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IAN WILLIAMS WINS IN MARSEILLE
Ian Williams wins the regatta and becomes number one in the ISAF World Match Race ranking list.

Fantastic weather conditions (windspeed between 15 and 22 knots) meant that the final day's racing could go ahead really quickly.

After Saturday's racing, Ian Williams (GBR) was ahead of Evgeny Neugodnikov (RUS) by two matches.

Straight off, the Englishman beat the Russian to win his ticket for the final. In the second flight, which was 100% French, Pierre-Antoine Morvan was ahead of Mathieu Richard 2 / 1.

During their first match, Pierre Antoine Morvan, who was ahead at the windward mark, pushed Richard who hit the Committee boat : the damage to Mathieu Richard's boat meant that sailing was stopped for a significant time.

The international jury met and decided to award the point for the match to Mathieu Richard.

The final match between the two Frenchmen was probably the most closely fought of all, but in the final leg Pierre Antoine Morvan literally demolished Mathieu Richard.

Results :
Ian Williams (3) / Evgeny Neugodnikov (0)
Pierre Antoine Morvan (3) / Mathieu Richard (1)

The final was played in a first to two victories. Ian Williams won the first match easily. The second was much more difficult, with both crews pushed to the limits to be the first to cross the finish line. In the end, Pierre Antoine Morvan's problem with his kite gave Ian Williams the victory which puts him at the very top of the ISAF match race ranking list.

Final results

1. Ian Williams, Great-Britain
2. Pierre-Antoine Morvan - France
3. Evgeny Neugodnikov - Russia
4. Mathieu Richard - France
5. Damien Iehl - France
6. Neville Wittey - Australia
7. Victor Lanier - France
8. Dimitri Deruelle - France
9. Mads Ebler - Denmark
10. Matteo Simoncelli - Italy
11. Andrew Cornah - Great-Britain
12. Michel Cohen - France

www.ycpr.com

* Photos at scuttlebutteurope.com/photos/ in the Other Events section.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF COLUMBUS
This Sunday 18 March 2007, Gitana 13, the latest addition to the already three hundred-year-old dynasty of Rothschild boats, set off on its first challenge of the year in the Route de la Decouverte Cadix-Salvador (Discovery Route Cadiz - San Salvador). The catamaran crossed over the starting line at 9 hours 7 minutes and 8 seconds UT.

The Discovery Route Cadiz - San Salvador is so-named in evocation of the first voyage made by Christopher Columbus, from August to October 1492, on behalf of the Spanish royal family.

As a matter of fact, the itinerary followed by Gitana 13 should more or less follow that of the famous 15th-century navigator, namely passing well to the south of the orthodromic (direct) route. At the time, this course made it possible to avoid the Portuguese ships, the great rivals of the Spanish fleet. These days, this route, which involves passing by the Canaries with the main island on the starboard side, has the main advantage, as it did in days gone by, of drawing maximum advantage from the trade winds.

The record being targeted by the crew was set in 2003 by the American Steve Fossett, on Playstation: 9 days, 13 h, 30 m, 18 s.

The crew of Gitana 13 on the Discovery Route - March 2007:
Lionel Lemonchois - Skipper
Loick Peyron - Helsman - navigator
David Boileau - Trimmer
Cyril Dardashti - Trimmer / Troubleshooter
Francois Denis - Bowman
Jean-Baptiste Epron - Trimmer / Troubleshooter
Loik Gallon - Chief mechanic
Jean-Baptiste Levaillant - Sails specialist
Leopold Lucet - Bowman / Medical officer
Antoine Mermod - Energy systems manager
Nicolas Raynaud - Video
Dominic Vittet - Navigator

Weather update from Meteo France's Sylvain Mondon, Sunday 18 March, at 09.00:

Inner part of Bay of Cadiz: low easterly wind of 3/6 knots. Heading further south, the breeze will freshen up rapidly with the wind from the Straits of Gibraltar to 23/26 knots departing left to the northeast to the south of 35N the wind will die down to 17/21 knots north to northeast, then to 15/20 knots on the approach to the Canaries.

Difficult passage by the Canaries to cross the windless zones with the wind from the archipelago.

www.gitana-team.com

DOYLE UK WIN MAJOR SAIL ORDERS
Doyle Sailmakers in Southampton have won the contract for the replacement sail inventory onboard the SY Midnight, a 37m Dubois design. The sails will be manufactured in a Vectran / Carbon using Doyle's laid fibre technology. The load mapped membranes will be finished with exterior dacron taffeta's for added chafe resistance particularly necessary in the case of the rollboom mainsail.

