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Brought to you by Boats.com Europe, Yachtworld.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 Still Swinging At Each Other BMW Oracle is determined to angle the America's Cup competition in its favour, this time through a four-point redress to the International America's Cup Jury on rules set out in the Notice of Race and the Sailing Instructions issued by SNG for the 33rd America's Cup. The challenger has still not comprehended that what it has forced is a "Deed of Gift Match". There is no Mutual Consent - even the New York Supreme Court has told them that the rules are those of the defending yacht club, a fact stated very clearly in the Deed of Gift itself. To address Tom Ehman's attacks on the legality of Alinghi's sails: history and facts support SNG's interpretation of the Deed of Gift's 'constructed in country' requirements as recently declared by American historian, John Rousmaniere: "Unlike hulls, sails were not regarded as subject to nationality restrictions - not by sailors, not by sailmakers, and not by the donors and the trustee New York Yacht Club." We have been clear: if BMW Oracle succeeds in disqualifying the Defender's sails then there will be no Match, Russell Coutts will have won the America's Cup for Larry Ellison without sailing. An irony unto itself given Russell's use of 3DL sails on every AC team he has raced with since 1995; New Zealand, Switzerland and now the USA. As further example of their double standards, BMW Oracle are attempting to circumvent the 'Trash Disposal and Environmental Protection' rule in the Sailing Instructions to continue to freely pollute the waters of Valencia by discharging a cocktail of chemicals under their hulls to make their boat go faster. SNG insists that both competitors respect Spanish waters as they do their home waters. And while we are setting the record straight, their claim of a 'Singapore Agreement' is pure fabrication. The signatures that Tom Ehman has been flaunting were on an early draft that was discarded and subsequently developed on before BMW Oracle aborted the meeting by suing our club for a ninth time. * From Tom Ehman, GGYC: BMW ORACLE Racing is employing a variety of environmentally-safe friction-reduction technologies. "Our hulls are more slippery and, therefore, move more efficiently through the water than ever before," said design team member Manolo Ruiz de Elvira (ESP). The only decision - out of fourteen - that Societe Nautique de Geneve has won in the New York Supreme Court was to have Racing Rules 49-54 deleted from America's Cup racing for the first time ever. This not only permitted the yachts to use an engine to replace manual power, but skin friction reduction systems, previously banned, are now allowed. "We are not going to say exactly what systems and technologies we are using on our trimaran, but I can assure you they make an already fast boat even faster," Ruiz de Elvira said. "Our design team has found the ultimate solution - fast and green. SNG's blatant attempt to reverse the Court's ruling permitting friction reduction systems, which the Swiss themselves fought for, is now in the hands of the International Jury at the request of GGYC. And another: There are two important questions before the Court: - In an America's Cup "Deed of Gift match," must the sails of competitors' yachts be constructed in the country they represent? - Were Alinghi's sails constructed in Switzerland? GGYC believes the answers are clear: yes, sails must be constructed-in-country; and, no, Alinghi's sails were constructed in the USA, not Switzerland. Last week SNG let go an avalanche of papers to obscure these simple questions. The Swiss defender has long appeared to be suffering from snowblindness over the fact that the 33rd Match is not a normal regatta. It is not even a normal America's Cup. It is a "Deed of Gift match" in which the clear wording of the Cup's ruling document must be adhered to by both teams. GGYC's briefs filed tonight are available in full at www.ggyc.com Another Reason Why Shakespeare Was Right About Lawyers During the whole [Oryx Quest] drama, one sailing journalist seemed duty-bound to get to the bottom of this mysterious missing money - our old friend and editor of BYM News, the recently-deceased Marian Martin... when she smelled something fishy with Tracy's missing millions, she penned a series of well-corroborated articles as she tried to get to the bottom of the Qatar mess. Aside from Marian Martin, the world's media mostly ignored Edwards after her bankruptcy, and other than Sailing Anarchy's awarding Edwards a dubious SA award for Worst Multihull Effort, her name gradually slipped off people's tongues as the racing world went about its business. Until yesterday. It seems that Tracy is trying to clear her reputation, and since most internet searches come up with some of the articles linked above, she decided to go after BYM News - not with a phone call to its editors to perhaps provide an update to some of those old articles, but with a nasty, nearly incredible letter from high-powered London media law firm Harbottle & Lewis to BYM News. A