Issue #2875 - 11 July

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

Second Wave To Start Transpac Tomorrow
San Pedro, California, USA: Another wave of three classes will be setting off into the sunset tomorrow for the second start to the 2013 Transpacifc Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, or the Transpac. Twenty-one boats representing Australian, Canada, Japan, and the USA will set off from the start line off Point Fermin in San Pedro at 1300 Pacific Daylight Time for the 2225-mile race to the finish off Diamond Head, just east of Honolulu. In all, there are 58 entries from Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, and the USA.

The present weather forecast is not encouraging for this group: 5 to 10 knots of west-northwest wind will give them a light start to the race, with even less predicted for the evening and Friday.

In Division 4 Tim Fuller's 41-foot J/125 Resolute, is making the long trip with only five on board, half the usual size crew on this type of boat. But the lightest crew in proportion to boat length are the six on board Ivan Macfadyen's 50-foot Funnelweb entry from Australia. They and all the teams may be busy indeed tomorrow evening as the wind lightens and gets variable in speed and direction, requiring extreme focus and no doubt multiple sail changes.

But this may be even more true in Division 6, the so-called 50's Class, where there are four older-generation Santa Cruz 50's and five Santa Cruz 52's who will be duking it out together all the way to Hawaii. Tomorrow's light and variable winds may see a very interesting tactical race develop rather than an outright drag race more typical of steady conditions.

The favorites among these two boat types are Jack Taylor's SC 50 Horizon, who has lived up to her name by winning her division in the last few Transpacs, and Bill Guilfoyle's Prevail, who was the top SC 52 in the 2011 race. But the fastest-rated boat in this class may have an edge in the light conditions: Jeff Urbina's SC 52 Bodacious IV comes from Lake Michigan, where they are missing this weekend's annual Chicago-Mackinac Race to race instead to a larger island a lot farther away.

Meanwhile, the 14 yachts in Divisions 7 and 8 who were in the first start on Monday, July 8th are enjoying great conditions and are speeding away from the continent and towards the finish line with a steady NNW wind between 10 and 20 knots. This has allowed many members of this group to approach and exceed 200 miles in 24 hours as their beam reaching is already broadening enough to tempt spinnakers in the leading boats. 

The current leader of this group, Bob Hayward's Manatea, covered an impressive 227 miles in this morning's 24 hour reporting period. The two oldest boats in the race, Matt Brooks' Dorade and Sam and Willie Bell's Westward, also enjoyed very respectable runs of 189 and 224 miles respectively. -- Dobbs Davis

www.transpacyc.com

Jeanne Socrates Rests Up Before Celebrations
Jeanne Socrates sailed into the history books yesterday morning after 259 days alone at sea.

The 70-year-old British grandmother successfully completed her third attempt at a solo non-stop global circumnavigation in Victoria, British Columbia.

After mooring up at Victoria Harbour in her 38ft yacht, Nereida, Jeanne went below deck for some much-needed sleep.

Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) spokesman at the scene Rick Poole said: 'Jeanne arrived dockside in Victoria (BC) Harbour at somewhere between 0900 UTC and 1000 UTC yesterday morning.

'She was quarantined until Customs could clear her and after several days, I think, without a decent night's sleep I'm sure she was exhausted and at the limit of human endurance and went below to get some sleep.'

Light winds delayed Jeanne's triumphant return by several days.

Jeanne left Victoria Harbour, B.C. Canada on 22 October 2012 and travelled more than 25,000 nautical miles to become the world's oldest female solo nonstop unassisted circumnavigator.

She is also the first female solo nonstop circumnavigator to start from North America.

Practical Boat Owner: www.pbo.co.uk

Jeanne's blog: synereida.livejournal.com

Henri Lloyd Support RYA Team GBR in the ISAF Youth Worlds
Henri Lloyd is proud to support RYA Volvo Team GBR who will be competing in the 2013 ISAF Youth World Championships. The team has been training hard, they have taken delivery of their new Henri Lloyd kit and are ready to take on the world!

Henri Lloyd is the official clothing partner to the RYA Volvo Team GBR, who is fielding a twelve strong team competing in each of the eight classes. The Team was presented with their sailing kit by Henri Lloyd Chief Executive, Paul Strzelecki last month at a special reception held at the Lotus F1 base in Oxfordshire, UK.

The team will be wearing specially selected items from the Cobra Dinghy range. Striking new Cobra range of dinghy gear is a product of the company's Intelligent Innovation programme. Having worked alongside some of the world's best dinghy sailors including Sir Ben Ainslie CBE and the RYA Youth Programme, Henri Lloyd have been well placed to develop a high performance specialist collection for the dinghy sailor with a design aesthetic aimed at the younger sailor.