Doyle is also supplying the sail wardrobe on a new CNB 60, using the same custom fabric engineering technique, for Sunbird International Yacht Sales. This project will use a Leisure-furl rollboom mainsail handling system which will again benefit from this type of sail construction. www.doylesails.co.uk

L'HYDROPTERE TEAM IN RECORD MODE
Alain Thebault and his L'Hydroptere Team is entering the record attempt phase and is about to beat the 500 meter speed record in category D and the absolute speed record on one nautical mile.

The certification process from the World Sailing Record Council is now nearly finalized. The final step will correspond to the visit of a supervisor on l'Hydroptere, who will validate the new GPS Trimble measurement system and certify both records.

This supervisor will be contacted as soon as an adequate weather window opens and will stay seven days in La Trinite-sur-mer. During these 7 days, Alain Thebault and his crew will increase the number of runs to beat both records.

The ideal wind conditions is 25 to 30 knots S-SW and it is for these conditions the crew is practicing in front of Port Haliguen.

Weather forecasts in the near future indicate North winds, which would oblige l'Hydroptere team to move their training site in the bay. The crew expects that the anticyclone will weaken at the beginning of next week so as to come back to training sessions and test this new configuration.

L'Hydroptere is now in stand by and the desire to beat the first two records of program 2007 is very strong. -- Marlene Colegrave, Sail-world.com, www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=31751

See Hydroptere.com

THE ITALIAN ORC GP 42 SAILOR GETS COMPANY
Italian Filippo Faruffini was the first GP 42 skipper and owner out of the yard in 2006. Last season he raced the boat in solitude in IMS races in the Mediterranean. But this season he is not alone anymore. 14 boats are on its way and the success of the class is just around the corner.

Most owners go from small boats to big boats. Italian Filippo Faruffini went the other way. After racing his Roma, a Farr/Latini Marine 85 among the other big boats, he decided to go for the ORC GP 42.

Once again Latini Marine in Rome built his new boat and Farr Yacht Design did the job on the drawing board. 2006 was his first season.

- How was it to go from big boat sailing to a GP42?
- It is cheaper! Jokes aside, racing with the maxi it's very exciting but unfortunately the boats are very different and to give them a fair rating it is not easy. Especially if you race under IRC a good part of the result is due to "how good is the TCC" assigned to your boat. I am saying that even though I won the last two editions of the Rolex Cup I participated in.

Someone might think my opinion is biased, but the GP42 is a fantastic boat: fast, technical and impatient, exuberant but, at the same time, solid and reliable, it's a boat which can easily endure any kind of rough seas.

You race in real time. Every owner can imagine, see the birth and growth of his own boat exactly as he and the team wish. They can select the naval architect, the shipyard, equipment and everything else which is much more complete and involving than simply buying a monotype. It has a stable rule and it's unanimously recognized by all that it is convenient it remains so. It has a reasonable budget and this is also universally wished by all the owners that it remains this way.

- Any thoughts on the GP42 rule after one season with Roma?
- We cannot consider 2006 as a GP42 season as we were alone and raced in the IMS class, but it was very useful anyway for the class because it allowed us to fine-tune some aspects which could only be done by practicing. We consider it as a pre-racing test.

- Are you going to do some changes to the boat this season?
- No, no changes, the rule has not changed and all interpretations went in this direction. Maybe we'll change something in the deck layout, but more to accommodate the desires and habits of some crewmembers than out of necessity.

Currently there are 15 ORC GP 42's, either finished or under construction. Spain has 6 boats, Italy 3, and Croatia, Portugal and Norway one each. All the major design houses have come up with plans for the boat.

The Mediterranean will be their playing field this season and Valencia is set to be the homeport for most of the boats. Filippo Faruffini is eager to go racing against his new launched competitors.

Race calendar for ORC GP 42 Class
Cres, Croatia June 21st - 23rd
Valencia, Spain July 13th - 15th
Palma de Majorca, Spain July 28th -August 5th
Cascais, Portugal August 30th - September 1st

All events will count for the final scoring. The single event NoR will rule the discard procedure inside itself. Beside this official international calendar, in the national events below listed GP42 are invited and included as stand alone class in the NoR. -- Jon Amtrup

Full article on www.orc.org

* Photos at scuttlebutteurope.com/photos/ in the Launchings section.

