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Wellington Team Wins NZL National Keel Boat Championships
Jules Verne Trophy 2009 – 2010
Robertson and Yamada flawless
Lifting Cod ban
NZL Sam Harvey wins world title in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
BMWOracle – wing mast goes sailing,
Enjoy,
Robbed of Dinner!
Exciting news to report today. I pulled the fishing line in to discover that I finally caught a fish! I’d love to tell you what it was, how big it was and how yummy it tasted, only someone (with rather big teeth!) got to it before me. Apart from a few bits of flesh left hanging on the lure, my beautiful fish had been gobbled up by something bigger. I can only keep trying!
Wellington team wins national keel boat championships
After four days and twenty four races a young team of sailors from Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club have been crowned the 2009 New Zealand National Keelboat Champions. The team skippered by Josh Junior with a crew of Jonathan Clough, Matthew Clough, Luke O’Connell and Matthew Steven had to keep fighting right down to the last race in order to secure the title.
The Wellington team entered the finals series of six races in second place behind past national champion Andrew Wills from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. “We had a shocker in the first race of the finals and were behind Andrew in the next two races as well” explained Junior. “With three races to go it wasn’t looking good”.
In races four and five Wellington stepped up their performance and came away with two first places.
In the thick of the Doldrums!
Jules Verne Trophy 2009 – 2010
Franck Cammas and his nine crew have crashed headlong into the Doldrums: since 0400 hours UT this Tuesday morning, the tradewinds have given way to stormy squalls. However, the first phase of this passage through the `tunnel’ is going rather well with the crew maintaining the same lead of 660 miles over the reference time and the exit from this zone scheduled for this evening…
Groupama 3 and ITCZ – 10th November at 12:00 UT – © METEO FRANCE
Already in sight of the Doldrums last night when the skies on the horizon were striped with lightning and the rolls of thunder were audible in the distance, Groupama 3 finally hit the zone around 0400 hours this Tuesday. At the time there was still a little crescent of a moon to light up a seascape in the throes of a major reshuffle: massive cumulonimbus heralding rains and gusts of wind, a short chop coming at them head on reminiscent of the first signs of the SE’ly tradewinds blowing across the equator, flying fish in search of a breath of air before getting caught up in the trimaran’s trampolines, a heavy, oppressive atmosphere coloured by a torrid, wet heat.. one can feel it approaching, one can feel it almost upon you and then already it is snapping you up! The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is an octopus playing with its prey, trying to ensnare you in its tentacles, alternating between calm spells and flurries of wind, harsh changes in temperature, torrential rain and blazing sunshine…
The way out’s over here…
However, the `dark side’ of the Doldrums has its weaknesses: in order to find the way out into the Southern hemisphere, it is necessary to compromise with the squalls, to momentarily distance oneself from the course, adapt the sail area to the erratic breeze and dodge the shaded zones and the areas without wind. Navigator Stan Honey, finally back to his old self after his migraines, has been racking his brains… in a tunnel along 29° West. Groupama 3′s trajectory has been incredibly pure from Madeira to the narrowest and least active point of entry in this mass of clouds. And so far this Tuesday afternoon, the results are conclusive: though she has indeed slowed, the speed of the giant trimaran has never dipped below fourteen knots!
Round Robin 1 : Flight 9 match summaries
FLIGHT 9
M1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. Artemis – Delta 23 seconds
Emirates Team New Zealand kept its position as the top team in tact with a workmanlike victory over Artemis of Sweden. The two yachts started the match on starboard tack, with Team New Zealand on the leebow of Artemis. The Swedish team helmsman Terry Hutchinson quickly tacked away to port and when the pair met for the first time on the racecourse they were in similar positions: Team New Zealand tacked on the leebow of Artemis. Kiwi skipper Dean Barker eventually got his crew to the right of Artemis in the top half of the beat and then covered into the windward mark. Team New Zealand led by 15 seconds at the first windward mark and then covered with deadly efficiency over the rest of the course to move to 5-0. Artemis fell to 2-3.
“There was always a little more pressure on the left,” said Team New Zealand tactician Ray Davies of the first beat. “On the second beat the race committee moved the mark 10 degrees left, but the wind shifted right so it was always a little skewed.”
Both teams move to the sideline for a few hours until Flight 12 when Team New Zealand is scheduled to race BMW Oracle Racing in Match 1, and Artemis takes on TeamOrigin in Match 2.
Asian Match Racing Championship Day 1 – Robertson and Yamada flawless
By Monsoon Cup
The 2009 Asian Match Racing Championship in Terengganu, Malaysia is underway. New Zealand’s Phil Robertson and Japan’s Kan Yamada sailed into the lead on day one after flawless performances on the race course.
The inital breeze was a soft south westerly breeze, but the sea breeze kicked in and built gradually to a steady six-eight knots from the north-north east, as the last flights of the day were being sailed.
Local knowledge appears to have helped the Terengganu Team, Taring Pelangi – (TESA). Skippered by Hazwan Hazim, they were amongst the earliest to recognise that, as the Terengganu current flows met south of Pulau Duyong Island, the right hand side of the course was favoured.
