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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #1562 - 15 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

THE FINAL MILES Today Monday 14th July at 1400 hours UT, after 5 days and 2 hours of racing, the trimaran Sodeb'O skippered by Thomas Coville was just 258 miles from completing the North Atlantic crossing record and had a 313 mile lead over the record set by Francis Joyon in 2005. The trimaran was making good speed towards the finish this afternoon at an average of 20 knots pushed by 10 to 15 knots of wind. Thomas may well cross the line between 0800 and 1200 UT. The trimaran will then head for the port of Brest where she will be welcomed at the end of the day, between 1600 and 2000 hours UT.

However, the weather situation is likely to make things very tense for the tired skipper and his team of routers onshore, as the wind will drop in the coming hours. Currently due West the wind is right on his tail and had already forced Thomas to gybe several times last night, taking him away from the direct course but enabling him to maintain a good speed. These exhausting tacks to reposition himself on the course have nevertheless enabled him to save time in relation to the initial routing.

Sodeb'O is set to round the SW tip of Ireland this evening, Monday 14th July 2008 at the end of the day. After that there will be some final tacks as far as Lizard Point (SW tip of England and the finish line of the North Atlantic record).

Tonight, it's the same pattern of sailing as last night for Thomas Coville, namely some gybes in 10 to 15 knots of breeze. "He should go quicker than planned as there is more pressure" explained Thierry Douillard this afternoon, the latter a fine regatta sailor and member of the routing team who concluded "he still has a lot more work on his hands. He's really going to have to go and hunt down this record. As a result Thomas is working really hard and the weather conditions are favourable but not exceptional since the start".

Setting out on Wednesday 9th July at 1147 UT from New York (Ambrose Light), Thomas Coville must cross the finish line tomorrow Tuesday 15th July before 1547 UT to beat Francis Joyon's record of 6 days, 4 hours, 1 minute and 37 seconds.

http://www.sodebo-voile.com

TEAM HIROSHI - CITTA DI MILANO CONQUERS THE RC44 MALCESINE SLAM CUP The Italian team confirms its good results from the beginning of the season and increases its lead in the RC 44 Championship Tour. Hiroshi will keep the Tour leader's gold wheels for the next event, in Trieste, on October 7-11.

Malcesine, July 13, 2008 -The famous Lake Garda thermal breeze didn't show up today, forcing Race Director Peter Reggio to put an end to the event at 2:45 PM. The fleet regatta is however valid, with four races completed including yesterday's long distance DHL Trophy.

As a consequence, Armando Giulietti's Team Hiroshi - Citta di Milano conquers the title of Continental Champion and increases its lead in the RC 44 Championship Tour. Patrick de Barros' Banco Espirito Santo finishes second, ahead of Team Ceeref and Team Sea Dubai.

Two more events will take place before the end of the Championship Tour: the Trieste Cup, on October 7-11 and the Puerto Calero RC 44 Gold Cup, in Lanzarote, on December 10-14. -- Bernard Schopfer

Fleet-race, final results after 4 races:

1. Team Hiroshi - Citta di Milano, Armando Giulietti, 11 points 2. Team Banco Espirito Santo, Patrick de Barros, 12 3. Team Ceeref, Igor Lah, 13 4. Sea Dubai, Joki Hellmich, 13 5. Team Beecom, Isao Mita, 22 6. BMW ORACLE Racing, Larry Ellison, 24 7. Team Organika, Maciej Navrocki, 26 8. Team Aqua, Chris Bake, 27 9. Team Carbon Affairs, Nicolas Verwilghen, 35

http://www.rc44.com

LIBERTINE AND SPIDERTECH ON TOP OF THE WORLD Athens Greece: LIBERTINE is World Champion at "The ORC World Championships" (20-28 June) after seven races sailed. LIBERTINE, the Comet 45 R owned by Maurizio Biscardi had Lorenzo Bodini at the helm and Francesco De Angelis calling tactics. Sails were made by Banks Sails Italy and designed with Spidertech technology. LIBERTINE won by two points ahead of George Andreadis's MELITI IV. Five races out of seven have been sailed in line, all with strong winds, like the long distance race of 148 miles, divided into parts, which had all participant boats in difficulties with winds in excess of 25 knots.

