lots more photos here too

and another one here

Photos by Micky Costa

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HUGO BOSS back in the water!

Last week HUGO BOSS went back into the water in her home berth in Haslar Marina, after spending the last few months in Endeavour Quay being repaired. She looks in excellent shape having had all structural repairs done, and her hull re-sprayed.

The mast has now been stepped and the boat is being prepped this week for sailing . She will then spend the next few weeks doing sea trials, and will be having the rigging and tuning tweaked to get her back into top condition. She will be sailing over the next weeks with technicians and sailmakers to ensure she reaches her peak performance.

She will then leave during the 2nd week of May for The Mediterranean, where Alex and the team will be present for the Monaco Grand Prix, supporting Hugo Boss and the McLaren team. Alex and our boat captain Ross Daniels will use the delivery trip as training for their double handed challenge in November, The Transat Jacques Vabres. Alex and Ross have also been putting a great deal of time into their shore-side training, with daily gym and squash workouts.

The whole team are now gearing up for the coming 6 months, with Will Jackson and Ollie Young, who both worked on the HUGO BOSS ll Volvo 60 tour, stepping up to help prepare the boat and get her ready for this new season.

So if you�re down on the south coast in the next month keep an eye out for HUGO BOSS and the team!

The team at Alex Thomson Racing

Alex’s Blog

Into the eye of the storm here

Health & Safety on board

by Oliver Dewar
Part of the vital med-kit on board Team Mowgli – Photo Portimao Race

All highly-developed societies have governmental bodies to monitor and protect an employee’s physical and mental wellbeing in the workplace. These groups have an impact upon almost every facet of modern living whether you are driving in a car, visiting a supermarket or building an extension to your house. Without exception, all these groups – the Office of Health & safety (UK); the Department of Occupational Health & Safety (USA); L’Insitut National du Recherche et de Securite (France) or Bundesanstalt fur Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin (Germany) and so on – are criticised and ridiculed for overreaction and draconian and often unpractical and extremely expensive guidelines.

It could be imagined that offshore sailors are exempt from the dictates of these organisations as they roam the remote sea areas of the planet out of sight and far beyond the reach of beaurocracy and distant from the current climate of aggressive litigation culture. Certainly, cruising yachtsmen are – for the most part – unregulated and are free to sail across oceans unfettered by legislation. Offshore racing sailors, however, are strictly regulated by the individual race organisation running an event and by the class association whose boats are being raced.

In the Portimão Global Ocean Race, the double-handed and single-handed teams have to comply with an enormous number of rules applying to their boat and to the team members personally. The design and construction of the boat is optimised to balance speed potential with safety and durability; vital safety equipment, extensive medical supplies and a stock of fresh water are mandatory; each competitor must undergo training in seamanship and must prove his competence in a qualifying voyage before officially entering the race.

more here

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From the Flying Carrot

On the bill of fare this evening we had sweet and sour chicken which hasn’t turned up for a  long time and what a goodn he is. Rowed a few hours today before we were making too much South and had to set the old parachute anchor. Its surprising how quickly ones hands start getting soft after just a few daYS without rowing. Had to break into the forrard library the other day and bring a new store of books into the Ritz.  Of course DOn Quixote is still ongoing…as well as Farthest North, about Fridtjof Nansen’s drift across the arctic Ice and an anthology of Cast Aways.   Its good reading all these books, good to get a bit better learned innit…. Plenty of birds around – as well as water and sky. It has been asked when we will arrive – well I dunno – when we do really.  Maybe 2-3-4 weeks… Depends on the  weather and  how much I sleep  and read.

more here

Valencia Sailing

Boatspeed Australia has nearly completed the building of yet another state of the art 105 ft trimaran yacht. This yacht is one of the new Arabian 100 Class for Oman in the Middle East.

It only took six months to complete the mainhull, beams and floats. The yacht has been sent as components to Oman where it will be assembled.

Lifting the main hull onto the ship. Photo copyright David Hayes

A number of Boatspeed staff will fly out in approximately a month to carry out the assembly alongside apprentices from Oman Sail.

more here

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BYM Marine & Maritime News

USA. Navy to allow embedded access to Spike in fight to end threats from pirates

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

The recent dramatic increase in piracy off the coast of Africa has made news headlines around the world and now Spike TV has partnered with the Emmy Award-winning reality production house 44 Blue Productions (“The True Story of Black Hawk Down,” “Lockup”) and Adam Friedman (“Vertical Ascent”) for production on the pilot “Pirate Hunters: USN” (working title), an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the US Navy operation to end this deadly threat of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

“We are thrilled to be front and center with the Navy on such an important mission,” says Sharon Levy, senior vice president, original series for Spike. “The access we have will really give our viewers the kind of heart-stopping action they have come to expect from Spike programming.”

