Yachting News 7th June

Jun 7th 2009
One Comment
respond
trackback

Greetings Yachties,

Just got a note from a long time yachtyakkaeee, knot enough pictures and too much reading and wants more movies. Check this one out Logan, and thanks for your kind comments:)

Enjoy

Alphena One: The primary day-yacht

The primary day-yacht

The title day-yacht alone sums up the philosophy of the Alphena One. Designed to sail coastal courses or inland race zones, the Alphena One, through its slender Tanguy Le Bihan designed hull, offers its helmsman and crew the most immediate and exhilarating pleasures of a great day’s sailing. Exceptional performance, simplicity and comfort are synonymous with this resolutely modern sports coupé, and you don’t have to be an experienced skipper to access the purest of sensations.

A resolutely avant-garde concept

With its inverted bow, neat bulwark, flush deck, slender roof, very wide cockpit, sofa seating with bridge deck, self-furling jib and uncluttered deck hardware layout, the Alphena One represents a totally avant-garde design.

This day-yacht benefits from a construction of extraordinary quality: a hull and deck made from a vacuum polyester infusion of balsa sandwich reinforced with glass and carbon, a top of the range external finish with laquered metallic paint, mirror polished stainless steel, a fully laid deck and Harken deck fittings.

This exception little craft is the fruit of close collaboration between Alphena Yachts, naval architect Tanguy Le Bihan and Loïck Peyron, the famous triple winner of The Transat. A year and a half’s engineering was necessary to ensure its fine tuning.

Solutions with a consideration for responsible yachting

The Alphena One is also intended to be a forerunner in terms of respect for the environment. As such, propulsion is guaranteed via an inboard motor comprising a saildrive leg coupled with an electric engine. Three 12 Volt batteries guarantee a range and performance which are in line with the sailing programme.

The deck is entirely laid in FSC certified (Forest Stewardship Council) exotic wood guaranteeing its origin and its socioeconomic conditions of use.

Finally, the materials incorporated in the inner linings and seating are made of Okeo Tex certified materials assuring the absence of harmful, toxic chemical compounds.

Photo Laurent Charpentier

A small series style production

The Alphena Yachts yard, based at the core of the French racing hub of Lorient, ensures a small production run (maximum of 20 craft per year) for this 8.50 metre craft. Each craft is produced in close collaboration with the client in order to adapt to their wishes: hull colour, seating colour, interior layout and rigging. The first craft will sail in Switzerland, on the French Côte d’Azur and Southern Brittany.

Alphena Three: A 12.5 metre big brother

This year Alphena Yachts intends to expand its concept to a larger craft: the Alphena Three. A genuine ‘loft-yacht’, the Alphena Three will recapture the same principles of efficiency, performance, comfort and design as its little brother, but these will extend to an interior which is suited to modern navigation spanning several days. As such, the yard is currently seeking a ‘pilot’ customer who will benefit from attractive terms to be the first to appropriate this exceptional craft of the future.

more here

the full size one

one of my favourites

more sending it here

Le Mirabaud LX remporte la classique Genève-Rolle-Genève

The flying monohull Mirabaud LX has won the classic Genève-Rolle-Genève – one of the lake’s most important regattas – in the monohull division and smashed the event’s record ahead of Jo Richards’ prototype.

Geneva, June 7, 2009 – Thomas Jundt, Antoine Ravonel and Eric Gobet have won their first major regatta on board their spectacular hydrofoils 18′footer Mirabaud LX, winning the 32 Miles return-course between Geneva and the town of Rolle in 3 hours 43. Jo Richards and his crew onboard Full Pelt finish two minutes later, whilst Oyster – the fabulous Seb Schmidt prototype – completes the podium 15 minutes later. Mirabaud LX smashes the previous record, held until now by a Psaros 40 in 3h55.

more foilers here

The second day of racing continued today in beautiful Scarlino, Italy leaving Pieter Taselaar onUSA-169 Bliksem firmly in the lead with an astounding 11 point lead over second place challenger Claudio Recchi on ITA-93 Team 93. Although tied with Recchi in points, pulling up for third is Filippo Pacinotti on ITA-667 Brontolo.

Three additional races were conducted today. Although the struggle within the fleet was great, the end results did not change anything for Taselaar seated in first. Taselaar continues to dominate giving his adversaries little room for advancement.

