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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #1495 - 25 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

ALINGHI ANNOUNCES IMMINENT BUILD Valencia, Spain: Alinghi, Defender of the 33rd America's Cup, today announced it is back to sailing pending the outcome of the legal situation in New York. The Swiss team confirmed at a press conference in Valencia that it is getting ready to start building the Deed of Gift Match multi-hull boat. It also kicked off its 2008 sailing programme, focusing on multi-hull racing, and announced several new team members.

"Today we have a way forward: Ernesto Bertarelli has committed to building this multi-hull and as long as we can get the pending issues resolved by the New York courts - including a race date in 2009 - we'll be sailing in a huge multi-hull against BMW Oracle, which is something pretty exciting," said Brad Butterworth, team skipper and tactician. "We retained most of the sailors that we had from the last America's Cup - obviously with a slight downsize as we were planning on sailing just one 90footer - and now that we are in a multi-hull challenge, we have new people joining with experience in this area. Alain Gautier for example is helping us and we have Nicolas Texier and Jan Dekker both who have lots of depth."

"We have a really good sailing plan for this summer that will keep the guys racing, the Mediterranean season is about to crank up. We have the VX40s in Valencia and will be racing the iShares Cup and the D35s on Lake Geneva for the Julius Baer Challenge. This we will supplement with some big boat sailing with Neville Crichton on Alfa Romeo and with Dan Meyer's on Numbers. There's going to be some good racing."

The first regatta is the Grand Prix Chopard (2-4 May) in Geneva onboard the D35.

New team members Several new team members have joined Alinghi since its successful defence of the America's Cup in July 2007. John 'JB' Barnitt (USA), who was with the team during the 31st campaign and rejoined in January this year as sports director, and Alain Gautier, the French multi-hull sailor, who is consulting and coaching the team on the ORMA60 Foncia, have joined the sailing team.

Next door in the design office there are many more new faces, including America's Cup veteran Tom Schnackenberg (NZL); Silvio Arrivabene (ITA), construction and planning manager; Daniele Costantini (ITA), load and strain measurement engineer; Andrew Mason (AUS), velocity prediction programmer andengineer consultancy services; Daniel Bernasconi (GBR), software performance and prediction engineer and Andreas Winistoerfer (SUI),rig designer and composite rigging expert (go to http://www.alinghi.com/ for team profiles).

With the addition of these new recruits, Alinghi remains a truly multinational squad, with more than 20 nationalities represented.

Design and build: full steam ahead Alinghi's design team coordinator, Grant Simmer, explained where the Defender stands in terms of preparations for a multi-hull Deed of Gift Match: "This challenge is obviously very different to what most of us in the Alinghi design office are used to - bar Dirk Kramers who was involved in the 88 Stars & Stripes campaign - but we are looking at building a big beast of a boat and the loads are off the scale compared to most of the boats we've been involved with." He adds: "The engineering people are both concerned and excited about what they are doing - obviously from a naval architecture point of view; this is an extremely fast and exciting boat." With a look forward at the upcoming season, Grant said: "We are saying that we are getting ready to do this DOG match; we are working towards the DOG match; this is who is going to be in the team with us and this is roughly our schedule to get it done." The team is preparing to start the build process in Switzerland.

Alinghi Team sailing calendar: http://www.alinghi.com/multimedia/images/img_sources/2008/04/sailing_calendar.jpg

Alinghi's build calendar: http://www.alinghi.com/multimedia/images/img_sources/2008/04/design_timeline_uk.jpg

LARRY ELLISON WINS THE CAGLIARI RC 44 CUP MATCH RACE EVENT Cagliari, Italy: Who would have thought? The winner of the match racing event of the Cagliari RC 44 Cup is Larry Ellison, the only non professional helmsman involved in this event; a competition that reassembles some of the best match race skippers in the world.

The second day of the Cagliari Cup started - unlike yesterday - with light winds. Team Aqua, with Cameron Appleton at the helm, had a great first race against the favourite Team Ceeref - unbeaten for the pas two events with James Spithill at the helm. Despite loosing the start, Appleton managed to fight its way back and beat his opponent by three seconds, putting an end to Ceeref's winning streak and getting back in the fight for a podium position.

The second fleet of the day (the eight all together) saw an interesting match between Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Ben Ainslie; the recent Star world champion and double Olympic medallist against the British triple Olympic medallist! Ainslie, on board Team Banco Espirito Santo, took the lead after an intense tacking dual, to win the race with a comfortable margin. This fleet also saw Cro-A-Sail's first victory during a match with owner Miroslav Reljanovic at the helm. Cro-A-Sail will later on finish the event at an excellent fifth place, thanks to five victories.

The third flight caused a lot of upsets within the fleet. Indeed, the wind dropped dramatically in the middle of the race, then turned by 180 degrees and increased to 20 knots.

