Got a mate coming over from town today to help me sample some Murder Rock Rum. Todays Yachtyakka could be a little messy Enjoy the ride yachties.

Tribute to Sir Peter Blake

An Oppie… on foils

Mast Fall Down – Grant Wharington’s 98 foot Supermaxi, Etihad Stadium

Where is Jessica Watson now?

Dogzilla Leaving SanDiego.wmv

Puma – Leg 1

World Yacht Racing Forum – Brad Butterworth

Peri Yachts in yard expansion

Extreme Sailing Series Flags Off in Singapore

Finally an agreement!! Lets get ready to Rumble!!!

Paul Cayard

Weeki Watchee Mermaids

2009-2010 NSW 18 Footer champions

Enjoy

Sir Peter Blake would be humbled by tribute

Pippa, Lady Blake believes her late husband would have been humbled by the permanent exhibition that will open under his name on Saturday.

Blue Water Black Magic – A Tribute to Sir Peter Blake, at Voyager Maritime Museum of New Zealand on Auckland’s waterfront, commemorates the life, work and achievements of the person widely regarded as New Zealand’s greatest yachtsman.

The exhibit, a collaboration with Te Papa museum in Wellington, also recognises New Zealand’s prowess as a sailing nation and charts its history of boatbuilding from the 19th century.

“He would have been humbled by the fact that this is here,” Lady Blake says.

“It’s also great that it’s not just about Peter and Peter’s life. It really links in with New Zealand’s yachting history, which was important to him. It’s wonderful to have it all here in one place.”

The centrepiece of the new three-level annex housing the exhibition is NZL32, the boat that Team New Zealand, with Sir Peter as syndicate head, sailed to victory in the America’s Cup in the San Diego in 1995.

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Yachtyakka story about Sir Peter here

“Impossible is not a declaration, it’s a dare”

An Oppie… on foils…many people have said it is impossible, (or at least those that saw me launching her into a cold and blustery December morning did). But this is a story of faith and belief.

Despite the doubters, I believed; believed that plugging my Moth hydrofoils into an Oppie would make her fly; believed that once the rowlocks had been removed an old wooden Oppie that was destined for life as a tender would be the vessel to achieve this feat; believed that somehow she would push her aerodynamic bath-tub form through the water to a sufficient speed for take off.

Was my faith misplaced? Well after a faltering start with a few moments of foil assist but not take off,  a big gust hit… she accelerated… she started to lift…the bow was out…

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Mast Fall Down

‘SKANDIA on the plane – Rolex Sydney Hobart 2008′ © Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

One of the seven supermaxis entered in the 2009 Rolex Sydney to Hobart race, Grant Wharington’s 98 foot Supermaxi, Etihad Stadium, (formerly Skandia Wild Thing) has lost its rig on its delivery to Sydney.

Late on Friday this afternoon, the boat was doing approximately 25 knots downwind, with no spinnaker, when the mast simply failed, something that has Grant and his crew baffled.

They are now heading to Eden to re-fuel and continue under motor en route to Sydney.

All 20 crew on board are accounted for and no one has been hurt in the incident, which has everyone dumbfounded.

‘Not long before this happened, a number of us were talking about how good the boat was feeling and how excited we were about the Rolex Sydney Hobart ’said Grant.

The delivery, undertaken by the full race crew, got underway at 8:30am this morning (Friday 11 Dec) from Mornington, and they were 10 miles off Deal Island when disaster struck.

After making contact with the shore crew, Grant’s next phone call was to supermaxi rival, Neville Crichton, owner of Alfa Romeo, who has a spare 45 metre carbon fibre mast in Europe, and is willing to provide it to Grant to allow him to get to the start line on Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.

The biggest challenge now is getting the mast from the south of France to Sydney in the next few days to have crew working around the clock to assemble in time for the 1pm start on the 26th of December.

It requires a 747 cargo plane that can take a 900 kilogram-45 metre cylinder at short notice…!

Etihad Stadium, who won the Amazing Naming Rights draw on Tuesday of this week, is talking with their Etihad Airways contacts to see how they might be able to assist.

If the mast is able to be flown out of Europe and into Sydney within the next 4 to 5 days, there is a very strong chance of the Etihad Stadium Supermaxi lining up with the six other supermaxis in a little over two weeks time.

The boat is expected to arrive in Eden between 4 and 6am tomorrow morning – Saturday 12th December.

by Jody O’Brien 9:35 PM Fri 11 Dec 2009

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forum here

chatter on the forums here

and Roger’s  new 888

30 KNOT WINDS AND THROUGH PEAK OF SQUASH ZONE

Friday, 11 December, 2009 (5.00pm AEDT)

The past 24 hours has seen Jessica endure her toughest conditions to date on her solo circumnavigation attempt, with wind gusts of up to 30 knots and 3 a metre swell, courtesy of a low pressure system on her way south to Cape Horn.

