Dear Abby Sunderland Supporters:
We are all asking for prayers for Abby today. Please take a moment and light a candle for her. I will try to keep you all in the loop as I get information through out the day.
A rescue effort has been launched in hope of finding Abby Sunderland <http://abbysunderland.com/> , 16, who set off her emergency beacon locating devices from the southern Indian Ocean early this morning.
Sunderland, who had been attempting to sail around the world alone, endured multiple knockdowns in 60-knot winds Thursday before conditions briefly abated.
However, her parents lost satellite phone contact early this morning and an hour later were notified by the Australian Coast Guard that both of Sunderland’s EPIRB satellite devices had been activated.
One is apparently is attached to a survival suit or a life raft and meant to be used when a person is in the water or aboard a life raft.
Abby’s father struggled with emotions and said he didn’t know if his daughter was in a life raft or aboard the boat, or whether the boat was upside down.
“Everything seemed to be under control,” Laurence Sunderland said. “But then our call dropped and a hour later the Coast Guard called.”
Abby is hundreds of miles from land. The nearest ship was about 400 miles away. The rescue effort is being coordinated by the French-controlled Reunion Islands and Australia. Sunderland had been sailing in 50- to 60-foot seas and it was dark when the EPIRB devices were activated.
The Sunderland’s are asking people to pray for their daughter, a high-school junior from Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Sailing Anarchy forum updates here
Abby Sunderland believed to still be on her sailboat
Two emergency beacons activated by teen sailor Abby Sunderland <http://abbysunderland.org> were tracking together in the Indian Ocean as of 8 p.m. (PDT),
the Sunderland family announced in an email prayer request sent to some of Abby’s supporters.
They take this to mean that Abby–who manually activated one device on her survival suit or life vest, and another on her sailboat–is still aboard the 40-foot cruising sled.
“They are tracking together so that means that Abby is still on the boat,” the Sunderland family announced.
The statement added: “Our fear is that the boat has capsized and that it is taking on water. It will be very difficult to rescue her if she is capsized.
The boat is equipped with an escape hatch that she can exit from but it will be very difficult in the water she is experiencing.”
The Sunderlands also stated that the Australian search-and-rescue airplane trying to reach her position was not expected to arrive until at least 10 p.m. (PDT).
The announcement–due to be posted on her blog <http://soloround.blogspot.com/> –closed with this passage:
“Thank you for praying and asking your friends to pray. We pray that Abby will feel God’s spirit and even see His angels at work around her as she trusts in Him.”
Abby is Fine!
We have just heard from the Australian Search and Rescue. The plane arrived on the scene moments ago. Wild Eyes is upright but her rigging is down. The weather conditions are abating. Radio communication was made and Abby reports that she is fine!
We don’t know much else right now. The French fishing vessel that was diverted to her location will be there in a little over 24 hours. Where they will take her or how long it will take we don’t know.
More updates as news comes in.
Abby Sunderland – dismasted but safe
‘Abby – dismasted but safe and well’ .
Abby Sunderland says she is in good shape….family is thrilled
The mast of her boat as been torn off…a plane flew overhead, located, talked with her on the radio and she will be rescued in 24 hours!
A family spokesman says searchers have contacted a 16-year-old Southern California girl who was feared lost at sea and she is alive and well.
more news as it finds my inbox……..great to hear that she has been found 
Wild Eyes dismasted in the Southern Indian Ocean
Photo courtesy of Australian Search & Rescue
‘Abby Sunderland was in great spirits after being spotted’ say rescue members.
SEARCH and rescue crew members have described how stricken 16-year-old yachtswoman Abby Sunderland remained “in good spirits” after being spotted from the air yesterday.
A crew of 11 SES and FESA volunteers that were on board the ‘spotter’ airbus returned to Perth just after 7:30pm last night after successfully locating the troubled vessel in the Indian Ocean.
FESA taskforce leader Will Blackshaw said the crew had a very brief period of contact with the young sailor, but said she remained positive despite the setback.
