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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 PUMA Clinch Victory as Telefonica Fall Just Short Telefonica crossed at 16:22:29 local after their comeback came up just short. It was clear by Friday morning that Telefonica were going to give PUMA a real run for their money. A deficit that had stood at hundreds of nautical miles came all the way down to 10, then two and at one stage just 0.7 -- a little over a kilometre -- as Telefonica consistently enjoyed better breeze. But crucially, while the breeze was light, it remained relatively stable and PUMA were able to avoid the sort of wind hole that cost them so dearly on the first stage of leg 4 from Sanya to Auckland. Over the final 20 nm, skipper Ken Read kept his rivals at bay over a match race up the coast, putting his boat between Telefonica and flawlessly completing a series of gybes to ensure there would be no final heroics. It was an extraordinary finish to the battle for first place in a leg that saw five of the six boats forced to stop for repairs. As of Mon, 09 Apr 2012, 22:05:39 UTC: 1. Puma, Finished Perfect Conditions for Final Day
The Trofeo "Absolute" winner goes this year to 2.4m sailor Thierry Schmitter (NED). The Dutch have accomplished to win the regatta with the least points in his overall score. With seven races won over the event's ten races, Schmitter truly deserves the Trophy won last year by Ben Ainslie. Top three by class 470 Men 470 Women Finn 49er 2.4 Metre Laser Laser Radial Star www.trofeoprincesasofia-mapfre.org * The last day of the women's match racing at the 43rd Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia MAPFRE saw some excellent racing in the Petit-Finals and the Finals. The Bay of Palma presented a perfect day - sun, wind and a few waves. The first win in the Petit-Finals went to Olivia Price (AUS) as she lead all the way around the course. The second flight saw a penalty to Tamara Echegoyen (ESP) but she was able to clear it and still stay ahead to even the score 1 - 1. Price (AUS) lead around the course in the third flight to take the Bronze medal. In the Finals, Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) took an early 2 - 0 lead over Claire Leroy (FRA). In the third flight, Leroy won the start and lead all of the way around the course to stay alive and force another match. In the fourth flight, the match was very close until the leeward mark where Leroy had a messy spinnaker drop and never recovered. Tunnicliffe sailed to victory and a 3 -1 score to win the Gold medal. Finals: Petit-Finals: Overall Results: www.WIMRA.org South Africans Are Up To Second, But At A Price By 15:00 GMT on Monday, Cessna Citation was clear of Cape Sao Tome, but Financial Crisis was caught by the unreadable breeze and dropped one position, while Phesheya-Racing and Sec. Hayai were gambling hard for the wind to go right and avoid entrapment south of the cape. While the early move offshore by Colman and Cavanough has kept Cessna Citation in the lead and 65 miles clear of the headland at Cape Sao Tome, Nico Budel and Erik van Vuuren are sailing as high as they dare, averaging just under five knots on Sec. Hayai and pinching to clear the headland as Leggatt and Hutton-Squire - 15 miles off the coast and 20 miles ahead of Budel and Van Vuuren - must be praying for a further lift to squeeze round Cape Sao Tome and avoid a tactically crippling tack to the south-east. GOR leaderboard at 15:00 GMT 9/4/12: In A Class Of Her Own
Because of Spirit of Bermuda's three-mast schooner rig, she is unable to be fairly and officially rated for competition against the modern design boats that make up the rest of the fleet, and so will sail in a class by herself. Her "Spirit of Tradition" Division will highlight both her traditional design and the prevalence of the schooner rig in yachts racing in the early years of the Newport Bermuda Race. Spirit of Bermuda is a purpose-built sail-training vessel owned by the Bermuda Sloop Foundation ( www.bermudasloop.org ) and based on civilian Bermudian-type schooners built in Bermuda by blacks and whites between 1810 and 1840. The original hull shape was adapted from the Bermuda-built Royal Navy "Shamrock" class: fast dispatch/patrol vessels that ran from the Royal Naval Dockyard northwest to Halifax and southwest to Jamaica to contain the rebel colonies. In nearly six years of operation since September 2006, Spirit has provided a character development program based on experiential learning to over 2,600 young people and has sailed over 38,000 miles in overseas voyages to 17 ports in 10 countries. The "Spirit of Tradition" Division in the 2012 race is an invitational demonstration division developed to experiment with the re-introduction of traditional schooner rigged vessels to the Newport Bermuda Race. Whether this Division will be present in future races will depend on the experience of Spirit of Bermuda in 2012 and the likelihood of developing enough interest to provide competition and to warrant development of a suitable rating system for such vessels. Black Jack Too Classy Black Jack skippered by Mark Bradford entered a challenge to win the tactically testing 308 n/ml classic 4 years ago. They won line honours in 2009 and 2010 and were outpaced by Peter Millard's Lahana in 2011 however they fell short of the achieving owner Peter Harburg's ambition to win the race on corrected handicap. Interestingly Peter Harburg has a personal passion for motor sport naming his yacht Black Jack after his good friend and World champion Sir Jack Brabham has continued to provide his Black Jack racing team with the inspiration and budget to now be recognised as Queensland's best in the sport. His encouragement and persistence was rewarded over the Easter Weekend when Black Jack skilfully sailed for almost 23 hours in a nip and tuck tactical tussle against the larger super maxi's Wild Thing (Grant Wharington) and Lahana (Peter Millard) was officially declared the overall winner in Gladstone yesterday. The Black Jack crew now understand that there are rewards for doing the hard yards which involved a high number of sail changes, gybes and sets during their line honours arm wrestle against their maxi rivals. Mark Bradford had the belief that if it came down to a 'slug fest' that his crew of good mates would come out on top. "We are made up from a team of good mates who are dedicated to make our program succeed and this result represents a deserved reward". He Said. Their collective professional attitude was applied for almost 23 hours of highly intensive offshore sailing resulted in Black Jack producing a runaway 2 hour 43 minute 50 second corrected time win over Lahana (Peter Millard) while Rob Hanna's TP 52 Shogun V filled third another 1 hour 33 minute 7 seconds astern. www.brisbanetogladstone.com.au Brisbane to Gladstone Multihull Yacht Race At the halfway point Team Australia seemed to hold a firm grip on the record after completing the initial 154 nautical miles with an average speed above 22.5 knots. This was a remarkable performance considering Team Australia was held to a slow passage out of Moreton Bay. However the speed sailing trimaran reached away from the fleet locking the boat speed recorder above the 25 knot range for long periods. It takes a lot of skill and personal precision by the entire crew to achieve this remarkable result. As expected there were a high number of sail changes along the way but the workload diligently expressed by the crew who had little time to enjoy the record breaking ride as they sailed at breakneck speed before their quest faced a serious challenge when the wind lost its intensity after they weathered Lady Elliot Island. Their option to tack downwind over the final 80 nautical miles had race officials anxiously monitoring the progress as time ticked against the record challenge. Team Australia finally crossed the finish line off Gladstone's Auckland Creek shortly before 3-30 am to complete the course in 16 hours 28 minutes 21 seconds, 2 hours 26 minutes 48 seconds ahead of the previous record set in 2004 by the Melbourne Catamaran Raw Nerve. RORC Easter Challenge
Runaway winner in IRC One was South African Michael Bartholomew and his well honed crew on the Hamble-based King 40 Tokoloshe. A 5-1-5 scoreline today saw them conclude the regatta with a nine point lead over Irishman Anthony O'Leary's 2010 Commodores' Cup-winning Ker 39, Antix. Simon Henning's Farr 45 Alice was doing well, but was let down by a 13th place in today's second race causing them to drop to third overall, just two points ahead of the British Keelboat Academy on their Niklas Zennstrom-owned sistership Kolga. The Ker 40 dust-up was close with Jonathan Goring's Keronimo finishing two and half points ahead of Andrew Pearce's newer Magnum III. Despite a strong final push by Jackie Dobson and the crew of the J/133 Jeronimo winning today's two final races, Jim Macgregor and his Poole-based Elan 410 Premier Flair maintained their lead in IRC Two to win by three points. Andrew McIrvine, ex-Commodore of the RORC, came into his own today with his First 40 La Reponse finishing third in each race today. In IRC Three competition was tight. The outstanding performance today