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
Long Night Ahead
Photo by Max Ranchi, www.maxranchi.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
Ancona, Italy: Today's offshore race in the Adria Ferries ORCi World Championship will be a test of nerves and patience for all 110 entries in the event. The weather system that provided yesterday's breeze has disappeared, leaving behind it just enough northeast wind to get off a start, but as of 20:00 local time - 8 hours after the start - even the fastest boats in Class A have yet to complete the first section of the course that gets scored as a short offshore race.
Race managers knew the forecast was for light conditions, so they set a 130-mile course for the Class A long race and a 83-mile course for the Class B long race, with the intent of having the fleet complete each course in 32 hours.
So it will be a long night indeed, as the fleet works its way through the long windward-leeward courses laid along the coast in front of the scenic Monte Conero coast before they break north towards Senigallia and a final leg to the finish at Marina Dorica.
The lights of the Marina will no doubt be a welcome sight for those fast enough to finish before dawn.
NZ Challenges Design Rule Change
Team New Zealand are challenging the legality of moves from America's Cup organisers to push through changes that would effectively alter the design rule just two weeks before racing is due to start.
Despite the teams failing to reach an agreement on all the proposed safety recommendations after four days of mediation, regatta director Iain Murray said on the America's Cup website he plans to implement all 37 proposals.
"As regatta director, I have a clear task. For me, safety means safety for everyone. Full stop. I stand behind all of the original recommendations to increase safety for all of our sailors this summer," said Murray.
"If the recommendations are included by the Coast Guard in our marine event permit then I will issue a regatta notice harmonising the various rule documents to reflect the safety recommendations."
But Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa are questioning whether Murray has the authority to make arbitrary changes to these documents, and are preparing to lodge a protest with the international jury.
While there has been speculation the sticking point during mediation was that of moving the start times forward, which would further lighten the wind range, the Herald can reveal the only recommendation Team New Zealand is opposed to outright is the issue of rudder elevators. -- Dana Johnson in the New Zealand Herald:
* Richard Gladwell weighs in on the mediation / safety rules imbroglio:
It is expected that regatta organizers working under the auspices of the America's Cup Trustee and Defender, Golden Gate Yacht Club will try to get sign-off from the US Coast Guard for the Recommendations which originally came from the Review Committee, appointed to investigate all aspects of the America's Cup Regatta after the fatal capsize of Artemis Racing's AC72.
After those Recommendations were initially published, on May 24, Golden Gate Yacht Club Vice Commodore, Tom Ehman, was adamant that they would be pushed through using the safety provisions of the Protocol, and specifically Article 16 which states that 'Competitors shall comply with all applicable laws and regulations of any city, state, national or other governmental authority having jurisdiction over the Event or part thereof.'
Given that as yet there is no agreement from the teams on all the Recommendations, it appears that the event organizers may be using the US Coast Guard as a Trojan Horse to get new rules imposed on the regatta as part of the Permit to be issued by the USCG.
Clearly if the Teams don't accept the USCG imposed conditions, then there can be no event...
... while there seems to be little disagreement on the changes introduced under the guise of Safety, the changes to the AC72 Class Rule for Rudder Elevators are a completely different category.
Richard's full article at www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=111207
Kiel Week: Silva Hispaniola Cannot Be Stopped
Veolia ORCi II. Photo by Kieler Woche / okpress. Click on image to enlarge.
The leading boats from the first races on the big boat race course strengthened their top position on the second day of the Kiel Cup and have created a good starting position for the "Kaiserpokal" after the four races today. This race decides the overall big boat Kiel Week winner. It will be sailed on Wednesday at 16:30 close to the shore in front of Schilksee.
"Silva Hispaniola" from the FSC with helmsman Dennis Gehrlein is well on the way in ORC I. It is a near certainty that "Silva Hispaniola" will win the battle for the last starting position for the Royal Ocean Cup Team in the national qualifications.
In ORC II it remains exciting, since Kalle Dehler's "Sporthotel" is only three points behind "Veolia" owned by Torsten Bastiansen from Flensburg. They will very likely settle the title between them. Andreas Rohde with the J/97 "Ratzfatz" (ORC III/IV) came a good deal closer to that goal.