synopsis of the complaints: 1) Your articles quote people who say mean things about Tracy; After this unimaginably whinging, lame complaint, the letter goes on with a laundry list of inane demands to the editors of BYM News. Edwards' lawyers demand that BYM apologize in writing, pull the stories in question, make a statement of apology in open court that Edwards approves, arrange to start paying Edwards money, and pay for all legal fees incurred by Edwards regarding this matter... then go on to inform BYM that "the majority of the photographs in your articles are owned by Edwards" when they are clearly not, and they demand they be taken down and 'invite proposals for compensation" from BYM for this "copyright infringement" without even identifying which photos are infringing. And then, of course, they give their deadline: Friday, 5:00 PM, or they are going to take legal action. Full article with forum postings linked, at sailinganarchy.com * Editor: Some of the links on BYM have been removed, presumably due to litigation fears. And that's where Google's caching comes in so handy. Just go to google.com, type in BYM Tracy Edwards, and then click "cached" on all the stories no longer on BYM. Three words of advice for Harbottle & Lewis should they try something similar in the USA: John Peter Zenger. And a word of advice to Ms. Edwards: if this was intended to "clear your reputation" and recommended by either your solicitors or a PR firm... sack them. And then be very quiet for a very long time. This is not helping you. Not at all. Ullman-Powered Success at Audi Victoria Week Invest in your performance. Van Liew Acquires Open 60 For Velux 5 Oceans
The boat is Pro-Form (ex-Whirlpool, ex-Tiscali), and her pedigree includes first place in the 1999 Fastnet Race and 2nd in the important Transat Jacques Vabre that same year. Pro-Forms was build in 1998 for Catherine Chabaud and was subsequently sailed by Simone Bianchetti and later Marc Thiercelin, and she sports a carbon/Nomex hull, twin daggerboards and rudders, a canting keel, more than 5,000 square feet of sail on a 95-foot mast, and an ultra-light displacement of just 8.5 tons. Van Liew and his shore support team will sail the boat from La Rochelle, France to Charleston, South Carolina, where it will undergo a comprehensive re-fit and the extensive preparation necessary for the Velux 5 Oceans race start in October 2010. The delivery from La Rochelle, France to Charleston, SC will cover an estimated 5,000 miles as they take the longer, safer route via Madeira. Brad and his crew will head South from France until they are firmly in the trade winds, where they'll turn to the West and head to Charleston via the Caribbean. Van Liew's crew consists of Wargo, Open 60 expert JC Caso, and Dr. Kevin Hogan. Hydrogeneration and Van Liew's 'Zero Emissions' Goal Van Liew's new ocean racing campaign targets the exciting Eco 60 Class, and constitutes the only United States entry in the race at this time. The Eco 60 Class recycles earlier generation Open 60s, and the Eco Class has strict rules that insist on renewable onboard energy, rewarding skippers who promote sustainability. Brad's site: www.oceanracing.org Competition Heats Up For Final Stretch
The UK's Nick Thompson, who yesterday trailed leader Bruno Fontes by seven points in the Laser class, today soared past the Brazilian to take a 26-point lead. Such was Thompson's fortune on the merit of posting two victories in as many races today while Fontes suffered a 20-44, setting him back to second place and tied on points with third-place finisher Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (FRA). In the high performance dinghy event, racing among the top 49ers in the world has been especially competitive. The point spread tightened at the top today, with only nine points separating the first- and fifth-place teams. France's Manu Dyen and Stephane Christidis maintained their lead in the 26-boat fleet after 12 races overall, five points ahead of Denmark's duo of Simon Karstoft and Jonathan Bay who posted a consistent 3-3-3 today. * Racing was tight today at the 2010 Rolex Miami OCR. We finished up the Gold fleet races and went 1-1. With this added to yesterday's 2-0, we finished the round in second with a 3-2 record. Then, it was on to the Quarter finals round, against Lucinda Whitty from Australia. At the end of the day, we were up 2-0 in a first-to-three-point series. Our first Gold fleet race today was against the reigning ISAF Women's Match Racing champion, Nicky Souter. We led her off the line, but made a small mistake upwind, put ourselves behind, and were unable to catch up. In the second and final race of the Gold fleet, we were matched up against our fellow Americans, Sally Barkow and team. It was a great race all around the race course. At the second windward mark, we got into a luffing situation that ran into the press boats. Luckily they got out of the way just in time so they didn't intefere with the race. On the downwind leg, we got into a short gybing duel. We gybed away and managed to hold her off by about half a boat length at the finish to take the win. That win put us in second overall in the round behind GBR's, Lucy MacGregor. Because we finished second in the Gold fleet, for the Quarter finals round (now a knock-out format), we are matched up against the winner of the repecharge, Lucinda Whitty (AUS). We are learning a lot as a team and about working together, and we are having fun on top of that. This is a great event for us, being able to match up against all the top ranked sailors; the racing is close, and keeps us on our toes from start to finish. -- Anna Tunnicliffe, www.annatunnicliffe.com Full results for all classes at rmocr.ussailing.org/RMOCR_Home.htm 
