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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #1499 - 30 APRIL

Brought to you by boats.com Europe ( http://www.boats.com ) and Yachtworld.com Europe ( http://www.yachtworld.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 editor@scuttlebutteurope.com

SO MUCH FOR THE RANKINGS Long Beach, California, USA: Scott Dickson says he was sizing up the opening day's scorecard in his Long Beach Yacht Club's 44th Congressional Cup presented by Acura when he thought, "There's no way Gavin and I can catch these guys. We've got a score of about 300 already."

Pause.

"Oh, wait, that's our ISAF rankings."

Actually, Dickson and Brady , a pair of immigrant Kiwis living in the U.S., are ranked 137th and 89th but stand 5-0 and 4-1, respectively, after the first day of racing against several world tour regulars, which they are not. Brady, with his America's Cup duty with BMW Oracle, hadn't sailed a tour event in more than a year, and this is one of only two events that Dickson does most years, along with the Ficker Cup qualifier that has been his ticket to enter.

Second place has been his best finish in 11 previous Congressionals, but Dickson, a Long Beach resident who has an older brother named Chris, said Tuesday, "I hope after 12 years I'd be getting the hang of it."

In succession, he reveled in the fresh but shifty south to southwest breezes that built from 6 to 14 knots through a sunny afternoon in the mid-60s (F.) and blew the scoreboard off the Belmont Pier, where spectators are often literally on top of the pre-start action.

Brady said, "The pier can be very much a part of the start. When you have that big an obstruction it dictates your tactics, and the people are part of the start. They're looking right down on us."

Team Dickson outsailed a U.N. lineup of New Zealand's Simon Minoprio, France's Philippe Presti and Damien Iehl, Russia's Andrew Arbuzov and Sweden's Johnnie Berntsson.

The event marks the 20th anniversary of the game's standard on-water umpire officiating system that started in the 1988 Congressional Cup.

Chief umpire Jan Stage said there were 45 protest flags waved---"a few more than usual"---in the 25 matches, but only 10 penalties imposed.

Daily video highlights at 9 p.m. produced by http://www.t2p.tv

Standings (After 5 of 18 rounds) 1. Dickson, 5-0 2. Brady, 4-1 3. tie among Presti, Minoprio and Perry, 3-2 6. tie among Morvan, Berntsson and Iehl, 2-3 9. tie between VanTol and Arbuzov, 1-4

http://www.lbyc.org/html/content.cfm?CID=1170

POST FARR 40 WORLDS... Following last week disqualification of JoeFly in the last race of the Farr40 Worlds Championship, and consequently the World title given to Mascalzone Latino, Sebastian Destremau interviewed Giovanni Maspero from JoeFly

SD: Giovanni, your Open letter released late last week has created a bit of an uproar in the sailing community. I understand you are very upset about losing the World Championships however can you talk us thru the situation as you saw it in Miami?

GM: Although we recognize that our tack was close, it was not too close. This situation should never ended up with our disqualification. We believe we were in our rights and this was confirmed by several facts:

1. Barking Mad did not protest. They hailed for it after. 2. Two boats from the jury were in the vicinity of the mark and they never blew their whistles, 3. The tactician of Barking Mad (Terry Hutchinson) told us during our spinnaker hoist that should Mascalzone Latino decide to protest they would do the same, 4. We learned a couple of minutes after the finishing line that Mascalzone Latino was lodging a protest against us, 5. Back to the shore, Mascalzone Latino's crew were clapping to congratulate us whilst their tactician jumped on their support boat and went to the jury.

By the way, I was a bit disappointed to see that Vincenzo Onorato (owner of Mascalzone Latino), did not come to me to mention and talk about the fact that he was lodging a protest against us. But I can also understand the atmosphere of nervousism of those moments.

SD: So you learned that you had a protest against you and you sent your tactician Francesco Bruni to the protest room. What happened there?

GM: Francesco was very nervous about the fact that three members of the jury had close ties with Mascalzone Latino's tactician John Kostecki. Two of them are current members of the BMW Oracle team for the 33rd America's Cup (one of which was the chairman: Tom Ehman) and a third was employed by the same team a few years back. It is also common knowledge that Vincenzo Onorato is a big supporter of BMW Oracle in their legal battle against Alinghi. The Alinghi Team, before the start of these Worlds, had officially asked the Farr40 class top management to change the jury members composition 'cause of the risks due to conflict of interests. As we know they did not make any changes.

