Brought to you by boats.com Europe with the support of OC Events, 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 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ROUTE DU RHUM - PRB DISMASTS
* At 6 PM French time, Vincent Riou informed his shore team that PRB's mast had broken in three places. Immediately before the dismasting he'd been sailing in 15-20 knot winds under full mainsail and solent jib. "I was just trimming my sails when the mast broke."

20 miles from the Scilly Islands, he took advantage of the remaining daylight to cut away the pieces of the mast and sails and intended to start the boat's engine and head to Brittany. This new IMOCA 60 had been launched in August, but had seen gusts in excess of 35 knots during it's qualification sail, so there was certainly no way to predict this outcome.

Two members of his shore team were aboard a highspeed motorboat heading to a rendezvous to assist in towing the boat. The two boats should meet about 6 AM on Tuesday. With the favourable weather conditions, the boat should make it to port at Benodet Tuesday morning.

* Decidedly, the scenario for the start of this 8th edition of the Route du Rhum - la Banque Postale is radically different than that of the previous edition. Yesterday everyone seemed to be delighting in the light conditions, but the particularly testing conditions of the first night had changed the outlook somewhat today.

With less than 5 knots of wind, the material was certainly spared, but it was a very different picture for the 73 skippers still racing. Repeated manoeuvres, long sessions at the helm to mirror a shifty wind struggling to establish a steady strength and direction, the watch for cargo ships; all the various night-time activities left the sailors little time for rest.

Contacted very briefly in the early afternoon due to communication problems, Dominique Wavre, the skipper of Temenos told a familiar story echoed throughout the fleet.

"It was a difficult night, with a lot of wind shifts and sail changes. I got stuck in less than 2 knots of wind on several occasions. I came across a fair amount of cargo ships and got caught up in a crab pot, which forced me to back up. I didn't really sleep much with all that going on." -- Kate Jennings

* The ORMA trimaran skippers are enjoying the Southwestern winds that hit their sails in the afternoon. They are on the edge of the low pressure system positionned on the Azores, which means that it is time to release all the power these boats can develop. Speedometers are now showing "usual" speed, up to 25 knots for Brossard (Yvan Bourgnon at 4:00PM).

Franck Cammas is still leading over Michel Desjoyaux (Geant) and Pascal Bidegorry (Banque Populaire), with only a few miles separating the first and the last boat (Madinina, the last multi-60 is only 161.7 miles from Groupama). The regata-style - as the skippers call it - of the Transat will be over soon and we should see the situation evolve in the next two days.

In the IMOCA class, the three skippers who chose to sail closer to the English coasts - Jean Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec), Roland Jourdain (Sill & Veolia), Jean le Cam (VM Materiaux) and Brian Thompson (Artemis) found the best way out of the English Channel, while the ones who picked up the opposite coasts (Brittany) stayed in the calms, showing only speeds up to 5 knots (against 11 for the 3 fellows in the lead). In the middle and rear of the fleet, a weak and unpredictable breeze still accompanied the multis and monhohulls during the afternoon. For them, Northern winds are forecast for tonight [Monday] or by Tuesday.

Most of the boats were "sailing" at around 1 to 2 knots, requiring all the efforts and energy of the skippers to keep them moving. Some of the skippers had to fight to get rid of seaweed caught in their rudders. Some of them also had to drop the anchor to avoid going backwards.

Trying to anticipate the announced shift, a few boats started to take a northern route in the last 24 hours. They are seeking to be the first to touch this fresh air coming from the North, and then be able to make a direct route towards the Azores. According to Meteo France, favorable sailing conditions should appear on the charts tomorrow for everyone.

* Jeremie Beyou's press office released a brief statement today thanking all the people, relatives, friends and strangers, who expressed support for him and his wife. Jeremie retired from the race to be with his pregnant wife during a time of serious medical crisis. Their child was stillborn on Monday.

www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com

SAIL FASTER AND SMARTER
If you want to improve your results on the race course, you should read Speed & Smarts. This bi-monthly newsletter, written by winning America's Cup tactician Dave Dellenbaugh, has been praised by racing sailors worldwide for more than 12 years. Each colorful issue has 16 pages full of race-winning tips on boatspeed, tactics, strategy, rules and more! Whether you are a skipper or crew, on a one-design or big boat, Speed & Smarts will improve your performance.

