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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #2032 - 19 FEBRUARY

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

BRUNO PEYRON RELAUNCHES THE RACE Three times holder of the Jules Verne Trophy and creator of The Race, the non-stop crewed race around the world without outside assistance and without limits, Bruno Peyron has officially announced that he has decided to relaunch The Race. After several months of studies and some careful thinking and after consulting the main potential competitors, a second edition of the race around the world for the giant G-class boats is therefore planned for 2013-2014, starting from a port in Southern Europe.

Bruno Peyron, who took some time to think about this before coming to a decision explains: "As I've been able to stand back and gain some perspective since I last took part in the Jules VerneTrophy, there are several things I noticed that led me to take this decision to relaunch The Race. First, since the recent America's Cup that we have just seen, we can conclude that we French are no longer alone in the world of multihulls and that is excellent news. We are entering a new era.

We can see too that since The Race, 12 giant multihulls have been built, including four in the past three years. So today there are certainly enough boats of sufficient quality for us to propose this event relaunch to their skippers and partners, without counting any new multihulls, which may be built following on from this by 2013 or 2014.

I have noticed that some major brands have been looking at the possibilities offered by the Volvo Ocean Race, which I can fully understand, but this does indicate that there is simply no alternative international race for multihulls. And just to conclude, others around me have become aware of this and share this feeling and my discussions with the leading G-class skippers have led me to move things forward in this direction.

After talks with various agencies specialising in sports marketing, Bruno Peyron has decided to award the overall management of The Race event to Thierry Reboul. Former Head of Advertising for Air France and Head of Communications at Alcatel, Thierry Reboul was the founder of the Ubi bene agency, which specialises in promoting events.

He will in particular be in charge of organising and negotiating with the main partners and the official event sites.

A call for tender will be launched to complete the arrangements with an international team, which will be appointed as executive producers.

BARCELONA AND CASCAIS JOIN THE AUDI MEDCUP CIRCUIT After several years as potential candidate venues for the Audi MedCup Circuit, two of Europe's most desirable cities, Barcelona and Cascais/Lisbon, have now been confirmed on the competition schedule for 2010.

World Sailing Management and city representatives of Barcelona and Cascais have now reached agreements to ensure that these venues will be two of the five which will constitute the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit.

The Audi MedCup Circuit 2010 schedule opens with an entirely new venue. The year's first event will take place between the 11 and the 16 of May in Cascais, Portugal.

After the Cascais Premiere, the Audi MedCup Circuit moves to Marseille, where the second trophy of the season will be disputed, between the 15th and the 20th of June.

Barcelona will host the third event of the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit between the 20th and the 25th of July. At this time the Catalan capital city enjoys great thermal winds of the southwest, known as Garbí.

As well as the pleasant summer weather conditions, Barcelona is the perfect showcase for the Circuit, richly endowed with the experience and infrastructure of a city which holds many sailing competitions in Spain including the 1992 Olympic Sailing Regatta.

The 2010 season will not only have new venues, but also new rules, which will make the boats faster and more spectacular. The TP52's new configuration includes a square topped mainsail, as well as bigger assymetric spinnakers on bowsprits instead of a spinnaker pole. Crew numbers are cut by two, which makes sailing more testing and more exciting. Also new is the new guest spot onboard every boat for each race.

Nacho Postigo was in Valencia to meet Mike Sanderson, CEO of TeamOrigin the British America's Cup syndicate, one of the new entrants to the 2010 TP52 Series of the Circuit. The Kiwi Round the World Champion and former World Sailor of the Year updated the Audi MedCup's Circuit Technical Manager on his team's status, the boat's construction schedule prior to its debut in Cascais for the first time. -- Sabina Mollart-Rogerson

http://www.medcup.org

MAKE YOUR SAILS LAST A few holes in the spinnaker during the douse. An eyelet ripped out. A broken batten. A torn panel. Delamination. A shrunken bolt rope. A luff recut. A murky vision window. A shredded leech cord. Missing tell tales. Mold. At Ullman Sails, our lofts not only build high quality cruising and racing sails, we also specialize in sail evaluation, maintenance and repairs. With over 40 years of experience, we offer innovative repair solutions backed by the quality and performance that we're known for worldwide.

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TEAM AZZURRA IN WORLD MATCH RACING TOUR Porto Cervo, Italy. 18th February 2010. Team Azzurra (ITA), with helmsman Francesco Bruni will participate in the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) 2010. The tour is sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) and is valid for the assignation of the title of World Match Racing Champion. Top international sailors who will be participating together with Bruni include:

Ben Ainslie (GBR) Peter Gilmour (AUS) Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Adam Minoprio (NZL) Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Bertrand Pace (FRA) Mathieu Richard (FRA) Ian Williams (GBR)

Azzurra will compete in WMRT events in Denmark, France, Korea, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland from April to September of this year.

