Scuttlebutt Europe #1345 - 29 October
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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #1345 - 29 OCTOBER 2007
Brought to you by YachtsandCruisers.com ( http://www.YachtsandCruisers
) with the support of OC Events ( http://www.ocevents.org ), 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 editor [Email address: editor #AT# scuttlebutteurope.com - replace #AT# with @ ]
PINDAR OPEN 60 DISMASTED… AGAIN!
Pindar, the Open 60 built and owned by print and electronic media company
Pindar, last night dismasted off the coast of Le Havre, France. Skippered
by Brian Thompson, the Open 60 racing yacht was en route to Le Havre, prior
to the start of the transatlantic race, the Transat Jacques Vabre, in which
she was due to compete in eight days time.
The mast fell backwards and then to windward onto the boat and the crew,
however there were no injuries and the crew are all safe and well. The
mast, rigging and sails were cut free from the hull, which suffered minimal
damage, to allow the crew to motor safely into Le Havre.
The dismasting took place nine miles north west of the entrance to the
harbour of Le Havre, at 18.15 BST on Thursday 25th October. The boat was
sailing close-hauled on port tack, in 12 knots of wind, sailing at a speed
of 11 knots. The mast suffered one clean break, just under halfway up the
30 metre high mast, in a slightly lower position than the first breakage
suffered by the boat during the Artemis Challenge at Skandia Cowes Week
earlier this year. Despite the structural repairs made to the mast,
followed by extensive testing in the Solent and Atlantic including Brian
Thompson and Will Oxley’s 1000 nautical mile qualifying sail for the TJV
race, it appears that a further structural weakness in the mast remains.
Having lost the mast, sails and rigging overboard by cutting them free last
night, the team will now further inspect the hull. Brian, Will and the
remainder of the Team Pindar Open 60 team will remain in Le Havre,
supporting Pindar 40, Pindar’s second entry in the TJV race, skippered by
Jo Royle and Alexia Barrier, the only all female entry in the 33 boat Class
40 fleet. Ian Williams, Pindar’s top British match racing sailor, will be
onboard Pindar 40 calling tactics during the prologue race this Saturday.
Currently top of the World Match Racing Tour, which culminates in December,
Ian will return to the UK following the race to concentrate on preparations
for the final two Tour events in Brazil and Malaysia. — Kate Fairclough
http://www.pindar.com/teampind
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE PROLOGUE
After a little over one hour of racing, Marc Guillemot and Charles
Caudrelier’s monohull Safran won the Transat Jacques Vabre - Laguna Trophy
prologue in spite of starting off at the rear end of the fleet. Leading the
way from the outset, Bruno Jourdren and Nicolas Pichelin grabbed victory in
the Class 40 category on Lord Jiminy. There were therefore two victorious
new boats Saturday 27th October in Seine Bay on their first official
outings.
Safran and Foncia easily overtook the boats from the previous generation.
For the last tack, sailing close hauled with the main gennaker the crew of
Safran skippered by Marc Guillemot really showed their skill. “We could see
there was less wind to the left. We got on the right track and downwind
overtook Ecover and that’s what it takes to win a race, which began rather
badly. I cannot but feel happy, as it was after all the boat’s first race.”
Forced to tack to reach the final mark, Groupe Bel would finish in fifth
place behind Foncia, who also managed to get back in the race, and Gitana
Eighty. Quite logically the brand new boats grabbed the winning places,
with the exception of Brit Air and Generali, who did not seem to do well in
the light airs.
In the Class 40 category, the new generation boats were also up at the
front. They set sail ten minutes after the 60-foot Imoca boats, and were up
with the winners, with victory going to the talented Bruno Jourdren on his
Lord Jiminy, after a remarkable race. He was followed by the English
yachtsmen, Tom Gall and Daniel Gohl (Concise) and by their compatriot Peter
Harding (40 Degrees), helped out this time in the Jacques Vabre by the
French yachtswoman, Anne Liardet.
While the sailing area was churned up this afternoon because of all the
boats out on the water, that was also the case this morning, because of a
demonstration by fishermen from Le Havre. They are unhappy about the
mackerel quotas they have been granted, while at the same time, as everyone
knows they are facing ever-increasing diesel prices.
Top five rankings, monohull prologue:
IMOCA
1. Safran
2. Ecover
3. Foncia
4. Gitana Eighty
5. Groupe Bel
Class 40
1. Lord Jiminy
2. Concise
3. 40 Degrees
4. Clarke Offshore Racing
5. Telcom Italia
* The multihull fleet was unable to put on the show that was planned Sunday
afternoon due to the wind getting up. The 61 boats registered to take part
in this eighth edition of the race therefore wisely remained moored up,
thus offering a delightful sight for the crowds of people out for a stroll
around the Paul Vatine Basin.
