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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #1553 - 4 JULY

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

RICHARD TOPS THE FIELD AT MATCH CUP SWEDEN Marstrand, Sweden: The phenomenally warm and sunny weather has persisted here in Marstrand, bringing out an estimated 35,000 spectators today to watch the final flights of the round robin in Match Cup Sweden. As the crowd lounged in swim suits on the outcrops overlooking the race area, 12 teams fought hard to determine who would make it to the next Quarter Final round, where eight will be competing for their share of the $200,000 total purse in this fourth stage of the World Match Racing Tour.

Leading the pack was last year's runner-up on the Tour, Mathieu Richard and his French Match Racing Team, who managed to win nine of his eleven matches. This is an impressive record indeed given the strong field here at this event, where the reigning World Champion Ian Williams (GBR) and Team Pindar and Damien Iehl (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team, winner of Tour Stage 2 at Match Race Germany, did not qualify.

Richard will meet eighth place finisher Bjorn Hansen (SWE) and his Alandia Sailing Team, who is the returning champion of this event from last year and a runner-up at the Tour's first stage event, the Brasil Sailing Cup. Hansen just squeaked through with five wins on a tie-break with Sebastian Col (FRA) of the French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge, and Williams, but it was the British who did not go through.

After being defeated in his last match, Williams still did not give up, having filed a red-flag protest for redress against the Race Committee, alleging his call for having not entered in the last match by a mere 10 cm was due to inconsistencies in the way the race managers are judging the ends of the starting line. The Jury disallowed the request, so the results were allowed to stand.

But one match Williams did win was one of the more exciting of the day, where Peter Gilmour (AUS) and his PST Team received a penalty flag while tacking off the rocks on the second beat of the race. Then at the top mark Gilmour tried to set a trap for Williams by luffing him well upwind of the windward mark, but in so doing earned himself yet another penalty. Required to shed this penalty turn straight away, Gilly instead delayed enough to prompt yet a third penalty, and earn a disqualifying black flag, his second in this event.

Despite this glitch, Gilmour finished fourth in the round robin and thus will meet his younger Australian protege Torvar Mirsky and the Mirsky Racing Team.

Other pairings for tomorrow include: Magnus Holmberg (SWE) and his Victory Challenge team against Korea Match Cup winner Sebastian Col, and Match Cup Germany runner-up Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) and his Trifork Racing Team pitted against Day One's leader Mattias Rahm (SWE) and his Stena Bulk Racing team.

Round Robin results: 1. Mathieu Richard (FRA), French Match Racing Team 9–2 2. Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Victory Challenge 7-4 3. Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN), Trifork Racing Team 7-4 4. Peter Gilmour (AUS), PST Team 7-4 5. Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Mirsky Racing Team 6-5 6. Mattias Rahm (SWE), Stena Bulk Racing 6-5 7. Sebastien Col (FRA), French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge 5-6 8. Bjorn Hansen (SWE), Alandia Sailing Team 5-6 9. Ian Williams (GBR), Team Pindar 5-6 10. Damien Iehl (FRA), French Match Racing Team 4-7 11. Ben Ainslie (GBR), Team Origin 4-7 12. Paolo Cian (ITA), Team Shosholoza 1-10

http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com

MAG 80 RACING TO TAHITI RECORD AT SUNDOWN Faster and faster, Magnitude 80 flew the final miles into French Polynesia Thursday, racing daylight for a sunset finish to decorate their record in the Transpacific Yacht Club's 3,571-nautical mile Tahiti Race.

Sundown would be at about 6 p.m. Tahiti time, and at the rate it was going---as fast as 20 knots in one 40-minute spurt---Doug Baker's Andrews 80 from Long Beach was expected to finish within an hour or two either way.

Barring the unforeseen or unimaginable, Mag 80 would slice three days or more off the record of 14 days 21 hours 15 hours 26 minutes set by Fred Kirschner's Santa Cruz 70, Kathmandu, in the previous Tahiti Race in 1994.

Navigator Ernie Richau reported early Thursday: "We have just finished our 7-3-08 12:30 a.m. position report. It looks like our hard work has paid off. We have sailed 372 miles in the last 24 hours, most of the time in 15-20 knots of wind, reaching with the number 4 jib and staysail.