The ergonomic garment designs have been guided by an extensive 3D body mapping exercise to ensure that muscles are supported and fatigue reduced and incorporates articulation into the cut to ensure comfort and ease of movement.

For more information about the team take a look at our short guide at www.henrilloyd.com

Cowes Dinard St Malo Race
Photo by Maitre Jacques/ Pierrick Contin. Click on image to enlarge.

This weekend over 170 yachts from six different nations will race across the English Channel to the famous walled port city of St Malo in Brittany, France. The 170-mile race pre-dates the Royal Ocean Racing Club by almost 20 years, with the overall winner taking the impressive gold plated King Edward VII Cup, presented by the British Monarch to the Club Nautique de la Rance at Dinard in 1906.The Cowes Dinard St Malo Race is the ninth race of the 13 race series for the RORC Season's Points Championship and bar next month's Rolex Fastnet Race, is likely to have the largest entry of the RORC season.

Four multihulls will be racing to St Malo including two French Multi 50s: Etienne Hochede's Pir² Port De Fécamp is a vintage trimaran built in 1983 but the hot favourite to take line honours in St Malo will be Loic Fequet's Maitre Jacques, which has finished in the top three in class for both the Route du Rhum and Transat Jacques Vabre. The Multihull record has stood since 2002, an extraordinary time of 5 hours 23 min 33 seconds was set by Maxi Catamaran Maiden 2 and Maitre Jacques is unlikely to beat that.

Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard returns to RORC racing for the first time since taking line honours in February's RORC Caribbean 600. ICAP Leopard set the monohull record for the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race in 2008, averaging 11.61 knots, and the 100ft canting keel maxi is very capable of improving on that. ICAP Leopard's current form in both the RORC Caribbean 600 and last month's record run in the JP Morgan Round the Island Race has them averaging over 13 knots.

There are 20 yachts racing to St Malo in IRC One including Piet Vroon's Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens 3, and Edward Broadway's Ker 40, Hooligan VII, which are currently placed first and second overall for the 2013 season.

With 49 yachts entered, IRC Two is the largest class racing and Géry Trentesaux's MC34 Patton, Courrier Vintage, has been in superb form this season. Courrier Vintage was runner up last year by just seven minutes on corrected time and will undoubtedly feature in the race. Nine First 40.7s and seven First 40s will also feature in IRC Two enjoying a close battle within the class.

In 2012 French yachts dominated the race winning four IRC Classes with Olivier Pesci and his crew on Grand Soleil 40, Beelzebuth 3, overjoyed to win the King Edward VII Cup for the best corrected time overall. -- Louis Habib

www.rorc.org

Les Sables - Horta - Les Sables: The Advantages Of Being Becalmed
Photo by Christophe Breschi / Breschi-photo-video.com. Click on image to enlarge.

After a trying night, dawn revealed an end-of-world scene, islands shrouded in cloud and curtains of rain, enormous clouds down to the water, and, luckily for us, clearer sky ahead. As the sun rose, the 2351 m volcano of Pico could be seen rising behind the island of Sao Jorge, with not a cloud hiding it's peak. Halvard says it is the first time he has seen it, often it is invisible. As we have been going extremely slowly due to the millpond conditions, we have had ample time to visually explore the stunning north coast of Sao Jorge, as well as short detour north to Graciosa (that's where the current took us). We saw an adult whale and calf close to the boat, lots of dolphins, and as there is not a ripple on the water, lots of fish too.

The only blot on this otherwise perfect empty land and sea-scape is the Class40 Red, and sometimes they get a bit too close. Behind them is a solid bank of cloud which has been there for hours and may have swallowed a significant portion of the fleet.

The island of Faial (the finish) is clearly visible and covered in a solid layer of cloud. Not much wind there. Campagne de France is ghosting along under gennaker. About 27 miles to go. -- Miranda Merron / Campagne de France

* Class 40 Campagne de France 4th into Horta. Miranda, Halvard and Campagne de France crossed the finish line of the first leg into the two legged Class 40 Les Sables - Horta - Les Sables race earlier today. The exact finishing time was 19h38m30s french time. The first leg was won by the highly competitive duo made up of Sebastien Rougues, Armel Tripon and their boat GDF Suez (Mach40). Campagne de France's time on the racecourse was 6 days 36 minuets and 30 seconds. 7hours behind the winners and 3hours behind third place Earwan. Campagne de France's average speed came in at 8.88 knots for the 1250 mile course!

www.mirandamerron.com
www.lessables-horta.com

ISAF Match Race Rankings
Great Britain's Ian Williams and Denmark's Camilla Ulrikkeholm have retained their World #1 spots in the ISAF Open and Women's Match Racing World Rankings.

