Greetings Yachties,

Dans un mois, une cinquantaine de skippers aura rendez-vous avec la Solitaire du Figaro, la quarantième du nom. Lorient accueillera alors les plus fines lames du monde de la course au large et donnera le coup d’envoi d’un mois de joutes nautiques de haut vol. Parmi ceux qui s’annoncent comme les prétendants aux premiers rôles, Gildas Mahé fait figure de candidat plus que sérieux. La Quiberon Solo dans son sillage, le skipper du Figaro Banque Populaire a d’ores et déjà le regard tourné vers l’échéance majeure de la saison. Mais loin de jouer la précipitation, le finistérien entend aborder la Solitaire du Figaro comme à son habitude ; avec méthode et envie…

Rolex Farr 40 World Championship
Porto Cervo, Sardinia, ITA

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

June 26, 2009

It is a surreal experience sat at the windward mark on a media boat, waiting for the fleet to arrive, all the while listening to Bob Marley and the Wailers on the radio. Total relaxation. A complete world away from the intense battles and mind games being played out on the racecourse at Rolex Farr 40 Worlds and the frenzy of activity about to be unleashed. The penultimate day was no less enthralling than the first two. Barking Mad (USA) heads the table after another day of conservatism, whilst Nerone (ITA) stands six-points behind in second, after a performance of truly mercurial liberalism. Two opposing race strategies seemingly on a collision course.

With two races left, Joe Fly (ITA) in third is by no means out of it, but bridging a sixteen-point gap will require a god of Jupiter’s standing to step in. Current World Champions, Mascalzone Latino (ITA), will go down fighting to the last, but a twenty-eight-point gap to the lead looks insurmountable even for the miracle workers on board.

Three races today in a building westerly, with an underlying sea swell running, made for excellent racing conditions. Again, we had three different winners. Vincenzo Onorato looked to have put yesterday behind him, carving out a fine victory on Mascalzone Latino. The next two races though were killers for his Championship aspirations, as Mascalzone scored 13, 13. Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone picked the plum in race two, following a second in race one. All this good work was almost wiped out as he started the third race too early. In that race, Marco Rodolfi and TWT (ITA) finally showed their true potential passing Helmut Jahn and Flash Gordon (USA) on the final leg to win.

The first race was notable for Joe Fly being over early. Giovanni Maspero’s crew could finish no better than nineteenth, pushing them back in the standings, while Mascalzone’s first and Nerone’s second place had enabled them to close the gap to Barking Mad which finished sixth.

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PUMA LEG TEN DAY 2 QFB:

received 26.06.09 0234 GMT

We are racing again.  I have to admit that this leg was a tough one to really get fired up about.  That is until the starting gun went off of course.  Then it is full on, no matter what is at stake.

Of course, I would be remiss without saying that the send off in Stockholm was as fantastic as the stay itself.  There is clearly an air of finality surrounding this race right now.  The leg awards banquet in Stockholm and the final exit to the racecourse really started to feel like the end is near.  This adventure is almost over, but we still have one leg to do first.  Although we simply have to finish this leg in order to get our second overall, you would never know it on the boat.  The boys want to end in style.

There is clearly a lack of pressure aboard.  That showed with a mistake when we sailed up to the coast of Estonia (another country that I don’t think I would be ever mentioning in a sailboat racing blog), Estonia.  Wild.  Anyway, we approached with about a half-mile lead that we had gained off the starting line and held all the way across until reaching land.  We had a decision to make, and decided to get into the coast and cut through a large rock pile to the beach in order to get to the expected right shift.  Problem was, once we committed to go inside the rock pile the wind started to die slowly.  No way out but to continue and we sailed in to lighter air while most the other boats gained about a mile and a half on us outside our line, and our friendly rocks.

So, we are now battling back and have crossed to yet another country. Finland.  Tick another country box.  Actually, it would be fun some day to retrace our path and see how many countries we have sailed in close proximity too.  My guess is that it is a lot more that we would imagine.  Estonia, Vietnam, China, Taiwan – countries that aren’t exactly considered as being hosts to some of the world’s highest profile racing events.  No slight on any sailing in any of those countries, not in the least.  I just don’t have Vietnam Race Week on my calendar yet.  As soon as this goes out, I am guessing that I will have an e-mail with the time and date of that event in my inbox.

