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| Scuttlebutt Europe #1105 - 21 November 2006 |
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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
THE WINGED WONDER EMERGES The amazing craft now sitting in full standby mode in Weymouth is the product of all the teams' knowledge and passions regarding wind and water. The aim of the project remains the same, to set the Outright world speed sailing record and break through the 50 knot mark. To date, the wing has met all of its weight and strength targets. According to our VPP (velocity prediction program) SailRocket should be capable of hitting 55 knots of boat speed in 22 knots of wind assuming ideal conditions. The wing was designed by team member and director of Aerotrope, Christopher Hornzee Jones using a Compotech carbon spar, Fibrefusion water jet cut ribs, SP Gurit composite materials and all metal work supplied by Ekspan. The SailRocket build team were helped throughout the build in Southampton with floor space generously offered by Vestas Blades and Designcraft. SailRocket has already completed 58 runs down the Portland Harbour speed sailing course using the Mk1 Doyles/Compotech soft sail without mishap. The top speed with this rig was 31 knots as the rig struggled to hold shape when SailRocket's unique concept began to work in earnest. The value of these trials relating to such a radical craft is immeasurable. Many of the lessons learnt were incorporated into the design of the new solid sail. The new wing is a highly efficient, practical and robust piece of engineering that has already been sailed twice. The whole craft can be rigged for sailing by two people and handled on the water by three.
Wing Stats: The team do not expect an easy ride to 50 knots. A whole host of new issues are bound to accompany the much higher speeds and small mistakes will be compounded. It remains to be seen if Portland Harbour can return to its former glory as a World record setting venue. * Photos of the first outing are in the photo gallery section of the new Scuttlebutt Europe website at scuttlebutteurope.com/photos/ (scroll down a bit to the Launchings section). A few other items of note on our new site: - An event calendar (from the RegattaDates.com fellows, you can add an event on the Eurobutt site and it will update the database on the main regattadates.com website as well as that of the original Scuttlebutt, submissions are reviewed and approved by regattadates.com admins, who welcome more European events!) - Integrated Google Translation, if you'd prefer Eurobutt in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese you can do so very quickly. - VERY fast search function, currently holds just the last two months' issues, but we're working on adding in 1000+ back issues, which will make it a very nice research tool.... - Last but not least, the Scuttlebutt Europe Gift Guide, with your humble narrator's favorite books, videos, prints, DVDs. Plenty of ideas for the sailors on your list, with more coming every day... See scuttlebutteurope.com
JUD SMITH HANDS FLEET AN ETCHELLS SAILING LESSON Jud Smith won the first race in the series and was second yesterday. Today he sailed through Briton Andy Beadsworth on the final beat, gaining 37 seconds, to take the gun for the second time with Noel 'Nitro' Drennan third (AUS), ahead of Alastair Gair (NZL). Overasll Smith leads the series with four points with 1,2,1 from Andy Beadsworth on nine points from 3,4,2. In third place is Alastair Gair on 29 points with 2,23,4. This eight race series has a drop and once that is applied the leaders will close up. A fresh day on the water with the 'Fremantle Doctor' or Docker in early, plenty of whitecaps, or as the Kiwi born PRO Denis Thompson says 'there were plenty of sheep in the paddock.' Three general recalls. It seems that every one who was slow off the line in the first two races made a Monday morning resolution to be fast today. The Course was 215, the first leg length three miles.
