Issue #2824 - 29 April

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 World Cup Hyeres
The medals were decided across the ten Olympic events as ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères brought the 2012-13 World Cup series to a close.

An up and down breeze that never truly filled in at any point ensured for close knit racing on the final day in the south of France.

Regattas in Melbourne, Miami, Palma and Hyères have made up the 2012-13 ISAF Sailing World Cup circuit with some great racing seen along the way.

With a busy summer of World Championships for the ten Olympic events attentions will turn back to World Cup duties starting at Qingdao, China in October 2013.

Provisional top three results:

RS: X Men
1. Przmyslaw Miarcznski, POL, 20 points
2. Piotr Myszka, POL, 28
3. Julien Bontemps, FRA, 30

RS:X Women
1. Bryony Shaw, GBR, 21
2. Blanca Manchon, ESP, 24
3. Charline Picon, FRA, 42

Laser standard
1. Tom Burton, AUS, 54
2. Robert Scheidt, BRA, 63
3. Stipanovic Tonci, CRO, 66

Laser radial
1. Marit Bouwmeester, NED, 19
2. Tuula Tenkanen, FIN, 36
3. Alison Young, GBR, 42

49er FX
1. Alex Maloney / Molly Meech, NZL, 55
2. Charlotte Dobson / Mary Rook, GBR, 81
3. Annemiek Bekkering / Claire Blom, NED, 69

49er
1. Dylan Fletcher / Sign Alain, GBR, 73
2. David Evans / Edward Powys, GBR, 83
3. Carlos Paz / Anton Paz, ESP, 87

470 Men
1. Mathew Belcher / Will Ryan, AUS, 19
2. Sofian Bouvet / Jeremie Mion, FRA, 51
3. Lucas Calabrese / Juan De La Fuente, ARG, 60

470 Women
1. Fernanda Oliveira / Ana Barbachan, BRA, 38
2. Camille Lecointre / Mathilde Geron, FRA, 39
3. Sophie Weguelin / Eilidh Mcintyre, GBR, 50

NACRA 17
1. Tim Shuwalow / Hanna Klinga, SWE, 59
2. Billy Besson / Marie Riou, FRA, 59
3. Matias Bhuler / Nathalie Brugger, SUI, 68

Finn
1. Andrew Mills, GBR, 23
2. Gilles Scottl, GBR, 35
3. Josh Junior, NZL, 49

2.4 MR
1. Heiko Kroeger, GER, 10
2. Helena Lucas, GBR, 30
3. Megan Pascoe, GBR, 31

Sonar
1. Bruno Jourdren, Nicolas Vimont Vicary / Eric Flageul, FRA, 17
2. Jens Kroker, Robert Prem / Siegmund Mainka, GER, 20
3. Aleksander Wang-Hansen / Marie Solberg / Per-eurgen Kristiansen, NOR, 20

swc.ffvoile.com

Francis Joyon Set to Tackle the North Atlantic
Bruno Peyron, Florence Arthaud, Laurent Bourgnon, Thomas Coville, Francis Joyon. Photo by Aurimages / Groupe IDEC. Click on image to enlarge.

Francis Joyon Francis Joyon is ready for the off. In a few days from now, he will be tackling the prestigious North Atlantic record. If he pulls it off, he will become the only sailor in the world to achieve the records Grand Slam. The stand-by begins in New York on 15th May. Yesterday evening, the skipper from Locmariaquer in Brittany was in Paris for a special event at Pershing Hall to present the challenge. He was accompanied by three of the four skippers, who have held the solo Atlantic record: Florence Arthaud, Bruno Peyron and Thomas Coville, the current holder of the record that the skipper of IDEC will shortly be tackling.

Keeping up an average speed of 21 knots and completing the voyage in less than 5 days, 19 hours and 29 minutes. Sailing solo. Crossing the very demanding North Atlantic. That is what is involved in this challenge today after Thomas Coville raised the bar back in July 2008.

