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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 Hagara, Steinacher Enter Ac World Series Naples The duo will sail under the banner HS Racing, and race under the US flag in partnership with ORACLE TEAM USA. HS Racing's crew will also include trimmer Herve Cunningham of France, bowman Graeme Spence of Australia and floater David Swete of New Zealand. Hagara and Steinacher were Gold medalists at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics. They are also the sports directors for the Red Bull Youth America's Cup, scheduled Sept. 1-4 in San Francisco. A total of nine crews are slated to compete at AC World Series Naples, including ORACLE TEAM USA, Artemis Racing (Sweden), China Team, Emirates Team New Zealand, Energy Team (France), J.P. Morgan BAR (Great Britain) and Luna Rossa Challenge (Italy). Challenging Start For Brooks Macdonald Warsash Spring Series
Nonetheless, most of the day's programme of racing was completed with time for everyone to relax and warm up at Warsash Sailing Club's Shore House afterwards for results, day prizes and free beer for competitors. The Black Group committee boat, running three classes for IRC handicap, J/109 and Sigma 38 boats, anchored near Universal Marina buoy. In IRC1 Tokoloshe took a win by over three minutes on handicap from Loco and Blue Vortex. Another clear winner emerged in IRC2 when Mitchellson Interceptor beat Puma Logic but Mike Moxley's much lower rated HOD35 Malice was only 12 seconds adrift in third place. This year several J-Sprit designs are included in IRC3 and the course clearly suited them. The J/97 Jiggery Pokery helmed by Paul Heys took line and handicap honours followed by two more bowsprit boats: Indulgence (J/97) and J'Ronimo (J/92). IRC4 enjoyed a separate start line under Jon Spencer, starting near hamblewinterseries.com buoy. The class ranged from quarter tonners and Sigma 33s, to a Projection 762, Mustang 30 and Hunter Sonata On Peter Knight's White Group sportsboat line close inshore conditions were similarly fickle with the wind varying from 0 to 15 knots, sleet and very occasional sunshine The J/80 and new J/70 classes got underway but the wind was beginning to die so the SB20s were postponed. Eventually the fleet got away on a three lap windward course and finished close to the hour target time. As the wind died away again, the second race was shortened to a single lap. The light and variable conditions did have the benefit of encouraging no one to be over the line. The J/80 fleet looked close on the water with the bulk rounding marks together. Jon Powell in Betty came to the fore. In both races Ian Atkins (Boats.com) dominated the newly introduced J/70 fleet. 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The start gun was fired at 1300 by François Cuillandre, Mayor of Brest, Karine Roy-Camille, President of Martinique Tourist Board, and Pierre Karleskind, Vice-President of the Bretagne regional council and Didier Le Gac of the Finistère general council. On the line, Fabien Delahaye on Skipper Macif 2012 was over early and was called back while Yoann Richomme and DLBC-Module Création, made the best start, closely followed by Fred Duthil on Sepalumic. The boats headed upwind to the Pennou Pell buoy where some hoisted kites, while others erred on caution and decided not to as they passed the harbour and the Castle. The boats now have around 20 days of racing ahead of them, but first they must survive the Bay of Biscay where 35 knot winds, gusting to 50 are forecast. -- James Boyd in TheDailySail.com, www.thedailysail.com/offshore/ Top five Event: www.transat-bretagnemartinique.com Solo Sailor Laura Dekker Denies Support To The Documentary About Her Maidentrip, the much anticipated documentary on her life and circumnavigation by young documentary film director Jillian Schlesinger, was premiered at the festival and is due to show round the world at selected cinemas. While much of the documentary consists of shots that Laura took herself on a 'Handycam' during her voyage, she stated that she does not 'fully stand behind' the production, and 'won't say much about it'. Recently documentary director Jillian Schlesinger said she approached Dekker in 2009 with the idea of making a documentary about the trip and wanted the project to feel 'organic and unscripted'. 'I wanted to let her tell her own story, and give her a voice. 'I was really interested in finding out why, as a 14-year-old, she wanted to do this. She had no interest in being famous. She really just loves to sail.' ...and this is what Laura Dekker, born on her parents' sailing boat in New Zealand and having sailed half the world back to the Netherlands before she was six, has been saying since she first spoke of her dream of sailing around the world completely by herself. It's just that no-one believed her. -- Nancy Knudsen Sail-world.com Cruising: The Journey Begins To date there are 76 registered entries for Palma and the main interest will be focussed around the new, young faces pitting their skills against the more experienced hands. Initially entries for Palma were capped at 60, but following the usual large response it wasn't long before they were put back up to 80 to accommodate all the sailors who wanted to attend. Only 10 of the sailors from London2012 are competing in Palma including bronze medalist Jonathan Lobert and fourth placed Pieter-Jan Postma (NED). The high turnover of sailors is indicative of the number of juniors and new sailors the fleet is attracting. An encouraging four South American countries are represented including the welcome return of 2008 Finn Olympian Johnny Bilbao (VEN). Interest in Finn sailing in South America is expected to increase dramatically as 2016 approaches. The usual strong British team includes the return, albeit briefly, of 2011 World Champion Giles Scott (GBR). While there is only a single entrant from USA, the winner of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Miami, Caleb Paine (USA), the largest team in Palma is from Russia, with an incredible 14 sailors entered, including the winner of the 84 boat fleet Semaine International de Cannes in February, Eduard Skornyakov (RUS). -- Robert Deaves Full article on the Finn class site: Farr 40 Owners Host 45 Young Sailors In Twilight Race