Open There is no change in the top three of the Open Rankings after Stena Match Cup Sweden as Ian Williams, for the 16th rankings release in a row, sits comfortably atop. Taylor Canfield (ISV) and Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) remain World #2 and #3 respectively.

All three recently sailed at the Swedish stop of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour as Williams came through in fifth, Morvan ninth and Canfield 11th.

Stena Match Cup Sweden winner Bjorn Hansen (SWE) climbs up one place to World #4 with runner-up Phil Robertson (NZL) shifting up a spot to World #9.

Women's After her victory at the Danish Open Ladies Cup Denmark's Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen has moved up from World #45 to World #22.

Pedrsen's last Women's Match Racing event came at the London 2012 Olympic Games where she finished tenth and she came back with a bang on Skovshoved, Denmark.

Despite finishing second the result solidified Ulrikkeholm's position as World #1.

World #2 Lucy Macgregor finished third having made light work of Merel Witteveen (NED) in the Petit Final whilst Witteveen enters the Women's Rankings at World #55.

In the next Women's ISAF Match Race Rankings two ISAF Grade 1 events, Lysekil Women's Match and the ISAF Nations Cup, and two ISAF Grade 2 regattas New York Women's Invitational and the EUROSAF Match Racing Women's European Championship could see significant movement in the Women's Rankings.

Top ten open rankings:

1. Ian Williams, GBR
2. Taylor Canfield, ISV
3. Pierre-Antoine Morvan, FRA
4. Bjorn Hansen, SWE
5. Keith Swinton, AUS
6. William Tiller, NZL
7. Mathieu Richard, FRA
8. Johnie Berntsson, SWE

Top ten women's rankings:

1. Camilla Ulrikkeholm, DEN
2. Lucy Macgregor, GBR
3. Julie Bossard, FRA
4. Tamara Echegoyen, ESP
5. Ekaterina Skudina, RUS
6. Alexa Bezel, SUI
7. Robie Stephanie, USA
8. Claire Leroy, FRA
9. Anna Kjellberg, SWE
10. Renata Decnop, BRA

Full rankings: www.sailing.org/mrwrankings

Marinepool Teams Up With Spindrift Racing
Marinepool proudly announces the 3 year partnership with Spindrift Racing as the "Official Clothing Supplier" of the high profile French/Swiss multihull racing project.

The Spindrift Racing Team, based in La Trinite-sur-Mer (FRA), will exclusively use Marinepool performance sailing clothing and leisure wear across all 3 Spindrift managed sailing projects: Ladycat D35, skippered by Dona Bertarelli and a top contender in all major competitions on Lake Geneva; Spindrift MOD70, winner of the 2012 Multi One Design Championship; and the Maxi trimaran Spindrift 2 (formerly known as Banque Populaire V), recently acquired to conquer new records.

After today´s christening ceremony and presentation of Spindrift 2 in her new colours, the giant multihull will be run through a series of training sessions off the French coast before the kick-off of its first race: the Rolex Fastnet Race in August where it is clearly one of the favorites for line honours.

Through this long-term collaboration, Marinepool and Spindrift will closely work together in the optimization of Marinepool´s performance sailing clothing range and the development of new offshore products tested by Yann Guichard, one of the most experienced skippers in multihull ocean racing and his crew.

www.spindrift-racing.com
www.marinepool.com

RNLI Welcomes New Chairman
Combining his experience as a successful businessman and a long-serving volunteer, Charles Hunter-Pease today (11 July) takes the helm to start his role as Chairman of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Charles has been involved in the in the RNLI's governance since 1996 when he became a member of the Institution's Council. He has been a Trustee for the charity that saves lives at sea twice, from 1999 to early 2008, before re-joining the trustee board in late 2009. He has been Vice Chairman since 16 March 2013.

Charles's first duty as RNLI Chairman is to participate in the naming of one of the charity's newest class of lifeboat, the Shannon. The Jock and Annie Slater is the first Shannon class to enter active service and will take up a place in the RNLI's relief fleet after the ceremony at the RNLI College in Poole on 11 July.

