Greetings Yachties,

Sliver Sails Racing: NZ Womans Match Racing Olympic Squad

Marine Feuerstein

BlackMatch

Alinghi – Butterworth comments

Coastal Classic

18ft Skiff

Statement from the Société Nautique de Genève, 33rd America’s Cup Defender

Action at the DoG pound

Ellen MacArthur Trust

more later

18ft SKIFF INTERNATIONAL REGATTA AT SAN FRANCISCO

Some great action shots taken by Erik Simonson of h2oshots at the 18ft Skiff International Regatta at San Francisco.

NZ Women’s Match Racing Olympic Squad – News

Both teams report from the Australian Women’s Match Racing Championships

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia – www.cyca.com.auhttp://www.cyca.com.au/

Greetings from Silver Sails Racing, – Report from Jenna

Australian Nationals – Day 4

Hello Friends + Family + Supporters,

Today was finals day…….. and we finished 3rd overall. Here is how the day unfolded.

The day commenced with Nicki Souter (current ISAF Match Racing World Champion) choosing us as her semi-final component.

We had a 12-15 knots breeze, choppy seas and a little bit of sunshine….. beautiful weather for match racing.

The first race was a win for us. We entered the start line from port and crossed ahead of Souter to windward with a nice left handshift, as we were unable to roll ahead of her, we ended up sitting in a luff for most of the start, until choosing  to lead back with about 1min 30s to go. Starting tight leeward of Souter and on the favoured side of the course, we were able to gain a small lead which we maintained for the rest of the race.

In race two we once again got the better start, being up speed on split tacks. However we gave away our initial gains by getting too caught up in a tacking duel. Nicky led us around the top mark by about 2s. Downwind we made numerous attempts to overtake but ended up running out of race track. In the second upwind leg, Nicky build her lead up to 20s. Heading for home on the last downwind it was game on.. Again looking for every opportunity to attack, we led to the gybe and was able to give Souter bad wind for most of the run. In the last 10m of the race we were able to take all her wind and soak inside her to cross the finish line… Luckily for Souter the pin was favoured and she took race 2 by a mere 20s.

Into the 3rd and final race of the semi finals, we again had the winning start after a very tight pre-start circling duel. Again the left hand side of the course was very favoured and we were able to extend out lead. Unfortunately in the last 1/3 of the race Ray missed the hiking straps as she came flying out of the tack onto the rail. By sheer guts and determinations she was able to keep her feet on board and her hand firmly attached to the jibsheet. With some help from Jenna she was able to get back on board and we got moving again. In the next cross with Souter we were happy to see that we were still in the game and were able to keep bouncing her out to the unfavoured right hand side of the course. In the final cross of the upwind, we thought we would cross but at the last minute Souter got a piece of us and we were forced to take. The umpires ruled that we were tacking in her water and we acquired a penalty just before rounding the top mark.  Despite rounding behind and with a penalty we stuck to our guns and took it to her once again downwind. With similar tactics to the previous race we rolled Souter on the long starboard gybe and lead around the bottom mark by about 5s. This time the upwind was much less physical and only 3 tacks were completed in the entire leg. We extended our small led and after rounding the top mark well ahead attempted to complete our penalty by sailing outside the 2 boat lengths cirlce before hoisting our kite. Unfortunately as we turned down from our turn our bow re-entered the 2 boat length zone and with Souter rounding the mark at the same time, she was unable to keep clear of us. As such we received a second penalty which we had to complete immediately.. However with Souter having some spinnaker issues downwind it was still a full on fight down to the finish and despite having 2 penalties we finished within 2 boat lengths of her.

After all the excitement of the 3 semi final races the wind decided to die on us and the teams sat and drifted in the low cloud and rain till 4.30pm and unfortunately we were unable to sail the petite and grand finals.

Therefore we finished 3rd overall. We are happy to be so competitive with the Australians but look forward to getting even sometime soon.

The team feels that the place mirrors the solid preparation and training in the lead up to the regatta.

We felt our decision making, communication and boat handling improved throughout the regatta and we will take the lessons learnt with us to America next week. Graeme Sutherland, NZL Squad Coach, was a great asset to the team in the build up and racing. His support and coaching was extremely valuable to the team.

