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

BOSTON WILL BE A VOLVO OCEAN RACE PORT OF CALL
Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Global sportslifestyle company PUMA introduced its skipper, training boat and the PUMA Racing Team at an official unveiling ceremony in Boston Harbor today attended by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, PUMA CEO Jochen Zeitz, Volvo Ocean Race CEO Glenn Bourke, Save the Harbor President Patricia A. Foley, and Secretary Daniel O'Connell of Massachusetts.

The unveiling coincided with Boston's announcement that it will be one of the official ports of call during the nine-month Volvo Ocean Race that begins in Alicante, Spain in October 2008 and finishes in Northern Europe in June 2009. The Boston stop will be in mid-May 2009 and will include a fortnight of festivities and local events to celebrate Boston's maritime history, the sport of sailing and the Volvo Ocean Race.

A point-scoring in-port race will be held in Boston Harbour if the wind is in a favourable direction. Alternatively the race will be held just outside the harbour.

A pro-am race, which takes place in every host port the day after the in-port race, will be held inside the harbour with racing close by to Fan Pier and Rowes Wharf. The pro-am race is not a points scoring race and does not have a set course enabling it to be tailored to suit each venue and making it a close-to-shore spectator event.

Every boat in the Volvo fleet will take part, and will be sailed by half its normal race crew, with the remainder being made up of specially invited guests.

The exterior design of the training boat is uniquely PUMA. Conceptualized by Puma's brand head, Antonio Bertone, with the help of ad agency GBH, the idea was to transform the boat into an object. In this particular case, the object is a shoe, taking inspiration from PUMA's heritage.

"We wanted to have some fun with the design -- basically have a floating shoe out on the water," says Antonio Bertone, Group Functional Head Brand & Marketing. "So we had the boat painted to look like it's made from leather and then stitched together. The boat and the Volvo Ocean Race on the whole is just a great platform for PUMA to express its creativity and design-forward thinking."

More, including photos of the boat, at www.volvooceanrace.org

LOUIS VUITTON CUP
Valencia, Spain: BMW ORACLE Racing became the sole occupant of the top place on the Louis Vuitton Cup leaderboard in Valencia today after posting a comfortable win over the +39 Challenge team.

At the start of racing today BMW ORACLE Racing shared the top spot with Luna Rossa Challenge, but the Italian team had a bye today and slipped to 3rd place as Emirates Team New Zealand moved up to 2nd. BMW ORACLE Racing, which has yet to race against Emirates Team New Zealand in the second round of the Louis Vuitton Cup, holds a 1-point lead.

* In the grudge rematch Saturday afternoon, Desafio Espanol 2007 bounced back from a poor start with some great downwind moves and socked it to Mascalzone Latino. Both teams were fired up for this one, which was evident from the exuberant celebrating by the team in green when they crossed the line.

However, Vasco Vascotto reckoned he spotted a gesture that he didn't like the look of, and it came from Desafio's Kiwi tactician John Cutler. The gesture involves clenching your left fist, raising your forearm to a horizontal position, then with your right hand you slap your palm on to the top of your left forearm. It adds power to the gesture to emit an expletive at the same time.

Vascotto wasn't see the funny side of this gesture, if indeed there was one. 'It's disappointing the end of their victory was marred by an unsportsmanlike gesture from John Cutler. In my crew I have Spanish sailors and he - who is a Kiwi - doesn't deserve to sail on a Spanish boat. The whole world saw this, and I hope the Jury saw it too.'

John Cutler responded: 'I come from New Zealand and the gesture that I made doesn't mean anything. We were all partying between us [the sailing team] and the men from the chase boat, and maybe some of my gestures were misunderstood.' Cutler added that if Mascalzone had a problem with something he'd done, he was ready to apologise. -- Andy Rice in his blog www.SailJuice.com

* Doing the math...

After today's race Emirates Team New Zealand, with 31 points, is ready for the semi-finals. As of yesterday, the same goes for BMW Oracle Racing (33) and Luna Rossa Challenge (32).

It is also clear that Mascalzone Latino (20 points), after today's six second loss against Team Shosholoza, is out of the Louis Vuitton Cup when the Round Robin series finishes on Wednesday. The same goes for Team Shosholoza (18 points), Areva Challenge (13), +39 Challenge (6), United Internet Team (5) and China Team (3).

In the middle are Desafio Espanol and Victory Challenge, with 29 and 24 points respectively.

