FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
18 JUNE 2009

PRESTI TAKES THE LEAD

French Match Racing Team dominates three of top four teams with Round Robin nearly complete

Troia, Portugal (18 June 2009) – The French have come on strong here in Day Two action at the Troia Portugal Match Cup, as Philippe Presti, Sebastian Col, and Mathieu Richard of the French Match Racing Team all sharing in the top four places along with yesterday’s day-end leader Peter Gilmour (AUS) and his YANMAR Racing Team. Presti, on 8 wins, leads the field with just few flights remaining in the Round Robin competition.

Not only by being two points clear, but in also having beat his closest rivals Gilmour, Col, and Richard, Presti is in a comfortable position to advance as the top seed into the next Quarter-Final stage of the competition. But he does have the current Tour leader, Adam Minoprio (NZL) and his Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch team, and Andrew Arbuzov (RUS) to play tomorrow morning when competition resumes.

“We sailed well today, the team did great,” said Presti of his undefeated record on the day. “We just hope to keep up this momentum for the rest of the week.”

Presti and his team had to master a variety of conditions today, ranging from a light offshore breeze in the morning, followed by a long hiatus of no wind, then building to a brisk seabreeze in the afternoon, and then finally moderating to a shifty westerly which died with the setting sun. Another important factor on the race courses here in Troia is the tide, which at times has been up to 2 knots in strength and can have a considerable effect on laylines to starting and rounding marks.

But it was the fresh seabreeze and not the tide that produced considerable excitement in one of Presti’s closest matches of the day, that against Gilmour. With Gilly closing in from less than a length behind on the last downwind leg to the finish, Presti gybed to starboard to defend, with Gilly gybing to windward. With Gilmour threatening now to roll over him to take the lead, Presti luffed hard, making contact with Gilly as boats heeled, spinnakers flogged, and penalty flags flew.

Presti’s team were unable to gather their spinnaker into the boat, so in running over it they slowed enough to allow Gilly to roll over the top and into the lead with just metres left to the finish line. But with an outstanding penalty turn to perform, the YANMAR team had to drop their kite, hoist their jib, cross the finish line but then head up into the wind and tack before being eligible to finish, and the French were able to just get there in time to take the win.

When asked about this match, an understated Presti claimed “It was quite funny, this one.” His exhausted crew may have felt otherwise, but this latest recipient of a Tour Card is certainly on a roll for now and will look to continue his winning ways when Round Robin racing resumes early tomorrow followed by the Quarter Final Stage in Day Three of the Troia Portugal Match Cup.

Article provided by Dobbs Davis

Results from Day 1
Philippe Presti, FRA, French Team 8-1
Sebastien Col, FRA, French Team/K-Challenge 6-3
Peter Gilmour, AUS, YANMAR Racing 6-1
Mathieu Richard, FRA, French Match Racing Team 5-1
Ian Williams, GBR, Bahrain Team Pindar 5-3
Torvar Mirsky, AUS, Mirsky Racing 4-4
Adam Minoprio, NZL, ETNZ/BlackMatch 4-4
Bjorn Hansen, SWE, Team Onboard, 3-4
Phil Robertson, WAKA Racing, 3-6
Andrew Arbuzov, RUS, 2-5
Ian Ainslie, RSA, Team Proximo, 1-8
Alvaro Mourinho, POR, Seth Sailing Team, 0-7

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Dear Speed Sailors, this is only a short reminder that the registration period for the upcoming ISWC Speed Windsurfing Worlds at Karpathos ends on the 21st of June. Please make sure that you have registered (see the list below). We have 78 registrations up till now, which means that we can not allow you to start if you have not registered and get a confirmed starting place.

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Korean boat show generates US$86m in export contracts

By IBI Magazine

Despite nuclear sabre-rattling in North Korea, organisers of the second Korean International Boat Show hailed this year’s event as a success. The show, which ran from June 3-7, was held in conjunction with the Korea Match Cup World Yacht Contest.

The show’s attendance was down significantly from 350,100 visitors last year to about 250,000 this year. Organisers blamed it on threats of war from North Korea and global recession.

