Scuttlebutt Europe #2804 - 29 March
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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
J Boat Magic At The Bucket
The first two legs were all about Ranger fending off Hanuman, but then Lionheart made an ambitious play to overtake Hanuman and then eventually Ranger to lead by the gate at the bottom of the second downwind leg. What happened after that could only be described as Hanuman and its well-oiled team pulling a rabbit out of their hat. "We got a break we needed at the right time," said Ken Read, the world champion and Volvo Ocean Race veteran who helmed Hanuman. "We were trying to go left all day, and we finally got the lane we wanted." Lionheart, Hanuman and Ranger had seemingly sailed into a hole after going left at the gate, and when Lionheart and Ranger tacked to go right (joining the side already chosen by Rainbow and Velsheda), Hanuman continued left...and left...and left...until it found the port rhumb line to the last windward mark. They would round it a full 15 boat lengths ahead of Lionheart, with Rainbow trailing 12 lengths behind that and Ranger and Velsheda pulling up the rear. The order would carry on to the finish where Hanuman's official finish time topped Lionheart's by almost three minutes. The normally pristine waters were churned by an abundance of spectator boats, and it is expected to be an even more chaotically beautiful sight tomorrow when the J Boats are joined by an additional 31 superyachts that have signed up for this edition of the famous Bucket Regatta. Lionheart, unlike the other J Boats here, is not an original or replica of any boat from a previous age of sail. It was built from one of three rejected designs proposed for Ranger. The Ranger DNA, however, is evident in the knuckle bow. The Ranger here, which won the Bucket overall in 2010, is a copy of the original Ranger that was built for Harold Vanderbilt and raced 34 times in her life, winning 32 of those races. It was broken up during the second World War to use as metal for the war effort. Rainbow was built last year and is a copy of the original 1934 Rainbow built for Vanderbilt to defeat Endeavour. The new Rainbow is the only J Boat with a hybrid propulsion system, using a lithium ion battery and two generators. Velsheda, the only original J Boat here, was built in 1933 for W.L. Stephenson, owner of the Woolworth chain of shops. It was relaunched after a rebuild in 1997. The aluminum-hulled Hanuman, built in 2009, is a replica of the steel-hulled Endeavour II, which was built in 1937 to battle the J Boats in the America's Cup Race that year. She was beaten by Ranger and scrapped in 1968.
www.bucketregattas.com/stbarths/
The Road To Marstrand
GKSS Spring Cup has served as a qualifying event for Stena Match Cup Sweden for several years and the competition has always been fierce between the sailors aspiring to get to Marstrand. For Swedish sailors, the stakes are even higher in this year's event as both the best Swedish team and the best international team will get a ticket to Stena Match Cup Sweden. Registration for Spring Cup opened in early February and one team that has already applied for an invitation is Viktor Ogeman's Team Accure. They received a wildcard to Stena Match Cup Sweden 2012 after placing forth at last year's Spring Cup. The GKSS Spring Cup can lead to a breakthrough for match racing teams on the world stage. Last year's winner of the GKSS Spring Cup, Reuben Corbett from New Zealand, had an impressive run at Marstrand in 2012 and reached the quarterfinals. He will be back with his team in Gothenburg for Spring Cup this year and the aim is set on Marstrand once again. GKSS Spring Cup is run by The Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club and is sailed in Gothenburg on the 25th-‐ 26th of May. 10 teams will be invited and the registration for an invitation will be open until April 30th. GKSS Spring Cup is an ISAF Grade 3 event and the regatta will be sailed in DS 37 type boats, crewed by five (or if only women crewed by six). Besides the eight Tour Card Holders of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour and the two teams qualifying in the Spring Cup, two teams will also be given wildcards to enter the Open Class of Stena Match Cup Sweden 2013.