Here are the matches remaining for these two teams:

Monday 7th May
Flight 9
Victory Challenge-Desafio Espanol

Tuesday 8th May
Flight 10
Victory Challenge-Emirates Team New Zealand
Desafio Espanol-BMW Oracle Racing

Wednesday 9th May
Flight 11
Victory Challenge-Mascalzone Latino
Desafio Espanol-Luna Rossa Challenge

This shows that the two teams, which still have a chance to take the fourth semi-final place, have some extremely tough matches ahead of them in the last three days of Round Robin Two.

Desafio Espanol still has to meet two of the top teams. Victory Challenge has to meet one top team as well as Desafio Espanol and Mascalzone Latino.

Victory Challenge must win all of its three remaining matches in order to have a chance to proceed to the semi-finals.

"I saw the TV pictures yesterday of Desafio celebrating with champagne. They will regret that, I think," Victory Challenges' Mattias Rahm said.

"We will wait until after the match with Mascalzone. Then we will have champagne." -- Bert Wilborg, www.victorychallenge.com

Flight 9 schedule for Monday:
1. +39 Challenge vs. Team Shosholoza
2. China Team vs. Areva Challenge
3. Bye - United Internet Team Germany
4. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team vs. BMW Oracle Racing
5. Victory Challenge vs. Desafio Espanol
6. Luna Rossa Challenge vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

Ranking after LVC RR2 Flight 8
1. BMW ORACLE Racing, 33
2. Emirates Team New Zealand, 32
3. Luna Rossa Challenge, 31
4. Desafio Espanol 2007, 29
5. Victory Challenge, 24
6. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team, 20
7. Team Shosholoza, 18
8. Areva Challenge, 13
9. +39 Challenge, 6
10. United Internet Team Germany, 5
11. China Team, 3

www.americascup.com

THE 32ND AMERICA'S CUP FROM YOUR BOAT
The America's Cup is in Europe for the first time in 156 years. And you can see it with your own eyes. Be on the front row and moor your boat in one of the 636 berths at Port America's Cup Marina.

Not only will you be able to watch the ACC boats passing along the canal, but you will also be at the heart of this unique nautical event.

Enjoy the regattas, parties, restaurants, bars. Enjoy the 32nd America's Cup continuous show!

Port America's Cup: at the heart of the passion.
Tariffs and booking are available on www.portamericascup.com

TWICE THE AGE AND HALF THE TIME
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on Friday 4 May 2007, completed his second solo circumnavigation of the globe aboard 'Saga Insurance'. Participating in the Velux 5 Oceans yacht race, he concludes the 30,000-mile epic race 37 years after his pioneering solo voyage in 1968/9. At the age of sixty-eight and now a grandfather of five, Sir Robin has halved the time it took him to complete the journey when he was just thirty years old. His 2006/7 voyage has taken 159 days (159 days, 12 hours and 42 minutes) compared to 313 days in 1969.

On arriving into Bilbao, Sir Robin said: "Age hasn't made a difference. I may be 68 but I am a strong, fit 68-year-old and I am ready to take on Mike Tyson. "The race has been great so I have mixed emotions about coming back. When things were good at sea, I wouldn't have swapped it for anything in the world and 'Saga Insurance' is a lovely boat to sail. I have received a fantastic welcome in Bilbao and it's great to see my family and friends again. I certainly will not be giving up sailing but I won't be going around the world again by myself."

Crossing the finish line off Bilbao, Spain, at 11:22:03 local time (10:22:03 BST) Sir Robin, who is the oldest skipper in the race, takes third place on the 3,200 nautical mile final leg from Norfolk, Virginia.

* Basque solo sailing skipper Unai Basurko crossed the finish line of the VELUX 5 OCEANS in Bilbao (Basque Country) at 10:03:45 local time (08:03:45 GMT) on Saturday 5 May. The 34 year old sailor completed the third and final leg of the VELUX 5 OCEANS onboard PAKEA after a transatlantic sprint that started in Norfolk (USA) 17 days, 16 hours and 43 minutes ago.

Photos of Sir Robin and Unai Basurko's finishes, courtesy Thierry Martinez and OnEdition, at scuttlebutteurope.com/photos

JASON KER - THE SHOSHOLOZA DESIGNER WITH IMPACT
After three and a half years on the America's Cup class circuit Team Shosholoza remains the darling of the international media but the name increasingly being bandied about by many in specialist sailing publications is Jason Ker, principal designer of the team's campaign yacht Shosholoza RSA 83.

