Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, 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

Mini Fastnet: Off To Attack The Rock
At 4.19pm on Sunday, after a final gathering, the fleet of 33 Mini Fastnet sailing pairs set off to a fine start in Douarnenez Bay, in a light wind with a hint of a storm. The 66 sailors have set off for 4 to 5 days of battling it out towards the legendary Fastnet lighthouse.

A light, northerly breeze should allow the Mini Fastnet competitors to cross the Channel quite easily over the next 36 hours. By Wednesday, the wind should be blowing nicely in the Celtic Sea before Thursday brings a low front and a steady wind.

This means that the leg up to Ireland is going to be tactical and very technical. The competitors will need to hold their nerve. Technically, it'll be a case of fine-tuning and adjusting constantly. If the weather forecasts prove correct, the leg back down to Douarnenez will be a lot more fun, as it should be a broad reach in 15- to 25-knot winds!

These fine, varied conditions should ensure a great competition in both the Prototype and Production categories.

The transition they'll have to catch will be Tuesday night to Wednesday morning with the arrival of a cold front: the wind will start back westerly. On Wednesday the sky will start to cover over. The front will pass on Wednesday night into Thursday, and the competitors should round Fastnet Rock in grey and rainy conditions! The wind will pick up at 13 to 15 knots north-westerly.

On Thursday the wind turns west-south-westerly at 15 to 20 knots.

On Friday the showery wind turns north-westerly at 17 to 23 knots then 23 to 27 knots in the passage around the Scilly Isles on Friday afternoon.

For Saturday, the wind stabilises at 20 to 25 knots north-westerly then 15 knots in the afternoon in rough seas.

facebook.com/pages/Mini-Fastnet/
winchesclub.com/minis650/fastnet650/

Shockwave Wins Newport Bermuda Line Honors
Shockwave heading for a dawn finish off St David's Lighthouse. Photo Barry Pickthall/PPL George Sakellaris' big white Richel/Pugh mini-maxi Shockwave crossed the finish line off Bermuda's St. David's Lighthouse Monday morning at 5:34 race time EDT (6:34AM local time). Her elapsed time was 63:04:11. Bella Mente, Hap Fauth's 72 foot Judel/Vrolijk mini-maxi, followed by seven minutes with her time at 63:11:25. The two had battled head to head within sight of each almost continuously for over 635 miles.

Caol Ila R, Alex Schaerer's 68 foot Mills IRC racer, crossed third at 8:33 local time, three hours behind Shockwave at 66:03:52.

Based on preliminary ORR results, Shockwave stands first on corrected time in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division, Bella Mente is second and Caol Ila R is third.

The next boat on the course, the US Naval Academy TP52 Constellation, is expected to finish more than 16 hours after the leader on Monday night. The remainder of the fleet is caught in the fickle winds of a frontal zone, waiting for the system to drift east-southeast and weaken. The picture is not pretty for boats still on the course. Light conditions will prevail through Wednesday and maybe longer. -- Talbot Wilson

bermudarace.com

Henri Lloyd Elite Offshore - The Collection - Micro Climate And Therm
The Henri Lloyd Elite Offshore shore collection includes jackets and hi-fit trousers, as well as mid and base layers:

Elite H-Therm is a revolutionary mid layer, 100% waterproof shell with fully taped seams, "extreme breathability" and Primaloft® high loft wadding for warmth without weight. Can be used on its own in light spray conditions or with the Elite Offshore range for complete offshore protection

H-Therm Mid Layer jacket:
Articulated ergonomic fit, adjustable cuffs, fleece lined collar

H-Therm mid Layer Salopette:
Ergonomic fit adjustable waist, shoulders, leg cuffs

Therm base layer:
Crew tops and tights are high wicking, high stretch and extremely breathable, with a brushed inner face for insulation and to dissipate moisture away from the body

The Lightest, Most Breathable Offshore Gear Ever, Without Compromise: www.henrilloyd.com/elite/ or Elite product pages

Record Entry For Coutts Quarter Ton Cup
Cowes, UK - Wednesday 25 June will see a record entry of 33 plus boats come to the starting line for the first race of the 10th Anniversary Coutts Quarter Ton Cup, which will be hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Cowes, from 25 to 27 June 2014.

This year's tenth anniversary sees boats travelling from across the UK, Europe and as far afield as Hong Kong. Some of those competing have raced in all of the revival events, whilst others will be making their maiden appearance. There will also be a strong entry for this year's Corinthian Quarter Ton Cup for teams sailing with all ISAF Classification 1 amateur crews. The Corinthian teams race within the main fleet and their results are extracted.

