Tim Krech with wife Bre and third crew Ann Scheuerman took home the silver in the 2009 ILYA C Championships. Krech had the event won yesterday but chose to sail the race with his dad today. Joe Kutschenreuter with crew Randy Schmidt and Katie Porter hung on to second using the last race as a throwout. Paul Reilly with Aaron Mann and Catherine Burke remained in third. The top three finishers show the versatility of the boat. Joe was the top junior and Reilly the top senior. Reilly is near legend after winning the C championships some  20 years ago, leaving scow sailing for those long years and returning last year to relive his youth. He sailed like a youngster all week.

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latest images from ALINGHI/Carlo Borlenghi- Guido Trombetta

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A picture perfect day today bringing out 10 boats in both fleets

MICRO MAGICS

The tee shirts and shorts were out in the very light southerly breeze prevailing. However it is marvellous how these boats perform given the slightest sniff of breeze.

Jon sailing his new boat, recently launched was the standout.

IOM’S

Again a fleet of 10 boats fronted the start in the fresher NE breeze gradually moving further east during the day.

Great racing today with close racing between Andrew Milne, Tom Butler and Brian Lever with the rest to fight for the crumbs. It was good to see new members Ron Ahearn and Glen Fitzgerald put in some good races.

Andrew winning half of the 12 races completed came out on top from Ton with Brian not far behind.

Thanks to new member Paul Chisholm who volunteered to act as PRO on the day.

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Twenty-five crew from the Cork team descended on Ireland at the weekend for a final visit before they line up on the Humber with the other nine internationally-sponsored yachts for the start of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race on 13 September.

Irish hurling celeb, Seán Óg hAilpín, who has captained Cork to the All-Ireland title, met with the crew to wish them a safe and successful race and to unveil the Cork colours that will fly from the boat around the world. Around half of the crew have no previous sailing experience but what all of them have in common is that they have put their everyday lives as air traffic controllers, interior designers, taxi drivers, lawyers, and students on hold to take on this incredible challenge.

The Cork Clipper project is funded by Fáilte Ireland, Cork City Council and Cork County Council with the main objective of promoting Cork as a tourism and business destination around the world. Working alongside Tourism Ireland, Cork will be promoted to consumers, trade and the media in key markets that the race visits. The culmination of the project will be the arrival in Kinsale, Co. Cork of the ten yachts competing in the Clipper Race in July 2010. Eight days of festivities there will showcase Cork and Ireland to a global market.

Over the weekend the crew had the opportunity to experience Ireland with a walking tour of Cork City, kissing the Blarney stone, sampling Irish cuisine in Kinsale, the gourmet capital of Ireland, and a visit to the Queenstown story in Cobh.

“It is essential that the crew on board Cork know Cork and understand what is unique about Ireland as a tourism destination so they can be ambassadors in their journey around the world,” said Fáilte Ireland General Manager, Fiona Buckley. “We also wanted them to experience a true ‘cead mile fáilte’ so they know what will be waiting for them when they sail into Cork next July.”

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Hurricane Bill (Atlantic)

Baby Pictures

August 17, 2009

The TRMM satellite flew over the large and well-organized Hurricane Bill at 7:33 a.m. EDT on August 17 indicating bands of heavy rainfall.
Credit: NASA, Hal Pierce Hurricane Bill on August 16 at 12:17 a.m. EDT (left) and August 17 at 1:50 a.m. EDT (right). > View larger image
This is a time series of two AIRS images of Hurricane Bill on August 16 at 12:17 a.m. EDT (left) and August 17 at 1:50 a.m. EDT (right) showing the cold temperatures in his thunderstorms, indicative of heavy rainfall.
Credit: NASA/JPL, Ed Olsen Two NASA Satellites Captures Hurricane Bill’s “Baby Pictures”

Bill was the third tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, behind Ana and Tropical Depression One. Over the weekend Bill grew into the first hurricane in the Atlantic this season. Two NASA Satellites captured Bill’s rainfall and cloud temperatures as he was powering up.

Hurricane Bill was upgraded to a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida on August 17 at 5 a.m. EDT. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over hurricane Bill a short time later at 1133 UTC (7:33 a.m. EDT) and captured Bill’s “baby picture” shortly after he became a hurricane.

Data from the TRMM over flight was used in making the rainfall analysis at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Md. The rainfall analysis showed that Bill was already a large and well- organized hurricane. TRMM’s Microwave Imager and Precipitation Radar instruments revealed that Bill has bands of heavy rainfall.

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Raymarine confirms buyout talks with Garmin

By IBI Magazine

In response to press speculation, British marine electronics manufacturer Raymarine has confirmed that it is in talks for the sale of the company with parties including American communication and navigation specialist Garmin.

In a statement released this morning Raymarine says that “the talks may or may not lead to the sale of Raymarine.”

“Raymarine continues to explore a sale of the business or an equity fundraising and, in the absence of either of these, to secure additional medium term debt facilities with its banking syndicate,” read the statement.

The board of Raymarine says that it is not yet clear whether an offer to buy the company would provide any value for ordinary shareholders.

As a result of rumours of a buyout late last week, shares in Raymarine surged and are now trading at 16.75p, 91 per cent above the 52 week low set in July this year.