“During our delivery trip to Le Havre last Wednesday, we managed to get an
average speed of 35 knots for almost two hours.” Lionel Lemonchois’s eyes
(Gitana 11) sparkled just thinking of gliding along like this, where the
trimaran hardly touches the water, resembling a bird rather than a boat.
Moored behind ‘Gitana 11′, ‘Banque Populaire’, like the three other ORMA
class boats, is capable of a similar performance. “The look may not have
changed, but if I was to tell you about all the changes that have been made
over the past two years, be they minor or major, we would be here for a
while, said Pascal Bidegorry, the title holder with a certain Lionel
Lemonchois. There may not be many of us, but we all have a joker up our
sleeves. We have already seen this year that ‘Sopra Group’ has made a lot
of headway. ‘Brossard’ is a similar boat to mine. As for ‘Groupama 2′, we
don’t need to do any adverts for her!” The weather will be the ultimate
judge, but the race record set in 2003 by Franck Cammas (Groupama 1), a
year, when there was as this time no detour via Ascension Island, is likely
to be smashed. From 11 days and 23 hours, we could well see it fall to a
little over ten days, or maybe even under ten days…
THE LOWEST DRAG OF ALL SAILBOAT PROPELLERS
Gori propeller is the chosen brand of propeller for high performance multi
hulls and grand prix yachts, including GROUPAMA III, which broke the record
crossing the Atlantic in less than 4 days, with an average speed of 28.1
knots.
Gori propeller when folded does not auto rotate, and has the lowest drag of
all sailboat propellers. Find out more at http://www.gori-propeller.com
NO PUBLICITY, WE’RE FRENCH
From our friends at Cowes Online. Hilarious and sad…
With the news that French sailing legend Francis Joyon will soon go on
standby for a crack at the round the world record currently held by Ellen
MacArthur, we set about trying to get some information - but it wasn’t as
easy as you might have assumed!
As Joyon’s web site is exclusively in French we emailed his PR to ask if
they would be publishing reports in English for Joyon’s many fans who don’t
speak French.
Now I readily admit that the failure is ours in that we don’t speak the
language of our Gallic cousins but, c’est la vie, we can’t all be French
speakers can we?
The response winged it’s way promptly across the Channel from PR Fabrice
Thomazeau
bonjour,
Malheureusement, nous ne communiquerons pas en anglais.
Le sponsor du bateau n’ayant pas d’objectif a l’international.
Best Regards,
Fabrice Thomazeau
It didn’t take a linguist to work this one out - the sponsor has no
international objectives so there’s won’t be any English language
communications. – Cowes Online:
http://www.cowes.co.uk/zonexml
THE SINS OF THE FATHER
Simon Crowhurst lost his father at sea when he was eight. But it didn’t end
there. Donald Crowhurst had been a national hero when he died, but the
truth soon emerged: he had deceived the world.
Crowhurst had devised the most fantastical plan. Instead of continuing
south, following the course around the coast of Africa, he tacked west
across towards the coast of South America, planning to lie low and wait
there until the leaders had rounded Cape Horn, then slip in behind them for
the final leg north and home. As long as he wasn’t the fastest man home,
his log books would not be too closely scrutinised - and he just might be
able to fool everyone into believing he’d sailed around the world, saving
his family from humiliation and ruin.
With Knox-Johnston already home, only two sailors lay ahead of Crowhurst on
the final leg. But one suddenly abandoned the race - and then, quite out of
the blue, to Crowhurst’s horror, the other sank. Back in England, his
family were euphoric; he couldn’t fail to beat Knox-Johnston’s time, and
win the £5,000 prize. But Crowhurst knew that if he sailed home the winner,
the race organisers would analyse his log books scrupulously. All that lay
waiting at home now was exposure and disgrace.
Simon recalls the day two policeman appeared in the drive. “My mother took
us up to my brother’s bedroom, and she said, they’ve found the boat, and
he’s not on it. And then she just broke down in tears. We could see it was
very serious because she was so upset. But we thought well maybe he’s on a
life raft, or maybe another boat’s picked him up.”
When the rescue search was cancelled only a few days later, the family
couldn’t understand why. “But of course, it was because they had found the
log books, and realised what had happened.” Crowhurst’s press agent
promptly sold the log books to Fleet Street - and overnight, Simon went
from being the son of a national hero, to the son of a fraudulent suicide.
In the end, the family was spared from ruin by Knox-Johnston, who donated
the £5,000 prize to them, allowing them to keep their home.