Despite the stronger winds, the low was not as bad as the predicted 40-50 knots initially forecast.  The good news is that she is through the peak of the squash zone, which is a strange and unpredictable area between the tropics and the Southern Ocean.

For all the concerned bloggers and supporters eagerly awaiting an update report, we can assure you that Jessica and Ella’s Pink Lady are progressing well and she will update you all when she can. She is resting, eating well and well prepared should conditions rapidly change.

more here

DogzillaLeavingSanDiego.wmv

Breaking News from Waiheke Island

Brad Butterworth, Alinghi team skipper, presented an update on Alinghi and its 33rd America’s Cup preparations at the World Yacht Racing Forum in Monaco on Thursday to 350 delegates from the yachting community. The four-time America’s Cup winner reminded the audience of the ground rules of the 33rd America’s Cup: “The founding document of the America’s Cup is the Deed of Gift. The rules of engagement can be amended if the parties agree by mutual consent, the highly successful 32nd America’s Cup being one example. However, in this case, there is no mutual consent and that means the rules are those of the defending yacht club and the defender chooses the venue. The challenger decides the boat and the date.”

He spoke with enthusiasm of the Alinghi 5 catamaran, highlighting some of the huge figures the crew sailing onboard is dealing with daily: the gennaker is 1,100m2 – one of three largest in the world – the compression on the mast is equivalent to 50 SUVs stacked on top of each other on a foundation slightly bigger than a tennis ball… The underlying message was that these boats are at the cutting edge of technology and are fun to sail: “In the future,” he said, “we should seriously consider a multi-challenge America’s Cup on multihulls.” He confirmed that Alinghi will be ready to race on 8 February 2010 whether the race is in Valencia or in Ras Al Khaimah and expressed a wish: “I would hope that whoever loses is magnanimous and stands aside to allow the new defender and the challengers to move forward unfettered by lawsuits.”

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Peri Yachts in yard expansion

By IBI Magazine

Peri Yachts is expanding its Antalya-based shipyard in Turkey with the addition of another 7,000m2 of building space, bringing the total size of its facility to 12,200m2.

The new facilities will be used for the construction of two Peri 37s, which are now underway.

The investment follows the recent opening a new office in Antibes, France earlier this year, which is now offering brokerage charter, yacht management and sales service in the Cote d’Azur.

Peri offers a five-model range of high-tech composite yachts — the Peri 29, 32, 34, 37 and Peri 41T, a new triple deck yacht that is due for launch in June 2010. All models were designed by Turkey’s Scaro Design group and were engineered by UK naval architect Bill Dixon.

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Valencia Sailing

Spectacular Extreme Sailing Series Flags Off in Singapore

[Source: Extreme Sailing Series] Day 1 and BT, CHINA TEAM, Masirah and Red Bull Extreme Sailing Team are all tied at the top of the Singapore leaderboard with 23 points apiece in this inaugural series in Asia. The six Extreme 40s were racing within metres of the shoreline under the World’s tallest observation wheel, the Singapore Flyer.

Day 1 was dedicated as a Media and VIP day, a chance for the national and international media and key opinion formers from the city to come and experience Extreme 40 racing and see the potential of bringing a full scale series, with shoreside entertainment, to the city in 2010/11.

Local sailor, Tan Wearn Haw, helm of CHINA TEAM was pleased with his team’s performance: “It was great to open the series with a win, it’s starting to come together. I was surprised at the conditions – really good, nice sunshine, great wind, it couldn’t have started better. So hopefully we’ll get more race days like that over the next four days and it will be an awesome event.

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There is finally an agreement!!

From left Lucien Masmejean (Alinghi counselor), Rita Barberá (Valencia mayor), Gerardo Camps (Valencia regional minister of Economy) and Tom Ehman (BMW Oracle head of External Affairs)

Teams will use current bases
According to Rita Barberá, Valencia mayor, the first major agreement reached by all parties is that both teams will use their current bases inside the Port America’s Cup as their main operation bases. Both multihulls will be docked in front of the bases, just like they did in the 32nd America’s Cup. Given their extraordinary size, the two teams will have to use the adjacent bases (+39 Challenge in Alinghi’s case and Shosholoza in BMW Oracle’s case) or any other space necessary. In fact, the port’s maintenance crews have already taken apart the fences that separated the bases.

Still, the Valencia Port Authority will provide additional space, inside the commercial port, in case the two yachts need it under adverse weather conditions. Both yachts might encounter problems entering the canal under high waves since it hasn’t been designed for such wide boats and as a result they might need to seek refuge somewhere else.

Organization of the event
First of all, the two organizational aspects of the event will be separated. On one hand the purely sporting issues will be handled by Alinghi while Valencia will organize the rest of the event.