Joyon previously set this record back in July 2005 (6 days and 4 hours), when he shattered the record set eleven years earlier by Laurent Bourgnon by a complete day.

In this short list of those, who have attempted this solo challenge aboard giant multihulls with all the dangers of the North Atlantic, there are only star names from the world of sailing: Bruno Peyron, Florence Arthaud, Laurent Bourgnon, Thomas Coville, Francis Joyon.

In 26 years, from 1987 to the present, only six attempts have been successful. Bruno Peyron achieved it twice, in 1987 and 1992. If Francis Joyon succeeds, he will become only the second person to smash the North Atlantic record twice. Above all, he will be the only sailor able to claim the Grand Slam of major records, as the skipper of the maxi-trimaran IDEC is already the fastest solo sailor around the world (57 days and 13h), the fastest over 24 h (sailing 668 miles at an average speed of 27.83 knots) and the fastest over the Atlantic from East to West on the Columbus Route between Cadiz and San Salvador, a record he shattered last winter with a time of 8 days and 16 h.

www.trimaran-idec.com

Seahorse June 2013
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine

Seahorse Magazine

The driving force
Ken Read and Bruno Dubois talk to Dobbs Davis about the philosophy and the execution of a radical VO65 sail programme

Taking stock
Rob Weiland broadens his analysis with a look at relative modernity among rating systems

As good as it gets
Tim Smyth and the Oracle build team at Core Boatbuilders are finding success with an innovative new fabric

RORC news
Eddie Warden Owen

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SAP 5O5 Worlds
Photo by Christophe Favreau, www.christophefavreau.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

SAP 505 World Championship Barbados: Race three of the SAP 505 World Championship was a reminder that, while crunching the best data, and executing appropriate strategies, in sailing as in business you need to keep a weather eye out for what the legal team refers to as an Act of God. The waters off Bridgetown, Barbados on Sunday were bright, turquoise in the shallows, then darkened almost-suddenly by a great, grey cloud that jiggered all the trend lines right out of their grooves. What didn't change is that, two days running, German teams topped the leaderboard in this very international event where 69 boats made the start. The German team at the top - that changed.

Claas Lehmann and crewman Leon Oehme, the new fleet leaders, pushed hard on first-day leaders Stefan Boehm and Gerald Roos in the early going of race three, then both lost out to the Aussie team of Sandy Higgins and Paul Marsh. Lehmann led going away in race four.

Racing continues through Friday, with a single race on Monday and a day off on Tuesday.

Top five provisional results:

1. Class Lehmann / Leon Oehme, GER
2. Stefan Boehm / Gerald Roos, GER
3. Mike Holt / Carl Smit, USA
4. Wolfgang Hunger / Holger Jess, GER
5. Jan Saugmann / Martin Gorge, DEN

www.sap505worlds.com

Chilled Out Antigua
HM King Harald of Norway skippers the RP78, Whisper to victory in The Yachting World Round Antigua Race. Photo by Paul Wyeth / http://pwpictures.com Antigua Sailing Week Beautiful sunshine, crystal clear blue skies and a gentle breeze produce a positive vibration for the first day of racing at Antigua Sailing Week. Winners are always grinners but as sailors came ashore, after three hours of racing in paradise, there were smiles all round.

In CSA 1, HM King Harald of Norway took Line Honours in today's race but after time correction, the winner was Jorge Bellina Lishner's Peruvian Soto 48, Kuankun. Kuankun was built in Argentina in 2011, but the crew are nearly all from Lima, Peru and the yacht is making its debut at Antigua Sailing Week.