"I am honoured to have the opportunity to compete in this circuit." commented Bruni. "We have worked very hard towards this objective and last year's victories in the Master de Espana and Louis Vuitton Trophy events have contributed to reaching it. This takes the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's Azzurra project, a top-level professional structure, one step further."

http://www.azzurra.it http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com

OMEGA AUCKLAND MATCH RACING REGATTA Some of the world's top international match race teams are set to descend on Auckland for the Omega Auckland Match Racing Regatta in March. A mix of America's Cup experience plus rising young talent will do battle in the invitational regatta on the Waitemata Harbour.

The Omega Auckland Match Racing Regatta will be run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and will take place off the Westhaven breakwater, where spectators will be able to watch the action.

Skippers who have accepted invitations to compete are: Dean Barker (NZL - Emirates Team New Zealand); Ben Ainslie (GBR - Team Origin); Francesco Bruni (ITA - Azzurra Sailing Team); Sebastian Col (FRA - former Areva Challenge); Karol Jablonski (POL - former Desafio Espanol); Magnus Holmberg (SWE - former Victory Challenge); Chris Dickson (NZL - former BMW ORACLE Racing); Bertrand Pace (FRA - former BMW ORACLE Racing); Adam Minoprio (NZL - BlackMatch Racing); Torvar Mirsky (AUS - Mirsky Racing Team).

Racing will take place in identical Farr-designed MRX yachts and will comprise a double round robin, semi-final and final. Weather permitting, the semi-finals and finals will be decided by the first skipper to win three matches.

NEWPORT BERMUDA Newport Bermuda Race chooses New York Yacht Club as Newport Race Headquarters The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee has announced that the pre-start race headquarters for the 47th Newport Bermuda Race will be the Sailing Center at the New York Yacht Club's Newport clubhouse, Harbour Court. Crews may use the clubhouse and its facilities before the race's start on June 18, 2010.

The announcement was made by Bjorn Johnson, chairman of the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee. "After an intensive selection process we chose the New York Yacht Club's Sailing Center as the best possible site for our Newport headquarters. The club's generous offer is only the most recent event in a long, healthy relationship between the NYYC and the Newport Bermuda Race. For years the race has been started by the club's race committee, and many NYYC members (including me) have raced to Bermuda."

Since opening in 2008, the Sailing Center has served as headquarters for numerous regattas, including the NYYC Invitational Cup in September 2009.

The race starts on June 18 at Newport, where the New York Yacht Club's Sailing Center will serve as race headquarters. Applications for entry are accepted from January 18 through March 30 (registration is on-line).

The Notice of Race and entry information are posted. The Offshore Racing Rule (ORR) will again be the primary handicapping system. Those electing to race for the IRC trophy will need an endorsed IRC certificate as well. If your boat needs to be measured or re-measured, notify US Sailing at offshore@ussailing.org. All boats must be inspected by Bermuda Race inspectors. The race's Safety-at-Sea Seminar will be held at Newport on March 13, with other events on the 14th. Crew training rules and registration information are posted.

http://www.BermudaRace.com

SEAHORSE MARCH 2010 What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine

How do you improve a proven-winner? Simon Rogers And James Day try to work it out with Rogers Yacht Design's newest Class 40

Suddenly in the spotlight, Simon Rogers has been knocking down doors for a while. Louay Habib explores the history

At the heart of every truly great design is an easy to sail boat... Dave Hollom looks back at two early scientific exponents of a key principle

Eric Steinberg is finding good demand among 'position-hungry' crews for his latest GPS

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18FT SKIFFS GILTINAN CHAMPIONSHIP Sydney Harbour, Australia: The Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship look as though it will go right down to the wire as the points tighten amongst the leading contenders.

Rag & Famish Hotel was again sailed brilliantly by John Harris, Scott Babbage and Peter Harris to win their second consecutive race in race 5 on Sydney Harbour today.

'The Rag' once again dominated the fleet to score by 3m4s from Gotta Love It 7 (Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Tom Clout), with Project Racing (Andy Budgen, James Barker and Matt Mc Govern) in third place a further 58s back.

The outright pointscore shows Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas), 13, with a one point lead over Project Racing on 14 and Gotta Love It 7 on 15.

While Rag & Famish Hotel appears to be trailing in fifth place, behind Grant Rollerson's Slam, 'Rag's' placing is much stronger after discard.

Her 37 points would be reduced to five points and a one point lead over Thurlow Fisher Lawyers with three races still to sail.

Today's race was sailed in a 10-12knot SE wind that had many holes and variations.

The re-sail of last Tuesday's Race 3 will held Friday with the last two races of the championship to be sailed on Saturday and Sunday. -- Frank Quealey

http://www.flying18s.com http://www.18footers.com.au

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING REALLY FAST This summer, the huge 'Union Jack' doors of the Columbine shed in East Cowes will part and true to the shed's origins, one more and perhaps final, amazing flying boat will emerge. The UK based team behind the Vestas Sailrocket project are building a new boat to finish the job of setting the outright world speed sailing record. The new craft will be an evolution of the innovative concept upon which their original craft was based.

The new boat is being built in the VESTAS R&D facilities at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. It will incorporate many features to make it more versatile and practical to sail at world record speeds in a wider range of winds and sea states. The team will launch the new boat in East Cowes in time for the British summer and hope to carry out testing in the UK over the following months. If initial trials go well, the team will endeavour to bring the world record back to UK waters.