OPEN 30: TAKING THE GAP
The battle for filling the gap between the Mini 6.5 and the Open 40's is hot. Price is the issue. We are building a Van Gorkom Open 30 ( www.vgyd.com ) here in Cape Town at a competitive price. We have built moulds and can now offer clients a complete boat with carbon spars, Kevlar sails, interior, systems and instrumentation at 115,000 Euros ex-factory.

Options are canting keel, PBO, carbon skin, etc. Basic hull/deck/bulkheads, interior, keel and rudders for 38,000 Euros. The Cape Town to Bahia Race starting January 2009 is ideal for starting this class with a bang.

www.moondance.co.za

BACK ON THE CALENDAR
The 2007 ISAF Team Racing World Championship is back on the sailing calendar, following a late bid by the Real Club Nautico Gandia. In its seventh edition, the ISAF Team Racing Worlds is heading for the Mediterranean, with Gandia, Spain, 70 km south of Valencia.

Gandia should provide conditions similar to those facing the America's Cup teams a little further south along the Mediterranean coast at Valencia. A 6-8 knot northeasterly sea breeze starts around 11:00, moving round to a southwesterly and building up to 16 knots through the day. With weather conditions between 22-26 degrees C and sunny blue skies, the late September date will provide the ideal bridge between the end of the European team racing season and the start of racing down under.

With the racing area sheltered by the breakwater and marina, the courses have little waves or swell - ideal conditions for team racing.

Racing will take place in 20 supplied 420s, with a weight limit of 130 kg per crew per boat. For the first time, the Worlds will be joined by an Under 21 competition (as approved by the ISAF Council in November 2006). ISAF Member National Authorities (MNAs) may enter up to three teams but not more than two per competition.

For more details visit the ISAF Team Racing World Championship microsite - www.sailing.org/teamworlds

Preliminary event site: www.rcngandia.com/microsite/wtr.htm

WARNING OF PROBLEM WITH MELGES 24 MASTS
Southern Spars have issued a MOST URGENT warning that some Melges 24 masts supplied since early 2006 may have jib sheave pins that are too short. The short pins have been fitted to very few masts, but can have serious consequences if the pin slides sideways inside the mast.

Southern Spars issued the following press release today, 15 March 2007:

Subject: Sheave box issues on M24 masts - Jib Halyard Sheave Pin Check

We have recently become aware that some masts supplied since early 2006 may have jib sheave pins that are too short. The short pins have been fitted to very few masts, but can have serious consequences if the pin slides sideways inside the mast.

We recommend that anyone with a mast ID# 988 and higher check their mast. If you remove the sheave pin cover, the pin should be cut flush with the outside face of the mast. If your pin is anymore than 0.5mm short of this, then we want to replace the pin.

To prevent this potential problem in the future, all new masts are being supplied with the pin cover welded on one side so that the other side can protrude beyond the mastwall.

These new pins are available and simple to fit to existing masts.

If you believe that your sheave pin is short, then please send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will immediately courier you a replacement pin.

Please include your preferred delivery address. We will also be present during measurement at the 2007 World Championships to look at rigs. Pins will be supplied with instructions for fitting. Thank you for your time to check this and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions. -- John Clinton, General Manger- One Design - Southern Spars

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE 75th ANNIVERSARY REGATTA
The gaff cutter Jenny Wren, launched in the 1890s and probably the oldest yacht in Australia still racing (albeit occasionally), yesterday won her division of the Sydney Harbour Bridge 75th Anniversary Regatta.

The 28-foot gaff-rigged cutter that features a bowspit almost half her overall length was one of more than 40 classic wooden yachts that added their tribute to the Bridge's birthday.

Skippered by Neville Ollisse, Jenny Wren crossed the finish line west of Fort Denison, within sight of many of the 250,000 people estimated to have walked across the Bridge yesterday, to win the Non-Spinnaker Division B from Wairangi (Anthony Davis) and Yeomais (John Diacopoulos).

Walker Reeks, Sydney's most successful and influential naval architect from the mid-1890s to the turn of the centenary, designed Jenny Wren. Reeks designed many of the Harbour's finest and fastest yachts of that era and in 1888 proposed an Australian Challenge for the America's Cup - something that did not eventuate for another 74 years.