The familiar faces include Peter Morton sailing Bullit (1979 Fauroux), Howard Sellars sailing Bullet (1978 Fauroux), Roger Swinney sailing Innuendo (1986 McIlraith), Rob Gray aboard Cote (1990 Gonzalez), Louise Morton in Espada (1980 Farr), Willy McNeill with Illegal Immigrant (1991 Ceccarelli) and Eric Williams in Love in a Mist (1974 Kremer).

While the new faces include Robbie Stewart who recently purchased Enigma (1977 Dubois), Ian Gibb's Doom Bar (1979 Giles) and Jamie McWilliam who is bringing Sai Kung Belle (1981 Fauroux) all the way from Hong Kong for the event. Other international competitors include Swden's Rickard Melander sailing Alice II (1990 Morrison), Berry Aarts from The Netherlands sailing The Itch (1979 Mohnhaupt), the French team of Pierre Paris aboard Pinguin Playboy (1986 Castro) and Ireland's Diarmuid Foley with Anchor Challenge (1979 Farr).

A special Souvenir Programme has been produced to mark the tenth anniversary event with contributions from Class Patron Bob Fisher, Class Chairman Peter Morton, designers Bruce Farr, Ron Holland, Tony Castro, Rob Humphreys and Phillippe Briand, owner Roger Swinney and many others. Copies are available from the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

The regatta will commence with registration on the afternoon of Tuesday 24 June with racing taking place over three days from Wednesday 25 to Friday 27 June and the fleet will sail a mixture of windward leeward and round the cans courses in the central Solent area.

www.rcyc.co.uk
www.quartertonclass.org

IRC Solent Region Championship
The IRC Solent Region Championship comprises seven days of racing throughout the summer, each organised by a different Solent club.

Day two of the championship is the Saturday of the exciting new Portsmouth Regatta, comprising 2 races in the eastern Solent on the Horse and Dean Sand to the east of the submarine barrier.

To enable boats to reach the eastern Solent on a favourable tide, the first warning signal for race 1 will be at 11:50 BST.

Entries are welcome from boats with an IRC rating of between 0.82 and 1.360.

More information can be found on the SIRCOA website www.solentirc.org.uk

What Does Brad Butterworth Want?
The man from Te Awamatu, who helped win the America's Cup for New Zealand, then left to join Alinghi and helped win the cup from New Zealand, for them - first in Auckland, then again in Valencia in 2007.

Now, he's reminding us he's a New Zealander, and he wants to come back.

He sounded out the Team New Zealand board who don't want him, as they are sticking with Grant Dalton as chief executive.

But Butterworth says, repeatedly, it's not about him and that Team New Zealand needs a shake-up, starting at the top.

"It's not about me. I just thought that I could help," says Butterworth. "That's what I've said for the new board, that I have made myself available if they want to talk to me or if they wanted to consider changing people at the top of the tree."

By the top of the tree, Butterworth means Dalton and the rest of the senior management.

He offered to make himself available for Dalton's job. With the new board coming in, he thought it was a perfect opportunity.

Full interview in 3News.co.nz:
www.3news.co.nz/

Dubarry Ultima - Classic Craftsmanship
It's been said of Ireland that it's a lovely country, just needs a roof. True, we get more than our fair share of rain from the storms that barrel in from the North Atlantic, but it's not so bad - it's not for nothing that we're known as the Emerald Isle.

In this part of the world we're also well used to making our living on the sea, in the sturdy Galway Hookers built by hand with traditional tools by local boat builders. These bluff-bowed gaff cutters have plied their treacherous trade on the often vengeful waters of the Bay for over 200 years. If ever there was a place where folk would appreciate a quality traditional sea boot - and had the craftsmanship to make one - it's here.

So it's here, in the town of Ballinasloe, just inland of Galway Bay, that Dubarry started making boots in 1937. We've honed our traditional boot-making virtuosity, found sources of the finest quick-drying, long-lasting leathers, and perfected the technology behind a warm, waterproof classic boot with award-winning grip. What else could we call the world's best traditional sea boot, other than Ultima?

Dubarry Ultima - Where will you go in yours?

dubarry.com

Derry-Londonderry-Doire Celebrates Clipper Race Victory
Derry-Londonderry-Doire has won Race 14 from New York to Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race.

The course was shortened with a time limit placed on the race of 1200 UTC Sunday 22 June after unusual weather patterns caused by a persistent high pressure system centred just west of Ireland threatened to hamper the progress of the fleet.

The Derry-Londonderry-Doire yacht was the closest boat to the original finish line off Greencastle County Donegal at 155.1 miles, with Team Garmin and Old Pulteney in second and third places at 163.9 and 165.8 miles to the line respectively.

