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Scuttlebutt Photos of the Week December 3-7, 2007 A random assortment of photos submitted to Scuttlebutt this week. Click here to submit your photos for consideration.  PUMA Ocean Racing has wrapped up a successful 2007. After being announced skipper of PUMA’s entry in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 last May, Ken Read set up the team offices in Newport, Rhode Island and began training and testing with Avanti, PUMA’s practice boat (formerly ABN AMRO 2). PUMA Ocean Racing’s new VO 70 was designed by world-renowned boat designers Botin-Carkeek with construction well underway at Goetz Custom Boats in Bristol, Rhode Island. North Sails will supply the sails and Southern Spars has been chosen as the spar supplier. Training will resume in Newport in April 2008.  Here is a nice look at the Open 60 Pindar, which shows how extreme these boats are for the doublehanded and singlehanded entries currently competing in the Barcelona World Race and the the 4,200-mile Transat Ecover BtoB from Salvador de Bahia, Brasil to Port-La-Forêt, France.  In Issue 2486, Scuttlebutt provided Bruno Troublé with a stage, and he proceeded to thrash at the current holder of the America’s Cup and the AC 90 rule. Bruno knows a thing or two about the event, having been intimately involved in it for the past thirty years. He also seemed to be speaking for the masses, as the mail that followed his commentary was the equivalent of a standing ovation. Here is Bruno getting prepped for the America’s Cup Hall of Fame induction dinner, an event that coincided with the 32nd America’s Cup this past summer in Valencia, Spain. Photo by Jack Griffin  The 15th annual Harken International Youth Match Racing Championships, one of the premier events for youth on the match racing calendar, gets underway on Thursday 6th December in Sydney, Australia. While the fleet isn’t too international – all from Australia or New Zealand – it is pretty neat to see a big company like Harken and cool boats like the The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s purpose built fleet of six Force 24’s getting behind an event for behind this event for sailors under 21 years of age. -- http://www.rpayc.com.au    From Olli Nieminen: "Greetings from the very "wintery" and cold Pietarsaari, Finland, where we at Nautor's Swan still launch Swans despite the somewhat "challenging" conditions. Please find enclosed interesting photos of a Swan 75, doing her first sail trials on 28 November. The temperature outside was -9 degrees centigrade, with ice already forming on the sea surface, but nevertheless it was a beautiful day for sailing! Wind eventually reached 12kn and together with the rare and beautiful early-winter sunshine (note the low angle of the midday sun, it doesn't get so high on these latitudes (63 deg N)) made the day perfect!!! Timing for the sail trials was also perfect, the conditions next morning were a bit more challenging... The yacht is delivered in one week, maybe we need ice-breakers to get her out of here." Photos by Olli Nieminen and Marcus Jungell.  The Melges 32 class and Lauderdale Yacht Club held their annual Tune Up Regatta this past weekend. Eighteen boats benefited from nine championship races with professional coaching provided by the class. A component of the event was to include some of the top local youth sailors as crew. Photos by John Payne. Click here to submit your photos for consideration. |
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