Yachting News April Part 13

Apr 27th 2009
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Here is the chat I had with Hilary the other night about her epic adventure loaded onto my face book page

Another SOL yachtie shares a recent raceyakka

On April 22 1969 Sir Robin Knox-Johnston made history as the first man to sail singlehanded and non-stop around the world. He was the only competitor to finish the Sunday Times Golden Globe yacht race and to this day remains the only British sailor to win a singlehanded round the world yacht race.

April 22 2009 will see Sir Robin mark the 40-year anniversary of this incredible accomplishment.

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Yachting Man awarded SPARC Lifetime Achievement

Yachting New Zealand Board Director and well known yachtsman, Ralph Roberts (MBE and JP) has been awarded the highly prestigious SPARC Lifetime Achievement Award.

Roberts, whose involvement with yachting spans decades, was one of three leaders in sport presented the Award at a ceremony for the inaugural New Zealand Sport and Recreation Sector Awards in Hamilton last night. Other recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 were Lois Muir OBE DCNZM and Peter Fitzsimmons OBE.

Sir Wilson Whineray, who led the independent judging panel, said the award winners thoroughly deserved to be recognised by their peers in this way. “These three individuals are passionate and dedicated New Zealanders who have made an enormous contribution as sportspeople and sports administrators,’’ Sir Wilson said.

Roberts was President of the New Zealand Yachting Federation between 1986 and 1989 and was awarded the MBE for services to yachting and sport in 1993. He competed at the Olympic Games in 1960 and 1968 and was reserve crew in 1964. In 1984 Roberts was Sectional Manager of the New Zealand Olympic sailing team that won two gold medals and a bronze, and in 1992 he was Chef d’Mission for the New Zealand Olympic Team.

Roberts is a member of the ISAF Review Board as well as ISAF’s Youth World Championship Sub-Committee. He is a past winner of numerous National Yachting titles, has been Commodore of the Takapuna Boating Club, is their current President and a Life Member and is a trustee of Habour Sports. Ralph is married to Penny, has six children, six grand children and lives in Takapuna, Auckland.

At last night’s ceremony Awards were also presented to recognise excellence in innovation, leadership, events, project collaboration and commercial partnership. Yachting New Zealand’s Sailing… Have a Go! Programme which provides young New Zealanders with the opportunity to try sailing was one of three finalists for the Innovation Award. Bowls New Zealand’s Mates in Bowls was announced the winner in this category.

For more information contact:
Jodie Bakewell-White
Communications Manager, Yachting New Zealand

Guess what? yep, Alinghi don’t want to play when the court says they have to…so….

AMERICA’S CUP LIKELY TO RETURN TO NY SUPREME COURT

The America’s Cup seems to be destined to return to Court as a result of the
action of Defender, Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG) rejecting the offer of a
Multi Challenger event sailed in yachts to the AC33 rule, made by the
Challenger of Record, Golden Gate Yacht Club. At a meeting in Geneva, last
Thursday, SNG/Alinghi did not accept the Multi Challenger proposal, instead
they opted for a Match in 90ft or 115ft LWL multihulls, the maximum sized
yacht allowed in the Deed of Gift.

SNG/Alinghi also announced that they would Defend in May 2010, and apparent
contravention of a New York Supreme Court order requiring a match to be sailed
on 8 February 2010. The response from Golden Gate YC and their team BMW Oracle
Racing was to request that the statement regarding a Defence date be put in
writing.

Once that is done it seems that the matter will be referred back to the New
York Supreme Court for further decision and action. The confirmation of dates
by the Court could be done either by a letter to the Court, or at a full
Hearing with a new Judge, as Justice Cahn has returned to private practice.

Photo: Copyright Nico Martinez / RC 44 Class:

BMW ORACLE Racing wins the fleet race event

and the overall Cagliari RC 44 Cup.

Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts, winners of the Cagliari RC 44 Cup

PRESS RELEASE – RC44 Championship Tour – Cagliari RC 44 Cup

There were no races in Cagliari today due to the lack of wind. Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts’ BMW ORACLE Racing are the grand winners of the event, ahead of Chris Bake’s Team Aqua and Igor Lah’s Ceeref.

