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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #1476 - 2 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

AMERICANS AHEAD AT YNGLING EUROPEANS On the first day of the Yngling Europeans in Blanes, Spain 3 races were sailed in sunshine and 8-12 knots of southerly winds. In the lead after the first day the team of Sally Barkow (USA). With the series 4-1-4 the American team is having a good grip at the early stages of the regatta. The weather situation in Catalonia in the northeast of Spain was complicated. It was explained to sailors and coaches at the morning weather briefing that a weather system area just to the north had strong winds and 30-40 knots had been measured only 30 km to the north. However the mountains shielded the Blanes Bay from this weather system and after the sun had heated the land enough a nice see breeze like wind stabilized. The first start was delayed about 2 hours waiting for the breeze to stabilize.

However the swell from the windy north came down to the race area and created two sets of wave patterns. This together with a current going against the wind created some difficulties for the sailors especially at the start. World Champion Sarah Ayton (GBR) and her team found themselves trapped on port tack in front of the fleet in the second start unable to find a gap to go down in. They were pushed above the line and forced to restart after an individual recall. As usual in Yngling racing the time difference is small between the first and last boat in the fleet and it was very crowded in some mark roundings. The jury have received protests and displayed results are preliminary.

The weather forecast for tomorrow and the rest of the week is that the breeze will build later in the day and the Race Committee, with IRO Rafael 'Luky' SERRANO (ESP), have decided to change the schedule to a start time at 12:00 for the rest of the opening series.

Regatta results, images and reports will be posted at http://www.yngling.org

FROM ONE SYSTEM TO ANOTHER Since setting out from San Francisco on Saturday night (UT), Lionel Lemonchois and his ten crew have been experiencing a diversity of weather, characteristic of this east to west crossing of the North Pacific. With 952 miles actually made good over the ground in the past 48 hours, the maxi-catamaran in the colours of the LCF Rothschild Group is maintaining an average pace of over 20 knots.

Now on starboard tack, Gitana 13 is on a heading of 241 as she prepares to encounter her next system: there is good cloud cover dropping down from the NW with 30 knots of wind forecast. As a result, the wet atmosphere is still par for the course for Gitana Team for the next 24 hours.

In this North Pacific crossing, the men on the maxi-catamaran equipped by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild, are engaged in a virtual race against the giant trimaran skippered by Olivier de Kersauson, the current record holder.

At the 0730 ranking this morning, Lionel Lemonchois and his crew had a 371 mile lead over the reference time; a figure which is partly explained by the lateral separation of Gitana 13 in relation to Geronimo's 2006 attempt. The conditions encountered by Kersauson at the time led him to pass a long way south of the great circle route. A direct course, which as we can see on the cartography, would force the sailors tackling this record, to adopt a very N'ly trajectory to make Yokohama. This is pure theory however as in reality the weather conditions dictate a much more S'ly course compared to that of the ideal track.

http://www.gitana-team.com

READY TO WEAR, READY TO WIN What do the following boats have in common? STP 65 Rosebud; TP52s Windquest and Samba Pa Ti; Farr 40s Barking Mad, Goombay Smash, Sled, Morning Glory and Warpath; Melges 32 Pinta? They've all had a great start to the 2008 racing season. And all these teams are wearing custom branded sailing clothing from Bluwave Solutions.

To look and feel like a winner, contact us at http://www.bluwavesolutions.com

BMW ORACLE RACING IS TRAINING ON GROUPAMA 2 With the agrement of Groupama, Franck Cammas, the skipper of Groupama 2, has been enlisted by the BMW ORACLE Racing team as consultant for the bulk of the America's Cup campaign in multihulls.

Among the pit members enlisted this week in Lorient are Russell Coutts (NZL), John Kostecki (USA) and James Spithill (AUS). Moreover, some familiar members of Franck Cammas' crew will complete the crew, such as Thierry Fouchier (FRA) and Bruno Laurent (FRA).

"We are delighted to be able to sail aboard these great multihulls. It's going to be a real challenge for us and it's very exciting", stated tactician John Kostecki. "We began our multihull training on the Extreme 40 in Valencia. This training session is another step towards the large multihulls, on which we're going to contend the America's Cup. These yachts are very different from those on which we usually sail, so our learning curve is going to be very steep. We're really lucky to be able to sail with Franck and to benefit from his experience, as well as that of his team."

