Scuttlebutt Europe #2725 - 26 November
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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
Jean Pierre Dick Takes The Vendee Globe Lead
All of the 16 boats remaining in this edition of the Vendee Globe 2102 are now clear of the Doldrums. At the rear of the fleet, in the northern hemisphere, 225 miles from the equator, the sea gardener, Alessandro Di Benedetto (Team Plastique) has finally extricated himself from the clutches of the intertropical convergence zone. He and the only fixed keel monohull, Team Plastique are still more than a day's sail from the equator 225 miles away. Bernard Stamm (Cheminees Poujoulat) meanwhile seemed regain some speed. Perhaps it's a sign that he has come to the end of his technical problems. The same goes for Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) who this morning demonstrated significant gains in the last 24 hours of 312 miles, reducing his distance to the leader, by 125 miles. Behind the trio of Mike Golding (Gamesa), Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel) and Dominique Wavre (Mirabaud) are finally heading southeast and making good progress. Jean Le Cam is bearing down on Golding's steady pace, while Wavre seems to be dropping back slightly. Last night, Javier Sanso (EcoPowered Acciona 100%) and Tanguy de Lamotte (Initiatives-core) entered the South Atlantic gaining speed as they slip into the trade winds. Further west, after a very difficult doldrums crossing, Arnaud Boissières (Akena Verandas) and Bertrand de Broc (Autour du Monde with EDM Projects) moved into double figures speedwise as they push harder towards the south. With a wind shift to the west, Bertrand de Broc is expected to pass the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha islands, less than a hundred miles away. * Vincent Riou retires from the Vendee At 0700hrs (French) on Saturday morning, Vincent Riou (PRB) warned his shore team that he had collided with a floating object. The skipper was at his navigation station at the time was able to get on the deck immediately after the impact and see that the object that had struck PRB was a harbour buoy (a large metal buoy). Following the collision, Riou found that the hull of his boat was torn and delaminated for about one metre. The impact was on the starboard side of the boat and the torn area is three meters from the bow. Riou was not injured in the collision. Even though he thought he was going to be able to fix the hull of his boat, Vincent Riou found himself unable to find a solution regarding the shroud underneath his outrigger. It was therefore just not possible to consider sailing in the Southern Ocean and Vincent Riou's decision came this morning: He's surrendering in this 2012 Vendee Globe and retiring from the race. Vincent Riou will not complete his 2013 circumnavigation. The PRB skipper had came up with a possible way to repair the hull of his boat, the shroud underneath the outrigger was a much more serious problem. Riou started working on his hull on Satruday afernoon whil. Denis Glehen and the rest of the shore crew were brainstorming to find a solution for the French skipper. Unfortunately, they all had to resign themselves to admit it was impossible for Vincent to secure that shroud underneath the outrigger by himself with the equipment he had on board. Sailing through the Southern Ocean with a mast that could break any time was simply not reasonable. Vincent's decision came this morning: He's surrendering in this 2012 Vendee Globe, his third, and retiring from the race.
Now... Let's See What She Can Really Do!
Well the big forecast is playing out. It's 1017 here and the wind is already in. Our little corner of the Walvis Bay Yacht Club is buzzing as we prepare for the big day that we know lies ahead. This is the first big wind day we have had in over 6 weeks now. Today we focus purely on taking the outright record over 60 knots. The project has been going on a big up for some time now and we want it to continue that way. Things can easily go the other way. The day is going to pump. We used to try and use that power to punch through our glass ceilings but now we have shown that we don't need it. We are operating at around 2.4-2.5 times windspeed and a few more knots makes a big difference. The thing is that whilst we know we will have a lot more power if it's gusting up to 30... what we don't know is what the nature of our drag curve is up ahead. Is it gradual or is it another 'brick wall'. On paper we expect cavitation to happen just over 65 knots. That's on paper. How it manifests itself is yet to be seen. This boat is damned powerful and in 30 knots, sheeted in hard with around 65-70 knots of apparent wind it's going to be one hell of a tug of war between the wing and the foil. VSR2 is being optimised for a big number. The pitch of the main foil has been reduced by 0.25 degrees, fairings have been added to the front of the stub beam (which holds the foil) and the outboard flap that controls the height of the leeward float has had its negative pitch range increased to help me keep it all on the level. Later that day: Fresh off the TRIMBLE... 68.01 over 1 second, 65.45 over 500 meters. And on Sunday: On the GT-31 gps 67.74 and an average 500m 65.37! Yihaaaaaaaaaa... (Records subject to WSSRC Ratification)
Rick Tomlinson Calendar
This years pictures includes action from Key West Race Week, the Americas Cup World Series, and the Olympics, plus other action and art from the international racing circuit. Company overprinted calendars are also available.
