Scuttlebutt Europe #2669 - 4 September
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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 Paralympic Sailing With six races done and dusted the discard has now come into force and Lucas sits at the top of the tree on eight points, losing her 11th in Race 4. Top Five 1. Helena Lucas (GBR) - 8 points The Netherlands' Udo Hessels, Marcel van de Veen and Mischa Rossen established their spot at the top of the 14-boat Sonar fleet after another consistent day that included their second race win. After two protests mixed the leader board up late on 2 August the Dutch trio had a good lead coming into the third day of racing. And with two more good races they capitalised to take a 10 point into the final five races. Top Five As the discard comes into play just two points separates the top three crews in the 11-boat SKUD18 fleet at the London 2012 Paralympic Sailing Competition. Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesh (AUS) lead the fleet on eight points having sailed to second in Race 5 and to the bullet in Race 6. Race 5 victors Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell (GBR) are second on nine points whilst America's Jen French and JP Creignou had a consistent day to sit third on 10 points. Top Five www.sailing.org/paralympics/london2012/ Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup Today's class winners were: Ran 2 (GBR) in the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship; Velsheda in Maxi Racing; Aegir (GBR) in Maxi Racing/Cruising; Nilaya (GBR) in Supermaxi and Magic Carpet 2 (GBR) in Wally. Fastest round the course was Esimit Europa 2 (SLO), finishing in just over two hours and thirty-two minutes. Of the five classes the 12-strong Mini Maxi fleet, tackling its third World Championship, is the largest. If the first day's action is a marker for the rest of the week, the competition will be unpredictable and enthralling in equal measure. Niklas Zennstrom's highly professional crew on the 21.91m (72-foot) Ran 2 - winner of the previous two Mini Maxi Rolex Worlds - needed all of its experience and guile to claim the win, finishing ahead of determined opponents Bella Mente (USA) and Jethou (GBR). "It was a great day for sailing," reflected Zennström. "We had 12-16 knots of wind and enjoyed a beautiful coastal race. The competition was really close, we were fighting it out for a long time with Shockwave, and Bella Mente finished just behind us." Indeed, George Sakellaris' 21.80m Shockwave (USA) pushed Ran close before keel damage sustained in a collision with a submerged rock terminated her race. The crew is hoping that the incident has not jeopardised their entire week. Tomorrow's racing sees the Mini Maxi and Wally classes scheduled to negotiate windward/leeward racing while the remaining classes contest a second day of coastal racing. Seahorse Sailor Of The Month Tony Langley (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 New Zealand Keeps Rolling To Runaway Win "We got on the news [Down Under]," skipper Alex Vallings said Saturday. The Kiwis had already clinched first place with a pair of first places Friday, so they didn't even have to sail the last two of 10 races, in which they scored a close second to the USA's Howie Hamlin followed by a runaway win after a close call with a San Francisco Bay ferry boat at the start. Hamlin suffered a poor start in that incident but recovered well to place third and, in discarding his two worst of 10 races---both on Friday---fought his way back to second place overall four and five points head of Australian veterans John (Woody) Winning and Grant Rollerson, respectively. After a few blustery days on the The Bay, conditions settled down slightly to a shifty 15-20 knots. Another New Zealand team led by David McDiarmid finished fifth overall. "It's great," said Winning, an Aussie. "The class is coming of age. They have the technology, and we want to keep the money equation out of it. There are a lot of world-class sailors---America's Cup guys, Volvo racers and so on---that they paid well for sailing, but they also do this for nothing. That helps the development." But ... Kiwis? They sell T-shirts that say, "My favorite teams are New Zealand ... and anyone playing Australia." Winning chuckled. "We have fun competing against each other," he said. -- Rich Roberts Final top five (18 boats; 10 races; two discards) Full results (PDF): www.stfyc.com Sailing and Foiling Firstly Emirates Team NZ managed to do a foil-borne run up the Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, late last Wednesday afternoon. It was a remarkable sight - which had many in the online sailing community skeptical - however we have the images, in this edition of Sail-World's America's Cup newsletter. The second significant event was the launch of Oracle Team USA's first AC72, in San Francisco. That was a two stage affair, with the launch being originally scheduled to be a major media event, which was postponed. The team did a test rig of the AC72, after which the platform was christened and splashed into San Francisco Bay. She was also given a high speed tow test, which is normal for the AC72's - to test the hulls for leaks under pressure. A day later, USA-17 as she is known had her first sail on San Francisco Bay. The images and video that have been released reveal a very different boat from Emirates Team NZ's design. Richard Gladwell's full article: www.sail-world.com Wight Vodka RS Elite National Championship
