Yachting News 16th February 2010

Feb 16th 2010
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Highlights from Race 2 of the 33rd America’s Cup (extended version) from Valencia Sailing

I get asked all the time, How is Yachtyakka going? click here to find out and here

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Greetings yachties,

While the yachting worlds eyes have been focusing on Valencia, there have been other events grinding away, solo attempts plodding away and local yachting enjoyed by many. Join Yachtyakka Yacht Club and build your own sailing blog with photos, video, events and handy hints.

In this issue:

Outrageous Fortune takes the Double…again

Insubordination on the committe boat, SNG staged a mutiny

Z21 canting keel

Mr Clean talks to VVLP designer Vincent Lauriot Prévost

Mr Clean talks to Jimmy Spithill

Tasman Trespasser 11 – podcast about rowing into a whale - where is Shaun now

Groupama3 – update

Abby update - where is she now?

The NEW Rainbow

Where is Jessica Watson

Des Top News

Enjoy

Consistency takes the double in the Nexus Gold Cup.

After five races beginning in September and concluding with the Balokovic Cup last weekend the Beneteau 45 Outrageous Fortune sailed by Quintin Fowler is the overall winner.
Quintin had a very consistent series in a variety of conditions. Although he never won a race he was always in the top five and eventually won the series by 5 points from the Ross 40 Satellite Spy sailed by Wade Lewis. The Farr 727 Quarter Pint sailed by Nathan Bonney came a very creditable third on count back.

Outrageous Fortune also took the overall prize in the IRC division with the Cookson 12 Powerplay skippered by Ian McBurney second and the Bakewell White Wired skippered by Rob Bassett third.

The Balokovic Cup was also the second race in the RAYC Southern 600 series. The final race the Brin Wilson Memorial is a 150 miler finishing at Kawau followed by the prizegiving also at Kawau.

more here

results here

New Zealand yachting official Harold Bennett faced extreme pressure as principal race officer in the America’s Cup this week, as former Cup holders Alinghi tried to exert their influence.

It is understood the race committee, comprising members of Alinghi’s representative yacht club, the Societe Nautique de Geneve, staged a mutiny before the start of the second race to prevent it from going ahead.

The start was delayed for four hours while officials waited for the wind to pick up. With the cut-off for the start looming, Bennett ordered the postponement flag down around 4pm local time, but the race committee refused.

It is believed SNG’s race committee did not want to start the race, claiming the waves were in excess of 1m – Alinghi’s sea state tolerance.

In an email to yachting colleagues yesterday, Bennett described the behaviour.

“I have never seen such disgraceful behaviour on a committee boat, trying to influence the PRO [principal race officer] to the point of ordering me to stop the [start] sequence,” wrote Bennett.

Unwilling to back down, Bennett called on the help of Oracle’s representative on his committee boat

more here

America’s Cup Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett (NZL)
banishes Swiss official Nicolas Grange (SUI) from the
committee boat’s flybridge control center.
Apparently, for insubordination.

We really wanted to put Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and his yacht club Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) behind us.

We really wanted to move forward to America’s Cup 34 in a very positive way.

In fact, we even wanted to salute Ernesto for his commitment to his team, his passion for America’s Cup, and his sportsmanship.

On Sunday, we learned you can’t have everything.

In fact, when it comes to Ernesto –and his Swiss confreres – you had better be prepared to be disappointed.

First, Firmenich

If you were expecting Pierre-Yves Firmenich, Commodore of Société Nautique de Genève, to be courteous and salutary at the ceremony in Valencia when the America’s Cup trophy was passed to Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYC), well, you were mistaken.

Firmenich couldn’t find the words to congratulate his peer, Commodore Marcus Young of GGYC, on his victory on the water. He couldn’t even shake his hand. The only thing he had to say to the world was that he was pleased to win the trophy in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2003.

Now Commodore Firmenich is a gentleman of the old order, held in high esteem in Switzerland, and in business circles around the world.

But there was no courtesy from Firmenich on Sunday. We are forced to conclude, therefore, that no courtesy was intended, therefore no honor was shown.

That absence of honor sits on Firmenich’s doorstep.

If that wasn’t enough, as the excitement of BMWOracle Racing (USA)’s victory settled, we learned about the bizarre behavior of SNG representatives on the official Race Committee boat, just prior to the start of Sunday’s race.

more here

Valencia Sailing

The future of the America’s Cup according to the new Defender

Less than 24 hours after winning the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia, BMW Oracle held a press conference to talk about the sailing and technical aspects of the winning campaign but, more importantly, shed more light on the future of the world’s oldest sports trophy. Still, the bottom line from the press conference is that there is nothing decided yet, according to Russell Coutts, just sketchy outlines of BMW Oracle’s intentions. The message Coutts wanted to convey was that they will try to take the lessons from past editions, avoid repeating the same errors and have an “open dialog with all participants”. It is important to move forward quite quickly but without rushing into a decision.

Independent Management

Independent management of all the on-the-water aspects of the regatta is the cornerstone of BMW Oracle’s philosophy as the new Defender, according to Russell Coutts. All race officials, umpires, measurers and jury members will be completely independent from the defender, although it is not clear yet what form this independent body will have. Coutts stated various times throughout the conference that his team’s aim is to make the edition that starts today a better event than the previous ones, where all competitors will have fair and equal rules.

more here

Well done, nice sailing. more images here

Groupama 3

Bad confluence

Jules Verne Trophy 2009 – 2010
The transition between the weekend’s cold front and the upcoming N’ly air flow has not linked together well: Groupama 3 was completely slowed down at sunset, before being caught up in calms in the early hours… She is due to step things up a gear again this Tuesday morning.

It’s not Franck Cammas and his men who are late; it’s the zone of confluence between two weather systems, which has shifted along faster than forecast, a whole three hours ahead of schedule… The upshot of this is that Groupama 3 has seen her speed drop to less than twenty knots since sunset, with the situation deteriorating further still at around 0300 UTC as the wind dipped to less than ten knots. Result: 75 miles lost in relation to the reference time in the space of twelve hours!

more here

A Fish and Some Sun

I didn’t get my 50 knots Wednesday night. I did get some nice wind, getting all the way up to 35 knots. Nothing that big, but that is the strongest wind I’ve had since I’ve been out here and it was very nice to have! The swells have been pretty big. Today they’re not so big, but Wild Eyes and I have been having a lot of fun surfing out here except for the occasional wave crashing over the whole boat.

I haven’t had any luck with my fishing so far, but I have caught a fish! It is a flying fish about one inch long… nothing too impressive…

The sun came out today and it was a very nice change from all the clouds. It was nice to have my solar panels charging rather then running my engine. But now its all cloudy again and just starting to rain. Eeven with all the clouds and rain, it has been incredibly hot, especially down below. I have had to spend most of the day outside, at least the water is still cool… I’m not looking forward to getting closer to the equator where even the water is hot!

more here

On Friday 22nd January, before a large crowd, the keel was laid for Rainbow.

The original Rainbow, commissioned by Harold Vanderbilt, was built in 1934 to defend the America’s Cup against Endeavour. Rainbow’s defense was successful, but Rainbow was sold for scrap in 1940.

Gerard Dykstra & Partners have been asked to redesign this Dutch flagged J-class boat, based on the original drawings.

Rainbow will be built to win but this does not mean there will be less comfort below decks. As may be expected on a yacht this size, the interior design will be luxurious and comfortable. According to the original plans a Boxboom will be used instead of the “Park Avenue” boom and the design of the rigging will be original too. But the 40 meter yacht will now have an aluminium hull and full carbon mast and rigging.

more here