The Future Of Sailing
The sci-fi inspired mission, Sunjammer, is named after Arthur C. Clarke's 1964 tale of sun-yacht races through the solar system and will carry the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry to the mission's destination, a gravitationally balanced orbit between the Earth and Sun. Sunjammer's sail is a third of an acre, about 124 feet to a side, and seven times the size of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Planetary Society's solar sail IKAROS, the biggest sail successfully launched to date. After deployment, the solar sail's reflective surface will harvest momentum from sunlight - not unlike an ocean-going ship, only using photons instead of air. The sail's pulling power is proportional to its collecting surface area and drops off by the inverse square of its distance from the sun. To maximize the thrust-to-weight ratio, NASA and L'Garde fabricated a five micron thick (about the thickness of a red blood cell), 70 pound sail from DuPont's thin film, Kapton. Stowed for launch, the sail fits in a space the size of a dishwasher. However, even though the sail is ultra-thin and light, its pushing power won't be much to sniff at. NASA expects Sunjammer to yield no more than 0.01 newtons of thrust - the equivalent of "a 'pink packet' of artificial sweetener." It's not thrust over the short term that matters for solar sails; it's the aggregate acceleration over time - long after conventional rockets run out of fuel. The power of sunlight is such that NASA engineers have to compensate for solar pressure when calculating trajectories. And as an old NASA report on solar sails notes, a hypothetical solar sail launched near the sun in 2010 would gather enough speed to overtake Voyager by 2018, "going as far in eight years as Voyager will have journeyed in 41 years." Some theorists dream we could further accelerate such a craft with a powerful laser - perhaps achieving velocities 1/10 the speed of light. -- Jason Dorrier in Singularity Hub
The 2015 Transatlantic Race & Atlantic Ocean Racing Series
Starting in Newport, RI, with three scheduled starts between June 28th and July 5th 2015 and finishing at Lizard Point. Arrive in time to celebrate the RYS Bicentennial Regatta and ceremonies in Cowes in late July followed by Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week and the Rolex Fastnet Race. The companion 2015 Atlantic Ocean Racing Series will include the TR2015, the RORC Caribbean 600, the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
San Fernando Race
Antipodes has stayed south of the rhumb line, whereas Standard Insurance Centennial has stayed well above it. Currently Centennial's ETA is around seven hours behind the Smith 72, averaging 8kts, however the Philippine team feel they know their home waters best and will be hoping to win the battle of tactics approaching the country's coastline. Red Kite II, bidding to win her third San Fernando Race under IRC Overall has, as she did in 2011, gone far out to the left and will cut in towards the coast at the last possible moment to try and avoid the "Luzon Hole". Peninsula Signal 8 seems to be sticking to the rhumb line and is trucking along nicely at just under 8kts to hold on to the IRC lead position, with Moonblue 2 right beside her for company. Allegro is currently shepherding the fleet along, with an ETA of Sunday morning, but it seems that all competitors are currently on course to make it to the Sunday evening party in San Fernando. Tracking is available at bit.ly/ZW9oUA , Leaderboard can be seen at bit.ly/15Tw8oZ
Top Sailors & Race Partners Confirmed
The current Race monohull record holder Mike Slade (ICAP Leopard GBR1R) and the British Vendee Globe sailors Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss GBR99) and Mike Golding (Gamesa GBR3) will all be on the famous RYS start line. The Race Management Team at the ISC is also thrilled to hear that, at the time of writing, Helena Lucas MBE, Team GB's Gold medal-winning 2.4mR sailor, may be joined on board Squire Sanders, an Elan 450, by a co-skipper and none other than Brian Thompson, world record-holding Vendee Globe skipper and crew aboard the Jules Verne record-holding Banque Populaire. In addition to the title sponsor J.P. Morgan Asset Management being committed to sponsor this iconic 50 nautical mile Race up to and including the 2014 event, the Race Partners are also confirmed as Haven Knox-Johnston, Henri Lloyd, Old Pulteney, Raymarine, Red Funnel, Sailing Logic and Timex. Currently, overall entries are at around the 800 mark with 250 or so racing under IRC. Standard entry ends midnight Sat 11th May. rtir.me/entries Race website: www.roundtheisland.org.uk
Whistler Crew Aiming For New Heights
Most of the crew of Hobart yacht Whistler plan to do both after finishing the final 100 nautical mile sailing leg to Hobart, with the sailors joining the runners for the 33km climb to the 1270m peak of Mount Wellington. Their combined effort will be the final challenge towards completing a unique double - winning the prestigious Tilman Trophy in both the British Three Peaks Race and the Tasmanian Three Peaks Race. The Three Peaks Race will start from Beauty Point on the Tamar River at 2pm today with strong south-westerly winds predicted to give the 12-boat fleet a fast downwind sail across eastern Bass Strait to Lady Barron on Flinders Island. The first endurance run will be the longest run of the race, 65km of running across the roads and tracks of Flinders Island and a 756m climb to the peak of Mt Strzelecki, then back to Lady Barron to start the second sailing leg, 145 nautical miles down the East Coast to Coles Bay. Whistler's sailors comprise skipper David Rees, Jory Linscott, David Aplin and David Cromarty while the runners are Jacqui Guy and Michael McIntyre. Guy has competed in 13 Three Peaks, Rees and runner McIntyre six each, Linscott five while Aplin has competed two and Cromarty once. After winning the 2010 race, Team Whistler has failed to make Flinders Island twice, forced out with a broken rudder in 2011 and retiring during a Bass Strait storm last year whilst competing in a smaller sportsboat. "For the past seven years Team Whistler has set their sights on winning the Tilman Trophy," crewman Jory Linscott said at Beauty Point yesterday. "We won the Tilman in the British Three Peaks last year but the Tasmanian trophy has so far eluded us. "While overall honours is always within sight, this year will be all about 'The Tilman' for this team," said Linscott, pointing out that Team Whistler, a Dovell 36, would be the smallest monohull in the fleet. -- Peter Campbell
