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

ALL THREE TEAMS TRAINING
All three teams remaining in competition at the 32nd America's Cup were on the water training on Wednesday afternoon. The two Luna Rossa Challenge boats sailed together, while Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi had two races against each other.

Conditions were excellent on Wednesday afternoon with 10 to 14 knots of Southeasterly sea breeze.

Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand started two races against each other. In each race, the pre-starts were fairly tame affairs with the Kiwis starting on the right-hand side. But even though the wind was shifting to the right, in the first contest it was Alinghi who arrived at the top mark with a lead of near 20-seconds. Downwind, they increased this lead by another five seconds or so to lead through the gate. Early on the second beat, both boats turned downwind, abandoning the match.

The second race was better for the Kiwis. They held a narrow advantage all the way up the windward leg, leading around the top mark by just under 10 seconds. They carried that advantage through the leeward gate although Alinghi took the right hand side and picked up a nice shift early on the second beat. When the boats converged, the Kiwis couldn't cross and tacked to leeward of Alinghi and at that point, both boats abandoned the match again.

Alinghi appeared to be able to sail higher, pointing better than Emirates Team New Zealand. The Swiss team also appeared to have plenty of speed. Crew work was smoother on the battle-hardened Kiwi squad; Alinghi had a poor spinnaker drop and a couple of pretty average gybes over the course of the afternoon.

Neither team would confirm which boat they were using for these training matches. Ed Baird was the helmsman on Alinghi.

The press conference for the two Louis Vuitton Cup Finalists is scheduled for Thursday morning. Luna Rossa Challenge skipper Francesco de Angelis and Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker will meet the media at 11:00.

* Photos of the practice race between Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi, courtesy Thierry Martinez, in the Scuttlebutt Europe photo gallery: scuttlebutteurope.com/photos/

* America's Cup Rules Quiz: Last week's question:
When was there last a reaching leg in the America's Cup course?

Answer: 1992 with the made-for-television "Z" leg that had three reaches.

This week's question: How much time did Australia II gain on the penultimate leg of the seventh race in 1983?

Cast your vote at scuttlebutteurope.com
First correct answer wins an official 32nd America's Cup Book, the 32nd correct answer wins an official America's Cup DVD. All entries get a shot at winning a rare, not sold to the public, 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup poster. Prizes courtesy the America's Cup Store and Louis Vuitton

BE IN THE FRONT ROW OF THE SPECTATOR FLEET IN VALENCIA!
Our Shosholoza team spectator boat still operates - every race day until the end of the America's Cup Match. Morning briefing on our rooftop terrace overlooking Alinghi and Luna Rossa. Official "event flag" puts us in the reserved area closest to the start box and laylines. Live AC TV on board. Full buffet lunch with drinks. Expert commentators. All the fun you would expect from "The Soul of Sailing". Many hotels available, we can help. GROUPS WELCOME.

Reserve tickets online at www.cupexperience.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ISAF WORLD SAILING RANKINGS
After a five-medal haul in Medemblik, Great Britain are the big winners in the latest release of the ISAF World Sailing Rankings and now count crews in the top three of six of the Olympic Classes. Paul Goodison (GBR) leads the British charge as he makes it ten consecutive Rankings at the top in the Laser, whilst elsewhere four of the world #1 spots change hands.

The Netherlands was the latest destination for the Olympic Classes as the world's top dinghy and keelboat sailors hit Lake IJsselmeer for the ISAF Grade 1 Breitling Regatta. After a practice week of big winds and plenty of rain, the regatta was dominated by light and shifty conditions which made for highly tactical and highly taxing racing. Along with Britain's five medals, the Italians proved themselves masters of Medemblik, picking up gold medals in the Men's 470, Star and 49er classes. However whilst the Brits' success is reflected with one #1 spot, three #2 spots and two #3 sports across the eleven Ranked events, the Italians only hold one #3 spot courtesy of the SIBELLO brothers in the 49er.