A good performance as well from FRA'DIAVOLO, the Comet 41 R owned by Vincenzo Addessi, with Luca Simeone at the helm. Sails were also from Banks Sails Italy and again designed with Spidertech technology. FRA'DIAVOLO came third in the Corinthian Class 1. The World Championship protagonists, LIBERTINE & FRA'DIAVOLO, will meet again at the Italian ORC International Championships which will take place in Punta Ala from 24 - 30 August.

http://www.spidertechsails.eu

SHOSHOLOZA SAILMAKER LAUNCHES EPIC "CYCLE FOR LEUKAEMIA" FUND RAISER A member of Team Shosholoza's 2007 America's Cup campaign has launched an epic "cycle for leukaemia" to raise funds and awareness for a bone marrow donor organization even though he is back in hospital fighting a desperate battle against the disease.

South African sailmaker Mike Coburn, 35, who was proud to join Team Shosholoza in Valencia, Spain after recovering from a bone marrow transplant himself, is planning to raise funds for the Anthony Nolan Trust by cycling 1000 miles from one end of Britain to the other - John O'Groats to Land's End - in November this year.

The Anthony Nolan Trust managers and recruits new donors to the United Kingdom's most successful bone marrow register.

"The Trust's motto is "Taking back Lives from Leukaemia". They found my donor and gave me a new lease on life so I want to give back to them. Our End - End Epic will be a tough ride but I think it will be one of the most rewarding things I'll ever do," said Coburn in an email from Southampton where he has been working for the past year.

Gung-ho with enthusiasm a few weeks back Coburn even challenged the 100 foot record breaking super maxi yacht Leopard to a race around Britain's Isle of Wight to raise awareness for the cycle campaign. He was confident he could cycle around the island faster than Leopard could do it on the water.

But a day before 28 June annual Round the Island race Coburn was admitted to hospital as an extreme emergency case with a platelet count of zero and internal haemorraghing.

Since then he has been on six drips a day for eight hours every day and remains in a serious condition. Yet he has continued a relentless appeal for the sponsorship and promotion of the cycle challenge via email and skype.

"Please support us. http://www.cycle4leukaemia.org is very close to my heart and I know if anything happens to me, my team - Cath Vise and Haig Youens on bikes and Pat Jolly in our support car - will continue with it," his latest email said last night.

A friend , Ollie Hilton, posted the latest update on their www.cycle4leukaemia.org blog saying he felt compelled to do so partly because Coburn was so critically ill and also because time is running out.

"Something needs to be done right now," said Hilton. "Mike has had two really close shaves this week. I know I speak for everyone when I say that we are hoping and praying for a miracle. The people that are helping Mike to fight for his life need more than prayers and positive thoughts.

"The Anthony Nolan Trust needs generous support right now. Please give generously and forward this website blog http://www.cycle4leukaemia.org to everyone you know," said Hilton.

DRAGON EDINBURGH CUP The final day of the Edinburgh Cup, sponsored by Knight Frank and hosted by the Royal Western Yacht Club, Plymouth, provided two thrilling final championship races, a hard fought crews' race and ultimately a popular and worthy new British Open Dragon Champion and Edinburgh Cup winner.

At the end of the day and following two closely fought races Ireland's Don O'Donoghue, Brian Matthews and Mark Pettitt sailing Seabird were declared the 2008 Dragon British Open Champions and were awarded the historic Edinburgh Cup. Second place overall went to Louis Urvois of France crewed by Gwen Chapalain and Eric Drouglazet sailing Ar Youleg II and in third was Gavia Wilkinson-Cox from Cowes crewed by Mark Hart and John Mortimer aboard Gerboa. Len Jones from the Medway took four with American Edward Sawyer fifth and Eric Williams of Cowes six.