Then came the race of the day, between Team Banco Espirito Santo and BMW ORACLE Racing. Peter Reggio, the chief Race Officer, was wise enough to cancel the first attempt after the hairiest of all pre-starts, in 30 knots of wind, re-launching the starting procedure half an hour later in a steady 20 knots. Ben Ainslie managed to control his opponent and take an early lead, controlling BMW ORACLE Racing throughout the first beat and consecutive downwind leg, the two boats surfing at high speed next to each other. Russell Coutts gave the right advice to his helmsman Larry Ellison during the second beat, choosing the right side of the course and benefiting from a ten seconds too late tack from Ainslie. This was the match: Ellison tacked to starboard and passed slightly ahead of Ainslie, controlling the last downwind leg to cross the line six seconds ahead of Ainslie in a huge shout of joy and liberation. Game, set and match, BMW ORACLE Racing could not loose the title despite one more match to compete.

BMW ORACLE Racing wins the match race event ahead of Team Ceeref. Team Banco Espirito Santo and Team Aqua have both won six races but Ainslie gets the third spot on the podium thanks to his victory against Cameron Appleton.

The fleet race event starts tomorrow. With Vincenzo Onorato is just back from his victory at the Farr 40 worlds, whilst the owners get back to the helm of their boats. A new event is starting. -- Bernard Schopfer

Match-race, final results:

1. BMW ORACLE Racing, Larry Ellison, 8/1 - 8 points 2. Team Ceeref, James Spithill, 7/2 - 7 points 3. Team Banco Espirito Santo, Ben Ainslie, 6/3 - 6 points 4. Team Aqua, Cameron Appleton 6/3 - 6 points 5. Cro-A-Sail, Morten Henrikson / Miroslav Reljanovic, 5/4 - 5 points 6. Team Hiroshi - Città di Milano, Sébastien Col 5/4 - 4 points (1 penalty) 7. Sea Dubai, Markus Wieser 4/5 - 4 points 8. Team Beecom, Jesper Radich 3/6 - 3 points 9. Mascalzone Latino, Jes Gram Hansen 0/9 - 0 point 9. Team Organika, Mateusz Kusznierewicz 0/9 - 0 point

http://www.rc44.com

RACING IN WHITSUNDAY WITH ULLMAN SAILS FIBERPATH Australia's Whitsunday Sailing Club had 'champagne' sailing conditions Wednesday night for its twilight racing with blue skies and 7-10 knots of breeze. Ullman Sails customer Harold Menelaus and his team on SeaQuest 36 "Treasure VIII" not only finished first on line with almost seven minutes in front of a Pacific 36 competitor, but they won the race on corrected time as well. Menelaus' "Treasure VIII" competed with brand new FibrePath Double Taffeta Technora sails. Ullman Sails' FiberPath technology provides lighter, stronger sails.

For more information on FiberPath technology, visit http://www.ullmansails.com or contact a local Ullman Sails loft

TRANSAT AG2R >From Phil Sharp: David and I seem to be settling into the groove with things now as we are starting to find the right balance between sailing, navigating, sleeping and eating. Incredibly there is no time for anything else until literally now when I've sat down at the computer to write this update. I have been averaging about 4 hours sleep enough which is just enough to see you through the day although David said he got a fright when he couldn't wake me this morning despite shouting into my ear seven times!

The first couple of days of the race were full on to say the least as we screamed across Biscay power reaching under spinnaker the first night and then battled upwind around Finisterre, from which my socks have still not dried out. We are getting to grips with level of competition we are facing which is noticeably higher than previous offshore classes I've raced in. I like to think we are upping the pace every day since there is loads we are learning about this one design Figaro.

After Finisterre we sailed across a 20-knot weather front only to find absolutely no wind the other side and saw our position slip down to 19th. There was no real set pattern in the weather after Finisterre due to the presence of a big high pressure system west of Portugal, and it seemed like a lottery where to position ourselves on the way down to Madeira. A lot of the fleet went way over to the Portuguese side but we've been one of the more westerly boats. Now it seems to be starting to pay off and we have climbed up through the fleet to 13th. Sopra Group is our next target, although after four days of racing we are still only 33 miles behind the leader so anything is still possible.