SD: Sorry Giovanni but you are not a newcomer in this game. Knowing this, you had every rights to voice your concerns before the hearing and eventually ask some members of the jury to be removed. I understand you didn't do that. Why?

GM: I know it was a bad mistake. We are a bit naïve and let me tell you that I deeply regret not having done just that but it is not in Joe Fly Sailing Team philosophy to do so. We try to obey by the rules and we think the game should be fair however in Miami it was not.

SD: What are your options now?

GM: We cannot appeal the jury's decision and we accepted that, so the result will stand. The point is that this situation should never have occurred as it is a blatant conflict of interest. In view of the numerous comments I've read in various international blogs containing criticism of myself and my Team, I believe it will be useful to make a simple statement to submit to the ISAF, limiting myself to relating the facts. What I want to underline is that a lot of people have called our Team arrogant and said that it acted unfairly throughout the World Championship, whereas the Team is in fact well known for its fair-play and for the commitment and professionalism with which it has raced for years and in various classes.This is demonstrated by the countless e-mails and phone calls we've received in the last few hours from Italian and non-Italian yachting people thanking us for what we've done for the sport.

The statement for the ISAF doesn't presume to exert pressure to have the jury's decision changed. We have already acknowledged on a number of occasions that Mascalzone Latino won the Worlds and is officially the 2008 Farr40 World Champion. Disqualifications are part of the game but in the future we'd like to be judged on our errors by juries that are not only made up of decent and authoritative people like those who judged us in Miami but who are also equally distanced from the teams involved and without any conflict of interest.

SD: By taking this course of action, aren't you going to upset a few people along the way?

GM: I already have. My mail box is full of people asking me to stop "jumping up and down". I am even threaten to not be welcomed in the Farr 40 class anymore and I would not be surprised if the management of the Farr 40 class association takes the decision to forbid me from competing in the future. If that's a consequence of my actions then so be it.

SD: You are obviously a very upset boat owner. I noted on your sailing calendar that you are planning to compete in several Farr40 regattas in the next couple of months. Are you going to compete in them?

GM: To be honest with you, I am not sure at all. We have a meeting next week with my crew and it will be a team decision. I don't want to be the only to decide for these guys that have made so many sacrifices to get up there.

SD: One final question. Will you be competing again in an event should Tom Ehman be the chairman of the jury?

GM: (laughs) I am not going to answer that so … No comment !

http://www.adonnante.com

*Editor: Vincenzo Onorato's statement will be in the Thursday issue.

GEARING UP FOR SUMMER AT GOETZ With two new builds having just left the shop, Goetz Custom Boats is gearing up for a very busy summer. Following the departure of the J/V designed TP52 Platoon for the Medcup, and PUMA's Botin Carkeek Volvo 70 launch, the builders have begun work on a Rogers Yacht Design 82' cruiser/racer, as well as an 85 foot racer for a European client.

For more details on these and other GCB projects, or information on how to schedule your refit or IRC optimization, visit http://www.goetzboats.com

ICAP LEOPARD WINS YW TROPHY Classic Caribbean conditions with a good 15-20kts of breeze and temperatures up in the 90s made for spectacular sailing on the second day of Stanford Antigua Sailing Week.

Mike Slade's 100ft canting keel Farr-designed supermaxi ICAP Leopard revelled in the conditions on the fabulous, mostly reaching 25.9-mile course down the western side of the island. Divison A for racing yachts completed the second leg of the Round the Island Race and the real battle was among the likes of ICAP Leopard and George David's 90ft maxi, Rambler for the fastest elapsed time.

Rambler, having won the opening race of Racing Class 1 yesterday on corrected time, was in tip-top form today with owner 64-year-old George David on the helm but they were unable to hold on to ICAP Leopard in the slightly advantageous fresher conditions. At 22 tons, Rambler is virtually half the weight of ICAP Leopard at 47 tons so has to carry a hefty handicap penalty. In the lighter airs, like yesterday Rambler is more likely to benefit. But if the wind's up, like today, ICAP will more often than not be at the top of the scoresheet.

The 'prize' for the biggest collision today goes jointly to Peter Harrison's 115ft Sojana and Frank Savage's Swan 56 Lolita. While rounding the most northerly mark of the course the two boats - both on port tack - had a fairly brutal coming together which resulted in much damage to both parties. Fortunately no one was injured during the collision but both boats will need a lot of repair. As Sojana arrived back at Falmouth Marina this afternoon, we managed to catch up with skipper Marc Fitzgerald who explained what happened.