Over the next few days the team will split and will meet in USA later next week for some training in the Olympic E6’s and finish with the Buddy Melges Challenge Regatta. We will keep in touch with you all!

We would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Yachting New Zealand for their support.

Thanks Zhik for the team bibs….. they look awesome!!

Thanks for all the emails…. we love reading them in the morning!! send them here

Cheers,

Sam, Ray and Jen

03 septembre 2009

Transat 2009 : Dans le bassin des chalutiers

On y est !

Le convoyage Lorient – La Rochelle fut simple et rapide : tout droit, pleine balle ! Je suis arrivée  hier à 6 h 00 du matin dans le port des Minimes et, à la pleine mer, j’ai rejoins le bassin des chalutiers. Je prends maintenant la mesure de tout le chemin effectué depuis ma première venue au départ de la Transat 6,50 en 2005.

J’ai relativement peu de préparation à faire  et cela me permettra de profiter de ces dix  jours à La Rochelle. Comme à chaque départ de course, nous aurons droit au rituel des contrôles sécu, des jauges et des briefing ( briefing instructions nautiques, briefing flotille 24). Même si ces contrôles sont longs et lourds à gérer, ils permettent de rentrer dans la course.

Je recevrai demain les éléments de décoration pour les voiles et la coque. J’aurais donc une composition de couleurs dans mes voiles et j’en suis très contente.

more here

Hi all from BlackMatch,

After sitting out 6 matches today we were only involved in 2 races in
which we were able to take victories over Sweden’s Johnnie Berntsson
and Alvaro Marinho from Portugal. After a terrible opening day it was
great to turn things around and notch up a few more wins to keep us
very much in contention for a quarterfinal berth.

Our race against Johnnie Berntsson didn’t go entirely to plan and we
received a penalty in the pre-start after yet another collision,
however Adam did a great job of equalising when we forced a penalty on
them on the final approach to the start line. The race was an
extremely close affair after both teams were even off the start line
and it wasn’t until a wind shift went our way on the final upwind that
we were able to gain the lead and defend well for the victory.

Now with a record of 4 wins, 3 losses and a point deducted for
yesterday’s incident with Francesco Bruni, we are confident we can
kick on from here and get the wins needed to make the quarterfinals.
In our four remaining matches against Sebastian Col, Mathieu Richard,
Philippe Presti and Eric Monin it looks like we will have to win at
least 3 out of 4 to secure our place in the next round.

Hi all from BlackMatch,

With the exception of BlackMatch bowman Nick Blackman, who was last

week part of the winning team to take out the Estonian National Match

Racing Championship, it has been a month off match racing for team

BlackMatch and perhaps this showed today on the opening day of the St

Moritz World Match Racing Tour event. This event is the 6th leg of the

World Tour and is held on a stunning lake 1800 meters above sea level.

With the Swiss Alps providing the back drop for the action on the

water they also contribute to some of the trickiest sailing conditions

on the tour which makes for some extremely exciting racing.

Conditions on the opening day were perfect, a 10 knot breeze with

gusts to 15 settled in for the day, a result of warm air rising over

the mountains from neighbouring Italy, cooling at the top of the

mountain range and then funnelling down the valley onto our race

course. We had a disastrous start to the regatta, gaining a penalty

off the start line against Torvar Mirsky after we were deemed to have

luffed passed head to wind on the final approach; we kept it close but

trailed the rest of the race to open with a loss. It got worse before

it got better as we were involved in a terrible collision in our

second match against Francesco Bruni. During a very tight taking duel

we misjudged dipping the Italian Americas Cup Helmsman on port tack

and plowed into the back quarter of his boat. We received a penalty

and although we fought back to gain the lead on the final upwind, we

couldn’t get enough of an advantage to complete our penalty turn and

the win went to Bruni, who is also sailing with Emirates Team New

Zealand coach Rod Davis and BlackMatch crewmember Dan Mclean. Not only

were we now on two losses but we were then docked a full point by the

umpires for causing extensive damage to Bruni’s boat, which

essentially put us on -1 points.

Our third match against Peter Gilmour saw us gain our first win. We

again however incurred a penalty when we were leeward boat and Gilmour

went to dip our transom, we also bore away and the result was another

collision, we protested and in what we thought was a bizarre decision,

received a penalty. We had however won the favoured left hand side of

the course and went on to gain a big enough advantage to complete our

penalty turn and take the win.