During the second week of training, the team will race against another 60 foot multihull and thus amass experience on these high performance multihulls.

http://www.cammas-groupama.com

MAG 80 SETS RECORD ... AND OLD WOODEN BOAT FIRST OVERALL? Amid an armada of high-powered, high-tech ocean racers and smaller boats sailed aggressively by energetic youth, top honors in Balboa Yacht Club's race from Corona del Mar to Cabo San Lucas may be going to a 50-year-old wooden boat with a mostly AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) crew.

This is not an April Fool joke.

The morning after Magnitude 80, Doug Baker's Andrews 80 from Long Beach, broke its own course record by virtually surfing the 800 nautical miles in 2 days 10 hours 23 minutes 27 seconds, Chris Calkins' "double-ender" Sabrina, a Calkins 50 from San Diego, finished in 3 days 22 hours 40 minutes 30 seconds to wrest the overall lead on corrected handicap time from Tom Garnier's Reinrag2, a J/125 from Portland, Ore.

Calkins' boat was designed by his father, with all the comforts of the good old days.

"I think it was the only wood boat in the race," Calkins said. "I know it was the oldest boat."

Mag 80, although taking more than three hours off its own record of 2:13:26:58 set in 2005, didn't double its satisfaction by finishing first. That distinction went to Reinrag2, which after starting a day ahead of Mag 80 and running on top of the waves and the overall standings until the final day, settled for the bragging rights of getting there first.

"It's very cool being the first in," Garnier said as he waited out Sabrina's arrival. "We've never done that before"---not even in a couple of overall victories, including last summer's Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.

"This is our 'Barn Door,' " Garnier said, referring to the Transpac wooden slab prize.

Although it had been projected that Reinrag2 would finish around 5 p.m. Monday, well before sundown, the winds faded near shore and it didn't cross the line off Cabo Falso until 9:07 p.m., about an hour ahead of another Friday starter, Timothy Beatty's Perry 56, Stealth Chicken, from Rancho Santa Fe. Mag 80 arrived a few minutes later at 10:23 p.m.

But the dying evening breeze inshore allowed Sabrina, sloshing through the chop at a relentless 12 knots more than 100 miles out, to close the handicap gap and apparently seize the victory.

Sabrina finished at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday. Official results were to be determined Wednesday. -- Rich Roberts

LATE AVAILABILITY FOR ANTIGUA SAILING WEEK 26th April 2nd May 2008 Ondeck, official sponsors (and preferred Yacht Charter Company) of the 41st Stanford Antigua Sailing Week have just 1 X Farr 65 & 1 X Farr 40 left ready for you to 'rock up and race' in this world class event. We also have a very limited amount of availability for individuals on one of our Farr 65s and on Team Pindar's Volvo 60. Full event management is included along with shore support and some fantastic opportunities for partying.

For more information contact sh@ondeck.co.uk or visit http://www.ondeck.co.uk

AUF WIEDERSEHEN TEAM GERMANY It's sad but it clearly reflects the difficult state in which the 33rd America's Cup is finding itself. As of today, United Internet Team Germany ceases its activities and its base in Valencia has been shut down.

After an uninspiring performance in the 32nd America's Cup, the German challenger decided to roll on immediately into the 33rd edition of the event, backed by large German corporate heavyweights such as Audi and Porsche. Given the initial optimism the legal problems would be settled promptly, the German team hired former Alinghi helsman Jochen Schuemann, bought SUI-91 and assembled a strong team of sailors and designers from various America's Cup teams. Together with the now-invalidated Desafio Espanol, the Germans were the only team to train with the old ACC boats in Valencia during the fall of 2007.

Nevertheless, the lingering legal fight and Justice Cahn's firm rulings and decisions in favor of BMW Oracle made it all clear there was little, if any, role in the 33rd America's Cup for any team other than Alinghi and the Americans. As a result, three weeks ago, the German Challenger took the decision to end the contracts of all team members by the 31st of March and close the base in Valencia. Still, the team isn't abandoning altogether but plans "to continue its previous, trustful and successful work in the 34th America's Cup on a basis of a new protocol / rule", according to their statement.

The team's management worked hard during winter trying to set up a "Grand Prix Circuit" with the participation of other America's Cup challengers. The idea was to have the teams race their ACC yachts from the 32nd edition in a circuit of exhibition regattas in Malmo, Kiel, Portsmouth, Valencia and Naples. It was thought that the idea would have revived sponsor interest but unfortunately it failed to materialize.

The sailors of the team will not sit still but will actively participate in this summer's Audi Medcup, the professional TP52 circuit. The German TP52 boat Platoon will be renamed "Platoon powered by Team Germany", will be skippered by Schuemann and its crew will obviously consist of members of Team Germany. -- Pierre Orphanidis

http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com

LA MINI GOLFE Good wind at the starting line, a little less on the course, the cold, a little more than expected, good mood and a good time, such were the ingredients of the first race of the Mini season held at the Yacht Club de La Grande Motte, France. This was a 120 mile solo race with a total of 14 competitors...2 Protos, 12 Series boats.

