of being in new cultures or new venues but also venues that had never had sailing before or at least this kind of sailing. It was a big year, a huge year and we invested a lot. We went into some venues that in a normal year we probably couldn't afford to go to because we didn't have agreements with the cities but they were strategic decisions such as Singapore and Boston. These were two venues we decided to go in 2011 and we had the investment funds to make these steps. VSail.info: What do you mean you went there without having an agreement? Mark Turner: We, obviously, had agreements from an authorization point of view but no funding. That's not sustainable for us because we are a fully commercial circuit, we don't have an open wallet anywhere. We have a certain amount of investment, some coming from me some coming from our shareholders, but we decided that the big step to make was to go global with it. I can't tell you whether this will be a success or not because it will take a couple of years to work out whether the investment paid off or not. However, I think that the step was essential for us to make. In sport there aren't many global competitions, in general. In fact, there are many European, Asian ones but outside of the world football cup or Formula 1 you can't name that many. Sailing doesn't have that many and we always positioned our event and the focus of what we have done was always commercial, in the sense to be attracting cities that look for a real return, to attract team or event sponsors that try to use sailing as part of their sponsorship. For us, the global element was a bit of a gamble but, again, I think it was the right step for us to make. As you, obviously, know the venue side in Europe is increasingly difficult and it gets harder and harder to get paid. The further south you go the harder it is. That's pretty stressful because we are working on pretty slim margins and there isn't a lot of room for errors in our numbers. This has been really tough to manage so it's very refreshing, albeit more difficult, in Asia, the Middle East and this year in South America. It has been very challenging but nothing is easy in event organization. Full interview(Part 1): Call It The Lexus Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race Want to win a Lexus? Well, the boat owner with the fastest corrected handicap time in any Racing class will not only collect a free two-year lease on a 2013 Lexus GS 350 sedan. Any boat entered in a PHRF Racing class is eligible. Family type sailboats as small as 26 feet have won that trophy in the past. Also, participants at any of the six Sail to Win Seminars starting March 8 will receive a small Lexus gift bag with nautical themed key chain and a Business Reply Card (BRC) for a $1,000 Lexus discount certificate on a new car. At the free seminars professional sailors will offer speed tips and other wisdom for sailing offshore. The schedule: March 8, Del Rey YC, Marina del Rey, 7-9 p.m. Racers may enter online. As of this report there were 161 entries, promising that the final count will far exceed last year's total of 175. They'll be assigned to a variety of classes---Maxi, PHRF, Sprit and Cruz for monohulls and ORCA for multihulls---but most competitors, big boats and small, will be gunning for the prime prize, the President of USA Trophy for the fastest corrected handicap time. The last few years have raised hopes for that across the board. -- Rich Roberts www.nosa.org/newport-to-ensenada Featured Brokerage The boat is in a very good condition. Very little used, and only from the owner. The Racing North 3DL Sails are almost new, costing about 160.000 Euro Brokerage through Atalanta Marine: www.yachtworld.com/atalanta-group/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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