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Espada Dominates Day Two of Coutts Quarter Ton Cup
Photo by Paul Wyeth, www.pwpictures.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

Cowes, UK: After yesterday, when a different boat won each race, today's story couldn't have been more of a contrast with Louise Morton's Espada taking the victor's laurels in all three races. That said she most certainly didn't have it all her own way and her winning margins were just 52 seconds, 15 seconds and an unbelievably close 2 seconds.

In the overall standings the discard has now come into play and thanks to today's stellar performance Louise Morton and Espada have jumped into an eight-point lead from Rickard Melander's Alice II.

One of the boats being specially honoured at the Gala Dinner is Paul Treliving's Odd Job, a 1973 Stephen Jones design which celebrates her 40th birthday this month. Odd Job was built for celebrated yachting journalist Jack Knights and was one of the first to really exploit the IOR rule. Coutts Quarter Ton Cup Patron Bob Fisher, who sadly cannot be with us tonight as he is unavoidably detained by some little regatta in San Francisco, sailed on the boat regularly and Paul's love affair with her started in 1984 when he and Peter Morton purchased her as a wreck and completely restored her.

Interestingly when the boat was first built it had non-overlapping jibs and swept back spreaders - something that today's young sailors no doubt view as "the latest thinking"! Paul and Morty won the British Quarter Ton Championship with Odd Job 1984 and also added her name to the illustrious list engraved on the Golden Roman Bowl, presented to the overall winner of the Round The Island Race. Paul then sold the boat and she passed to well known East Coast sailor Nigel Theadom and then to Ray Nash who eventually laid her up in Hamble. Paul was one of the founding members of the revival Quarter Ton movement and having repurchased Odd Job he had her completely refitted by Casse Tete and she remains in concours d'elegance condition.

The regatta concludes tomorrow and with a forecast for very light winds. -- Fiona Brown

Top Five After Seven Races

1. Espada, Louise Morton, GBR, 10 points
2. Alice II, Rickard Melander, SWE, 18
3. Bullit, Ashley Curtis, FRA, 21.5
4. Whiskers, Ian Southworth, GBR, 23.5
5. Illegal Immigrant, W McNeill & M Pascall, GBR, 24.5

Full results: https://www.rcyc.co.uk

Beautiful Day For Italy's Paternoster and Di Salle
Defending 420 Girls Champions Ilaria Paternoster and Benedetta di Salle shone in the Cypriot sun on the second day of racing at the 2013 Sail First ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships.

An afternoon sea breeze kicked as 14 knots of consistent wind with gusts of up to 20 knots allowed the 351 sailors from 61 nations to complete a busy day of intense racing.

After five 420 Girls races Italy's Paternoster and di Salle have recorded three victories to sit on top of the leader board on six points with 2012 silver medallists Carrie Smith and Ella Clark following on ten points.

The 420 Boys got off the water at 18:45 local time and leading the way is Portugal's Diogo Pereira and Pedro Cruz. The pair, both from Cascais host venue of the 2007 ISAF Worlds, started sailing together two years and after five races they lead the way.

Overnight 29er leaders Lucas Rual and Emile Amoros (FRA) continued to fly high in the fleet and got off to an excellent start on the second day picking up two race wins. The pair were OCS in the third race of the day, the sixth of the series, but with the discard kicking in they hold the lead on nine points.

New Zealand's Isaac McHardie and Micah Wilkinson continue to impress in the SL16 fleet after another consistent day of racing on the glorious Cypriot waters.

Four race wins, a second and a discarded fifth place has given them a nine point lead over Jordi Booth and Lucia Brugman (ESP). Seven races SL16 races remain with it all to play.

Complete results for all eight classes: www.isafyouthworlds.com/editions/2013/2013-results.php

www.isafyouthworlds.com

Marlow Excel Dinghy Series Upgrades
The upgrades to the Excel Dinghy Series launched at the beginning of the year prove successful for new breed of high performance Olympic classes. The higher performance 49er rigs, the 49erfx and Nacra 17 all demand higher performance than ever from their ropes.