Proto results: 1. Francois Cuinet (FRA) - Vamonos (Bouvet 02 - FRA 412) 16h03'34" 2. Marine Feuerstein (FRA) - C20 (Fauroux-Bouvet 02 - FRA 395) 18h22'16"

Series results:

1. Brice Aque (FRA) - Cntl-Jalis (Manuard-Tip Top 07 - FRA 671) 16h16'12" 2. Gregory Burte (FRA) - Ogle (Finot-Pogo 06 - FRA 657) 16h58'55" 3. Giancarlo Pedote (ITA) - Prysmian (Finot-Pogo 06 - FRA 626) 17h15'10" 4. Jean-Christophe Lagrange (FRA) - Zoukati (Manuard-Tip Top 07 - FRA 676) 17h32'48" 5. Fabien Magnan (FRA) - Wakatepe (Rolland-Pogo 98 - FRA 216) 17h49'05" 6. Olivier Richard (FRA) - Minute (Rolland-Dingo 05 - FRA 557) 18h46'25" 7. Remy Cardona (FRA) - Solidarite Mutualiste (Manuard- Tip Top 06 - FRA 641) 18h55'07" 8. Regis Garcia (FRA) - Orca (Rolland-Dingo 07 - FRA 668) 19h19'14" 9. Philippe Mirman (FRA) - Cepat (Manuard-Tip Top 05 - FRA 571) 20h12'14"

DNF - Remy Andrean (FRA) - Soleto (Nivelt-Mistral 04 - FRA 492) DNF - Jacky Burban (FRA) - Loplop (Rolland-Pogo 01 - FRA 320) DNS - Bernard-Pierre Assegninou (FRA) - En Tete a Tete (Magnan-Super Calin 99 - FRA 288)

http://www.classemini.com

ALAN MILLER Alan Miller, former Vice-Commodore of the Royal Naval Sailing Association, Rear Commodore of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and RORC member has died aged 93.

He owned a number of ocean racers and raced his favourite, China Clipper in the 1964 Bermuda Race. The former RNVR officer also used his retirement years to develop the Cowes Sailing Centre. In 1966 he established Antigua Slipway in English Harbour.

As an RNVR officer he was involved in both the Dieppe and St Nazaire raids during World War II, and in 1942 was awarded the DSC for the part he played in combat against German aircraft in the English Channel.

He is survived by a daughter and three sons, his wife Kirsteen having died in 1955. -- Yachting Monthly, http://ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20080301100439ymnews.html

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - editor@scuttlebutteurope.com Letters are limited to 350 words (waived for Henry Menin tonight!). No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From John Harwood-Bee: Such is the farce that has become the Americas Cup that I had reached paragraph three ( re Max Moseley) of your wonderfully humorous article before it dawned on me that something was actually amiss. However, the concept has extreme merit and is one that should be strongly suggested to Mr Bertarelli. What better a way to get the AC back on track whilst at the same time ridding ourselves of the boredom that is frequently F1. You are to be commended on your foresight.

* From Henry L. Menin, Chairman, ISAF Match Racing Committee, re: Tim Jeffery's commentary in the most recent Scuttlebutt Europe Weekend Edition:

I thank you for your comments on Women's Match Racing in the 2012 Olympics. It gives me the opportunity to try to set the record straight on some matters that are either in error or misleading in your article.

I wish that you had contacted me, as Chairman of the ISAF Match Racing Committee, or any members of our committee or the Executive Committee of ISAF or the Executive Secretary of ISAF, any of whom could have disabused you of some of the erroneous information that you may have received from other sources.

Women's Match Racing, worldwide, is probably the fastest growing aspect in our sport today.

There are currently approximately 200 women match racing skippers on the ISAF match racing ranking list. There are more who have not made that list.

There are around 1200 to 1500 women who crew on those match racing teams.

There are more than 40 women's match racing regattas every year (only for women's teams...not all the other Open regattas where many women's teams also compete).

There are more than 40 nations with active women match racers.

There are active women match racers in at least 5 continents (Europe, Asia, Australia/Oceana, South America and North America).

There has been an annual ISAF Women's Match Racing Championship for many years.