"We will set a short and sweet course for the "Kaiserpokal" of just two nautical miles, where you should get through in eight and a half minutes", explains Ecki von der Mosel, the man in charge for the big boat race course. "The fastest class winner on corrected time from group ORC I will start as the last one in the kangaroo start two minutes after the best Albin Express." Whoever starts too early, will be immediately disqualified. Violation of the racing rules will be punished right away on the water by the jury. Protests have to be made within two minutes. Results:
ORCi I
1. Silva - Hispaniola, Dennis Gehrlein, GER, 7 points
2. Xenia, Ralf Lassig, GER, 20
3. LM Hispaniola, Horst Mann, GER, 23
ORCi II
1. Veolia, Torsten Bastiansen, GER, 8
2. Sporthotel, Karl Dehler, GER, 11
3. Xive, Martin Christiansen, GER, 21
ORCi III/IV
1. Ratz Fatz, Andreas Rohde, GER, 7
2. Halbtrocken, Knut Freudenberg, GER, 17
3. Sportsfreund, Sven-Erik Horsch, GER, 19
Team and Event Wear By Marinepool - High Tech Functionality and Customization
With more than 22 years experience and design expertise, highly functional sailing clothing is one of the core competencies of Marinepool.
Before and during production, no detail is omitted and only the best materials and state of the art production technologies are utilized to ensure every product is optimized before it reaches the market.
In addition Marinepool focuses also on post-production services and particularly on customized team wear. Post-production branding is paramount for professional teams and the ambitious amateur crew alike. Marinepool provides branding services on both, functional sailing clothing - always maintaining its technical qualities - but also on technical fashion and casual lifestyle clothing.
As the official clothing supplier of world-class teams such as Energy Team France - challenger in the 34th America´s Cup, Oman Sail and the Oman Sail racing crews in MOD70, Ex40 The Wave, Muscat and M34 circuit as well as the German national squad Sailing Team Germany Marinepool has vast experience and offers top notch quality for branded gear. Performance where it counts, durable in all wind and weather conditions.
Yet another strength of the brand are special productions for events, event series and teams where Marinepool - due to a vertically integrated organization from design to production and distribution - is able to offer a service second to none. Specially developed collections for the Extreme Sailing Series ( www.extremesailingseries.com ) or the Sailing Team Germany fan collection launched at 2013 Kiel Week ( www.stg-store.de ) are just a few examples.
Turn to Marinepool for your team or event wear!
Cayard: Officials Should Have Reacted To Danger Earlier
Paul Cayard, the CEO of Artemis Racing, didn't mince words in our interview on Friday. He called the 72-foot catamarans being used in this year's America's Cup too big, too powerful and too dangerous.
He has already lost one crewman in a tragic capsize. Additional safety precautions will be put in place, although the teams were still haggling this weekend on the details and may have to go to the Cup's five-member international jury on Monday if they can't reach an agreement.
As we reported in Saturday's Chronicle, Cayard said of his hometown, "San Francisco is one of the windiest venues in the world. But that's a good thing if you've got the right tool for it. It's a horrible thing if you've got the wrong tool.
"We knew it for a long time, and we probably never really as an event grabbed that reality enough and did something about it," he said. "So the Oracle capsize (in October) opened everybody's eyes: Even the 72-footers can tip over.
"Fortunately, nobody was hurt there, but the boat was destroyed completely. And then ours was probably the straw that broke the camel's back." -- Tom FitzGerald/San Francisco Chronicle, cited in Jim Bolland's "A Brush with Sail"
Oracle Cuts Short 2-Boat Testing
America's Cup champion Oracle Team USA sustained damage to its newest catamaran just minutes into the first day of its two-boat testing program on San Francisco Bay.
The damage to the headstay was enough to force the high-performance boat back to the dock. The syndicate's older boat went back out on the water for training on Tuesday with skipper Jimmy Spithill at the helm.
Spithill says the damage should be repaired in time for both boats to be out on the water Wednesday.
Spithill says two-boat testing helps the syndicate make improvements to the boats and is important because there will be no defender trials. -- Bernie Wilson the San Jose Mercury News
Dragon South Coast Championship
Photo by Fiona Brown, www.fionabrown.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
Weymouth, UK: The International Dragon fleet's weeklong festival of sailing in Weymouth got off to a great, if slightly delayed, start with the South Coast Championship, supported by Aberdeen Asset Management. Originally scheduled to be sailed over two days, strong winds on Sunday had forced the Race Committee to keep the boats in harbor. Fortunately today the weather gods were smiling and the 37 strong fleet enjoyed three tightly fought races in shifty westerly winds of 15-20 knots.