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If you sailed with the team RSVP me ASAP.

After the excitements of yesterday today looked set to be dull in comparison. The bad weather forecast has not yet arrived but i think the rain now drumming on the roof may be the arrival of muchos wind. Currently i am drifting around about 40 miles from the South Island and about 30nm due east of Stewart island. Landing places are few and far between. This is due to precipitous cliffs with resulting breakers constituting most of the coastline otherwise rocks and heavy surf. So coulpled with a very limited no, of places to land is the weather which looks set to drive us south away from land. So without a gentle Eish wind it is going to be hard indeed to make an unassited landfall. So for now we wait and see what this weathewr will do to our drift over the weekend and monday… The Expedition manager, George Olver Esq, is, it turns out a man a many guises and with a certain affinty for fun machines. Last i saw him he was on the other side of the Tasman sea riding aboard a sieek silver super Schooner named Blizzard , prior to that he had been seen taking to the skies of Tasmania, above the City of Franklin in a flying boat no less! ANd now today, lo and behold who should come swooping in low and fast out of the sun, over the sea, in a mechanical bird but the very same G. Olver, riding shotgun in a helicopter! – However, this was of course no joyride but a mission of the most critical importance….. We transferred a camera on a line from the Carrot to the chopper before George ‘iceman’ Olver roared off to do a little reconaissance of Stewart Island’s coastline to scout for possible landing places. I suspect this may not be the last we see of G. Olver in the skies! SO great excitement to have a visitor from the skies other than the feathered varitety this afternoon.

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The Chileans reveal a secret

The first 24 hours of 4,800 mile Leg 4 from Ilhabela, Brazil, to Charleston, South Carolina, have been a tortuous reintroduction to offshore sailing for the four boats in the Portimão Global Ocean Race fleet.

Boris Herrmann describes the scene: “We had around five knots of breeze with a two knot counter current,” says the German skipper. “It was enough to fill the spinnaker and push Beluga Racer in the right direction and this continued throughout the first night. It was like sailing on a lake. No sooner had the noise from the fireworks onshore at the start died down, then the wind was switched off.”

Boat speeds fluctuated over the first night at sea but plummeted to two knot averages at dawn on Sunday. “About an hour and a half after the start, as we were all approaching the northern end of the island, the wind died leaving us wallowing in the baking sunshine,” says Jeremy Salvesen on Team Mowgli. “Wind was down below two knots and boat speeds were below one,” he continues. “We took the option of heading for the shore of the mainland, hoping to pick up any afternoon sea breeze left, only to find that it wasn’t there.” Having gybed away from Ilhabela, three boats ran out of breeze. “Beluga and Roaring Forty were just in front and managed to pick up a puff of wind ahead of us, leaving us in their wake,” recalls Salvesen. “The Chileans on Desafio Cabo de Hornos, who had been completely becalmed on the shores of Ilhabela, suddenly picked up wind and there was nothing the rest of us could do as we watched them disappear over the horizon.”

Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme are unclear as to the root of the Chilean’s successful tactic. “I can’t tell if they knew or suspected something that we didn’t,” said Herrmann earlier today. “Whatever the case, we were committed to our strategy.” While the German duo fought to keep the boat moving, Herrmann and co-skipper Felix Oehme had their hands full repairing their active autopilot – one of three units carried on board Beluga Racer. “We worked on it all night trying to fix the electronic motor and it cost us some miles,” confirms Herrmann. Some ingenious cannibalisation involving the boat’s electric coffee-frother has supplied a fix, but the experience was destabilising. “We really want to get into the rhythm of racing,” says Herrmann. “The stretch of water to the scoring gate just south of Recife is a very important.”

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Ocean Race to Detour for Whales Near Boston

By CHRIS MUSELER

Published: April 24,

2009The Volvo Ocean Race fleet has raced for nearly 30,000 nautical miles, through garbage-strewn waters in the China Sea, around a pirate zone on the way to India and over 20-foot waves in the Southern Ocean.