"We gybe set at the top mark with Lolita just in front of us. They set their kite just before us and bore off. We went up to clear them but they came up really hard and then wiped out. It shouldn't really have been a problem but they just lost it and then lost it again. We hit parallel, they came in at a very shallow angle and because we were travelling much quicker they just scrapped all the way along the side of our boat and have totally wrecked the end of the boom on the mizzen mast."

"We've got a lot of damage to our boat but they were lucky they didn't lose some heads on their boat. The last we saw of them they were dropping their spinnaker and heading back. They must have had a lot of damage down their port side."

As far as the team on Sojana can see there seems to be no structural damage to the hull but Fitzgerald admitted that such an accident is incredibly scary, adding "You know there is going to be a horrible impact and somebody might get killed. I was more worried for them . No one in our crew was any danger but for those on the rail of their boat could have been in trouble."

A protest meeting held in Nelson's Dockyard late this afternoon resulted in Sojana being disqualified from today's race. -- Sue Pelling/Yachting World

http://www.sailingweek.com

GITANA ASIAN TOUR Gitana 13 is making preparations in Yokohama for a month and a half long tour of Asia. In a few days time, Lionel Lemonchois and his men will bid farewell to Japan to continue with their 2008 record campaign. The next stopover for the maxi-catamaran equipped by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild is the town of Dalian, 1,432 miles away in China.

Sylvain Mondon (Meteo France) details the weather scenario required to set off on this latest record attempt: "To leave Tokyo Bay in optimum conditions, we're after E to SE'ly winds, which could be generated by a low climbing up from the S or SW in a similar fashion to the low encountered by Gitana 13 during its arrival in Japan. The goal is essentially to set off on this course with some sufficiently regular downwind conditions, ideally in excess of 25 knots. If these conditions come together, Gitana 13 may be able to minimise the number of manœuvres and thus make Dalian in three or four days."

In 2006, the English sailor, Ellen MacArthur, raced a similar circuit to that of Gitana 13. Over certain destinations, Lionel Lemonchois and his crew will be able to attack the time set by the skipper of B&Q (a 22.9 metre trimaran).

Gitana 13's Asian stopovers: Dalian, Qingdao (China), Taipei (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Macao (administrative regions with a special status in China).

http://www.gitana-team.com

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Contact us for your free quote info@bainbridgeint.co.uk

K-CHALLENGE'S "2" INTRODUCES DESIGN TEAM After having presented last March 27 its sailing team's key members, K-Challenge carries on its preparation for the 34th America's Cup.

In the heart of the Design Team are both Dimitri Nicolopoulos, Technical Director and member of the Executive Committee, and Bernard Nivelt, Principal Architect, who were already part of the last K-Challenge campaign for the 32nd America's Cup.

In addition to Bernard and Dimitri, Alan Cattelliot, Aero- and Hydro-dynamics Engineer, (which worked several years at Multiplast's yard in particular), will join K-Challenge to reinforce the Design Team. Alan will be in charge to work on the hydrodynamic problems and VPP.

In the next months, the Design Team's work will be primarily dedicated to the choice of the tools and methods. It is indeed critical to be able to have simulation software and tests facilities perfectly adapted, in order to be able to get the team at work as soon as the rule is fine tuned within the framework of the Protocol of the 34th America's Cup.

This core Design Team will concentrate on the resolution of technical problems for sailing boats like AC90/TP52/GP42, i.e, the treatment of interactions between appendages and the surface. Dimitri Nicolopoulos: "Trying to optimize a hull for current AC90 rules would be a waste of time so far, as key parameters (i.e, the weight) will probably change, having major implications on the hull.

The planning of the Design Team will be organised around major stages: 2008: installation of methods and tools; 2009-2010: drawing and construction of the new boat; 2010-2011: development of the boat and competitions.

In the short term, it is the choice of the tools and the development of the methods in the hydrodynamic field and the performance prediction software (VPP) which will be the priority. Then in the medium term, the core team will be reinforced gradually to include approximately 17 people when it turns to full speed mode.

http://www.k-challenge.org

A SWEET LAUNCH FOR THE BT OPEN 60 Today on the River Thames (London, UK), Seb Josse's BT IMOCA 60 was officially launched after an extensive race refit. The Sugababe trio of Amelle, Heidi and Keisha supported the launch of the BT-branded boat in her new colours to promote BT's sponsorship of this year's Isle of Wight Festival. Ellen launched the BT Team Ellen project in Paris in September last year - a three-year partnership with BT through to 2010. The project includes the BT IMOCA 60 skippered by Sébastien Josse and Australian Nick Moloney, skipper of the BT Extreme 40.

