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Replica of the J-Class RAINBOW starts,

Waka Wins,

Brad Jackson and Stu Bannatyne – Sailor of the Year at the 2009 Yachting New Zealand Excellence Awards,

Saito Challenge,

l’Hydroptere – 51.63knots The Movie,

Loius Vuitton ETNZ V Synergy

Crash Bang at Louis Vuitton Trohpy,

Transat Jacques Vabres,

America’s Cup,

PlanetSolar,

Death Sponge,

Where is Jessica Watson now?

Enjoy

A replica of the J-Class RAINBOW, the famous American yacht which won the 1934 America’s Cup, has started building at Bloemsma Aluminiumbouw at Makkum in Holland. It is no surprise that Bloemsma should be selected to produce the hull as the yard has previously built hulls for the J yachts LIONHEART and ATLANTIS.

The replica re-build of this original design by William Starling Burgess will be under the supervision of Dykstra & Partners, who have more than 20 years’ experience with J Class and have been responsible for the re-builds and refits of: SHAMROCK V, ENDEAVOUR, VELSHEDA, RANGER and the new HANUMAN (Endeavour II Project).

The new RAINBOW will be constructed in aluminium, combining lightweight construction with high overall stiffness to improve sailing performance. Below deck the interior will represent 1930s styling,yet with all modern comforts for 8 guests and 8 crew.

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Velsheda

Coming through the round robin with a 10-0 score record was a real confidence booster for us heading into the final day of racing. Unfortunately, our talented tactician and mainsheet guy Garth Ellingham was hit with heat stroke and we had to make a quick decision to forfeit one of our races. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best decision – we hadn’t had a loss on our record to date, however we were already guaranteed top spot heading into the Semis.
Semi finals with Garth still man down we brought in a new mainsheet, Peter Gilmour’s eighteen year old son David. Our chosen opponent Martin Kaye (Team Hong Kong) fought hard especially in the last race, but we managed to get a few penalties on him and after crossing the finish line in 3 straight wins, we prepared ourselves for the finals!

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Nationalism and Localism. What matters to Sailing Fans?

November 20, 2009 by David_Fuller

Here’s the premise for this story – The most successful sporting teams are based around either a core local following or have a strong nationalistic element. There are exceptions, but it seems obvious that a sports fan should have more loyalty to a team based on a sense of place rather than a brand. A few examples this week that sailing promoters should consider.

The first story from Kimball Livingston’s BLUE PLANET TIMES combines sailing with the fanatical loyalties involved with college sport in America.

Where I live, our “Big Game” is Cal-Stanford. We’re talking football. And most years, folks elsewhere couldn’t care less about our big game. With Stanford in the running for a Rose Bowl berth, maybe the 2009 edition will attract more notice than other years, but I’m not really stuck on football here, I’m wanting to tell you about the Big Sail, the biggest thing to hit San Francisco Bay this week.

Passion and interest from the wider community coming from having a connection with a sense of place.

Then, some interesting figures released this week  about Formula One television audiences. Sailing press people love to use the phrase “the F1 of sailing” so here are some stats that should be kept in mind. In Spain and Italy, the TV viewing figures fell drastically this year, reflecting disappointing performances by Spanish driver Fernando Alonso and Italian car manufacturer Ferrari, which suffered its worst season in 16 years. In the UK, Jenson Button’s championship season provided a perfect start for public-service broadcaster the BBC.

In other words, fans don’t follow F1 – they follow drivers and teams. They follow drivers and teams based on nationality. This will be played out even more next year as discussed by Scott Garrett at Synergy. Garrett argues that in 2010, the F1 grid will look more like the ill-fated A1, which was supposed to be the “World Cup” of Motorsport. McLaren, an English team will have 2 English drivers – Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari will always be Italian, no matter who is driving…

So there you have it: Team Germany v Team India v Team Malaysia v Team GB A v Team GB B v Team Spain v Team Italy. This is a solid reflection of where F1 is touring, location-wise, and I think we will see teams from Korea and Russia before too long.

