Brought to you by Boats and Outboards 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

STEVE FOSSETT MISSING
Reno, Nevada, USA (Reuters): U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett, who made record-breaking solo flights around the world by plane and balloon, is missing after taking off in a small plane, aviation authorities said on Tuesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Fossett, 63, was reported missing on Monday night after last being seen taking off from a ranch in Nevada in a single engine Citabria aircraft.

His U.S. office declined to comment.

The Record-Courier newspaper in Nevada reported on its Web site that three air crews were looking for Fossett's small blue-and-white plane.

CNN quoted a local pilot as saying Fossett, who had no parachute, had 4-5 hours of fuel.

The FAA said Fossett did not file a flight plan, nor was one required. It said Fossett had not been in communication with air traffic controllers and there was no distress signal received.

Fossett is best known for being the first person to fly solo around the world by balloon in 2002 and then by airplane in 2005. He has set 115 world records in balloons, airplanes, sailboats, gliders and airships.

MAXI GUSTS AT THE MAXI YACHT ROLEX CUP
Porto Cervo, Italy: Crews waiting ashore on Day Two of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup have just learned that racing has been cancelled for today. The predicted Mistral wind has arrived in majestic style and is currently blowing at an average of 40 knots, with gusts of up to 60, off the coast of Porto Cervo. With some of the most expensive racing yachts in the world assembled on the docks owners will be breathing a sigh of relief at the Race Committee's decision to hold off until tomorrow and hopefully use Thursday's scheduled lay day to recuperate.

In the meantime participants will be kept occupied with the sumptuous social programme laid on by organizers the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and title-sponsor Rolex. Tonight, owners will be celebrating in style at a gala dinner at the YCCS Clubhouse.

Current leaders in the four competing divisions are:

Racing - Morning Glory, Hasso Plattner (GER)
Cruising - Ranger, RSV Ltd (CAY)
Wally - J One, Jean Charles Decaux (FRA)
Mini Maxi - Ops 5, Massimo Violati (ITA)

Racing is scheduled to continue Wednesday with the first starting signal at 11.40.

For more information, photos and updates please visit www.yccs.it , www.yccsmaxi.com or www.regattnews.com.

ANY IDIOT CAN BE UNCOMFORTABLE
Round-the-cans, foredeck is a rockstar's job, soaking up the spray and the photographers' attention. But when you've got 2,000 ocean racing miles to go, soaking your mid-layer during a sail change on the first night is plain unprofessional. The new Dubarry Fastnet boot's elasticated gaiter top, supple, quick-drying performance leathers, rugged Cordura and Gore-Tex lining keeps the elements out, leaving you in yours. The new Dubarry Fastnet boot: protect your performance.

www.dubarry.com

TEAMORIGIN STATES ITS CASE FOR CHALLENGING
TeamOrigin is to open the Southampton Boat Show and present team members next week. Beforehand, it takes the opportunity to state its position on the Challenger of Record question.

Sir Keith Mills and Mike Sanderson, Team Principal and Team Director respectively of TeamOrigin, Britain's challenge for the 33rd America's Cup, will officially open the Southampton International Boat Show at 11:00 on Friday 14th September. Following the 'Opening' formalities TeamOrigin will present key new additions to sailing, shore and design teams.

With Alinghi's victory in July a new Challenger of Record (COR), the Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV), was announced and a Protocol governing the 33rd America's Cup published. The contents came as a bit of a shock for some potential challengers but for TeamOrigin it was a clear statement of intent about ACM's continuing modernisation of the America's Cup.

"We do not believe that the new Protocol will have a negative impact on the future of the America's Cup. To the contrary we believe it provides a platform for further growth and some real opportunities for those who decide to challenge," continues Sir Keith.

TeamOrigin believes the Protocol is good for challengers, especially new teams because:

- Of the introduction of a new America's Cup Class, a new 90 ft yacht, giving every challenger an equal opportunity to start the design process at the same time.

- It prohibits two-boat testing which will reduce costs. New techniques will be developed to refine existing and new yachts, opening up a level playing field for new challengers.

-It allows for regular official racing to be run in Valencia. Teams may race their opponents in practice whilst simultaneously running parallel hospitality and sponsor programmes.

Unfortunately in late July the GGYC, a challenger of the 31st and 32nd America's Cup represented by BMW Oracle Racing, disputed the legitimacy of the CNEV's status as a bona fide yacht club as defined in the America's Cup Deed of Gift and as a result filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court.