To see a sample issue or sign up for a subscription, visit our website at www.SpeedandSmarts.com

SIX MEDAL DAYS FOR SAILING IN QINGDAO
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board has approved a final version of the competition schedule for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Olympic Sailing Competition will take place in Qingdao from the 9-21 August, with the Medal Races taking place from 16-21 August. 22-23 August are scheduled as reserve days.

The first races begin the day after the Opening Ceremony on 9 August. The first two of sailing's eleven Olympic Champions will be decided with the Medal Races on 16 August. One Medal Race will follow on 17 August, with two Medal Races per day from then on. The Closing Ceremony for the Games is on 24 August.

ISAF Vice-President and Technical Delegate for the Olympic Sailing Competition David Kellett (AUS) commented, 'The revised competition programme for the Olympic Sailing Competition extends the focus for sailing during the Olympic Games. For the media and fans the attention is on the medal days, and sailing will now have six medal days. The scheduled start times for sailing are excellent, with few other sports taking place at the same time. Sailing has a greater opportunity than ever before at the Olympic Games to reach the world.'

With the drama of the Medal Races spread over a six day period, sailing has a terrific opportunity to present the excitement of the sport to a worldwide audience in August 2008. ISAF, the IOC and the Bejing 2008 Organizing Committee (BOCOG) are also working hard towards maximizing the viewing areas for spectators at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre. During the Olympic Test Event in August this year over 40,000 visitors bought tickets to watch the racing, with 8,000 spectators for the final day of Medal Races out on Fushan Bay.

sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j62Fh?,18&format=popup

ORC GP CLASSES
The ORC GP Classes continue their progress. The GP 42 is leading the way with two boats in the water, one from Italy designed by Farr and the other from Croatia designed by Botin/carkeek. Others will soon follow from many different countries and continents.

The International GP 42 Association was formed in Valencia in September. Filippo Faruffini (IT) was elected President, with Jan Santana (ESP), Michael Unsworth (UK) and Chris Shining (US) being members of a Steering Committee.

The Spanish Federation has supported the GP42 Class, transferring to this Class for 2007 the racing circuit and title that was allocated for the last few years to the IMS 600 Class. This led to several new constructions being started.

The provisional 2007 racing calendar will tentatively include an opening event in Cres, Croatia, 21-23 June, within the IMS European Championship, another in Valencia 13-15 July within the Trofeo de la Reina, then in Palma de Majorca 28 July-5 August within the Copa del Rey and Cascais August 30-September 1st within the Trofeu Quebramar. Additional regattas are also considered in Cala Galera (Italy), St Tropez (France) and Puerto Calero (Canary Islands). The 2008 races are foreseen to start in Key West and Miami. There have been a few amendments to the GP 42 measurement procedures, but the fundamentals of the Rule are intended to be frozen until 31st Dec 2010.

Regarding the other GP classes, the first GP 26 has been built in Italy by Giorgio Grassi for buyer Giuseppe Giuffre, and others have started in South America. The GP 33 is showing interest in South America, and several other fleets are showing an increasing interest.

The ORC Management Committee has agreed to extend the same concept of One- Design IMS certificates to the GP Classes. This means that for each one of the GP classes every year a "Class" IMS certificate will be issued, that will be the identical for all boats belonging to the class, and will enable GP boats to participate in handicap events without requiring a full IMS measurement.

Offshore Racing Council: www.orc.org

LAUNCH OF TEAM MIRABAUD
Team Mirabaud Yngling sailors, Sarah Webb, Sarah Ayton and Pippa Wilson have started their Beijing Olympic campaign with a launch party hosted by sponsors Mirabaud at their London offices.

"The support that Mirabaud have shown us by becoming our title sponsor is great news. We are very pleased with the commitment and support they have offered, because without it we could not compete internationally" stated Sarah Ayton.

Team Mirabaud is currently ranked number two in the world and are top UK performers. The team's No.2 world ranking position caps off a successful season, with podium positions at Miami, Princess Sofia, Hyeres and Holland Regattas.

www.ynglinggirls.com
www.lynxsports.co.uk

VELUX 5 OCEANS: THE CHASE IS ON
Defending champion Bernard Stamm (Cheminees Poujoulat) continues to lead the Velux 5 Oceans as the fleet crashes further south into the Atlantic following the dramatic start in the Bay of Biscay. The Swiss skipper still holds a lead of more than 200 miles this morning over closest competitor Kojiro Shiraishi (Spirit Of Yukoh). Although Stamm is continuing to sail hard, the chasing fleet has been making gains overnight. Importantly, the leading pair will soon be facing the notorious Doldrums, the equatorial region where the winds can be unpredictable and frustratingly light, making for some tense and aggravating sailing. The doldrums normally proves a key area where gains and losses can shake up a fleet.