For that reason, four working parties have already been constituted and they will start working from Monday morning on a continuous basis. Time is very short and with less than two months until the first starting gun is fired there is no time to waste.

The first working party will be in charge of finances, the second one will take care of operational and logistical issues, and the third one will handle television, marketing and promotion of the event as well as hospitality and public entertainment. Finally, the fourth working party will concentrate solely on the organization of the sailing competition.

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Paul Cayard
Friday, December 11, 2009

Monte Carlo – Just leaving Monaco this morning following two days here for the World Yacht Racing Forum.

Now in its second year, the Forum is really growing into quite an event. There were two parts this year: a commercial, sports side and in another hall, running contemporaneously, a technical forum with subects ranging from composite rigging to standards for construction of racing yachts.

It is kind of a collection of who’s who in yacht racing from the designers like Juan K and Vincent Prevost to the sailors like Brad Butterworth, Russell Coutts and Michele Desjoyeaux. I participated with Russell and Brad in the forum on the America’s Cup. The tone was very friendly and there was a demontrative expression from both of the teams to get out on the water and have their race ASAP. Each team showed a very high energy video/slideshow of their extremely impressive sailing machines. The fact is that after all the frustration and ugliness of the past two years, the race between the two giant multihulls will be a special moment in our sports history and something to see.

In the midst of the Forum, a light bulb went off in my head; we may have missed a great opportunity in the past two years. Rather than just sitting around and waiting in frustration, we, the Challengers, should have taken the initiative to put forward a Protocol to resolve a lot of the problems plaguing the current match. We have a unique opportunity right now; neither Alinghi and BMW Oracle knows who will be holding the cards for the 34th America’s Cup. So this is a time where each may be more willing to agree to a “fair and independant” event managment structure. Either could find themselves on the Challenger side for 34th America’s Cup and that party would certainly want a modern and objective event organization.

So after I mentioned this idea, many people came to me and said, “Hey, that’s a great idea. Its not too late. Get to work!”

I am in Geneva today visiting Torbjorn Tornqvist, the Artemis chief, and then my friends at Rolex this afternoon. San Fran tomorrow. Anyone need some frequent flyer miles?

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The Thurlow Fisher-City team of Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas became the 2009-2010 NSW 18 Footer champions when they completed the series with a perfect score of four points after discarding a sixth placing in today’s last race on Sydney Harbour.

Current Australian champions Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Tom Clout produced their best form of the championship in Gotta Love It 7 to take out today’s race by 2m30s in a 2nd sail nor’easter wind. Smeg, skippered by Hugh Stodart – standing in for regular skipper Nick Press, and crewed by Dan Phillips and Jim Beck finished second with Yandoo (John Winning, Andrew Hay and Dave Gibson) just 16s further back in third place.

Gotta Love It 7’s win today out them into second place overall on 9 points, with Smeg third on 16 points.

Fourth place overall went to the consistent appliancesonline.com.au (John Winning Jr.) on 20 points, ahead of his father John Winning in Yandoo on 26 points. After a number of races sailed in poor conditions so far this season, today’s race was sailed in a 15-18 knot north east wind against a run out tide which produced action packed spinnaker runs as the skiffs took off over the chop.

Thurlow Fisher-City, Gotta Love It 7, Pure Blonde (James Francis), Smeg and appliancesonline were well served at the start, while defending champion Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris) was forced out with a broken mast prior to the start. Gotta Love It 7 soon showed an upwind edge over her opposition to take a narrow lead over Thurlow Fisher-City, with Smeg, Pure Blonde, Fisher & Paykel (Andrew Cuddihy) and Kinder Caring Home Nursing (Brett Van Munster) heading the rest of the fleet.

Gotta Love It 7 was a 10s leader over Smeg at the Beashel Buoy windward mark with Thurloe Fisher-City in third place and Fisher & Paykel fourth. Smeg turned the tables on Gotta Love It 7 downwind and grabbed a narrow lead at the wing mark then held her lead at the bottom mark the first time. Thurlow Fisher-City was still third ahead of Fisher & Paykel, Kinder Caring Home Nursing, Yandoo and appliancesonline.

De’Longhi (Simon Nearn), Pure Blonde and Panasonic (Jonathan Whitty) were close behind this group but all capsized on the gybe to the mark. On the following windward leg Gotta Love It 7 continued to impress upwind and was a clear leader at the Beashel Buoy the second time.

From that point the ‘7’ team were never really challenged although the winning margin could have been less but for the spectacular capsize by Thurlow Fisher-City off Nielsen Park on the final spinnaker run to the wing mark.

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This post is tagged Australian 18 Footers League, brad butterworth, Etihad Stadium, Extreme Sailing Series, Grant Wharington, Jessica Watson, Live Sail Die, paul cayard, Peri Yachts, Puma - Leg 1, sir peter blake, Supermaxi, Weeki Watchee Mermaids, world yacht racing forum