Price £16.99 plus p&. see www.rick-tomlinson.com
GBR Youth Challenge for Youth America's Cup
GBR Youth Challenge is made up of some of the best proven young sailors from Great Britain with a variety of different sailing backgrounds. All have competed at events of the very highest level including RC44 world championships, TP52 medcup, Melges 32 circuit and F18 world championships. They have all come through the British Keelboat Academy at some point in their careers giving them not only access to top level coaching but also personal development training ashore. The sailing team is made up of, James French, Andrew Sinclair, Adam Lees, Tom Forrester-Coles, Trystan Seal and Peter Austin. * David Fuller has some observations in YachtRacing.biz: Some mystery still surrounds one of the support events for next year's America's Cup in San Francisco. The Red Bull sponsored Youth America's Cup is supposed to provide a transparent pathway into the elite world of the Cup, but like many of the visions for the 34th edition, the execution of the grand ideal doesn't quite match up to the promise. Just like the main event, the youth event is making some big claims. A statement yesterday said: "The Youth America's Cup represents the pinnacle of Youth sailing." This is a curious claim, considering that the event is brand new and the participants aren't known. There might be a few youth world champions who take issue with that interpretation of the world order, but it never stops the cup PR machine from trying... If the Youth America's Cup is to be successful, then it needs to feature some of the nations that have been part of the Cup's history as well as emerging nations to increase the event's diversity. From www.yachtracing.biz/blog/
The Great Glory of Art
Nathalie Cauvi was approached by the owner of a 76ft Bruce King and asked to paint a mural for Free Spirit. She was already painting one for sailing superyacht Bristolian when the owner approached her. The 33-year-old artist negotiated a space on board Free Spirit in exchange for a small mural and a contribution towards food costs. * A painting of Velsheda by marine artist Jamie Medlin has been sold for £127,000 at auction this week. The painting was expected to fetch £50,000 when it went under the hammer at Christies. The picture, called The Triumphant Return of the J-Class to British Waters features Velsheda and three other J-Class yachts sailing in the Solent.
Nelson's RS600 Prevails at the Draycote Dash
But then the wind started to drop quite dramatically, sometimes to below 10 knots, and it was the turn of the Scorpions and Merlin Rockets to take up the battle for the lead. Considering the drop in breeze during the course of the race, the slower handicap boats that started earlier might have been expected to benefit. Yet it was the 505 sailed by Andy Davis and Mike Senior who came through to win the double-points, non-discardable Pursuit Race. This elevated them to 7th overall, but it was a 5th place for Peter Nelson's RS600 that proved sufficient to give him overall victory in the Draycote Dash 2012, the first of six events in the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series. And so for the time being, Peter Nelson holds the lead in the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series, with the next event on 27 December, the Brass Monkey at Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club.
