Greetings yachties
Déjà vu in Marseille,
l’Hydroptere lifts off,
Groupama 3 – ready for solo,
Waka Racing – Korea Match Cup – World Match Racing Tour on facebook,
2010 Giraglia Rolex Cup,
Pete Goss enters Route du Rhum,
Jessica Watson, arrives home,
Sail World Australia – latest issue here,
Scuttlebutt – latest issue here,
Scuttlebutt Europe – latest issue here,
A Brush with Sail – latest issue here,
Louis Vuitton – Prize Giving,
RUNDUM 2010,
Vendee Finish,
Abby Sunderland – Where is she now?,
Shetland Round Britain And Ireland Race 2010 - website here – Where are they now?
IBI Marine News – latest issue here
Enjoy
Valencia Sailing
BMW ORACLE Racing, the American winners of the 33rd America’s Cup, will bring the oldest trophy in international sport to Newport, Rhode Island, on Thursday, July 1, 2010. The iconic trophy will be on show at open-to-the-public events.
Rhode Island, host to 12 of the 33 America’s Cup regattas from 1930 to 1983, and home to the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, will welcome the trophy and team representatives at a day of events celebrating both the heritage and future of the America’s Cup.
The Cup will be on public display in downtown Newport in the morning and Fort Adams State Park in the afternoon, and viewing is free of charge.
Déjà vu in Marseille
When the Marseille Trophy starts in one week’s time it will be the third successive year that the Audi MedCup Circuit has raced off the historic port which is a Mediterranean jewel. Emirates Team New Zealand (TP52 Series) and Puerto Calero (GP42 Series) lead the Circuit after the season’s first event. Once again, the action will be broadcast live on www.medcup.org
While the first regatta of 2010, last month’s Portugal Trophy Cascais was contested on waters which were new to the Circuit, Marseille’s Rades are now well known to the regular Circuit contenders. Last year’s TP52 regatta marked the start of Emirates Team New Zealand’s (NZL) unbroken string of regatta victories. Will the Kiwi team, fresh – or perhaps not so fresh – from a come from behind match racing win in Sardinia complete the full circle and retain the Marseille Trophy, or will another team step up and break the New Zealand silverware monopoly?
IMAGINE…the whole world sailing June 19, 2010
Sign up and sail in the 10th Annual Summer Sailstice!
Summer Sailstice is a global holiday celebrating sailing held annually on the Saturday closest to the summer solstice, the longest sailing days of the year.
Its easy to participate in Summer Sailstice and its free! Summer Sailstice participants simply register, go sailing and automatically become eligible to win one of over 400 prizes from our supporters, from a yacht charter with The Moorings to sailing gear from your favorite marine suppliers.
Just sign up here to join the thousands of sailors around the world planning to sail on June19th!
more here
l’Hydroptere lifts off
Alain Thebault and his crew onboard l’Hydroptere have been enjoying some superb sailing conditions on the waters of the Solent, as shown in these images from Cowes-based marine photographer Rick Tomlinson.
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In the water awaiting the Rhum…
Groupama 3
Over two months after the completion of her victorious loop the loop in the Jules Verne Trophy, the maxi trimaran Groupama 3 was relaunched in Vannes, SW Brittany, this Wednesday morning. During that time she has been sounded from top to toe and adapted to solo sailing with a view to her participation in the next edition of the Route du Rhum La Banque Postale, the start of which will be given on 31st October 2010.
Groupama 3 relaunched – © Yvan Zedda
It’s always a magical moment, beneath the crane, each of the three hulls being lifted clear of their cradle. Slowly but surely, Groupama 3 is raised into the air. She is then suspended in mid-air for the shore crew to install the rudder on the central hull. A few minutes later, there she is back in her element in the calm waters of the Golfe du Morbihan, at the foot of the Multiplast yard where she was created four years and six records earlier.