Now the pace has picked up a bit, we have wind, spinnaker and sun, and there has even been time for a bit of iPod action. It looks as though it'll be all downwind to Madeira so we are looking forward to more T-shirt sailing and picking off some more positions. Onwards and upwards! -- http://www.philsharpracing.com

Top ten at 0500 UTC 25 April:

1. Financo - Nicolas Troussel / Christopher Pratt, 3012.1 nm to finish 2. Cercle Vert - Gildas Morvan / Jean Le Cam, 4.4 nm to leader 3. Banque Populaire - Jenanne Gregoire / Nicolas Lunvan, 6.4 4. Suzuki Automobiles - Thierry Cabagny / Corentin Douguet, 7.6 5. Defi Mousquetaires - Thomas Rouxel / Erwan Israel, 11.2 6. SNEF et Cliptol Sport - Laurent Pellecuer / Jean Paul Mouren, 16.9 7. Solar Inox, Ronan Guerin / Luc Poupon, 23.7 8. Lenzele - Franck Gal / Erwan Le Roux, 23.7 9. Groupe Celeos - Ronan Treussart / Anthony Marchand, 26.6 10. Gedimat - Armel Tripon / Dominic Vittet, 27.1

http://www.transat-ag2r.com

SIX TEAMS ADVANCE TO QUARTER-FINAL ROUND, TWO YET TO BE DETERMINED Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brasil: A light southeasterly sea breeze stayed long enough through the late morning and afternoon to provide suitable conditions for the finish of Round Robin action here at the Brasil Sailing Cup, the first event on the 2008 World Match Racing Tour. The top three teams from Groups A and B have qualified to advance to the next Quarter Final stage, while the remaining two are yet to be determined in the unfinished Repechage stage.

The top slots went to those teams with the most WMRT experience, as reigning World Champion Ian Williams (GBR) and his Team Pindar went undefeated in Group A, beating the otherwise also undefeated Magnus Holmberg (SWE) of Victory Challenge, while young Torvar Mirsky (AUS) and his Mirsky Racing Team also managed to get through on the strength of three wins. Bjorn Hansen (SWE) of the Alandia Sailing Team won Group B on a tie-break with runner-up Paolo Cian (ITA) of Team Shosholoza, and Mattias Rahm (SWE) and his Stena Bulk Team also qualified on a three-win score.

The wind direction and light conditions permitted race managers to set the course area within metres of the shoreline, making the pre-starts interesting for the teams as they maneuvered among the huge 2-metre South Atlantic swells. With slightly more pressure available on the left side of the course area, teams fought hard for control of the pin at the starts, giving an advantage to those who could lead back to the line. The short legs allowed for three-lap courses in the Round Robin matches, instead of the usual two.

Two flights of the Repechage remain to be sailed tomorrow, along with the start of the first-to-three point Quarter Final stage.

Results after Day Two:

Round Robin Results, Group A:

1. Ian Williams, Team Pindar 5-0 2. Magnus Holmberg, Victory Challenge 4-1 3. Torvar Mirsky, Mirsky Racing Team 3-2 4. Adam Minoprio, Emirates Team New Zealand, BlackMatch Racing 2-3 5. Juan Grimaldi, Tag Heuer Sailing Team 1-5 6. Daniel Glomb, Team Bravissimo 0-5

Round Robin Results, Group B

1. Bjorn Hansen, Alandia Sailing Team 4-1 2. Paolo Cian, Team Shosholoza 4-1 3. Mattias Rahm, Stenna Bulk Sailing Team 2-3 4. Henrique Haddad, Giant Sailing Team 2-3 5. Pierre Antoine Morvan, Equipe de France espoir de match racing 1-4 6. Peter Wibroe, Wibroe Sailing Team 1-4

Repechage (3 flights sailed, 2 remain):

Pierre Antoine Morvan, Equipe de France espoir de match racing 3-0 Peter Wibroe, Wibroe Sailing Team 3-0 Henrique Haddad, Giant Sailing Team 2-1 Juan Grimaldi, Tag Heuer Sailing Team 1-2 Daniel Glomb, Team Bravissimo 1-2 Adam Minoprio, Emirates Team New Zealand, BlackMatch Racing 0-3

http://www.brasilsailingcup.com http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com

COWES-MADEIRA RACE The Cowes to Madeira Yacht Race is new to the RORC sailing programme but the route is centuries old; Charles II granted traders sailing to Madeira tax exemption on wines in 1665. The 2008 race organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club is certain to provide some challenging and spectacular ocean sailing for the competitors. On Monday morning, August 11th, the race fleet will line up on the historic Royal Yacht Squadron Line at Cowes and head for Madeira, some 1480 miles away.

The competitors will be looking for tidal advantages and changes in wind speed and direction as they make their way west through Hurst Narrows and into the English Channel. Once through Hurst Narrows, the tactics will be to play the many tidal gates before turning South West for Ushant; the southern gateway to the Atlantic Ocean.

The fleet will then cross or go into the Bay of Biscay depending on the wind speed and direction. By then, the competitors will be getting used to life at sea and would usually be experiencing fast reaching conditions in the Atlantic swell, with extremely comfortable air temperatures, even at night. The fleet will race south down the Spanish and Portuguese coasts and pick up the Canary Current towards the finish line at Madeira which rises 1800 metres out of the ocean. Madeira has its own micro-climate and local conditions may cause a thrilling end to the longest ocean race of a busy RORC season.