TeamOrigin's position on this is clear. The elements specifically defining a yacht club's status according to the Deed of Gift are clearly stated: "Any organized Yacht Club of a foreign country, incorporated, patented, or licensed by the legislature, admiralty, or other executive department, having for its annual regatta an ocean water course on the sea, or on an arm of the sea, or one which combines both, shall always be entitled to the right of sailing a match of this Cup...".

The CNEV is recognised by the Real Federacion Espanol de Vela, the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation (RFEV) and that club will hold a regatta on the sea before the end of 2007.

TeamOrigin therefore recognises the legitimacy of the COR and hence the Protocol and is mounting its challenge operations for the 33rd America's Cup based on this Protocol.

www.TeamOrigin.com

RUBAN VIOLET RECORD SMASHED
Geneve, Switzerland: Alexandre Schneiter and his Seb Schmidt design Tilt have broken the thirteen years old Ruban Violet, a speed record for monohulls around lake Geneva set on the Bol d'Or Mirabaud course. Established in 1994, the previous record was held by the boat Corum and her owner Beat Siegfried in 8h45'40''.

Together with Jean Psarophagis's Syz & co (another Psaros 40 yacht), Alex Schneiter set sails early this morning (Tuesday, September 4) in order to benefit from the strong northerly "bise". This attempt - his fourth, was going to be the right one! "This is the cleverest out of all the attempts we have made. The wind angles were particularly good; we took several risks but everything we tried proved to be right."

After reaching le Bouveret around lunch time, the canting keel monohull started the long descent towards Geneva under full spinnaker whilst Syz & co opted for a fractional. Fully powered, the forty footer surfed its way towards the arrival line and a new, historic record.

Alexandre Schneiter now envisages challenging the multihulls record, held since 1994 by Peter Leuenberger's trimaran Triga IV. He will build a multihull that will sail on hydrofoils and guarantee a fantastic show on lake Geneva next year. -- Bernard Schopfer

* Photos by Loris von Siebenthal - myimage, www.myimage.ch in the Eurobutt Gallery: www.scuttlebutteurope.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,30/

SPIDERTECH'S FIRST TIME
After a good begining, winning the first race of the campionship, the first Spidertech's challange for the Farr 40 World recure in the last two days. High sailing level, professional teams, many olimpic medalist and windy conditions (15-20 knots). This is the scenery for the first Farr 40 Worlds in which a boat served by Spidertech tecnology ran. In Copenaghen, Alberini's Calvi-Lightbay Sailing Team showed a good speed, like favourite boats. "We were always very fast -said Alessandro Battistelli, tailer. Sails are very well designed and made by excellent materials. While we were racing, we considered that..."

www.spidertechsails.eu/news

HEADING FOR THE TEAM BASE ON LANZAROTE
Stockholm, Sweden: With Scandinavia moving into the fall, the Ericsson Racing Team is starting a new phase in its preparation for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009. On Tuesday, Ericsson's training yacht set sail from Stockholm to Lanzarote and the training camp that will be the team's base for almost a year.

A combination of Ericsson's two crews is now sailing to Lanzarote. Brad Jackson from the international crew, with four Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Races behind him, is in command for the voyage. Also onboard is Anders Lewander, skipper of the Nordic crew which, during the journey, will focus on selecting crew members.

"This will be our first lengthy sailing trial," Swedish skipper Lewander says. "We have more than 2500 nautical miles ahead of us, which we have to cover in 9-10 days. And we have up to five Nordic sailors who have to convince us that they should be in the crew for the Volvo Ocean Race."

They are sailing Ericsson's recently acquired boat, which has now left Sune Karlsson's boatyard at Saltsjobaden outside Stockholm. The yacht, previously known as ABN AMRO One, won the most recent Volvo Ocean Race. Completely repainted in a new design, it is now the training boat for the Ericsson Racing Team. Ericsson's two race yachts for the next Volvo Ocean Race are being built in Kista, outside Stockholm: the first will be launched late in the fall and the second next spring.

Ericsson Racing Team's new training base on the Canary Islands will be the crews' winter home. The location has been chosen well: the Canary Islands have one of the world's best climates, with good winds and very few rainy days. This means good conditions for effective training, and few days lost to rain or lack of wind, which can affect work on technical improvements.

The base is at Puerto Calero on Lanzarote. It is the only marina in the archipelago that can provide moorings, a land base, sail loft and accommodation all within five minutes' walk. Puerto Calera is also only 10 minutes from Lanzarote airport.

www.ericssonracingteam.com/news.html

FIREBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Richard Estaugh and Rob Gardner (GBR) won the Fireball World Championship title as the Brits monoplized the medals on Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland.