On deck, controlling the manoeuvre calmly and assuredly, Groupama 3′s boat captain can allow himself a smile: “It really is a great moment. We’ve been working towards this point for the past two months. The tests carried out on the structure didn’t reveal any signs of weakness. Aside from a few touch-ups to the paint, the only work we had to do was on the deck layout and the interior, so as to adapt Groupama 3 to single-handed sailing. The solent and staysail chainplates have been shifted in line with the new, shorter mast. Down below we’ve removed anything that was intended for sailing in crewed configuration. There isn’t a lot left”
Olympic and America’s Cup Pro Defends Korea Match Cup Title
2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour – Korea Match Cup – Gyeonggi, South Korea
Seasoned sailing pro, Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia will be defending his Korea Match Cup Champion title again this year with flight one kicking off in South Korea on 9 June.
Cian currently ranked fifth on the ISAF World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) standings, only four points behind icon of the sailing world Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN, has consistently retained a top 10 position on the ladder for an astounding six years. He has celebrated two Bronze Medals at the World Match Racing Tour Championships as well as winning the 2009 Korea Match Cup.
Cian, who started his racing passion at only six years old, is a strong believer in the power of team work. The skipper with a distinctive Italian flair will be racing with a different team set up since Korea Match Cup last year and is confident in their match racing abilities, “I’m working with a new configuration this year and the guys are very promising and motivated”.
The match racer will be coming straight from winning a very different kind of regatta where he skippered a 50 foot yacht to victory in a traditional Mediterranean Sea offshore event. Cian mixes his professional level match racing with time spent helming a range of race yachts including; GP42s, X-35s and Maxis. His main love however, will always be match racing compared to big boat fleet racing.
GIRAGLIA ROLEX CUP RUNNETH OVER
The 2010 Giraglia Rolex Cup is firm fixture and firm favourite in the Mediterranean yachting calendar. The festival of sailing that links France and Italy is mix of hard competition on the water and conviviality ashore. The French and Italian protagonists that form the bulk of the fleet take both elements seriously, and this draws the sizeable foreign contingent each year. The 58th edition looks set to be another success with 233 yachts registered for the weeklong contest that combines three days of inshore racing with a 245 nautical mile distance race. It will be an international affair, with 16 nations and the European Union flag represented. The inshore series starts on Sunday, 13 June and the offshore race on Wednesday, 16 June.
With the FIFA soccer World Cup kicking off on 11 June, the dockside atmosphere in Saint-Tropez will be more tangible than usual. The friendly rivalry ashore a little more tense than usual. Someone has clearly had a word with race organizers, the Yacht Club Italiano, because the Azzurri’s first two matches straddle the offshore race. Pity the French. Most will be at sea when Les Bleus take on Mexico in their first game.
more photos from last years event here
182 of the entered yachts have so far committed to the offshore element that, this year, will take the yachts from Saint-Tropez across the Ligurian Sea to the Giraglia rock and back to San Remo. A version of this course last raced in 1999. The Italian finish port is a mere 60 nautical miles up the coast as the crow flies from Saint-Tropez, but the trip out to the rock off the northern tip of Corsica and back will be no easy jaunt. This region favours light winds or strong winds and rarely a straightforward ride. Whatever the weather holds, the race stands on the threshold of a major milestone. The entry level is just a handful short of the all time record of 197 set in 2006 when, coincidentally, one of the smallest yachts in the fleet at 33-feet/10.15 metres, Ala Bianca (ITA), won overall. Owner Camillo Capozzi is back again this year and may view the prospect of a record entry as a good omen for a second such extraordinary performance.
The largest yacht in the competition is set to be the 34.34 metre Swan 112 Highland Breeze, which is closely followed in the glamour stakes by the 27.71 metre, Swan 90, Solleone (ITA) and the 26.31 metre, CNB 86, Spiip (FRA), which was launched in October last year.
Fastest in the fleet, on paper at least, is the 100-foot/30.5 metre Esimit Europa 2 (EUR). Skippered by America’s Cup helm and eight-time world champion Flavio Favini and owned by Igor Simcic, the former Alfa Romeo II is the course record holder for the offshore component of the Giraglia Rolex Cup. Favini and Simcic aim to follow in the footsteps of previous owner/skipper Neville Crichton who racked up and impressive record of line honours victories with the Reichel-Pugh designed rocketship.