After sailing back under Tower Bridge, the BT IMOCA 60 then berthed alongside the Royal Navy's HMS President where she was officially christened by CEO of BT Global Services, Francois Barrault.

Seb Josse from Concarneau in France will now race the BT IMOCA 60 in the forthcoming solo transatlantic race, The Artemis Transat, which starts from Plymouth on 11th May.

Whilst Seb is campaigning the BT IMOCA 60 and Nick skippers the BT Extreme 40 in this year's iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series across Europe, Ellen's sailing projects for 2008 include the Archipelago Raid on the BT F18 plus helming the BT Extreme 40 in the Round the Island Race before racing on the BT IMOCA 60 in some of the crewed events in 2009. Ellen is also supporting BT's CSR worldwide programme and continuing with her commitment to pursuing and communicating how to lead a more sustainable life on land.

BT IMOCA 60 Technical Specification

Length: 18,28m (60 feet) Width: 5.85m Weight: 8400k (8.4 tonnes) Keel: 2800k Mast height: 28.5m Draft: 4.5m Mainsail area upwind: 310sqm Mainsail area downwind: 590sqm Build material: carbon firbre nomex foam sandwich Designer: Farr Yacht Design, Annapolis, USA Builder: Offshore Challenges Sailing Team, Cowes, UK Number of build hours: 22,000 hours over 8 months Number in build team: 14, reaching 26 in final phase Boat components: assembled around the word - mast and boom from Marstrom in Sweden; keel fin from North America; winches from Harken in Italy; sails from North Sails in France and the UK.

http://www.sebjosse.com

L'HYDROPTERE IN TOULON A week after leaving Lorien, l'Hydroptere arrived in the Mediterranean to begin her attempts to attain the absolute sailing speed record. After being loaded onto the Kochnev on Friday 19th April, the flying trimaran was put into the water this morning at dan at the commercial port of Toulon-Bregaillon.

Alain Thebault and his crew will take l'Hydroptere to the CNIM premises tomorrow where they will finish the assembly in the next fortnight.

http://www.hydroptere.com

OK DINGHY WORLD RANKING Triple world champion Nick Craig (GBR) is still on top of the OK Dinghy World Ranking List for the third consecutive release.

There haven't been too many changes inside the top ten, although former world champion Karsten Hitz (GER) moves up from 11th to 5th and Jorgen Lindhardtsen (DEN) moves from 3rd to 2nd, while Steve McDowell (NZL) drops from 5th to 10th.

The current ranking list includes results from last autumn's national championships in Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain as well as the Australian and New Zealand nationals and the Interdominion championships sailed earlier this year.

New Zealand can still claim to be the most successful OK Dinghy sailing nation internationally with eight sailors inside the top 20, although at their recent championships, Olympic Finn sailor Dan Slater (NZL) showed a clean pair of heels to take the title ahead of Craig, both of them sailing in boats borrowed for the event. The Interdominions at Black Rock in Melbourne was dominated by 1998 world champion Roger Blasse (AUS), although his non-show at last year's world championship in Poland drops him to 51st overall.

The next list will be published just prior to the world championships, which this year are being held at Warnemunde in Germany where Craig will be aiming for his fourth consecutive world title, although there will be a number of very determined sailors hoping to take it away from him. -- Robert Deaves

Top ten: 1. Nick Craig, GBR 2. Jorgen Lindhartdsen, DEN 3. Mark Perrow, NZL 4. Greg Wilcox, NZL 5. Karl Purdie, NZL 6. Karsten Hitz, GER 7. Terry Curtis, GBR 8. Andre Blasse, AUS 9. Oliver Gronholz, GER 10. Steve McDowell, NZL

http://www.okdia.de and http://www.okdinghy.co.uk

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - editor@scuttlebutteurope.com 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 Owen Sharpe: I'd like to show Hamish Ross 'the way out'. Any 'sporting body' for making decisions on the Americas Cup would be helpless in the face of the Alinghi determination and manipulation.

I'm thankful that there is a venue as unimpressed with their spurious blandishments as the NY Court. And I'm grateful that the lustrous prize is likely to continue to draw billionaires like Larry Ellison with the werewithal to use the power of the court to keep the Cup straight. Bertarelli seems to only want it crooked as a dog's hind leg.

I can wait for a real Americas Cup.

THE LAST WORD Once you get the right image the details aren't that important. -- Abbie Hoffman

The opinions expressed in Scuttlebutt Europe do not necessarily reflect those of its editors or sponsors.

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