Yachting News 16th March 2011
follow the chatter on Sailing Anarchy here
more news from the viaduct here
Wild Days Rum Tours on Waiheke Island – more details here
Greetings yachties,
I’m out of the office for the next few days……..sailing 
back Monday,
In this issue;
Emirates Team New Zealand AC45,
Artemis AC45,
Oracle AC45,
Barcelona World Race,
K3 International 14,
America’s Cup 1987 – Big Breeze off Freo,
Noonsite,
Curacao Youth Championships 2011,
Blue Water Rallies,
Laura Dekker – update,
Lectronic Latitude – latest issue here,
Super Yacht Business – latest issue here,
Somali pirates attack superyacht transporter,
Sail-World Australia – latest issue here,
Sail-World Australian Cruising, – latest issue here,
Sail-World USA – latest issue here,
Sail-World NZ – latest issue here,
Enjoy
I’m back in front of the computer again. A great weekend, collected 3 trophies for the Gold Cup Series and some rum, had a little chat with Jimmy Spithill about sailing the AC45 cats and won the BMW Auckland Regatta in Division 5 on Crac-A-Jac with Edwin, Grunta and Ned – more on that later.
Happy Sailing
PRESS RELEASE
Artemis Racing begins testing the team’s AC45 catamaran
Auckland, NZ (19 March 2011) – Today’s christening of the Artemis Racing AC45 marked an important milestone in the Swedish team’s Challenge for the 34th America’s Cup. The team, together with friends and family, gathered in the Viaduct to officially launch the team’s AC45. Helmsman Terry Hutchinson welcomed everyone and applauded the full team effort to get the Artemis Racing AC45 on the water before Kylie Jameson christened the catamaran.
Hutchinson and the crew left the dock immediately to begin Artemis Racing’s first two-week trial of the wing sailed AC45. Meanwhile back in Valencia, the design team is hard at work under the direction of Principal Designer Juan Kouyoumdjian.
“It’s been all hands on deck for the last couple of weeks in order to get the AC45 ready to sail today. Now it’s time to go sailing. We have an experienced crew in Auckland for this test session and are looking forward to gaining proficiency in sailing this new class of boat,” said Paul Cayard, CEO of Artemis Racing.
Artemis Racing will be evaluating and analysing all aspects of the AC45’s performance over the course of the next two weeks. Also out on the water will be fellow America’s Cup Challenger Emirates Team New Zealand and the Defender, ORACLE Racing who have also taken delivery of their AC45s.
Built by Core Builders in Warkworth (NZ), the AC45 is the pre-cursor to the AC72 catamarans, which will be raced for the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup in San Francisco in 2013. The teams will compete in eight America’s Cup World Series regattas with the AC45 between July 2011 and May 2012.
The next regatta for Artemis Racing is the Extreme Sailing Series Regatta in Qingdao, China from 15-17 April.
Top international photographer, Gilles Martin-Raget, was out on the water yesterday to get the first shots of the two Oracle Racing logo’d AC45′s, as they were put through their paces in a piece of two boat testing/combat, giving fans their first taste of what match racing in catamarans could look like.
More match racing will be held over the next few weeks, building into media and race management trials in late April and early May 2011.
The boys are getting ready to get back in the race, sail repairs going well, they are rested and raring to go. The hospitality and help from the islands has been great, watch out for the race to the finish to begin again soon..
The global site for cruising sailors
Noonsite aims to provide a one-stop website featuring essential information on all matters of interest to sailors planning an offshore voyage anywhere in the world, whether already underway or still in the preparatory stages
Noonsite Reader Survey: Please tell us what you think about noonsite.com via our online reader survey.
Most popular pages: The Noonsite Piracy pages are the most visited, with up to date reports on incidents around the world, suggestions and services for improving security as well as a place for making contacts with other sailors planning the Red Sea transit.
Noonsite is the culmination of Jimmy Cornell’s books; work on the global cruising scene for the last quarter of a century and a distillation of his best-selling books World Cruising Handbook and World Cruising Routes.
End of an Era
By Richard Bolt
It is with great regret that Blue Water Rallies Limited announces that the Company will cease trading in its current form on 30 April 2011 at the end of its current Round the World Rally.
