Yachting News 6th January 2010

Jan 6th 2010
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Greetings yachties,

Soon, we will be following 2 teenage girls sailing solo towards Cape Horn, Jessica Watson and in the USA packing her food, is Abby Sunderland. While over on SOL we are sailing clipper ships the wrong way round the same landmark in the virtual world. In Valencia there are 2 of the most advanced carbon engineering yachting examples getting ready for battle. Do we know all the rules yet?

Photo Gilles Martin-Raget

The Cup Part 5 here

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

Ady Gil Rammed

DesTopNews 2010 preview

Speed Dream

Greek Challenge

Hilary Lister

Jessica Watson -Cold! Where is she now?

NorthsU

Contender World Championship – 60 boat international fleet.

Abby Sunderland – packing food

Groupama3 – go green ….. take 3

SailJuice – Highlight the last 10 years

Splash Worlds

Alinghi arrives too

Enjoy

Speed Dream: The quest for the fastest monohull on the planet

In 2008 world-renowned adventurer Richard Branson tried to break the current transatlantic monohull sailing record of 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, 39 seconds on his 100′ Super-Maxi yacht Virgin Money, but had to abandon his attempt when the boat started to break apart in the middle of the ocean.

So, is it possible to beat what Branson calls ‘one of the greatest records of all’? Can a sailboat reach speeds in excess of 50 knots in stormy open-ocean conditions? Is it possible to cover 1,000 miles in a single day under wind power alone? Can the performance gap between offshore monohulls and multihulls be bridged?

Radical boat designer Vlad Murnikov believes the answer to all of these questions is yes and is assembling a new international team of designers, engineers, adventurers, and sponsors to prove it. ‘The SpeedDream Team,’ says Murnikov, ‘will comprise specialists with diverse expertise in offshore racing yachts like Volvo 70 and Open 60, multihull and powerboat design, hydrodynamics, structural engineering, and advanced composites.’

The team’s two-year quest is to build the fastest monohull sailboat on the planet. ‘Not simply to beat the existing transatlantic record,’ Murnikov says, ‘but to shatter it by more than a day! And then we’ll go on to challenge other world records like the transpacific and nonstop circumnavigation records.’

more here

Με την ευκαιρία της 4ης επετείου δημιουργίας μας γιορτάζουμε ένα πολύ πετυχημένο 2009 και ανακοινώνουμε τη δημιουργία 2 βάσεων στην Ελλάδα με στόχο τη περαιτέρω ανάπτυξη της ομάδας μας και προετοιμασίας μας για το 34ο ΑC.
2.3 εκατομμύρια Ευρώ θα επενδυθούν για την δημιουργία υποδομής σε δύο λιμάνια στην Ελλάδα για να υποδεχτούν τη GREEK CHALLENGE και άλλες ομάδες AC. Η ομάδα μας έχει ήδη υποβάλλει τα αιτήσεις και σχέδια στις Λιμενικές Αρχές και περιμένει την θετική τους απάντηση ως το τέλος Ιανουαρίου του 2010.
Η GREEK CHALLENGE δημιουργήθηκε σε ένα κύκλο φίλων και συνεργατών και δεσμεύτηκε ότι με τη πρώτη ευκαιρία θα συμμετείχε στο κορυφαίο τρόπαιο της αγωνιστικής ιστιοπλοΐας. Το 2009 η GREEK CHALLENGE συμμετείχε στο LVPS, εξουσιοδοτήθηκε από την Ελληνική Κυβέρνηση να φέρει ιστιοπλοϊκούς αγώνες στην Ελλάδα, δημιούργησε συνεργασίες με καθιερωμένα ιδρύματα και έχει θεωρηθεί ως ομάδα με δύναμη και επιμονή αφιερωμένη στο να φέρει την Ελλάδα στο ΑC.

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At the Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show, quadriplegic yachtswoman Hilary Lister will announce her intention to compete in the 2011 Fastnet Race in a Class 40 boat. Hilary is now actively seeking sponsors for this project.

Hilary, who is paralysed from the neck down, became the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain in 2009, controlling her boat entirely with her breath. This feat led to her becoming one of the four woman finalists in the 2009 ISAF World Sailor of the Year awards.

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Cold!

The good news is that so far the wind hasn’t been nearly as strong as expected. But on the down side, it sure has been and still is very cold!

The cabin temp has been sitting on 4 degrees Celsius and the wind chill outside is really quite something. Handling wet lines on deck is just downright painful, but mostly I’m staying toasty warm in all my layers. But without any help from the heater which seems to have picked this as a good time to blast cold air rather than hot! I think the problem is fixable but that’s going to have to wait till things are a little quieter.

I’ve also got a little problem with a block on the main sheet (the line that controls the mainsail). Again it’s not a biggy, but for now I’ve got the mainsail down and seeing as there’s still plenty of wind, Ella’s Pink Lady is making good ground with just the headsail up.

So as I’m writing this, the wind is sitting at about 30knots and it’s just become daylight again to reveal an angry, grey ocean. Nothing too serious, but I’m still a bit on edge, as there’s more wind expected again today and the odd big wave is knocking us around a bit.

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Learn the Racing Rules DVD Now Available!
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Contender World Championship returns with a 60 boat international fleet.