The closest finish of the day was in CSA 3, with the top three yachts just 32 seconds apart in a race lasting over three hours. Phil Lotz's American Swan 42, Arethusa got the upper hand on the beat up to Willoughby Bay to lead by nearly ten minutes but Richard Wesslund's American J/120 El Ocaso staged a fantastic comeback downwind to catch Arethusa and pass her to cross the line nearly 15 minutes ahead. However, it was not quite enough after time correction was applied. Arethusa took the win by just 18 seconds from archrival El Ocaso. Trinidad's Peake Yacht Services Slippery was very much in the hunt, just eight seconds behind El Ocaso to claim third. -- Louay Habib

Antigua Sailing Week's YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/user/AntiguaSWVideo

www.sailingweek.com

Turned-On Afterburner Wins A (Mostly) Windy Newport-Ensendada
Bill Gibbs couldn't stop smiling when he said, "We've done this race 14 times and we've never seen the wind this good."

Max Phelps said, "It took us four hours to sail the last two miles."

Was this the same race? In the Lexus Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race it depended on what boat you were on. The fastest finished soon enough to seize the glory; the slowest suffered some agony of windless drifting, but only near the end.

At mid-day Saturday, about 180 of the 203 starters had finished. That remarkable tally was largely attributed to the wind holding strong well past the border until entering Todos Santos Bay. The 66th running of the 126-nautical mile race from Newport Beach to Mexico's Baja California peninsula teased several boats with visions of records.

Howard Enloe's Loe Real, a Jenn 60 trimaran, became the only boat besides the late Steve Fossett's 60-foot Stars & Stripes catamaran in 1998 to finish before sundown Friday, just after 7 p.m.---but missed Fossett's record of 6 hours 46 minutes 30 seconds by 17 minutes 21 seconds with a clocking of 7:03:51.

Not only that, but with his minus-205 handicap, Loe Real owed Gibbs' Afterburner about an hour and 40 minutes, and the 52-foot catamaran blew in about 43 minutes later with plenty of time to spare to claim the race's biggest prize: the President of USA Trophy for best corrected time overall, including multi- and monohulls.

First five finishers

1. Loe Real (ORCA; Jenn 60 trimaran), Howard Enloe, Silver Gate YC, 7 hours, 3 minutes, 51 seconds (corrected handicap time 14:10:56).
2. Afterburner (ORCA; 52' catamaran), Bill Gibbs, Pierpont Bay YC, 7:47:11 (CT 13:08:01).
3. Go Cart (ORCA), Chris Slagerman, California YC, 10:00:50 (CT 13:54:10).
4. Bad Pak (Maxi), Tom Holthus, San Diego YC, 10:58:30 (CT 13:54:10).
5. Medicine Man (Andrews 63), Long Beach YC, 11:35:59 (CT 15:02:14).

Complete results newporttoensenada.com/race_info/results

IMOCA Champion Gabart Honored
This Friday, IMOCA class skippers, sponsors, organisers of single-handed and double-handed round the world yacht races, and major international sports bodies gathered in Lausanne to celebrate the winners of the IMOCA World Championship and to officially launch OSM, responsible for the global circuit's commercial and international development.

Francois Gabart, the 30 year-old winner of the 2012 IMOCA World Championship and recent winner of the Vendee Globe, was celebrated by fellow skippers and 150 distinguished guests at the Beau Rivage Hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva.

The event was an opportunity for Sir Keith Mills to officially launch OSM, the company created in January 2013 in Lausanne, to manage IMOCA's commercial rights and international development.

The skippers spent the afternoon racing Optimist dinghies with their young fans from the local sailing club, providing plenty of memorable moments for participants and spectators alike.

www.imoca.org

NOR Issued for Rolex Farr 40 North Americans
The Notice of Race for the 2013 Rolex Farr 40 North American Championship has been uploaded to yachtscoring.com where it is now open for entry and registration, crew declarations and other event documents that will be posted as the event draws closer.

We are excited about sailing this regatta in beautiful Edgartown on the Island of Martha's Vineyard where we are anticipating a fleet of 18 - 20 boats to enjoy the conditions on Nantucket Sound, and the hospitality of the town and the Edgartown Yacht Club.