Pilot/project leader, Paul Larsen- "This represents a fantastic opportunity to develop a real breakthrough concept. Our first interpretation of it did a brilliant job of demonstrating the potential. I'm very proud of what we have achieved but also very aware that we haven't finished the job. I personally can't live with that. The first boat did what it was supposed to do... but by the time it did, the record had moved on. As it stands we still need to go two knots faster to break the current world record. I still believe our first boat could break that record but I also know she is near her limits. As a team we are now well positioned to design and build a much better, safer and above all faster boat which is more suitable for the challenges to come.

Vestas Sailrocket1 will be on public display in all her battle scarred glory at the upcoming RYA Volvo Dinghy Show, Alexandra palace, March 6-7th .

Achievements to date:

Emerged in 2008 as fastest sailing 'boat' in the world, Current B class world record holder, Best 500 meter average 49.38 knots, Best peak speed 52.78 knots (60.75mph).

The current Outright world record sits at 51.36 knots (59.1 mph) and is held by the French 'Hydroptere' project.

The outright world speed sailing record is set by taking the average speed of the craft between two points set 500 meters apart. All records are ratified by the sports governing body, the WSSRC (World Speed Sailing Record Council).

http://www.vestassailrocket.com

THE VICTORY TOUR Following Sunday's race victory, which resulted in a 2-0 sweep of the 33rd America's Cup Match, the BMW ORACLE Racing team is preparing to bring the Cup home to the United States.

The America's Cup Victory Tour presented by ORACLE and BMW EfficientDynamics will begin Friday afternoon February 19, when the trophy touches down in San Francisco following a flight in a first-class seat to SFO from Valencia via Frankfurt. After being welcomed at the airport, the trophy and team will proceed to the Golden Gate Yacht Club - the team's patron and the Cup's new home - for a reception with club members and special guests.

Saturday morning, a public viewing is planned at the San Francisco City Hall Rotunda. At 11:30 am Mayor Gavin Newsom will formally welcome the Cup and team, including team owner Larry Ellison, back to the United States in a City Hall ceremony open to the public. A press conference will follow.

On Sunday afternoon, the America's Cup will head south to San Diego, where the team operated a training base for 16 months in 2008 and 2009. At 4:00 pm the America's Cup will be on public display at the USS Midway museum on the city's waterfront.

Following a 5:00 pm ceremony with Mayor Jerry Sanders, the trophy and team will head to the San Diego Yacht Club on the replica of the yacht America, for which the trophy is named. A flotilla of San Diego boats will parade along with America for a sunset sail across San Diego Bay to former Cup holder San Diego Yacht Club.

The homecoming tour may be extended to the East Coast of the United States the following week - details to come. -- Jane Eagleson

http://www.bmworacleracing.com

GETTING BOATING BACK TO CUBA Foretelling the future of recreational yachting in Cuba through its past, the commodore of Marina Hemingway in Havana, Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich, spoke to about 100 people at the Eden Roc in Miami Beach Friday night.

Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich discusses future of recreational yachting in Cuba at the Eden Roc in MIami Beach during the MIami International Boat Show.

Talking with an interpreter, Escrich presented images beginning with sepia-toned shots of Club Nautico in 1884 through to aerial shots of marinas today, and explained how Cuba is making progress in its effort to get recreational boating back to how it used to be in his country.

Cuba had a vibrant and international recreational yachting and fishing industry until all the clubs were closed in 1960.

After a career in the cuban Navy, Escrich served as advisor to Cuba's nautical tourism group and suggested the creation of a yacht club. In 1992, Marina Hemingway opened. On the first day, the club had 28 members from 10 countries; a year later, it had 150 members from 23 countries.

Currently, there are more than 1,600 members from 45 countries. Marina Hemingway has relationships with 600 yacht clubs as far away as Monaco.

Through images of regattas and fishing tournaments before the 1960s, Escrich reminded the crowd how Cuba was host to such events as the Tampa-to-Havana Regatta and several major billfish tournaments.

A 1950s black-and-white photograph showed Club Nautico as a new type of club, built long and thin, "just enough for a pier and a bar to welcome the entire world," he said. American author and international adventurer Ernest Hemingway is included among the founders of the club, he said. -- Blue Water Sailing, http://bwsailing.com/BWS_newsandnotes_Commodore-of-Marina-Hemingway-in-Havana-Speaks-in-Miami-Beach.html

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 Talbot Wilson: As the new Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup, the Mascalzone Latino team should push the defender to use Trapani, Sicily as the venue for AC34.

They have the space and existing facilities for a proper village and support from their government and people. Their 'Act' for AC32 was classy and the sailing venue was excellent. At the very least, Trapani should be back on the schedule for the Challenger Series.

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THE LAST WORD We accept a John Howard, a Mazzini, a Botticelli, a Michael Angelo, with a kind of indulgence. We are proud of a human nature that could be so passionately extreme, but we shrink from advising others to follow the example. -- William James

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

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