We managed a win against Bjorn Hansen and a loss to the World Champion

Ian Williams in our final two matches of the day, however our win

against Hansen was also marred by an incident. A bottom mark collision

that saw the Swede handed a second penalty gifted us the match,

however the officials decided we were partly to blame for the damage

done to Bjorn’s boat and we were docked half a point. It was not until

a late night protest hearing that saw BlackMatch Skipper Adam Minoprio

argue his case extremely well to convince the protest committee to

overturn the Chief Umpires decision.

So with 2 wins 3 losses, a full point docked for damage and a massive

damage bill to pay, it was not the best start to the regatta we have

ever had. Tomorrow we are sitting out 6 races before getting back into

the action with 6 races in a row and we are hoping we can get back

into the form we had here last year which saw us qualify top after the

round robin. For any media or results please visit

www.worldmatchracingtour.com, photos attached by Jenny Warner.

We would again like to say a special thank you to our sponsors: FedEx

Express and Ross Munro from Line 7, their ongoing support is helping

make this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys. To the RNZYS,

Emirates Team New Zealand and everyone else, thank you for your

support.

BlackMatch Racing

Sea trials in Genoa “excellent” – Brad Butterworth

Alinghi team skipper gives his take on the August sea trials

(Photo credit: Guido Trombetta/Alinghi)

Alinghi has had several weeks of successful sea trials in Genoa, Italy, where the Defender has been testing and training the new catamaran Alinghi 5 ahead of shipping it to the 33rd America’s Cup Venue in Ras al Khaimah, UAE, for the Match in February next year.

“We have had excellent conditions for sea trials here,” said team skipper Brad Butterworth, “we’ve managed to stretch our legs a bit in a lot more space than on Lake Geneva and have pushed the boat hard. We’ve had a few breakages along the way, but you expect that with a new boat, it’s all part of the development process towards the Cup next year in Ras al-Khaimah.”

Weather has cancelled play today, so the team is shore based for maintenance.

Look out for CNN mainsail later this month featuring yesterday’s shoot of Alinghi 5 sailing in Genoa, Italy.

more here

more about Brad Butterworth here

Record smashing fleet anticipated for HSBC Premier Coastal Classic

Alfa Romeo, Split Enz and new 52 footer confirm intention to race to Russell

By Zoe Hawkins

A 100 foot record setter, a sistership to Emirates Team New Zealand’s new boat, and the return of an old friend fondly nicknamed the ‘pink pig’. The race to Russell at Labour Weekend is going to be one for the record books, in all senses of the word.

Alfa Romeo – the 100 foot supermaxi owned by Kiwi expatriate Neville Crichton – took her 141st line honours victory, and set a new race record in America’s toughest yacht sailing event, the Transpac (LA to Hawaii) race in July before returning to Southern Hemisphere waters to make its preparations for the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic.

She’ll be racing the clock in the 119 nautical mile HSBC Premier Coastal Classic, considered one of the world’s classic races, hoping to beat not only the monohull record set in 2005 by fellow supermaxi Zana Konica Minolta (8hr 29min 50sec) but also the overall race record wet in 1996, of 7hr 20min 51sec.

But Alfa Romeo will not be the only one with an eye setting a new best ever time. Six-times HSBC Premier Coastal Classic winner, the boat that set that astonishing record back in 1996, Split Enz, is returning to New Zealand for the first time in ten years.

Now owned by Georges Auteret of Noumea, Split Enz – dubbed the ‘Pink Pig’ – is virtually the same as it was in 1996, although Georges has done structural work to stiffen the boat, adding two more beams between the main and the rear beam, removing the front beam, and extending the boards by 500mm to improve its upwind performance.

With few boats to race against in Noumea, Georges and his crew, Erik Codron, Guillaume De Guio and Martin Fisher are looking forward to compete with other fast multihulls for the opportunity to defend the record and prove themselves over Taeping, winner of the 2007 and 2008 editions but with a race best of only ten hours.

