Scuttlebutt Europe #2625 - 3 July
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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 Groupama Win Volvo Ocean Race
While CAMPER were celebrating victory in the ninth and final leg, Groupama skipper Franck Cammas led his team home in second place to take an unassailable 24-point lead with just one in-port race to go. Groupama crossed the finish line at 00:49:11 UTC, just seven minutes behind CAMPER. PUMA finished in third place at 00:55:01 UTC ahead of Team Telefonica, who finished at 00:59:33 UTC. Cammas, the 39-year-old Frenchman, threw his arms up and pumped his fists in the air while thousands of fans gathered on the dock of Galway Bay to roar the team -- including Irishman Damian Foxall -- home to a remarkable victory in their first appearance in the race. Groupama are the first team to represent France in the Volvo Ocean Race since Eric Tabarly's La Poste in 1993-94 and they are only the second French winners after Lionel Pean on L'Espirit d'Equipe in 1985-86. The team gallantly fought back from a deficit that was as high as 28 points following the HaiTang Bay In-Port Race in Sanya, winning the next leg to Auckland and steadily improving their knowledge of their boat and cohesion as a team to surge to a commanding lead going into Leg 9. With the sort of nerve that quickly became their trademark in the race, Groupama stayed serenely out of trouble on the 550-nautical mile race through wild conditions in the English Channel and around the iconic Fastnet Rock, to finish second across the line and seal their place among an elite band of winners in an event that began life as the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973. CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand led the procession across the finish line much to the delight of surrounding flotilla of spectators, at 00:42:13 UTC -- their first leg win of the race. CAMPER are almost certain to secure second place with 226 points, six points clear of third place PUMA, with just the final in-port race remaining. Six points will be up for grabs for first place, five for second, four for third and so on when the final race of the epic 39,000 nautical mile ocean race starts on July 7. ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship
After the disappointment of the 2011 Women's Match Racing Worlds in Perth, Australia that saw Lehtinen finish 14th after a bright start she turned it around in Gothenburg after she defeated World #1 Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) 3-0 in the final. The day started off as a perfect one for sailing, with a southerly 16-18 knot breeze with the sun shining as the semi finals opened the day. Lehtinen took on Claire Leroy (FRA) in the first head to head and had no trouble against the French match racer as she came out on top with a comprehensive 3-0 victory. Tunnicliffe meanwhile took on compatriot Sally Barkow in four very tight and intense matches with the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year coming out on top. Leroy and Barkow faced off in the Petit Final in a close encounter. Leroy took the first race win before Barkow levelled things up to take it to a decider. In a tough last race with gybe duels all the way to the finish Barkow did enough to take the win, and the bronze medal. The final followed and Lehtinen did enough in each of the three races to win by a slender margin. www.sailing.org/womensmatchworlds.php Gilmour Sets The Pace In Sweden Gothenberg-based Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing finished Qualifying Session 1 on three wins without a loss but won't begin to relax until he has confirmed his place in the event Quarter Final: "Obviously it's good to win three races but I think we're going to need seven wins to be guaranteed to go through to the Quarter Finals. "We still have plenty to do and I think there are plenty of improvements to be made for us too." "I know lots of people here and have a few fans that have come down so it's a really nice feeling to compete." A good win against Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing was a highlight for Swinton, taking the race despite carrying a penalty for much of the race. Sweden's top two match racers came head-to-head in the sixth and final flight of the day and Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team took a win against Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team as he looks to extend his lead at the top of the overall Tour standings. STENA Match Cup Sweden Qualifying Session 2 begins at 0900 CET on Monday 2nd July with the Semi Final and Final scheduled for Saturday 7th July. Live action: www.wmrt.com/live.html Results after Qualifying Session 1: Seahorse Sailor Of The Month Giles Scott (GBR) This month's nominees:
Seahorse Sailor of the Month is sponsored by Harken McLube, Dubarry & Musto. Who needs silverware, our prizes are usable! Cast your vote, submit comments, even suggest a candidate for next month at We now provide 3 ways to receive your regular Seahorse magazine... printed magazine, digital magazine and iPad App. See http://www.seahorse.co.uk/shop/subs/ Running The Rhumblines Don Algie who had vacated his residence in a colder climate and sailed his majestic sloop Storm into the tropical wonderland of Airlie Beach held a personal passion to enjoy the same type of lifestyle which Jim Hayes had embraced after leaving his family home in Tasmania several years before. Both held a personal vision of establishing a signature sailing event to be hosted by the Whitsunday Sailing Club. The inaugural event sponsored by the Don Algie owned Hogs Breath Cafe was launched into the Australian yacht racing calendar as the Airlie Beach Cruising Race Week. At the time Don Algie and Jim Hayes staged a gentleman's agreement with a hand shake an agreement which laid the foundation for what is now known as Australia's Tropical Shirt Regatta. They knew the destination combined with a perfect climate which offered ideal trade wind sailing would eventually become a success. Thanks to the spontaneous support from the happy group of Whitsunday Sailing Club volunteers the 23 year birthday celebrations in August has attracted another very competitive fleet to compete for the Telcoinabox Airlie Beach Race Week titles in ten classes. As expected Don Algie and Jim Hayes will again absorb the fun loving atmosphere which has paved the way for regatta to become an important evaluation event for skippers, tacticians, navigators and crews who have their sights set on being on the pace in other major events including the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week (August 17-25) the 2012 Rolex Sydney Hobart race starting on Boxing Day. Don Algie will stand watch at the helm of the Warwick 66 Storm 2 where he will duel for honours in the cruising class while the experienced Jim Hayes will again spend endless hours on Pioneer Bay exposed to the elements as he plays his important role with the race management team. Collectively both sailors who held that special meeting so long ago can confidently enjoy the atmosphere of knowing that their energy and vision laid the foundation for Airlie Beach Race Week win appeal as Australia's Fun in the Tropical Sun regatta. Industry News The launch of this mobile experience allows users to quickly search for boats on the go, anytime, anywhere. Its streamlined look and function provide an abridged version of the main website's search functionality. Visitors are able to quickly find new or used boats by type, price, brand, length and by zip code. In addition, visitors can search for boats added within a specific date range as well as view those listings supported by video. --------------------------------------------- YachtWorldCharters.com has announced the relaunch of its website. The website has been completely redesigned and rebuilt to create an enhanced user experience for those interested in chartering a yacht anywhere in the world. The site, formerly boat-focused, is now destination-focused to provide the user with relevant content and research tools to find the best destination and yacht for an extraordinary charter vacation. This change of focus is important because most people start with the thought, "Let's charter a boat in (someplace warm)," rather than "Let's charter a (specific kind of yacht)." Information and photographs of destinations, boats and opportunities will be continually added by industry experts, including Kim Kavin, Zuzana Prochazka, Neil Rabinowitz, Nick Crang, John Burnham and Carol Cronin. This content, together with the improved site structure, will provide vastly improved search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities that will result in more exposure for charter operators. Future development plans include a social community component which will allow consumers to share their experiences and engage with each other, as well as improved management tools for charter operators, agents and brokers. --------------------------------------------- Beneteau has reported that during the nine months of fiscal year 2011-2012 it generated €610.4m (US$758.7m) in consolidates sales. The boat business recorded €425.2 million (US$528.5) in sales for the first nine months, down 13 per cent compared with the same period in 2010-2011. For the third quarter, sales went down 14 per cent registering at €235.4 million (US$292.6m). The group claims it has implemented a growth strategy that has helped it outperform a contracting global market. Faced with persistent macroeconomic tensions, Beneteau has said it expect that boat sales to be down by around 12 per cent for the full year. According to a statement Beneteau claims its sales are benefiting from better trends seen in other regions, paving the way for the Group to capitalize on its development plans for the Asian market and motorboats in the US and South America, as well as power superyachts. IBI News: https://plus.ibinews.com --------------------------------------------- SP-High Modulus, the marine business of Gurit has announced the appointment of Revchem Composites as