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Brought to you by YachtsandCruisers.com, 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
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Fifty Seven Days
by Andy Rice, sailjuiceblog.com
Photo at left courtesy Thierry Martinez.
Congratulations to Francis Joyon, who has smashed the singlehanded round-the-world record by 14 days. The figure to beat now is 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds. This is the second fastest time around the world ever for a sailing machine, bettered only by the fully-crewed record of a 50-and-a-bit days set by Orange II a couple of years back.
By any measure, the 51-year-old's achievement is remarkable. What I like most is that he did it on a trimaran that required no engine to power the instruments or steering systems. Pure natural energy harnessed by a combination of solar and wind power.
This year is Olympic year. Last year the ISAF Rolex Sailor of the Year Awards went to two match racers, Ed Baird and Claire Leroy. Who will take this year's Awards? Normally it would go to an Olympic Champion, but it's hard to see how an Olympic sailor - no matter how dramatic the circumstances in Qingdao - will top Joyon's performance. Remembering that ISAF is an organisation funded in good part from Olympic revenues, Joyon's historic voyage poses quite a dilemma for the judges. -- Andy Rice, sailjuiceblog.com
* If you want to know something about a man, look closely at his boat. Apply that axiom to Francis Joyon's record-breaking trimaran IDEC and you find someone who prefers simplicity and economy, and has no regard - none whatsoever - for fashion, appearance or the filigrees of pointless finicky detail. All that matters is that things do their job.
Outside, IDEC looks every bit the sleek multimillion Euro speed machine. Go on board, however, and you see a set of bones picked clean. The boat is staggeringly utilitarian...
...IDEC is monastic. There are none of the lucky trinkets or cuddly toys you see on many tough-as-oak solo sailors' boats. Opposite the tiny galley, however, are two posters of a mountainous rainforest and a waterfall in the Marquesas Islands.
That's where Joyon cruised with his wife and two boys last year. Those who know him say that while his ambition is to go fast, his dream is to sail slowly, to dive, to catch fish and to live an unhurried life day by day.
If the feat seems superhuman, the man himself emphatically does not. Joyon waved shyly at a crowd of several hundreds, small by French sailing standards, and seemed faintly embarrassed by the attention. Joyon is famously a quiet-spoken man who says little, preferring to let his actions speak for themselves. With this record, and his natural reticence, he has become the natural successor to France's most revered and private sailor, Eric Tabarly.
In a world obsessed with 'communicating the experience' Joyon stands out. He sent back a grand total of four photos before he gave up on the technology and he filmed nothing. He has no truck with distractions. When I remark to Ellen MacArthur, whose attitude to media duties verges on the self-sacrificing, how unusual it is to know so little about a voyage she replies: "Yes, and we probably never will know any more."
It has added a frisson of mystery to this record and Joyon's feat seems to have fired up renewed determination among sailors who have been 'resting' to go out and emulate or better it. And not just Thomas Coville, whose ill-fated Sodebo nonetheless promises to be even quicker. Now that Ellen's record has been soundly thrashed, she is dropping hints that she will return to claim it back. -- Excerpts from two postings in Elaine Bunting's blog
The Canaries Zone
Translation by Kate Jennings
After a little over two days at sea, Franck Cammas and his nine crew are still within the time of the Jules Verne Trophy holder, but since the latitude of Lisbon, Groupama 3 has had to deal with calm zones, which are hindering its progress.
The zone of wind off the Canaries is certainly not easy to cope with on this third day at sea, Throughout the night, the crew has had to remain very attentive to the slightest variations in the breeze, which has shifted around to the SE, constantly fluctuating between ten and fourteen knots! There is a fair amount of work on deck for the three watch systems of three men, who are relaying every three hours. The chart table is also a hive of activity as they try to define the best trajectory in this zone, the wind alternating between little puffs of air, a breathless zephyr and a progressive E'ly rotation... In this way, once they'd passed the latitude of Cape Saint Vincent (South of Portugal), Franck Cammas and his crew opted to shift across from the direct course to pass Madeira and round to the West of the Canaries this Saturday night. A slight extension in the course is called for then to get through this rather unusual weather situation.