Anyway, a long beat to Russia.  This race wouldn’t be complete without one more long beat.  Nice flat water though.  Very civilized sailing with no water on deck at all.   The finish line can’t come soon enough.  There is some serious celebrating that needs to take place.

Kenny Read – skipper

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Photo: Gustav Morin

Rolex Farr 40 World Championship

Porto Cervo, Sardinia, ITA

IF…

June 25, 2009

Two races, two winners, no change at the top. The wobbles have begun though and the moves are being made in both directions. Rudyard Kipling could have written his famous poem about day two at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds 2009. Three boats held their nerve the best. Jim Richardson and Barking Mad (USA), Giovanni Maspero and Joe Fly (ITA), Massimo Mezzaroma and Nerone (ITA) kept the damage to the minimum and lead the fleet going into day three.

Today was all about keeping your head at the start line. Neither race got away cleanly. The first race required two attempts, the second three. In the first race two boats still got it wrong second time around despite the threat of a Z Flag – which adds an irredeemable three-point scoring penalty at this regatta if you are over early. In the second race the phrase ‘losing it’ springs to mind, as eleven boats sailed the course under the shadow of the penalty flag.

Those got away cleanly through luck or judgement had a relatively easy day. Both Barking Mad and Joe Fly led their races; both sailed in mid-teen westerlies, from start to finish. The Italian crew had the better day posting a fourth in the first race to keep all their scores so far in the top five. The Americans posted a sixth in the second race, but stay in first overall. These two are separated by one point, with Nerone’s score line of 2, 4 sufficient to lift them into third place, seven points off the pace.

So, if those three were the movers, who were the shakers. Transfusion, for one. The Australians took a solid third in one race and hefty twenty in the other. Vincenzo Onorato did only slightly better, with a combined score of seventeen-points, but the Z-flag in the second race suggests a chink in the usually impregnable armour of Mascalzone Latino (ITA). Fiamma (ITA) may have only slipped from eighth to ninth in the overall standings, but a look at the score line shows a damaging thirty-four point day that has dented Alessandro Barnaba’s Championship challenge.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25 June 2009

Hamilton, Bermuda (25 June 2009) – The invitation process for the Argo Group Gold Cup is now underway. The 24 team event will comprise of the eight World Match Racing Tour Card holders, winners of the two qualifier events in the United States and Bermuda and 14 invites handed out by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

The RBYC, organizer of The Argo Group Gold Cup sailing for the King Edward VII Gold Cup, has confirmed the dates for October 6-11, 2009. The Argo Group Gold Cup is the penultimate event of the ten-stage World Match Racing Tour. Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd, an international underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products in niche areas of the property and casualty market, returns as title sponsor this year.

The event features a unique 24-team format, the largest entry on the World Match Racing Tour. In addition to the eight Tour Card holders, two teams are selected from a pair of qualifying events, the Knickerbocker Cup and the Bermuda National Match Race Championship. The remaining 14 teams are selected by application and invitation from the top international match-racing sailors on the ISAF ranking list. The extra number of teams compared to other Tour events gives more opportunities for up and coming competitors to take on the world’s best fighting it out for the $100,000 prize purse. The Notice of Race and invite application information is available now at http://www.bermudagoldcup.com or teams can contact Audrey Pope at the RBYC Sailing Office, sailingoffice@rbyc.bm.

In announcing their second year of title sponsorship Mark E. Watson III, President and Chief Executive Officer of Argo Group said, “Argo Group is proud to announce our sponsorship of the Argo Group Gold Cup match race tournament once again. The Gold Cup and Argo continue to make a perfect match. We both strive for excellence. Racing for the King Edward VII Gold Cup is a great tradition in Bermuda and attracts some of the world’s best yachtsmen.

“Sailing is Bermuda’s unofficial national sport. While hundreds of young people are currently involved in sailing, we believe there is a huge opportunity to increase those numbers. Sailing promotes self-reliance, discipline and team work – all traits that parents want their children to develop in order to be self-sufficient adults. It’s a great character-builder. In Bermuda you can sail year-round and it’s great fun.”

Watson concluded, “Once again, we look forward to working in partnership with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club to make this year’s event one of the best ever. We will also be supporting the second Bermuda Festival of Sail planned for the finals weekend of the Argo Group Gold Cup. The Festival is designed to reach out to the broad Bermuda public and introduce them to the fun of sailing”

Commodore Ralph Richardson, thanked Argo for their support and said, “Match Racing for The King Edward VII Gold Cup is recognized as a premier event on the World Match Racing Tour. It has always been a highlight for sailors and attracts the top sailors in the International Sailing Federation’s and World Tour’s rankings. In 2008 we brought sailing to all Bermudians with the first Festival of Sail. That will be bigger and better in 2009.”