a new distributor of SP-High Modulus branded products for the west coast of the USA. Revchem Composites have been established for over 37 years. They have four distribution centres offering next-day delivery and supply customers throughout both North and South America. SP-High Modulus believes this appointment strengthens their distributor network in North America and will enhance the service to customers both technically and commercially. --------------------------------------------- The British Marine Federation (BMF) officially welcomed Mike Cook as its new BMF president at the AGM on Wednesday 20 June. After a term of three years as vice president, Mr Cook's election was approved and the chain of office was handed over by outgoing president Alan Morgan at the networking lunch on the same day. Mr Cook takes over with a wealth of experience in the industry. He is a director of Walton Marine and has 40 years experience working in the marine industry, including time spent as a chartered surveyor, yacht broker and marina group owner. He has spent a lot of time working closely with the BMF, sitting on the council for a number of years. From Boating Business: --------------------------------------------- The creation of OC Sport has been announced, a new global sports marketing and events company, formed by the merger of Patrice Clerc & Associates (PCA) and OC ThirdPole, with the backing of Matignon Investissement. The new group will continue to develop its international presence, already operating in 11 countries on 4 continents in 2012, and with 3 permanent offices in Switzerland, in the UK and in France. PCA and its subsidiary Ocho Sport, based in Paris and founded by Patrice Clerc, Benoit Coville and Sam Primaut in 2009, is a leading consultancy service offering strategic and operational support for brands involved in sport and leisure. Created in 1997 by Mark Turner and Dame Ellen MacArthur, OC ThirdPole is a global sports marketing and events company, specialising in professional sailing and outdoor sports ranging from running, cycling and biathlon, to more extreme sports including adventure racing and trail running. OC ThirdPole is an award-winning and leading event management company and rights holder, it manages competitive teams and athletes and provides consultancy to global brands, host venues and other event organisers. The new business will fully own the existing operating companies of PCA, its subsidiary Ocho Sport, and OC ThirdPole, in France, Switzerland and the UK. --------------------------------------------- Nautor's Swan announces the nominee of Jimmy Cheung as the brand's new area manager for the Asian market. Jimmy Cheung, 35 years old, was born and raised in Hong Kong. Cheung has now been appointed to expand the brand's presence in China and South East Asia. His role will include commercial development and coordination of all Nautor's Swan meetings and events in that area. This nomination represents a strategic maneuver towards increasing the brand's presence in Asia. Cheung has extensive experience in the nautical sector. After several years as a member of the editorial team of some of the most important nautical magazines, Cheung became a Sales Manager for a Chinese super yacht's agency. He later moved on to Thomson and Reuters before returning to the nautical world by joining Nautor's Swan. --------------------------------------------- Raymarine has announced that Harry Heasman has been promoted to the role of UK Sales Manager. Previously Regional Sales Manager for the UK South East, East coast and the whole of Ireland, Harry will now oversee the complete Raymarine UK sales team, as well as handling key OEM accounts. Harry graduated with a degree in Accountancy and Business Law, and had a number of years' experience working in sales, IT and educational technologies before joining Raymarine as Regional Sales Manager. With sailing very much in his blood, Harry was just three years old when he experienced his first race sailing with his father in a Mirror on St Mary's Loch, Scotland, which ended with a capsize. Despite that, he grew to become a keen sailor and now enjoys cruising and racing in dinghies and keelboats, with his offshore experience including Fastnet qualifiers sailing in a Ker 11.3. He now cruises regularly on a Contessa 32 owned by his family and windsurfs when he can. --------------------------------------------- Royal Lymington Yacht Club is very pleased to announce that Brewin Dolphin will be sponsoring the Club's Thursday Night Racing. The club has been running Thursday Night Racing for many years and it has become a well-loved part of the sailor's week. The club has a very active Thursday Night racing fleet with over 100 boats entering the series and often more than 80 boats on the water each week. This makes Thursday Night Racing one of the biggest racing events in the country and it runs every week throughout the summer. There are two classes for IRC, 3 classes for Lymington Handicap boats and 3 club classes, XOds, Folkboats and RS Elites. The club traditionally starts the races from its Racing Platform at the end of Lymington River, a familiar landmark to Solent sailors and the racing provides a fine spectacle on Thursday evenings. Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK's largest investment managers has 41 offices throughout the UK and Channel Islands and manages over £25 billions of funds for over 130,000 private clients. Brewin Dolphin is synonymous with sailing having sponsored the Scottish Series for the past 11 years, and more recently the Commodores Cup. Letters To The Editor - * From Alistair Skinner: I read John Waugh's letter with a great deal of empathy as a sailor who has followed the Whitbread/Volvo since Sayula 2 won the first edition 39 years ago however it has to be a case of evolve or die - look what happened to the dinosaurs. The race as John describes it died in the 1980's back in the days of Rothman's, Steinlager and Fish Pie (even 20 years ago the race was too expensive for Corinthian sailors)and make no mistake those companies were not sponsoring racing yachts because of a heartfelt love of sailing. The VOR has to continue to evolve and do its utmost to maintain the interest, primarily of potential sponsors which it does through ensuring those sponsors get sufficient return to not be spending their marketing Dollars, Pounds or Yuan elsewhere. If that means putting boats on ships to satisfy a port and team sponsor (there were two of them in this race) or that means coming to China because it is the world's 2nd largest economy so be it. Make no mistake, Camper, Telefonica, Groupama and Puma all have massive interest in increasing their presence in what everyone knows will be the world's largest luxury goods market within the next 7 years. In terms of exciting sailing, having seen these beasts close up (and I think 3m at 20kts is fairly close) I personally think it is worthwhile a few deviations from Sayula's course. As far as doing good for the sport of sailing is concerned? In Sanya 270,000 people who would probably never have otherwise had the opportunity to see boats like these attended the stopover, including I might add most of the keenest sailors in the fledgling Chinese keelboat racing scene and we were able to get a good number of them either on a spectator boat or onto a race boat for the pro-Am races. If just 1% of these decide to take a further look at sailing (or other forms of boating) - well you crunch the numbers. John mentions "TV dollars", well the truth of the matter is no "TV dollars" very quickly will mean no Volvo Ocean Race unless John knows 8-10 guys with Euro 12-15 million to spend on a yacht race in these challenging times. Shanghai Sailor. * From Stephen Homewood: In response to both of the letters to the Editor in #2624. Sailing is no longer a Corinthian sport at the highest level. Get used to it, because it isn't going to change in the near future. There is plenty of Corinthian activity in sailing, so focus on that. If the current media obsessed events prove a dead end, then you will have your wish and the world of the brave amateur will return. Until that time, we will all have to endure hours of boring video of high performance sailing boats and extremely skilled professional sailors doing what they do best. If you want national teams, watch the Olympics. If you want "everyman around the world" follow the Clipper race. If you want Classic Yachts, watch the J-Class regattas. Match racing, the World Match Racing tour The truth is that sailing from an Optimist to a G-Class Trimaran is a broad church. This is a cause for celebration, not a rather stale "'Twern't like that in my day". P.S. Calling AC45 catamarans unseaworthy after the last generation of AC Yachts is a bit rich. Featured Brokerage Like many traditional sailing vessels from the twenties and thirties, Kentra has had her fortunes peak and plummet at different times in her life. Built for Scottish industrialist Kenneth MacKenzie Clark, whose great-grandfather invented the cotton spinning spool, she was completed in just six months and launched in 1923. Clark owned her for only one year when another Scotsman, Charles Livingstone whose family founded the Cunard shipping line bought her and used, raced and cruised her. After several other owners, she was purchased by the current owner in 1992 and in 1993 a major rebuild started which was to give her a new lease of life. Using as much of the original material as possible, Fairlie Restorations painstakingly replaced 90% of the frames below the water line and 60% of those above. The steel floors were replaced by new cast bronze ones and the decks were replaced, as were the spars and rigging. Some original deck furniture was kept but the interior layout, although resembling the original, is in fact all new. Brokerage through Edmiston & Company: www.yachtworld.com/edmiston/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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Last month's winner:
Carolijn Brouwer (NED)
Dee Smith (USA)
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