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

Can Ran Do A Miami Re-Run?
The 52 SUPER SERIES fleet shares fond memories of Miami, where the 52 SUPER SERIES Miami Royal Cup is scheduled to start on Tuesday with eleven TP52s on the entry list.

Strong winds and big seas off Miami Beach over recent days have curtailed the essential pre-regatta training period. From early in the day on Monday, it was obvious that the official practice race would be cancelled with the wind gusting between 25 and 30kts on the race course.

Sadly, the French Paprec team of owner Jean Luc Petithuguenin will not be able to participate at all at this second regatta of the six-event 52 SUPER SERIES season. When they were training in big seas on Saturday, their mast broke.

The return to the Miami Beach venue is a popular one for the 52 SUPER SERIES fleet, racing for the Royal Cup. The prestigious trophy was founded in 1995 for the IMS 50 class by King Harald of Norway, Pasquale Landolfi, Willi Illbruck and Yannis Costopoulos and has become one of the most sought after awards available each season.

Miami is special for Niklas Zennstrom's Ran Racing team. They won the TP52 World Championship here in 2013, beating Azzurra on the last leg of the last race to clinch the title.

Racing is due to start on Tuesday at 1500hrs local time (EST, 2000hrs UTC). Two races are planned Tuesday. Live commentary and boat tracking via the Virtual Eye is available Tuesday and Wednesday. 52 SUPER SERIES TV powered by Quantum Sails goes live Thursday, Friday, Saturday with live action streamed from the race course supported by tracking, commentary and comment from 15-minutes before racing starts each day.

www.52superseries.com

High Winds In Miami
Bacardi Cup and BACARDI Miami Sailing Week events kicked off on Saturday night with a highly successful Havana Nights and Casino Party at Coral Reef Yacht Club benefitting Shake-A-Leg Miami, Team Paradise and Sailing Heals. On Sunday afternoon the BACARDI hospitality Village at Regatta Park opened for competitors and guests with 72 Star registering for the event.

Sustained winds welcomed Star sailors to the first day of the 90th Bacardi Cup. One race is scheduled for each day of the 6-days event as part of the BACARDI Miami Sailing Week (BMSW) presented by EFG. Steady winds over 20 knots and with gusts well over 30 knots forced the PRO, Carl Schellbach, to cancel racing for the day. Conditions would certainly have caused masts breakage and competitors were happy to sit out for the day. The forecast looks favorable for the rest of the week, therefore they will have a day with two races with an early start at 11:00AM.

This year the Star Sailors League is assigning to the winner of the Bacardi Cup 3,000 points worth for the SSL Ranking, just like any SSL Grand Slams, to honor the historic regatta and at the same time test what the SSL Sea Grand Slam would be like.

Sailing will resume tomorrow for the second day of the 90th Bacardi Cup, probably around 12am EST. You can watch the action LIVE on live.starsailors.com with the latest in hi-tech camera technology, as well as Virtual Eye 3D Graphics and expert commentators both on the water and in studio.

Lloyd Thornburg's Crew Of "Fomo" Are Not Missing Out In Havana
Click on image to enlarge.

Lloyd Thornburg's "Fomo" crew are now in Havana Cuba, celebrating an astonishing double win in the St Petersburg to Cuba Race, not only wining on handicap but also on line honours.

Quote from Lloyd " Epic Race, I am pleased with how the team gave absolutely everything, FOMO's first line honours and win! Now we are enjoying Havana, not missing out on anything"

Quote from navigator Simon Fisher " After what turned out to be a much more complicated race than we had anticipated we were very happy to snatch line honours in the final mile. Having setup upwind of the opposition in a dying breeze as we approached the Cuban coast we were able to pass the TP52 CONVICTION as we reached in under code 0 with a better angle to finish line overhauling them to take the win.

Crew on board for the race were: Lloyd Thornburg, Simon Fisher, Nick Rogers, Pete Cumming, Rob Greenhalgh, Mark Andrews, Ben Quatromoni, Henry Bomby and Jan Dekker.

havana-live.com

Harken On Duty At Bucket Regatta 14 -19th March, 2017
A full complement of Harken technicians and support staff will be on site at this year's Invitational Bucket Regatta as 38 magnificent superyachts race around the stunningly beautiful Caribbean island of St. Barthélemy.

