Geneva Rolle Geneva Photos: My Images

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International 5.5mIC Swiss Championship on the Lake Thun

Christoph Burger on Odlo takes gold

As usual the Thunersee Yacht Club stands for a perfect organization and infrastructure during the International Swiss Championship of 5.5mIC
24 boats from 6 nations (AUT, BAH; GER; NED; NOR; SUI) were competing against each other.
3 races were sailed on Thursday afternoon with wind from the Northeast to North, 8-12 kts. and 2 races on Friday with Northeasterly winds, 8-16 kts. Conditions were perfect, but as always on lake Thun, very tricky. Each race was won by another competitor.
Constant efforts showed the following results: after 5 races the first 3 places are taken by Christoph Burger from TYC with NOR 65, Bernard Haissly from SNG with SUI 214 and Hanspeter Schmid from TYC with SUI 213.
The favourites Jürg Menzi, 11 times Swiss Champion, and Flavio Marazzi, both from TYC, got beaten by Christoph Burger on Odlo.

Schweizermeisterschaft der 5.5mIC auf dem Thunersee

Christoph Burger auf Odlo holt gold

Wie gewohnt bietet der TYC eine perfekte Organisation und Infrastruktur für die Schweizer Meisterschaft der 5.5er – Klasse.
24 Boote aus 6 Nationen (AUT, BAH, GER, NED, NOR, SUI) sind angetreten.
Donnerstagnachmittags konnten bereits 3 Läufe bei Wind aus Nordwest nach Nord drehend mit 2-3 Bf und am Freitag 2 Läufe bei Wind aus Nordwest mit 2-4 Bf gesegelt werden. Die Bedingungen waren perfekt, aber wie am Thunersee üblich, recht schwierig. Jeder Lauf sah deshalb auch einen anderen Sieger.
Regelmässigkeit zahlte sich dennoch aus: Nach 5 Läufen belegen Christoph Burger vom TYC mit NOR 65, Bernard Haissly vom SNG mit SUI 214 und Hanspeter Schmid vom TYC mit SUI 213 die ersten 3 Plätze.
Die Favoriten Jürg Menzi , 11 Mal Schweizer Meister, und Flavio Marazzi, beide vom TYC wurde geschlagen vom Christoph Burger auf Odlo.

Best regards

Juerg Kaufmann

The final results are
1. NOR65 Berger
2. NED26 Pasman, Parmentier, Chabani
3. SUI213 Schmidt
4. NED31 Bredero, Behrend, de Witte

HIGH WINDS, HIGH SPEEDS, HIGH DRAMA

Leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race – the first of three legs, which takes the seven-strong fleet to the finish in St Petersburg, Russia, later this month, has started with a bang.  Almost literally in Ericsson 4’s case.

In approximately 38 knots of wind yesterday, it became necessary to gybe – not the easiest of manoeuvres in these highly-strung racing yachts at the best of times, but in a strong breeze, it can become more than exciting.

It was a highlight for the Green Dragon team, who led the fleet round the Fastnet Rock late last night.  They timed and executed their gybe perfectly whilst flying thief masthead spinnaker.  They made the whole manoeuvre look easy, in spite of forgetting to swing the keel.  PUMA and Ericsson 4, both of whom were right alongside at the time, did not fare quite so well.

A 38-knot squall hit PUMA just as they needed to gybe.

“Along with a big shift, we decided to drop the kite and gybe to the jib, and jib reach for a bit until the squall passed.  Good plan, bad execution,” said skipper Kenny Read.  “Full gear up in 38.7 knots of wind is pretty touch and go.   Just getting the kite down is touch and go, especially when it pops up and over the top of the mainsail and jams in the sheave,” Read said, adding,  “Last time I saw Ericsson 4, they were laying on their side and blowing out to sea.”

“We should have been smarter and sailed a little more conservatively, but it’s hard when you are charging along right next to first place,” explained Ericsson 4’s MCM Guy Salter, who described Ericsson 4’s events.

“We made a very big school-boy error and were caught in a huge gust.  The boat seemed to accelerate in no time and before we knew it, we had ploughed into the back of the next wave and had white water everywhere.

“This sudden stop also sent us into a spin and we ended up on our side with the kite flapping.  We had broken our leeward steering wheel and its cage.  Luckily the spinnaker was still intact and all of us were still attached to yacht – just – but with a few extra bumps and bruises.”

“We brushed ourselves down and got read after the wipe out.  We went into the gybe, and I must say these boats are hard to manoeuvre at the best of times, but in 30 knots of wind, the inevitable happened and we spun out on the gybe.”

The team carried on as if nothing had happened.  Skipper Torben Grael steered from the leeward side while the broken wheel was removed and the emergency tiller put in place.  The boat was also taking on a fair amount of water and on inspection, it was discovered that there is a relatively large area of delamination between the hull and the deck on the after starboard quarter of the boat.

The team is happy that it is not structural and has set up regular bailing timetable, but it does mean more work for the crew once they reach the pit-stop in Marstrand, where assistance by their shore crew is against the rules.

