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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 ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. Competitors in the Paralympic classes will have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race. Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, February 2. The 311 sailors representing 37 countries were greeted with spectacular, yet challenging conditions for the first of six days of racing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami. Sailors from five racecourses on Biscayne Bay welcomed sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-70s and moderate to strong winds. Making their second appearance on the ISAF World Cup series is the 49er FX event. The Nacra 17, a mixed multihull event, made their official ISAF Sailing World Cup debut this afternoon with seven competitive teams looking to make their mark on the new Olympic class. Results after first day: mocr.ussailing.org/index.php/results/ Focused On The Finish Line "At the beginning the Organisation were talking about 77 days and I thought that was ridiculous. How wrong I was. To finish in third place would be absolutely awesome, especially in the boat that I have got and that is what I aiming for. It's highly unlikely that I'll finish after 83 days but if I do it means I have a serious problem. I just want to get the boat to the finish. I am going to nurse her to the finish and look forward to my cheeseburger at the end." The last days of Thomson's race don't look like they are going to be easy. He will face heavy weather in the busy shipping lanes of the Bay of Biscay. There is no rest for the British skipper, as he will have to keep his wits about him as he negotiates the extreme weather conditions, manages the [boat] and avoids collision. He'll be nursing the boat as the pressure mounts for a British podium place in this seventh edition of the Vendee Globe. Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec 3) sails at the latitude of Lisbon continuing his journey without a keel to the Portuguese coast. He will make a decision within about 2 days, whether it is safe for him to continue to Les Sables d'Olonne. Today, on the Vendee Globe LIVE he admitted that 40 knots of wind in the Bay of Biscay would not be safe for him. Pragmatically, he surmised that although completing the course was important for both him and the team it was not worth risking his life. Rankings as of Monday 28 January 2013, 20:00 (FR) 1. MACIF, François Gabart, Arrival : Sunday 27 January 2013, 14:18:40 TU Auckland Returns To The Volvo Ocean Race... Twice
Auckland, a world renowned sailing capital, returned to the race route for the first time in 10 years in 2011-12 and staged a spectacular stopover at Auckland Viaduct, with spectators packing the Race Village and the Waitemata Harbour. Widely reported results from Google showed Volvo Ocean Race was the second most searched term in New Zealand in 2012, demonstrating just how the event caught the imagination of the people. Once again, the 2014-15 route will see Auckland play host to the start of the main Southern Ocean leg, sending the teams on their way around Cape Horn and on to the leg finish in Itajaí in Brazil. The dates of the stopover will be revealed next month. This will be the ninth time the race has stopped at Auckland, which is known as the City of Sails for its affinity with the sea. Auckland is the fourth Host Port for 2014-15 announced so far, following the start point of Alicante and the two Brazilian ports of Recife and Itajaí. The rest of the route for 2014-15 will be revealed over the coming weeks. Charter An Open 70 We can tailor a package to meet your needs. Bring your friends and spend time with us team building with your colleagues, or take your clients out on an experience of a lifetime in a Volvo Open 70. We can offer charters from the Solent, Europe or in the winter the Caribbean. We have vast experience of Inshore and Offshore sailing. If you'd like to join us for a particular event, check out our race events for more information. Our boat charters are individual, and packaged to your specifications. Alternatively, if you are unable to get a full crew together, we can offer some individual crewing opportunities at many of the Race Events on our sailing calendar. Our Volvo 70 is commercially coded and fully certified for the waters it sails. The Volvo 70 will accommodate up to 12 guests inshore and 8-10 guests offshore. See our Race Events and more information on our new website: www.volvo70charter.co.uk The Shackleton Epic In the past 24 hours the Alexandra Shackleton has covered 55 nautical miles and since departing Elephant Island four days ago, has covered a total of 284 nautical miles. Winds are currently out of the northwest