Scuttlebutt Europe #2653 - 10 August
|
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 Brits Poised for Golden Double The abandonment means that both Britain's men and women 470 crews will engage in a medal race double-header tomorrow (Friday 10 August) with both Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell and Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark in with a golden chance of claiming their first ever Olympic titles on home waters. The Men's race is now scheduled to take place at 12pm on the spectator Nothe course with the Women following at 1pm. The British men are guaranteed at least a silver medal but are only four points behind Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) in first. Meanwhile the British girls are tied neck and neck at the top of the women's leaderboard with New Zealand with at least a bronze already in the bag. Early forecasts this morning suggested that although the wind was likely to be very light there was optimism that there would be enough breeze by the early afternoon to enable a fair race to take place. But despite the best efforts of the race committee, the light breeze was never deemed consistent or stable enough to get either the Men's 470 medal race or the 5-8 Women's Match Racing Sail-Off underway. After the disappointment of seeing their Match Racing medal dreams ended at the quarter-final stage yesterday, Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor were also denied the chance to finish their London 2012 on a positive note after the lack of breeze caused the abandonment of the 5-8 Sail Off. The match racers did at least get out on the water in an attempt for the race committee to get some racing on but their efforts ultimately proved futile. Follow the British sailing team at London 2012 at www.rya.org.uk/london2012 www.sailing.org/olympics/london2012/home.php GBR Coach Helps 470 Girls to Avoid his Athens 2004 Mistake They spent the day before the showdown relaxing back at their digs, chilling out and watching TV. They went and raced the Americans, but were ill prepared for the match race that ensued in the pre-start. The wily old dogs from the USA, Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham, stitched up the young Brits and crossed the finish line as Olympic Champions. The 47-year-old barefooted Burnham famously back-flipped off the 470 in celebration. Still only in his early 30s but already retired from competition, Glanfield is now on the verge of becoming a gold medal coach. He finds his athletes, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, in a similar situation to his own in Athens 2004. Glanfield is determined that the GBR 470 girls won't make the same mistake as he and Rogers did eight years ago. Find out what the 470 girls have been doing to prepare for their Medal Race here: Get In On The Action and Experience Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week 2012 with OnDeck
Ondeck are once again offering their extremely popular 'Rock up and Race' & high speed RIB experiences for you to get fully immersed in this world class event. A limited amount of individual daily racing places are available on Saturday 11th, Monday 13th and Saturday 18th of August. No experience is necessary as you will be racing with professional crew with expert tuition & all equipment supplied. Also, 1 Farr 65 for up to 18 guests has become available for Friday 17th August (Fireworks day). The hour long RIB rides throughout the event are also a great way to get right into the heart of the action. Get those photos just not possible from the shore, go in search of friends and family racing or simply soak up the atmosphere and experience Cowes Week on the water. Bookings can be made by contacting or by phoning +44 (0)1983 284300. Alternatively, visit their exclusive hospitality area in Cowes Yacht Haven during the event. Light Air on the Baltic in Day Four of Audi ORCi Worlds
While in contrast to Tuesday's blustery breeze and yesterday's moderate air, today's light winds were an appropriate test to help determine ISAF's two new offshore World Champions by week's end. Winners on both courses were those adept at avoiding traffic and finding the best patches of pressure on an otherwise flat, glassy sea. In their best showing yet in the series, Thomas Blixt's TP52 Blixt Pro Sailing from Sweden did just that, just nudging series leader Alberto Rossi and his Italian Farr 40 Enfant Terrible out of their first win by a mere 7 seconds in corrected time. As might be expected, the light conditions of the day favored the faster, lighter boats, so Thomas Nilsson's TP52 Wolfpack also showed well, finishing the course first on elapsed time as always but also earning their best corrected time finish yet in third place. Roberto Monti's GP42 Airis also placed a respectable 5th in this race, putting them in a third-place podium position for the first time in the series. In Class B action, the newly-formed Gold and Silver fleets met for the first time, and it was Erik Van Vuuren's Dutch Salona 37 Lenco taking the day's win in convincing form, nearly two and a half minutes ahead of the runner-up, Mats Vicotrin's Swedish X-332 Sport Boxer. This first win in the Gold Fleet was not good enough, however, to overcome the points gap with Patrik Forsgren's Swedish First 36.7 Team Arken Zoo, who remain in the lead with a mere 1 point margin over Lenco. And after an impressive string of four consecutive wins in the qualifying series, Mihkel Kosk's Estonian NM38S Sugar 2 could only manage an 11th today to drop into third place, while Juergen Klinghardt's German X-332 patent3 lurks only two points back. Tomorrow morning the final offshore race of the week is scheduled, and if completed will allow one discard for each team, thus re-shuffling the results before the final day of racing on Saturday. Crewsaver RS Elite Stadium Cup