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Learning the lines. Winning a tour of duty with Quantum Racing

Light winds have been all that has been available to the Audi MedCup Circuit fleets as they practise for the first races of the Portugal Trophy regatta off Portimao on the sunshine drenched Algarve coast.

For the nine of the ten TP52 crews assembled at the sumptuous Audi MedCup Village, the question remains how they can match the seemingly relentless march of Emirates Team New Zealand.

One answer might be provided imminently by the weather forecasts for the regatta which suggest very light and light breezes are expected. Conflict between the slow to establish sea-breeze and the NNW’ly gradient wind is predicted until the weekend. At best that might mean delayed racing each day. To date the series-leading powerful Kiwi boat, designed by Botin Carkeek has looked weaker in the sub-8 knots wind range.

While the TP52’s are due to have their Practice Race Tuesday, the GP42 Series will take to the Atlantic waters on Wednesday for their official practice, and start racing Thursday.

The pursuit of Emirates Team New Zealand has engaged most of the TP52 crews since Cagliari last month, and, equally, the drive to stay ahead of the pack has kept the Kiwi team fully occupied, but one newcomer to the Audi MedCup Circuit has been finding her feet here, learning fast as one of the crew on Quantum Racing.

Katie Burns, a petite 24 year old from Virginia Beach, VA has been quietly thankful of the gentle winds which provided a benign baptism for the winner of Quantum Sails’ worldwide‘Living the Dream’ contest. Here she is, with the dream unfolding, winner of the ultimate prize, being a fully fledged member of the Audi MedCup winning team for the entire Portugal Trophy regatta.

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YouTube – The Friend of Big and Small.

August 16, 2009

Why sit about waiting for the ‘old fashioned’ broadcasters to decide if they like your sport or not? There are people out there who want to watch. They want to watch now. No faffing about with setting the ‘Tivo’ or fiddling with the Red Button or even the good old VHS – want to get fired up about A-Class Catamaran sailing? Google it or search it on You-Tube and consume cool video.

It doesn’t matter if you are promoting the A-Class Catamaran Australian Championships at Safety Beach in Victoria in January, or justifying millions of bucks on  Deed-of-Gift trimaran – You-Tube is here to help. Here’s the promo video for the A-Class Championships:

Bora Gulari (USA)
2009 Moth Worldchampion.

After a close racing on Columbia river (Cascade locks – Oregon USA), the winner is Bora Gulari (USA) on his Mach 2 Moth.

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TP52 – Audi MedCup – Portimao

Paul Cayard
Sunday, August 16, 2009

Squeezing water out of a rock.

That is what it is like trying to sail here these past two days. 4.6 knots of wind was the top of it.

Still, we managed to get in some useful practice simulating our approaches to the starting line and accelerating the boat from 2 knots of speed up to full speed, as well as learning how long that takes and what the optimal trajectory for speed build is. It is impressive how much one knot of wind effects the timing of this drill. Good to know.

Then we had three practice starts with Quantum and a little race to the windward mark. It was too light to go downwind once we got there so we called it.

It was probably lighter than we would ever race in today but still, it was good to get out there and focus.

Tomorrow the forecast is for more of the same. So we are meeting at 1200 for the first check in. We may have to sail as late as 1800 as there is forecast to be a bit of breeze then.

Tuesday is supposed to be better. Hopefully we are getting all this “no wind” wind out of the way now so we can have a great regatta.

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If you are racing/cruising at Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week or Audi Race Week at Hamilton Island, then you still have time to add the 2009 Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week to your winter expedition.

Now in its third year Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week invites suitably found racing and cruising yachts to compete for a prize pool containing $10,000.00 in cash prizes, trophies and much more.

Sailed off the pristine waters of Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island, Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week presents a series of buoy course, passage and around the island races.

The regatta now offers six classes of racing over five days from Friday 4th to Tuesday 8th September 2009. With a shore-side program with something to appeal to everyone, this is one event you don’t want to miss!

This year veteran Queensland sailor Bob ‘Robbo’ Robertson is sailing his Farr 40 Cracklin’ Rosie at Airlie Beach and she will be on the water at Hamilton Island as well. But he is taking his Bavaria 50 cruiser ‘On Location’ north to Magnetic Island, leaving the Farr 40 in Mackay until the trade winds ease, before the trip south.

‘Robbo’ makes some good points about sailing south at the end of August and why delaying for a few weeks make sense.

He says the extra few weeks in Far North Queensland, as well as being great in the winter, provides another bonus for southern sailors.

‘People head south after Hamilton, but what every sailor will tell you is that usually you have to battle against the prevailing trade wind south easterlies.’

‘Going up to Magnetic Island, we know we are going to dodge all that.

‘We are going to be able to put up a spinnaker and cruise north with the last of the south east trades. By the time we finish the regatta and have cruised around a bit more, the northerlies should have kicked in and we’ll have a good ride south.’

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Rolex Fastnet Ocean Race 2009 images here

This post is tagged Audi Medcup, Bora Gulari, Clipper Round the World yacht race, Garmin, Hurricane Bill, Katie Burns, Magnetic Island, Moth Worlds, nasa, paul cayard, Raymarine, tp52, youtube