Brought to you by YachtsandCruisers.com 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 America's Cup
Another America's Cup bombshell at the end of the week... Alinghi head Ernesto Bertarelli has released a public statement calling for major revisions not to the Protocol that caused so much shock and awe... but to the Deed of Gift itself! And now the New York Yacht Club has stepped in...

* Bertarelli's Statement

Since Alinghi's successful defence of the America's Cup in July, much has been said by many and I wish to explain my personal passion for bringing my vision of the America's Cup to life.

When I founded Alinghi it was all about creating a team to share the passion of sailing through every channel available to as wide an audience as possible. We tried to adopt a fresh and open way of doing things and making part of our base accessible to the public was only one example of the many innovations Alinghi brought to the America's Cup. I believe this approach was a contributing factor to our success in 2003.

With the Defence of the Cup, we got the opportunity to share this spirit with the whole event. When we began, we set out a clear and innovative strategy focusing on the choice of venue, the set up of a purpose built port, the America's Cup Park and the Acts as part of our vision of opening the event to as large an audience as possible.

Over six million people attended the event, which for the first time saw the participation of syndicates from five continents. The television coverage extended the reach to over four billion viewers.

The critics who opposed the Acts, the choice of venue, the television production, etc. were numerous and vociferous but the facts proved that the 32nd America's Cup was a positive turning point for this historical event.

At the same time as realising some of the fascinating aspects of the America's Cup I also became aware of its weaknesses. The uncertain format of the event meant that teams - and the entire America's Cup Community - had no future beyond the next Cup. This leads to teams only surviving one cycle and the whole event needing to recreate itself every three to five years. This results in a substantial increase in costs and difficulty in securing long term sponsors.

For the 33rd edition, the concept was to empower the organisers to implement further innovations without unnecessary disruptions. The proposal to create the new AC90 class with the one boat sailing rule in a two year cycle is a major measure towards managing the costs while creating further excitement and by using the existing facilities of Valencia we had the ideal platform to maintain momentum. This would have enabled the event to prosper and generate greater revenue for the organisers to share with the teams.

The recent events in the New York courts, with the Judge ruling the CNEV invalid because it had not held its regatta at the right time, show the Achilles' heel of the event and the possibility of its destabilisation through individual actions. Again, as in 2003, our vision has received criticism from those reluctant to change. I stand by one of the principles of the Cup: the Trustee, with the Defender, has the responsibility for the governance of the event and to implement changes which will allow it to prosper.

With a view towards the future and having studied the rules of the Cup I observed that the Deed does not actively promote parity for the teams and a long term future of the event.

In October of this year I went to New York to start a dialogue with the New York Yacht Club to examine what enthusiasm there was to make the event more relevant to today's sporting landscape. The Deed of Gift was, after all, written over 150 years ago at the NYYC and could not anticipate the changes that the world has undergone. I was not expecting the discussions to be completed swiftly but I was thrilled when Charles Townsend, Commodore of the NYYC and George W. Carmany III, Chairman of NYYC America's Cup Committee, expressed the same feelings.

It is fair to say that the 33rd America's Cup has been ill-fated and I have a desire to make it right. The fastest way to achieve this objective would be for the Golden Gate Yacht Club and the Societe Nautique de Geneve to work with the New York Yacht Club on revising the Deed of Gift to make it appropriate for today without losing what makes the America's Cup special. As part of this process I am happy to compromise on some of the Defender's rights to achieve what is best for the event.

In effect, I raise the following questions:
- Should the Defender automatically be qualified for the final AC Match or should all teams start on equal footings?
- Should the schedule of venues and content of regulations be announced several cycles in advance allowing planning and funding?
- Should the governance of the Cup become permanent and be managed by entities representing past and current trustees as well as competing teams?

Over the weekend I spoke at length with Larry Ellison explaining our proposal and I was pleased that he was very supportive of the principles in the proposed changes.

Based on these principles it is my intention to work towards a renovated America's Cup to take place in Valencia and to be raced with the certainty that the event cannot be disrupted to meet individual requirements to the detriment of those willing and able to compete.

If this revision of the governing documents of the America's Cup cannot be achieved, we will have to accept the GGYC challenge under the Deed of Gift. -- www.americascup.com

* From the NYYC

The New York Yacht Club confirmed today that it has agreed to join discussions related to the future conduct of racing for the America's Cup.

Charles H. Townsend, commodore of the New York Yacht Club, said, "We were approached earlier in the year by Mr. Ernesto Bertarelli of Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG), the current holder of the Cup. We concluded that given our club's founding association with the competition we can work impartially to assist in the development of initiatives to preserve and build competition for the oldest international trophy in sport, and ensure that it will endure as a premiere global sporting event for generations to come."

Commodore Townsend also announced that the Club would be represented in discussions with the Cup community by Trustee and Chairman of the Club's America's Cup Committee, George W. Carmany III. "In addition to Ernesto Bertarelli, we have received an expression of support for this initiative from Larry Ellison, owner of Golden Gate Yacht Club's (GGYC) America's Cup team," said Mr. Carmany. "We hope that our discussions will lead to agreements that will benefit all members of the broader America's Cup community."

