The new Superyacht Business newsletter will now be sent every Wednesday (between 3pm-4pm GMT) as a joint collaboration between the Superyacht Business news team and the IBI daily newsletter team.

“We’re delighted with this opportunity to keep our international subscribers right up to date with the latest business news from all parts of the superyacht industry,” says Superyacht Business editor Dennis O’Neill. “With so many news stories on key issues coming into the Superyacht Business office we felt it was vital to start using the internet to provide a more immediate news service.

“We’re also delighted to be working closely with the IBI daily newletter team who have more than eight years’ experience in delivering digital news to the international marine industry.”

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Italians do it better?

Italy’s Francesco Bruni called tactics for Matador as they posted a first and second today, rising to challenge the Kiwi dominance in the TP52 Series while his compatriot Vasco Vascotto won twice in the hot seat on the GP 42 Airis.

Winners of the season’s opening regatta in Alicante in May, Matador (ARG) proved the most consistent TP52 performers of the second day of racing off Cagliari in the south of Sardinia. With a first and a second place in gentle sea-breeze conditions which struggled to reach double figures, the Argentine team which has Italian Francesco Bruni as tactician read the difficult first windward-legs well.

If, quietly yesterday, there were whispered concerns that Emirates Team New Zealand might be on the brink of running away with the season when they posted a perfect three bullets opening day, the Kiwis were back to earth with a bump today when they rescued a fifth and a fourth, their regatta lead trimmed to a single point by a buoyant Matador crew who changed gear well in the more unstable breeze.

In the GP42 Series, which managed to complete all three scheduled races, Vasco Vascotto guided Airis to win the first two races, while the Italian monopoly was maintained as Series leader Roma won the third contest. A penalty turn at the top of the second beat proved costly for the Circuit leader Roma.

Race 1
Matador won the fourth race of the TP52 Series’ Region of Sardinia Trophy as Synergy (RUS) stole a close second place from Artemis (SWE) on the finish line when the wind shifted back on the final run.

With the sea breeze much gentler than forecast, at times as light as five to six knots, Matador and Artemis laid the foundations for their success off the start line as they both earned the early advantage from the wind bend on the left side on the first half of the beat.

With skipper Cameron Appleton (NZL) steering and Vascotto on tactics Airis won the first race in the GP42 series, leading around the first windward mark. Roma Mk 2 took second with Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP) in third. Airis lead at each mark.

Race 2
Portugal’s Bigamist 7 maintained their record of winning at least one race at each Audi MedCup Circuit regatta this season so far when they triumphed in Race 5.

Afonso Domingos (POR) squeezed Bigamist 7 around the first windward mark inside Artemis, just behind race leader Matador to establish their credentials as a challenger to win the race.

At the leeward turn they chose the left hand gate rounding just ahead of Matador and were able to extend slightly to take the Portuguese team’s third winning gun of the season, a fitting birthday present to veteran owner Pedro Mendonca (POR).

Airis built an early lead in the second race of the day too, rounding the first windward mark 24 seconds up on Turismo Madrid (ESP), extending slightly by the finish as the young Canarian team took second.

Race 3

Roma Mk 2 won the third race after leading Islas Canarias around the top turn on the first round, but Caser Endesa (ESP) profited on the first run, rising to second place.

In both TP52 races Emirates Team New Zealand had to fight back from deep positions, failing to read either of the first beats as well. But they displayed the true hallmarks of potential championship winners when they pulled back three hard won places in both races.

While the Kiwi team have the City of Alicante Trophy winners as serious contenders, just one point adrift, current Audi MedCup champions Quantum Racing (USA) now lie seventh in the regatta after a fourth and a sixth place today.

Skipper-helm Terry Hutchinson (USA) acknowledged today the speed edge that that three new boats appear to have across the different conditions experienced over these first two days, citing the speed of the Botin Carkeek designed Emirates Team New Zealand as a contributing factor to their success yesterday, and the Vrolijk boats Matador and Artemis going well in the lighter breeze today.