Which brings us back around to sailing and the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Unlike the two squabbling America’s Cup teams, who although representing Swiss and American yacht clubs are made up of mercenaries from around the world, there are several teams competing in the Louis Vuitton Trophy who are trying to build national support.

Emirates Team New Zealand, TeamOrigin and Azzura are building support based on the fact that the flag on the back of the boat matches the nationality of the Skipper and the majority of the team. Lynn Fitzpatrick has this week written about the passion and tradition that Azzura are creating:

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Hans Berggren/Ericsson Racing Team

Brad Jackson and Stu Bannatyne, watch captains on Ericsson 4, the winner of the 2008-09 race, have been jointly named Sailor of the Year at the 2009 Yachting New Zealand Excellence Awards.

Jackson and Bannatyne, two of the world’s most successful ocean racers, join an elite group of three, joining another New Zealander Mark Christensen as the only sailors to have won the Whitbread/Volvo three times.

Jackson and Bannatyne sailed on New Zealand Endeavour in the 1993-94 winning the maxi class.  In the 2001-02 race, Bannatyne, collected his second win in three races as a member of the illbruck crew. Jackson made it two as watch captain on the all-conquering ABN AMRO ONE in the 2005-06. This latest win now means both Jackson and Bannatyne have three wins each, from five races.

“We think that Brad and Stuart’s longevity in the sport, and the significant input that they have had in the repeated successes of their teams, is highly admirable,” said Yachting New Zealand Chief Executive Des Brennan. “There are very few yachtsmen who have stood the test of time as this pair have done.”

Jackson and Bannatyne had a major influence on the success of the Ericsson 4 campaign even before the race started, making key decisions during the build-up before the race and prior to replacement skipper Torben Grael’s arrival. Grael assumed the reins from original skipper John Kostecki.

The pair have joined Sir Peter Blake (1982 and 1989, and in 2001 with the Steinlager 2 crew), Grant Dalton (2001), and Mike Sanderson (2006) in winning the Sir Bernard Fergusson trophy for New Zealand Sailor of the Year.

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Saito-san reports that NBSDIII is moored at the Coast Guard receiving station and that yesterday he cleared immigration back into Chile.

The boat was to be towed back to the port facilities used by Hanaoka-san’s company, where the engine and generator will be fixed, the fuel tanks cleaned, and the staysail repaired. The leak in the aft head will also be traced and fixed.

No schedule is presently set but it is expected that the work and inspections will take a week or more to ensure that the vessel is back in good working order and fully ready to resume the circumnavigation. He said a decision on departure can only be made after the engine and generator are repaired. All fuel will be replaced after the tanks are cleaned.

Saito-san expressed his thanks for the messages of support he has received.

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R2: Synergy Russia Sailing Team d. Emirates Team New Zealand – Delta: 50 seconds

While it may not seem it on paper, this pair is incredibly even on the water. They’ve now completed three races and all have been decided within sight of the finish line. Synergy evened the match at 1-1 with a win on the finish line while Team New Zealand was stuck trying to complete a penalty turn.

Team New Zealand was penalised in the pre-start for jibing too close. The Kiwis led this match around the course, but couldn’t pull far enough ahead to complete the 270-degree penalty turn and clear the finish line in the lead. The two crews raised their genoas and lowered the spinnakers as they got into the final quarter of the run to the finish. The pair wound up outside the committee boat end and to leeward as Team New Zealand was looking for an opportunity to complete its penalty or offset it on the Russian crew. But Synergy stayed clear through all the manoeuvring. In fact, Team New Zealand was assessed a second penalty for causing a collision.

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International jury finds against Synergy in protest hearing

In a later protest hearing the International jury found that there was a hard collision between Team New Zealand and Synergy. The jury deemed that when Synergy, the starboard-tack yacht, became the right-of-way boat it altered course down towards Team New Zealand and didn’t do enough to keep clear.