Of the four changes to the top spots in this release, Przemek Miarczynski (POL) gets his reward for a great start to the season in the Men's RS:X, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik ZYCKI (POL) in the Star and Nicolas Charbonnier and Olivier Bausset (FRA) in the Men's 470 both profit from a combination of podium finishes in Medemblik and the no-show of their nearest rivals, whilst in the Laser Radial, Evi VAN Acker (BEL) falls off the top spot to be replaced by Anna Tunnicliffe (USA).

Next stop for the Olympic Classes is the ISAF Grade 1 Kiel Week in Germany, taking place this year from 16-20 June. Following on shortly after is the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais, Portugal – which is all set to be the biggest-ever event for the Olympic Classes and one of the highlights of ISAF's Centenary year. Not only are eleven World Championship titles up for grabs, but Olympic qualification is also at stake, with 75 percent of national places for Beijing set to be decided.

Full rankings at www.sailing.org/rankings/

NORTH SEA WEEK: GREAT SAILING AT HELGOLAND
Helgoland, Germany: The 73rd North Sea Week gathered 131 yachts at the red rock island off the German coast over the Weekend and provided the whole range of changing conditions with sun, rain, strong and calm winds. The offshore regatta started already in Hamburg on Friday to lead the competitors towards the coastal harbour Cuxhaven. Three transfer races from Cuxhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Bremerhaven towards the island of Helgoland followed on Saturday with good conditions. "UCA" gained line honours at the Cuxport Cup to Helgoland but the boat was damaged in the harbour during Sunday's storm and had to step out of the series later.

On Sunday, only 34 yachts made it to the line of the BHF-Bank-Cup around Helgoland because the wind was blowing 25 knots and higher. Many teams were not eager to risk their equipment just one day before the start of the long distance race to Scotland. Heiko Pasler, the skipper of the X-36 "Static Electric" sailed the race in sovereign style and won the IMS class.

Christian Plump who wanted to defend his title as most successful IMS yacht of the North Sea Week had to cope with third place in the overall ranking of the Nordsee Cup.

The Mini-Transat class had their first appearance at the North Sea week this year and the very small boats (6.50 metres) have been sailed double handed in this event. The class is gaining affection and is growing rapidly in Germany. Most successful in this event was "TurTur sailed by Christoph Sonrei and Mathias Beilken. The latter sailed the Mini Transat in 1995.

"I am happy that we could gather nearly ten boats at this years North Sea week and we had a good event, though difficult weather conditions", said Henrik Masekowitz, who is leaving for France directly after the North Sea Week. The 41 year old solo sailor is one of the two qualified Germans preparing for the classic Mini-Transat race from France to Brazil in September.

The crews which stayed in the harbour on Monday Morning prepared their boats for the 20th anniversary of the long distance race from Helgoland to Edinburgh. Finally 50 yachts left for the 400 nautical mile long race towards Scotland in the afternoon. The previous (2003) edition was won by Harm Muller-Rohlck on board his Drabant 33 "Okke" which was named after his son. "We now sail Dehler 35 which we do not know very well yet, but if the wind blows strong we can be very good," states the 38 years old Okke. The 50 teams sailing to Edinburgh will take two to five days before arriving in Scotland.

www.nordseewoche.org

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VICE ADMIRAL'S CUP
In its third year the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club's Vice Admiral's Cup Regatta, taking place this coming weekend from Saturday 2 to Monday 4 June, continues to attract a high profile entry in its three classes. The simple level racing/first past the post format used in the two big boat classes is now firmly established as a favourite with the competitors who love the simplicity and incredibly close racing the system provides.

In the 50-52' Class the TP52s are out in force and Charles Dunstone's Red, Benny Kelly's Panthera and Colm Barrington's Flash Glove will line up against the Farr 52s of Andrew Palmer, Bear of Britain, and Peter Harrison, Chernikeef 2.

