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SCUTTLEBUTT EUROPE #1585 - 11 AUGUST

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

DAY TWO AT QINDAO Sunday saw the first race day for the 49er, second day for Ynging and Finn and a practice race for the RS:X (both men and women) and 470 (men and women).

Monday's schedule: First race day for the RS:X and 470, racing continues for the 49er, Finn and Yngling, practice race for the Laser and Laser Radial.

49ER DAY ONE Britain's Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes proved the value of consistency in the opening races of the 49er Skiff event at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center, taking the early lead in the series.

Winners of the 2007 World Championship and Olympic test event in Qingdao last year, Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes (GBR) started as one of the favourites and 4, 3, 5 finishes give them the overall lead on 12 points.

Italian brothers and ISAF World Ranked #2 crew Pietro Sibello and Gianfranco Sibello (ITA) won the third race to hold on to second overall after finishing third in race 1 and ninth in race 2. They are one point behind the Britons.

Although they did not win a race, Jonas Warrer and Martin Ibsen (DEN) did enough to hold third overall. Like the two pairs in front of them on the leaderboard, the Danes sailed consistently, ending 2, 4, 10 in the three races for 16 points.

Athens gold medallists and the World Ranked #1 pair, Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez (ESP) got their series off to a perfect start, winning race 1 with a perfectly executed gybe near the finish. However things went downhill from there, with bad starts pushing them back in the next two races to finishes of 10 and 17. They lie eighth overall.

Race 2 honours went to 2008 World Champions Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin (AUS), but they were 15th in the first race after hitting the windward mark and needing to sail a penalty. The Australians are fifth overall after finishing seventh in the third race.

The 49er series continues Monday with races 4, 5 and 6 scheduled. -- ISAF, http://sailing.org

YNGLING DAY TWO Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson extended their overall lead in the Yngling to seven points. In a stronger 8-9 knot breeze out on course area E they recovered from two average starts to score finishes of fourth and seventh. The Finnish team of Silja Lehtinen, Maria Klemetz and Livia Varesmaa have moved up to second overall ahead of the Dutch.

* The British Yngling team has a blog in the Telegraph: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/go/category/view/The%20Yngling%20Girls

* The USA team blog is at http://www.team7sailing.com/content/blogcategory/20/36/

FINN DAY TWO A quick glance at the Finn scoreboard after four races would seem to indicate someone is rolling the dice in Qingdao. One person who seems to have loaded dice is Zach Railey (USA), who after two awesome second places today moves into the overall lead and would have had a significant points advantage apart from a last minute charge in race four by Ben Ainslie (GBR) to move from seventh to first on the final leg. Chris Cook (CAN) narrowly moves up to third as one of only four sailors to maintain top ten positions so far.

Many of the favourites who yesterday picked up one or two high scores were looking to correct that today. Some succeeded, some didn't. However, the forecast of 8 to 10 knots wasn't too far wrong, with a steady 9 knots of breeze at the start.

Building on his overnight celebrity status after being in an unexpected second place, Zach Railey (USA) pulled out all the stops to lead round the first mark in race three from Daniel Birgmark (SWE) and Eduardo Couto (BRA). Like yesterday, many of the favourites were struggling at the tail end of the fleet with yesterday's first race winner Emilios Papathanasiou (GRE) rounding in 21st and world number one Jonas Hogh-Christensen (DEN) in 22nd.

Railey maintained his lead on the first downwind while Rafael Trujillo (ESP) moved up to second and Birgmark dropped to fifth. Trujillo took the lead on the next downwind while Birgmark recovered back to second. On the final upwind leg, Birgmark made a small gain to cross the finish line one second ahead of Railey, with Trujillo four seconds back in third. Ben Ainslie (GBR) maintained his fourth place throughout the entire race.

Race four got underway at 14.50 local time with Couto, leading round the first mark and the first lap. Guillaume Florent (FRA) rounded second with Haris Papadopolous (CYP) in third. Ainslie was in fourth and Railey rounded eighth.

Railey then sailed a perfect second upwind leg to move into the lead just ahead of Couto and Dan Slater (NZL) who had moved up from 10th at the first mark. Ainslie had dropped to seventh.

The final downwind to the finish was dramatic. In a reversal of fortunes from yesterday, Ainslie found the best wind to take the lead in the final three-quarters of the run to finish six seconds ahead of Railey while Florent moved up from 14th at the top mark to third at the finish. Again those who found the puffs made the biggest gains.