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A classic Australian sailing dinghy from the sketch pad of Ben Lexcen, who designed the America’s Cup winner Australia II, will become part of world sailing history today.

Originally designed as a future single handed Olympic dinghy by the young Queenslander in 1966, when he was still known as Bob Miller, the Contender dinghy is celebrating its 40th World Championship in its Queensland design birth place.

Chris Sutherland, Contender Class President says ‘This Worlds is a landmark event for the Contenders. We designed them, we build them and we win in them. Four Australians have won the Worlds on a total of nine occasions.’

The Contender was awarded International status in 1968. The first World Championship was held in Britain in 1970 and the second and third were won by Brisbane sailor Peter Hollis, in Holland and Italy respectively.

Then came the turn of Australia to host the Championship. In 1974 and again in 1988 Contender World titles were sailed out of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron (RQYS). Now, in the Club’s 125th year, the Contender World Championship returns with a 60 boat international fleet.

Sutherland continued. ‘Aussies feel this is the home of the class, with Queensland Peter Hollis being our first multiple World champion and Australians having had such a major involvement with the class over the years. It’s great to have the 40th Worlds here at RQ.

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Abby’s Blog

Monday, January 4, 2010

A Day at Home

I stayed at home today to help out with packing food and a few other losse ends. I’m not much help with all the work that’s being done on the boat right now, and its good to be home for a day every now and then.

Thanks to Good Morning America, who wanted to get some footage of me hanging out with friends, I got to get together with some friends that I haven’t seen in awhile last week.

Packing food has turned out to be a bit more difficult than we had thought it would be. My mom has been working hard at it for the past three days and it’s just about done. We’ll get it all down to the boat tomorrow, and hopefully there will be enough room!!

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Groupama 3 has arrived back in her home port of Lorient where preparations for a second attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy are underway.

Following the 16 and a half day journey from Cape Town, the 105ft maxi-trimaran was welcomed home by her skipper Franck Cammas.

The team are now preparing the boat for a fresh attempt on the Jules Verne when favourable conditions materialise.

“The delivery trip went very smoothly,” said Fred le Peutrec, who skippered the boat on her delivery to France. “We’re all delighted about making it home and seeing our families and children again to celebrate Christmas, albeit a little late.”

The shore team has been working through the job list as the crew prepares to go code green. “We’re going to change the standing rigging as it’s already covered over half a circumnavigation of the globe and it would be risky to keep it,” Cammas said.

“We’re also going to reinforce the floats down the centreline aft where the engineers have identified a weak point. The rest of the work will now focus on the smaller details due to the normal wear and tear after 16,000 miles on the water.”

Meanwhile Cammas, who will lead a Groupama entry in the next two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, will be keeping an eye on the weather and a suitable pattern on which to leave.

It now seems likely that Groupama 3 will set off at the same time as rival trimaran Banque Populaire which has been on standby in Brest since mid-November.

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SailJuice Blog

Yesterday we looked back at the first five years of the Nautical Noughties, the moments that stood out in the competitive sailing world. Here’s a look at the last five…

2005

A new form of sailing is born as Rohan Veal uses a set of hydrofoils to win every race of the 2005 International Moth World Championships, sometimes by more than 10 minutes.

The diminutive Ellen MacArthur makes history by setting a new singlehanded round the world record aboard her purpose-built trimaran B&Q/Castorama.

A new canting-keel monster, the ambitious Volvo Open 70, is unleashed on the Volvo Ocean Race. But Mother Nature makes her displeasure known on the very first night of the race off the coast of Spain, when Pirates of the Caribbean and Movistar crash out of leg one. The new design is fraught with problems, but there’s no doubting they’re quick as ABN Amro 2 smashes the 24-hour monohull record with a new distance of 562.96 nm.

2006

Juan Kouyoumdjian’s beamy, twin-ruddered design for Team ABN Amro shows a clean pair of heels to the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, and first-time skipper Mike Sanderson wins the race with his crew on ABN Amro One.

2007

Russell Coutts has fallen out of favour with Ernesto Bertarelli, and does not compete in the 2007 America’s Cup. But with Brad Butterworth taking up the reins, Alinghi remains a force to be reckoned with.

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Photos Will Calver Ocean Photography

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Photo credit: Javier Salinas / Alinghi

The 33rd America’s Cup defending team, Alinghi, arrived in Valencia, Spain today and will transfer to its existing base in the Dársena (the inner harbour of Valencia) over the next couple of days to begin its final preparations towards the Deed of Gift Match that starts on 8 February.

The team’s catamaran Alinghi 5, the masts and 20 support containers reached their final destination aboard the Cassandra B container ship on Monday afternoon after a 14 day voyage from the team’s previous base in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.

“We hope that the people of Valencia will be excited to witness the arrival and preparation of our catamaran. We understand the American challenger has also arrived to Valencia and hopefully both boats will be moored in the Dársena and will provide a great spectacle. Since these new yachts are so fast and the racing will take place a long way offshore viewing the yachts from the water will be difficult for the fans, the sponsors and the media; that is why we think the Dársena will form an important arena for this event,” said Grant Simmer, Alinghi design team coordinator.

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