was that of David Franks and his new JPK 1010 Strait Dealer, which posted three bullets in as many races. Unfortunately after a slow start to the regatta this was not enough for them to catch David Aisher's British Keelboat Academy crewed J/109 Yeoman of Wight, which was top of the seven J/109s but one point shy of Peter Morton's MAT 1010 in the overall points. "We loved it, we had a really good time. It was really nice to be back on the water," said MAT 1010's Louise Morton, making her return to competitive yachting for the first time since breaking her leg last June. On MAT 1010, today's races were steered by ex-British Keelboat Academy members Colette Blair and Mark Lees, the competitive juices flowing to ensure they finished ahead of their former colleagues on Yeoman of Wight. IRC 4B was dominated by the Half Tonners, but by one in particular - the 1985 vintage MG30 Checkmate XV, skippered by Nigel Biggs - which completed the RORC Easter Challengewith a perfect scoreline. For full results go to www.rorc.org/race-results/2012-season-cumulative-results.html Industry News The three new owners of the company have been working at Spinlock for some time. Mr Hill has worked for Spinlock for 27 years and has been the company's design director for many years. Mr Kirby has also been with the company 'for many years' and Ms Senior has been with the company for 11 years. "Rodney [Hogg] has found a way to retire," said Spinlock's James Hall. "He always wanted to hand the company over into private hands and keep production in the UK - ideally on the Isle of Wight." Mr Hogg, who has owned and managed Spinlock for 35 years, will remain a shareholder and will be a non-executive director and management consultant to the company. From Boating Business: --------------------------------------- New Zealand boat builder and repair company Hakes Marine has been put into liquidation, laying off about 15 staff and moving some work to China, according to a former worker. Hakes Marine is one of the few specialist grand prix race boat builders in New Zealand, a segment hard hit after the global financial crisis. Hakes Marine has recently built training catamarans for America's Cup syndicates, costing about $330,000 each. Last year it built its first Kiwi FC yacht, Bodacious Dream, which was dropped into Wellington Harbour at the end of the year. Companies Office files show Shepard Dunphy's Andrew Croad was appointed as liquidator on March 29. Croad was in meetings yesterday and could not be reached for comment. Hakes owner Paul Hakes could not be reached for comment either. A former team leader/supervisor at Hakes, Christopher Earp, said Hakes was packing boat building moulds and taking them to China, with four staff to set up an operation making America's Cup training boats, a move he described as "terrible", especially the way it was done. "They told us on Thursday to pack up our tools and be gone by the end of the day. There are people with mortgages left in the lurch ... there was no warning it was going to happen. It was a shock for us," he said. About 15 staff had lost their jobs, with no redundancy payout, and workers had also missed out on their last week's wages and holiday pay, Earp said. www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/ --------------------------------------- Herreshoff 5th classic yacht symposium is scheduled for April 28. Celebrating all aspects of classic yacht design, restoration, reproduction, maintenance and use, featuring experienced presenters to promote professional and amateur excellence. This is your opportunity to meet and connect with this amazing community. The symposium will be held at the Herreshoff Marine Museum. Space is limited - reserve early. Learn More and Register Online --------------------------------------- Lewmar appoints Bob Stevens as Quality Manager. Stevens joined the organisation in 1996 as Product Marketing Engineer. In February 2001 he took the position of Hatch Product Manager and successfully increased the division from £8M to £12M turnover, in the process becoming one of Lewmar's largest division. In 2009 Bob took on the additional responsibility of Hardware Product Manager before been promoted to Head of Design in March 2010. Featured Brokerage The J/92 is an asymmetric performance cruiser-racer from J Boats. At thirty feet the J/92 is fast, manageable and fun. Accomodation for six crew. A great boat for family sailing and short handed racing. Brokerage through Key Yachting Ltd. www.yachtworld.com/keyyachting/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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