Overnight, the fleet has made very quick progress across the Celtic Sea, round the famous Fastnet Rock off south west Ireland, through the Western Approaches, leaving the Scilly Isles to starboard (only Green Dragon and Telefónica Black went to the south), past the Lizard Point and up into the English Channel.
The fleet left Galway yesterday after what has been a most memorable stopover and ventured out into the teeth of a gale.  The downwind start gave the hoards of spectators a real chance to see the Volvo Open 70s performing at their best.  Guy Salter, MCM on Ericsson 4 suggested that the fleet burned around Galway Bay like a bunch of delinquents in a stolen car (not that he condones that sort of behaviour!).

At 1300 GMT today the fleet was 21 nm off the coast of Devon.  Telefónica Blue was in the lead, just a mile ahead of Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4; however, the whole fleet was only divided by seven miles from Telefónica Blue in the lead, to her sistership Telefónica Black at the back of the fleet.  After a wet overnight ride, the breeze has dropped to around 10 knots and the crews are able to catch up on some rest.

Fastnet Rock Rounding Order
1. Green Dragon 22:46:34 GMT
2. PUMA 22:51:51 GMT
3. Telefonica Blue 22:53:15 GMT
4. Ericsson 4 22:55:20 GMT
5. Ericsson 3 22:56:23 GMT
6. Delta Lloyd 23:14:15 GMT
7. Telefonica Black 23:23:50 GMT

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Photos: Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race

Marina proposal prompts council response

Diana Worthy

Council is considering a proposal for a marina at Matiatia following its decision

to land-bank the site until the economy improves.
The decision to consider the proposed marina is included in a report written last month by Auckland City Council (ACC) officers about plans for the site’s future and its transport infrastructure.
The report focuses on the 20-year directional plan for Matiatia and makes a number of recommendations.
The directional plan offers four potential building platform options and suggests a mix of activities, such as transport terminal services, tourism, retail linking to car park areas, and offices.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7 JUNE 2009

Paolo Cian wins 8 from 9 races to storm the Korea Match Cup

Gyeonggi, Korea (7 June, 2009) – After a day of semi-finals that grew in pace and excitement, today started flat, grey and uninteresting, and looked like staying that way.  Yesterday commentator Martin Tasker defined it neatly, saying “the breeze is in, the boats are hot, and so is the action.”

Both semis produced edge-of-the seat sailing. Bjorn Hansen went down 0-3 to Ian Williams, and Paolo Cian defeated Ben Ainslie 3-0, but the scorelines don’t reflect the closeness of the racing, with penalties a-plenty, boats OCS, collisions, crew overboard, breathtakingly close calls, luffing matches and lucky break shifts that produced multiple lead changes. In fact, just about everything that could contribute to seriously hot and entertaining match racing.

The start of the finals match between Williams and Cian was scheduled for 1400 hrs, but the race course at Jeongok Harbour was just a grey glass-out with no sign of any breeze at all – not even the small shifty zephyrs that had allowed the 5th-8th place sail-offs go through. “We’re missing that vital ingredient – wind” came the commentary as we watched replays of yesterday’s action-packed semi-finals.

Playing a waiting game out on the water, Cian was working hard to stay optimistic – if the finals were canned due to lack of breeze then the Korea Match Cup would be decided on the performances in the Round Robin – handing a win to Ian Williams (8 pts) against the Italian’s five wins that allowed him to just squeak into the quarter-finals. In the quarters, Cian came back from 0-2 down against Adam Minoprio to win 3-2, then rolled past Ben Ainslie 3-0 in the semis, so was feeling pretty much on form, and definitely keen to sail.

At 1450 hrs there was some sign of sunshine – an ingredient that might, just might, encourage a little sea breeze. And then a breath of wind. Cian put up a spinnaker and sailed around slowly, as if to demonstrate to the Race Committee that there was enough breeze to get things started, and at 1530 hrs racing did indeed get under way.
The crews went into the pre-start walking on eggshells. There just wasn’t enough wind to allow fireworks, so “softly, softly” was the order of the day, gentle wide-radius turns, keeping everything as smooth as possible until both boats hit the line together for a split-tack start with Cian going to the right.

First cross went to Cian just below the top mark, but Williams gybe-set for a separation, found some pressure on the right and smoked into the bottom pin, overlapped and going round the inside. But Williams then earned a penalty to taking to much room at the mark – Cian crossed behind Williams and led away from the pin, and just had to stay out of trouble to have the race in the bag.

Williams crossed ahead of Cian on the upwind leg, and then sailed him past the mark, gybed round his transom to clear his penalty, and went into the mark with Cian in the lead… just. But this time the gybe-set probramme didn’t work for Williams, and Cian sailed gently down to his seventh win in a row. With this being a first-to-two match, it was now regatta point to the “light air maestro” from Italy.

Race 2 began with a slow motion dial-up and a good deal of tiptoe-ing around the start area. With a minute to the gun there were small signs of a building breeze, and both boats started together on port, Cian at the boat end. Williams started to stretch out a lead, but Cian got lifted coming back on starboard, and Williams went for a leebow tack coming into the windward mark – only to find a rapidly-reversing fishing boat pretty much in line with the mark. There was a lot of yelling between the boats as well as directed at the fishermen, and the obstruction may have been as much psychological as physical, but the net result was Cian getting his nose inside before at the mark, Williams shutting the door and Cian calling for a penalty but being shown a green flag in reply.