It is no surprise then that Ker, who with most of the Shosholoza design team are designing for the America's Cup for the first time, has been nominated for the prestigious Seahorse Magazine's Sailor of the Month accolade.

'Take a good young IRC designer and put him in charge of a small America's Cup Class design team with an even smaller budget. Offer him two new boats and then switch to a single boat campaign, meaning radical modifications to Boat 1 to stay competitive against teams with 20-times your design budget. Well the new kid's doing pretty well and tacticians in the top teams are taking care to treat Shosholoza with respect,' says the nomination.

* Editor: you can cast your vote for Seahorse Sailor of the Month at seahorsemagazine.com

The hull of Shosholoza RSA 83 was built in a team shed in Somerset West (about 20 minutes from Cape Town) and revealed to the South African public on 22 April 2005 in Cape Town. (In terms of the 2007 America's Cup rules the hull of the campaign yacht must be built in the team's home country.)

In 2004 the hull was shipped to Valencia where the keel and first mast were fitted. The yacht was officially launched in Valencia on 19 May 2005.

South Africa chose not to build a second new campaign yacht because the excellent performance of RSA 83 led the team to decide that the teams very tight funds were best spent elsewhere. However fairly substantial modifications were made to RSA 83 over the 2006/7 European winter to eke out more speed from the boat and to ensure the South African's campaign yacht would remain competitive for the Louis Vuitton Cup which it certainly has done.

Ker describes the changes to RSA 83 as follows: 'The bow has been made much finer, so it goes through waves rather than over them. We have added a bowsprit which is designed to enable the spinnaker to be attached as far forward as the rules allow, which would otherwise have not been possible as we've made the bow shorter. The keel fin has had some minor adjustments. There is a new rudder, new bulb, loads of new sail designs and the mast was new near the end of 2006.

'In each case we found a performance gain that was worth the little money we could find to spend on it. For us that's a very important criteria. We can't afford to chase after every tiny improvement we can think of so we focus on only the best value ones - which are also not necessarily the cheapest.

The boat is certainly faster. The maneouvability is also substantially improved so it has been easier to get good starts. We were initially looking for behaviour changes when we did the modifications. We wanted the boat to be easier to sail but we wanted to get more speed if we could find it . We did not do any further tank tests, because we did not have time between coming up with the designs and starting to build, though having already tested 10 models in the Test Tank in Bulgaria, we were confident that we could rely on our computer predictions to tell us we were going in the right direction.

Full article on team-shosholoza.com

ABN AMRO ONE WINS FINAL DAY OF ANTIGUA SAILING WEEK
ABN AMRO ONE was able to really stretch her legs on the final day of Stanford Antigua Sailing Week, with the Volvo Ocean Race winning boat flying off into the distance in the 29 mile Ocean Race, beating second placed boat Chieftain by almost 45 minutes. Revelling in the typically Caribbean sailing conditions, with sunny skies and 20 knots of wind, Mike Sanderson and his crew enjoyed the opportunity to sail further offshore in the final race of this regatta, the final stop in ABN AMRO's Caribbean tour.

Having dropped only two races this week, when Racing Division A sailed short windward-leeward courses, a style of sailing which ABN AMRO ONE was not designed for, ABN AMRO ONE is expected to clean up at the prize giving ceremony held tomorrow night at the historic Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour, which includes taking the prize for the racing class in this leg of the Caribbean Big Boat Series as well as the overall CBBS racing class trophy.

ABN AMRO ONE will now be shipped back to Europe where she will undertake corporate sailing commitments.

HANDICAPPING STRUCTURE FOR 2008 NEWPORT BERMUDA RACE ANNOUNCED
The chairman of the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee and the flag officers of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and the Cruising Club of America announce that the Offshore Racing Rule (ORR) will be the primary handicapping system used for the 2008 Newport Bermuda Race.

All boats in all divisions will be scored using ORR. Boats sailing in the St. David's Lighthouse (amateur) and Gibbs Hill Lighthouse (professional) divisions may also submit endorsed IRC certificates for additional divisional trophies awarded under IRC. The highly-prized St. David's Lighthouse and Gibbs Hill Lighthouse trophies will be awarded for corrected time performance using ORR.

In making this announcement, the sponsoring clubs of the Newport Bermuda Race continue a 30-year tradition of endorsing VPP-based handicapping for this classic ocean race.