Another new rival but with the ability to perform very well is the 52 foot keelboat under construction at Cookson Boats in Auckland. Georgia is the sixth in the family of ‘Georgia Racing’ yachts owned by Auckland Barrister Jim Farmer, and is modeled on Emirates Team New Zealand’s TP52 designed by Botin Carceek, and currently leading the MedCup Series in Europe. The new Georgia is optimized for IRC racing and the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic marks the beginning of a challenging race calendar for boat and crew.

Another new entrant to the fleet is G-Whizz, a fifty footer owned by Australian businessman Greg Patten and optimized for two-handed sailing. The boat will be sailed two handed from Adelaide to Auckland as part of Greg’s qualifying miles for the grueling Melbourne to Osaka, and it will participate, fully crewed, in the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic before returning to Australia.

“This is a dream fleet with the latest and fastest yachts competing”, says David Griffiths, HSBC CEO New Zealand.  “It’s going to be an exciting race – one that HSBC Premier is delighted to be a part of. We are looking forward to it.”

The 119 nautical mile race, considered one of the world’s classic races, was inspired by speed record attempts by powerboats dating back to the 1920s, and in 1982 a challenge was issued to all keelboat and multihull owners to join this non-stop race from Devonport Wharf in Auckland to the bar in Russell, pushing boats and crews as hard as they dared. These days it finishes off the end of Russell Wharf, but the party in Russell is no less anticipated.

more here

Hamlin, Barnabas score big with small rigs

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.

Big rig or small rig? That was the decision some of the players had to make on Day 3 of the eighth annual 18′ Skiff International Regatta hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club.

Others had no choice. They were better off.

That’s how Howie Hamlin got the jump on father and son John (Woody) Winning and John Jr. (Herman) to move into first place after 6 of 10 races, three points ahead of the elder Winning and fellow Australian veteran Trevor Barnabas, who won Wednesday’s second race as handily as Hamlin won the first.

“I guess the smaller rigs won out,” Barnabas said.

Photos by Rich Roberts

Hamlin, 56, is the lone American in contention against an armada of Aussies, most of whom arrived with extra, taller masts in case San Francisco Bay fell short of its perennial promise of big breeze. Hamlin had only his short rig measuring 9.5 meters compared to 10.38 meters (31 to 34 feet) for the big one.

“It adds about 20 square feet of sail area,” Winning said earlier in the Crissy Field boat park was competitors waited for the wind to build, “but you also get a bigger spinnaker.”

So, with unofficial forecasts suggesting the wind wouldn’t rise above 14 knots without reaching the usual 20 or 25 and then wisp away by 5 o’clock, both Winnings went for it.

“In Sydney we don’t change [to small rigs] until it gets over 18 knots,” Woody Winning said.

Minutes before launching, Hamlin, who originally inspired the event on this otherwise perfect venue for the high-performance 18′ Skiffs along the normally windy City Front, hosted an informal skippers meeting in the boat park to check the opinions of the fleet. It was agreed that everyone would use whichever mast they preferred. The subject is not addressed in the regatta’s Sailing Instructions, but some principals feel it is unofficially agreed that everyone would use the short masts.

Hamlin, who didn’t bring a tall rig, had used one only once in seven years of the event.

“And that was a mistake,” he said before Wednesday’s races. “You could do it and it might work, but you also could get smacked down. But right now I’d say it was a good call [to use a tall mast].”

So what effect would it have?

“It means,” he said, soberly, “that we’ll race and the Winnings will win two races,”

Wrong. As Hamlin and Archie Massey sailed away to a 1-2 finish in the first race, Woody Winning’s Yandoo finished third and Herman finished sixth.

In the second race, as the son continued to struggle to another sixth, the father fought for the lead with Barnabas until they rounded the second windward mark of the two-lap race in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge and Yandoo suddenly flipped—a climactic punctuation to the story of the day.

“The wind up there was a little fresher than we expected,” Winning said, chuckling. “[Crew member] David [Gibson] knocked me around the back of the boat.”

Winning said the breeze was only “16 of 17″ knots, although rivals estimated Yandoo was blown over by gusts as high as 25. He took the setbacks in good humor, partly because his ninth place following the capsize will be his current throwout.

And . . .

“It’ll be the small rig [Thursday] for the Bridge to Bridge Race,” Winning said.