Results of Draycote Dash 2012
GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series
- Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club - Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th November 2012 Enter at www.sailjuiceseries.com
Seahorse January 2012
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World news
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Running The Rhumblines
These days Rupert King a proud New Zealand national has become acclimatised to living in the tropics after setting off on a cruising adventure over 7 years ago. Overdrive built to the specifications of a cruising trimaran is no lightweight sprint machine however her proud owner skipper manages to enjoy his racing in the Edges Boat Yard trophy series on the warm waters of Pioneer Bay. Skipper Rupert King and crew realised they had their backs to the wall when the ultra-light 6 knot sea breeze hardly raised a ripple on the course to present the skippers and crews with a test of patience and perseverance to sail to their respective handicap ratings. However the Haydon Turnbull skippered Why proved to be a light wind sprint machine sailing the three lap course with an unmatched average of 16.33minutes a lap to set up a strong claim on winning the line and corrected handicap double. Unfortunately the Why crew fell short of their handicap target by a narrow one second margin when the heavier and slower Overdrive clinched top handicap honours by the narrow margin on 1 second leaving the crew of Why to wonder why and where they could find another second to outpace their .972 time correction factor. Meanwhile the Overdrive crew presently hold the class 'bragging rights' while their rival crews in Why and Sirocco hold the expectation to lower their colours in the 45 race of the yearlong series this week. The Bernie Van't Hof skippered Swan 45 Tulip continued to maintain her winning edge over line honours rival the Charles Wallis skippered Reignition in the Division 2 mono-class race. However while Tulip generally outsailed her rivals on all angles her boat speed was never fast enough to outpace her high 1.147 time correction factor. They cleverly answered the challenge from all but one of their eleven rivals with the Kevin Fogarty skippered Beneteau 40 Twister completing a cleverly sailed race to record an impressive 1 minute 58 second victory over Tulip while the ever consistent John Galloway helmed Queensland Marine Services filled third another 1 minute 23 seconds astern. Both class winning crews can expect to face some tactical attention when the course is set for the 45th race on the series on hopefully a windier Pioneer Bay later this week. -- Ian Grant
GC32 Launch Day
After 11 months of hard work with a fantastic design, engineering and build team, the GC32 sailed its first miles on the warm waters of Dubai. Surrounded by super sailors F18 World Champion Thijs Visser, F18 vice World Champion Karel Begemann, F18 legend Bastian Tentij, Olympic Sailor/Coach & X40 Sailor Hugh Styles, Moth World Champion Josh McKnight, F18 Sailors Olivier Witteveen, Tim Shuwalow & Jason Waterhouse, we worked hard days and nights at the Dubai International Marina in front of the amazing landscape assembling, splicing ropes, and generally playing boats and winding the structure up to load test everything. Right from the first day sailing, the GC32 demonstrated its personality, with a very stiff platform giving amazing acceleration. We were all astonished at how quick the boat was out of the box. Many of the complex areas such as foil control systems worked perfectly well from day 1 and the boat has already demonstrated that it will be a great class racing boat that rewards tidy crew work and focused helming. She is so quick, safe with great sailing behavior remaining well on top of the water with bear aways easily accomplished. The double S foils and L Rudders give an amazing new turbo button adding more righting moment (horse power) or more lift. The whole team at Premier Composites that have been supporting us in many many ways during the entire launch. We could have not made it happen without them. Southern Spars, North Sails, Heol composites and OnDeck have all gone the extra mile as well in order to ensure the success of this exciting new class. -- Laurent Lenne
Great Britain Boat Aims to Promote Iconic Brands in Global Yacht Race
Clipper Ventures, the organiser of the Clipper Race, was selected to take part in the Great Britain campaign. The initiative known as the Global Trade Winds Partnership will promote British business in key international markets alongside the world's longest yacht race, a British success story in itself, and help to maintain the British sailing legacy built on the success of Team GB at the 2012 Olympic Games. Clipper Race chairman, the legendary yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who became the first person to sail solo, non-stop, around the world in 1968-9, launched the biennial race for amateur sailors 17 years ago. The unique global event has also grown into a successful platform to promote trade and tourism along the way. It is the world's longest race at 40,000 miles and visits 15 destinations on six continents. The project aims to attract ten lead partners, each contributing £150,000, to sponsor a GREAT Britain branded yacht over the next two years and participate in a global promotion campaign that will link up with UK trade and tourism global marketing initiatives. The ninth edition of the Clipper Race will start from the UK next Summer and take a year to complete with more than 600 crew participating over the eight leg series in a new matched fleet of twelve 70 foot ocean racing yachts.
Jorgen Svendsen Tops OK Dinghy World Rankings
This last release for 2012 includes the Danish pre-worlds regatta, the world championship in Vallensbaek, Denmark and national championships from Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden, France and Poland. The Belgian Nationals should have been included as well but there was no wind. Six former world or European champions occupy the slots immediately below Svendsen while current world champion Andre Budzien (GER) rises to 19th, though has only sailed four ranking regattas so far after only joining the class earlier in 2012. The next list will be published in February 2013 after the New Zealand and Australian Nationals and just before the next class world championship, due to be held in Pattaya in Thailand in April 2013. -- Robert Deaves Top 10 (of 429 sailors)
1. Jorgen Svendsen, DEN, 1016.88 points
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