Contrary to information given here a day earlier, the primary reason for adding the Mataiva atoll as a mark of the course was not to avoid adverse current but to bypass a group a low-lying islands.

Race chairman Dave Cort said, "It was thought best to make the boats go around the whole place instead of potentially running through there at night with badly charted islands, hard to see, and iffy navigation." -- Rich Roberts

Tahiti Race 2008 standings 1. Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach, 363 miles daily run/213 nautical miles to go. 2. Medicine Man (Andrews 63), Bob Lane, Long Beach 276/743. 3. Ragtime (Spencer 65), Chris Welsh, Newport Beach, 227/1,056. 4. Fortaleza (Santa Cruz 50), Jim Morgan, Long Beach, 195/1,373.

http://www.transpacificyc.org

MISTRAL BY DUBARRY: SAILING-PROOF TROUSERS No environment presents as big a challenge to technical trousers as that of a sailing boat. So Dubarry designed Mistral trousers to survive seasons of sailing in style. They're built from quick-drying, SPF 40 UV-resistant fabric with articulated knees for easy movement. Hard-wearing areas are reinforced with tough, high-twist fabric and there are practical features like a flip-up multitool pouch so it doesn't dig into your leg on the rail, splashproof zipped pocket and tough button fly that won't let you down. The results look good, and last longer.

Dubarry's Mistral Trousers: Same Rules. New Collection.

http://www.dubarry.com

NO ROOM TO BREATH AT THE TOP Slightly stronger breeze and more reaching than was anticipated resulted in the offshore race of the Rolex Commodores' Cup, providing the 45 yachts taking part with a most complete test. For the small boats in Class 3, the bigger conditions also made for a shorter race with the leaders arriving home unexpectedly early, at breakfast time this morning, with the Hong Kong boat, Yeoman of Wight, skippered by Jamie McWilliam winning by a substantial margin of 17 minutes ahead of Radboud Crul's Netherland Red yacht Rosetta from the Rocks and 25 minutes ahead of France White's Felix, skippered by Samuel Prietz.

With a race that started off the Royal Yacht Squadron yesterday in drifting conditions, to the conclusion of the race for some in more than 20 knots, and with the wind shifting between the southeast and southwest on the multiple leg course, the boats were subject to a whole gamut of conditions.

In Class One, Rolex Commodores' Cup defending champion and offshore specialist Gery Trentesaux on his Lady Courrier in France Blue came out on top with a 15 minute lead on corrected time over Anthony O'Leary's Antix Eile and more than an hour in front of Tim Costello's third placed Tiamat/Alfa Romeo.

The most taxing part of the race for all the boats came in the early hours of this morning, short tacking along the cliffs between Anvil Point and St Alban's Head in order to stay out of the powerful eastbound tide. On Fair Do's VII they came within a boatlength of the cliffs on several occasions tacking every two minutes or so.

With the offshore race scoring with a X2.5 co-efficient so the results between the top teams have dramatically closed up with GBR Red on 77.5, now only two points ahead of Gery Trentesaux's France Blue on 79.5. Third placed Ireland Green is on 91.

Friday sees one inshore race, prior to a lap of the Isle of Wight on Saturday. The latter is likely to be in big breeze with as much as 30 knots forecast.

Top Six Teams - Provisional Positions following the Offshore Race:

Team / Points / Place GBR Red / 77.5 / 1 France Blue / 79.5 / 2 Ireland Green / 91 / 3 Hong Kong / 103.5/ 4 Ireland White / 107/5 Netherlands Red/ 123.5 / 6

http://www.rorc.org/comcup/index.php

MUTUA MADRILENA WIN THE COASTAL RACE Damaged to such an extent that they had to withdraw from the Coastal Race in Marseille, Mutua Madrilena, proved they are finding their form in skipper Vasco Vascotto´s native country, winning both sections of the 32 miles Coastal Race into the Gulf of Angels.

While Italy's Vasco Vascotto and the crew of Mutua Madrilena (CHI) scored themselves a morale boosting pair of victories around today's 32.7 miles, two-part coastal race into the Gulf of Angels, the bay immediately to the east of Cagliari, it was the steady perfomance of Quantum Racing (USA) which sees them at the top of both the overall leader-board for this Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy and the season long Audi MedCup Circuit.