The NOR contains useful contacts and links on the island for dockage, accommodations, transportation and other logistics.

www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=760

Nations' Cup - Victory For The Philippines
78 boats representing 23 nations were on the start line earlier today for the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's most fun regatta, the Nation's Cup which is as much about the activities on land as it is about those on the water.

Crews are formed along the lines of nation of origin or allegiance. While the Nationality Criteria states that "100% of crew members must be nationals of the country which is represented by the boat they are racing on", the same criteria then go on to offer a multitude of different ways that a 'wannabe' can qualify – all the way down to representing a Nation in the Miss Universe Pageant. It's all about having fun and all of the entries get into the spirit of the event by decorating their boats and wearing fun costumes.

Race Officer Sofia Mascia started the fleet in an easterly wind ranging from 15 to 20kts from Hung Hom and sent them eastwards through the Lei Yue Mun gap and then on to Shek O. The race course saw boats then head to Cape Collinson where they rounded a mark (TCS4) before going back to Shek O and then it was a dash through the harbour to the finish line back at the Club.

Whilst an England entry claimed Line Honours, the overall winner for the 2013 edition of the Nations' Cup is the Philippines.

Top Five Boats

Rank - Boat Name - Class - Helm - Nation
1. Phact or Phiction, Flying Fifteen, Simon Pickering. Phillipines
2. Tchaikoffsky, Flying Fifteen, Howard Williams, Wales
3. Japan Fries, Flying Fifteen, Akira Takada, Japan
4. Gunga Din, Etchells, Nick Burns, England
5. Noisy Forefather 2, Flying Fifteen, Sam Chan, Hong Kong

Full results: www.rhkyc.org.hk

Sea - Hear - Discover Project Receives 2013 Haven Academy Award
The winner of the 2013 Haven Academy, the Sea-Hear-Discover project which provides sailing opportunities for those with a hearing impairment, received their award from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston in a presentation on the quayside at Universal Marina, Southampton. The Sea-Hear-Discover project received 71% of the public vote in a national poll to choose the most deserving winner from a shortlist compiled by the Haven Academy's panel of judges. The project's Co-ordinator, Ally Bowles, said: "Winning the funding and support of the sponsors, Haven Knox-Johnston, will make all the difference in helping us provide disadvantaged youngsters with what can be a life changing experience".

On presenting the award Sir Robin Knox-Johnston added; "I am so pleased that the 2013 Haven Academy has gone to such a deserving winner. Even I remember how difficult it was to get my first experience of sailing - and Sea-Hear-Discover will make it possible for so many people who would otherwise never get the chance to find out about boating".

The award means that the boat insurance specialists Haven Knox-Johnston will partner the Sea-Hear-Discover project throughout the 2013 season up to a value of £5,000.

www.boat-zone.com/academy

Deep-Sea Waves Reveal Secrets
Waves deep below the ocean surface help explain how global currents work, and may improve climate predictions, according to scientists including a Stanford Woods Institute-affiliated researcher.

Stanford researchers Leif Thomas and Dan Whitt have discovered an undersea surf zone, where wind-spawned waves traveling as much as 500 meters below the sea surface break as they hit the boundaries between currents of differing density, such as cool subpolar and warm subtropical currents, causing the water carried by the currents to mix.

Their finding has ramifications for understanding how heat, salinity, and nutrients are transferred between currents and, by extension, globally. The new data should also aid in improving the physics behind computer models used to predict climate.

Thomas and Whitt developed a mathematical model analyzing how internal waves propagate in the ocean and interact with currents. Whitt is lead author of a paper describing their research that was published online by the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Physical Oceanography.

Their model showed that when internal waves hit a current with a different density, they slow down and break, just as surface waves break when their progress is slowed by shallows, and mixing results.

"Strong ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream present ideal conditions for internal wave breaking," Thomas said. "We basically discovered a surf zone for these wind-driven internal waves."

Full article and link to their research paper at woods.stanford.edu

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