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IDEC Sport Maxi Trimaran Smashes Jules Verne Trophy Record
Photo by Jean-Marie Liot / DPPI / IDEC Sport. Click on image to enlarge.

IDEC Sport The Maxi Trimaran IDEC SPORT sailed by Francis Joyon, Clement Surtel, Alex Pella, Bernard Stamm, Gwenole Gahinet and Sebastien Audigane won the Jules Verne Trophy, the outright round the world sailing record, this morning.

They crossed the finish at 0749hrs UTC on Thursday 26th January 2017. Francis Joyon and his crew sailed the 22,461 theoretical miles in 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds, at an average speed of 22.84 knots.

Out on the water, they actually sailed 26,412 miles at an average speed of 26.85 knots.

They shattered the previous record set by Loïck Peyron and the crew of the maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V by 4 days, 14 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds.

During this round the world voyage, they smashed no fewer than six intermediate records at Cape Leeuwin, off Tasmania, on the International Date Line, at Cape Horn, at the Equator and off Ushant.

www.idecsport-sailing.com

Volvo Ocean Race Announces Melbourne, Australia As Extra Stop
The Volvo Ocean Race will give sports fans an extra Christmas present in 2017 after adding Melbourne to the route for the forthcoming edition starting in October.

The change to the 2017-18 route, announced on Friday morning in Melbourne, means the Race will visit Australia for the eighth time - but for the first in more than a decade.

With what will be a compressed stopover, Melbourne fits between Cape Town and Hong Kong, and completes a 45,000-nautical mile route that will see the teams cover three times as many miles in the Southern Ocean as in previous editions.

Cape Town to Melbourne will now make up Leg 3 of the race - a double-point scoring, 6,300-nautical mile leg. Melbourne will host a week-long stopover, but no In-Port Race, before the fleet leaves on Leg 4 to Hong Kong.

According to projections, the one-design Volvo Ocean 65 fleet will arrive around Christmas Day - meaning an extra reason to celebrate in the state capital of Victoria.

Australia's history with the Volvo Ocean Race goes all the way back to the first edition in 1973-74 and, in total, Australia has hosted the race seven times. The race first came to Melbourne in 2005-06 and now returns for a second time.

The full route now features a total of 10 legs taking in 12 landmark Host Cities on six continents.

Key dates now confirmed:

Alicante
Race Village opens - 11 October 2017
Alicante In-Port Race - 14 October 2017
Leg 1 Start - 22 October 2017

Lisbon
In-Port Race - 28 October 2017
Leg 2 Start - 5 November 2017

Cape Town
In-Port Race - 8 December 2017
Leg 3 Start - 10 December 2017

Melbourne
Leg 4 Start - 2 January 2018

Hong Kong
In-Port Race - 27 January 2018

Guangzhou
In-Port Race - 4 February 2018
Leg 5 Start - 7 February 2018

Auckland
In-Port Race - 10 March 2018
Leg 6 Start - 18 March 2018

Itajai
In-Port Race - 20 April 2018
Leg 7 Start - 22 April 2018

Newport
In-Port Race - 19 May 2018
Leg 8 Start - 20 May 2018

Cardiff
In-Port Race - 8 June 2018
Leg 9 Start - 10 June 2018

Gothenburg
In-Port Race - 17 June 2018
Leg 10 Start - 21 June 2018

The Hague
In-Port Race - 30 June 2018

volvooceanrace.com

18ft Skiffs Australian Championship, Race 3
Sydney Harbour: Skipper David Witt flew back into Australia only hours before taking Appliancesonline.com.au out onto Sydney Harbour today, with his teammates Tom Anderson and Tom Clout to win Race 3 of the Australian 18ft Skiff Championship.

For Witt, it was his first race back in an 18 since he skippered the maxi Scallywag into third place in the recent Sydney-Hobart Race.

In an 8-12 knot SSE breeze the race was sailed over a three lap windward-return course set between Taylor Bay and Rose Bay.

Appliancesonline.com.au led from the start, but had to fight off an early challenge by Michael Coxon, Trent Barnabas and Dave O'Connor in Thurlow Fisher Lawyers to win by 39s.

