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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 Ian Williams Wins Match Race France The overall Tour leader, Bjorn Hansen added no points to his score at Match Race France, after finishing ninth, while Williams scored 25 points for his win. It means that Williams now takes a nine point lead into the final two events of the year, the Gold Cup in Bermuda next week, and then the season finale, the Monsoon Cup in early December in Malaysia. Final results Petit Final Alpari World Match Racing Tour Standings - After 6 Stages: Old And New Faces At Argo Group Gold Cup This year's Argo Group Gold Cup features 20 teams - with familiar names like former King Edward VII Gold Cup Champion's Johnie Berntsson of Sweden (ISAF ranking no. 6) and Ian Williams of the UK (ISAF ranking no. 1 and Tour no. 1) heading the field along with ISAF and Tour no. 2 ranked Bjorn Hansen. Will Tiller (NZL) is coming on strong from his second place in Match Race France and may indeed be a spoiler for the Tour leaders. Yet, the Argo Group Gold Cup - which is the penultimate event on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour - has also always been about opportunity for challenging the field and raising the bar. For those teams who receive an invitation to sail here, this event is a platform for competitors to launch or re-launch their match racing careers. For Kiwi Adam Minoprio, who has returned after competing in and finishing second in the round the world Volvo ocean race earlier this summer, getting back to match racing is something he is really looking forward to. Minoprio was World Match Racing Tour champion in 2010, and has finished the Gold Cup in second place in 2008 and 2009 and reached the Quarter Finals in 2010. Minoprio is now ranked 552 by ISAF (formerly ranked no. 1) but as a professional sailor with classic match racing training and execution, his will be one of the teams to watch. -- Laurie Fullerton / RBYC Samba Pa Ti Crowned 2012 Melges 32 World Champion Kilroy was joined onboard by tactician Paul Goodison and crew Federico Michetti, Harry Melges III, Luca Faravelli, Martino Tortarolo, Justin Smart and Marco Carpinello. Proudly seated second overall is Alec Cutler on Hedgehog with tactician Richard Clarke and in third, is a deserving Steve Howe on Warpath with Morgan Larson on tactics. Top Ten Results (Final) Full results: www.yachtscoring.com From Under a Cloud to Under Increasing Pressure
With less than 150 miles of the final leg from Marseille to complete to the finish line off Genoa, Italy and the promise of only very light winds at the end, the MOD70 European Tour finale looks set to deliver one final cliffhanger. The four hour period of unpredictable rain squalls brought big differences in wind direction and forced a small north-south split to develop. Strategies in dealing with the squally showers seem to have FONCIA and Race for Water staying close to the direct course and Musandam-Oman Sail, Spindrift racing and Groupe Edmond de Rothschild about 10 miles further to the north. Short reports from the fleet this afternoon confirm that the five MOD70's were virtually side by side when the squally period hit. Boats on the same area of water had radically different conditions, one sailing on one hull in a big gust but another, close by, more or less becalmed. Both Sidney Gavignet, skipper of Musandam-Oman Sail, and Leo Lucet of Spindrift racing reported independently that Groupe Edmond de Rothschild had blown out their gennaker. After this unexpected hurdle - the wide band of unpredictable squalls and rain - the final section of Leg 5 which makes north from La Giraglia off the north of Corsica into the Gulf of Genoa, looks more promising. But forecasters are still anticipating a slow finish in light breezes. Latest ETA is for Tuesday breakfast time. Leg 5 Standings at 1430hrs (UTC+2hrs) Transpacific Record Put On Hold Till Spring for L'Hydroptere DCNS They hung on in there till the last minute but finally Alain Thebault and his crew, currently in San Francisco, have taken the decision not to set off on the Transpacific record attempt this year. The ideal period for such a departure covers June, July and August. Extended by several weeks in the hope of one last opportunity, the weather stand-by has now been put on hold. Any opportunities that presented themselves during that period, wouldn't have enabled an improvement on the time set by Geronimo, Olivier de Kersauson's giant trimaran, as they presented themselves too early on in the season. Indeed there were two windows at the start of July, whilst the trimaran was in the process of being unloaded in Los Angeles, and another, which proved to be the last, two weeks later, when the boat was carrying out its very first sea trials in California. Battle Of Britain Regatta