“It such was an incredibly generous thing to do,” Simon says, fervently
grateful. “He’s an incredibly generous man - a real hero.” Were Crowhurst
able to hear his son say that, it would surely be a bittersweet relief to
know that one of the competitors had saved his family.
Deep Water is broadcast on Channel 4 on Monday November 5 at 9pm. — Decca
Aitkenhead’s full article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk
CORK WEEK ONLINE ENTRY
Drawing on years of experience, both as a competitor at and organiser of
events, Dave Meagher, Chairman of the Cork Week Race Committee, has
designed an on-line entry system for next year’s event, which takes place
from July 12th to 18th 2008. “Effectively, all you need is your Sail Number
and a credit card and you’re on your way to competing at the world’s
friendliest Regatta,” says Meagher. The on-line system automatically picks
up boat details from the IRC Database.
For those entering before February 29th 2008 , the Organising Committee
have decided to maintain the 2006 Entry Fee. “Many of our competitors have
been coming to Cork Week for many years and we see this as a way of
recognising their loyalty to the event,” Dave continued, “as a Committee,
we are always looking for ways to facilitate our visitors and as an added
bonus this year, we have decided to offer FREE entry to the 100th on-line
entrant. ”
Check out http://www.corkweek.ie for on-line entry and we also invite you
to register to the Cork Week 2008 Newsletter in order to receive future
updates.
WHO’S THAT PRACTISING WITH RUSSELL?
The America’s Cup continutes to teeter between compromise and court action,
but there are some sailing developments - including BMW Oracle’s seeming
capture of hotshot young Australian skipper James Spithill - which promote
the notion there could yet be racing sooner rather than later.
Many observers increasingly feel Oracle are in a strong position and might
succeed in the legal argument or in forcing Alinghi into compromise. Oracle
are preparing for either eventuality and the sight of Spithill jousting on
the water with new BMW Oracle skipper and CEO Russell Coutts has surprised
few.
It is an open secret that Spithill is on his way to, or is already on, the
Oracle payroll - something reinforced when he was spotted by an American
sailing website last week.
In addition to Spithill, former Team New Zealand grinder Andrew Taylor is
also thought to have joined Oracle. Taylor was also a member of the now
defunct Luna Rossa challenge in Valencia, where Spithill earned a big
reputation during the challenger series for his starting skills.
So Oracle are continuing to gear up for racing. It is another sign that the
syndicate, funded by billionaire Larry Ellison, feels it has a strong legal
case.
If Oracle win the Supreme Court action, they also win the right to force
Alinghi into a head-to-head duel in 90-feet catamarans or trimarans next
September, freezing out all other Cup challengers including Team NZ. –
Paul Lewis in the New Zealand Herald,
http://www.nzherald.co.nz
PLAYING OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE?
There has been one very, very clever press release sent out today by the
Golden Gate Yacht Club which effectively puts the ball straight back into
Alinghi’s court and is known in the trade as ‘positive PR.’ What the GGYC
has done here is ask for a very simple request about making the competition
fair and getting Alinghi to reveal the full design details of their planned
90 footers. The request is in plain English so that from the outside it
looks like a totally reasonable request and it cedes ground on the basis
that Oracle are more than happy to go racing in 2009 but that the AC must
be fair and even from the outset. I’ll bet that Alinghi are seething at
this brilliant piece of gamesmanship and now with the court case running
against them and a highly effective PR campaign dead set against them, they
are getting cornered into making concessions that a few weeks ago just
wouldn’t have even been on the table. I suspect the ace poker player
Russell Coutts is right behind this one whilst the quite brilliant Tom
Ehman has seen this all before and is holding a full house of trump cards.
Alinghi are messing with the really big boys here and their options are
running out. — Magnus Wheatley in Rule 69 Blog: http://rule69blog.com
* The America’s Cup stand-off continued with a statement from ACM following
a Competitor’s Meeting on Friday to discuss the new 90ft Class rule.
Without directly responding to the earlier statement by Larry Ellison,
indicating that the American Oracle team was ready to agree to wide ranging
new proposals discussed over the last 24 hours, if it could confirm for
itself that the design rule developed by Alinghi was fair for all
competitors - ACM CEO Michel Hodara commented:
‘With the continued aim of organising the 33rd America’s Cup for 2009 in
Valencia with pre-regattas in 2008, a Competitors Meeting took place this
morning to continue work on the Class Rule. At the end of a constructive
meeting the competitors left with a complete draft of the Class Rule and
further meetings have been scheduled over the next few days in order to
finalise this document and comply with the 31st October deadline for
issuing the Rule. For the competitors and AC Management this is a
fundamental milestone and the focus of all our attention.’