Smeg (Lee Knapton, Ricky Bridge, Mike McKensey) was a further 1m23s back in third place, followed by Noakes Youth (Ash Rooklyn), Coopers 62-Rag & Famish Hotel (Jack Macartney) and De'Longhi (Simon Nearn).

Smeg's third place in today's race was enough for the team to retain the championship lead on seven points, followed by Yandoo (John Winning) on 13, Appliancesonline.com.au on 14, Noakes Youth on 17, De'Longhi on 19 and The Kitchen Maker (Stephen Quigley) on 21.

Race 4 of the championship will be sailed next Sudney. -- Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League

www.18footers.com.au

Wight Vodka Best Yachting Bar Competition
Wight Vodka The contest for the best yachting bar of 2016 is unlike any we've had in the past eight years, in that so many of our nominees are first time entries... and ones that your humble narrator has yet to visit.

One of the best... the Happy Island Bar in Clifton Harbour, Union Island, St. Vincent & Grenadines.

The bar was built on a man-made island constructed entire of conch shells. And while Peter says he'd go there even if the beer was warm and the drinks mediocre (just because of how cool it is)... that's not the case. Cold drinks expertly prepared by one of the planet's happiest persons.

Voting is open through January 30th with the winner announced on February 1.

Vote here: scuttlebutteurope.com/sailors-bars

New America's Cup Framework Agreement
During a press conference at The House of Garrard in London, United Kingdom where the America's Cup trophy was originally crafted in 1848, skippers and team leaders revealed a framework agreement that would cover the next two editions, the 36th and 37th America's Cup, due to take place in 2019 and 2021 respectively. Racing in the 35th America's Cup will take place in Bermuda in May/June of this year and the 36th America's Cup cycle will commence thereafter.

The framework agreement provides stability and gives interested teams an opportunity to plan longer term. It establishes a modern sporting, technology and design challenge, within which costs are controlled to provide a much lower entry price, which will encourage more teams to be involved and ultimately create larger audiences and help incentivize more people to go sailing.

The framework agreement and agreed future protocol binds the signatories to deliver the 36th America's Cup (AC36) and the 37th America's Cup (AC37) under the following terms:

- The America's Cup will be on a two-yearly cycle for AC36 (2019) and AC37 (2021).

- The America's Cup World Series (ACWS) will start, at the election of the defender, as soon as Q4 2017. Venues, sponsors and media partners will be approached over the next six months to secure up to 12 international events over the next two years.

- The first year of the America's Cup World Series (ACWS) will be raced in AC45F foiling catamarans - the same boats used in America's Cup World Series (ACWS) in the 35th America's Cup.

- The second year will see a transition to the America's Cup Class (ACC) boats, the same technically sophisticated class of boats raced in Bermuda in 2017 (with a slight rule modification to extend the wind range in which they can race to 4 to 26 knots). After this transition to the America's Cup Class (ACC), the AC45Fs will be retired from the America's Cup competition and the ACC boats will be the only boats raced.

- The America's Cup World Series (ACWS) will culminate with a final event at the venue for the next America's Cup and the final standings from the America's Cup World Series (ACWS) will be used to qualify teams for the America's Cup Challenger Playoffs.

- The America's Cup Challenger Finals and America's Cup Match will be held in 2019 in a venue selected by the winner of the 35th America's Cup.

- To reduce costs, teams will not be permitted to build, test or train on AC45 surrogate boats as they have in this cycle of the America's Cup.

- This above will repeat for AC37, with the exception that all racing will take place in America's Cup Class (ACC) boats.