Day 1 was windy - to the point that highly experienced and amiable (in equal measures) PRO Jonathon Peel stated that "Very few other dayboat classes would have raced at all today". Despite a number of big broaches there was no damage greater than a broken spinnaker pole. Day 2 was possibly even more testing with patchy breeze and seven hours afloat due to a delay while new breeze arrived and settled. Day 3 belonged to Kandoo - they took no risks, rounded the top mark in 8th and climbed to 5th, comfortably good enough to deservedly lift the 2012 National Championship title after showing blistering pace across the wind range. Overall results - top six 1. Kandoo III - Crauford McKeon, Paul Bowen, Rupert Harding, 20 points Full results: www.RSElite.org 5.5M World Championships A fleet of 38 boats representing 10 nations is expected on the starting line on September 10th with a strong German contingent of 16 representatives including well-know German skipper Jochen Schumann. Preceding the Worlds and from September 6th to the 9th, the prestigious Scandinavian Gold Cup will take place with 8 Modern boats representing 8 countries. The rule of the game is simple for these 8 pre-qualified competitors: the boat that first wins three races is the winner and after three races, a boat that has not won a single race no longer compete. Simultaneously to the Gold Cup, the Evolution and Classic divisions will sailing in the Hanko Evolution Cup and the Royal Kaag Classic Cup respectively. Calm as a Millpond in the English Channel In the provisional overall standing, the duos Mabire - Merron on Campagne de France, Bestaven - Pulve on Phoenix Europe Express" and Goodchild - Collier on Concise 2, have been involved in an almighty battle and are now making good their escape assisted by the current. Jorg Riechers and Nicolas Boidevezi aboard Mare, formerly among the race favourites, had a few issues with the bowsprit of the Mach 40 at 0300 UTC this morning. They're retiring from the race. Lupi is bringing up the rear with a 27.8-mile deficit. Concise, Phoenix Europe Express and Campagne de France jockeying for the top spot within a mile of each other. Since the start of the third edition of the Normandy Channel Race yesterday at 1500 UTC, offshore of Hermanville-sur-Mer, the sailors have been working flat out. As they initially made headway along the landing beaches, they benefited from a solid NW'ly breeze of 15 knots, but with the fleet tacking upwind the breeze dropped and progress was further hampered by having to punch tide. "In my opinion, the wind will be very light to non-existent along the South coast of England", says Sylvie Viant, Race Manager. "It will gradually shift round to the West. The competitors will sail along the coast in order to benefit from a light thermal breeze. Right now and according to the tide times, they'll be practically at a standstill and some may even have to anchor. If the leaders manage to cover the 9 miles between the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight and the middle of the Solent within the next three hours, before 1630 UTC, they'll have a good chance of getting out of there with a favourable current. They look well set-up to pull that off, whilst things could have a rather bitter taste for their pursuers." Thirty Years On and Jim Dunstan and Zeus II Are Still Winning
Zeus II began the Royal Sydney Squadron's 151st season of yacht racing with a win on corrected time in Division 3 on a showery and windy first day of spring on Sydney Harbour today. Dunstan, a past Commodore and Life Member of the Squadron, skippered Zeus II to a memorable victory in the 1981 Sydney Hobart and 23 years later came within less than five minutes of winning the race again in what was Jim's 25th Hobart Race. Jim retired Zeus II from ocean racing after the 2002 Sydney Hobart but has continued to race her in Division 3, a division made up largely of old 'half tonners' of the IOR era of ocean racing. Zeus II, designed by Peter Joubert, a professor of mechanical engineering and part-time yacht designer, has an overall length of 9.1 metres and is one of the smallest yachts ever to win the Sydney Hobart. In today's opening race of the RSYS season she finished fifth in fleet in Division 3, winning on corrected time by 15 seconds from Mystere (Malcolm Shaw and Andrew Rodger). The windy weather certainly favoured the former ocean racer, with a 20-26 knot southerly breeze that frequently gusted to 30 knots, even 37 knots mid-afternoon. A first-up winner in a strong Division 2 fleet was Zig Zag 2, Graham Thompson's J35 from the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club. Zig Zag 2 took the double of line and handicap honours, winning from Arcturus III (Peter Davenport) and Ambitious (David Matthews). RSYS general committee member Ian MacDiarmid sailed Hell Razor to victory in Division 1, winning from newcomer Duende (Damien Parkes), third place going to Sydney (Charles Curran) who also took line honours. The weather affected Division 3, with only three boats finishing as the southerly built up during the afternoon. First place went to Beowulf (Stafford White) from Daydream (Cheryn Croker) and Brother Hood (Tony Craven and Jack Rigg). Only a dozen International Etchells fronted up, with Doug McGain helming Ciao to a comfortable win from Vincero (Nick Kingsmill and Peter Gardner), third place place going to Touch Pause Engage (Michael Stovin-Bradford). The small fleet in the International Dragon class enjoyed close racing, with former Olympic sailor Carl Ryves sailing Sidewinder to victory from Indulgence (Robert Alpe) and Liquidity (Richard Franklin). Only two boats started in the International Yngling class, with Miss PIbb (Hamish Jarrett) winning from Black Adder (Gary Pearce). -- Peter Campbell Lake Como Course Record The first time to beat was set by one of the sons of Giuseppe Castelli, Alessandro (Dado), experienced sailor, Friday August 31 2012. With a northerly wind that has blown up to 30 knots, Dado, aboard his Laser, has taken 3 hours 2 minutes and 49 seconds to sail the entire distance. The wind blew almost throughout the entire route, particularly in the passage of the "Zoca de l'oli", a critical point of the lake. After an almost total stop of 20 minutes nearby Faggeto Lario, the wind restarted, allowing the arrival in Como, in front of the Villa Geno fountain. The record, the first of its kind in Italy, was inspired by the "Ruban Bleu", the sailing course record of Lake Geneva, that over the years has become one of the most coveted titles for fast sailing enthusiasts. All the details of the record and the rules to participate in the "Pino Castelli" trophy can be found on the website of the Bellano Sailing Club at www.velabellano.it Featured Brokerage The First 47.7 regatta is an exceptional design, comfortable, safe and fast cruiser than can be beat around the buoys with the best of them. She features a spacious 3 cabin layout with en-suite toilet for the bow cabin, large lounge area and kitchen. Brokerage through Coastal Leisure Ltd.: www.yachtworld.com/coastal-leisure/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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Last month's winner:
David Howlett (GBR)
Freddy Loof And Max Salminen (SWE)
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