Last night wasn't very favourable for high speed then, especially as Groupama 3 was suffering from a slight technical hitch, forcing it to stop on two separate occasions. "This lunchtime we had some wind on the beam, which had remained weak this morning, but began to kick back in again: we went from 20 to 30 knots! However, last night we had a slight issue with our gennaker hook as this part had become twisted, but Loic Le Mignon has been able to perform makeshift repairs. We had to come to a standstill on two separate occasions though so that he could do the work at the top of the mast" indicated Yves Parlier, the onboard navigator.
The giant trimaran is well within the record time set by Orange II since it had a lead of over 90 miles this Saturday lunchtime, even though it's well below its optimum potential due to the light winds reigning for nearly a day. Logically, the delta should dramatically increase from the end of the weekend, as Bruno Peyron and his crew weren't very fast at this stage in the course, due to the moderate downwind conditions, forcing them into a series of gybes. With already over a thousand miles covered in the past 48 hours, Groupama 3 is still maintaining sufficient pace to stand a chance of reaching the equator in less than seven days. -- Translation by Kate Jennings
Detailed cartography at: cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne
Flying And Crashing Around Cape Horn
by Kimball Livingston: Much more, including a marvelous account of Thursday's Child record run in 1989 in his blog
So Gitana 13 today is well into the South Atlantic on her New York-San Francisco record attempt, with Cape Horn ahead and then (if that much goes right) thousands of hard miles to come as ten crewmen work their way up the Pacific Coast of the Americas.
Here I am on the shores of San Francisco Bay, brimming with nostalgia for a time when a passel of big guns were shooting for this unique, all-American record. Clipper ships around Cape Horn, bound for the gold fields - those guys set the standard. It took more than a century for technology to meet the pace.
The USA doesn't see much big-time record-chasing these days, except as a starting point or ending point. But I recall a few vivid years when the Clipper Ship record was the big one that lured adventurous sailors to one spectacular failure after another. In 1988 alone, no fewer than five attempts were planned in the wake of (did I mention) one spectacular failure after another.
Mind you, we are talking Cape Horn, the wrong way, at a pull-the-string-tight distance of 14,000 miles.
I seem to also recall some bickering over which clipper ship record really mattered, but the 89-day passage of the famed Flying Cloud was the benchmark. How hard can it be?
Flying Cloud went 89 days in 1854.
Two years later Flying Cloud made the same passage - reputedly including a 402 mile day - in 185 days. Do the comparison.
Today we have weather routing, but no guarantees.
Ultimate Challenge 2011
Taking full advantage of the media circus surrounding Francis Joyon's triumphal finish in Brest, the town of Brest and the Pen Duick organisation announced an imposing new project: a non-stop race around the world in multihulls. With no design limits whatsoever... bring whatever sail-powered multihull you want to the battle, no limits on length, sail area, etc.
That Pen Duick is involved raises the odds of the event happening at all. Pen Duick has organised, among others, the Route du Rhum, Transat Jacques Vabre, Transat Ag2r, Trophee BPE. The start and stop point at Brest is also well chosen, and not just for the timeliness of Joyon's finish. The city has a long maritime tradition with major races in the decade of 1980-1990 starting there, and while it has taken a backseat to other ports of late, the mayor Francois Cuillandre is determined to change that and states what in past years would have been regarded as a bit insane: "For these boats, the Atlantic Ocean has become too small a playground. They cannot fully express themselves any longer but by circumnavigation." The mayor also highlighted the new port facilities at Brest's famed Castle which will put the boats in the heart of the city.
The year 2011 not only gives some time to build more boats, it's also a year without a Route du Rhum or a Vendee Globe.
* Pen Duick is said to be looking for six to eight entries. There are already four suitable boats in existence: Ellen's B&Q, IDEC, Thomas Coville's Sodeb'O and Polpharma, a 90ft carbon maxi catamaran that was built last year at Marstrom in Sweden for Polish sailor Roman Paszke in the hope (surely now a vain one) of breaking the solo round the world record.
If it captures the imagination of sponsors there are quite a few sailors who would be tempted and plenty of time to build anew. -- Elaine Bunting
Now The IOC Can't Say It Wasn't Warned...