In the Classic Division for wooden boats built prior to 1972 there was also a very close battle which was eventually won by Matthew Ratsey sailing Blue Skies with Kevin Poole and Tim Petitt. David Jeffcott, sailing Moonbeam crewed by James Tyers, James Hemingway and Keith Davis took second and David Dale sailing Inge with Cathy and Peter Williams was third.

At the prize giving there were a number of special awards alongside the main prizes including the presentation of the Jordan Bell, for the highest placed boat that does not count a score in the top five, which was awarded to Chris Britton, Nick Milton and Jilly Hamilton sailing Norbert. The Petticrows special prize draw, for a brand new Petticrows jib, was won by 75 year old Ted Sawyer from the USA and the Dubarry Boot Trophy went to Len Jones.

The 2009 Edinburgh Cup will be hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club, Falmouth in early July. Further information about this event will be published at http://www.britishdragons.org

Overall Top Ten

1. Don O'Donoghue, 10 points 2. Louis Urvois, 20 3. Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, 20 4. Len Jones, 25 5. Edward Sawyer, 28 6. J E Williams, 29 7. Mike Holmes, 33 8. Thomas Wilton, 36 9. Rob Campbell, 41 10. Owen Pay, 45

Full results from http://www.edinburghcup08.co.uk

NAVAL ARCHITECT REQUIRED FOR SOUTH COAST YACHT DESIGN OFFICE SPECIALISING IN THE DESIGN OF SUPERYACHTS, BOTH SAIL AND POWER

- The successful applicant will have a relevant qualification and good working experience within a superyacht/ship design office.

- A minimum of five years' design office experience is considered essential for this position, with at least two years' continual work using CAD.

- Experience with yacht structures and work with 3D modelling is a requirement.

- The salary is negotiable.

Please apply in writing to: Helen Erdbeer design@duboisyachts.com http://www.duboisyachts.com

GREEN DRAGON VOR TEAM ADDS NEW MEMBERS The Green Dragon Team's Volvo Open 70 completed its first offshore passage, arriving into Cork in Ireland on Sunday (13/07/08). The boat, was commissioned and has undergone sea trials in Gosport, UK, sailed with a full crew for the 450 mile trip to Ireland. Onboard were two new additions to the Green Dragon Team ; internationally renowned yachtsmen Neal McDonald (GBR) and Anthony Merrington (AUS) have joined the existing 10 strong sailing team.

British sailor Neal McDonald has a prestigious sailing CV with an Olympic Games, three America's Cups, three Whitbred and Volvo Ocean Races to his name. He also holds several successes in the Fastnet and Round Gotland Race, not to mention a victory in the international 14 world championships in 1989. For the Hamble based sailor this will be his fourth edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, most recently as skipper of Ericsson in 2005-06. Neal will be one of two watch-leaders onboard Green Dragon, he will sail alongside Ireland's Damian Foxall.

Anthony Merrington (Youngster) has 17 years of yacht racing experience under his belt, accumulating over 120,000 offshore nautical miles. He has competed in two edition of the Volvo Ocean Race; 2001-02 with Team SEB and 2004-05 with Pirates of the Carribbean. The Australian has also sailed as pitman with the Swedish America's Cup challenger, Victory Challenge, as well as several Sydney Hobart's. Anthony was a key part of Rosebud's winning Rolex Sydney to Hobart crew this year. He also sailed alongside McDonald aboard Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher B&Q on their Jules Verne attempt.

The 450 mile sail to Ireland was the first offshore test for the new Volvo Open 70. "The boat has performed brilliantly", commented watch-leader Damian Foxall. "We were able to settle into our watch systems but we also took time to conduct several sail tests en route. We know what are the key decisions we are faced with on the sail program and we are taking every opportunity we have to learn fast in those areas".