Quantum Racing were fifth in the first section of the race and then managed to overhaul Torbjorn Tornqvist's Artemis (SWE) on an exciting last couple of miles to the finish, and steal the fourth place which was enough to give them a two points lead in the regatta ahead of Mean Machine (MON) and a wafer thin 0.2 point lead on the Audi MedCup Circuit.

But Jose Cusi's Bribon (ESP) had a good day too, with two second places to atone for a slightly disappointing Wednesday.

Racing continues through Saturday.

Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy Regatta. Results after six races: 1. Quantum Racing, USA, 21 2. Mean Machine, MON, 23 3. Bribon, ESP, 33 4. Mutua Madrilena, ESP, 34 5. Artemis SWE, 39 6. El Desafio ESP, 47 7. Caixa Galicia ESP, 48 8. Matador ARG, 52 9. Platoon by Team Germany, GER, 55 10. Cristabella GBR, 64 11. Audi Q8 ITA, 65

http://2008.medcup.org/results

"SINN FEIN" AWARDED SECOND STRAIGHT LIGHTHOUSE TROPHY Ullman Sails customer Peter Rebovich and team on Cal 40 "Sinn Fein" snatched up multiple honors at this year's Newport Bermuda Race, including the prestigious St. David's Lighthouse trophy for the top finisher in the IRC division with an amateur helm. Sailing with full Ullman Sails inventory, this is the second consecutive time the team has won the Lighthouse trophy. "Sinn Fein" also won the Class 1 division for the fourth consecutive time and was the first to receive the North Rock Beacon Trophy.

For the "Fastest Sails on the Planet," contact a local Ullman loft and visit http://www.ullmansails.com

CLIPPER FLEET RETURNS TO LIVERPOOL On Saturday 5 July, the fleet of ten internationally-backed 68-foot ocean racing yachts competing in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race will arrive back in Liverpool at the end of their 35,000-mile circumnavigation.

Doctors, students, teachers, secretaries and a taxi driver are among the crew members who are nearing the end of their challenge. Onboard each yacht is just one professional, the skipper, whose role it is to lead the team to victory. The crew is all amateurs, nearly forty percent of whom had no sailing experience when they began this adventure ten months ago.

The ten teams departed Cork, Ireland at 1100 GMT Thursday for the 14th and final stage of the Clipper 07-08 Race, a 240 nautical mile sprint up the Irish Sea. The fleet's arrival in Liverpool on Saturday coincides with the height of the city's celebrations as European Capital of Culture 2008.

The ten teams and current overall leaderboard of Clipper 07-08 after Race 13:

1. New York, 93.5 2. Hull & Humber, 90 3. Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper, 82 4. Qingdao, 70.5 5. Liverpool 08, 69.5 6. Durban 2010 and Beyond, 67 7. westernaustralia2011.com, 63 8. Uniquely Singapore, 60 9. Nova Scotia, 51.5 10. Jamaica, 36.5

http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com

THE TELEFONICA BOATS PASS THE STRUCTURE TEST Alicante, Spain: Everything's on course as scheduled for the Telef0nica team. The two Spanish Volvo Ocean Race entries are already at the team base and both have been the first boats on the starting line on October 11th to undergo the structure and safety tests required by the race organisers.

A fully comprehensive check is involved, which hasn't been carried out before. Following the completion of the last edition of the race the class measurers decided to introduce a new rule, requiring all of the Volvo Open 70s to pass a test to see whether they meet the parameters set out by the designers and to examine the boat structure, it's performance and the performance of the keel hydraulics in extreme situations.

The test involves, for the most part, testing each one of the keel rams separately. On the one hand only one of the hydraulic rams is activated and the keel pivots to an angle of 40 degrees, with the boat listing so that the keel stays parallel to sea level. This is done to see what pressure is applied to the hydraulic ram and if the boat could sail if it were necessary to sail with just one in operation, instead of two.

Once the first ram is tested and the boat's reaction is measured, the process is repeated with the second ram pivoted to the other side. The same test also tests the stability of the boat.