Williams went right once again, and led all the way down the run – soaking low into mark 2 while Cian came in quick from the left, but not quick enough: delta 12 secs to Williams.  Upwind again, and Williams ran classic match racing tactics on Cian, tacking to cover, and leading at the top by 13 secs. This clearly wasn’t close enough for Cian to attack, and Williams crossed Cian from the right coming into the finish and gybed into the line. Match squared at 1-1.

“It’s one-all, sudden death now, and it’s going to be tough from the port end,” said Wiliams to the on-board camera, “but be sure we’ll come out fighting.”  Cian calmly controlled most of the pre-start, with Williams wriggling to get away, and with 45 sec to go both boats were on starboard with Cian to leeward at the pin end and Williams bow down and going for speed.  Williams started with pace, and split away to the right, followed by Cian. First cross went to Cian, still on port, who tacked on Wiliams and led round the first mark by 14 sec. In a softening breeze (these things are relative!) both boats were obliged to sail shallow angles down the run, with Cian gybing well early and soaking down to the mark to watch Williams cross behind, overstand the mark, and round a full 35 secs behind.

That was enough of a lead to allow Cian a stress-free beat, and he rounded still 34 sec in the lead. Williams went for the gybe-set split-and-come-back-from-the-right option, but just couldn’t find enough breeze to make it work, and watched the soft-touch Italian ghost across the line 15 secs or so in the lead.

It has been a shaky start to the series for Cian, and his position in the quarter-finals wasn’t assured until the last moment. But after losing the first two matches of the best-to-five quarters to Adam Minoprio, Cian was on fire, reeling off 7 wins in a row, dropping one to Ian Williams, and then coming back in the last one to win the final. It was definitely celebration time on the Italian boat – champagne was spraying everywhere, and Cian executed a stylish back-flip into the water. Well, who wouldn’t, with KRW75,000,000 (US$60,000) about to come his way?

At KRW300,000,000 (US$240,000), the Korea Match Cup is the richest purse on the World Match Race Tour. A good deal more champagne was soon sprayed on stage in front of the Closing Ceremony crowd, and the giant cheques were presented by the Governor of Gyeonggi Province, Kim Moon-Soo. It had been a desperately slow start to the day, but it finished in cracking style with a great demonstration of light-air precision from The Quiet Italian, Paolo Cian.

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OVERALL RESULTS
1st Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza
2nd Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
3rd Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin
4th Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onboard
5th Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
6th Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
7th Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing
8th Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
9th Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge
10th Laurie Jury (NZL)
11th Philippe Presti (ITA) French Match Racing Team
12th Byeong Ki Park (KOR)

Nice T shirt Laurie )

Hanging on in tough conditions

The German team catch a rogue wave shortly before it strikes – Photo Beluga Racer
Over the past 24 hours, the Portimão Global Ocean Race fleet have been chasing a corridor of strong south-westerly breeze squeezed between a high-pressure system south-east of the boats and a low-pressure system to the north centred over the Grand Banks south of Newfoundland. Leading double-handed Class 40, Desafio Cabo de Hornos, has continued to poll the highest speeds of between 12-14 knots with the German team on Beluga Racer in hot pursuit consistently delivering one knot less than the Chilean team, but losing just 19 miles to Desafio Cabo de Hornos since midday on Saturday.

Weather models suggest that the band of strong wind will move rapidly eastwards as the Grand Banks low-pressure begins to track eastwards across the North Atlantic and in the very early hours of Sunday morning, Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme on Beluga Racer dropped south-east to catch the tail of the breeze as the strong winds roll away from the fleet. “There has been a lot of water coming over the boat,” reported Boris Herrmann on Saturday night. “It strikes, hammers you, withdraws and then rushes at you again just like in the Southern Ocean all those months ago,” he recalls. “Once you get accustomed to it, it is not too bad and we’re going well although our nerves remain strained. So, it is certainly not boring out here and conditions might provide a chance to get the red Chilean boat in our sights again.”

In the latest 0620 UTC position poll (07/06), Cubillos and Muñoz on Desafio Cabo de Hornos have built a 49 mile lead over Herrmann and Oehme on Beluga Racer and are currently averaging just over 13 knots – three knots faster than the German Class 40. “We don’t really know what has happened, but we tend to think that the meteorological conditions have been very favourable for us,” reports Felipe Cubillos. “It is not that there has been a special wind change or that we have had a tactical success, only that the current conditions with wind of 25 knots and a TWA of 120 degrees is where we can win ground big time.” Handicapped by electrical failure and a complete absence of wind speed and direction data from the masthead instruments, the Chilean duo are aware that constant vigilance is essential. “The conditions and our speed advantage helps, but without instruments it is very difficult to optimize the boat 100 percent, and believe me, to beat the Germans we must give 100 percent.”

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Deauville Sailing Week 2009

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