Crichton is back this year with his latest iteration in the Alfa Romeo yachting stable. At 70-feet/21.28 metres, Alfa Romeo III (NZL) is a Mini Maxi and already has an enviable record having won her class at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup last September. Her interior design is styled after the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione motorcar, in red, silver/grey, black and white, with a companionway ladder, which resembles the car’s grill. She is not the only hot property on the track in this class. Alegre (GBR), owned by Andres Soriano, also has an exceptional record. She has won line honours and overall at the Rolex Middle Sea Race, and, at the end of May took the Mini Maxi title at Rolex Capri Sailing Week. The Mini Maxi competition will once again be some of the most interesting with Udo Schutz’s STP 65 Container (GER), Sir Peter Ogden’ carbon black Jethou (GBR) and Brian Benjamin’s Aegir (GBR) in the line-up.
Competition amongst the 50-footers looks just as intense as at the front. Sam Chan has brought his TP52 Free Fire all the way from Hong Kong, and will join battle with the likes of Atalante II (BEL), Plis-Play (ESP), Imagine (GER), Lurigna (SUI) and, of course, plenty of competition from Italy and France.
There are 80 yachts entered that are under 40-feet/12.2 metres in length. Sub-40s have won the distance race in the Giraglia Rolex Cup three times in the past ten years confirming this is a race where weather plays a key part. In the year Capozzi won conditions definitely favoured the smaller boats as Ala Bianca crewmember Adelaide Giromella explained. “It was good for us,” she said. “We found no wind near the Giraglia Rock. But after Giraglia we had good southerly wind, which took us to the finish in Genoa. The big boats found no wind at Giraglia and no wind in front of Genoa. They had to stop more times than we did.” When a small boat wins a race like this the innocent delight is palpable. Capozzi got the better of Russell Coutts back in 2006. In what other sport could you show up with yester-year’s equipment and hose the sport’s grand master. Advantageous conditions or not, you still have to sail your best.
2010 Giraglia Rolex Cup programme
Friday, 11 June: Prologue race – San Remo to Saint-Tropez.
Saturday, 12 June: Registration/Measurement
Sunday, 13 June: Inshore Race(s)
Monday, 14 June: Inshore Race(s)
Tuesday, 15 June: Inshore Race(s)
Wednesday, 16 June: Start of Giraglia Rolex Cup distance race
(245nm) Saint-Tropez – La Fourmigue – La Giraglia – San Remo.
Thursday, 17 to Saturday 19 June: Finishers arrive San Remo.
Saturday, 19 June: Prize giving at Yacht Club San Remo
GOSS GOES SOLO
West Country sailor Pete Goss has answered the question most asked of him in recent years: “When are you returning to solo ocean racing?” He announced today that he is to compete in the gruelling Route du Rhum race later this year.
Pete has partnered with “Team Concise”, winners of last year’s Class 40 World Championship, to enter a brand new boat in the 3,500-mile race commencing on Sunday 31st October 2010.
The Route du Rhum is a major fixture on the sailing calendar attracting a fleet of more than 60 boats. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the race village prior to the start off St Malo and watch the boats as they track down the French coast before they head out across the Atlantic for the Caribbean, finishing at Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadalupe.
Racing a Class 40 will be very different to his last challenge, sailing ‘Spirit of Mystery’, a 37-foot wooden lugger weighing 16-tonnes, to Australia at an average speed of about 4 knots. A Class 40 weighs a quarter of that and can sail at speeds in excess of 25 knots.
Pete says that he is excited by the new boat Concise 2. During recent sail trials it more than lived up to his expectations. He said: “It has been a few years since I have sailed such a fast, high-tech boat and the systems have come on leaps and bounds. Concise2 is fun, responsive and eager to please so I am looking forward to working up to, and competing in, the Route du Rhum. It’s one of the ‘greats’ that I have always wanted to do. The competition will be tough, but I am going for a result and then looking forward to enjoying Guadeloupe. Despite all my miles at sea I have never sailed in the Caribbean. I just know I am going to love it.”
San Francisco Already Working on America’s Cup Bid.
The San Francisco Business Times reports that San Francisco, the home of the Golden Gate Yacht Club is working hard to put together its bid to host the next America’s Cup.