It was a very closely fought battle for podium positions with PSP Logistics, Jamaica Get All Right and GREAT Britain all jostling with Old Pulteney for the final podium place.

The 12 points now places Derry-Londonderry-Doire just five points behind OneDLL on the overall leaderboard. The Northern Irish team is now in serious contention for an overall podium place in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race, as just two races remain in the 16 race series.

The 12-strong fleet will be berthed at Foyle Marina until Sunday 29 June when they will set off from Derry-Londonderry to start the next race from Greencastle. The RAF Red Arrows will provide a spectacular aerial display along the coastline ahead of the Race 15 start to Den Helder in the Netherlands for the OneDLL Cup.

clipperroundtheworld.com

Industry News
MyYacht Free - the no cost app for managing information about your yacht, motorboat or sailboat on your iPhone or iPad is now available from Apple's AppStore. Owners of all types of boats who want to keep track of all attributes of their yacht from insurance to sails, from hull specifications to electronic equipment now have a perfectly free and easy to use mobile application.

MyYacht Free is a simplified version of the paid-for app MyYacht. MyYacht Free allows you to store all types of specifications, from registration and insurance to size and weight - including on all types of equipment, from electronics to deck gear and safety equipment - in a simple to use mobile application. And if you have enabled iCloud, you can back up the data and download it to another device, so that it is always available.

Yacht and boat owners can choose between MyYacht and MyYacht Free, making their choice based on price -nothing beats free - and functionality. MyYacht is also useful for making logbook entries, and you can share them on Facebook at the touch of a button.

More features are planned for upcoming versions of both apps. Those plans are influenced by our users' needs, so please keep sending us your feedback.

The app MyYacht and MyYacht Free are Apple iOS based and can be downloaded for iPhone and iPad from AppStore: appsto.re/i6gD9f3

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The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has submitted its summary of views regarding the development of Navitus Bay Wind Park to the Planning Inspectorate.

The RYA has responded at every stage to the developer's pre-application consultation proposals and says many of its points has been resolved to its satisfaction.

Stuart Carruthers, cruising manager, RYA, said: "Our primary concern is with any aspect of the development which may increase risks to navigation for leisure boaters, the suitability of any measures proposed to mitigate such risks and their applicability to small craft."

Navitus Bay Wind Park, which would be located off the Dorset coast, is one of the two proposed UK offshore wind farms that would be within 12nm of the shore.

Boating Business:

www.boatingbusiness.com

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Luxury Italian car manufacturer, Maserati, has announced a partnership with the Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM).

As Maserati continues to celebrate its centenary this year the prestigious partnership was announced at the inauguration of the new YCM clubhouse - a facility designed by Norman Foster which has already been hailed as a new icon of the Principality of Monaco.

Maserati will be official partner of YCM until 2016 as well as the sole automotive sponsor of events organised by YCM.

As a member of the "Partners Club", Maserati will be present at the high profile events organised by the Club and will be able to use the exclusive Clubhouse rooms for private events. During the official opening of the new Clubhouse, a Maserati Lounge was set up inside the futuristic building.

The Maserati Lounge and the spaces at the YCM will provide a perfect setting for hosting conferences and events which Maserati and sailing legend Giovanni Soldini - currently undertaking transatlantic challenges on board a Maserati sponsored 70 footer - will be able to organise during the sponsorship period.

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The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has appointed Savills to market a development opportunity at the Marine Employment Quarter, part of Centenary Quay in Woolston, Southampton. Expressions of interest are sought from developers and occupiers.

The plot provides 8.6 acres (3.5 hectares) of cleared land, with deep water access and an area of foreshore and river bed, benefiting from a dredging license, that is leased from the Crown Estate. Detailed planning approval has been granted for a boat building scheme, which includes three buildings totalling 175,796 sq ft (16,332 sq m).

The Marine Employment Quarter is part of the regeneration of the former Vosper Thornycroft ship-building site, known as Centenary Quay, which is a mixed-use project with development underway for 1,620 dwellings, a supermarket, 100-bed hotel, multi-storey car park and further retail and leisure units.

Martin Hastelow, director of business space at Savills Southampton, comments: "Located on the River Itchen, opposite the Ocean Village Marina and with access to Southampton City Centre, this site is in a superb strategic position to be part of the robust and growing marine industry in the South. "The Marine Employment Quarter provides an excellent opportunity for development at an iconic maritime site, which will benefit from the strong investment and positive interest Centenary Quay is attracting."

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See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/

The Last Word
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate. -- Henry J. Tillman

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