Overall Klaus Diederichs, crewed by Andy Beadsworth and Jamie Lea, was top performer of the regatta with a neat 1, 3, 2 score line which gave them a 9 point overall lead and the South Coast Championship Trophy. Taking second place overall and claiming the Corinthian Trophy for amateur teams was Julia Bailey, crewed by Graham Bailey, Will Heritage and Keith Tippell, and the podium was completed by Rob Campbell, sailing with Justin and Tom Waples, who also took second place in the Corinthian division.
With the South Coast Championship completed the fleet now moves into the Edinburgh Cup, for the open British Championship, which will feature up to six races over the next four days. Weymouth will also play host to the 2013 Gazprom International Dragon World Championship from 5-13 September, and so the fleet will grow to 39 teams for the Edinburgh Cup as extra boats take advantage of this opportunity to not only challenge for the prestigious Edinburgh Cup, but also to train on the World Championship race area. Among those joining the fleet for the Edinburgh Cup are defending champion Simon Brien from Northern Ireland and reigning Dragon World Champion Lawrie Smith.
Overall Top Five
1. Klaus Diederichs, GBR758, Fever - 1,3,2 = 6 points
2. Julia Bailey, GBR720, Aimee - 2,4,9 = 15
3. Rob Campbell, GBR766, Quicksilver - 5,2,12 = 20
4. Marcus Blackmore, AUS227, Hooligan - 4,11,6 = 21
5. Chris Hunt, GBR768, Dark and Stormy - 7,7,8 = 22
www.intdragon.net
www.britishdragons.org
Corinthians Rule On Opening Day of Dragon Edinburgh Cup
Photo by Fiona Brown, www.fionabrown.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
Weymouth, UK: The opening day of the 2013 Dragon Edinburgh Cup supported by Aberdeen Asset Management ably demonstrated that the Corinthian, all-amateur, teams are more than capable of giving the professionals a run for their money. After a postponement to allow the sea breeze to establish, Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy's Race Committee did an excellent job of running two races for the 41 strong fleet in glorious sunshine as the southwesterly wind built gradually from around 5 to over 10 knots.
Although the day's individual race winners were the professional teams of Klaus Diederichs, sailing with Andy Beadsworth and Jamie Lea, and Ted Sawyer, sailing with Martin Payne and Pedro Arriaga, it was Julia Bailey and her amateur crew of husband Graham Bailey, fourteen year old Will Heritage and Dragon newcomer Keith Tippell, who dominated overall with a 3, 2 scoreline and a 2 point overall lead.
At the daily prize giving race two winner Ted Sawyer, who will celebrate his 80th birthday next week, received a rousing cheer from the assembled crowed. Ted truly loves the Dragon and has every intention of continuing to race regularly for as long as his body will let him.
Tomorrow's forecast is for similar warm sunny weather and afternoon sea breezes and the race committee aims to run two further races. The six race series continues until Friday 27 June with a single discard being introduced once five races have been completed.
Overall Top Five
1. Julia Bailey, GBR720 Aimee - 3,2 = 5 (Corinthian)
2. Ron James, GBR633 Fei Lin's Flirtation - 2,5 = 7
3. Julian Sowry, GBR755 Scimitar - 4,4 = 8
4. Lawrie Smith, GBR785 Alfie - 8,6 = 14
5. Grant Gordon, GBR780 - 7,7 = 14
Museum Welcomes First RNLI E Class Lifeboat to Historic Collection
Click on image to enlarge.
At the age of 11, E class Olive Laura Deare will be the youngest lifeboat to move into the Chatham Historic Dockyard, joining many of the RNLI's older generations of lifeboat in the exhibition as well as a wider collection of boats and ships from the county's heritage.
The RNLI first introduced lifeboats on the Thames in 2002 after the investigation into the Marchoness disaster of 1989 identified that a rescue service on the river was needed. After that accident, in which a pleasure boat collided with a barge on the river leaving 51 people dead, the charity stepped in to provide its lifesaving experience and technology.
Four lifeboat stations were opened on the Thames on 20 January 2002 to provide lifeboat cover for the capital's river; at Teddington, Chiswick, Tower and Gravesend
Three of the lifeboat stations, Gravesend, Chiswick and Tower, were allocated the specially designed E class lifeboat. This class of lifeboat is the fastest lifeboat in the charity's fleet with a top speed of up to 40 knots. It has been specially designed for use on the River Thames and uses water jets rather than conventional propellers, giving it excellent manoeuvrability in the rapidly moving river flow.
During her time at Gravesend, the Olive Laura Deare was launched 459 times and rescued 106 people, including saving 31 lives.