The 2008 Newport Bermuda Race will start on Friday, June 20, 2008 in Newport, RI. More than 265 boats competed in the 2006 race, and another large fleet is anticipated for 2008. For more information go to www.bermudarace.com

INDUSTRY NEWS
* Regatta Manager announced a $1.5 million sponsorship package for clubs using their Regatta Manager product for their 2007 season. The funds will be distributed to qualifying clubs in increments of between $5,000 and $15,000 as in kind sponsorship of Regatta manager's Marine Suite line of products. (See www.compete-at.com/products/sailingproducts/sailteammanager.htm )

For details on eligibility, receive more information, or apply for sponsorship please visit www.compete-at.com/sailing/sponsorship2007

* Construction of a US$52 million marina complex in Turkey - the D-Marin Didim Marina - has been started with completion scheduled for summer 2009.

The 287,000m2 marina will have a yacht club, a heliport for direct on-site access, a capacity for 623 berthed yachts and 600 yachts in dry dock, a yacht lift for 300 and 100 tonnes, and a swimming pool. It will serve mainly yachts of 75m-100m long.

The marina will also include a shopping centre, supermarkets, yacht equipment shops, a fitness centre and sports facilities, banks, a petrol station, restaurants and a cultural centre.

As part of the development a ferryboat management facility will be established to provide for cruises to the Greek Islands of Kalimnos, Kos and Leros, as well as a customs post, port authority facilities and a passport control unit. -- IBI news, www.ibinews.com

* Bill Dixon of Dixon Yacht Design has been announced as the new chairman of the jury for the DAME Award METS, succeeding Kim Hollamby who took on the responsibility in 2004.

"It is with great sadness that I resign the chairmanship of the DAME Awards, but increasing commitments as digital development director at IPC Media mean that I cannot offer the commitment I believe this world-leading prize deserves," said Kim Hollamby.

Dixon's design work in the 1980s included the Moody 27 and 41 production boats, custom and semi-custom designs for individuals and companies like Premier Yachts. The 1990s brought an increasing amount of custom work including his first 'serious' superyacht project, Yannake Too. Others followed, both sail and power, and led to the advent of the production superyacht.

By the year 2000, Bill Dixon had a diverse portfolio for custom and production vessels of all shapes and sizes, including the sail superyachts, That's Y, YII and Antares.

METS is the world's largest trade exhibition of marine equipment and accessories for the leisure marine industry. Organised by Amsterdam RAI in association with the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA), the show's target groups are yacht builders, naval architects, repair yards, distributors, dealers, wholesalers, captains, marina operators and equipment manufacturers from around the world.

METS will be held on November 13-15 this year. -- IBI news, www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20070403122637ibinews.html

* The Official Guinness Special Events Bar has long been a focal point for visitors, crews and exhibitors at London boat shows and this week the brewers of Guinness have confirmed they will be returning to the Earls Court Boat Show in December 2007.

The brewers of Guinness have committed a substantial five-figure sum to the team at Earls Court and will be creating a hospitality area measuring over 400m2.

The Whyte & Mackay Earls Court Boat Show will be putting the hospitality and entertainment back into boat shows and the partnership with the Guinness team is sure to make the show a social and atmospheric event.

Paul Jamieson, Special Events Manager at Guinness, said, "Over the years the Official Guinness Special Events Bar has become an integral part of London boat shows. We are looking forward to continuing the tradition and helping celebrate 50 years of the boat show at Earls Court." -- www.earlscourtboatshow.com

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 Ed Alcock: Euan Ross asked did Victory Challenge round the bottom mark on April 30th. against Luna Rossa.

A mark is an object the sailing instructions require a boat to leave on a specified side. Contact with a mark by a boat's equipment constitutes touching it, see case 77.

The air above and water below a mark are not parts of it. Boats while freeing off at a weather mark will often have a boom pass clear above a mark and not break rule 31.1. The string in rule 28.1 represents the wake of the boat. Both rules refer to a 'boat' with no mention of crew or equipment as in the definition of 'finish'.

As Victory Challenge rounded with neither sail nor halyard touching the mark then she did not touch the mark. In this case Victory Challenge is clear, and with an umpire boat beside her I doubt very much she would have got away with her equipment touching the mark.

THE LAST WORD
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. -- Vince Lombardi

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

Scuttlebutt Europe is available via email:
To subscribe 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 inquiries to Graeme Beeson: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/content/view/7/6/