The Chief Measurer, James Dadd, who has spent the past few days in Alicante, to carry out and oversee the tests, confirmed that both "Telef0nica blue" and "Telef0nica black" passed the tests satisfactorily: "There was no problem with either of the boats, so I can confirm that everything is in order with both of them in this respect."

http://www.equipotelefonica.es

RC44 MALCESINE SLAM CUP The fourth event of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2008 promises to be interesting, with nine top level teams led by some of the world's best sailors in a great and notoriously windy venue: Malcesine, on Lake Garda.

The Class' 2008 Continental challenge will once again reassemble some of the world's best sailors, including Cameron Appleton, Sebastien Col, Russell Coutts, Kelvin Harrap, Markus Wieser, James Spithill and many more.

Team New Zealand's helmsman Dean Barker makes a come-back after his first appearance in last year's Gold Cup in Dubai. Barker will sail the match-race event on board Patrick de Barros' Banco Espirito Santo; he will then swap boats with Russell Coutts for the fleet regattas, and will be the tactician on board Larry Ellison's BMW ORACLE Racing.

French sailor Philippe Presti will discover the RC 44 Class on board Maciej Nawrocki's Team Organika. Mateusz Kusznierewicz, the recent Star world champion and usual skipper / helmsman on board Organika is now concentrating on the next Olympic Games. Philippe Presti is one of France's best sailors; he was amongst others James Spithill's sparring partner on board Luna Rossa during the last America's Cup.

Organised by Fraglia vela di Malcesine, the RC44 MALCESINE SLAM CUP will begin on Wednesday July 9 with the match racing event. After a full round robin held in two days, the team owners will take the helm for three days of fleet racing. A long distance regatta - the DHL Trophy - will allow all the participants to discover the beauties of Lake Garda. The winner of this race will be awarded with the DHL Trophy, whilst the points of the regatta will be incorporated in the fleet race ranking. -- Bernard Schopfer

http://www.rc44.com

SHORT TACKS * From the "Proof that the Editor has relatives in Scandinavia" Department, this gem:

A last drink proved one too many for a 78-year-old Swede who fell asleep while trying to row home - from Denmark. Reports say the man had been drinking in the Danish town of Helsingor but found he did not have enough money for the ferry home to Sweden.

Instead of waiting until morning, he stole a dinghy and tried to row the 5km (three miles) across the Oresund Strait to Helsingborg, police said. But he fell asleep half-way and drifted until he was rescued by the coastguard.

The man, who has not been named, was found still asleep in the bottom of the boat, and towed back across the strait - a busy shipping lane - to Denmark. He was put on the next ferry home after he had sobered up, writes the Danish news service Ritzau.

Police said the owner of the dinghy had decided not to press charges, Reuters reports. -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7482551.stm

* Unlike any algae bloom your humble narrator has ever seen.. check this out in Qingdao: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9179 (with a tip of the hat to Bill Sandberg).

* These girls just finished 12th in the round britain powerboat race. Sarah is a key member of Ed Dubois's team and they are working really hard to raise dosh for charity. 15,000 GBP to date. See http://www.sarah-fraser.blogspot.com

* Charles Caudrelier has just a promotional sailing tour of the SolOceans in Northern Europe. Bostik left on the 18th of June and has sailed 1,700 nautical miles in very different sailing conditions, with stopovers in the Netherlands, in Germany during the renowned Kiel Week and in Sweden, with a return rounding Denmark. This navigation enabled them to complete the technical tests on the Veolia Oceans one-design and to welcome a great number of journalists in the countries visited. It was also the occasion for the famous German solo-sailor Boris Herrmann to discover the Veolia Oceans one-design and for Alexia Barrier the Mediterranean solo-sailor, to do the delivery from Sweden back to Normandy (France) double-handed with Charles Caudrelier. -- Clementine Chaignaud, http://www.soloceans.com

FEATURED BROKERAGE 1999 40' Santarelli Modulo 123, 149,000 Euros, Located in Lake Neuenburg, Switzerland.

Builder: Advanced Composite Designer: Ettore Santarelli

Brokerage through X-Yachts Marine GmbH: http://www.yachtworld.com/x-yachts/

Complete listing details and seller contact information at http://uk.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatFullDetails.jsp?boat_id=1917891

THE LAST WORD Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony. -- Thomas Merton The opinions expressed in Scuttlebutt Europe do not necessarily reflect those of its editors or sponsors.

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