Greetings yachties,
In this issue:
Mohsin Mainsail 250120
RC44 – Al Maktoum Trophy
Sailing News TV – update
Groupama3 - Where are they now?
Grant Dalton rips into Alinghi
Keep Turning Left
Melges 20
Une goélette pour Thierry Dubois
WHY
Jessica Watson ticks off another Cape – Where is she now?
Tasman Trespasser 11
nacra team boskalis on F18 Infusion.wmv
BMW ORACLE Racing Video Gallery.
Highlights from Race 2 of the 33rd America’s Cup (extended version) from Valencia Sailing
BMW ORACLE Racing with an experimental riblet film
Blocksail
Enjoy
Carried along by the swell…
Jules Verne Trophy 2009 – 2010
On track to pass between New Zealand and Auckland Island, Franck Cammas and his nine crew have eased off the throttle slightly to negotiate a slightly more chaotic sea. After picking up the record for the Indian Ocean crossing on Wednesday morning (8d 17h 39′), Groupama 3 is plunging towards the SE, regularly extending her lead over the reference time.
Franck Cammas at the helm of Groupama 3 – © Team Groupama
There is not a lot at the entrance to the Pacific Ocean, though there is a swell… A fine W’ly swell which is enabling Groupama 3 to continue to lengthen her stride, pushed by a twenty-five knot SW’ly wind. The climate is still mild and (at last) there is a seascape to contemplate as the clouds have given way to a starry sky.
“We don’t need to push the boat too hard because it would serve no purpose to be too quick due to the weather situation which awaits us over the next few days. In addition, the seas aren’t very organised following the wind shift and we’re sailing with one reef in the mainsail and small gennaker” said Franck Cammas at the 1130 UTC radio link-up with Groupama’s Race HQ in Paris.
Team New Zealand Chief Executive Grant Dalton has let rip at Alinghi after they failed to defend the America’s Cup in Valencia.
Team BMW Oracle clinched the best-of-three series 2-0 in emphatic style on Monday and Dalton thinks that the Swiss team, with several Kiwi sailors on board, left a lot to be desired.
Listen to the full Grant Dalton interview
“I think Alinghi sailed particularly badly… They made some pretty bad calls,” Dalton told ONE News.
“I mean they muffed up two starts, two fundamental mistakes that you learn in the squadron of the youth programme, so that really put them on the back foot straight away and they didn’t have the speed as well.
“So when you sail badly and you’re not fast enough you’re not giving yourself any chance.”
Dalton also says that he thinks the sailors on Alinghi should probably think about calling it a day.
“I think it’s time for a few New Zealand yachtsmen to retire.
Keep turning left
English sailor Dylan Winter is in the process of sailing around Britain’s 20,000 mile coastline in a 19 foot boat, and you can follow his interesting story on the new Keep Turning Left website.
As Dylan said towards the end of January, his journey is still underway in between proper work, but who is he, and why has he taken on this challenge?
“I am a middle aged, middle class man from middle England,” writes Dylan. “I have been a sailor since I was eight years old, yet I have never been right around the island I have lived on all my life.
“I decided to make a start before I got too old to tolerate a small boat. I am not a rich man, so I can’t afford to do the trip all in one go; I am doing it in stages between my real job as a cameraman and video journalist.
“The boat had to be cheap and tough, so I bought a 19 foot Mirror Offshore. She is nearly 50 years old and was designed by Van De Stadt for a competition being run by the Daily Mirror newspaper where the brief was to create a “yacht for the working man”. She has impeccable socialist credentials.
Well that’s it. Another ocean and cape down! It took a while with light winds for the last few days but Ella’s Pink Lady has passed under Cape Agulhas, but being 400nm south of land I couldn’t quite see it this time. A bright orange half moon and a spectacular sky of stars was enough of a celebration. But of course, I also put a bit of a dent in the chocolate supplies and let off a few party poppers!
There’s still so many miles to cover across the Indian and then around the bottom of Australia, but it really feels like we’re on the homeward leg now. Only 4,200nm till Cape Leeuwin and Australia, a very exciting and slightly scary thought!
The lovely weather over the last few days has more than made up for our slowish speeds. As a high pressure system passed over us, we’ve had perfect clear skies, warm sunshine, gentle seas, plenty of birds and the odd
albatross for company. In between a lot of enjoying the sunshine and contemplating how perfect it all was, I also used the quiet conditions to keep up with a few jobs and give everything a good double-check over. I made a total mess re-applying Sika flex to the odd persistent leak. Also snapped another two needles and put a few holes in my hands re-stitching one of the tears in the mainsail, then threaded on new windvane lines after finally giving up on the chafed and scruffy old set.
An uneventful day…to Shaun’s delight // Day 37
Thursday, February 25, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized
Another positive day on the Tasman for Shaun today. The last couple days progress make Tuesday nights ordeal seem like ages ago.
Tomorrow’s plan is to keep rowing and then on Saturday the water maker issue will be tackled. Today at one stage he saw a large fish with a large fin but ignored it and rowed away. When asked why he didn’t get the spear out and investigate he explained that one near death experience per week was enough!
One thing that is bugging Shaun is the enormous boil on his bottom. Today he had to triple pad his seat in order to be able to row.
It is amazing to hear how positive he remains even after everything he has been through and this is also a result of all the support that is passed on and Shaun sends his thanks.
3M supplied BMW ORACLE Racing with an experimental riblet film, custom manufactured for USA, which was powered by the largest wing sail ever built.
“The 3M technology makes an already fast boat even faster,” said Manolo Ruiz de Elvira, of the BMW ORACLE Racing design team. “Our hulls were more slippery and therefore moved more efficiently through the water than ever before.”
Similar technology was used by the last US team to successfully challenge for, and win, the Cup – Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes team which won in 1987 in Fremantle, Australia.
In recent editions of the Cup, the technology has been banned under the rules. But in a Deed of Gift Match, no such limitation was imposed, and the team turned to 3M to help make its trimaran as fast as possible.
This post is tagged Audi Melges 20, Blocksail, grant dalton, Groupama3, Jessica Watson, Keep Turning Left, Mohsin Mainsail, rc44, riblet film, Tasman Trespasser 11, WHY
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