Audi MedCup Circuit 2009
Region of Sardinia Trophy

TP52 Series
Overall – Day 2
1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 1 1 1 5 4= 12 points
2. Matador (ARG), 3 3 4 1 2= 13 points
3. Artemis (SWE), 2 2 7 3 3= 17 points
4. Synergy (RUS), 4 8 2 2 5= 21 points
5. Bigamist (POR), 6 5 9 6 1= 27 points
…

GP42 Series
Overall – Day 1
1. Airis (ITA), 1 2 4= 6 points
2. Roma (ITA), 2 5 1= 8 points
3. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP), 3 2 3= 8 points
4. Caser Endesa (ESP), 4 4 2= 10 points
5. Turismo Madrid (ESP), 5 3 5= 13 points
…

Complete results: here

Grant Dalton (NZL) CEO and Mast-man Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL):
“We were deep in both races and I guess we learned as much in Alicante as with other regattas if you are deep you are not going to win the race but, number one, you try not to make the situation worse which is not hard to do. But I think we are quick and all we could do was try and recover, which we did.
Yesterday was an exceptional day for us and you don’t get them together. So we will just keep what we are doing, going fast. We have been in the situation before with other campaigns when you go from great days but nothing changes, we just keep on doing what we have been doing.”

Simon Fry (GBR), trimmer Matador (ARG):
“It was really quite tricky and the aim was just to keep the heads out of the boat, to keep an eye on the left. The first race Francesco (Bruni) liked the left and basically we nailed the start and off we went. Second race we were a bit sticky downwind but we have a new A1 (spinnaker) to card (register), and so I think that will see the light of day tomorrow.
But it is amazing, ten knots of breeze and everyone seems to go very, very similar speeds. Today, with a little bit less, it was very different. Gear changing: some boats executed really, really good gear changing today.”

Terry Hutchinson (USA), skipper-helm of Quantum Racing (USA):
“The biggest mistake we could make at the moment would be to over-react. What we have to focus on for sure is making good starts, figuring where the first shift is coming from and concentrate on our good boat handling. But for sure, we are now experiencing what some of our competitors went through last season when we had a speed edge. Now we kind of have to re-calibrate and try to figure out where we go from here.”

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Any reproduction of the information herein must credit as follows:

Cory E. Friedman/Scuttlebutt

Part 41 – Heads I win – Tails you lose

“You are going to have to learn, . . ., the black arts, particularly
counterintelligence – the uses of information, disinformation, and how their use is ultimately… power.” – Philip Allen (William Hurt) to Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) in The Good Shepherd, Universal Pictures 2006.

“Please don’t throw me in the briar patch.” Br’er Rabbit to Br’er Fox. Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation, 1881.

SPOILER ALERT – UNTIL THE COURT RULES EVERYTHING YOU READ IS PROVISIONAL AND THE FINAL RULING COULD BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

(July 21, 2009) Société Nautique De Genève (SNG) seemingly won a major victory today before Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich in the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court when Justice Kornreich told Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) – to absolutely no knowledgeable lawyer’s surprise – that there was no basis to hold SNG in contempt of court. To paraphrase Plutarch regarding King Pyrrhus, a few more such victories and SNG will be undone.

SNG essentially has been maintaining that it has the right to change the America’s Cup Match rules however and whenever it chooses and either drop ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) numbers 49 through 54 (including stored power and movable ballast) or enforce them as it decided. SNG also maintained that it could decide measurement rules and procedures as it chose. Thus GGYC’s design team perpetually would be off balance.

What became clear in today’s hearing is that, slightly more than six months before the first race of the Match, one of the world’s largest software manufacturers just does not care what the design rules are, as long as it knows what they are. That can only be true if a couple of things are assumed.

First of all, whatever the 90 x 90 trimaran GGYC has been trialing is called (if anything), it is not “USA,” the Challenger, and never was intended to be. It is probably a development platform, training machine and trial horse. Besides, every sailor knows that changing a boat’s name is bad luck. The second is that GGYC probably is not the slightest bit surprised by the powered winches or possible movable ballast on Alinghi 5. All of that amateurish cloak and dagger nonsense about taking pictures of SNG’s tent was probably a diversion for some of the real thing – which no one will ever find out about. The third is that GGYC will be able to launch a boat taking full advantage of the suspension of Rules 49-54 or a new boat complying with those rules with plenty of time for development, by picking up where the present boat leaves off.

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Brad Butterworth, Alinghi:
“We’re moving things hydraulically. The loads on this boat are just horrendous. A, it’s difficult to gear up for something like that, and B, I think it’s safer to have that system, where you don’t have so many people cluttering the whole boat, and it makes life a little bit safer for the guys that are sailing the boat. The Cup for me has always been a design race. Now, it’s an unlimited design race. This is the most interesting design Cup that’s ever been, I think, because there’s just no parameters. You can do what you want.”