at 15 knots with a 0.5metre swell and the air temperature is 0 degrees C (positively balmy!). In the next 24 hours Ben Wallis, skipper of support vessel Australis expects the wind to swing around and come directly out of the north - which will slow down the Alexandra Shackleton. At the time of writing, the AS was recording an average speed of 1.99 knots Tim, Nick, Paul and Baz have been up on deck drying out their clothes, sleeping bags and themselves while Seb and Ed have been grabbing some much needed undisturbed sleep down below. Tim's planned Australia Day celebrations didn't quite work out due to the extreme weather. "Well... it wasn't much of an Australia Day! As we were swapping duties on the watch in the middle of the night I extended my arm to Paul, shook his hand and said 'Happy Australia Day mate'. That was our official celebration - the best we could do under the circumstances," Tim said. Latest expedition blog: shackletonepic.com/here-comes-the-sun/ * Editor: The "Paul" referenced above is none other than Paul Larsen of Vestas Sailrocket 2: The 'Alexandra Shackleton' sits at the other end of the speed sailing spectrum. She is just under 23 feet long and weighs 3 tons. 1 ton boat, 1 ton ballast, 1 ton humans and accessories. The rigs are tiny and everything on the boat is either 100 years old or designed and built with the same style and materials as the boat which she so closely mimmicks. We are trying to re-create the voyage of the "James Caird" which Shackleton and five other men sailed from Elephant Island (120 miles as the crow flies from where I am now) to Sth Georgia. We will be eating the food, wearing the clothes and using the same equipment to navigate with. I'll be sharing the sailing side of things with Nick Bubb and also the celestial navigation. We really want to do this the old school way and want no input from outside sources. We will be shadowed by a support vessel for a number of reasons but only want the bare minimum of contact from them. Well, she aint no speed weapon... but she may well deliver another 6 men safely across 800 open miles of Southern Ocean. It remains to be seen if we can truly follow in the footsteps of Shackleton and his men. Weather is a huge, random variable down here. we have a good team, a great little boat and a pretty thorough plan. Why am I doing this? The offer was made about 18 months ago but I turned it down. the main reason was that Sailrocvket was just taking up too much of my time and I couldn't commit the required effort to make this one work. When Nick stepped into the skippers role I knew that there would be a solid guy there to pay attention to the details. I was speaking to him a month or so before I last departed for Namibia to see how he was getting on. He was still looking for a 'number 2' and we discussed options. I asked him about the timing of this project and then commented that we should have finished our session with VSR2 by then. Nick quickly fired back that I should do it. Third Time for Jeanne Socrates It was a cold start for her bid to be the oldest woman (and one of only few people) to complete this monumental sailing achievement. -- Michael Robertson in The Cruising Blogs, www.cruisingworld.com/blogs/ Jeanne: "Please show your support for my sailing in aid of my chosen charity by visiting www.justgiving.com/jeannesocrates to make a secure donation to Marie Curie Cancer Care in aid of their free home-nursing for the terminally ill - even the smallest of donations will be welcome! Thank you!" ExactEarth is proud to provide support through regularly updated postings of Jeanne's current location. Through the use of exactAIS, we can pick up Jeanne as she travels across the world in the Class B yacht, "Nereida". Track her progress here: www.exactearth.com/media-centre/ Jeanne's blog: synereida.livejournal.com Her website: www.svnereida.com Loick Peyron Wins Seamaster Award Now Loick Peyron has been honored for his biggest feat to date - his triumph in the Jules Verne Trophy last year, sailing the maxi-trimaran Banque Populaire V. At the recent Dusseldorf Boat Show Flagship Night, sponsored by German publishers Delius Klasing, he was the first to receive the new Seamaster Award. Never did any sailor get around the world faster than this legendary French skipper. On January 6, 2012, the 53-year old set a new record of 45 days, 13 hours for a nonstop circumnavigation. It's a performance that up to that point had seemed unimaginable, and might endure for a while. Excerpt from an article originally in YACHT magazine: www.yacht.de Translated by Dieter Loibner in boats.com: blog.boats.com/2013/01/loick-peyron-wins-seamaster-award/ Two Great Champions Join The Hydros Team