Top ten after three races:
NXR HAS ARRIVED
MONSOON CUP LINEUP CONFIRMED The 12 skippers and crews will be chasing a prize purse of MYR 1 million, approximately $275,000. It is the largest prize purse offered in sailing. The winner will earn MYR 250,000, or nearly $70,000. Racing is scheduled Nov. 29-Dec. 3. The 2nd annual Monsoon Cup features the first ever appearance by a Malaysian woman in professional match racing. Tiffany Koo won the Malaysian Match Racing Championship in September to gain the berth. Koo turns 22 years old on Nov. 29. The crews are scheduled to sail a single round robin with the top eight advancing to the quarterfinals. The four winners from the quarterfinal knock out round advance to the semifinals, while the vanquished advance to racing for 5th through 8th places. The semifinal and final rounds are first to 3 points. Racing will be held in the Foundation 36, designed by New Zealander Brett Bakewell-White, and will be conducted on Pulau Duyong Basin, in front of the Terenggan Heritage Bay Club. Racing in the semifinal and final rounds, Dec. 2 and 3, is scheduled to be broadcast live on the Internet at www.sail.tv. It will also be broadcast live on Eurosport, The Sailing Channel, Fox Australia and Showtime Middle East (check local listings for times). -- Sean McNeill Monsoon Cup Provisional Entry List (as of Nov. 20)
Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany
Match Racing World Championship Standings
ACROSS THE ATLANTIC ... AT AGE 14 Mike, who lives in Potters Bar, north of London, will be heading towards Antigua shadowed by his Dad, Peter. They will both be sailing a Tide 28, a boat they helped design jointly with Nigel Hartley. These are beefed up trailer sailers and there has already been a note of controversy: support from the Royal Yachting Association was withdrawn recently because of the RYA's concern that the yachts did not meet Category A classification (for ocean sailing) under the EU Recreational Craft Directive. Having made their own modifications, the Perhams are irked but undeterred. They are hoping to complete the 3,500-mile crossing in four weeks. -- from Elaine Bunting's new blog on YBW.com: www.ybw.com/yw/blog/elaine_bunting.html Follow the Perhams' progress at www.sailmike.com
HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE RULES? To learn more or place an order, go to www.SpeedandSmarts.com
THE NUMBERS So here's an updated list of sail numbers allocated during AC 32:
RSA 83 -- Shosholoza, launched early 2005. Will we get to 100 or even 101 during AC 32? Likely 100, and most keen observers believe it will go to Alinghi's second AC 32 boat -- unless of course Alinghi has already been allocated one of the unclaimed numbers 94 or 98. As yet neither BMW ORACLE Racing nor Luna Rossa has claimed a second number, and both have announced intentions to build two boats. 101? Not unless Sweden's Victory Challenge intends to build a second new boat in the short time remaining. Victory has neither confirmed nor denied that a second boat would be built. Otherwise, to the best of our knowledge none of the other one-new-boat Challengers has announced intentions to build a second boat. When you think about it, 18 new boats in a couple years in a class of this size, complexity and cost is, well, remarkable -- to say nothing of nearly 100 in 17 years (no. 13 was not allocated for reasons of superstition, and we believe one or two other numbers which were allocated were never built, or built but never sailed). -- Tom Ehman
THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE "Double-handed? No! Never! It's impossible, it's unthinkable." This heartfelt cry has long been heard in the world of traditional round the world, non-stop sailing. The quote is attributed to Louis Bernicot, the famous single-handed French yachtsman who undertook a remarkable round the world journey via the Magellan Strait and the Cape of Good Hope between 1936 and 1938. When Bernicot lamented in later life of no longer having the energy to take to the seas alone with his 12-metre cutter Anahita, it was suggested that he might take a crewmate. He responded with a look of absolute terror and the immortal words: "Double-handed? It's impossible, it's unthinkable!" What would Bernicot have thought if he had known that 70 years on, the ultimate global challenge for the world's greatest yachtsmen would be the Barcelona World Race, the first round the world race, non-stop and without assistance... double-handed? Eighty days, one-to-one, no emergency exit, and no getting away from each other, battling against your own demons, the trade winds, the doldrums, the calms of the anticyclones and the storms of the Roaring Forties, while having the added pressure of a witness onboard. Then there is also the fear that their equipment could fail, or even worse their nerve, even if you manage to keep yours intact. Since the invention of double-handed transoceanic racing, the nature of double-handed yacht racing has changed considerably. It isn't about two separate entities that work as a relay team and pass the weeks barely exchanging two words a day, in the way that Eric Tabarly or Marc Pajot worked on the first attempt of this genre in 1979. These days it's more about two professional racers working as a unit, and pushing their machine to the limit of its capacity and sometimes further. It is no mystery that the IMOCA Open 60 boats are the Class of choice for a race of this nature. Capsizes on a 60-foot multihull are hardly less numerous in the Transat Jacques Vabre double-handed than in the Route du Rhum single-handed - it is perhaps too precarious to send a 60-foot multihull non-stop around the world in this way, unable to recover from being flipped over. All single-handed racing specialists agree that at present a double-handed team can exploit the boat from 90 to 100% of its potential, against 70 to 80% for single-handed. Full article at www.barcelonaworldrace.com/en/?s=4872
ASK THE PRESIDENT During eleven days' of meetings in Helsinki, Finland, leading figures from across the sailing world got together to debate and decided upon some of the foremost issues in the sport of sailing. Amongst the hot topics in Helsinki were a new World Cup for the Olympic Classes, a new Medal Race course for the windsurfers and the creation of a Working Party to look at the events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. Simply email your Conference question together with your name and nation of residence to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it A selection of the best questions and the answers from the President will be published on www.sailing.org on Monday 27 November.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -
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* From Geri Conser: What is it with all this ringing of hands over Tony? Any person who goes to sea either for local fun or full-on wild man racing is taking a chance. How long has it been since we have had the luxury of this modern on-board communications. If you go to sea you should have the knowledge and guts to handle most situations or the presents of mind to prepare a proper greeting to your maker. Let's get off this CONTROL of all situations. When it is yours time to meet your maker, fifty radios, cell phone or argo system will not save you!
THE LAST WORD
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
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