Since its formation in 1997, Blue Water Rallies have organised eight world rallies and take great pride in having enabled over 200 owners and hundreds of crew members to realise their dream of a circumnavigation. The current economic downturn and a dramatic rise in piracy in the Indian Ocean (which shows little prospect of resolution) however, have led us to make this disappointing, but we feel realistic, decision.
Blue Water Rally participants use Dockwise for pirate waters
Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT) will be orchestrating the transport of 20 private cruising yachts believed to be from the Blue Water Rally, from Salalah, Oman to Marmaris, Turkey in April.
The yacht Quest, which had previously been part of the rally, but was not part of it at the time according to the organisers, was seajacked and her four American crew members killed by the pirates, during tense negotiations with US naval personnel on the USS Skerret.
Dockwise, well known in yachting circles for its fleet of semi-submersible ‘float-on/float-off’ yacht carriers, also coordinates lift-on/lift-off arrangements with third-party carriers, and logistically can fulfill almost any request, even if it is driven by unfortunate circumstances.
‘Due to increased piracy, cruising sailors are altering their plans for getting from southeastern Asia to the Mediterranean,’ said DYT President Clemens van der Werf. ‘By virtue of their independent and adventurous nature, some of these sailors had not previously thought about shipping as an alternative, but they are thinking differently now.
‘Dockwise is committed to assisting them in all phases of learning about the process and then implementing a plan so they can ship to designated ports rather than travel through dangerous waters on their own.’
Emirates extend their Team New Zealand sponsorship
Good news for Dalton and co as the Kiwi sailing team try out their new AC45
Wednesday March 16th 2011, Author: Warren Douglas, Location: New Zealand
Emirates Airline on Wednesday announced its continued support of Emirates Team New Zealand, as the team took further steps forward towards mounting its challenge for the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco, with the launch of an AC 45 catamaran.
The launch took place at the team’s Viaduct Harbour base at Auckland.
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group, said the airline was continuing its support of Emirates Team New Zealand due to the fact that the yachting team had consistently proven itself both as a top competitor and a brand-builder.
“The decision also underlines our commitment to New Zealand at a time when the country is demonstrating its own strengths and resilience in the face of adversity,” Sheikh Ahmed said. “Whether it be the America’s Cup, the MedCup or the Louis Vuitton Trophy series, Emirates Team New Zealand has shown the fighting spirit and inspiration for which the country is renowned. We are very pleased to continue our support of Emirates Team New Zealand.”
more chatter on Sailing Anarchy here
This time I will head for the San Blas Islands. I am really looking forward to it. I feel I have been at berth for too long. Really. Sailing through bad weather now is not such a pleasant thing but according to the weather forecast, I will have good strong winds from astern, so I hope the trip will go nicely. Then I’ll be writing about all, every day again.
Laura
Somali pirates attack superyacht transporter
Boat transportation firm PSP has revealed how one of its vessels came close to being boarded by Somali pirates.
The incident took place earlier this month as the boat transporter entered the waters around Egypt to get a 30M Sunseeker to the Dubai International Boat Show.
PSP was tasked with transporting the superyacht to Dubai in time for the show’s opening morning on March 1.
Its boat transporter loaded the Sunseeker in Antwerp on January 26 and everything was on track for a calm sailing to the port of Jebel Ali.
However, as the vessel reached the Suez Canal in Egypt it was clear that it wasn’t going to be as straightforward as originally planned.
Due to the civil unrest in the country, the canal had been closed and there was a heavy backlog of vessels waiting to get through the narrow waterway. With time ticking away to get the Sunseeker to the show on time, it put two days on the Sunseeker’s transit time.
The vessel had to make its way through dangerous waters near the coast of Oman, where attacks by pirates are commonplace.
With such an expensive cargo, the vessel had to join a military convoy and travel slowly through the danger zone, ensuring it kept its speed down to six knots � the speed of the slowest vessel in its convoy.
Just as the vessel came out of the convoy PSP was surrounded by Somali pirates brandishing guns and firing bullets into the air.