But business at the show increased. According to organisers, exhibitors signed about 385 export contracts valued at US$86m at its export consultation meeting, an increase of US$26m compared to last year. The number of exhibiting companies also rose to 281, up 17 per cent compared to last year. There were 115 Korean companies exhibiting and 166 foreign companies. The number of foreign companies rose by 37 per cent.

“It is amazing that the Korea International Boat Show is equipped with the scale and facilities commensurate to a world boat show in two years of its start,” said Tim Coventry, vice president of the British Maritime Federation (BMF), in a statement.

The province also held a ceremony to break ground for the Jeongok maritime industrial complex. The first stage of the complex is expected to be completed next year, and house both Korean and international boat manufacturers. The second stage, expected to be finished by 2012, will include a marina, hotels, and shopping center.

“The maritime multi industrial complex will play a major role not only in developing the boat and yacht industry, but also in revitalizing the regional economy with increased income for the locals,” said Governor Kim Moon-soo of Gyeonggi Province, in the statement. “It will settle as the center of the maritime leisure industry in the West Coast of Gyeonggi Province, while at the same time it will create jobs.”

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Photos: ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

SLOWLY, SLOWLY, TO LA GIRAGLIA ROCK AND GENOA

June 18, 2009

If patience is a virtue, than the 190-boat Giraglia fleet had it in spades early this morning as the boats seemingly crept towards La Giraglia rock and the turn towards the finish in Genoa, 90 miles away.

After Wednesday’s start of the 243-nautical mile race in St Tropez, the breeze slowly built and once the fleet rounded La Fourmigue to head for La Giraglia a northeasterly of 8 – 10 knots settled in, and backed enough to let the boats enjoy a close reach on the rhumbline to the rock. Through Wednesday night the fleet made slow but steady progress, but just before sunrise, the wind died out.

Near the front of the fleet, Bella Mente navigator Robert Hopkins emailed, “As of 0500, we have been becalmed for an hour. Container has coasted to a stop to our north and Alegre appears to be less than a .5 mile behind us. We still have 21.9 mi to go to the rock. At this rate, assuming our current boat speed of 0.2 knots, it will take 100 hours or a little more than 4 days to get there. Hope the wind fills in before then.” An hour later he added, “At 0600, we’re ghosting along under our windseeker. Boatspeed 4.3 kts, windspeed 3.7 kts. The sea is like a mirror.”

Finally, at 1015 local time, the Open 60 Group Bel (FRA), with skipper Kito de Pavant rounded La Giraglia first, followed Andres Soriano’s Mills 68 Alegre (GBR) – the first of the Mini Maxis – then Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente (USA). Then came a slow, but steady parade and by 1215, 32 boats had rounded.

With the breeze so light, the fleet is fairly compacted which gives the smaller boats have an excellent chance to do well on corrected time. In fact, the TP52 Paprec (FRA) rounded only 22 minutes after Group Bel, and the first Swan 45, Fever (GBR), rounded only seven minutes later.

By 1330, Bella Mente was only 11 miles down the track from La Giraglia, and Hopkins offered, “We’re parked again. The weak NE’ly that carried us this far has died. In theory, it will be replaced by a WSW in a couple of hours, which will build to as much as 8 kts and back to the SSW, but that too will die with the sun, leaving us parked outside of Genoa once again. Three parking lots in one regatta! ETA is 45 minutes after midnight, but honestly, who can say? Sailboats need wind.”

With the current weather conditions, an estimated finish is still anyone’s guess. Steve Hayles, navigator on Ran emailed midday to say, “Very light and variable forecast. Probably less than 5 knots most of the time. ETA will be very difficult to get anywhere near right. Probably around day break tomorrow (Friday). It’s a small boat race so far and the little guys will be close behind us.”

The elapsed time race record of 18 hours, 3 minutes, 15 seconds set in 2008 by Neville Crichton on Alfa Romeo, the 100-foot (30.4m) super-maxi, remains safe for another year.

By 1630, 64 yachts had rounded the La Giraglia rock. The finish line for the Giraglia distance race is just off Sturla in Genoa. The fleet will dock at the Yacht Club Italiano.