The Green Dragon Team will be based in Ireland for the next two months; they will remain in Cork for the next three weeks before moving to their homeport of Galway. Upon leaving Galway the team will undertake their mandatory 2000 mile qualification passage.

The Green Dragon Team entry in the 2008/09 Volvo Ocean Race is jointly funded by two syndicates; a group of Irish private investment and a syndicate of Chinese companies.

http://www.volvooceanrace.org

NEW FACES FOR THE TELEFONICA TEAM With less than 3 months to go until the start of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09, the Telefonica team continue to unveil the main players in Spain's attempt to bring home the first Round-the World victory in Spanish history. David Vera, Laurent Pages and Roger Nilson are now officially the latest additions to the Telefonica team.

David Vera (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. 19/07/1970) is diving into the first Round the World race of his career. This might be his first Volvo, but this 37 year-old Spaniard's CV reveals an experienced yachtsman right across the sport, in classes ranging from Olympic sailing to the America's Cup. David has been World Champion and first European runner-up in the Soling class, and he made an Olympic appearance at the Atlanta Olympic Games in the same class. He was also a semi-finalist in the recent 32nd America's Cup in Valencia with the Desafio Espanol challenge, his most recent large-scale project.

Roger Nilson (Gothenburg, Sweden. 5/03/1949) who along with Simon Fisher will be the navigator on one of the Spanish boats, and will without doubt be one of the crewmembers to bring the most experience to the Telefonica team. The 59 year-old has seven circumnavigations under his belt, six of them competing in the Volvo Ocean Race.

The other official sign-up for the Telefonica team is Laurent Pages (St. Georges de Didonne, France. 20/10/1976), who'll be one of the watch captains in the Telefonica team.

Over the last few years this 31 year-old Frenchman has been sailing extensively in the Farr-40 class. He started his career among the 420s and then moved up to 470 to then go on to sail on Open 60, Maxi One-Design, Swan 45, Mumm 30 and Melges 24 boats, mainly in the role of helmsman, tactician and trimmer.

http://www.volvooceanrace.org

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Visit http://www.high-modulus.com

LAST WEEKEND THERE WAS HISTORY MADE IN ESTONIA. The first ever match racing competition was run by the Estonians in Pirita the 1980 Olympic Harbour outside the capital Tallinn.

The newly formed Estonian Match Racing Union ran an Open Grade 4 match race competition called "Tallinn Open Match Race", in cooperation with the Finnish Match Race Center of NJK. The event had attracted 4 Finnish teams one Russian and one Latvian as well as the host country's 3 teams.

The race was sailed with the Union's 6 Blue Sail 24 , recently bought from Sweden .

The race was well run in light shifty winds with some rain on the Saturday but with clear skies and a 90 degree wind shift on Sunday. A full round Robin was raced but the time was not enough for semi finals and finals.

The Estonians made an inroad in international match racing as the event was won by a local. Mati Sepp, who started match racing just 2 years ago in the Nations Cup Qualifiers. Runner up was the Finnish pioneer in match racing Georg Tallberg, who returned to the waters where he 28 years ago won a bronze in the Olympic Games as crew in the Finnish 470 entry. Third was newcomer to the match racing scene Farr 40 skipper Olli Pekka Lumijarvi. This event and he interest shown by Estonian and Latvian sailors is hopefully the start to match racing not even in Estonia but also in Latvia and Lithuania. -- Roolf Zachariassen. Finnish Match Racing Association, secretary general.

BRITISH CLASSIC YACHT CLUB REGATTA The waters of the Solent are soon to be graced by a spectacular gathering of some of the world's most famous and beautiful vintage racing yachts. The 2008 British Classic Yacht Club Regatta, which runs from the 20th to the 26th of July, under the auspices of the Royal Corinthian YC in Cowes, features six days of racing and has attracted an entry of more than forty classic craft. For the purposes of this regatta a 'Classic Yacht' is defined as: 'A monohull, with a minimum length on deck of thirty feet, designed and built for recreational purposes in wood or steel, to a pre-1970 design and using traditional build methods.'