Four boats will contest each of the two heats, with the top two from both heats going through to the final. Each race will last only about 15 minutes around a tight windward / leeward course with a downwind finish. The line-up features four RS Elite National championship winners, including Jono Brown in Aeolus (who will defend the title later this month) and Crauford McKeon's Kandoo III fresh from winning the Southern Area Championship last weekend ahead of the new Kiss. John Patterson's Irish championship winning team in Momentary Laps will be out to get-one-over the English and, adding a touch of real class, Flying Dutchman Gold medalist Iain MacDonald Smith in Freebie will find out just how fast this team can get to grips with a new Class. The Crewsaver RS Elite Stadium Cup will be awarded at around 8pm at the Sail for Gold bar on Cowes Parade, as soon as the competitors get ashore. Everyone is welcome to see the winners walk away with three of Crewsaver's finest new lifejackets as well as the trophy itself - four beers for the price of three if you have a Cowes competitor card! More information about this event can be found on the RS Elite Class website www.RSElite.org From Sailboard to Kiteboard Dutch van Rijsselberghe said right after his victory, that he has no strong feelings on which board he would prefer to use at the Rio Games. Dutch officials confirmed that Van Rijsselberghe will leave for California straight away to take up kiteboarding. Source: uk.reuters.com Same as for Britains Nick Dempsey, who won silver in the mens RS:X fleet yesterday. After the race Dempsey - who hopes to continue Olympic sailing - said that he already has ordered a few kites. Source: www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/ Expectations are high that more and more windsurfers will make a switch to kiteboarding now that the Olympic Games are over, and see how well they are doing against the established top kite racers. Only time will tell, but everybody is welcome on the race courses around the world to experience the excitement of kiteboard racing. www.internationalkiteboarding.org Sail Record Under Threat
Skipper Simon Hull's crew of thrill seeking sailors who managed to complete the Double Cone-Armit Island race with a record breaking time in 2011 are confident providing the trade wind gusts in to allow them to power sail the exciting 18.48 m trimaran to a new record. The time of 1 hour 47 minutes 16 seconds with an average speed of 17.38 knots seems difficult to beat but the Team Vodafone crew believe that records are only made to be broken. As expected the spectacular hull flying Team Vodafone will need the breeze to blow above 15 knots to have any chance of challenging her impressive record. Meanwhile the champion Victorian skipper Michael Hiatt has lodged a late entry to contest the Grand Prix IRC class with his high performance Bruce Farr designed sloop Living Doll. The living Doll crew who hail from the cold Victorian port of Williamstown have previously won at Airlie Beach and their clash with the Geoff Ross skippered New South Wales sloop Yendys is expected to be another highlight to the 10 class International series which starts on Friday and concludes on August 16. - Ian Grant Heading West Through The Northwest Passage It's a strange ice year, apparently as of about a week ago anyway, all the yachts trying to do the passage this year in the West were still in waiting in Nome (our end point) as Barrow (Alaska) is still frozen solid, and those on the East are still waiting in Upernavik, Greenland, as Lancaster Sound was still frozen. At least already being half way through ourselves, we have perhaps 3 weeks head start on anyone else trying to do the passage, and providing nothing goes too wrong, we should have no issues getting through before in terms of the short season. The last couple of weeks the couple has had to deal with a number of challenges, and in a true high latitude fashion they have improvised, used the resources they have at hand, thought positive and solved them all. The most gut wrenching day was when they found out that their boat was leaking through the hull. That was a problem they couldn't solve in Cambrigde Bay, but after some pondering, positive thinking and local advice they decided that the leak was manageable, and decided to push on with their plans to sail to Nome. Then Cris popped the big question in a romantic outdoor scene, and got his YES from Jesse. Congratulations. Now they are on their way through the NWP. The weather GRIB files show that tonight, the winds will finally shift to the East, and blow a perfect 10-15kn for perhaps 4 or 5 days, to blow us merrily onwards toward Alaska - first stop, Holman (Ulukhaktok), perhaps 4 days away. Perfect. The ice has receded completely out of our way, and *fingers crossed* we shouldn't even see any at all. Tomorrow morning at 4AM Luc (aboard his yacht Roxane) and us aboard Teleport will cast off and set sail! So excited! Our friends Brent Boddy and Sarah McNair-Landry are intending to hop onboard and sail out with us, we'll tow their kayaks behind, and when we get too far out, they'll hop in their kayaks and head home, leaving us to continue our dream of sailing the Northwest Passage, they write. See their excellent video of their time in Cambrigde Bay. It's worth every minute: thesailnews.com/?p=1511 Their blog: www.yachtteleport.com Industry News In one of the new videos, Rudow explains to boaters not only how to restore faded gelcoat but also why fishermen need to use a different wax. Other videos describe how to change oil, replace a propeller and sell a boat for the best price. "There is a lot more to come," said John Burnham, editorial director, Boats.com. "Later this summer and into the fall, we'll be publishing fun, educational videos on launching and hauling trailer boats, driving your boat for maximum efficiency and safety, and, as the season turns, winterizing your boat and its powerplant." In addition to the new How-To focus, Boats.com already has published several dozen video boat reviews in its library and has surpassed a quarter million views in its first year. Subscribe to the Boats.com YouTube Channel ( youtube.com/boatsdotcom ) to view, and check out the new Editor's Choice list - a collection of videos from around the boating world. You can also learn about Lenny's perfect day on the water by watching the Lenny Rudow