RORC Madeira - Cowes Race - Tuesday 26th August 2008 The return race to Cowes could prove to be a very interesting tactical race making the best use of the conditions experienced on the trip down to Madeira.

Solo sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston commented "The RORC Cowes to Madeira race is a fantastic opportunity for sailing enthusiasts and adventurers to do some serious ocean racing, including an encounter with the North-East Trade winds. It's great that the Clipper 68 foot round the world racing yachts will be on the start line. These are big, fast boats that respond to good crewing."

Entries have started to come in from all over Europe from a wide variety of yachts, including the smallest boat to finish the 2007 Rolex Fastnet; Foggy Dew, skippered by Noel Racine from La Havre, France. Clipper Ventures are expected to enter at least two of their yachts; The Clipper 68 is likely to be one of the biggest yachts on what already looks to be a competitive start line. Berths remain available for groups or individuals on the Clipper fleet with a discount offered to members of RORC. -- Trish Jenkins

http://www.rorc.org

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR STOLEN GEAR We had 10K worth of Team OUT95 Helly Hansen Clothing and Lewmar deck gear stolen on Friday night from storage in the New Forest. Clothing consisted of 9 identical sets of bright blue inshore jackets and gray salopettes (picture attached), blue gillets, technical footwear and casual wear. The Lewmar deck gear is 30, 40 and 60mm Racing and control blocks including ratchets, doubles, triples, etc. Also stolen were some Silva products including a hand held VHF, depth transducer and head torches.

Any information either contact me or PC Fisher of Hampshire police quoting Occurrence number 44080167760 (tel:0845 0454545, stephen.fisher@hampshire.pnn.police.uk ). -- Neal Pawson

RACE 9 OF CLIPPER 07-08 GETS UNDERWAY Santa Cruz, California, USA: With the Californian sun shining and ten knots of breeze from the north west, Race 9 of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race series began at 1300 local (2000 GMT). Uniquely Singapore was the first of the ten-internationally sponsored yachts across the line, closely followed by their Asian rivals, Qingdao.

As the fleet approaches the southern tip of Baja, California, the winds will start to reduce and become much less stable in direction. At this point the direct route along the coast is heavily favoured in terms of the least miles. However, fickle and inconsistent winds closer in may see some teams opting to sail further offshore in order to benefit from better wind speeds and direction.

They will all try to make as direct a route possible, parallel to the coast, but at the same time trying not to get too close as the effect of the land my reduce wind strength. The trick along this initial part of the race is to try not to damage too many of the downwind sails. Several boats have recently been penalised for damaging sails and once the Race Committee considers the repairs and replacements in Santa Cruz further penalty points may be awarded.

http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com

OPEN 60 UPDATES Five contenders for the next Vendee Globe have been training since Monday at the French training centre in Port-la-Forêt in S.W. Brittany. Present were Sam Davies (Roxy), Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia), Armel Le Cleac´h (Brit Air), Yann Elies (Generali) and Vincent Riou (PRB). They have been going through some sessions in single-handed manoeuvre training around the Glenan Islands.

* The young skipper and designer from Normandy, Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty has become the seventeenth person to register officially for the Vendee Globe. His monohull, Maisonneuve, is currently undergoing a winter refit, which should finish shortly in Lorient, with the help of the round the world yachtsman, Herve Laurent. Jean-Baptiste will just be thirty years old this year.

* This week, Yann Elies completed his qualifying passage for The Artemis Transat, which is due to begin in Plymouth on 11th May. Setting sail from his base in Lorient, the large red and white monohull sailed the 300 miles required by the IMOCA class and the race organiser, following the fitting of a new mast this winter.

Yann Elies: "The main focus of attention during this trip was, of course, the new mast. After a bit of trial and error, we found the right adjustment and the reaction from the boat was immediate. Generali really takes off more quickly, and she already seems much keener. The long leg reaching also proved to be very useful to appreciate the boat's light weight. In 15 to 20 knot winds, we constantly hovered between 20 and 22 knots, on seas that were very easy to handle." Feeling pleased about his new steering system, Yann also expressed his satisfaction about the interior fittings: "The return from the Gironde Estuary to Groix was upwind sailing and I was able to appreciate the great protection offered by the sliding roof, as well as the clear, wide view I had. The new set of sails with an extended square top, will need to be tested in light airs." Now that he has qualified, Yann Elies will be continuing his preparation programme. The training session that is due to take place from Monday at the Port la Forêt training centre will see a certain number of the top Imoca boats battle it out outside of the framework of a competition. It will be interesting to see how the different boats behave after the long winter break.

http://www.vendeeglobe.org

THE LAST WORD Happiness is a virtue, not its reward. -- Baruch Spinoza

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