In the 45-46' Class the Swan 45s and Farr 45s dominate the entry list, but Nick Lutte and his crew aboard DK46 Shockwave will be determined to give them a run for their money. Jerry Otter's Farr 45 Werewolf is back to defend her title whilst fellow Farr 45 sailors Robert Lutener & Martin Elwood in Henri Lloyd Cutting Edge, Agne Nilson in Fortis Excel and Shaun Frohlich sailing Exabyte Four will be among those hoping to ensure the trophy remains in Farr 45 hands. Equally determined to claim the trophy for the Swan 45 class will be Keith Miller in Crackerjack, Glynn Williams' Wolf In Sheep's Clothing, Bernard Lambillotte sailing Nemo of Cowes, Mikhail Mouratov's Murka 2 and Tony Mack and his inimitable McFly crew.

Competition between the Swan 45s is expected to be particularly fierce as this event forms part of the Swan 45 Northern European Circuit and the boats will be racing to the full Swan 45 One Design Rules. They will also be using the event as a warm up for their World Championship which takes place in Cowes in early July.

The increasingly popular Quarter Ton revival class will race in the Vice Admiral's Cup for the second time. This year they will be using the event as a warm up for the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup which takes place the following weekend. The differing design eras of the Quarter Tonners make level racing impractical so they will sail under IRC. Louise Morton and her crew aboard Super Q will be hoping for a reprise of her 2006 VAC victory but she'll have stiff competition from class stalwarts Tony Dodd in Purple Haze and Graydon Dawson in Diamond. The fleet is also looking forward to welcoming several new owners including Matt Clarke and Tony Thackray, sailing the Fauroux design Lancelot, and Paul Kelsey, who has recently purchased Runaway Bus, designed by Paul Whiting. -- Fiona Brown

www.rcyc.co.uk

LAUNCHINGS
* Three years since launching their last boat, the record-breaking 75ft trimaran B&Q, the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team are only weeks away from their new IMOCA Open 60 touching the water for the first time. The build team are in the final stages of production: "The hull was joined to the deck three weeks ago and the final stage really involves bringing all the other components together," said Sailing Team Manager, Charles Darbyshire: "The mast has just arrived from Sweden and the keel fin from the USA, with the remainder of the major components, such as, the keel bulb, rudders, daggerboards, standing rigging, all coming together in the next couple of weeks. We began the build on the 1st November last year with 13-14 people reaching a peak of 26 people in the final stages. So we're looking at a build within eight months taking around 22,000 hours of labour in total. These IMOCA Open 60s are complicated, hi-tech yachts now."

The new monohull will compete in the new double-handed Barcelona World Race by top professional sailors Brian Thompson and Guillermo Altadill from Barcelona. This duo will face tough competition from up to 10 other top IMOCA Open 60 campaigns and getting to the podium will be no easy feat. Guillermo, aged 44, and Brian, 45, bring a wealth of experience to this campaign including racing together on the Maxi catamaran 'Cheyenne' when they claimed the crewed round the world record in 2004 of 58 days, 9 hours 36 minutes and 40 seconds. Between them they have an incredible eight circumnavigations (Guillermo 6 and Brian 2), although this will be the first short-handed round the world race for Guillermo whereas Brian has garnered extensive experience of short-handed and solo sailing over the last decade. The name of the boat and its sponsor will be revealed shortly. -- www.barcelonaworldrace.com

* Summit Yachts, a new marine sales and marketing company based in Connecticut, USA, has announced plans to launch by year's end a racer/cruiser production 40-footer designed to the IRC rating rule.

Mills Design has been selected by the newly formed Summit Yachts partnership of George Carabetta and Barry Carroll to draw their new IRC 40' Cruiser/Racer to be built by King Marine in Argentina. This is a production yacht that targets one of the most popular segments of the performance yachting market under one of the most successful rating rules ever. The sleek design combines the race-winning performance of our custom designs like Tiamat and Mariners Cove with a truly dual-purpose interior and cockpit layout.