Light winds predominated throughout the series in Switzerland and the final day was no different. Racing was held in a 5-10 knot northerly, with the gold fleet getting underway just before 15:00.

The next Fireball World Championships are going to be held in Thailand in spring 2008.

Final top five:

1. Richard Estaugh/Rob Gardner, GBR, 12 points
2. Vince Horey/Andy Thompson, GBR, 13
3. Tom Jeffcoate/Mark Hogan, GBR, 22
4. David Edwards/Simon Potts, GBR, 22
5. Matt Mee/Richard Wagstaff, GBR, 24

www.swiss-sailing.ch/fireball/worlds/

SOUTHAMPTON BOAT SHOW
The Southampton Boat Show in association with ITV Meridian returns to Mayflower Park this September. Celebrating its 39th year the Show, which has Europe's largest purpose built on-water marina, takes place from 14-23 September 2007. This year, the Show will see an exciting line up of famous boats on the feature berth of the Hydropool Marina. Not only will Sir Robin Knox-Johnston be there with his Open 60 "Lombard Marine Finance:, along with Mike Golding and the Open 60 ECOVER but TEAMORIGIN, Official Challenger for the 33rd America's Cup, will bring the newly liveried GBR 75 race training America's Cup boat to the Show.

www.southamptonboatshow.com

LAUNCHINGS
* A triumvirate of designers has contributed to the successful launch of the Storm Trysail Transpac 65 (STP65), developing three different boats for the "Box Rule" by which the STP65 Class will be governed. Farr Yacht Design drew the first STP65 Rosebud for owner Roger Sturgeon of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with California's Westerly Marine completing the building of the boat in early June, 2007. Reichel/Pugh and Judel/Vrolijk have begun respective designs for Jim Swartz of Park City, Utah, and Udo Schutz of Selters, Germany, who, like Sturgeon, are well known names in the ocean racing world. Also like Sturgeon, both owners plan to keep the boat names that have headlined their previous campaigns. Swartz's Moneypenny, currently being built by McConaghy's Boat Yard in Australia, will be ready next March, while Schutz's Container will begin construction at Premier Yachts in Dubai, UAE in August, 2007.

"The goal is for the three boats to be on the starting line for the 2008 Newport to Bermuda Race," said Swartz, explaining that the event fits the multi-faceted racing profile of the STP65. "It's designed to be a Super TP52," Swartz said, "and is capable of true offshore racing. We want to do a combination of offshore, coastal and buoy racing."

The goal of the Storm Trysail Club (headquartered in Larchmont, N.Y.) and the Transpacific Yacht Club (Los Angeles, Calif.), which last July announced their joint partnership in developing the STP65 Rule, was to create a boat that could compete both as a Box Rule and an IRC or ORR performer, with tight enough parameters to minimize obsolescence. According to Farr Yacht Design's Senior Naval Architect Jim Schmicker: "The benefit of designing to a box rule is that it limits factors such as length, minimum displacement, draft and sail area. Specifically, the 'box' for the STP65 sets a maximum LOA of 20 meters (65.6 feet), a displacement range of 13,000 kg to 13,400 kg, a lifting keel and a generous sail plan. The displacement/length and sail area/displacement ratios fall between those of a TP52 and Volvo Open 70, giving promise that the boat will deliver lively performance in long distance and buoy events." In addition, the lifting keel has a draft of approximately 4.8 meters in its down position and 3.3 meters when fully retracted, facilitating entry into shallow harbors or marinas as part of the class rule.

Within days of her launch in June, Rosebud won her class at the First Team Real Estate Regatta in Newport Beach, California. Southern Spars, known for its design and construction of carbon fiber spars and rigging for successful VO70 and TP52 campaigns, was commissioned to design and build Rosebud's rig and has eight "serious inquiries" for orders from other STP65 teams.

The STP65 Rule and supporting information is accessible at www.stp-65.org

* The christening ceremony for the new 60' monohull, Safran, took place at 3 p.m. on Saturday 1st September in the Paul Vatine Dock in Le Havre, after 15 months of work at the Larros boatyard. This event marked the end of the first leg of her skipper's Vendee Globe adventure.

Jean-Paul Bechat, President of the Board of Safran, reminded everyone of the company's commitment to ocean racing and their support for Marc Guillemot, the boat's skipper. He stressed Safran's involvement in the boat's construction, taking advantage of the aeronautical engineering technology of six of the Group's companies: Sagem Defense Securite, Snecma, Snecma Propulsion Solide, Aircelle, and Messier-Bugatti.