Harken will have a limited number of spare parts on hand for winch and hardware maintenance. If time allows, standard service requests will also be honored.

For assistance in St. Barths contact +1-401-678-9335 or +1-262-352-4997.

Prior to the event, please contact Harken East at 401-849-8278 with questions.

harken.com

Dragon Edinburgh Cup
Cowes, UK - Designed in 1929, the International Dragon combines classic elegance with grand prix performance, the world's greatest sailing venues and some of the best sailors on the planet. One of the Dragon fleet's most prestigious trophies is the Edinburgh Cup, which was presented to the class in 1949 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and is awarded annually to the winner of the International Dragon British Open Championship. That first Edinburgh Cup in 1949 was raced on the Solent and hosted by the Island Sailing Club, with the inaugural winners being Frank Woodroffe and Clare Lallow.

In 2017 the Edinburgh Cup will return to the Island Sailing Club once more, the fifth time the club has hosted the event and its twelfth visit to Cowes. More than 40 teams from at least 13 nations will compete from 8 to 14 July in a twin regatta event, opening with the Dragon South Coast Championship from 8 to 10 July, and culminating in the Edinburgh Cup from 11 to 14 July.

The entry list is expected to include not only the UK's top crews, but teams from Antigua, Italy, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium and as far afield as Finland, France, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland, Turkey, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Australia. Among those racing will be British Olympic bronze medallist Lawrie Smith, who claimed the trophy in 2013 and will no doubt be hoping to make it a hat-trick.

In 1949 Clare Aisher took second place in the opening race of the regatta and lady helms have put in good results on many occasions since. However, it wasn't until 2015 that the Edinburgh Cup was finally won by a woman, when Julia Bailey claimed the winner's laurels in Largs. Julia is also returning to the fray this year in the hope of a second victory, although having crewed husband Graham to victory in Lymington in 2014, it would actually be her third time on the winning boat in four years.

www.edinburghcup.org

Director Of Racing
The RYA has a mission to be the world's most successful nation in boating competition to inspire future champions, and engages with all forms of the sport in order to attract and retain racing sailors. The RYA Racing Department is recognised by sailing National Authorities around the world for its excellence in all the activities in which it operates. The Director of Racing has overall responsibility for the development of the whole of sail racing within the UK, including determining and developing the strategy of the World Class Programme across the Olympic and Youth programmes; the quantity and quality of its volunteer Race Officials and coach education which supports racing from club to country and the technical side of the sport which ensures boats all compete on equal terms and helps to keep racing sailors safe.

This role has the opportunity to influence the development of UK sail racing across all disciplines, at all levels. The Director of Racing will need to harness a vision and pull together a cohesive strategy into execution. The successful candidate will therefore be someone who has proven success in this, who has the drive and ability to lead their team to strive for the very best and has demonstrable experience in leading sporting performance success at the highest level. With a proven track record of working with a variety of partners and stakeholder groups and possessing excellent interpersonal and communication skills, the successful candidate will have demonstrated that they are able to lead, motivate and support a team managing significant budgets.

Based in Hamble, near Southampton, the role involves travel and attendance at events outside normal office hours for which time off in lieu is allowed.

Attractive salary and benefits package including pension scheme, free life insurance, 25 days annual leave plus public holidays and discretionary Christmas holiday

Closing date for applications: 12 noon on Wednesday 8th March 2017.
Interviews to be held in Southampton on 24th March 2017

The successful candidate will need to be available to attend the interviews for the selection of the Olympic Performance Manager on the 4th or 5th April 2017

For a more detailed job description please visit www.rya.org.uk/go/jobs.

To apply please review the job description and complete an application form and equal opportunities monitoring form.

Applications, or requests for an initial confidential conversation, should be sent to Dawn Brown:

The Royal Yachting Association is the national governing body for all forms of boating including dinghy and yacht racing, motor and sail cruising, RIBs and sports boats, powerboat racing, windsurfing, inland cruising, narrowboats, and personal watercraft.