From the forums on reddit.com
I grew up with Abby and her brother Zac and her family on my boat/their boat in southern California. Abby, who is three years younger than me, was more mature, selfless, capable, amazing, strong, when she was 11 years old than I am now at 19. She grew up on a boat, cruised the world with her family for her entire life. When she was 11 she helped give birth to her younger sister. AT ELEVEN YEARS OLD. She always took care of her other younger brother, Toby, who was prone to sea-sickness when she was 6-9y/o. I was 9 I was fighting with my brother and fighting my parents when they asked me to do something. She never argued back, she knew the boat inside and out. She made me feel like shit for talking back to my dad and not knowing every type of knot.
So many people are saying “child endanerment!” “I would never send my 16 year old around the world alone! WTF?!” and it makes me furious. NO SHIT YOU WOULDN’T! YOU AREN’Y EVEN CAPABLE OF GOING AROUND THE WORLD YOURSELF!”
She isn’t some girl who grew up like most of us; she didn’t go to public school, she never lived in a house. She always lived on the boat with (when I knew her) her older brother Zac, and Jesse and Toby and her parents. She was raised on the boat, knew how to sail the boat alone when she was 6 years old, was infinitely more mature and disciplined by the time she was 11 than I am now.
Abby Sunderland abbysunderland.org is safely in the hands of French fishermen, no longer exposed to the harsh conditions she had endured for the past several days.
The 16-year-old sailor from Thousand Oaks, Calif., who had been the subject of a highly publicized search-and-rescue mission as her de-masted 40-foot vessel was a adrift in rough seas in the southern Indian Ocean, was picked up by a crew from the Ile De La Runion on Saturday afternoon, or early Saturday morning PDT.
This officially brings to an end Sunderland’s bid to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. But on the bright side, soon after she gets home — possibly beforehand — her new baby brother will be brought into the world.
Marianne Sunderland, Abby’s mom, is due to give birth to her eighth child on July 1. She had gone into false labor at least once during these trying past few days.
Marianne spoke with Abby shortly after the rescue and said she seemed like her old self, with not much to say. “She just said, ‘I’m fine,’ and then we talked for a bit and passed the phone around inside the house,” Marianne said.
Abby wasted no time getting familiar with the boat. She got on its computer and updated her blog soloround.blogspot.com with this passage: “Sorry I haven’t written in so long. As you probably already know I had a pretty rough couple of days. The long ad short of it is, well, one long wave, and one short mast (short meaning a two-inch stub). I’ll write a more detailed blog later. I just wanted to let everyone know I am safe and sound on a great big fishing boat headed I am not exactly sure where.”
The previous time Abby had talked to her mom and dad, via satellite phone, was early Thursday while she struggled in fierce winds and high seas. Abby had a day earlier been slammed by a supercharged storm and her vessel had been knocked side-to-side, its mast striking the water, in waves up to 50 feet.
About an hour after that call broke off, Abby activated two emergency satellite beacons, launching an international rescue effort. Her boat had rolled and she lost her mast and satellite communications. She might have been briefly knocked unconscious before activating the beacons, which signaled her position to authorities.
A period of 20 hours had passed before Abby was located and contacted aboard her vessel, Wild Eyes, by the crew of an Australian spotter plane. She was alert when the spotter plane arrived and she spoke to a crewman via VHF radio.
During those 20 hours, headlines of a girl feared lost at sea, her boat possibly capsized, the sailor possibly trapped beneath the boat or — worse — in the water, topped newspaper and website stories.
That prompted debate and criticism as people questioned the wisdom of letting a teenage girl attempt so dangerous a feat, and the timing of an excursion that placed her in the region during the onset of the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Abby addressed some of these issues in her blog post: “The truth is, I was in a storm and you don’t sail through the Indian Ocean without getting in at least one storm. Storms are part of the deal when set out to sail around the world alone.”
Of the age issue she wrote: “Since when does age create gigantic waves and storms.”
Many also wondered who would foot the bill for this complex rescue in one of the more remote location on the planet.
Abby’s father Laurence, reached Friday night, said he would worry about that after his daughter was out of danger.
The rescue operation was tricky, as expected, as seas remained large and shifting when the large fishing boat arrived. The pickup was by a crew in a smaller boat and at one point its captain fell overboard and “was fished out in difficult conditions,” said a statement from French authorities.
