In this Issue
Whitbread- Toshiba in the news
Mini America's Cup- The
Winner is.....?
Worrell 1000- 25 boats entered
Whitbread-
Leg 7 finished one week ago. Brunel Sunergy maintained her lead to
the finish and took her first leg win. Swedish Match narrowly edged overall race leader EF
Language for 2nd. Match's margin was a scant 30 seconds.
Still, after 8 legs, EF
Language is the overall leader with 689 points. Swedish
Match is 2nd overall with 585 points. 3rd is Merit Cup with 527 points. Innovation
Kvaerner is 4th with 519 points. 6th is Chessie Racing with 494 points and 7th is Silk Cut
with 459 points.
EF Language has a good hold on winning the race. Even if Swedish Match
wins the two remaining legs, EF can clinch victory with a pair of 5ths. This leaves the 5
other boats fighting to get the last two podium spots.
Leg 8 will start Sunday from Annapolis. The fleet will sail down the
Chesapeake and then across the Atlantic Ocean with the finish occurring in La Rochelle
France. This is the penultimate leg. No Atlantic crossing is ever easy.
The between legs news has been dominated by bad news for Toshiba. After
finishing a disappointing 7th in Leg 7 things have not
gotten better.
First, her well respected navigator Andrew Cape resigned. Cape said he
resigned for personal reasons. The move was not expected by the Toshiba
campaign. At this moment they are still hunting for a navigator to
guide them across the Atlantic.
Second, Toshiba was protested by EF Education. Toshiba was protested
for a
port/starboard incident which occurred the first night of Leg 7.
The basis for Toshiba’s DSQ was her violation of the International
Regulations for Preventing Collisions At Sea. Since the incident occurred at night the
IRPCAS rules apply and not the racing rules.
Toshiba's penalty was to be docked two places. This turned her 7th
place finish
into a last place 9th.
Follow the Whitbread fleet across the Atlantic at http://www.whitbread.org
Mini America's Cup- Victory
for the Home Team
Team New Zealand soundly defeated the winner of the challengers regatta
Prada of Italy, 5 races to 1. Team New Zealand was skippered by Murray Jones one of their
reserve skippers.
Prada gained the right to race Team New Zealand by beating the Yakka
France team 5-2.
For more information visit: http://www.americascup2000.org.nz/
Worrell 1000-
25 Teams entered
The Worrell 1000, a race from Ft. Lauderdale FLA to Norfolk VA, has a
record field this year. One of the unique aspects of the 1000 is that the race is
sailed in beachable catamarans. The most popular type of boat is the NACRA 6.0.
May 3rd will see 25 teams on the starting line. The next biggest field
to start was 16 in 1987, but only 6 of those teams finished the race.
There are several teams from the Great Lakes in the field. One is the
team of Guy Selsmeyer and Christopher Blake. The other Great Lakes team is Matt Struble
and Eric Douglas from Michigan. The third Great Lakes team, also from Michigan is Carl D.
Roberts & Robert E. Gaidos. All three teams are sailing Nacra 6.0's.
Defending champion and long time cat ace Randy Smyth is entered. Also
entered are two time winner Bret Dryland of Australia and Richard Bliss
the 1988 winner.
For updates visit: http://www.worrell1000.com |