video bio. Rudow, who estimates he has written more than 1,000 boat reviews, joined the Boats.com editorial team in May 2012. ------------------------------------------------- In June 2012, METYX Composites® completed acquisition of all LEDA® assets at the Mondavio, Italy facility, as well as some of the major assets of Advanced Composites Technology® (ACT Group) also located in Mondavio, Italy. The strategic acquisition of these new assets emphasizes the importance of kitting operations in delivering comprehensive composites solutions to METYX Composites customers worldwide. The LEDA facility in Mondavio was one of the leading kitting operations in Europe until the recession created a challenging economic environment throughout the continent. The LEDA facility was equipped with automated lines for foam and reinforcements kits. ACT Group, established in 1996, was one of the pioneers in advanced composite structures. It was also among the first companies in Europe to use vacuum infusion technology in the production of large components like the hulls and decks of the high-performance 120-foot Pershing boats. ACT Group embarked on many innovative projects in marine and wind energy industries until the recent downturn in the marine industry in Italy. ------------------------------------------------- The massive 40m carbon fibre wing on the newly-launched Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) AC72 catamaran is made up of components supplied by carbon fibre specialists Southern Spars for the incredible new class of America's Cup yacht. Southern Spars has been involved in producing much of the leading edge technology used in America's Cup yachts since the company was formed in 1989, and as America's Cup challengers prepare to compete in the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup, Southern Spars is involved once again. As Southern Spars' director Mark Hauser notes, the 34th edition of the America's Cup is very different to previous events. "Conventional carbon masts and rigging supporting high-tech sails have been replaced by 40m wing sails for the 2013 AC72 class yachts," says Hauser. "Working with ETNZ designers, Southern Spars has manufactured 75 per cent of the wing sail components and around 35 per cent of the beam structures for the huge 72' catamaran." ETNZ enlisted the assistance of another Auckland-based company, Cookson Boat Builders, to complete the catamaran. ------------------------------------------------- Giants Enterprises, a subsidiary of the San Francisco Giants, has been selected by the America's Cup Event Authority as the official spectator experience partner for America's Cup events in San Francisco. In this role, Giants Enterprises will assist in the promotion and ticketing of all sanctioned America's Cup public viewing locations beginning with the America's Cup World Series events August 21-26th 2012 and continuing through all 2013 America's Cup events. A ticketed viewing area, called The Deck, will be located in the Marina Green, which will be transformed into the America's Cup (AC) Village. The AC Village is free and open to the public and will offer food and beverage vendors, viewing screens, merchandise, and race PA announcements and commentary. Ticketed seating is available in The Deck and will be the only location where spectators can be guaranteed a seat to watch all the action. Tickets for The Deck start at $25 per day and will be available for purchase on www.americascup.com/tickets starting on Thursday, August 9th at 10am. Letters To The Editor - * From John Burnie: Is this not the worst result the USA has ever had at an Olympic Sailing event? I do not think I can remember a time when the USA has had such a dearth of "big names" coming through the various Olympic disciplines. At this point (very near the end of the regatta) there is no USA result in the top 5 in any class - unheard of! I am wondering if the "nanny policy" regarding water safety in the USA has anything to do with this extraordinary development. As far back as 2001 I remember the windy Monday / Tuesday of the America's Cup Jubilee Regatta in Cowes where, (despite some damage), many of the American participants were thrilled to be racing in winds over 25 kts. Racing in the USA would definitely have been cancelled under such conditions due to implicit and draconian safety policies. Recently I was assisting the race officers at the Solent J Class Regatta and the RORC IRC Nationals. At both regattas the PRO's, Robert Lamb and Jaime Wilkinson respectively, used common sense and judgement - both race officers continued the racing in their regattas despite elevated winds gusting as much as 30 kts. This would never have happened in the USA. In the early part of the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth the winds and sea conditions were slightly elevated - such conditions seemed to blow the USA competitors into the weeds. Notice in contrast however how 470 sailors Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell seemed to revel in the windy environment. This may not be a sole cause of the USA's dramatic slide in their number of internationally competent dinghy sailors - but may I suggest that everyone involved in UK sailing would do well to resist too much reliance on any poorly structured safety legislation and continue to place their trust in the judgment of experienced and competent race officers. Featured Brokerage Lochiel offers three staterooms plus an office for owner/guests, a raised salon, galley and crew quarters forward. The stand-up, walk-in engine room is a real blessing, encouraging good maintenance. In addition to private use, Lochiel has the qualities of an excellent charter yacht and proven charter history under other ownership. Refit 2000/2010. Brokerage through Northrop and Johnson: www.yachtworld.com/northropandjohnsonfl/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at Back On Tuesday But I will be searching for my lost youth with friends and family... and back for the Tuesday issue. 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 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}}