These often-violent hijackings off the coast of eastern Africa not only pose a grave threat to the lives of sailors taking cargo through the region, but are also starting to add an exorbitant amount to the cost of worldwide trade. Now, television viewers will be able to see this dramatic, tension-filled and high-stakes military mission first-hand.

“Piracy off the coast of Africa is a real and deadly threat,” said Rasha Drachkovitch, president and founder of 44 Blue Productions. “With ‘Pirate Hunters: USN,’ our goal is to capture that drama for the TV audience in order to highlight the heroic work undertaken by the US Navy every day in this fight against terrorism.”

The US Navy is allowing Spike and 44 Blue Productions in-depth access as they embark on their mission from the military base in the seaside nation of Djibouti (bordering Somalia and Ethiopia) and on the open water. Cameras will capture every element of life aboard two US warships, the USS San Antonio and USS Boxer, as they patrol 1.1 million square miles of ocean for the pirates who call this region home.

Drachkovitch and award-winning producer Adam Friedman will serve as executive producers. Sharon Levy and Tim Duffy are the executives in charge of production for the pilot for Spike TV.

more here

French sailor killed in commando raid

A French sailor was shot dead in front of his wife and child when commandos stormed his yacht in a bid to release the vessel and crew from pirates. The assault was triggered by threats that the crew would be executed. more here

Beneteau confirms rumours of big job cuts

Beneteau Group, the maker of Beneteau and Jeanneau motorboats and yachts, has confirmed rumours of mass job cuts by announcing today that nearly 1600 jobs are at risk.

Previous measures such as a shorter working week and the cutting of temporary staff have proved insufficient in the face of a boat market that has contracted by around 50%, the company said in a statement. more here

Valencia Sailing

Letter to Ernee and Friends from GGYC

2009april07-ggyc-to-sng

April 7, 2009
Commodore Pierre-Yves Firmenich
Société Nautique de Genève
Port Noir
CH-1223 Cologny
SWITZERLAND

Dear Commodore Firmenich,

I am writing to confirm our sincere hope, given Thursday’s court decision, that our two Clubs can reach mutual consent on the conditions governing the 33rd America’s Cup.

We remain committed to a conventional, multi-challenger regatta in monohulls under mutual consent to be held as soon as practicable, and we would be happy to involve third parties, such as ISAF or NYYC, as mediators.

As you know our Club is represented by Larry Ellison and his BMW Oracle Racing team. BOR officials are prepared to meet immediately with SNG/Alinghi to discuss ideas for achieving mutual consent. We suggest a meeting early next week at a mutually convenient venue.

We also suggest that the location of the meeting be kept private between our two teams. This is an important time for trying to provide certainty in helping the event move forward quickly. It would be ideal if our teams could talk with as little distraction as possible.

I hope this is acceptable to your Club and team. Could I further suggest that Melinda Erkelens and Lucien Masmejean talk as soon as possible by phone to work out the details.

Sincerely,

GOLDEN GATE YACHT CLUB

Marcus Young
Commodore

cc: Ernesto Bertarelli, Team Alinghi
Brad Butterworth, Team Alinghi
Russell Coutts, BMW Oracle Racing
Larry Ellison, BMW Oracle Racing

more here

Sponsorship Value

-The Commerical case for a DOG Match.

April 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Americas Cup, Business, Europe, USA

Our thinking has been all wrong. Ever since the New York Court of Appeals brought down their verdict in favour of the Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW ORACLE, we have taken the position that the best thing that the new Challenger of Record and the Defender could do, would be to dispense with a Deed of Gift Match and opt for a multichallenger event.

This was obviously a view taken from the point of view of a non-American fan, or the Commercial Director of a team like Emirates Team New Zealand or TEAMORIGIN. Our argument was that a multichallenger event may stop these teams from disspearing altogether, putting more pressure on an already depressed industry.

But why should businessmen Larry Ellison and Ernesto Betarelli care about other team’s sponsors? This is a great sponsorship opportunity for their commercial partners. If I was the Marketing Director of BMW, a DOG match with only one other opponent guarantees more share of media coverage. Instead of being 1 of 20 potential sponsors, I am one of two. 50% of the coverage of a DOG match is about my brand.

Here is an opportunity for any media that still care about the America’s Cup to write about a handful of commercial partners for 10 months, without having to devote column inches, airtime or web-pages to other team’s sponsors and distractions.

