Yachting News 10th January 2010

Jan 10th 2010
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Greetings yachties,

Join Yachtyakka Yacht Club and build your own sailing blog with photos, video, events and handy hints.

Spirit of Australia are the first boat to cross the scoring gate

Where is Jessica Watson now?

Aby Gil

Sailing Instructions for AC33

Gold, Silver and Bronze at Splash World Sailing Champs to the Kiwis

Geoff Holt

TeamOrigin

Aussie 18fter’s

Making of Beached AZ

How to buy a car – Billy T James

Sessa C38 – London Boat Show 2010

Enjoy

Valencia Sailing

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33rd AC

08.01.2010 (19:57 CET) – Geneva, Switzerland – Société Nautique de Genève
SNG publishes draft 33rd America’s Cup Sailing Instructions

The Société Nautique de Genève, the 33rd America’s Cup defending yacht club, today published a draft version of the Sailing Instructions for the 33rd America’s Cup Deed of Gift Match due to start on the 8 February. This draft document has been sent to the challenger and may be discussed at the meeting between the two teams in the presence of the ISAF AC Jury Chairman, David Tillett, in Singapore on 12 January.

Please click here to read the draft Sailing Instructions for the 33rd America’s Cup Match.

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8.5 In compliance with the Deed of Gift that the first leg of Race 1 and Race 3 be
“twenty nautical miles to windward” and that in Race 2 “the first side of which a
beat to windward”, the Race Committee may abandon any race prior to the
first boat rounding the first mark where in its opinion there is a permanent wind
shift of 25° or more from the course direction advised by the Race Committee
at the warning signal.

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Ben Lutze, Chris Steele, Declan Burn on the podium in Takapuna this afternoon.

Photo: Will Calver – oceanphotography.co.nz

New Zealanders take gold, silver and bronze at Splash World Sailing Champs

By Yachting New Zealand

NORTH SHORE CITY

Chris Steele (NZL) has won the Splash World Sailing Championships raced this week off Takapuna in Auckland, New Zealand. Declan Burn (NZL) takes silver, and Ben Lutze (NZL), bronze – making it the sixth time in ten years that New Zealanders have won the world championship.

The talented 17-year old is a member of Wakatere Boating Club in Auckland’s North Shore, and is in his final year of high school. This is his second world championship title in sailing – he also won the Optimist World Championships in 2007.

“It’s a great feeling, every bit as good as the first one,” he says.

Beating 73 sailors from twelve countries, including European and Pacific nations, was the result of strategic, consistent sailing: Chris stayed as close as possible to the top sailors on days when the conditions were heavy and didn’t suit him, and notched up mostly first and second places on the lighter days when they did suit him.

His rivalry with close friend and second placegetter Declan Burn was a factor in his success. Declan won the Splash World Sailing Championships in 2009 when they were held in Wales, and the pair pushed each other hard on the racecourse this week. “It was a dogfight today between me and him,” says Chris.

2008 World Champion Ben Lutze from Taipa took third place and the bronze medal.

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more images here

Today’s the day………..!!!!!!!

Phew, what a day yesterday was. Having made the decision to divert to Antigua for emergency fuel to run the ships essential electrical and hydraulic systems, I altered course and we had a great sail through the night. My shore team had investigated several options but we settled on rendezvousing at noon local time with the Antigua & Barbuda Search & Rescue team (ABSAR). I was insistent that it should be a ship to ship refuel at sea, not at a marina or at anchor which would constitute making landfall – not that would be a problem but I felt it would take the shine off my arrival in Tortola. We chose Carlisle Bay (just around from Falmouth / English Harbour) as it gave protection from the Atlantic swells. The re-fuelling was textbook – my thanks to Jonathan, Sven, Barbara and Becky from ABSAR and I’m certain the owner of ID will be pleased that not a drop of diesel was spilt on his lovely decks. Within the hour, we were off again, now able to recharge our ships batteries from the engines which meant I could finally stop steering by hand, much to the relief of my right arm, and we could have hot food, the first in days.
More good wind and it wasn’t long before we were making course for Tortola (ETA 1300 local time, 1700 GMT, Thursday 7th January), sailing up past St Kitts and Nevis, the volcano dramatically backlit by the setting sun, the island lights twinkling along the shoreline. What a great sight.