Other big movers on the final leg were Gasper Vincec (SLO) moving from 12th to 5th and Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) jumping from 20th to 8th. In fact the finish was really tight, so tight that the first 16 boats all finished with 35 seconds of each other.

Two more races are to be sailed Monday before the Finns take a lay day on Tuesday. -- Robert Deaves, http://www.finnclass.org

* From Hero to Zero: a Greek Tragedy unfolds Emilios' Olympic dream

Yesterday, race one of the Olympic Games, and Greek Finn sailor Emilios Papathanasiou got off to a dream start. After languishing in the 20s at the first turning mark, he bounced back to win the first race as the pecking order turned inside out on the final run to the finish.

Watching from the same media boat as the Daily Telegraph's Tim Jeffery, Tim said Emilios had just made the perfect start to his Olympics. By that he meant not the perfect start for the Greek, but for Ben Ainslie or anyone else with their eye on the prize. The Greek Finn sailor has a reputation for blowing championships, and so it proved at the start of race 2, when in a battle to get off a very congested pin end of the start line, his rudder popped off the back of the boat, apparently snagging the long anchor line of the start boat.

By the time Papathanasiou got going again, he was last. He made a few places in the latter stages of the race, but in his desperation to get back into the fight the Jury ruled that he had infringed the kinetics rule, Racing Rule 42, on two occasions in a short space of time. The first infringement required a 720 penalty, the second obliged the Greek to retire from the race. 1st in race one, last in race 2.

Still, there was always the discard. Not blown yet.

Day 2, and Emilios starts with a very respectable 5th place in race 3.

Race 4, a different story. He's doing OK, lying in the top 10 all the way round the track, but then along comes the Jury. Another infringement, this time a DNE to his score. A non-discardable disqualification from the race.

A little over a year ago, this would have entailed Emilios being disqualified from the entire event. At least now he can continue racing until the end, but now lying in 15th overall with just over a third of the regatta completed, it would take a miracle for him to get back into medal contention. What did Ben Ainslie make of this situation? It seems like the Finn sailors are constantly treading a fine line on the edge of RR42 infringement, and quite a few sailors are falling foul of the Jury. "I wouldn't have said it's that high for a Finn regatta, for such light conditions. It's quite normal. The water's so choppy it's hard to do the right amount of movement in the chop with the sail fanning. Part of the game is making sure you try and stay clean, if the Jury do come over to you it's quite often because there's a problem."

But as for as Emilios, does Ben think the punishment fits the crime? "I honestly don't think boats should be disqualified [for RR42]. I think that's tough. Maybe you should do a 720 on top of every penalty you get. Emilios is one of the favourites, he's a fast sailor and a good sailor. For sure you've got to police it, but I think it's a bit harsh when people's regattas are over, effectively on day 2."

Papathanasiou has threatened to sue the Jury after having picked up RR42 penalties in the past. That has not endeared him to the authorities, nor to his fellow Finn sailors. It's hardly the appropriate response to being penalised for overstepping the mark. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't feel some sympathy for his plight.

Watching the Finns competing, it looks incredibly difficult to stop the boat rocking around in the all the chop and slop. Disqualifying sailors from races is a ridiculously harsh punishment for the crime committed. It's long overdue that ISAF reconsider this and instigate a simple 720 penalty rule for each infringement. -- Andy Rice, http://www.SailJuice.com

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MIND GAMES IN QINGDAO Excerpt from Richard Gladwell's editorial in Sail-World.com...

Great Britain's three shoo-ins for Gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Regatta are in fine form after two days of racing. In the 49er and Yngling classes, the 2012 Olympic Hosts are leading their class, and five times World Champion, Ben Ainslie is lying in second place in the Finn class.

Today was pretty much a slow action replay of yesterday, with the Qingdao Doctor shifting five degrees to the south and flicking the anemometer at 4-8 knots.

Many believe the wind strengths are being enthusiastically reported. Certainly we would have expected to see the crews working a little harder on Course E today, the outermost of the five courses, had there been a consistent eight knots. The 49ers sailing in Course A, outside the Media Centre were treated to a six knot breeze in the official records, but more like 3-4kts according to observers.