The Sunderlands were notified of the rescue by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Afterward Laurence stepped from his home into the predawn darkness and told reporters: “She got out of her vessel with the clothes on her back, and we are just really excited and ecstatic that Abigail is in safe hands. She was in good spirits.”
It will be a long journey home for Abby, who is aboard a vessel on which only two crewmen speak limited English. The Ile De La Reunion will make a two-day trip to the Kerguelen Islands. Abby then is expected to board another boat for a seven-day voyage for Reunion Island, east of Madagascar.
The Sunderlands have not yet figured out the logistics of getting Abby home from there.
A Note from Abby
Hey everyone,
Sorry I haven’t written in so long as you probably already know I had a pretty rough couple of days. I can’t write much now as I am typing on a french key pad as well as trying to stay seated in a bouncy fishing boat.
The long and the short of it is, well, one long wave, and one short mast (short meaning two inch stub.) I’ll write a more detailed blog later, just wanted to let every one know I am safe and sound on a great big fishing boat headed I am not exactly sure where.
Crazy is the word that really describes everything that has happened best.
Within a few minutes of being on board the fishing boat, I was already getting calls from the press. I don’t know how they got the number but it seems everybody is eager to pounce on my story now that something bad has happened.
There are plenty of things people can think of to blame for my situation; my age, the time of year and many more. The truth is, I was in a storm and you don’t sail through the Indian Ocean without getting in at least one storm. It wasn’t the time of year it was just a Southern Ocean storm. Storms are part of the deal when you set out to sail around the world.
As for age, since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?
I keep hitting the wrong keys and am still trying to get over the fact that I will never see my Wild Eyes again. So Ill write more later.
Abby
Rescued teen’s parents defend solo sail attempt
Laurence Sunderland: ‘She gave it her best shot, following her dream’
Laurence Sunderland: ‘She gave it her best shot, following her dream’ (AFP: Robyn Beck)
The parents of 16-year-old US sailor Abby Sunderland have defended her solo round-the-world attempt after her successful rescue by a French fishing boat.
The sailor is on her way to the French island La Reunion after she was picked up 2,000 nautical miles off the West Australian coast on Saturday.
Sunderland’s parents have responded to criticisms that they should be held accountable because of their daughter’s age and that her yacht was not adequate for her round-the-world effort.
Her father Laurence says French yachtwoman Isabelle Autissier did not quit the sport after she suffered a similar fate a decade ago.
“Isabelle Autissier had a similar incident where she did lose her keel in the Indian Ocean and needed rescuing – she was I think at the time around 30, 35,” he said.
“She’s considered one of the world’s best sailors. Should we say Abby can’t sail again because she lost her keel?”
more Sailing Anarchy forums here
Greetings yachties,
The last couple of threads have included links to other yachting news letters, such as: A Brush with Sail, Scuttlebutt, Superyacht News, Des Top News and today Sail-World USA. As these newsletter populate my inbox I will post the links here on Yachtyakka. If you have any suggestions of others that I should include, flick me a message.:-)
Happy Sailing
Sail-World – how to prepare a press release
Abby Sunderland
Laura Dekker – More drama with the courts,
Oman Sail,
ISAF World Match Race Rankings – latest top 20 list here,
VESTAS SAILROCKET. & l’ Hydroptere have a beer together,
RC44,
Des Top News,
Sailing News TV,
Murtic 52,
Korea Match Race,
Sail-World, News USA – latest issue here
Auckland Fiji Ocean Race – who won?
Top 10 countries to visit Yachtyakka:
United States, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Canada, Sweden
75% of you are regulars and about 10% stay for more than 30 minutes watching yachting porn
Enjoy
Skiddy Too - sailed above the handicap and won
Sail-World.com – Contributors Guidelines
Sail-World.com and its two companion titles Powerboat-World and MarineBusinessNews have a large world-wide audience in more than sixty countries.
Our Sail-World websites encompass all forms of sailing, including cruising. Whether it is racing in yachts, skiffs or dinghies, regattas, twilights or ocean races, there is always a story waiting to be told.
The Sail-World archives contain 40,000+ stories, it is one of the largest sailing news databases in the world. Our stiories are indexed by major search engines including Google and Yahoo and news feeds like NewsNow and are routinely searched by mainstream and sailing media.