It’s something we really should have thought about earlier, but I guess we were in a more ‘winning by sharing’ frame of mind. Given some of the statements from series like the iShares Cup and sponsors of the Vendee Globe, we really should have taken a step into the shoes of Alinghi and BMW ORACLE earlier.

Mark Turner, CEO of OC Group, has said that the iShares Cup should have a maximum number of boats per series. This is because on the one hand, eXtreme 40 catamarans at close quarters could get messy, but it also guarantees sponsors a certain share of the coverage. The Vendee Globe has also used the same argument – 30 boats is the maximum that can be accommodated on the docks at the start, but also being 1 out of 30 sponsors means your campaign gets lost in the noise of brands.

Even Louis Vuitton could sign up to that. How exclusive can you get? No dog food or pizza sponsors, no riff-raff, just an American billionaire versus a European billionaire – just like the good old days.

So, providing BMW ORACLE and Alinghi keep some high profile Kiwis and Aussies to guarantee a little bit of interest from fans in the southern hemisphere, and choose a venue in Europe to keep a couple of casual fans interested in that part of the world – the DOG match could be a sponsor’s dream and deliver real return on investment for a lucky few.

more here

Why bluQube Went Offshore Sailing.

bluQube, If you ask 10 companies that sponsor sailing why they do it, you should get 10 different answers. This is because sponsorship is not like a magazine ad or a 30 second tv slot – one size does not fit all. Just as the sport of sailing is incredibly varied, so too are the companies that use the sport as a promotional platform. David Fuller had a chat with Simon Kearsley, CEO of financial software company bluQube who have supported Vendee Globe competitor Steve White and who have just announced a deal with up-and-coming solo sailor Katie Miller.

Q. Why has BluQube chosen sailing as a mechanism to promote the company & brand?

There was an element of it choosing us! We were approached by the now defunct Global Challenge organisation.

However, we were in a “receptive” state of mind at the time. We knew that we had to work on brand awareness and had been struggling to find a cost effective way of doing that for a B2B business. Advertising was very expensive and seemed to have variable results and sponsorship offered a more cost effective way forward.

I would be lying if I didn’t also admit to it being a great interest of my own but we see that as a very positive point. It’s essential to be enthusiastic and fully behind any sponsorship that you do and this would be very difficult for me if I had no interest at all in what we were actually doing.

Q. Were other sports besides sailing considered? Which ones?

Yes. The approach caused us to review the “whole market” partly because of my interest! I wanted to be absolutely certain that it would really work for the business, not just for me! We undertook this research in-house as we had just done a branding exercise and knew the values we were looking to associate with bluQube.

Many of the directors here at BluQube are into cars, so we looked at that, but many of our customers are in the public sector and the negative environmental impact of motorsport just wouldn’t look good. Motorsport has performance and speed, but it’s very male, not very clean and a bit too ‘oil & spanners’.

We looked at Rugby, Football and Cricket but they were too expensive, not targeted enough, too ‘mainstream’. Part of the bluQube brand is to be ‘different’.

For similar reasons Wimbledon, Gold Cup / etc. are too ‘classic’ and ‘establishment’ for the brand. Incidentally, we also turned down Ostar 2009 title sponsorship for the same reason.

We had engaged in a branding exercise just prior and this more than anything helped us make our choice. Once we understood the brand values it was a case of finding a sport to match them.

Q. Why was Offshore racing chosen as the platform for the sponsorship?

Ocean racing appealed to us because of the fit with those brand values. It uses modern hi-tech materials, it’s extreme, clean, very team based, it’s high performance, exciting, colourful, and so on.

lots more here

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Put 20 copies of your logo on yachtyakka with live links back to your webpage for just $10 per week – bargain!!

Put 20 copies of your logo on yachtyakka with live links back to your webpage for just $10 per week – bargain!!

CHAMPAGNE SAILING? DEFINITELY NOT!

Today at 1300 GMT, Bouwe Bekking and his team on Telefónica Blue held the lead from Ericsson 4 by eight miles.  Still sticking the offshore side of the course, Bekking was 270 nm from the Itabuna lighthouse on the Brazilian coast.

“We want to be on the right hand side of the course,” said Bekking in a radio interview this afternoon.  “We are making some gains now,” he said.  Bekking is expecting very mixed conditions in the light breeze over the next 48 hours, which he says will be very tricky.  The fleet is currently hard on the wind.

Following faithfully in the wake of Telefónica Blue were Delta Lloyd, just slightly to the east, Telefónica Black directly in her sistership’s wake, and Green Dragon, the furthest west of this bunch.  Fourteen miles east of this pack are the two Ericsson boats and their long-term friend, PUMA.