Excel Elite 90
Excel Elite 90 utilises the super high strength Dyneema SK90 yarn which is 15% stronger than the Marlow standard SK78 equivalent. The cover features a highly durable blend of Technora and polyester which improves abrasion resistance 300% compared to a full polyester cover.

Excel Racing GP 78
Compared to Excel Racing 78, the cover features a highly durable blend of Technora and polyester which improves both abrasion resistance and also grip in wet hands.

British sailing team member and 49er European champion Dylan Fletcher explains "Performance and reliability are key factors, the members of Team GBR are upgrading some high load lines such as spinnaker halyards to Excel Elite 90. The added abrasion resistance and improvement in strength can only benefit our performance and decrease needless retirements due to gear failure."

www.marlowropes.com

Close Points On Day Two
Photo by Kurt Arrigo. Click on image to enlarge.

Within the Gazprom Swan European Regatta this week are two major World Championships, the inaugural Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship and Swan 45 Worlds. With an official circuit already in action for 2013 including, an early season win for Bronenosec (RUS) at the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta, the Gazprom Swan 60 Worlds is the second regatta of this four event series. Vladimir Liubomirov, owner of Swan 60 Bronenosec, maintains his mastery with a first and two seconds today securing his lead on the scoreboard.

Brad Butterworth (NZL) is sailing with Sir Peter Ogden on Knights of Crevichon (GBR).

Gazprom has joined the Swan 60 Class as a title sponsor and has committed to a full global racing calendar through to 2017.

The Swan 45 fleet has inspired competitors for seven editions of the World Championships. The crew of Swan 45 No Limits NED had all the answers again today and lead Swan 45 VanUden ITA by 1 point.

The main Gazprom Swan European Regatta fleet racing under the Spinlock IRC rating rule has seen a shakeup in Class C this week with Chris Frost Swan 36 (GBR) having considerable boat speed in these light wind conditions.

Club Swan 42 Magical Mystery Tour (GBR) leads Class A with four first places and one to discard in front of Club Swan 42 Brevity (GBR). Harald Baum's Swan 48 Elan (GER) slips into second place in Class B, two points behind Ray Mitchell's Swan 411 Accomplice (GBR).

www.nautorswan.com

20th Transat Jacques Vabre
For the 20th anniversary edition, the Transat Jacques Vabre transatlantic race returns to its real core values, offering a totally free course between Le Havre, France and Itajaí, Brazil, for four different classes of monohulls and multihulls. In total more than one week of events at the start are planned for the public in Le Havre and three weeks of festivities and popular events at the finish in Itajaí.

The 2013 race builds on previous editions setting the longest ever course between the traditional, popular start port of Le Havre and Brazil. The finish is in Itajaí, south of Rio de Janeiro, a course distance of 5400 miles - with no waypoints - across the Atlantic Ocean for the four different classes which are expected to form a fleet of more than 40 boats.

In the tradition of past Transat Jacques Vabre races, Sports Director Manfred Ramspacher and Sylvie Viant, the Race Director, have met with representatives of the four classes to plan the four staggered starts so that four classes will arrive in Itajaí in close order.

"We talked a lot with the four classes to define the best format: the start of monohulls and be on Sunday, November 3. On a preliminary route between Le Havre and Etretat (43m NE of Le Havre the multihulls will take part in a prologue but then as the IMOCA 60 'and Class 40 head for Brazil, the multihulls will return to Le Havre's Paul Vatine Basin. " says Ramspacher Then the scheduled departure for Multi50s is Tuesday, November 5 and the MOD70 Friday, November 8.

Then on this open course of 5400 miles, it should take between 12 and 25 days for the four class winners because this eleventh edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre is the longest in its history. Previous races went to Cartagena (Colombia) between 1993 and 1999 on a course of 4890 miles, Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) 2001 and 2007 at 4770 miles, and then in 2009 and 2011 to Puerto Limon (Costa Rica) the course distance was 4730 miles.