Recchi was able to take the first race, with Taselaar in second, Luigi Melegari onITA-181 Matrix took third. Taselaar scored big winning the second race of the day. For the third race Andrea Cecchetti on ITA-179 Bagua with Vasco Vascotto took the win. Pacinotti’s strong second place finished enabled his ability to finish third overall tied in the points with Recchi.

More racing continues on Sunday — the final day of racing in Scarlino!

more here

Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race

Saturday, 6 June 2009, 19:30 GMT

Departure day, which coincided with the 65th anniversary of D-day, like much of this 2008-09 race, belonged to Ericsson 4 as Torben Grael’s troops seized early control of Leg 8.

But with five hours wiped off the clock, Ericsson 4 found itself in a skirmish with Green Dragon, revelling in the fast going, as the fleet powered towards the next significant landmark on this passage – Fastnet Rock, the lighthouse off the southern coast of Ireland.

The seven boats must leave the Fastnet to starboard before heading across the Irish Sea to the English Channel.

By the 19:00 GMT Position Report, the leaderboard had the Dragon a mile ahead of Ericsson 4. Those familiar foes, PUMA (+1 mile Distance To Leader) and Telefonica Blue (+2) were engaged in their usual hand-to-hand combat.

After the top four, on the leadboard at least, the order read … Ericsson 3 and Delta Lloyd, taking the coastal route, both +3. Telefonica Black, the northern-most boat, had problems with a kite early on and was seven miles off the leaders.

You can follow the fleet’s progress via the regular updates from our media chase boat – the Inmarsat Fleet Broadband Express. The package will include text, audio, video and photographs.

The forecast for the initial stages of this 1,250-mile passage from Galway to Mastrand/Gothenburg is for heavy air running, an opportunity for PUMA to flex her muscles, according to Media Crew Member Rick Deppe.

“It’s going to be game on, and in fact right now only two hours after the start we are already in a tight gybing duel with the fleet as we run down the coast of Ireland,” he wrote.

“Downwind starts are always fun and today was no exception, with a nice 20 knot breeze and flat water the massive crowds here in Galway were given quite a treat as the fleet blasted across the start line like a bunch of thoroughbreds, then a quick loop of the bay before heading out between the cliffs and the Aaran Islands.”

Meanwhile, the crowd numbers for the fortnight of the stopover are in. They make impressive reading. Up to 8,000 people turned up in the middle of the night as the fleet arrived with a further flotilla of 500 on the water. “I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like it,” said Ian Moore at the time.

The in-port race last weekend drew 62,000 people to the race village alone. Failte Ireland, the national tourism board, predicted that 200,000 people would visit the race village while the race was in town. Figures released today show that an estimated 420,000 people attended.

It’s a similar story on economic impact. A report ahead of the race forecasted that the city would be boosted to the tune of 43 million euros, but Failte Ireland have since estimated the income at 100 million euros.

From the crews, there has been high praise all round for Galway for a job well done.

Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker led the tributes. “When I saw the welcome we received on arriving in Galway I was speechless but when we left two weeks’ later it was with tears in my eyes,” he said.

“I knew Galway was a great city and a city that loves to party but never in my wildest dreams did I think Galway and Ireland would take so much to the Volvo Ocean Race.

“Today we had a spectacular start. There were once again hundreds of spectator boats and a ‘Cup final’ atmosphere on the water. What fantastic memories we have of Galway Bay and I look forward to returning soon. Thank you Ireland, thank you Galway.”

On behalf of PUMA, Deppe added: “Galway deserves a great deal from us because for the two weeks since we arrived they’ve put on a brilliant show.

“To say its been a party would be an understatement – the statistics for foot traffic through Galway and the race village are truly staggering. What a great model for an ideal stopover, and I’m sure that Galway is one that the race organizers will be taking into serious consideration as the race moves forward and re-invents itself.”

Ever the historian, Deppe signed off with a reference to the D-Day landings, when thousands of allied troops began the liberation of Europe. “Winston Churchill once said ‘this is not the beginning, this is not the end, this is the beginning of the end’.

“I can’t think of a more perfect way to describe our position here in the race between now and the finish (of the race).”

more here