Kojiro Shiraishi is keeping pace with Stamm despite blowing his Code 5 sail over the weekend (the heavy air reaching sail). Relatively light winds on Sunday allowed the Japanese solo sailor to make running repairs following the intense start.

Mike Golding (ECOVER) has made the biggest gains within the fleet and lies in third place, eating up the miles and reducing Stamm's lead to just 476 nautical miles for the British skipper, a reduction of over 100 miles since Sunday night on the leader. As he leaves the Canary Islands to the East, Mike clearly has his sights set on Stamm and Shiraishi, and will hope to make further gains as the leaders enter the doldrums. Speaking yesterday, Mike commented "I feel pretty happy with regard to my position against Alex (Thompson) at the moment. His boat should be better than us in these conditions with a bigger, lighter rig, so it's nice to be doing OK against him."

After a frustrating 24 hours, Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), lying in fourth, has finally found some wind "I've got a bit of wind now, which is a novelty, as for the last 24 hours I've had nothing, and hopefully it's going to stay with me. I've had very little sleep with all the sail changes, but hopefully now with more stable conditions I can get some more sleep."

While Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (Saga Insurance) and Graham Dalton (A Southern Man AGD) continue to make their way down the Portuguese coast after respective delays in La Coruna and Bilbao, Basque hero Unai Basurko (Pakea) has been forced to make a second pit stop in Vigo (Galicia, Spain). Arriving in the early hours of the morning on Monday, Basurko will have to endure another 48 hour minimum time penalty before rejoining leg 1 as his shore team repairs the auto pilot system that forced him back to land.

www.velux5oceans.com

ISAF ANNUAL CONFERENCE: 2-12 NOVEMBER
With over 100 submissions and 14 Committees, the discussions in Helsinki will cover the full spectrum of the sailing world. However, every year three or four hot topics emerge which spark lively debate across the meeting rooms and across the larger sailing world.

Last year the Medal Race format for the Olympic Sailing Competition took centre stage, and in 2006 the topic is back on the agenda with Submission 089, which proposes to make further changes to the scoring system to increase the importance of the Medal Race. Staying with the Olympic Games, Submission 064 proposes a new media friendly course for the two windsurfing events.

For offshore sailors, Submission 101 will be of particular interest as it proposes to tighten the regulations of classes meeting the definition of Offshore Yachts. For match racers meanwhile, Submission 078 proposes match racing to return to the Olympic Sailing Competition. Funding and sponsorship is of vital importance to sailors worldwide and is an issue addressed at the core of Submission 015. It proposes to allow a provision for advertising space for class sponsors in the Class Rules.

Away from the race course, Submissions 016, 030, 031 and 034 propose methods of achieving a minimum of 20% women's representation on the Council. With the eleven sailing events at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games showing a massive 32% increase in participation by women athletes, the submissions aim to ensure sailing's proud record of participation by women on the water in its governance. Whilst ISAF does currently achieve 20% women's representation, the debate will focus on the regulations governing the process.

sailing.org/meetings/2006november

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Letters are limited to 350 words [waived for Olaf Harken! ], and you may only write a single letter on a topic. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published.

* From Olaf Harken: Thanks for opening the thread on PROCYON and it was interesting to listen to some of the comments. By the way I am trying to find the boat and hope a reader has seen it and will let me know.

For those that are questioning the project and results I can only say that this project was designed to test new ideas since America was significantly behind Europe in innovative designs. We were not out to prove that a bi-pod mast or a canting keel or the other ideas were better but to increase our knowledge to make sailing easier, faster, safer and more fun. It was an industry effort with a great core team and dozens of contributors of equipment. In general we were very pleased with the results but certainly would make some changes if we did it again.

Here is a brief analysis of some of the main features:

Canting keel with wings: Very successful results and extremely simple, reliable and cost effective. We had a large Milwaukee Push pull cylinder that was not even visible in the boat, attached to a four foot long arm that was all hidden inside a foot wide bulkhead. Our original keel was a difficult 11.5 feet deep and we hit bottom so many times I was considering putting wheels on the wings (not really). The hydraulics never failed. Britt Chance said it was designed to hit a rock at 11 knots and not fail. He was right. The wings eliminated the need for extra foils which are not conducive to a cruising boat and the performance increase was some where between 1 to 1.5 knots on a beat or tight reach since we could add more sail with the keel canted. In very light air we would cant to leeward and normally we would let gravity cant the keel during a tack if we didn't want to use power. Ten years ago this was considered unrealistic. Today there are a lot of new race boat designs incorporating canting keels such as the Volvo round the word racers. When a production builder does one with wings, I predict it will be as normal as a carbon mast.