Should Terengganu’s TESA team take this event, there could be two Malaysian teams in the 2009 Monsoon Cup, because not only does the winner of the Asian Match Racing Championship gain entry to the Monsoon Cup, the final round of the 2009 World Match Racing Series, but so too does the winner of the Malaysian Match Racing Championships to be sailed in two weeks.
An important early flight was between Phil Robertson and his WAKA Racing Team and Australia’s SLAM Racing Team, skippered by Michael Dunstan.
In the starting box it seemed that Dunstan, the three times Australian Match Racing Champion had the better of Robertson as he pushed him over the start line early, but as Dunstan commented dockside ‘I made a real timing error and the current swept us over too. So Phil was off the hook and we had to follow him off the line. We closed within a boat length at the finish. No stress though, our aim is to get into the semis and try to apply some pressure there.’
Progress made toward lifting cod ban
By Phil Heatley
MARLBOROUGH
Work toward lifting the ban on blue cod fishing in the Marlborough Sounds is progressing well, but the fishery will remain closed this summer, Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley announced today.
Pressure on the blue cod population led to a four year ban on fishing for the species in the Marlborough Sounds being put in place on 1 October 2008.
A group of local stakeholders has been working with the Ministry of Fisheries on a management plan that will rebuild the fishery while allowing for a managed recreational harvest.
“Advice from the group tells me good progress has been made towards a possible partial or full reopening of the fishery in the 2010/11 summer season,” Mr Heatley said.
New scientific research is under way that will inform the decision on when and how to reopen the fishery.
As announced in March, the Blue Cod Management Group is working toward delivering a plan that:
will see the fishery opening sooner than the four years, either wholly or partially
Well done Sam!
Kiwi Sam Harvey world champion on Sea-Doo
By Bombardier Recreational Products New Zealand
Aucklander Sam Harvey has won a world title in the International Jet Sports Boating Association (IJSBA) world finals in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Riding a Sea-Doo® personal watercraft (PWC), Harvey took out the Pro Runabout Open at the beginning of November. The Howick-based marine retailer has been competing at the prestigious IJSBA world finals every year for the past nine years, so to win on his tenth attempt was particularly satisfying for the New Zealander.
Harvey says the competition is especially intense in his class.
“More than 50 competitors from around the world apply to race so you have to get through the qualifying heats to be one of the 20 in the two-part finals. I was second in the first qualifying heat behind the factory-backed two-time defending world champ American Craig Warner, and then I was second to Craig again in the first race,” says Harvey.
“In the second race, I got the lead, but took a corner too wide which allowed Craig to pass me to head the pack.”
Harvey continued to apply pressure to Warner until Warner’s Kawasaki suffered engine problems.
“This allowed me to regain the lead and win the race. With the highest total of points from both races, the world title was mine!”
Harvey’s win signifies the first time this title has been won by a non-American and a rider not backed by one of the major PWC manufacturers.
The BOR 90 is ready to fly with its wing.
It was an exciting morning at the San Diego base of BMW ORACLE Racing on Tuesday.
The American Challenger of Record for the 33rd America’s Cup left the dock with its giant wing sail attached for the first time, marking a major milestone in the campaign.
The wing was first unveiled on Sunday evening, when the tent where it had been assembled was opened up. After a day of load testing, in the early hours of Tuesday morning it was attached to the BOR 90 trimaran for the very first time.
“This is just an amazing moment,” said James Spithill, the helmsman for the team. “As sailors, we’re just very excited to try this out. We can’t thank the guys on the build and shore teams enough as they’ve put in a massive effort to get this ready for us.”
A wing of this scale has never been built for a boat. In terms of size, the wing on the BOR 90 dwarfs those on modern aircraft. Towering nearly 190 ft (57 m) above the deck, it is 80 percent bigger than a wing on a 747 airplane (102 ft / 31 m).
“This was a massive undertaking,” said Tim Smyth (NZL), who, along with Mark Turner (NZL), has been overseeing the wing construction team in Anacortes and in San Diego.
“Building a wing sail of this size was something new for all of us, and we’re proud our guys were able to rise to the challenge.”
Getting the BOR 90 off the dock with the wing was a major mission in itself. The wing needed to be attached to the boat in near calm conditions, before Spithill carefully maneuvered away from the dock with the wing down, in a horizontal position, assisted by numerous RIBs.
The first several testing sessions will consist of gently working up the loads on the boat and wing as the sailors become familiar with the new system.
Full-scale testing of the cutting-edge rig will continue over the coming weeks as the team prepares to face Alinghi in the America’s Cup Match in February 2010.
That’s enough for now, off to catch some fat schapper for breakfast, talk soon
This post is tagged artemis, Australia's SLAM Racing Team, BMW ORACLE Racing, bmworacle racing, Emirates Team New Zealand, Gilles Martin-Raget, groupama 3, josh junior, Jules Verne Trophy, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Michael Dunstan., Phil Robertson, Sam Harvey, sian Match Racing Championship, teamorigin, WAKA Racing Team, wing mast, yachtyakka
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