The 7 1/2-mile Bridge to Bridge Race, also featuring kite boarders and windsurfers, will follow the 18s’ 3 o’clock fleet race from the Golden Gate past the city to the Bay Bridge—which, incidentally, will be closed to vehicle traffic for five days starting Thursday to replace an old section.

Last year Hamlin became the first 18′ Skiff to win the B to B, which pleased him about as much as Wednesday’s turn of events.

“We’re happy,” he said. “Big rigs don’t like bearing away in 25 knots [of wind].”

more images here

GOING TO COURT FOR THE SPORT

(September 2, 2009) – Secrecy in the realm in the America’s Cup is as old as

the hills. Kind of like poker players showing their cards. It’s just not done.

But unlike poker, where the rules of the game are known prior to sitting down

at the table, the 33rd Match is being done a little differently.

The Defender and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) have agreed to

terms on what the rules are to be for the next Cup, but they have decided to

keep this a secret. Now, no one can begrudge the Defender from leveraging

every angle they have to gain an advantage. But why would ISAF, the

international governing body of the sport, join in? For what has been an

increasingly bitter and litigated event, this would seem to be a precarious

position for the sport’s highest authority. Documents here

more here

yachtyakka story here

Statement from the Société Nautique de Genève, 33rd America’s Cup Defender

Fred Meyer, Vice-Commodore of the SNG, comments on the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s latest litigation

“It’s a shame that BMW Oracle and Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) persist with their campaign to win the America’s Cup through litigation rather than on the water. This is the sixth time that they’ve taken the Defender to court. It is possible that Larry Ellison continues to revert to the courts to draw attention away from the fact that their boat does not meet the dimensions as per their Certificate of Challenge.

“Golden Gate Yacht Club’s speculations over the conduct of the Match before the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions have even been written and published are simply premature and self-serving. They are designed to denigrate the reputation and achievements of the Swiss Defender, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), as well as the America’s Cup itself. BMW Oracle is once again dragging the America’s Cup through the courts on baseless grounds.

“The rules of the America’s Cup Match are as the donors of the Deed of Gift wrote over 130 years ago, when other American yacht clubs were the Defender. They are not as the Golden Gate Yacht Club or BMW Oracle would now, as a Challenger, like them to be, to suit their purposes.

The simple facts are:

1. In absence of mutual agreement between the Defender and the Challenger, the America’s Cup is ruled by the default terms of the Deed of Gift.

2. In accordance with the Deed of Gift, and as with all past America’s Cups, the defending yacht club is the organiser of the Match.

3. The Deed of Gift states that the challenging vessel should not exceed certain measurements. GGYC presented their Certificate of Challenge specifying a 90×90ft yacht. Today they must honour their own volunteered and freely submitted decision and their competing yacht must match those dimensions, as required by the Deed of Gift and ordered by Justice Kornreich. SNG does not wish to see GGYC disqualified; they have enough time to modify their boat so that it measures.

more here

Action at the DoG pound

more chatter here

more images here

Scarlet Oyster to sail into Southampton

After almost 2,000 nautical miles and more than four months at sea, record-breaking yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur’s inspiring Round Britain voyage will arrive at the PSP Southampton Boat Show on Friday, 11 September.

The arrival of the Ellen MacArthur Trust yacht, Scarlet Oyster, into the marina at 1000 on the Show’s opening day will fulfil an ambitious challenge mounted by the Trust and a crew of young people in recovery from cancer and leukaemia to sail around the British Isles this summer.

Scarlet Oyster will moor and be displayed at the PSP Southampton Boat Show until Saturday morning, 12 September, when she will return to her original starting post in Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

Since Scarlet Oyster left Cowes on 3 May, the Ellen MarArthur Trust Skandi Round Britain voyage has stopped at 17 ports around England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man. Along the way, the young crew members have returned to the paediatric oncology wards of the hospitals they were treated in and relayed their experiences, leaving a positive message of what the future can hold for those currently undergoing treatment for cancer.

more here

This post is tagged 33rd Americas Cup, Adam Minoprio, alinghi, Blackmatch Racing, Brad Butterwoth, Coastal Classic, Ellen MacArthur Trust, Marine Feuerstein, New Zealand Womans Match Racing, Olympic Squad, Pink Floyd, Sail on line, Sliver Sails Racing, Societe Nautique de Geneve, wildmedia