“That change of course was an infringement of Rule 14 (Avoiding Contact), so we deducted a half point for that,” said Chief Umpire Bill Edgerton. “In the end we penalised Team New Zealand 1 point and Synergy a half point for the rule to make sure the crews don’t do massive damage. Then we deducted a second half point from Synergy for not doing everything to keep clear.”

Although the teams have each won a race in their match the score is now 0-0, setting up a one race, winner-take-all match tomorrow morning.

Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning with a warning signal set for 0830 CET. The first race will be between TeamOrigin and Azzurra with the Emirates Team New Zealand-Synergy to follow.

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Emirates Team New Zealand and Synergy locked in pretty tight on the downwind run to the finish.
© Photo Credit Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz | Louis Vuitton Trophy, Nice Côte d’Azur.

Pit stop for Dee and Brian?

Twelve days in to the race, British duo Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, onboard Aviva, have alerted the Transat Jacques Race Race Directors that due to the power shortage onboard they have requested permission to collect a part to repair their faulty generator.

The fault has plagued them for more than a week and, despite continuous attempts, they have been unable to repair it. The British pair have had to be be economical with their use of power but as things stand they believe they would not be able to continue racing to the finish line in Costa Rica.
The Aviva Ocean Racing shore crew has requested permission for Caffari and Thompson to collect a spare part to repair the generator, which has been granted by the race office in accordance with the rules of the race. The collection is forecast to take place off the northern tip of St Lucia, most likely between afternoon and evening this Sunday.

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The court’s ruling that both yachts must be measured with all ballast aboard, including moveable ballast, blocks Alinghi’s attempt to circumvent the 90ft Length on Load Waterline (LWL) limit imposed by the America’s Cup Deed of Gift.

It was because of SNG’s refusal to put an International Jury in place to determine some of the sporting and technical issues that the Court called for its own Expert Panel of former America’s Cup jurors.

David Tillett (AUS), Graham McKenzie (NZL) and Bryan Willis (GBR) were “well qualified and independent,” the Court said.

The Court also put a time limit on this vital matter of jury appointment, ordering that if is not settled by 4 December 2009 the Court will ask the Expert Panel to re-convene.

“All we have ever asked is that the America’s Cup be raced under the normal rules and procedures that nearly every sailor in the world competes under,” added Ehman. “Yet again SNG has had to be reminded that the America’s Cup is not the Alinghi Cup.”

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For Sale

Work on solar-powered yacht makes good progress

By IBI Magazine

Work on building the €10m 30m (98ft) solar-powered trimaran yacht PlanetSolar is progressing well at Knierim Shipyard in Kiel, Germany. The world’s largest vessel of her type is due to start a global circumnavigation in April 2011, with an estimated travelling time of 140 days. The yacht is due to be launched in January and will undertake a tour of European cities prior to the world trip. Next month, in advance of the float out, the two side hulls will have blocks of batteries with a total power rating of 1.3 megawatts installed.

The yacht is currently using the services of 30 of the yard’s 57 strong workforce and is being paid for by Immo Stroeher, a German investor. The world voyage will be used by the yacht’s designers and backers to emphasise that there are renewable energy solutions to the energy shortage.

PlanetSolar’s main hull will have a large 508m2 spread of photovoltaic solar panels. Her world trip will follow the east to west equatorial route starting by crossing the Atlantic, transiting the Panama Canal, Pacific and India oceans. The craft will stop in several major cities including New York and Hong Kong while en-route to promote the energy saving opportunities it represents. Because of the size of the main hull and the space available at Knierim Shipyard, it is being constructed in another shipyard close by

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This post is tagged America’s Cup, Brad Jackson, J-Class RAINBOW, Jessica Watson, l'hydrotpere, Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, Minoru Saito, PlanetSolar, Saito Challenge, Stu Bannatyne, Transat Jacques Vabres, Waka Racing, Wild Days Rum