The report says that San Francisco’s economic development arm, which is overseeing the city’s bid, has already received preliminary support from the city’s Board of Supervisors, Port Commission, Recreation and Park Commission and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as the Bay Conservation and Development Commission and Golden Gate National Recreational Area.
Kyri McClellan, a project manager in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development says:
“San Francisco has a history of having a tortured process. This early demonstration (of support), we hope will show Mr. Ellison and his team that this can be done.”
The city’s early push to line up support is breaking new ground.
Will Travis, the director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission says:
“It’s unusual for us to adopt a resolution way in advance. But the commission was comfortable giving an early thumbs-up because, “this is a project which would make the most wonderful use of San Francisco Bay we could imagine.”
Photo Tracey Johnstone ©
Earlier in the day, clusters of spectators watched from vantage points along the coastline as Jessica sailed the 34 foot sloop Ella’s Pink Lady up the Sunshine coast heading for Point Cartwright and then Mooloolaba with her 18 year old boyfriend and fellow sailor Mike Perham and two television camera crew.
There was a crowd of spectators dockside at the Mooloolaba Marina and the Mooloolaba Surf club where she was welcomed home by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
At a brief press conference at the Mooloolaba Surf Club this afternoon Jessica Watson thanked Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for turning on a large welcome.
The teenager said she day dreamed during her 210 day voyage about a clear day with a small Sunshine Coast homecoming event.
‘I got here today and it was all I imagined and a lot more and I am just really happy to be home.’
RUNDUM 2010 June 6 Regatta starting in Lindau lake Constance, race course around the lake and back to Lindau
It’s been a great ride out here, though not all fun and easy. Last night I had quite a bit of sail up (triple reefed main and full genoa), the auto pilot was handling it very well and I was pretty happy with how things were going. Wild Eyes was heeled over pretty far but the wind seemed steady and so I finished up my work and went to bed. I could feel the wind building a little, but as the auto pilot was still doing very well I didn’t get overly worried about it.
Well, I got into my first squall of the night not long after I went to bed. The pilot went into standby and I went to jump out the companionway, but right as I was at the door I heard rushing water. Not water rushing along the hull but water rushing into the boat. I had water pouring into the back compartment and I had no idea where it was coming from. I grabbed a flash light and dived into the back getting soaked in the icy water. It was pouring in from the cock pit, but I still couldn’t tell where exactly.
I climbed over to where it seemed the main stream was coming from and got a closer look. It was coming through at the throttle mounting – the throttle that is mounted on the wall of the cockpit was under water because of how heeled over I was when I gybed. Having found the leak, I shut off the hatches to the back compartment. I was extremely relieved to have found that the leak was above the water line and as long as I could get the boat back under control I could sort it out.
Shetland Round Britain And Ireland Race 2010 Gets Off To Perfect Start
TEXT Under threatening skies over Plymouth Sound the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race 2010 got off to an impressive start today (Sunday 6 June, 12.00pm).
Crowds watched from Jennycliff and from a flotilla of pleasure craft as the boats headed out under full sail on the first leg of a 2000 mile race around the British Isles. With an 11 knot wind, the multihulls went out first followed by the monohulls which were led right from the start by Alex Bennett from Devon and Malcolm Dickinson in Fujifilm.
As the boats cleared the breakwater, the sun burst out from the thunderous clouds to make a magnificent spectacle.
Every boat in the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race is fitted with a satellite tracking device, so you can follow the progress of each competitor in real time. — Andy Sinclair
This post is tagged 2010 Giraglia Rolex Cup, A Brush with Sail, Abby Sunderland, Audi Medcup, Déjà vu in Marseille, Firebug News, Giraglia Rolex Cup, groupama 3, IBI Marine News, Jessica Watson, korea match cup, L'Hydroptere, Lady Gaga, louis vuitton, pete goss, Route du Rhum, RUNDUM 2010, Sail World Australia, scuttlebutt, scuttlebutt europe, Shetland Round Britain And Ireland Race 2010, Summer Sailstice, Vendee Finish, Waka Racing
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