Greetings yachties,
very busy real life sailing at the mo, more later 
In this issue:
Laura Dekker – gets green light,
Skandia Team GBR sailors secured a hat-trick,
Shake a Leg,
Double British Universities Match Racing Champion,
Tour de France,
Spirit of Australia Wins Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race,
Sailing News TV,
Des Top News,
VELUX 5 OCEANS,
Gitana 11 - latest video here
TEAMORIGIN, has terminated JYD,
Morocco Kiteboarding World Tour – PKRA 2010,
Cork Week cometh,
Scuttlebutt Europe – latest issue here
Lectronic Latitude – latest issue here
Sailors for the Sea – latest news here
Enjoy,
Teen sailor gets green light from mother
THE HAGUE – The mother of a New Zealand-born 14-year-old girl who wants to sail solo around the world said in an open letter published Saturday she has given up her opposition to her daughter’s planned trip.
Laura Dekker’s dream of becoming the youngest person to sail alone around the globe has been thwarted by a Dutch court that last year made her a ward of the state amid concerns over her physical ability and her social development if she is isolated and out of school for months.
Dekker’s mother, Babs Mueller, wrote in an open letter published in the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper that she no longer opposes the voyage.
“I know she can do it, she’s a strong girl who does not give up easily,” Mueller wrote. “Of course no mother on earth likes it if her daughter goes to sea alone. I will have sleepless nights from the worry, but this is about Laura and how I can help her.”
Valencia to hold America’s Cup boat experiments
In a bit to decide if a monohull or multihull is better suited to the next America’s Cup, four days of trials have been planned off Valencia to develop methods for making racing more enthralling for fans, more challenging for crews, and better portrayed on TV globally.
Concept papers for a new monohull and multihull design were issued on 2 July to independent rule writers in the United Kingdom and U.S.
The trials, on 22-25 July, will help confirm certain parameters of the new yacht, including reduced crew numbers to place a premium on boat handling.
Not only will the format of racing and type of boat come under scrutiny, but also television production.
The America’s Cup Media Evaluation Team has solicited opinions from a wide array of broadcasters, digital media and technology companies in Europe and the U.S. on how to make the racing more dramatic on-line, on-screen, and on TV.
Accepted standards of Cup racing are being challenged in the trials and no thought will be ignored in the quest to create the most compelling television production and delivering it to the widest-ever audience.
“We are testing many different concepts,” said Russell Coutts, CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing Team. “Would making the first leg downwind instead of upwind be better? Can you have exciting boat-on-boat action with multihulls? Are there alternative race course formats which might provide more overtaking opportunities?”
The trials will be conducted with two pairs of X40 catamarans and RC44 sloops. 3D and HD cameras will be experimented with to see if the onboard action is more dramatically portrayed, and the race format testing will include downwind and reaching starts.
Gold, silver, and bronze for Team GBR
Skandia Team GBR sailors secured a hat-trick of wins at the Delta Lloyd IFDS World Championships which concluded on 14 July in Medemblik.
Britain’s Paralympic classes sailors scored their best ever world championship medal haul at the IFDS World Championships, with a British crew on the podium in each of the three classes.
Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell picked up their second straight world title with a race to spare in the two-person SKUD class, while John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas earned a hard-fought silver in the Sonar event.
Shaw regains GBR’s World University Match Racing crown
Double British Universities Match Racing Champion, Andy Shaw and his crew, are celebrating today after being crowned World Universities Match Racing champions following an emphatic win at the fifth FISU World Match Racing Championships held in Gazi, Crete last week (5-12th July).
After Mark Campbell-James won the first ever event for GBR back in 2000, no British crew has been able to regain the crown since however 20-year-old Southampton University Ship Science student Shaw, made no mistake in reclaiming the title this year winning 17 of his 19 races.
Competing at what is seen as the pinnacle event of student match racing for the first time ever, the Itchenor Sailing Club member wasn’t sure what to expect. Being crowned world champions however surpassed the teams goal of “a medal” at the event.
Shaw comments : “We didn’t know we were number one ranked before we raced so we weren’t going in there expecting to win – we knew what our abilities were however and we trained quite hard for it so we knew we could do it.
Spirit of Australia has won the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race after finishing fourth in Race 13. Simply finishing this penultimate stage of the 14-race series gave them the single point they needed to secure the title. The crew, who have been focussed on victory since the start of the race in September 2009, will take to the stage to lift the crystal trophy when the fleet returns to the port this Saturday 17 July.
The team’s elated skipper, Brendan Hall, from Brisbane, Queensland, was full of praise for his crew. “Words can’t describe right now,” he said. “It is amazing! We raced so hard, again our result was not our best but to win a round the world yacht race, how many people can say they’ve done that?
“This crew have just worked so well. This has been an amazing leg, just reminiscing about the things we’ve had to do and the times we’ve been through together. It’s been such an experience and these guys are absolute legends. I’ve got the best team, I couldn’t ask for a better one and we’ve done it! The hard work, the sacrifice, the bravery, it’s been extraordinary and I hope credit is heaped on these guys because they deserve it, they really do.”
Last August round the world crew member, Michael Hanssen, from Perth, Western Australia, said as the fleet sailed from Clipper HQ for the race start port of Hull in the north east of England, “Nothing but a win will do.” But for him and some of his team mates, the reality of the victory hasn’t yet sunk in.