Sail-World is more than happy to receive your stories and images -be they profiles of people and boats, cruising destinations, tuning, tactics, techniques, safety and seamanship, reports on regattas or indeed just about anything to do with sailing. We are happy to review and publish appropriate articles and pictures.
Ideally, we need you to submit both copy and pictures via our special upload system, which ensures we receive your contribution, with correct titles, image captions etc. The reason for using the upload system and forms is that reduced our editing time dramatically – by a factor of 10 – so your chances of being published quickly are very high. Any story sent through the Submit feature is automatically advised to the editor of your region, and when the finished story goes online you receive an email back with the URL, and the regions to which it has been sent. You can email this to friends, club members, class members, or regatta competitors and use it to construct thank you notes to sponsors – with proof that they have been published.
They’ll be keen to sponsor you again, if you can show them the value you deliver.
In the same vein, don’t just leave it until the finish of the regatta to do a report – do a preview, and a report each day. Mention your sponsors in each and they will get many times the exposure they would, had you done just a single report. Also you’ll build a following for your class, club and events – which will help bring new sailors into your fold – so your class or club grows. Look upon your reports as free marketing.
The Dutch child protection authorities have asked the court to extend the girl’s status, which was set to end on 1 July, shortly after which Laura wanted to begin her attempt. A court in the town of Middelburg has announced that it will consider the case on 14th June and give its ruling at 3.00pm on 17th June.
Since being made a ward of the court to prevent her departure before 1st July, Laura has purchased a Jeanneau Gin Fizz ketch and has been preparing the boat for a departure in late July.
The young sailor, who has already completed one circumnavigation with her parents, was not planning to attempt a non-stop passage, but a cruising circumnavigation, visiting many countries along the way. She was planning to take the ‘warm weather’ route, travelling westwards around the world. This would take her to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, north of Australia, south of Africa then north up the Atlantic back to her home port.
Superyacht Business News – latest issue here
Swedish superyacht builder Strand Craft’s new 38m (124ft) open yacht will be supplied with an 880hp V12 supercar, capable of 233mph, housed in the stern garage.
Capable of 55kt, the Strand Craft 122 will be powered by twin MTU 4,610hp diesels and one Vericor TF50 gas turbine producing 5,100hp.
Kurt Strand, Strand Craft’s founder, says: “We have had a lot of interest from all over the world, specifically the Middle East. It was designed for luxury and for people who want the best.
“The custom-made supercar is the best feature, both the boat and the car are very high performance and the boat is very fast.”
With 14,000hp on tap, the Strand Craft 122 should hit 50 knots, say its builders.
The last week has been a good week in the life of the VESTAS SAILROCKET. It has been made all the better by being in the company of Hydroptere and the team who sail her.
It was quite special for me to finally meet Alain Thiebault in person as in many ways I guess we are kindred spirits out on the ‘Far Cliffs’ of our sport. There were times when we were both going for the same outright record at the exact same time in different hemispheres on very different craft but in our minds we may as well have been facing each other across a table. I had no doubt that they, and the Macquarie Innovation boys, were going to push themselves and their craft to the limit so I had no doubt as to what my job was. It was a great little battle where we all had our ups and downs, often quite literally. Now that that particular battle is over, it’s time to sit down with the enemy and have a beer.
Team Aqua stands the pressure and conquers the RC 44 Copenhagen Cup match race
Nine matches and eight victories: Cameron Appleton and his crewmembers on board Team Aqua have won the RC 44 Copenhagen Cup match race in style. BMW ORACLE Racing finishes second whilst Artemis completes the podium.
Valencia Sailing
According to Jaume, Jones was on the back of the boat, the usual spot for the team guests, while the team was practicing, got off after the preparatory signal was sounded and followed the races onboard the BMW Oracle tender.
So, is Jones back together with Russell Coutts, 7 years after the two kiwi sailors parted ways? We’ll have to wait and see.
Team Aqua unbeaten on day one of the RC 44 Copenhagen Cup
The winner of the day, Team Aqua (UAE), with Cameron Appleton (NZL) at the helm. © Per Heegard / RC44 Class Association
Seven flights got completed today in perfect conditions. Unbeaten, Cameron Appleton and his Team Aqua lead the contest ahead of Ceeref (Rod Davis) and five teams on a tie in third.