Julie James, RNLI Heritage Manager, said: 'We are delighted to have accepted E-002 Olive Laura Deare into the Historic Collections and to have recently placed her on display in the Lifeboat Gallery at Chatham."
Katusha Stays On Top
Light winds eased the twelve competing teams gently into day one of the RC44 Sweden Cup in Marstrand, owners and pro's took to the helm for the sole match race day of the event. And with three match racing events out of five now completed Katusha still cling to the top of the match race leaderboard, with the fleet pushing hard behind.
The annual RC44 Match Racing Championship is a rolling round robin raced for on the first day of each event throughout the season. Russia's Katusha (Andy Horton) led the match race standings heading into the RC44 Sweden Cup with a three-point buffer over second placed Team Aqua (Chris Bake/Cameron Appleton).
Despite the breeze never blowing over 8 knots, eight flights and 44 matches were completed in Sweden. The tough level of competition meant no team managed to keep a clean sheet, on a day where the breeze continued to shift and you really needed to be in phase with the conditions.
Team Aqua, with Cameron Appleton at the helm, won the day with a 6-1 scoreline, losing just one match to Katusha, who in turn finished their day on 4-2.
Torbjorn Tornqvist at the helm of Artemis Racing, was one of just two teams to finish the day with just one loss. The Swedish team's 5-1 scoreline moves them up the leaderboard into fourth. Synergy Russian Sailing team, helmed today by Ed Baird, matched Team Aqua's six wins but lost two matches to the French Aleph team and Artemis Racing. The Russian defending match race champions now move up into third overall.
Racing continues in Marstrand until Saturday 29th June, follow the racing with the live tracking and blog.
Live tracking is also available on smartphones and tablets by installing the Trac Trac app from Google Play bit.ly/12g5jx8 or iTunes bit.ly/14upFBu
Cerebral Palsy Teen Ready For Solo Channel Sailing Challenge
Click on image to enlarge.
Natasha Lambert, 16, was born with atheroid cerebral palsy, which affects her limbs as well as her speech and confines her to a wheelchair.
On Monday 1 July Natasha is leaving her wheelchair behind to embark on a challenge entitled The French Connection which will see her sail her 21ft Mini Transat, Miss Isle Too, across the English Channel completely by herself using just her mouth to control the boat. She is raising money for the RNLI, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Wetwheels Solent.
Natasha, who lives on the Isle of Wight with her family, is predicting the 25 mile voyage, which starts in Bologne, France (9am TBC) and finishes in Dover, will take her around seven hours. Without the use of her hands, she sails the yacht with her mouth using a 'sip and puff' system - operated by a straw inside a mountain bike helmet - which has been engineered by her father.
Last year Natasha's sense for adventure inspired her to sail solo around the Isle of Wight raising over £17,000 for charity. This latest challenge sees her sailing across the Channel for the very first time and she has been out on the water training hard for the past few months, with her coach Phil who will be joining her onboard for the voyage.
Natasha started sailing through RYA Sailability which supports opportunities for people with a disability to experience sailing and to sail more regularly. For more information visit www.rya.org.uk/sailability
To find out more information about Natasha Lambert and to sponsor her challenge visit www.missisle.com
Featured Brokerage
1988 Tony Castro 3/4 Tonner. EUR 17,950. Located in Fenit, Kerry, Ireland.
"Strictly Business" is a one off Tony Castro 3/4 Ton design.
She was built in 1988 and named "Bateleur 88" and was successfully campaigned by her then owner Chris Bonnar.
She is extremely strong and light. Her construction includes a combination of GRP, Kevlar and carbon stiffners. All hatches are watertight. She is in good condition overall and is ready to go racing with a new owner
Brokerage through Crosshaven Boatyard: www.yachtworld.com/crosshavenboatyard/
Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com
The Last Word
LSD is a drug that causes insanity in people who have not taken it. -- Timothy Leary
About boats.com
boats.com is a highly powerful and effective global marketing solution for the boating industry. With half a million new and used boat listings, offered across the globe by manufacturers, brokers, dealers and private advertisers, it is the most comprehensive site in the World. Over 1.4 million boating consumers visit our sites every month, generating up to 16.5 million page views, with over 500,000 of these visitors coming from within Europe. Whether you are providing a product or service or selling new or pre owned boats, boats.com offers an extensive and varied range of solutions, tailored to suit all marketing budgets offering extensive local and international coverage.
Editorial and letter submissions to
Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/advertise.html