The RYA is committed to equality of opportunity. We would encourage applications from women, candidates with disabilities and ethnic minority groups who are currently under-represented at this level of post.

Torbole Triumph
A beautiful limited edition book has been produced celebrating the record breaking 2016 Finn World Masters in Torbole.

In May 2016 a record 355 Finns from 32 countries turned up for the Finn World Masters in Torbole, at the northern end of Lake Garda in Italy. It was the largest Finn event of all time (so far).

The action on the water was captured in a beautiful selection of images taken all week by Berit Hainoja, and on Wednesday and Friday by Michael Kurtz. A sequence of amazing aerial photos was also taken by Robert Deaves using a mast head action cam while racing.

More than 350 of the best images have now been combined into a stunning new book, TORBOLE TRIUMPH, celebrating the event along with the story of how the week unfolded. The images and words on these pages capture a unique event for the Finn class. The book also includes a index of results and bow numbers.

Printed on 130 gm perfect bound gloss art paper and wrapped in a beautiful printed hardback cover, this is a collector's item for Finn aficianadoes everywhere, bringing to life again the lasting memories of an epic Finn event.

Torbole Triumph can be ordered through this page

finnworldmasters.com/latest-news/item/618-the-book-you-have-been-waiting-for

from the special price of GBP 25 including postage and packing (varies according to region), using Paypal or a credit card.

The deadline to order one of these exquisitely finntastic books is March 31, 2017. After that date, availability will be limited and the cost will increase.

Please go to www.finnworldmasters.com to place your order now.

Industry News
Show Management, the producer of five of Florida's largest boat shows, was purchased by a London-based company with a strategic plan to expand its Global Exhibitions business in the United States.

Informa, which currently delivers 200 industry events annually, including the Monaco Yacht Show, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100.

Show Management was founded in 1976 and has produced the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show at the Bahia Mar Yachting Center since then. In 2006 the company was purchased by Active Interest Media, the publisher of more than 50 of the country's leading consumer enthusiast magazines, including Yoga Journal and Yachts International.

The acquisition of Show Management aligns with Informa's strategic plan to expand its Global Exhibitions business in the United States. A global business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge and events company, Informa completed the 1.2 billion-pound acquisition of Penton Information Services, a leading U.S. exhibition services company, in November.

www.tradeonlytoday.com

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Ancasta International Boat Sales has confirmed its sponsorship of the FAST40+ Class and will also be the official Brokerage Partner of the FAST40+ Circuit.

Such is the experience in the Ancasta team, that it has recently launched a new 40ft project in association with Botin Partners, who are without doubt the leading light in race yacht designs at the moment. This partnership, which is now focussing on the 2018 season, is a true testament to what Ancasta Race Boats can offer new owners who are looking to join the class.

Dealing with 40-50ft race boats for more than 15 years, has afforded Ancasta Race Boats the key tools needed for negotiating, whether it be helping owners achieve a maximum return from their sale, or knocking down vendors to grab a bargain, they have been achieving unprecedented results in this area and will continue to do so.

"This year's season is looking like it will raise the profile of the class even further and with plenty of owners on the fringes, we are excited to see what the future will bring. It is apparent to us that owners need to know what options are out there, but they also need to consider exit strategies before jumping into the class. With 15+ years of experience selling 40-50ft racers, we can certainly help protect and advise on people's investments", said Pearson.

Sam Pearson, +44 (0)2380 016582

www.fast40class.com

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FILA has entered into a sports apparel sponsorship agreement with the Netherlands Olympic Committee (NOC).

The agreement was signed on February 23, 2017 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. FILA Chairman Gene Yoon, FILA North America's Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Estabrook, and Secretary General of the NOC*NSF Gerard Dielessen, were in attendance to represent all related parties.

As set out in the agreement, FILA will provide the NOC affiliated national team with training suits, sports footwear, sports apparel for training purposes, and award ceremony attire (excluding competition suits) until 2022, while serving as the official sports apparel sponsor.

In addition, the Netherlands national team players will wear, attend, and appear on the victory podium in sports apparel featuring the FILA logo at the Winter and Summer Olympics, including the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and at international competitions.