Sailing for the first time in Northern Europe, the RC 44 Class benefited from great sailing conditions today. Seven match race flights got completed in winds ranging from 8 to 18 knots.
The winner of the day is Team Aqua, unbeaten after six matches and sailing very consistently throughout the day. Cameron Appleton’s day started with a tough match against the America’s Cup winner James Spithill, sailing on a boat called 17. There was no such thing as an observation round: the pre-start was very intense, and led to a premature start by Spithill that allowed Team Aqua to win a fairly easy point. The team from the UAE then aligned the victories with great confidence, finishing the day unbeaten and without being seriously threatened.
The Slovenian team Ceeref, with Rod Davis at the helm, also had a smooth ride, winning its first four matches of the day and only loosing to James Spithill’s 17 in the last flight of the day. Five teams are on a tie in third: Team Sea Dubai, No Way Back, Artemis, BMW ORACLE Racing and 17.
The weather was fine all day, with the wind blowing up to 18 knots in the middle of the afternoon. Some great matches took place, including a spectacular dual between Ceeref and Team Sea Dubai (with Danish skipper Jes Gram Hansen at the helm), separated at most by one boat length during the entire regatta. Other hot moments included Katusha smashing and sinking the arrival mark, BMW ORACLE Racing getting stuck in the windward mark, Terry Hutchinson testing his vocals against the referees and several teams going (herring?) fishing with their spinnakers…
The weather forecast for the coming days is variable, with some rain forecast tomorrow and a slight improvement in the coming days. As for the wind, it is usually not an
Fast and furious
After the relatively sedate pace of racing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Sardinia, the RC44 Copenhagen Cup took off like a rocket on day one, with many of the same names and faces enjoying the great, if cooler, racing conditions.
PRO Peter Reggio – yes, the one and the same – was able to complete 28 matches today, over half of the round robin for the ten boat fleet.
BMW ORACLE Racing, with Larry Ellison as skipper, and team ’17′ skippered by James Spithill, are both sitting on identical 3 and 3 records following completion of the day’s racing.
“We had a couple of good and not so good races today,” said Russell Coutts, who is tactician for Ellison on the BMW ORACLE Racing boat. “Tomorrow is another day.”
And a big day at that with BMW ORACLE Racing scheduled to face team ’17′ – Ellison versus Spithill. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report on that one..
In the meantime, Gilles Martin-Raget was braving the cool conditions on the Øresund today to get these images.
Team Aqua stands the pressure and conquers the RC 44 Copenhagen Cup match race
Nine matches and eight victories: Cameron Appleton and his crewmembers on board Team Aqua have won the RC 44 Copenhagen Cup match race in style. BMW ORACLE Racing finishes second whilst Artemis completes the podium.
June 9, 2010 – The pressure was on Team Aqua for the last day of the match race event. Unbeaten yesterday, Chris Bake’s team – helmed by Cameron Appleton – had three difficult duals ahead, against Team Sea Dubai, Ceeref and Artemis.
The first race of the day was a copy-paste of yesterdays’ for the Aqua boys, who benefited from their opponent’s premature start to sail away and win an easy point. Next came a race that could prove decisive, against Ceeref. The Slovenian team skippered by Rod Davis – second overall yesterday – had the mathematical possibility to win the contest by beating Aqua and then winning their last match against Paul Cayard’s Katusha, on little form in this event.
Team Aqua and Ceeref started even and exchanged tacks throughout the first beat. The decisive moment of the race took place when Aqua – on port tack – surprised Ceeref by dipping them, gaining the inside at the top mark and winning the race and the title thanks to this move. As for Ceeref, it went on to loose the next match against Katusha, ending up sixth overall…
Out of the five teams who were on a tie in third this morning, BMW ORACLE Racing, Artemis and No Way Back had the best day, winning three matches each and thus remaining on a tie, with BMW ORACLE Racing grabbing the second spot overall ahead of Artemis and No Way Back thanks to their direct confrontations.
Another happy team is the Austrian team AEZ, winner of their match against Paul Cayard’s Katusha and eighth overall – their best result in a match race so far. Team AEZ recently announced the appointment of Gerd Habermüller – a retired top bobsled athlete, 185 centimetres and 105 kilograms of muscles – and their team going from nine to eight crewmembers.