The entry list has been split into two classes, with entrants over seventy five feet (on deck) racing in Class Zero and the remainder being divided amongst Classes One to Four. All racing will take place under the IRC Handicap system and will include a variety of courses including long inshore as well as shorter round the cans races. On Tuesday all classes will take part in a Ladies Race. The winner of the Class Zero overall series will receive the Ryde Coronation Town Cup. This trophy, made by Joseph Rodgers, was first presented in 1902 by the inhabitants of Ryde at the Royal Victoria YC regatta and has been generously provided by the Royal Thames Yacht Club.

The regatta entry list is studded with the names of celebrated racing yachts of bygone years from legendary designers such as Sparkman and Sevens, Fife, Mylne, McGruer, Rhodes, Nicholson, Robb, Hope, Buchanan, Holm and Giles. One of the most notable entries is the twenty seven metre 'Tuiga'. Built in 1909 by William Fife as a sparring partner for the then King of Spain's 'Hispania', she has been meticulously restored by Farlie Restorations. For the last ten years Tuiga has been owned by the Yacht Club de Monaco, competing at all the major classic regattas as their flagship vessel.

Also adding to the spectacle in Class Zero will be the 125' restored Fife designed 'Mariquita' - a true heavyweight of the classic yacht community, in every sense of the phrase. At 42m length overall Charlie Wroe's 1915 gaff schooner 'Mariette' will be the largest boat at the regatta. Mariette is visiting the British Classic Yacht Club Regatta as part of a European tour which so far has featured cruising time in Sicily and Malta, racing at Scotland's Fife Regatta and will also include a stop off at the Pendennis Cup in Falmouth on her way back to the south of France for the Cannes and Saint Tropez regattas.

The pedigree of the boats outside Class Zero is equally impressive. Brian and Yvonne Turner's Bermudan sloop 'Clarion of Wight' is a past Fastnet Race and Admiral's Cup winner. 'Opposition', perhaps better known as Ted Heath's second 'Morning Cloud' also has an Admiral's Cup victory under her belt and makes her first appearance at the BCYC Regatta this year. 1958 British America's Cup challenger 12m 'Sceptre is one of the best loved classic yachts in the UK and under the control of the Sceptre Preservation Society she has been lovingly restored to her original design and condition. Amongst the oldest boats at the regatta is Lance Rowell's 33' Thames Rater Gaff Sloop 'Dorothy' which was built by the Thames Yacht Building Company in 1894.

Registration takes place between 1400 and 1700 on Sunday 20th July and will be followed by a Skippers and Navigators briefing at 1800. Racing commences early on Tuesday morning with a long inshore race for all classes. -- Justin Chisholm

As daily results, press releases and photographs become available they will be posted on the Royal Corinthian YC website http://www.rcyc.co.uk

FEATURED BROKERAGE 54' Fountaine Pajot F-164 (previously named "Cote Basque"), $275,000 USD, Located in Holland.

Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbor is please to offer this rare trimaran named "TRES". Originally, the boat was a famous French racer, called Cote Basque, designed by Fountaine-Pageot, LOA 45 feet, draft 4.9 feet and built in polyester/foam/glassfibre. After the conversion/rebuilding in 1991, the boat was called "TRES", LOA 54 feet, draft 3 feet, built in epoxy/foam/glassfibre/kevlar/carbon. She still has racing potential, but now mainly is a world cruiser.

In the salon are 2 pilotbunks, apart from the settees. Foward from that is the cabin with two double bunks.

Brokerage through Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbor: http://www.yachtworld.com/whittakercreek/

Complete listing details and seller contact information at http://uk.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatFullDetails.jsp?boat_id=1816546

THE LAST WORD A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it. -- Henry Ford

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

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