In 2011, the two Dutchmen were ranked second in the Formula 18 World Catamaran Championships and fourth a year ago. Mischa Heemskerk also won the A-Class World Championships in 2012. Having started to sail in multihulls at the age of four, Heemskerk was 12 when he won his first European championship title. Heemskerk will be the helm of his catamaran while fellow crew member Bastiaan Tentij will be responsible for adjusting the wing mast. Both men are also engineers and passionate about the advanced technological development of their vessels; a crucial advantage in an extremely high-tech project like Hydros. The first crew of the Hydros team comprises Jeremie Lagarrigue and Billy Beson. A multiple medal winner at French, European and World Formula 18 Championships, Lagarrigue has already competed in the latest World C-Class championships on board Patient Lady VI, while helmsman Besson is one of the world's leading experts in sports multihulls. The two crews are now training intensively on board two Nacra F 20 catamarans, one of which (provided by H2O Sensations) has been equipped with experimental foils designed by Stephane Dyen and the Hydros Design Team, and built by Yvan Ravussin. The lessons learned during these next few weeks of sailing will then be transferred to the team's C-Class catamarans, and in early March, the first one, which is currently under construction in the Decision SA boatyard, will be launched. The two Hydros C-Class catamarans will represent Switzerland in the C-Class World Championships in September 2013. -- Bernard Schopfer Dun Laoghaire Makes Case Abroad For Diaspora Centre The meeting was hosted by Baroness Detta O'Cathain, a member of the leadership council of the Irish International Diaspora Trust which is working to create a diaspora centre at Dún Laoghaire Harbour. In an opinion piece published in The Irish Times a few weeks ago, Baroness O'Cathain wrote that "by supporting the creation of a disapora centre... we will be paying tribute to our ancestors." The proposed Irish International Diaspora Centre forms part of the Masterplan for Dun Laoghaire Harbour, which will involve an investment of more than €230 million over the next 10-15 years. The €50 million diaspora visitor centre envisaged for Carlisle Pier would celebrate the "origins, diversity and influence of the Irish at home and abroad" at a place where thousands of Irish people left for new lives in Britain and beyond in decades past. Afloat magazine: afloat.ie Loro Piana Caribbean Superyacht Regatta & Rendezvous
In a new development for 2013 and following consultation with superyacht owners, participating boats will also be able to take part in the Loro Piana Superyacht Trophy, a race which departs Virgin Gorda on 25th March headed for nearby St. Barths and the St. Barths Bucket regatta. Loro Piana has a longstanding relationship with the organizers and the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta (4-8 June, 2013) has been held annually at the YCCS in Porto Cervo, Sardinia since 2009. The Wally 101 Indio, overall winner of the 2012 edition of the event, will be taking part, as will the 42-metre Hanuman, winner of the 2011 Caribbean Superyacht Regatta and Rendezvous. The Royal Huisman built Hanuman, a modern recreation of the Super J Class yacht Endeavour II, will be competing alongside the 1934 J Class Endeavour in scenes reminiscent of the 1930s golden era of America's Cup racing. At the cutting edge of nautical engineering meanwhile, the fleet will comprise three yachts from the Perini Navi shipyard known for pioneering innovative technology that allows immense yachts to be sailed by a compact crew: the 56-metre Panthalassa, the 53-metre Parsifal III and the 38-metre P2 have all registered. Other competitors to watch will be the 2012 launches Sarafin and Freya - the former being the first Oyster 100 superyacht launched by the UK yard and the latter being a Swan 90S and the 2000th Nautor's Swan yacht to take to the seas - as well as Cape Arrow, one of the latest Southern Wind 100 built by the South African boatyard specializing in performance blue water maxi yachts and chartered for the occasion by Pier Luigi Loro Piana. www.loropianasuperyachtregattaandrendezvous.com Featured Brokerage Based on the Relfex 38, 6 years on the design was transformed into the Pronavia 38. The interior has been replaced by a fully fitted interior, built to the highest Swedish standards by skilled craftsmen. The living space provides excellent accomadation which is generous in volume and stowage. The Pronavia 38 is aimed at the sailor who wants to fast cruise or race competitively whilst not forgoing the comfort associated with cruising yachts. Brokerage through Ancasta International Boat Sales: www.yachtworld.com/ancasta/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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