Five of the six current competitors and their respective yacht clubs have already signed this framework agreement: ORACLE TEAM USA, Artemis Racing, Team France, Land Rover BAR and SoftBank Team Japan.

www.americascup.com

Amazing Footage
This video clip of Dagmar Aaen was shot during an Ocean Change expedition, while enroute from Ushuaia, Argentina to Piriapolis, Uruguay. Dagmar Aaen is a sturdy old time vessel originally built to be a fishing cutter in 1931. Though recent, the footage is a great reminder of the boats and sailors of yesteryear. -- Cruising Compass

Seahorse Sailor Of The Month
Last month's winner:

Rich Wilson (USA)
‘Doing the hardest race again for all the right reasons’ – Win Fowler; ‘Cool, calm and knowledgeable about pretty much everything, these adventures of his motivate many, many others, the old as well as the young!!!’ – Tom Robinson; ‘To undertake the most challenging sailing race in the world at the age of 66, and then to take one million kids around with you... just wow!’ – Les Richter; ‘Love all of the work he does for education, plus how he is pushing himself at his age... an inspiring man’ – Charles McCaffrey.

This month's nominees:

 

Rob Greenhalgh (GBR)
No sooner do we start to compile a list of some of Rob’s bigger achievements, in skiffs, foilers and most of the big ocean races, than he goes and upsets our tidy sheet of paper by banging in another one, winning the Amlin Moth invitational regatta in Bermuda for the second year in a row. Closer to home and this nomination is really in recognition of the big part he has played in reviving Grand Prix racing in northern Europe with the Fast40+

 

Andrew Mcdougall (AUS)
Godfather to the foiler Moth community, designer and builder of most of the major title winners during the past 10 years, but all these achievements are shaded by his painstaking work designing, building, refining and then preparing for the production build of his Waszp... ‘the people’s foiler’. The result –boats are now being sold faster than McConaghy in China can build them. And they are already building around 20 a week...

 

Seahorse Sailor of the Month is sponsored by Henri Lloyd, Harken McLube & Dubarry. Who needs silverware, our prizes are usable!

Cast your vote, submit comments, even suggest a candidate for next month at seahorsemagazine.com/sailor-of-the-month/vote-for-sailor-of-the-month

To subscribe to Seahorse Digital £30 for one year with discount promo code SB2 click www.seahorse.co.uk/shop/digital

German Grand Prix / 2017 Match Race Super Series
Germany's most famous Grand Prix of duel racing is celebrating it´s 20th edition over Pentecost (June 1 - 5)! On the occasion of the Jubilee Regatta, prominent sailors head to Langenargen on Lake Constance. And there are groundbreaking news for the round birthday:

Together with organizers around the world, the Match Race Germany organizers Eberhard Magg and Harald Thierer as well as the Morten Lorenzen from Denmark have finally founded their own world series of match race: The new Match Race Super Series sanctioned by the Match Race Association (MRA) is coming soon.

With the support of World Sailing, the organizers are prepared to head into the premiere year. Match Race Germany is the German Grade 1 stop of the new global series

The points system and venue for the grand final will be announced in detail in March.

The Match Race Super Series will consist of at least eight regattas in it's first year. More will be added step by step. There is a lot of interest on all continents. Match Race Germany (GER), the Polish Sopot Match Race (August 2-5 POL), the Air Calin Match Racing Cup in New Caledonia (12-15 August NCL), Chicago Grand Slam (18th to 20th August USA), the Ekatarinburg Cup (16.-21. August RUS), the ACI Match Race Cup Croatia (Sept. or October CRO), the Oakcliff International (30. August-3.September USA) and the New Zealand Match Racing Championships (4-8 October NZL) will kick off the new series.

www.matchrace.de
www.mrsuperseries.com

Mike Peyton 1921 - 2017
Mike in his studio on Essex near the River Crouch. He said he got his best ideas in the bath. Photo Paul Gelder. Click on image to enlarge.

Mike Peyton Mike Peyton, dubbed "The World's Greatest Yachting Cartoonist", died January 25 just five days after his 96th birthday. A modest, shy man, he eschewed the spotlight and seemed unaware of the esteem in which sailors all around the world held him.

Born into a mining family in County Durham in 1921, he lied about his age to join the Army and was seconded to draw maps of the North African desert by the Intelligence Corps during the Second World War. Despite escaping twice, he spent most of the war in a prisoner of war camp.