The Farr 40 owners variously race out of the Bellerive Yacht Club, Derwent Sailing Squadron and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, but they see the potential for future crew among the many talented young dinghy sailors at Sandy Bay Sailing Club. In a fine gesture towards youth sailing and the potential of young Tasmanian sailors, all five Farr 40s owners added a 'mini-crew' to their normal crew for the RYCT/DSS Twilights on Thurday evening. In total, 45 young sailors joined the adult crews aboard the Farr 40s. "They are the potential crews for, and perhaps ultimately, the skippers of Hobart's top racing yachts and, we hope, specifically, the Farr 40s," Tasmanian Farr 40 Owners Association president Wayne Banks-Smith said after taking a 'mini-crew' aboard War Games. War Games was joined by the other Farr 40s that race on the River Derwent, Craig Clifford's POW, Hughie Lewis' Tilford Auto Group, Lloyd Clark and Andrew Hunn's Voodoo Chile and Stephen Boyes' Wired. "Not only is this a reward for their own performances over the past season, but it gives them a wonderful experience in sailing on a big, high performance racing yacht," Banks-Smith added. The Farr 40 class is expecting a boost in interest next season with further interstate regattas being planned for Hobart following the inaugural Tasmanian championship last January and the fine performances of Voodoo Chile at the recent NSW and Australian championships in Sydney. -- Peter Campbell Slovenian Open Match Racing Championship Perfect sailing conditions with the sea breeze from 6 to 12 knots welcomed eight teams on the opening day of racing in Izola, Slovenia. The last semi-final spot was decided in the last flight of the round robin with Hrvoje Petrovic (CRO) winning against Gorazd Rajar (SLO) to join Dejan Presen (SLO), Lorenz Mueller (SUI) and Bojan Rajar (SLO) in the knock-out stage. Strong shifty southerly winds provided challenging conditions for the four remaining skippers on the last day of racing. Both semi-finals finished 2-0 with Lorenz Mueller dominating Bojan Rajar and Dejan Presen beating Hrvoje Petrovic leaving the two to race for the third place with Bojan Rajar winning 2-1. In the final Presen took the win in the first race with Mueller taking the second after a bad spinnaker drop at the leeward mark from Presen gave him the win. The next two races were dominated by Presen who led from start to finish with perfect sailing leaving the Swiss sailor with no chance to come back. Final results 1. Dejan Presen, SLO Tracking replays of the matches: www.lumbasail.si/smrt/?p=10 ISAF: www.sailing.org/news/34095.php Dorset Boat Jumble Cancelled Due To Irish Travellers Occupying The Site The annual event, which regularly attracts 100 exhibitors and around 1,500 visitors, was due to take place next Saturday 23 March. Six Irish traveller families moved onto the site's perimeter on Saturday 16 March and although the private land owners have commenced legal proceedings to evict them, it could take between seven and 14 days. Show spokesman Chris Chaddock, of the UK Boat Jumbles Association, said regrettably it is not possible for the show to go ahead. 'The land is owned by Woodland Manor Estates Ltd, who couldn't serve the eviction notice until Monday and the travellers have got seven to 14 days to move out. 'The fear is if we have the show they will move onto the arena site and the landowner will have to start the proceedings again.' 'The cancellation is a big disappointment, Poole has one of the biggest natural harbours in the world, there are a lot of boats in the county and generally we have a good turnout - it's well supported by the West Country and Dorset people. 'It's a great disappointment but it was not practical with a week's notice to try and move it to another venue.' Visit the UK Boat Jumbles Association website at www.boatjumbles.org.uk Limerick Capture College Sailing Championship Traditionally, St Patrick's Day is when the keener Irish sailors take the winter covers off their boat. But the university year dictates that all college racing is done in the off season, and most of the 26 teams which descended on Tralee with snow and northerly gales forecast had already put in several team racing events in 2013. They were rewarded by Tralee Bay having some of the best weather going in all Ireland for the long weekend. A New Foundation for UK Match Racing The RYA Winter Match Racing Series began in December 2012 and is set to run until April 2013. The programme involving former Olympic class Elliot 6m boats combines part-training, part-competition with RYA coaches and a full umpire team on hand at each event. To date, the first three weekends have seen a range of weather conditions testing the sailors. Eight teams participate each weekend with the highest placed skipper of each qualifier event earning their place to attend the RYA Winter Match Racing Final weekend on 20-21 April 2013. The idea of the series is to provide a transition from dinghy sailing into keelboat sailing and then potentially onto the British Keelboat Academy. Ultimately, a new foundation for Match Racing is being developed with experts following the racing and giving top tips at key moments, followed by intensive debriefs lead by the umpires and an emphasis on constructive collaboration between teams. The penultimate weekend is due to see University teams' return who have competed previously on 23-24 March 2013. The final weekend of the RYA Winter Match Racing Series will conclude on 20-21 April 2013. From Pracitcal Boat Owner RYA match racing: Featured Brokerage The fastest Swan 70 built to date, "Bugia Bianca" has been lightly used since new. Always professionally maintained, she has a high modulus carbon mast, a flat racing boom and a Park Avenue boom for cruising. New Hall SCR standing rigging fitted in 2010. B&G Hercules racing electronics, Harken winches, Condaria air-conditioning, Westerbeke 12 kW generator, Selma water maker, Gori 3-blade propeller, North- Sails 3DL sails for racing, Spectra for cruising. Brokerage through Nautor's Swan Italy & Monaco: www.yachtworld.com/swan-italy/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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