The prizegiving will take place on Saturday, June 20th at the Yacht Club Italiano. The Challenge Rolex Trophy and the Challenge Bellon Trophy will be awarded to the yacht best scored overall in Corrected Time, (in the most numerous group between IRC and ORC/ORC Club).

Rolex Yacht-Master timepieces in steel and platinum will be awarded to overall winner in elapsed time; the overall winner in IRC corrected time; and the overall winner in ORC corrected time. Also a Rolex Submariner timepiece will be awarded to the winner of the combined scoring for the Inshore Racing and Distance Race (in the biggest class).

The YCI, formerly the RYCI, is the oldest yacht club in the Mediterranean. Established in Genoa in 1879, it has always had as its main objectives the promotion of yachting, the organisation of races and cruises both nationally and internationally, and most importantly the initiation of youth to the sport. Inaugurated in 1929, the present clubhouse in Genoa was partially destroyed during the Second World War. It was reopened in 1953, in the same year that the first Giraglia was held. Today the yacht club has 1,200 members and there are nearly 300 yachts that carry the club’s colours.

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Partenaires principaux

Chers Amis de PlanetSolar,

Je ferme les yeux et pense à ce jour du mois de septembre 2004 : entre deux interventions au service d’ambulance de Lausanne, devant cette carte du monde, j’imagine pour la première fois un bateau solaire faire le tour de notre planète bleue. Puis les idées s’enchaînent, créer un village solaire qui nous suivra lors de notre circumnavigation et permettre ainsi au plus grand nombre de participer à cette aventure. Que de chemin parcouru depuis et à quelques semaines de l’inauguration du village PlanetSolar qui aura lieu à Yverdon-les-Bains le 3 septembre 2009, nous voila prêts à partager notre rêve avec vous.

Stand PlanetSolar

Nous recherchons des bénévoles pour nous aider lors de notre étape à Yverdon-les-Bains, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous pour en savoir plus.

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TARA OCEANS : A UNIQUE EXPEDITION

On 4th September 2009, the Tara expedition ship will leave Lorient, her home port, for a fabulous 3-year journey around the world to study the ocean ecosystems, unknown but still necessary for life on Earth.
The oceans cover 2/3 of our planet and produce half the oxygen we breathe through plankton and micro-organisms still unknown to mankind. The expedition will attempt to provide information on this unexplored universe and to answer the most pressing issues on the protection of our planet.

The Tara Oceans expedition will bring together an international team of scientists, but also of sailors and journalists, whose task will be to collect data that will be analysed by a consortium of international laboratories and institutes. The goal is to create a database that will combine the already existing knowledge and the discoveries made during the expedition.
More than 12 research areas will involve oceanographers, biologists, geneticists, and physicists from the most prestigious worldwide laboratories. 50 laboratories and institutes will be mobilised in 15 countries.
Thus, more than 100 scientists will be directly involved in the expedition.
Tara will therefore make 60 calls in 50 countries around the world, and it will travel 150,000 km (practically, half of the Earth to Moon journey!).

Through this new adventure, Tara Expeditions marks out a new programme and pursues its objectives:

- Proposing to scientists an outstanding observation and experimentation platform. Tara Oceans will be equipped with the most advanced technologies in terms of observations and analyses; to the measurement and sampling equipment an imaging platform will be added that will allow observing these invisible to the naked eye beings that populate the oceans. Tara will lay the foundations for an exhaustive description of marine ecosystems.

- Promoting awareness to the general public and particularly to children the environmental issues and provide them new scientific knowledge. To achieve this goal, TV programmes, documentaries, publications, exhibitions as well as educational activities and animations within schools will be distributed during the expedition.

Just like previous expeditions, the schooner will sail under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

This post is tagged Adam Minoprio, Alvaro Mourinho, Andrew Arbuzov, Bjorn Hansen, Carlo Borlenghi, Giraglia Rolex Cup, Ian Ainslie, Ian Williams, Mathieu Richard, melges 32, mike perham, peter gilmore, Phil Robertson, Philippe Presti, Planet Solar, Sebastien Col, Speed Sailors, Tara Oceans, Torvar Mirsky, World Match Race Tour