Key dates:

October 26: Grand opening of public village Le Havre
October 26-27: Exhibition race in the basin of the Eure
November 3: Start of the Transat Jacques Vabre
November 18: Grand opening of village public Itajai
3rd week of Nov: Estimated finish date of the first boats
November 30: Postlogue and first prizegiving in Itajai
December 7: Official Prizegiving in Itajai

www.transat-jacques-vabre.com

Team Hydros Wins Formula 18 World Championship
Billy Besson and Jeremie Lagarrigue have just won the Formula 18 World Championship in Grossetto, Italy. This is a good omen, about 2 months away from the season's main objective: The Little America's Cup, International C-Class Catamaran Championship, which will take place in Falmouth (UK) next September.

Billy Besson and Jeremie Lagarrigue, competing for Team Hydros, gained a resounding victory at the Formula 18 World Championship, in front of no less than 184 opponents representing the Formula 18 world elite. Bastiaan Tentij and Mischa Heemskerk, also competing for Team Hydros, and who will also be representing Switzerland in Falmouth in September for the Little America's Cup, finished rank 22 after sailing in the leading group for the main part of the race.

Both crews - Jeremie Lagarrigue & Billy Besson and Bastiaan Tentij & Mischa Heemskerk, participated in this championship in order to train for the Little America's Cup which they will race defending the Swiss flag.

Supported by the private bank Lombard Odier & Cie, Team Hydros is a scientific research center applied to sailing, tackling 3 challenges: Hydro Cup (participation in the C Class Catamaran World Championship), Hydro Contest (Academic Contest), and Hydro Speed Tour (Speed Record Contest).

The technological adventure of l'Hydroptere and its record-breaking exploits have been made possible by the support pledged since 2005 by Thierry Lombard, Managing Partner of the firm of private bankers Lombard Odier & Cie, whose foundation year - 1796 - is displayed on the craft's mainsail. -- Bernard Schopfer

www.f18-international.org
www.lombardodier.com

Leading Edge
The finalised VO65 bulb shape.

The new Volvo Ocean 65 may be one-design but no stone is being left unturned to ensure that maximum reliability is delivered with maximum performance. Farr Yacht Design's Alon Finkelstein looks in detail at VO65 appendage design...

In keeping with the conceptual philosophy of the rest of the yacht, the design brief for the VO65 required the appendage package to be significantly less costly than that of a Volvo Open 70 (VO70), with equivalent or higher safety factors... and a similar performance envelope. Although at the outset this seemed like a tall order, without the rigid constraints of the previous VO70 rule we found numerous fruitful areas to explore that delivered excellent return on investment in terms of performance improvements without additional cost or reduced robustness.

The VO65 keel fin is machined from a solid steel forging and is designed to comply with all of the stringent structural requirements of the previous VO70 rule. In addition, the fin meets or exceeds all the requirements of Germanischer Lloyd's (GL) new Guidelines for the Structural Design of Racing Yachts over 24m including keel torsional strength and a complete fatigue assessment.

After reviewing the proposed stopover ports for the 2014-2015 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, the organisers decided that an increase in maximum draft from 4.5m to 4.7m would be acceptable. This extra 200mm of draft allowed us to increase righting moment without increasing keel weight, giving the boat a noticeable performance improvement without incurring any significant extra cost.

The previous VO70 rule required the keel pin axis to be parallel to the waterline. This resulted in very low and sometimes negative sideforce loading on the keel fin. Negative sideforce is undesirable because it pushes the yacht to leeward thereby increasing leeway angles. Negative keel fin sideforce also comes with an induced drag penalty. From our very first Imoca 60 designs we've known that there was value in adding some incline to the keel pin angle, to ensure that the keel fin would produce positive sideforce under all points of sail. Recent high-performance cantingkeel ocean-racing yachts have pursued relatively large keel pin axis incline angles of as much as 8 degrees.

Full article in Seahorse magazine: www.seahorsemagazine.com

Rolex Farr 40 North American Championship
It's getting down to the wire for the Farr 40 Class, with several teams close, if not neck-and-neck, on points as they head into the Rolex Farr 40 North American Championship, the fifth and final event on the 2013 U.S. Circuit Championship. Scheduled from July 24-27 off Martha's Vineyard, the North American Championship's four days of racing will be co-hosted by the Farr 40 Class and Edgartown Yacht Club and contested by an international fleet of 11 Farr 40s representing six countries.