A senior manager in the motor industry, Charles worked for Volvo from 1973 until retiring in 2007. He became Senior Vice President of Volvo Car Corporation in Gothenburg in 1993 and acted as the Senior Adviser to the Management Team of Volvo Car Corporation from 1999 onwards. For over 20 years, Charles has used his management and business expertise as a volunteer, serving on various RNLI committees including fundraising, resources, remuneration, membership nomination and property, and has chaired the group leading the continuous improvement programme for the past three years.

Charles Hunter-Pease will succeed the RNLI's current Chairman, Admiral the Lord Boyce on 11 July 2013.

www.rnli.org.uk

Industry News
The UK boatbuilder of Southerly sailing yachts, which went into voluntary liquidation in April after what it described as a "dramatic decline in orders for delivery in 2013 and early 2014", has re-emerged under a different corporate structure, with two out of the three same directors in charge.

The move, according to a report in The London Times on Saturday, has sparked controversy after the boatbuilder, which traded as Northshore Yachts, entered liquidation owing suppliers close to £1m, says The Times, as well as £550,000 in redundancy payments.

Various creditors have questioned the business ethics behind the new venture.

The business now trades as Southerly Yachts, a limited company incorporated more than a decade ago. It is building boats on Northshore's Itchenor, Chicester site, and the intellectual property has been retained because the brand resided in a different company from the rest of the business's assets, writes The Sunday Times' Alex Ralph.

IBI News: plus.ibinews.com

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Nautor's Swan has announced the opening of a new office in Barcelona (Spain), in the city's prestigious waterfront district.  Led by Marcelo Silbert, Nautor's Swan Spain is focused on promoting the SwanLine range of performance and cruising yachts and also offers comprehensive service to existing Swan owners. 

"Having worked with Nautor for more than a decade, Marcelo is a long standing member of the Nautor family hence it is a great pleasure to open the Nautor's Swan Spain office and reinforce the Nautor's presence in one of the company's important markets," said Luca Lucheschi, Commercial Director, Nautor's Swan.

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The International 49er and 49er FX Classes have announces a long term partnership with Magic Marine, which sees the renowned sailing apparel manufacturer become Official Clothing Partner to the Olympic skiff classes.

The partnership was officially launched at the 49er and 49erFX European Championships, the first major event of the 2012-2016 Olympic Quadrennial in Aarhus, Denmark from 2nd to 7th of July 2013. The next event on the programme will be the 49er and 49erFX Worlds in Marseille, France from 21st to 29th of September 2013.

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New York Yacht Club Commodore Thomas J. Harrington announced an important addition to the Club's professional staff: Stuart Streuli will be the Director of Communications.

As Director of Communications, Stuart Streuli will lead and coordinate the NYYC's communications and marketing activities. He will promote club events, such as the NYYC Annual Regatta presented by Rolex, NYYC Race Week at Newport and NYYC Invitational Cup presented by Rolex, in a way that is consistent with the Club's mission.

After nearly 15 years as an editor at Sailing World magazine, Stuart brings a tremendous amount of media experience. He was one of the driving forces behind the magazine's multimedia efforts, working extensively across a variety of mediums, including print, photography, video and social media. He has extensive experience in top-end sailing competitions from the perspective of a participant and a journalist.

Stuart succeeds Michael Levitt who is retiring after 17 years as Director of Communications. Michael came to the NYYC having written 13 books, some of them with NYYC members such as Dennis Conner, Tom Whidden and Ted Hood and was an editor of Nautical Quarterly, Yachting magazine and what is now Sailing World.

nyyc.org

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Organisers of the International Sailing Summit said they plan to offer three sessions at this year's event focusing on the growth of the industry. The summit takes place August 18-20 at the St Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, California.

The seminars will include presentations from Efrem Zimbalist III, CEO of Active Interest Media, on what the sailing industry can learn from other sports with programs to grow participation.

Oman Sail's CEO David Graham will present a seminar called "Oman Sail - Getting a Nation Sailing." Graham will discuss how the program has introduced 11,000 people to sailing in the last four years as well as outlining its 10-year vision for the sport in that Middle East country.

Nevin Sayre, a professional windsurfer, will make a presentation called "What Sailing Can Learn From Snow Sports."

www.internationalsailingsummit.com

Letters To The Editor -
Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Pedro Eltorro: Apart from the design skill learned. The 2013 Americas Cup is the most ridiculous event staged in the history of sailing.

* From Frank Pong: I do not believe one word of what Dave Hollom said in Scuttlebutt Europe #2874, unless those in Authority have NOT been telling the public ( us mushrooms ) " the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth ".

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The Last Word
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