Now thoroughly into the south easterly trade winds, the fleet should be enjoying a fast transition to the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha, 700 nm to the north, but instead, the trade winds are not living up to their reputation.  In fact, champagne sailing this most certainly is not.

Wouter Verbraak, the Dutch navigator of Delta Lloyd in third place reports winds varying from seven to 18 knots with a wind direction from almost everywhere.  To make this even more difficult, clouds have appeared.  Some are windy, some are big, some are small, and some have no wind at all.  This has meant the crews have had to change sails on a constant basis.  Although Verbraak says that using their furling masthead code zero sail has made sail changing in the squalls more palatable.  Verbraak’s strategy is to stay with the easterly route, as he believes there are less squalls and better wind further away from the shore.

For Fernando Echávarri’s Telefónica Black, the leader in the initial stages, hope has changed into temporary frustration.  “What next?” questions their navigator Roger Nilson.  “We are just looking for new chances to be the over-taker instead of the over-taken,” he said.

While the crews struggle under the influence of the clouds, the end of this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race is looming.  Rick Deppe, MCM onboard PUMA say’s he is amazed at the way the race has changed his sense of time and distance.

“Capey (navigator Andrew Cape) and I were idly chatting this morning about the way we can just walk down the dock, throw some gear on the boat and set off on a 5000 mile leg with very little fuss.  Of course, we want to do well in the race, and we must be sure that everything is taken care of in our own particular area, but pretty much, we take this leg on as though we were going out on an overnight trip.  Most of all, you become patient… 750 miles to the gate, then another 300 to the finish.  No biggy, we’ll get there.”

Others are not counting off the miles and Ericsson 3’s skipper Magnus Olsson, doesn’t want the race to finish at all.  This morning his crew mentioned that it is only approximately two months until the race arrives in Stockholm, the home city of Ericsson.  Magnus instantly changed from the smiling skipper the crew are used to, and became very serious.  “I know,” he said.  “It feels tragic.  I don’t want to think about it.  Can’t we just continue and make another lap straight away,” he said.

Leg Six Day 4: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 4232 nm
2. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +8
3. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) +14
4. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +20
5. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +21
6. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +25
7. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +32
8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

Outrageous Fortune Party

some picies from earlier parties

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Pirate locations here

Victorious gets another birthday

Happy Birthday to me )) 107ish

more here

from this

to this

Minefield of squalls

DELTA LLOYD LEG SIX DAY 3 QFB:

received 140.04.09 0907 GMT
Who ever said that trade winds are constant? Winds are varying from seven to 18 knots and the wind direction is all over the place. A varied mix of clouds is being thrown at us at random from the east. Some big, some small, some windy, some with no wind at all. Champagne sailing? Forget it! Half drunk coffees are spread through the cockpit and the galley is full with unwashed bowls. Normally these are big no no’s, but the last 24 hours we have been going from one sail change to the next and back. Bad things happen. You just have to deal with it the best you can.

The furling sails are proving to be the best way to get through the mine field of squalls. We can quickly furl the masthead code zero, survive the squall wit the small furling J4 jib and then reverse the process once we are through with it all. The big thing is trying to anticipate the squalls and be one step ahead. Sometimes we manage, sometimes we get caught out, and it is these moments when things get hectic. Sheets and halyards everywhere, torches flashing, sail bags from the front to the back of the boat. One wonders how we can still operate, but we manage somehow.

Overall it means that gains and losses are varied over the fleet, with some boats doing well one sked and others another. We are trying to stick with our easterly route as much as we can as there are less squalls and better wind further away from the shore. On average we hope to come out a little better than the guys to leeward. Less than 800 miles to the scoring gate and we are determined to get there in the top three.

We are racing our hearts out and having fun doing it, which is very important. Despite our relatively new team with a lot of new guys, we are working better and better together, refining our communications and maneuvers. Exhausted but happy and determined is the best description of the mood on the boat at the moment. Not sure we can lose the first feeling, but sure working hard on keeping the last two!

Going to have a little nap while I can. Out.

Wouter Verbraak – navigator

more here

latest positions here

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This post is tagged alex, alinghi, americas, bertarelli, bluqube, bmw, boss, brad, butterworth, coutts, cup, delta, dewar, ellison, ernesto, fortune, hobart, hugo, katie, larry, lloyd, miller, ocean, oliver, oracle, outrageous, portimao, race, russell, sailing, sponsorship, sydney, thomson, valencia, victorious, volvo, wally