The King 40 by Summit Yachts will be designed by Mark Mills of Mills Design Ltd. in Ireland and built at King Marine in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Carabetta hopes the boat will debut at Key West Race Week next January.

Summit Yachts co-founder Barry Carroll is the former owner of Carroll Marine, which built racer/cruisers for the IMS Rule and also the popular one-designs Mumm 30 and Farr 40.

Summit Yachts chose King Marine as the builder after an extensive search. King Marine has built the America's Cup Class yacht for Spanish syndicate Desafio Espanol, the Reichel/Pugh 66 Blue Yankee and a series of carbon-fiber ORC 42s. -- summit-yachts.com and www.mills-design.com

* Rodger Martin Design has announced its new 30 foot sailing and rowing boats for Outward Bound's Wilderness program .

The first two of fifteen new boats for 2007/8 will be sailing in Maine by the end of July this coming Summer.

The new Outward Bound 30 is a rugged, fibreglass , sharpie-rigged open boat in the form of a contemporary, modified gig or Whitehall type, suitable for rowing and sailing in varied coastal sea and weather conditions. She will carry a complement of six students and two instructors.

The new boat is self-bailing, improving her safety at sea. She has a traditional sheerline that provides the right freeboard amidships for rowing with thirteen-foot oars, and she has higher freeboard at the ends to keep the boat dry in rough weather. Her only motive power is sail or oar. -- www.rodgermartindesign.com/portfolio.htm

* Designed by Rob Humphreys and Oyster's own in-house design team, the new Oyster 525 is the latest in a new generation of Oyster yachts.

The 525 has a larger cockpit than all other yachts of her size and, like all Oyster yachts, it is ergonomically designed for comfort. Accommodation below deck has been optimised, drawing from our experience with the Oyster 53 and others before her, it offers a spacious saloon with three cabins and includes an owners stateroom that would do justice to a much larger yacht.

Rob Humphreys has designed a clean, distortion free, modern hull with her generous beam and 14.21m (47ft) of waterline length, together with 154.22 sq m (1,660 sq ft) of working sail area this gives a clue to her excellent sailing potential. Her hull is moulded using a combination of E-glass, Kevlar and Carbon Fibre offering significant weight savings, strength and stiffness.

With delivery available from 2008, a shoal draft and a supershoal twin rudder centreboard version will also be available.

The first Oyster 525 will undertake sea trials towards the end of this year and her premiere is planned for the London Boat Show in January 2008. -- BYM News, www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=8220

* Jeremie Beyou's new Open 60, Delta Dore 3, has launched and is currently on convoy from Saint Malo and Calais, where she'll start in the Calais Round Britain Race on Sunday. Pictures in the Scuttlebutt Europe photo gallery in the "Launchings" section, see scuttlebutteurope.com/photos/

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 Tom Hayhoe: You might like to follow up the story that appears on ybw.com www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20070430163539pboyacht.html concerning a press release issued by the MCA yesterday but subsequently withdrawn. The MCA press release claimed that Playing Around, currently the leading IRC1 in the RORC series, required lifeboat assistance on her way back from St Quay at the weekend.

As the crew's quote on ybw.com make clear, no such assistance was required or provided, although a very seamanlike call had been made to the coastguard by the crew concerning their plans to divert to Weymouth rather than return to the Solent in prevailing weather conditions. The MCA press release also implied that the crew, which included an RYA Ocean Yachtmaster and two RYA Yachtmasters, and four veterans of last year's challening Round Britain and Ireland Race, had been irresponsible putting to sea in these conditions.

Although now withdrawn, the MCA press release has been reprinted by a number of other websites eg www.sea-dreamer.com/newspage.asp?storyid=969 . So far the MCA does not appear to have published an apology or correction.

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THE LAST WORD
Angels may be very excellent sort of folk in their own way, but we, poor mortals in our present state, would probably find them precious slow company. -- Jerome K. Jerome

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.

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