Light winds forced Sydney Amateur Sailing Club race officers to shorten the course of the Sydney Harbour Bridge 75th Anniversary Regatta, with Non-Spinnaker Division B going to the classic Fife-designed 6-metre class yacht Sjo Ro, owned by Jeremy Arnott and partners.

Sjo Ro, built in Tasmanian in 1933 by noted Hobart shipwright Charlie Coverdale, won from Eventide, skippered by James Merrington, a member one of the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club's bestknown sailing families. His father, Billy, now aged 93, still sailed on Eventide until recent years but was not well enough to race yesterday.

Closest race of the regatta was the Spinnaker Division, with first place going to the gaff-rigged cruising yacht Reverie, owned by retired Rear Admiral Nigel Berlin and John Barclay, who helmed the boat yesterday.

Revenie was originally built as a bilge keeler to a design by noted English naval architect Maurice Griffith, but was subsequently fitted with a conventional keel for Australian waters.

The only downside to the Regatta was that the Historic Skiffs were reduced to a fleet of three boats - the closure of streets around Kirribilli prevented most owners bringing their 18-footer replicas to the launching area at the Sydney Flying Squadron. Winner of the three-boat race was Australia IV from Scot and Aberdare. -- Peter Campbell

JOHN MENDEZ NAMED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF US-IRC
Richard du Moulin, Chairman of the newly formed US-IRC Owners committee and member of the US-IRC Association, has announced the appointment of John Mendez as the Executive Director of US-IRC. Mendez, a past chairman of the New York Yacht Club Race Committee, replaces Barry Carroll who leaves the post to pursue other business interests. Carroll will remain affiliated with the US-IRC as a technical advisor. Mendez raced dinghies and raced offshore in England from where he emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1968. He is also a member of Larchmont Y.C. where he served as Commodore.

US sailing will continue to manage the rule in the US. Their Offshore Office will continue to issue IRC certificates and will support the rule fully, as other Member National Authority's do in their commitment to managing IRC.

The US-IRC Association and US Sailing Offshore will work closely with the newly formed US-IRC Owners committee. This committee was formed in February and has been holding regular conference call meetings to organize and address some initial owner issues.

Rating spinoas was one of the first issues the committee tackled and with its input the RORC is addressing the problem. Other rating systems simply ban the sails altogether, but the IRC is working on ways to rate the sail's performance in the system. Other topics such as endorsed vs. unendorsed certificates, weighing, certified sail measurement are now under discussion with owners who are actually racing under the rule giving their experienced input.

One of the priorities of the new executive will be to update and maintain the US-IRC Web page. Mendez will be working with web developer Luiz Kahl on new design and content. IRC Event organizers are encouraged to send race information and links to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Anyone interested in receiving US-IRC newsletters and other informative emails may subscribe at www.us-irc.org under the NEWS tab at the top of the page.

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. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Andy Hindley, Racing Director, Volvo Ocean Race:
Dear Mr Bradford, we have corrected our mistake and we apologise for not doing so sooner. We had a production problem with the first run of Volvo Ocean Race NTSC DVDs but these have now been delivered and are available in our shop. If you visit http://shop.volvooceanrace.com and click the "DVD & book" link at the top left you should see the NTSC version for sale. By way of recompense for your time and effort in e-mailing Scuttlebutt Europe, if you can provide us with your mailing address we will send you an NTSC copy free of charge. Enjoy!

* Editor: Now that's customer service! Andy's email is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

* From Brian Stewart, Most DVD players can be made region free by doing some simple programming. Look on Google for "DVD region free" where several URL's can be found to tell you how to do it. One such web site is at

www.dvddemystifiziert.de/codefree_en/codefree.html This site provides free information

Many TV sets can accept either a PAL input or an NTSC one.

* From Geri Conser: Calling all you armchair sailors who enjoy reading the sailing exploits of others...

Where are those people or companies who could take their pocket change and get these Challenged American sailors on track to make the 2007 Trans Pacific Race? I am sure there is an individual out there who could even send an anonymous gift of a boat, cash or both. It is real shame that such a wonderful program is stopped because of $$$$. The skill and talent not to mention the bravery of these young people who sail this challenging race is unbelievable. The first time I flew up in the helicopter and saw that team of great sailors roaring down the Molaki Channel my heart skipped a beat. COME ON LETS GET THEM IN THIS RACE. I will give my services how about you?

THE LAST WORD
Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners. -- E. Joseph Crossman

OC Events, www.ocevents.org , 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) plus the Extreme 40 Sailing Series for The iShares Cup.

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

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