Mike began sketching as a boy, inspired by the graphics in 1930s British comics. After the war he went to Manchester Art School. He also discovered boating. He bought a 12ft canvas sailing canoe from a man in a pub and worked his way down the River Thames, sleeping on moored barges. He even persuaded his girl friend to elope for a honeymoon in a canoe. Kathleen, his widow, recalls her 'essential' wedding presents included a sleeping bag and walking boots.

Soon sailing became a passion as he learned about tides and how to reef sails. His first proper boat was called Vagrant 'because she had no visible means of support.' In those days sailors wore peaked caps and ensigns were lowered at sunset. Naturally, Mike felt impelled to stick a pin in the balloon of pomposity of snooty sailors. He worked as a freelance cartoonist for New Scientist magazine for 35 years, as well as contributing cartoons to a wide range of magazines, from Yachting Monthly and Practical Boat Owner to the Church of England Times and Corsetry & Underwear. His cartoons, which often needed no translation, were published worldwide in yachting magazines from Japan to America.

With a few squiggly lines from his pen he took people to the heart and soul of sailing and sailing's cock-ups. He was a unique commentator on the sailing scene for more than 60 years. There was no other sailing cartoonist in the world to match his elegant, economical wit and wisdom. He said he got his best ideas sitting in the bath.

His humour was gentle, rather than vulgar, brash or cruel. As well as a superb draughtsman, he had a winning way with words, whether it was a clever punch line, a headline or a caption. He was a great storyteller - as anyone who sat beside the glowing coal stove on his boats can testify.

At the age of 90, failing eyesight meant Mike had to sell his last boat and stop drawing cartoons. He had owned 13 boats and it became a standing joke that following his ferro-cement boats called Loadstone, Brimstone and Touchstone his next would be named be Tombstone!

He suffered macular degeneration, in which central vision is lost. For more than 30 years he drew the illustrations for Yachting Monthly's famous monthly 'Confessional' in which readers' confessed their sailing sins and received an original Peyton cartoon for each published story.

Peyton had eighteen books of yachting cartoons published. He also published 'An Average War: Eighth Army to Red Army' about his in Second World War experiences, reviewed in the Spectator as 'a brilliant memoir'.

Last year, the Yachting Journalists' Association's presented him with a Lifetime Achievement award and dubbed him 'the Picasso of sailing.' In 2011 The Royal Cruising Club awarded him a Medal for Services to Cruising in 2011 for 'encouraging others to pick themselves up from near disaster and learn from their mistakes.'

Round the world sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said: 'Mike Peyton has been my favourite yachting cartoonist for decades. He has the knack of catching a situation we dread and then poking fun at the reaction.'

Mike Peyton who lived near North Fambridge in Essex is survived by his wife Kathleen and daughters Hilary and Veronica. -- Paul Gelder

Featured Brokerage
Raceboats Only 2016 Ker 40+ - Magnum 4. 550,000 GBP. Located in Hamble, UK.

A completely unique opportunity that will NOT last long! MAGNUM 4 The 2016 Ker 40+ is now available. This BRAND NEW BOAT is on the market and offering a HUGE saving for its next owner.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Race Boats
Central Listing

+442380 016582
+64 2277733717

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Raceboats Only 2008 Mills 37 - Crazy Horse. 95000 GBP. Located in Dublin, Ireland.

Following typical Mark Mills lines, Crazy Horse is raring to get back out on the race track. Big overhaul last year and now looking good as new.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Sam Pearson - Ancasta Port Hamble

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Raceboats Only 2001 Carroll Marine Farr 40. 125,000 USD. Located in Portsmouth, RI.

This is hull # 96 and has always been very well maintained by her three owners.She was first built as SAMBA PA TI and then she was named TWINS. Her current owner has not used her for several years, but she is located in Portsmouth Rhode Island, has been under shrink wrap and has a Captain maintain her. In her inventory are many North sails, with several 1st string primary racing sails, having never been out of the bags! If one is in the market for a very nice and lightly used Farr 40, DARKSIDE could be the weapon of choice.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Please contact William Jenkins at 410-267-9419

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

The Last Word
What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of chaos. -- Kerry Thornley

Editorial and letter submissions to

Advertising inquiries to Graeme Beeson: or see www.scuttlebutteurope.com/advertise.html

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