Get A Deal On The Racing Rules! To order the Rules DVD or learn more about it, go to: www.LearnTheRacingRules.com Extreme Sailing Series Asia: Muscat
Khamis Al Anbouri, bowman on Oman Sail Masirah, currently topping the leaderboard, is looking forward to returning to his home port. Six teams, racing radical 40-foot catamarans, started their battle for the inaugural title in Hong Kong at the end of November, before heading to Singapore mid-December... And now they arrive in the Sultanate of Oman for the grand final that takes place from the 1st-5th February. Global brands such as Red Bull and BT back two of the racing teams, and China has also entered a team for the first time. OC Events, organisers of the series, has brought the circuit to the Middle East and Asia for the first time to demonstrate the potential of a full-scale series in 2010/2011. Mark Turner, CEO of OC Group, explained, "Developing a series here in the Middle East is the next step in the evolution of this ground-breaking circuit. Never before has there been top-level racing, right in the heart of cities, within metres of the shore, designed to entertain the public, media and VIP's - not just other sailors. It's unique for the cities and it is unique for our sport. The Extreme Sailing Series Asia: Muscat is supported by the Muscat Municipality and Oman Sail, the Ministry of Tourism backed initiative to reignite the Sultanate's maritime heritage and inspire young Omanis to achieve their potential through sailing. Current standings after two events: 1. Oman Sail Masirah: Pete Cumming (GBR) www.extremesailingseriesasia.com A Warm Welcome For Phoenicia In Richards Bay In Mozambique 5 new crew members joined the Phoenicia and have now completed their first passage onboard the replica 6th Century BC ship. The new crew members are UK Graduate Steph Edwards, American couple Daniel Hallstrom and Alice Palmer, Brazilian film-maker (and wife of Yuri) Vera Sanada and Atsuko Senno from Japan. These new 5 members join the existing team of 6 core crew to make up a strong, experienced international team of sailors and adventurers. If you are interested in being part of the Phoenicia crew on a forthcoming leg of the expedition please contact or telephone +44 (0)845 8698 441. * The Zululand Observer has a nice article on the expedition at www.zululandobserver.co.za/Pages/f04story7.html Letters To The Editor - * From Gerald New: re: "2 billion audience for the AC" Interesting that these press releases always headline the possible theoretical total audience eg. 650 million for Europe, 1.4 billion for Sports News TV... are assured of a massive international audience of over 2 billion viewers ! Really? Sky in the UK have around 10 million subscribers and their most popular sport programme, premier football, only gets 1 million, and Rugby 150,000. So what sort of realistic audiences will a minority sport such as AC sailing get ... 20,000? Featured Brokerage 'Gullvika', Wauquiez 43 Pilot Saloon, built in 2000 by Wauquiez to an Ed Dubois design with the interior by Andrew Winch. White GRP sandwich hull with teak decks and shoal draft lead keel. Twaron shield from bow to keel - high impact resistant. Wheel steering. Fuel 600 litres in 2 x aluminium tanks (400+ 200 litres). Water 400 litres in aluminium tanks. 70 litres holding tank capacity. Beautiful yacht able to be sailed by one person with accommodation for up to 6 persons. 'Gullvika' is fully equipped for crossing the Atlantic, Mediterranean or for that round the world trip in luxurious comfort. Brokerage through www.yachtworld.com/transworld-yachts/ Complete listing details and seller contact information at The Last Word |
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The final of the Extreme Sailing Series Asia will kick off at The Wave, Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman, with six international teams competing for the inaugural title. The Series will end on a high with the Extreme Beach Party, a two day grand finale for the public over the Omani weekend.
On Wednesday 27th January 2010 Phoenicia was greeted with a very warm welcome at Richards Bay. A convoy of 21 yachts came out to meet Phoenicia and back at the Zululand Yacht Club a party of journalists, television cameras, port officials and local supporters were ready to welcome the Phoenician Ship Expedition team to South Africa. The leg from Beira, Mozambique took a total of 11 days at sea and covered over 700 nautical miles. The team will have a week long break in port before setting off again towards the Cape of Good Hope.