Defending North American Champion Jim Richardson (Newport, R.I./Boston, Mass.) and his team aboard Barking Mad currently hold the circuit championship lead with a total of 91 points, only two points ahead of current runner-up Alberto Rossi (Ancona, Italy) and his team aboard Enfant Terrible.

Tied for third in the circuit championship are Wolfgang Schaefer's (Lueneburg) German entry Struntje Light and John Demourkas' (Santa Barbara, Calif.) U.S. entry Groovederci (116 points each), while Nico Poons' (Monaco) Charisma is nipping at their heels (118 points).

Because of the attractive nature of the class and boat, regional Farr 40 fleets keep growing around the world, including in Europe, Turkey, Australia and most recently in Mexico, where Acapulco Yacht Club has already built a fleet that is six boats strong.

This is the first time that the North Americans will be held on Martha's Vineyard, an island of 100 square miles located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seven miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Race headquarters will be at Edgartown Yacht Club where on-water competition will be followed daily by lively social gatherings for the teams and their families.

Daily race reports and photos will be available online at www.farr40.org

Hart Recovers to Keep Lead at UKGLOBAL Flying Fifteen National Championship
Photo by Alan Henderson. Click on image to enlarge.

In a second day of Mediterranean conditions at Weymouth, the Flying Fifteen fleet enjoyed another day of sunshine and high temperatures. Winds were again light SW, around 6 kts in the first race, and down to 5kts in the second, but another two good races were achieved to keep the Championship well on course.

Leading contenders hoped to manage a couple of good or goodish results, but some took a tumble in the second race in tricky conditions.

Flying Fifteens come in all ages and construction types, and Stephen and David Crosbie showed what an old wooden example can do, driving the oldest boat in the fleet to a mid teens placing round the first mark, and holding very well to finish mid fleet.

Overall, Mike Hart/ Jeremy Davy retain the lead, but Richard Lovering/ Matt Alvarado accelerated into second place overall. Just as on Day 1, that second place is shared three ways, with plenty of other contenders poised close to the leaders. Tomorrow more wind is expected, which will allow contenders to enjoy some exciting sailing as well as the tactical battles seen so far. -- Alan Henderson

flyingfifteen.wordpress.com

Newport Bermuda Adds Time Penalties
For many years, the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee (BROC) has imposed monetary penalties for failure to satisfy eligibility, entry, measurement and registration requirements by set deadline dates. These monetary penalties have proven ineffective in the case of some deep-pocketed racers, and have led to an increasingly burdensome entry process and to the potential for unfair advantage for racers who may wish to make last-minute sail and other gear decisions dependent on weather forecasts.

To counter this trend, the BROC has replaced monetary penalties with elapsed time penalties beginning in 2014. These apply to administrative matters rather than infractions that may be associated with sailing the race course, and are designed to provide a level playing field (eligibility and measurement) or an orderly race administration (entry and registration).

The penalty for failure to meet eligibility, entry, measurement and registration requirements in a timely manner shall be the addition of 10 minutes to the yacht's elapsed time for each 24 hour period or any part thereof for which the yacht failed to meet the relevant deadline. Such requirements include any rule having a deadline, e.g., late supplemental information form, rating data, fees, crew information and waivers, satisfactory completion of inspection, and registration appearances.

Any yacht that suffers a catastrophic gear failure requiring submittal of new rating data after the rating submittal deadline may petition BROC for a waiver of penalty, provided that for other than the catastrophic failure, she would have in all respects been able to comply with the dates specified in the Notice of Race. In addition, any yacht requiring crew changes subsequent to the deadline for submitting crew information for reasons of illness, injury or family emergency may petition BROC for a waiver of penalty. -- John Rousmaniere

www.bermudarace.com

Letters To The Editor -
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* From Guy Haworth: I am bound to ask why the ACEAA (?) pulled the video coverage of the sail-overs.

Watching even one boat being controlled in three dimensions rather than two is fascinating.

They're not even playing patriotic music instead of showing a video.

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The Last Word
It's not that I'm a good person. I am just doing what I enjoy the most. I don't want a second house, I have one car, and that's enough. These things don't give me pleasure, but thinking about great little ideas gives me real pleasure. -- Amar Bose

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