So, how are we feeling with less than 12 hours to go? Well, Susana is already packed, grinning from ear to ear and right now is letting off part poppers down below in her cabin accompanied by whoops of delight – I think it’s the prospect of being on terra firma, either that or the peanut M&M’s have finally got to her. She’s not even mentioned the “seasick” word today but that could be because the tranquil Caribbean sea is so different to the mighty Atlantic.

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BBC Radio and News made contact with Geoff for arrival interviews as he was reunited with his family.

Geoff arrived in Tortola to become the first quadriplegic to sail across the Atlantic. He has sailed the 2,700 mile journey across the Atlantic on a 60ft purpose built catamaran Impossible Dream, unassisted in every aspect of the sailing.

It has taken 28 days in total from his departure in Lanzarote to the arrival and emotional return to Cane Garden Bay where he will revisit the place of his accident that paralysed him 25 years ago.

Debbie Blachford, RYA Sailability Manager, said: “We are really excited and delighted for Geoff that he has made his ‘Personal Atlantic’ come true. He is truly an inspiration; he has shown that it is possible for disabled people to live a challenging life and he has shown us all that with hard work and determination we to can hope to achieve our dream, whatever it is.

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TeamOrigin set for action packed sailing season

TeamOrigin, the British America’s Cup Team, has issued an update on its planned focus and activities for 2010, a year the team refer to as their ‘training year for the America’s Cup’.

The sailing programme is intense and covers more than 200 days on the water across three aspects of racing:
- WSTA/Louis Vuitton events in America’s Cup class boats;
- TP52/AudiMedCup series;
- WMRT Match Race events.

Each sailing programme has been selected for varying reasons, contributing in different ways to teamwork, performance, skill development, design and technology testing, operational and logistics planning. The programme gives the team a long awaiting focus and allows them to spend serious time on the water training and racing, in a year where they hope to see some clarity on the future of the America’s Cup.

Mike Sanderson commented: “Since our launch in January 2007, it has been a frustrating time as we have not been able to put together a robust sailing programme that would allow us to train properly in a way that matches existing AC teams that have been up and running for much longer than us. We have competed as a team in only two significant events (LV Pacific series and LV Regatta Nice) and for sure the lack of training has affected our results. We aim to address that this year so we are in the best possible shape for the 34th America’s Cup.”

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18ft Skiffs:

Race 1

SP-HighModulus Australian Championship

Sunday, 10 January 2010

Sydney Harbour

Defending champions Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Tom Clout have immediately set the standard for the 2009-2010 SP-HighModulus Australian 18ft Skiff Championship when they scored a convincing victory in Gotta Love It 7 in Race 1 of the regatta on Sydney Harbour today. Gotta Love It 7 trailed the current NSW team of Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas on Thurlow Fisher Lawyers in the early stages of today’s race but proved too strong over the final lap of the course to win by 1m26s. Thurlow Fisher Lawyers looked to be safe in second place for most of the final lap but a brilliant finish from Smeg, led by replacement skipper Hugh Stodart, with regular crew Dan Phillips and Jim Beck, saw that skiff take second place by just 9s right on the finish line.

Andy Budgen’s new Project Racing skiff took an early lead at the first windward mark and was in close contention with Thurlow Fisher Lawyers and Gotta Love It 7 for the next lap of the course. They held on to finish fourth, another 33s behind Thurlow Fisher. Former Australian champion John Winning finished fifth in Yandoo, ahead of Andrew Cuddihy’s Fisher & Paykel, De’Longhi (Trevor Barnabas) and Appliancesonline.com.au (John Winning Jr.). While most of the fleet carried their smaller #2 rigs, John Harris’ Rag & Famish Hotel went big and struggled to finish nineth, almost eight minutes from the winner.

For the first half of today’s race there was a three way battle between Gotta Love It 7, Thurlow Fisher Lawyers and Project racing. Thurlow Fisher Lawyers grabbed the lead from Gotta Love It 7 on the work back from Obelisk Bay to Shark Island (Rose Bay). The spinnaker run across the harbour to Athol Bay East enabled Gotta Love It 7 and Project Racing to reduce the lead when Thurlow Fisher Lawyers had to drop their spinnaker to clear Bradleys Head. The three skiffs were separated by just six secs. as spinnakers were set for the next run back to Obelisk. Gotta Love It 7 rolled Thurlow Fisher Lawyers on the run but the latter team lost all hope when they had to drag a crew member “water skiing style” through the water.