LA ROCHELLE CELEBRATES THE OPENING OF THE VELUX HOUSE
The doors to the carbon neutral VELUX House were today thrown open to the public in the French port of La Rochelle. The official opening of the eco-friendly building, which was moved from Copenhagen (Denmark) where it was used as part of the COP 15 Climate Conference in December 2009, marks 100 days to the start of the VELUX 5 OCEANS round the world yacht race which sets out from the city on October 17.
velux_house
Maxime Bono, Mayor of La Rochelle, was joined by solo sailing legend Sir Robin Knox Johnston, Chairman of the VELUX 5 OCEANS, and by Michel Langrand, President of VELUX France, to celebrate the opening of the VELUX House, whose message of sustainable living is shared by all stakeholders.
Sir Robin Knox Johnston said: There are now less than 100 days to go until the start of the VELUX 5 OCEANS and things are really starting to get exciting.
ROLEX COMMODORES’ CUP DRAWS SOUTH AFRICA
There are only a few weeks to the close of entries at this year’s Rolex Commodores’ Cup. Whilst most teams have finalized their boats and crews, others are still engaged in discussions to determine their line-ups. For all teams, both settled and prospective, certain things are set in stone. Most importantly there must be three boats, one in each of the stipulated rating bands, and, all teams must be on the starting grid for the first race on Sunday, 15 August. At present, organisers’, the Royal Ocean Racing Club are expecting 11 teams representing France, Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa and the United Kingdom to contest the international trophy.
The shaping field looks to be as competitive as ever. The sea battles that have been fought in recent weeks off the coasts of France and Ireland, and, of course, on the event venue waters of the Solent suggest that a no quarter given epic is in the making.
Grant Simmer, who joined TEAMORIGIN in June after 10 years with Alinghi in various senior roles, including design coordinator, has been undertaking a review of the team’s design options. Simmer holds a strong view that with a new design rule soon to be announced, teams need to be in a position to be able to build their design capabilities to reflect the new rule.
As preparations for the next America’s Cup gather momentum, several weeks of discussions have taken place between TEAMORIGIN and JYD. Last week however, TEAMORIGIN decided to take an alternative approach than the one offered by JYD and, as a result, terminated discussions with JYD.
Abby Sunderland: Settling In
It’s been a little while since I last wrote. It feels a like there isn’t much to write about – no weather to report, no new sail plans or big course changes, no auto pilot problems either. There are some things coming up that I am really looking forward to. I had been planning to talk at a local mall and am still going to be doing that. I don’t have all of the details yet, but I have to say that I’m even more excited about a new project that has come up. There were two ladies that came by yesterday from our church. They work in a jail ministry with young women, girls even younger then me, all the way up to 20 or so. They mentioned that it might be a good place for me to talk. I guess I’m so excited about it because I feel like I could really help. None of the details have been ironed.
Report from the IFDS Worlds
Practice day today, a chance to test our boat after many hours spent in the boat park, getting the yacht out of its bubble wrap and into racing shape.
We got off to a slow start slightly late towards the boat end of the line. We played catch up and enjoyed some good upwind boat speed which kept us in the hunt. We rounded in 8th at the first mark but had 4 boats within 2 lengths of us. Across the reech we stayed in touch with them and sailed fast down the run to the gate. 3 boats fell to us on that run and we rounded the mark overlapped with GBR and SIN.
The last beat was a long port tack and we used our speed to sail clear of the other boats. We rounded the last top mark in 6th position
Down the final run the boats ahead started to bow to the pressure of the age old superstition “don’t win the medal race if you want to win the regatta,” this handed us a 2nd place for the day and a few things to work on.
We would like to thank predict wind.com for choosing us as a winner for a free year’s subscription to their excellent forecasts, by the way, the forecast was spot on today!! Thanks also to Air NZ for giving us a large baggage allowance which got us and all our required equipment to Holland. Thanks to The Glenn Family Foundation for sponsoring us, without them we wouldn’t be in Holland competing in this prestigious event.
Thanks also to all our friends, family and supporters.
We will bring home the goods tomorrow in the first 2 races of the regatta!
Cork Week cometh
Cork Week is a fantastic event, it combines great racing and great fun with more than 2,000 souls descending on the picturesque village of Crosshaven, in Southern Ireland to take part.
View of Cork, Southern Ireland
They will race in 14 different classes over a variety of courses ranging from the picturesque and complex harbour course to the fast adrenalin pumping trapezoid course in Atlantic swell. The Royal Cork Yacht Club is bristling with rigs, as competing boats, arriving from overseas, mingle with local boats. Visit Malta Puma, the race sailing school Reflex 38, arrived on Thursday night, 8 July, having taken two and half days delivering the boat from the Hamble, near Southampton.
“We had a fantastic trip across the Irish Sea,” commented skipper Tim Thubron. “The delivery crew were a great bunch and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed the sail over as we had plenty of decent breeze.
This post is tagged Algemeen Dagblad, Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race, Cork Week, Des Top News, Double British Universities Match Racing Champion, Gitana 11 - latest video here TEAMORIGIN, Laura Dekker, Lectronic Latitude, Morocco Kiteboarding World Tour - PKRA 2010, Sailing News.TV, Sailors for the Sea, sailors secured a hat-trick, scuttlebutt europe, Shake-A-Leg, Skandia Team GBR, Spirit of Australia, Tour de France, Velux 5 Oceans, Westward Cup
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