One note: O.H. Rodgers designed a new 7.5 foot keel and added 500 pounds to the bulb. The old keel weighed 13,500 pounds (6,136 kgs). The new design for some reason did not lose performance which most likely indicates the old keel had more drag from the angle of attack of the wings.

Bi-Pod Mast: The idea was to have a clean entry into the wind like a jib, be able to roll the main up like a jib at the touch of a button, lower down the rig to go under a bridge and attach to the gunwales which are the strongest part of the boat. Because of the Inherent strength, a large amount of heavy stainless steel rigging was eliminated using only a backstay and head stay. Comparable carbon masts weighed about 0 to 10% more fully rigged.

The results were mixed but definitely worth trying again. Sail shape of the main was pretty ugly when rolled partially up, we had two disastrous failures that set the project back twice for a total of 14 months and took the steam out of the project. The first was a mechanical failure of bolts sheering off the aluminum bridge holding the pre-bent carbon tubes together at the peak causing the tubes to spring apart and come crashing down. The second was "the storm of the century in Miami with 100 knot winds which leaned the boat over so far the mast banged into a piling on the pier and eventually broke. The current mast is stronger, five feet shorter (from 90 feet to 85 feet) and we took the airfoil shape out since the boat wanted to sail all the time. With the new mast which has seen extreme weather, a mainsail built more like a jib, a simpler system for lowering the mast, an easier, lighter and less expensive method of attaching the boom and eliminating the boom pod would be desirable. It is a viable system and worth another try on a smaller boat to make the tests easier.

The Boom: It is not a wishbone as was originally conceived but a dramatic looking sculptured carbon piece of art that worked well. The vang was part of the structure and the goose neck and vang attached to a very strong 8" (200mm) diameter aluminum pod that went through the deck for attachment. It worked well because it was built so strong but not a great solution. I would favor the vang to be attached directly to the deck and the gooseneck to a cross beam between the mast pods.

Water Ballast: Very nice for upwind performance and more comfort in a seaway but not worth the complexity and cost unless one plans on long voyages. The hull shape is also a factor.

Interior: This was a love/hate interior. I asked Diane Attwood to design it since she had done some unique and unusual designs on power mega yachts. I did not want the same old stuff since that was not the purpose of the experiment and therefore stayed away from sail boat interior designers. It was basically a brushed aluminum interior with a lot of color accents in pillows and paintings and upholstery. Today it is a traditional wood interior with a spiral staircase.

Other: There were many other experiments like forward steering stations, the second Map Tech navigational system in the world donated by the late Land's End founder, Gary Comer, only an alternator off the main engine to supply a massive bank of batteries, and total push button control of winches for main and jib and the furling systems all accessible from either steering system.

The core team was Britt Chance, naval architect, Eric and Ben Hall from Hall spars.

Frank Butler and Gerry Douglas of Catalina Yachts who assembled the deck and built the interior. Charlie Miller of North Sails, Art Ellis and Dick McCurdy of Ockam Instruments. Diane Attwood designer of the interior and consultant to Britt on deck design. Amoco Chemical provided additional funding, materials and operational costs for the first year. I led the project and Harken, Inc. and our nervous banker financed much of it.

Our captain was Randy West who guided the boat for many thousands of miles from one venue to the other and entertained us all with his never ending stories. Procyon had over 20,000 visitors on board and many hundreds of volunteer crews. She was featured in almost all of the sailing magazines around the world and in Time, Business Week, Popular Science, and the New York Times in addition to dozens of trade publications.

It had its set backs but was and is a great sailing yacht and I hope I can find it.

Editor: Please send any information to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and I'll pass it along to Olaf. Thanks...

THE LAST WORD
Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

OC Events, organisers of two major IMOCA 60 oceanic events, the new double-handed Barcelona World Race 2007, and the original solo transocean race, The Transat 2008 (ex-OSTAR) www.ocevents.org

Over 80,000 boats for sale on www.boats.com

Scuttlebutt Europe is available via email:
To subscribe, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit scuttlebutteurope.com

Editorial and letter submissions to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Advertising and technical queries to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or see scuttlebutteurope.com/advertising/