The suggested alternative to women's match racing for the 2012 Olympics has been a women's high performance 2 person dinghy (other than the 470). This is the proposal of the Royal Yachting Association and 1 or 2 other members of the British Commonwealth. However, compared to women's match racing, there is no infrastructure or organization to support such a discipline. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a women's 2 person HP dinghy regatta (again, excluding the 470) other than the couple of times that the 29er was substituted for the 470 for the girls in the ISAF Youth Worlds (and in each case there was a drop in participation).

There has never been a separate World Championship regatta for women in any high performance dinghy class (the 29er does crown a women's World Champion from the best women's team in their Open Championship).

I have yet to hear from any advocate of the women's HP 2 person dinghy that there are even 30 women's teams actively sailing in the entire world today. On the other hand, women's match racing has over 200 teams and even had 35 women at a small match racing event/clinic in just Argentina this past year. There are few, if any, such teams in South America or Asia.

You are right about the media. They do love match racing, and for good reason. They are not transient "television producers", as you suggest. They are people who broadcast match racing year in and year out - in Europe, in South America, in Oceana, in Asia and in North America. They love it because the public can identify with it and can understand it. They love it because the matches are played along the shoreline, as in a big arena, where the spectators and the media get an up close and personal view of the competitors and the action. That is something that has been impossible in fleet racing up to now. They love it because the average person in the public can understand that in a match race it is one on one, head to head competition. The first boat to cross the finish line is the winner and gets the only point awarded in that race. The team that wins the last match in the regatta wins the Gold Medal. That is easy to understand. It is not very easy for the average person in the public to understand that in the Medal Race in a fleet race team A will win the Gold Medal if they come in no worse than 5th, but not if team B finishes 2 places ahead of team A and not if team C wins the Medal Race and puts at least 2 places between themselves and team A. That is confusing to the public...and to me too.

And they love it because it brings large crowds of spectators to the events, making it colorful, noisy and exciting. The women's match racing event in Lysekil, Sweden gets between 15,000 to 20,000 spectators each year. The Open match racing event in Marstrand gets approximately 150,000 spectators. I have never heard of any fleet racing event for any current Olympic Class that attracted spectators anywhere near that size.

The comparison you make of the previous Soling match racing in the Olympics and to the Women's Match Racing in the Olympics in 2012 is inappropriate and misleading. The Soling event was a combination of fleet racing and match racing. That did not work well for a variety of reasons. The Women's Match Racing event will be only match racing and there will be no opportunity for any match racer to be "... blocked, baulked and obstructed..." by sailors in a fleet race. If the women 'stars' cannot make it to the Finals, it will be because they were defeated by someone who out raced them in match racing prior to the Finals, not because a group of fleet racers ganged up on them.

However, your mention of the Soling match racing in the Olympics does bring to mind the incredibly tense and heart-stopping Finals in Sydney where Jesper Bank, in two different races, passed Jochen Schuemann while he was taking a penalty turn at the finish line, to win the Gold Medal. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators lining the shoreline at the Sydney Opera House, waving national flags and banners and cheering wildly. I never saw anything comparable at any of the fleet race events there, including the spectacular race between Ben Ainslie and Robert Scheidt in the last race of the Laser Class at those same Olympics (which turned into a match race and which is what made it so spectacular and memorable). As an umpire on the water at the match racing that day, I was able to witness first hand the incredible interest, excitement and attraction of match racing done in close proximity to the shore line and to see its potential for the future.

I would like to correct some misinformation about the boats for the match racing in 2012. None of the boats for any of the events for the 2012 Olympics have been selected yet. Under the ISAF Regulations (which, as a long time sailing journalist you must be aware of), the equipment/boats are selected at the annual ISAF meeting in November following the selection of the events (men's 2 person dinghy, men's one person dinghy, etc.). So the equipment will be selected this year in November.

However, I should tell you that the ISAF Match Racing Committee has recommended that a new boat be designed and built specifically for this event and that it should not be available to the competitors until the Olympics, or at least not until the match racing Qualification Regattas for the Olympics. We feel that this levels the playing field for all nations, rich or poor, and more closely follows the current procedure for the women's match racing circuit where the competitors race in different boats at each regatta and they have to learn the boats when they get there. If the boat becomes available years before the event, the advantage goes to the richer nations to buy a fleet of those boats, plus multiple rigs, sails, foils, etc. for training and leaves the less affluent nations at a disadvantage.

Last but not least, you should know that the boats, sails and hardware for the Olympics, whether a new design or an existing Class, will be paid for through private funding and will not cost LOCOG, the IOC or ISAF one red cent or farthing. ISAF has confirmed that and I believe that LOCOG has been informed.

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THE LAST WORD Sports do not build character. They reveal it. -- Heywood Broun

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