As the seven sleek yachts that remain in the race ride warm southerly winds past Cape Cod this weekend, they will have to make their way around yet another obstacle, a whale sanctuary, before gliding into Boston Harbor.Skip to next paragraphEnlarge This ImageRicardo Moraes/Associated PressIker Martinez, left, helping Pepe Ribes into the water after Telefónica Blue hit something unknown and damaged one of the boat’s daggerboards.

In a first for such an event, organizers of the Volvo Ocean Race, a 37,000-nautical-mile race around the world, have worked with the federal government to route the fleet around the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and the group of North Atlantic right whales that began feeding there this month.

Ecologists and race organizers said new rules restricting access to the sanctuary would better protect the whales and the sailors. The rules were enacted in January.A collision with a marine mammal at the speeds of 30 miles an hour that these sailboats reach can be devastating, race officials said. The animal could be killed and crew members could be thrown into rigging.“It’s happening more and more,” the race’s communications director, Marcus Hutchinson, said of the incidence of racing boats hitting marine life. “There are more of these boats out there, but more importantly, they are going radically faster.”

In a phone interview Thursday from Boston, he likened a boat’s steel keel hitting a whale to a knife going through butter.

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POINTS AND GLORY IN THE MAKING

Now in the closing stages of the 4,900 nm leg six of the Volvo Ocean Race from Rio de Janeiro to Boson, USA, the intensity onboard at least the first four boats in the fleet is almost unbearable.

Having led the fleet for the majority of the leg, Bouwe Bekking’s Telefónica Blue relinquished her position two days ago to Ericsson 4, who at 1300 GMT today had just 67 miles to go to the finish line. Only 18 miles separate the first four boats; the points and the glory are there for the taking, but it will be a huge fight to the finish now and the order on the podium is by no means certain.

Summing up the feeling in the fleet, Ericsson 3’s navigator, Aksel Magdahl said, “I think that every mistake we make may cost us a place, and I do not want to be at the finish knowing we could have done better without a small mistake. That is a terrible feeling, so better do our absolute maximum out here.”

Currently, Ericsson 4 leads the pack and is averaging a respectable 13.3 knots towards the finish. Seven miles behind, but two knots slower is Ericsson 3. Former leader, Telefónica Blue currently holds third place but is also averaging around 11 knots of boatspeed. Only two miles behind is PUMA, making a challenge for the third podium position, a result that would be all the more sweeter as Boston is the team’s home port.

Based on current speeds the first boat is expected to cross the finish in Boston at around 1900 GMT (1400 local time).

Scoring Gate Results Fernando de Noronha
1. Telefónica Blue   19:58:56 GMT 16.04.09 4    Points
2. Ericsson 4    22:55:36 GMT 16.04.09 3.5 Points
3. Delta Lloyd    23:28:32 GMT 16.04.09 3    Points
4. Puma     23:29:31 GMT 16.04.09 2.5 Points
5. Telefónica Black 23:42:20 GMT 16.04.09 2     Points
6. Ericsson 3    00:14:28 GMT 17.04.09 1.5 Points
7. Green Dragon 01:27:26 GMT 17.04.09 1     Point

Leg Six Day 16: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 67 nm
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +7 nm
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +16 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +18 nm
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) +96 nm
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) 114 nm
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +125 nm
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

follow them home here

Just when you thought you hard seen everything… Roger A local Waiheke icon rows his old sunburst dinghy to Mayor Island. Go Hard Roger yachtyakka is routing for ya.

“We have just completed our second major adventure and our second DVD. It’s called The Big Row, and it is the story of how one man rowed 177 kilometres from Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand to Mayor Island in the Bay of Plenty.

Huge waves, savage seas and some serious setbacks meant single-handedly rowing a 500-pound boat at the required 3-5 knots was never going to be easy.

Why Mayor Island? Because that’s where we started our first fishing DVD Gluttons From The Deep back in 1996. Now, in 2008, we’re heading back again.”

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