"We do not want this initiative to interfere in any way with Golden Gate Yacht Club's current America's Cup challenge. While we do not wish to foreclose other options which either SNG or GGYC may wish to pursue regarding the conduct of the next America's Cup match, we are available to participate in discussions that consider changes to the governing documents to facilitate the future conduct of regular and independently managed competitions at locations throughout the world," concluded Mr. Carmany.

"While we understand that we are not contemplating a simple task, we are made confident in undertaking the effort by the support and encouragement of Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli," said Commodore Townsend. "We compliment both gentlemen on their foresight and willingness to participate in the discussions. We are hopeful that this initiative can be beneficial to all those who compete for the America's Cup, and to the fans who enjoy it so much." -- www.nyyc.org

Editorials

Why now?

Surely this is the sort of deal that should have been placed on the table on 5th July 2007, instead of the one-sided Protocol signed with a club that had never staged a regatta and described itself as a 'legal adjustment'. Why now, after allowing the legal dispute to run its full race in the New York Supreme Court? Why now after Ernesto postponed the America's Cup indefinitely, just days before Justice Cahn delivered his decision?

And why not just sit down and talk with Golden Gate YC and the other key Challengers, rather than issue an open letter of this type without the threat of a Deed of Gift Match.

To be fair, Ernesto is the first Defender to express a willingness to negotiate some of the Defender's Rights in order to achieve what some would believe is a needed update to the Deed of Gift. However his timing is lousy.

What happens in the next week or two will be the real proof of Ernesto's and Alinghi's intentions. -- Richard Gladwell in Sail-World.com, full text at www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=39751

* Sebastian Destremau:

Over the last few days, Oracle has been pushing the so-called "advantage" of last week's court ruling really hard. Becoming the new challenger of record they have been "inviting" the prospective challengers to discuss the ... 34th America's Cup.

Sending several amendments to the protocol and summoning Alinghi to accept them.

Submerging the media with press releases complaining about Alinghi's unwillingness to come to the negotiation table.

Pushing to the point where people could become a little annoyed about this new "mister nice guys attitude"

Admittedly, would you do it differently if you had the money to maintain both programs (multihull in 2008 and AC90 in 2009) whilst the rest of the Challengers are in limbo? Probably not

The Defender Alinghi has been losing ground for some times now ... at least from a PR stand points. Apparently!

However it would appear that we, actors/spectators, forgot one important thing.... Like it or not, the way the America's Cup is run is ALWAYS up to the Defender and Alinghi did not become such a successful winning machine ... just by magic.

We learned today that two months ago, whilst everybody was focusing on the court issue, Alinghi's boss was foreseeing today's chaos and was "shooting the breeze" with the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club.

Wake-up boys and girls, back in October this guy was not talking about the 33rd America's Cup in 2009, 2010 or 2011 here! He was talking about "revising the Deed of Gift to make it appropriate for today and compromising on some of the Defender's rights to achieve what is best for the event.

In a magical twist, Mr. Bertarelli outlined his vision for the future of the America's Cup and masterfully shifted the focus today. Hats of to Mr. Bertarelli... and let's start building these mutltihulls real fast guys!

On The Coffee Table This Weekend....

"The Maltese Falcon"
by SuperYacht Art, 240 pages, hardcover. Published by TRP Magazines, printed by Butler & Tanner. 50.00 GBP.

The Maltese Falcon is certainly one of the world's most recognisable and impressive yachts, but I must confess that I was less than impressed with the look of it's superstructure. To my mind's eye, square rigs belonged on wooden vessels from the 1800's through the end of the clipper era. Tossing three columns of what appear at first glance to be updated Chinese Junk rigs onto a modern Perini Navi hull seemed, well, odd.

It wasn't until I viewed a long piece on the 60 Minutes television show about the boat and its owner Tom Perkins that I got past my prejudices to look a bit deeper into the technology behind the boat, and when this huge coffee table book landed with an audible thud on my desktop I began to look with real wonder at just how Perkins brought his childhood dreams to fruition:

"Cutty Sark was the iconic clipper, capable of running before strong trade winds at speeds over 20 knots and logging hundreds of miles per day. As a kid I studied her log books, which had been preserved and annotated by sailing historian Basil Lubbock. I must have been a hand aboard a clipper in some previous incarnation because I have always been drawn to these square-riggers. After decades of ownership of sailing yachts... I was still obsessed with the clipper square-rigger concept.

"So I wondered if it would be possible to bring forward the advantages of this design into the 21st century. Could one create a clipper which would be practical and not require dozens of young crew to set and hand her towering clouds of sail? My good friend Fabio Perini had built a superbly beautiful hull of 88m, but it remained unfinished. Might it be the platform for an entirely new idea? I asked Perini Navi to explore the clipper 'yacht' possibility. This triggered the submission of a plan by renowned Dutch naval architect Gerard Dijkstra which caught my attention."

The story of the build project and the engineering and programming needed to enable a single person to control all the sails and steering is astonishing. More than an engineering masterpiece, the rigging on the Maltese Falcon is functional sculpture. Wait until you see how the interior's been fitted out...