Industry News
Gurit established its Indian office in 2007, and Gurit (India) has since grown into a major supplier of composite solutions to the wind energy, defence and aerospace sectors across the country. The Gurit (India) team is led by Mr Prashant Kshirsagar, a veteran of the composites arena, with experience across a wide range of applications. Mr Kshirsagar and his technical team will be available at the show to discuss your projects and composite requirements. Gurit will present a paper at the ICERP Conference, entitled "The use of composites in fire resistant-critical applications". ------------------------------------- One of the world's most important technical orthopaedics companies, and the supplier of prosthetic limbs to the 2012 Paralympics, has bought an 80 per cent stake in Finnish yacht builder Baltic Yachts. Ottobock, a global MedTech company, is owned by a repeat client of Baltic's who is building his sixth yacht there this October. The deal was struck out of mutual respect for each company's work explained Matti Laurila, Baltic Yachts' COO, and an interest in creating synergies between the two organisations' expertise. The impetus for the agreement on Baltic's side was a need to establish a diversified portfolio, to include industrial applications in future in order to guarantee financial growth. Whilst the yacht market is vulnerable to the changing fortunes of economies, explained Laurila, the use of carbon composites in industrial markets is more secure and is on the rise. "The products of Ottobock are highly advanced, using carbon fibre technology (for prosthetic limbs), if you look at Baltic yachts, obviously we build yachts rather than prosthetics but the key words for us have always been 'technology' and 'innovation'." ------------------------------------- Rob Doyle (42) has today announced the establishment of a new yacht design, naval architecture and engineering company, Rob Doyle Design, and the 'takeover' of the offices and staff of Ron Holland Design in Kinsale, Ireland. Doyle worked as Holland's lead designer over the period during which the studio was responsible for a range of evolutionary superyacht projects including Mirabella V, the world's largest sloop. As Rob Doyle Design now picks up the baton, the office will be responsible not only for developing Ron Holland's new and existing design work but also the young company's own new build and refit projects. "It is natural for Rob to want to push forward with his own design career and projects. I have moved my centre of activity to Vancouver, Canada and this changes the way I work. Over the past 18 years we have worked together on some important projects and I have sincerely valued the input and skills that Rob has brought to each one of them. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with Rob on the projects that will carry the Ron Holland label and I also wish him all the best for the future of his own design firm and its projects," said Ron Holland. Designer's website: www.robdoyledesign.com From Superyacht Times: www.superyachttimes.com ------------------------------------- A new boat show is to take place this summer in Conwy, Wales. Scheduled to run from July 24-28, the 1st All Wales Boat Show will be the country's first-ever national show and a celebratory festival of all water-based activities. Conwy's two marinas and surrounding waters will offer boating, watersports, outdoor activities and leisure, backed up with an events and entertainment programme that will appeal not only to watersports enthusiasts but also to those that wish to get on the water or just love watching. The 1st All Wales Boat Show is being supported by the UK's National Boat Shows (NBS), the British, Irish and Wales marine federations, the Irish Sea Marine Leisure Knowledge Network, various watersport-based clubs, Conwy County and Town Councils, the Maritime Heritage, and The Outdoor Partnership and Tourism Sector. IBI news: ibinews.com ------------------------------------- On Saturday the 23rd of March the ISA held a Dinghy Sailing Forum in the National Yacht Club to discuss the future of dinghy sailing in Ireland. The meeting was well attended with over 100 delegates. The ISA was very appreciative of all the contributions made throughout the four hour meeting which proved to be a very worthwhile and constructive discussion. Minutes (PDF) www.sailing.ie ------------------------------------- The Boat China & Water Sports Expo will be held May 10-12 in Guangzhou, South China's economic center. As the biggest boat show in South China, Boat China 2013 will be held in the China Import & Expo Pazhou Complex, the biggest exhibition center in Asia.
Featured Brokerage Volvo Ocean race winnner in 2005/6 ex. ABN-AMRO ONE, ex DELTA LLYOD in 2008/9 Edition. This Juan Kouyoumdjian design is a first generation Volvo 70,built by Killian Bushe. Upgraded and refitted for the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. Comes with a massive specification and infastructure required for full shore support. Now looking for a new home and challenge, currently in dry dock. Brokerage through MGM Boats: www.yachtworld.com/mgmboats/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com
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