Tomorrow will be a practice day for the fleet regatta, due to start on Friday.
Photo: Copyright Per Heegaard / RC 44 Class
Yachting World boat test of the ultra-cool Croatian Murtic 52 yacht.
With her tinted glass raised saloon, this all-carbon, lifting-keel, TP-inspired performance cruiser pushes the minimalist approach. Toby Hodges was on board for the maiden sail of a stylish Croatian creation
Day 2
Greetings from BlackMatch,
Following a long delay today due to a lack of breeze, racing finally got underway at around 3pm local time. Harold Bennett and his team did a great job of running 6 flights late into the evening, 2 of which we were involved in. We suffered a loss against Johnnie Berntsson and then bounced back with a win over Ian Williams to finish with a scorecard of 4 wins, 1 loss.
Our win against Williams came in slightly unusual circumstances which saw a bit of luck go our way. After dominating the British team off the start-line they clawed us back in the extremely shifty conditions, to hold a slender lead at the top mark. Unfortunately for Williams he rounded the mark too close and hooked the anchor rope around his rudder, which gifted us the win. They lodged a protest against the race committee as they believed the mark was not set properly, however it was dismissed and as it stands we are now in second place tied with Williams who has the same scorecard as us. Mathieu Richard has the most amount of wins with 5 victories, although he has suffered 2 losses.
The round robin action will continue tomorrow and there will again be a full live stream including commentary from Peter Lester and Martin Tasker at worldmatchracingtour.com . Racing is scheduled to start at 10am (2am UK Time, 1pm NZ Time) .
Day 1
Greetings from BlackMatch,
After winning Match Race Germany a fortnight ago, BlackMatch have flown half way around the world and were back in competition today, gaining 3 wins from 3 races in a perfect start to the Korea Match Cup 2010.
Match racing is relatively new to Korea and with the event in its third edition after huge success the previous two years, there has been a lot of development and the racing area is very impressive. The Korea Match Cup is also held in conjunction with the Korea International Boat Show, which boasts products from many top marine companies from Asia and is expected to draw crowds upwards of 250,000, so understandably there is a hive of activity surrounding this event.
Following a festive opening ceremony we went straight out on the water and couldn’t have faced a tougher opponent in Peter Gilmour. After an even start Peter and his Yanmar Racing team etched out a small advantage at the first top mark. We did a good job keeping in touch all the way around the course and it wasn’t until the final run that we made our move, managing to gybe and roll over the top of them nearing the finish line. It was a very close finish and according to the PRO Harold Bennett, there wasn’t more then a foot in it.
We then had a decisive win over the local hope Park Gunwoo followed by an extraordinary come from behind race against the defending Korea Match Cup Champion, Paolo Cian. The feisty Italian truly nailed the start while we were left floundering on the start line and the advantage at the first top mark was a whooping 100m. A great first downwind run got us back into contention though and by the last top mark we were hot on Paolo’s heels. An awesome gennaker set and some good gybes downwind got us back in a position to attack and as we initiated the first gybe we managed to roll over top of Paolo. We held enough speed to gybe across his bow and it was then his turn to attack, gybing on top of us while we luffed aggressively to defend our lead. The Italian team failed to keep clear and were handed a penalty while we maintained our lead and cruised to victory.
The round robin action will continue tomorrow and there will be a full live stream including commentary from Peter Lester at www.worldmatchracingtour.com . Racing is scheduled to start at 10am (2am UK Time, 1pm NZ Time) .
BlackMatch would like to thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Events Clothing/Line 7 New Zealand. We would also like to thank our new sponsor Steinlager Pure and Emirates Team New Zealand, as without their support we would not have this opportunity.
Korea Match Cup 2010 – RR Flight 5 – Mirsky vs Pacé from Valencia Sailing on Vimeo.
The next tasting will be in Auckland city ……………. somewhere
This post is tagged Abby Sunderland, Des Top News, ISAF World Match Race Rankings, Korea Match Race, l' Hydroptere, Laura Dekker, Murtic 52, oman sail, rc44, Sail World, Sailing News.TV, Vestas Sailrocket, Waka Racing
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