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The Artemis Challenge returns to Cowes Week in 2009

by Focus PR

August 5th 2009 will see the return of The Artemis Challenge at Cowes Week.  The race, a 50 mile high speed sprint around the Isle of Wight for IMOCA 60s, will see £10,000 donated to the charity of the winning skipper.

Following the huge success of the inaugural event in 2007 and the second edition in 2008, Artemis Investment Management, one of the UK’s leading investment companies, will be staging the third annual Artemis Challenge at Cowes Week this year. Designed to celebrate IMOCA 60 racing in British waters, the race will be the ideal warm up for the big boats ahead of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The Artemis Challenge takes place in the middle of the world’s largest sailing regatta and looks set to feature some of the biggest names on the offshore racing circuit, who will be joined by a host of celebrities.

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New Zealand Herald Junior Pacific Series

A ticket to ride – Chris Steele from the Wakatere Sailing Club owns a new boat today after winning an O’Pen Bic dinghy in the NZ Herald Junior Pacific Series.

Sixteen-year-old Chris Steele has Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker as a mentor, but it is the Alinghi crew he will be sailing with today in the final of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.

Steele’s ticket to ride as 18th man on board Alinghi was handed to him last night [17 February] after he won the New Zealand Herald Junior Pacific Series sailing championships on the waters of the Viaduct Harbour.

The other half of the winner’s prize for Steele, a former world Optimist dinghy champion, was one of the thrilling little O’pen Bic boats – a new breed of superfast dinghies – in which the regatta was sailed over the past fortnight.

Twenty O’pen Bic boats were brought into the country by Frenchman Bruno Troublé, co-ordinator of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, to be raced inside the Viaduct by 40 of Auckland’s top young sailors. Last night’s final was fought out by 20 boys and girls, who battled gusty winds to stay upright in the zippy boats, and it wasn’t until the last race of the evening – with the setting sun glinting off the clear mylar sails – that Steele clinched the inaugural title.

“The winds made it a bit of a lottery, but these boats are very interesting,” said Steele, a sixth former at Westlake Boys High School who sails for the Wakatere sailing club in Auckland. “I can’t wait to take one out to sea to see how it goes in the waves.

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Plan to join us at Mystic Seaport for the 18th Annual WoodenBoat Show, June 26-28, 2009. Mark your calendars now!

WoodenBoat Show Directory coverThe 2009 WoodenBoat Show will be another celebration of wooden boats! You can expect the return of many Show favorites including:

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Kleinjans closes in on the finish

After 21 days crossing the North Atlantic, the final competitor in the Portimão Global Ocean Race, solo sailor Michel Kleinjans, will cross the Leg 5 finish line shortly after midday UTC today (25/06). In the latest position poll at 0620 UTC on Thursday morning, Kleinjans and Open 40, Roaring Forty, are 25 miles off Cape Saint Vincent on the south-western tip of Portugal with a further 19 miles of racing along the country’s southern coast to the finish line at the mouth of Portimão’s River Arade.

At dawn this morning, a heavy layer of cloud is beginning to break up as Roaring Forty closes in on the finish line with around eight knots of north-westerly breeze and an average speed of seven knots. The wind should pick up slightly throughout the morning and it is hoped that Belgium’s premier solo sailor will not suffer the lack of breeze that has greeted the double-handed fleet as they rounded the final headland of Punta da Piedade just west of Portimão.

For Kleinjans, the Portimão Global Ocean Race has provided almost 160 days of non-stop, offshore action and the solo sailor has never failed to impress the double-handed teams in the fleet with his ability to keep pace with the Class 40s. Leg 5 has been unique in that Roaring Forty soon fell behind the main fleet as Kleinjans battled with exhaustion after his boat’s refit in Charleston, South Carolina, following the collision with a container ship east of Grand Bahama. There is no doubt the Roaring Forty will receive a massive welcome from the teams already moored in Portimão.

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This post is tagged artemis, Chris Steele, Cowes Week, Farr 40, O'Pen Bic, Portimao Global Ocean Race, Wooden Boat Show, World Match Racing Tour