Britain's Olympic sailing team have been targeted by the Chinese secret police for conducting "illegal meteorological surveys" at the 2008 Games' venue, Qingdao. The Royal Yachting Association, whose teams have been more successful than any other sports at the past two Olympics, set up a weather station in Qingdao to analyse the conditions that will influence August's races. But towards the end of 2006 the weather station, which cost 8,000 GBP, was confiscated by the Chinese authorities and has not been returned.
In a move which might have developed into a serious diplomatic incident, the RYA's racing manager, Stephen Park, was then interrogated by the secret police. "I was questioned fairly extensively by their secret police and their equivalent of the Met Office," said Park, who was concerned enough to inform the British consular office in Beijing before attending the interview.
The weather unit, a standard off-the-shelf product which is used by sailing teams at events around the world, records humidity, wind strength and direction and rainfall. "They didn't understand what we were doing and wanted to know," said Park. "In the interests of competition we didn't want to tell them."
An official Chinese news portal on the internet stated last month that weather-data collection such as the RYA's infringed the nation's meteorological law and its "measures for the administration of foreign-related meteorological sounding and information". Although the former law was introduced in 2000, the second piece of legislation was not introduced until 2007, when the RYA's equipment had already been confiscated.
Although Qingdao is situated on a major naval route through the Yellow Sea, no other nations' sailing teams have suffered similar confiscations. And with the US and Australian Olympic teams the others to be targeted - they were first and fourth in the Athens medal table when China and Russia came second and third respectively - it has led to the suspicion that successful teams such as Britain's sailors are being singled out for attention.
"We are no threat to national security," Park said. "But different cultures have a different take. They said it was against their national interest. You have to determine from that what their national interest is." -- Matt Scott in the Guardian
Launchings
 The Focus 21 is from France and it can not only sail the seven seas, it can fly over them as well. The Yacht's design is one of a giant wing with engines - a flying wing for the water.
The Focus 21 France uses the same concept, only incorporating what is essentially a flying wing design to further reduce drag. It The Focus 21 France can hold up to 15 passengers and flies in what aviators call "ground effect," which is, as wiki puts it, " the reduction in drag experienced by an aircraft as it approaches a height approximately twice a wingspan's length off the ground or other level surface." In other words, the yacht can fly twice as high as it's wingspan.
It has a range of approximate 100 km in this configuration and can carry up to 15 passengers.
It's not the first time this idea has been tried. The Russians created the Ekranoplan (or sea skimmer), and it had the advantage of being able to carry tremendous amounts of cargo – over 100 tons as it skimmed a few meters off the surface at a top speed of nearly 500 miles an hour. That's the beauty of Ground Effect. -- www.coolest-gadgets.com
* The Luctor 42 IRC racer is the weapon of choice of the Seawolf sailing team for the coming seasons. The new Seawolf will be build this winter at Standfast in The Netherlands and is scheduled for launch on the 15th of April 2008. After some fine tuning and training by her crew, Seawolf will participate in the North Sea Race and North Sea Regatta. Further along the season Seawolf will compete in a couple of IRC events in the UK and Northern France, to be transported to the South of France later on to participate in the Voiles de St. Tropez, Tour de Corse and the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
The owner Henri Tinchant has selected the Luctor 42 because of her excellent combination of exhilarating speed and IRC scoring board potential. "There aren't many boats within the 42 ft. segment that are equally fast and have the same IRC performance", according to Mr. Tinchant.
* Dutch yacht builders Jongert arrived at the Dusseldorf boat show with a 'Sold' sign across the computer image of their latest and biggest yacht a 50m (164ft), Doug Peterson designed ketch for a repeat customer - not a bad start to the show and a great headline grabber!
It's early days for real detail but the all aluminium yacht will be fitted with a folding keel, a Jongert patented system, and twin Caterillar 670hp engines. She is due to launch some time in 2011.
With the construction of 20m and 24m sailing yachts, also by Peterson, underway plus four on-going refits Jongert is clearly showing signs of better health. They are also scheduled to build a 39m motor yacht. -- David Glenn/Yachting World
The Last Word
I have terrible hearing trouble. I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal proponents deaf. -- Pete Townshend
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