Russell Coutts, BMW Oracle Racing:
“An engine in an America’s Cup boat? If that’s permitted, it will change the game forever, I think, the wrong way. I don’t think I’m alone on that one. I think without doing a survey, I bet the vast majority of people would be against that. The big boats, the big loads, that’s part of the physical challenge of sailing any of the Cup boats I’ve sailed on. If you take that aspect out, you’re changing the game dramatically.”

The complexity of the issue also involves how the Deed of Gift stipulates that the America’s Cup is to be run using the defense club’s rules and regulations, which approved only manual power in 2007 (when the challenge was issued) and 2008 but dismissed this rule for 2009.

Do you think he is happy with his new toy?

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Sicily and the Aeolian Islands

We arrived at the Grand Harbor in the city of Siracusa (Syracuse) at about 1930 hours.  The setting cast a lovely glow on the handsome buildings in the old town.  The Grand Harbour quay was undergoing renovations, so we anchored in the large and well protected bay.  Celebrating our arrival in Sicily over sundowners, we could see the smoking cone of Mt. Etna directly to our north.

The next morning we splashed the dinghy and made our way into town.  A small corner of the “marina” had been allocated for dinghy landing, making visits to the city convenient for us “anchor outs.”  The marina itself was a bit ramshackle and lacking any sort of breakwater or wave attenuator, offered no more protection than the anchorage. We made an enquiry we found out that it would cost us €140 per day plus power and water for a berth, and it wasn’t even high season.  Someone was definitely capitalizing on the closure of the 500 meter long Grand Harbour quay which had offered free berthing to visiting yachts.

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Helicopter, yacht, rib, yeh-let’s stay here a bit longer.

SailMoonshadow.com

16 July, 2009 – Troon to Loch Ness via Tarbert, the Crinan Canal, Dunstaffnage and up to the Caledonian Canal …

We’ve been moving pretty fast as we are playing catch up now. It’s getting hard to remember every sail. The sail up to Tarbert on Monday 13th took us to a beautiful, if tiny, marina, hidden in a small bay just off Loch Fyne. The land crew meanwhile got to go to Arran, where there were dear so tame that they would eat out of their hands. It was also our first introduction to Scottish midges. It had rained fairly heavily the evening we arrived, so very few were about. At 5 AM the next morning however it was a different story! Even Lotti was being bitten to the point where I asked someone to cover her head in midge repellent! We were accompanied up the loch by a motorboat who kindly made us coffee and tea, a real luxury when it’s not out of a flask.

We were extremely lucky when we reached the Crinan Canal on Tuesday morning as the local yacht club (I’m sorry, nobody ever said which yacht club you were from, but thank you) helped us through the locks. As canal novices it would have been tough without you, so thank you very much.

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All aboard for Asia’s fastest-growing regatta

22 July:

The annual Six Senses Phuket Raceweek provides sailors ranging from complete novices to hardcore racing exponents of the sport, to mix it socially and competitively over four days of racing around the picturesque islands of Southern Phuket. There is a racing category for everyone from classics, cruisers, multihull’s, charter boats to the top IRC racing yachts in the region. It’s an intoxicating combination of fast yachts and embracing the Evason theme – Redefining Experiences. The organisers support for all levels of expertise as well as a diversity of sailing craft has quickly established itself as Asia’s most exciting and fastest-growing regatta. Staging the entire event at the elegant Evason Phuket Six Senses Spa brings with it a new level of sophistication and top class service. The regatta HQ is on the lower seaview terrace, which also houses ‘Into the Beach’ and is the perfect setting for the post-race bar and five nights of grand waterside entertainment. The extended party space will ensure some fantastic culinary delights are served and the 64 majestic acres of Evason Phuket will do the rest to sweep you off your feet. The friendships formed over the last six years which the event has been running, is what keeps people coming back year after year.

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This post is tagged airis, Alinghi AC33, artemis, audi med cup, brad butterworth, Caser-Endesa, cory friedman, e-anarchy, Emirates Team New Zealand, ernesto bertarelli, grant dalton, hilary lister, Islas Canarias, Matador, Moonshadow, Roma, russell coutts, sailing anarchy, scuttlebutt, simon fry, superyacht news, synergy, terry hutchinson, Turismo