The advent of the 49er class provided some much needed spectacle to the Olympic regatta with their sail plan designed to reflect the graphics of their national flag. However the fickleness of Qingdao was underlined on the class points table with the British crew of Ben Rhodes and Stevie Morrison, who hold a narrow one point lead after three races, having finished in the top three only once today.

The two points of contention in the event so far continued apace today. There was no change to the stand-off between on the water media and the event organisation over camera boat positioning, with photographers having to work over 100 metres away from the competition, and often being expected to take images of what is supposed to the the leading event in world sailing from behind a line of coach boats.

Where this one will end is anyone's guess, however tempers were very frayed again today.

http://sail-world.com

ABERDEEN DRAGON EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP Maxim Logutenko, skipper on I Feel Good from Pirogovo Yacht Club never lost sight of his closest enemies, and friends from the same yacht club, in the last race in Aberdeen Dragon European Championship. He and his crew are the new European Champions.

While Maxim Logutenko sailed the last race in Oslofjorden, Norway the Olympics opened in Beijing. He is usually a coach for the Russian Yngling team and he hopes that they also will bring back the gold. Besides the Dragon he sails a ton class back in Moscow, and has been the national champion "a couple of times"

Together with Mikhail Senatorov and Vladimir Krutskih they decided to sail conservatively in the last race. The gold was within reach.

The strategy worked and they finished in 9th place with no one in front that could beat them on points. They got 61 points total, while Dimitry Berezkin, Pirogovo Yacht Club, got 73 points and the silver.

It was only German Thomas Mueller who managed to sneak in between the dominating Pirogovo sailors. He took the bronze with three other Moscow sailors right behind him.

Finn Henrik Dahlman had his best day in the good breeze Friday and won the last race. That achievement sent him up to a 7th place in total. Best local sailor was Terje Wang on 9th.

The complete results can be viewed here: http://www.kns.no/Engelsk/Race/Aberdeen_Dragon_European_Championship/Results/

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SKANDIA COWES WEEK The final, overall prizegiving marked the end of another successful Skandia Cowes Week, and the end of an era as Skandia concluded their 14-year relationship as overall event sponsor.

Hundreds of competitors made their way to the Haven Events Centre at Cowes Yacht Haven to collect their well-earned silverware/Thomas Lyte crystal ware after an extremely tough and competitive week.

Cowes Radio presenter Dick Johnson and Skandia's Sponsorship Manager Tim Sewell ably carried out the marathon task of presenting competitors with their trophies which included the overall Black Group and White Group Trophy winners. Dean & Dyball (MG346 in Class 6), and Savage Sailing Team (J/80).

The Skandia Young Skipper's Trophy for the top performing yacht skippered by a young person under the age of 25 was presented to 21-year-old Seb Ribard sailing a J/80 AgainstMalaria.com.

Chatting about his Black Group win, Ian Braham from Dean & Dyball said: "Last year we finished second in class so we are absolutely delighted to win this year. To be honest winning the Black Group was completely unexpected. Our aim was to win our class, and my fantastic crew worked incredibly hard to achieve that. Winning the Black Group wasn't even featured in our thinking, so to be presented with Corum watch this evening is unbelievable."

White Group winner Liz Savage sailing J/80 Savage Sailing Team added: "We had a cracking week and would like to thank everybody behind the scenes who made the event run like clockwork. It was a fantastic week on and off the water and we really enjoyed sailing in our own fleet for the first time."

One of the most notable prizes tonight was the The Britannia Salver presented to the crew of Benny Kelly's TP52 Panthera for their outstanding act of seamanship on Monday when they pulled from the water a member of crew from a boat in Class 1.

Next year's Cowes Week will take place from 1 to 8 August.

Full results at http://www.skandiacowesweek.co.uk

PASSIONATE PERFORMANCE To help kick-start its official supplier status at Skandia Cowes Week, Nexus awarded its 'Most Passionate Performance' Award in the VW Touareg King of Cowes at Skandia Cowes Week regatta to Mark Greenaway, in recognition of his amazing comeback in the final of three races, which saw him move from almost last at the first mark, to second at the finish. Nexus congratulates all the competitors at this year's regatta. Cowes Week is on our schedule for next year so put it on your's August 1-8 2009.

http://www.nexusmarine.se

G.P.14 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS Ian Dobson & Andy Tunnicliffe from Burwain SC & Royal Windermere YC produced a composed performance on the final day of the G.P.14 World Championships 2008, to win their second consecutive title. Their first and second places in the first two races sailed were enough for them to take the Championship with a race to spare. The elated pair told us just after they crossed the line, 'Thank heavens for that! We are absolutely delighted'. The reigning champions stamped their authority on the regatta from day one, winning both races and going on to produce a stunning 1 ,1 , 1, 2, 1, 2 , counting scoreline. Second overall in the championship is the 2003 World Champions Neil Marsden & Derek Hill whose 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, counting scoreline would surely have been good enough to win most championships. Ian Platt & Matt Johnson's steadily improving performances throughout the regatta earned them a well deserved third overall.