Safran is the result of collaboration between the design team of Van Peteghem-Lauriot Prevost and Guillaume Verdier, closely associated with the Safran Group.

One chapter is over and another is just beginning. Marc Guillemot has only one thing on his mind right now: heading off on the Transat Jacques Vabre alongside his co-skipper Charles Caudrelier. "I can't wait to cross the line. The Transat will be a perfect way to train for the 2008-09 Vendee Globe, which remains my main goal."

www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/5314/Marc-Guillemot-s-monohull-Safran-christened-in-Le-Havre.html

* The Open 60 monohull "Groupe Bel", designed by Guillaume Verdier and the Van Peteghem - Lauriot Prevost design office, has left the Tuscan yard of Indiana Yachting. Set to be skippered by Kito de Pavant, the most recent of the IMOCA 60 fleet is today being taken by lorry to Rosignano (South of Livorno) where it will be launched midweek. The crew will also be proceeding with the self-righting test to prove that the skipper is capable of righting the boat without outside assistance, in the event of capsize. The following week, Groupe Bel will go for its first sail trials off the Italian coast, prior to returning to Port Camargue, its port of registry. In Le Havre on 3rd November, Kito de Pavant and Sebastien Col will take the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre bound for Salvador de Bahia in Brazil.

Photos at www.beltchiizztour.com

* The Class 40 is a successful short handed offshore racing class originating in France. Presently, there is an increasing level of interest in the class outside of France. The SYDE Class 40 design is a high quality limited production yacht for this growing market.

Based on the concept of a Dutch sailor, SYDE has designed a Class 40 that is targeted towards those racing in the North Sea, but who have a desire to do, for example, the Round Britain and Ireland race, OSTAR or the Route du Rhum.

The construction of the SYDE Class 40 is to be E-glass/epoxy on foam core. Proper lightweight construction means high stability will be achieved despite being at the minimum total displacement under the Class 40 rules (4500 kg). There are 750 litres of ballast water per side, fitted in permanent tanks and easily shifted. The choice of the L-keel is driven by the racing profile - coastal waters and shorthanded - because clearing nets, weed, or anything else from the keel is more simply done than it is with a T-keel. -- See race2win.de/syde40.html

* Construction of the 52-meter Sparkman & Stephens-designed aluminum flybridge ketch Nazenin V reached a milestone mid-summer as her completed hull was turned upright at RMK Marine in Turkey. The yacht, being built for a Turkish owner, is on schedule for her planned delivery next year.

Nazenin V is a collaboration of S&S and the U.K. interior design firm Redman Whitely Dixon. The powerful ketch is a classic S&S design with the firm¹s trademark sheer, graceful overhangs and traditional teak trim. She will feature a contemporary raised pilothouse, a large flybridge and clean superstructure lines. The interior will have traditional raised and fielded teak panels and luxurious furnishings.

Although RMK has built many yachts in steel, the Nazenin V project represents the yard's first foray into all aluminum construction. In the European fashion, the hull was built upside down.

Plans are in the works for a sistership. -- www.sparkmanstephens.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 Steve Old: Once upon a time we just had plain old Maxis, then along came Pocket Maxis, and then Super Maxis, and now Mini Maxis. What's next, Super-Mini-Pocket-Maxis? Or would that just be an old-fashioned 1 Tonner?

* From Mark Chew: Re Eurobutt 1307: "The key moment came one minute before the start when Oats apparently suffered an engine failure and was unable to power up the hydraulics."

Is this the first case of losing a sailing race because you couldn't start your engine? I think we have seriously lost the plot at this end of the sailing spectrum.

FEATURED BROKERAGE
ZANA (also known as KONICA MINOLTA), the Brett Bakewell-White designed 98' Supermaxi is for sale by tender. Closing date is the 12th of October. She was designed to be a no compromise record breaker, with an eye towards being converted to a canting keel yacht; she has all the potential that is needed to be a future record breaker, and available now!

Please contact Berthon International Yacht Brokers for tender instructions and more details. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or +44 1590 679222

THE LAST WORD
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. -- Niels Bohr

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.

www.YachtsandCruisers.com the new place to buy and sell prestige boats, the website has been designed to showcase high-end boats. People looking to buy prestige boats will be able to easily navigate their way around the site quickly. The portfolio of thousands of boats can be viewed by category, make, location and price. Alternatively the 'Advanced Search' facility will benefit those buyers who have a specific boat in mind.

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