Saturday's two races could not have been sailed in better conditions. The 8 - 10 kt NW'erly breeze blowing down Southampton Water allowed the Race Officer to set a good windward / leeward course in the morning without too much influence from the tidal flow. The forecast for Sunday was not promising with SW'erly Force 7 and rain on the cards for the afternoon. The start time of the first race was brought forward to 11:00 but at 10:25 it looked as if the caution had been premature. The light SW'erly breeze was barely enough for a fair windward / leeward course to be set across the flooding tide. However, 20 minutes later the breeze was up to 8 kts and continued to build during the morning until it was over 20kts on the final beat of the 2nd race. -- Eddie Mays Overall Results: Top 5 Battle of Britain Regatta - Richard Donald Trophy 1. Dux, Elliot Motherwell Running The Rhumblines Esoteric claimed a critical advantage to sail most of the course in clear wind to save her corrected handicap time from a spirited challenge by the persistent Colin Pruden at the helm of Sandpiper and veteran skipper Harold Menelaus in Treasure V111. This was a rare sprint race appearance by the Esoteric crew however while they pose as no serious threat overall they proved to be the star performers to cap a special performance with a 47 second victory while Sandpiper held a 50 second corrected time advantage to finish second ahead of the well sailed Treasure V111. Bernie Van'T Hof again managed to ward off another challenge to claim the line honours with the Swan 45 Tulip. However while the 2012 Telcoinabox Airlie Beach Race Week IRC class cruising champion won the tactical arm wrestle over arch rival Charles Wallace in Reignition with a 1 minute 11 second margin her course time failed to match that of the lower handicapped Esoteric, Sandpiper and Treasure V111. The battle to resolve the Division 3 class honours was similarly exciting featuring a spirited tactical duel between the Rod Davis helmed Breakaway and Brian Fleming's Concubine before Breakaway held on to record a 3 second win. This tack for tack duel which forced the Breakaway crew to persistently protect their sailing space moulded what proved to be an equally interesting race for overall handicap. While Breakaway secured the first to finish award her course time fell short by 42 seconds to claim the line and handicap double when Dan White successfully spoiled the victory celebrations for the Breakaway crew when he steered the lower handicapped Riff Raff to a comfortable corrected handicap win while Breakaway and Anthea (Dewi Hughes) filled the minor places. However while Club Commodore Rob Davis expects to become the tactical target Breakaway remains well poised to retain her commanding lead for their class championship while Craig Piccinelli and his Wobbly Boot crew who struggled to finish 6th last week need to reproduce a more consistent result to protect the overall lead in the Division 2 class series. -- Ian Grant Miami Launches Winter Star Series Hundreds of Star sailors are already familiar with Miami's waters, with March's Bacardi Cup having long been a regular fixture on the fleet's annual migratory path. The Star Winter Series aims to make racing in Miami as economical as it is spectacular, providing top-level racing each month from November to March. The Star Winter Series comprises five individual events between November 17th and February 10th, with overall trophies awarded based on the results of three of the four best weekend scores plus the Midwinter Championship, which is weighted double. Full logistics and charter packages are available, along with concierge service customizable to any team's needs. For more information, see www.starwinter.com America's Cup World Series On You Tube - Live The America's Cup World Series will be broadcast on YouTube.com on October 4-6, 2012. Thursday, October 4: 4:30pm - 6:30pm (Pacific Time) (7:30pm-9:30pm Eastern Time) Friday, October 5: 4:00pm - 6:00pm (Pacific Time) (7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern Time) Saturday, October 6: 4:00pm - 6:00pm (Pacific Time) (7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern Time) Medot Sailing Trophy - In Record Time from Trieste to Valletta Esimit Europa 2, one of the world's fastest yachts, will set it sails, aiming to establish the benchmark for the approximately 600 nautical miles long passage between Trieste (Italy) and Valletta (Malta) - open to all classes and recognized by the World Sailing Speed Record Council. For initiator Igor Simcic, that's the new challenge after the record breaking season and a new big test for the crew: "Esimit Europa 2 is, like many other boats, taking part at the Barcolana and gets on it's way to Valletta immediately after the finish to compete at the Rolex Middle Sea Race. With the initiation of this world sailing record, we want to inspire other yachts to take part in connecting the two regattas." For monohulls breaking the passage record from Trieste to Valletta, a very special trophy has been created. The Medot Sailing Trophy, named by the sparkling wine produced by Igor Simcic's family. Letters To The Editor - * From George Morris: I am well aware that I contribute absolutely nothing to the WMRT, but they do stream some of the races and presumably they would like people to watch them. Why do they make it so difficult? The final was one of the most photogenic yacht races I have ever seen - as good as the final of the Women's Match Racing in the Olympics - with two lead changes, heavy weather, and a near man-overboard incident, but all that is available on the website is edited highlights (which missed one of the overtakes). Paradoxically, full coverage is available for some of the semi final races and some of the earlier rounds. I could have watched it live, but I was out sailing. So to the organisers of the video coverage I would say - not everyone who is watching this event is in the same time zone. Make it easy and give us full replays of all the races. Interviews with the crews have their place but they are not 'sailing', Featured Brokerage GRP sailing yacht Victoire 42 Classic "Westgat", building number 002, built under CE-A class, built in 2000, dim: 12,70 (10,00 lwl) x 3,64 x 1,70 m, designed by Dick Koopmans, built by Victoire Jachtbouw in Alkmaar Holland, Brokerage through De Valk Yacht Brokers: www.yachtworld.com/devalkyb/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com The Last Word |
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