‘As organisers of the 33rd America’s Cup, we certainly welcome any other
challenger to come and join the process for the last few days of Class
Rules development and for the consultations on the competition and event
regulations.’
The new America’s Cup 90ft rule is due to be released Wednesday 31 October.
– From Sail-World.com,
http://www.sail-world.com/uk
EARLS COURT: PUTTING THE ‘SHOW’ BACK INTO BOAT SHOW
From 1-9 December, the revamped Earls Court opens its doors to sailors,
Christmas shoppers and show-goers visiting London. There’s music and
fashion shows, Riva, a spa for the footsore, the original special events
Guinness bar, the National Maritime Museum’s Hall of Fame, dozens of drams
from the Whyte & Mackay family, acres of chandlery and boats! From a ‘boat
in a bag’ to Gipsy Moth IV, a display of yachts on the pool and headline
musical entertainment! The all-new Whyte & Mackay Earls Court Boat Show:
you can’t beat boating in the heart of London!
http://www.earlscourtboatshow
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - editor [Email address: editor #AT# scuttlebutteurope.com - replace #AT# with @ ]
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 Othmar Karschulin, www.multihull.de : as a multihull enthusiast, the
former OSTAR races were for ever linked with names like Eric Tabarly, David
Lewis, Bill Howell, Derek Kelsall, Alain Colas, Tom Follett, Loick Peyron,
and many other famous sailors.
The extreme speed differences between monos and multis made a a separation
necessary, because otherwise the monohull sponsors would become
disinterested.
Maybe the problems with the French ORMA trimarans in 2004 are the cause for
the decision to exclude ALL multihulls. But the remarks of Chiristine
Salen,
“We wanted a strong and simple race this time, something the public could
understand and without too many different types of boat …”
implies a general stupidity to all “public” sailing enthusiasts. And also
make the race boring, like many other deathly organized and controlled
events, were individuality takes only place in the stickers of the
sponsors.
So the disturbing standardization of the Formula One in car racing is in
meantime a well of freedom and individuality, in comparison to some sailing
events. Where are the big technical improvements and tests of new ideas,
when all is completely standardized?
Probably it is the course of the world, which did not stop at the sailing
scene, but it is here just so sad as elsewere.
* From Colin Smith: There is a questionnaire doing the rounds asking that
we assess the classes which should be in, and out, of the 2012 Olympics.
What an opportunity to level the Olympic Regatta scene!!
It doesn’t take much thought to discover that the present allocation of
classes is strongly biased toward heavy people. The imbalance has been
partly because sailing has historically been a sport for bigger European
people. This is rapidly changing as more and more Asian people, who are
generally smaller, take up our sport. To some extent this imbalance has
been because, in the past, some Class authorities have exerted extreme
pressure at HKSF selection meetings—something which should be stopped as
soon as possible.
Now looks to be the time to sort it out fairly and properly.
Why not carefully examine what the average weights are around the World,
and look for classes—-or weight ranges—- which would give the fairest
competition to sailors everywhere.
The Olympics should not be a place for “unusual ” people—It should be a
place for everyone to have a fair go.
* From Melinda Mooney: I have now been asked to do some research work for
the restoration of the “Wyuna” Pilot Ship built in 1951-52 at Ferguson
Shipyard, Glascow.
Could anyone who may have any contacts re: architects or engineers, be able
to assist me with original drawings or serving crew etc. please email me on
bree_melinda [Email address: bree_melinda #AT# hotmail.com - replace #AT# with @ ]
The exhibition is coming along really well and I will forward pictures once
it is up and running.
* From Owen Sharpe: Somebody please tell me why I’m wrong.
Alinghi should have sailed the AC33 under the 32 rules, boats. They’re very
good at that. Good boats, very refined, good team, very experienced, an
aura which helps, strong sponsor. Their CNEV would have been able to hold
it’s regatta and become legitimate.
But they didn’t. And the wind has shifted
Alinghi have forced the issue into court. In court they must lose because
the CNEV is surely a jack-up. And that means they sail in the big cats
inside Golden Gate’s box.
The wind has shifted and Golden Gate has them covered. Golden Gates more
flexible team has a much better chance of beating them, better than in 32
boats with 32 protocol.
And surely Alinghi deserves this fate. Hoisted, I think, by their own
petard.
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THE LAST WORD
I believe that sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it.
– Garrison Keillor
==============================
The opinions expressed in Scuttlebutt Europe do not necessarily
reflect those of its editors or OC Events
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events, the new double-handed Barcelona World Race 2007, and the original
solo transocean race, The Transat 2008 (ex-OSTAR) plus the Extreme 40
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