Thousands of photos from an array of world famous photographers including two of my favorites Carlo Borlenghi and Franco Pace.

This book is available for purchase by visiting www.superyachtart.com/mfb for 50.00 GBP

"Sleek: Classic Images from the Rosenfeld Collection"
text by John Rousmaniere, 121 pages, Mystic Seaport Museum. 50 USD.

For years I've hoped to stumble upon a huge trove of small picture frames at a yard sale. For then I'd perform a blasphemous act and take a razor to this book and have several dozen small framed prints for a tiny outlay of money. I'd have to purchase another copy though, for many of my favorite prints are on back to back pages.

I've had a number of Stanley Rosenfeld's full sized prints on my office walls for many years. Back in December of 2002 John Rousmaniere quietly sent a note around to a few nautical journalists and friends that Stanley was in failing health and near death, that his family thought that some kind notes from the community would life his spirits. I sent one saying how much I'd loved looking at those prints all these years, how much I enjoyed spending time at Mystic Seaport's Rosenfeld Collection, and was pleased to get an email back from his family saying how much our letters has meant to Stanley. He passed away on December 23 of that year.

Barbara Lloyd's obituary in the New York Times had this bit at the end which makes me think even more of Stanley Rosenfeld:

"In his later years, Mr. Rosenfeld became disenchanted with the America's Cup. In the 1995 event, he was absent altogether. It was the first match he had missed in 65 years. Part of his lack of interest had to do with the relatively calm seas and what he considered to be bland photo opportunities in San Diego. But more, he was chagrined at the increasing advertising.

"It hurts me to look at them," he said at the time. "I understand that the boats cost a great deal of money, and that the teams are very serious. But you shouldn't do that to a yacht."

This book contains some of the most famous shots in yachting, including many from past America's Cups, and historical photos from both Stanley, his brothers, and his father Morris who started the family dynasty in yachting photography in 1910. John Rousmaniere's commentary lets us see how hard it was, how physically challenging this type of photography was and how passionate the Rosenfelds were at their craft. A superb read and a real feast for the eyes, this one...

Available in the usual online shops as well as from Mystic Seaport Museum: www.mysticseaport.org

* One of my favorite Rosenfeld prints is of the schooner Atlantic, which held the transatlantic crossing record for decades. Atlantic is being recreated, see www.schooner-atlantic.com . Her scheduled launch is just 3 months away!

575 Miles, One Day, One Man
Wow! If this is the shape of things to come then the progress of Francis Joyon and his maxi-trimaran IDEC2 through the Southern Ocean will be a fast one. Since the 22:46 sched last night IDEC2 has been averaging 24-25 knots and at the latest update she had covered 575 miles in 24 hours. If we thought 800 miles was an impressive lead over Ellen MacArthur's benchmark time on B&Q Castorama then today finds the burly Frenchman and his 97ft trimaran more than 1300 miles ahead of her!

The last 24 hours has seen IDEC 2 skirt to the north of Tristan da Cunha thereby avoiding the unusual asthma outbreak the 275 inhabitants of this remote island group have been subject to recently. Rather than getting involved with the high pressure system that has been slowing progress for the Barcelona World Race leaders, Joyon is not constrained by having to pass any ice gates and in the early hours of this morning passed the latitude of 40 degrees S, the gateway to the Southern Ocean (at around the same time he crossed the Greenwich meridian).

Typically the transition between the South Atlantic trades and the Southern Ocean can be an awkward one, but Joyon has been fortunate with his timing and has leapt from trades straight into strong northwesterlies being generated by a depression more than 1,000 miles to his southwest. -- from TheDailySail.com, www.thedailysail.com

PRB Loses Top of Mast - "It's Finished For Us"
In a heartbreaking turn of events, skippers Vincent Riou and Sebastien Josse aboard PRB are almost certainly out of the Barcelona World Race. This morning, the team which has been alternating the race lead with Paprec-Virbac 2 over the past three weeks, lost the top three metres of its mast, making it impossible to continue racing. Both skippers are safe and the boat is now sailing towards Cape Town.

"What happened is quite simple to explain," said skipper Vincent Riou by video-conference with race headquarters in Barcelona. " We were sailing at about 20 knots under the big gennaker (and with a reef in the mainsail) and Sebastien and I were down below with the auto-pilot on looking at the weather conditions, when we hit a wave and heard a crack. We thought we had broken a halyard or something.at no time did we imagine we'd lost the top of the mast. We went on deck and we saw the main sail still in place but the top part of the mast hanging down.it's finished for us."

The crew called its shore team at 09:45 GMT to inform them of the incident. PRB is now making its way towards Cape Town, trying to get north before the arrival of the next weather system. They have not requested any assistance.

"We've managed to drop the mainsail and make everything as safe as we can. Now we have one piece of mast up and we're trying to escape before the next weather system arrives which could bring 40 knots," said Sebastien Josse. "We've made sure the boat is safe and the mast is safe and that we can move the boat quickly enough as we sail towards Cape Town.If our speed is good we can arrive in three or four days."

www.barcelonaworldrace.com

The Last Word
The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. -- Abbie Hoffman