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Cowes Week Ltd are delighted to announce another addition to their family of supporting sponsors as ELEMIS joins Cowes Week as the Official sponsor of Ladies Day.

ELEMIS is the leading British skincare and spa brand.

ELEMIS are proud to be supporting Ladies Day at Cowes Week, Noella Gabriel, Co-Founder and Managing Director at ELEMIS said: "We are delighted to be the official sponsor of Ladies Day at Cowes Week. Ladies Day is a fantastic event that recognises the successes of many female sailors and we are extremely proud to be a part of this. We look forward to bringing the ELEMIS wellbeing experience to the event as well as hosting the evening reception at which the Ladies Day trophy will be awarded."

Ladies Day will return to Cowes Week on Tuesday 1st August with a number of celebrations culminating in the presentation of the Ladies Day Trophy at an exclusive evening reception.

Ladies Day was introduced for the first time in 2006 to champion the role of women in sailing and to celebrate both female achievement and participation in the sport.There are some 8,000 competitors taking part in the regatta and around a third of them are female. Sailing is one of the few mainstream sporting events where men and women can compete on equal terms and the strength of female competitors has grown with a 150% increase in female skippers over the last decade.

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Dominion Marine Media (DMM), the leading global classifieds marketplace and marketing software solutions provider to marine brokers and dealers, today announced that it will change its company name to Boats Group.

The name change reflects the company's market-leading brands and marks a new chapter in the company's future as they focus on investing in innovations that bring the boating industry to the forefront of modern business.

Boats Group will continue to build on the company's seven year legacy of operating the world's largest and most popular recreational marine digital marketplaces: Boat Trader, YachtWorld, boats.com, and CosasDeBarcos, as well as their newly acquired platform, YachtCloser, the yacht brokerage industry's leading web-based contract management solution.

The announcement also follows the recent appointment of Sam Fulton as the company's CEO. Prior to joining Boats Group, Fulton served as an SVP of Groupon and as President of Orbitz.com and SVP of U.S. Consumer Travel at Orbitz Worldwide.

Operating the world's largest and most popular recreational marine brands - Boat Trader, YachtWorld, boats.com, CosasDeBarcos and YachtCloser - Boats Group attracts over 65 million unique visitors annually to more than 300,000 unique boat and yacht listings. Boats Group's digital solutions serve over 5,000 dealers and brokers in more than 143 countries, enabling them to effectively reach in-market consumers, increase dealer and broker inventory turnover, and improve their overall profitability.

The announcement follows Boat Group's recent acquisition by Funds advised by Apax Partners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

www.boatsgroup.com

Featured Brokerage
2009 Judel Vrolijk 62 - Chinese Whisper. 2000000 AU. Located in Sydney, Australia

'Chinese Whisper' is for sale for a limited time only and it gives us great pleasure to have the green light to sell her. If you want to win the trophies at blistering speeds, this is the yacht to buy.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Micah Lane +61414307766

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Mills Design C&C 30Anema & Core. 175,000 USD LOCATION

Join the fun the C&C 30 Class is having at their one design events. Anema & Core is ready to race and stored indoors in a climate controlled facility.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Tink Chambers

+1 410 268 1001

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2008 68' A Custom Mills Maxi 72 Class. 1,375,000 USD. Located in Olbia, Italy.

We are proud to announce another central listing in the form of the Mark Mills designed 68 foot CAOL ILA. One of the most consistent mini maxi's in the world, she is now for sale. She is a no expense spared custom mini maxi that has proven to be very fast on all points of sail and in all wind ranges for both her past and current owner. She has been the dominate mini maxi for many years from Cowes to Sardinia and all points in between. New North sails in 2014, new custom spar package in 2012, new updated keel and bulb, she has always been kept on the leading edge of the design spectrum. When the other mini maxis went into the shed for modifications , she just stayed on the race course and kept on winning.

See listing details in Seahorse's RaceboatsOnly

Contact
Please contact William Jenkins at 410-267-9419 or
Greg "Twister" Tawaststjerna at +1.540.687.0700

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

The Last Word
The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind. -- Humphrey Bogart

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