Having lost yesterday's second race to a massive wind shift, Principal Race Officer Barry McGill brought this morning's start time forward to give the competitors the best chance of getting three races in. Fortunately the weather gods smiled and for the first time the sun shone and the fleet were able to complete all three races in ten to twelve knot breezes.

Racing for the Silver and Bronze fleet trophies was just as hotly contested as at the front of fleet. In the Silver Fleet, Mark Greenhalgh & Paul O'Neill took overall victory from Gerard O'Sullivan & Ben Saunders in second and Ian Sinclair & Alan Jones in third. The Bronze Fleet title went to Mike Butler & Steve Caladine. Jeremy Shinton & Austin Jackson claimed second and Nicola Sinclair & Stuart Sinclair took third overall.

Overall Results Gold Fleet 1. Ian Dobson & Andy Tunnicliffe - Burwain SC/Royal Windermere YC, 8 points 2. Neil Marsden & Derek Hill - Blackpool & Fleetwood SC, 10 3. Ian Platt & Matt Johnson - Bolton SC, 10

Silver Fleet 1. Mark Greenhalgh & Paul O'Neill - Castle Semple SC, 127 2. Gerard O'Sullivan & Ben Saunders - Sutton DC, 133 3. Ian Sinclair & Alan Jones - Bolton SC/Natwich CSC, 134

Bronze Fleet 1. Mike Butler & Steve Caladine - Hollingworth SC, 259 2. Jeremy Shinton & Austin Jackson - Bartley SC, 283 3. Nicola Sinclair & Stuart Sinclair - South Caenarvonshire YC, 331

http://www.gp14.org

VESTAS SAILROCKET SET TO RETURN TO NAMIBIA The Vestas Sailrocket project is returning to the amazing Walvis Bay speed-strip to recommence its sailing program. The goal remains the same, to set the outright world speed sailing record. Arriving in Namibia on the 14th of August, the team hope to be back sailing within ten days. They plan to be in Namibia for around three months with a view to going for their first WSSRC ratified record attempt during this period.

In our last four month session in Namibia we ticked a lot of boxes. We managed to complete 29 runs and reliably demonstrate systems which will figure in the push for higher speeds i.e. flying the leeward pod clear of the water, transition to high speed steering and improved wing control. We sailed in stronger conditions as required to reach top end speeds and posted much higher 500 meter averages. A small structural failure on our 50th run in Walvis Bay caused an escalation which lead to a significant wipe-out. Vestas Sailrocket went from 35 knots on a broad reach to fully tacked and stopped in four seconds!

We, along with the team at AEROTROPE, are also looking at configuring the current wing so that there is a slight negative flap angle...or 'reflex'. This should make the wing more aerodynamically stable. The overall power will be reduced... but so will some of the overall drag.

If the wing is more stable and we can make it feather safely at a slightly positive angle then it should make life a lot safer and simpler on the course. It will change the way we start and finish the runs and if things go wrong it should prevent the situation from escalating into a full-on wipe-out as has happened before. It will also mean that we can reduce the amount of strings both externally and internally. This would make the boat lighter, more aerodynamic and reduce the cockpit workload immensely. If we can still get the necessary performance to achieve top end speeds then another box will have been ticked. This is yet to be seen. We don't want to just keep raising our wind range to make up for spiralling inefficiencies elsewhere as this has its own problems. If it doesn't give us enough power to achieve 50 knots, it may still have provided a safer environment to test other aspects in as we move higher up the speed sailing ladder. We can then go back to the more powerful/complex setup. -- Paul Larsen

Video of high speed action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XOdXPCaQBE

http://www.vestassailrocket.com

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THE LAST WORD Armageddon is not around the corner. This is only what the people of violence want us to believe. The complexity and diversity of the world is the hope for the future. -- Michael Palin

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

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