Everything to play for as only 17 points separate the top four teams
The Rolex Commodores' Cup enters its final phase tonight with the start of the 24-36 hour long offshore race, the last race of the regatta, starting an hour later than scheduled tonight at 19.30BST from the Royal Yacht Squadron line.
Over the last 24 hours the points separating the teams at the top have been jumping up and down thanks to action both on the water and in the protest room. Points for France Bleu, for example, were reinstated today after the team led by Géry Trentesaux had been disqualified for sailing the wrong course on Wednesday's coastal race. With their reinstatement plus a sound performance in today's final inshore race - where they scored two seconds and a third - France Bleu are now back in the fight in fourth place on 66 points, just half a point behind Ireland Orange and still within striking distance of the lead.
Tonight's Rolex Commodores' Cup offshore race counts for double points - twice that of Wednesday's coastal race and four times the scoring co-efficient for the inshores and thus with 16.5 points separating the first from the fourth-placed teams, France Bleu's three boats between them will need to gain at least eight places on the leaders if Trentesaux and team are to take the trophy for a second time.
Leaders since the opening day of this regatta, Ireland Green continues to top the scoreboard with a slender lead of just under five points - if the second placed team get each of their three boats one place ahead of those in Ireland Green then they will win.
How this will work out given a light forecast for the offshore race remains to be seen. One theory goes that the bigger boats will fair better in lighter conditions as they will see fewer changes in the weather and tide. This could bode well for Colm Barrington's Magic Glove in Ireland Orange and the two Farr 52s Bear of Britain and Chernikeef II. However, Ireland Green's big boat is the smallest in Class 1. At only 40ft long the bigger Farr52s, for example, must give Tiamat 7.5 minutes an hour.
"I think everyone will get to the west," says Tiamat's tactician Mike Richards of how he thinks they will fare. "After that it will be down to how well you play the shore and the breeze and how good people are at sailing at night. So it won't necessarily be a big boat race, but our job is to do as well as we possibly can, to make sure we have our position size-wise in the fleet and see what the other guys can do, because they are in tighter rating bands than we are."
Her small size and comparatively slower pace should also prevent Tiamat from being 'taken out' by her competitors as we have witnessed happen to other boats over the last 48 hours. After a blistering start to the regatta Andrew Allen and Colm Monohan's J/109 No Naked Flames, the Ireland Green small boat, scored a fourth to put them on 14 points total, the second lowest score for an individual boat this week - David Dwyer's Mills 39 marinerscove.ie 2 still holds the lowest series score with just 9 points. "We took it a little bit easier today; Asymmetric kite downwind against the poles is hard, so we did the best we could," reported Monohan. "We shouldn't be ahead of Antix in those conditions. But we are holding them back and trying to keep them and some of the other boats behind us, the best we can."
While it will be hard for Tiamat to be threatened in tonight's race due to her size difference, amongst the smaller boats where the racing is closer there will be more vulnerability. "We need to keep our heads over the night. We will see what the course is like. We are hoping the breeze will stay down a little bit, but we have a sail inventory covering it all, so we'll have to go out and see and see what the forecast brings us," continued Monohan, who recounts one of their competitors having interfered with their racing, when they tacked on them 19 times up one beat.
The biggest upset of the day so far has been Ireland Orange losing second place to their compatriots in Ireland White. In this morning's inshore race Magic Glove were late for the start line eventually finishing in 10th place, while Conor & Denise Phelan's Jump Juice scored an eighth. Former Olympic Star sailor Mark Mansfield helming this new Ker 37, explained what had happened: "I thought we were a second and a half early and so we immediately went into going back and trying to sort ourselves out. But it transpired we weren't over. I think we got the timing a bit out."
The forecast for the next 36 hours is for the wind to be mainly light, dropping off this evening and possibly building for a time tomorrow morning. The course for the offshore race will see all yachts heading east out of the Solent before heading out into the English Channel to one of the RORC's offshore marks and then westwards to Poole. The Class 1 (Big) boats have a 182 Nm course, the Class 2 (Medium) boats have a 164 Nm course whilst the Class 3 (Small) boats will sail 147Nm. First boats are expected back in Cowes late tomorrow (Saturday) night.
The VIII Trofeo S.M. La Reina Rolex Cup kicked off today with a great start and the 140 competing crews were able to enjoy some close racing in a steady south easterly breeze ranging between 8 and 13 knots. The TP 52, IMS Open, IMS 600 LC and IMS 670 divisions were able to complete two windward-leeward races, while the RN classes completed one race.
Among the highly competitive TP 52 Class, Vicente Tirado's Caixa Galicia, skippered by Roberto Bermúdez, was able to clinch the first victory of the series and came second in Race Two. America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race veteran John Kostecki, calling the tactics on board Caixa Galicia, was very satisfied with the outcome of this first day of racing: "The first race was lighter than the second, but with a building breeze. We sailed a good first windward leg and rounded the top mark second. We were then able to round the bottom mark first and held on to our lead until the finish. The second race was more difficult for us, with a stronger but less steady breeze and bigger waves. The other fleets made the sea much bigger than before and the conditions were quite challenging. We sailed well as we were behind at the first windward mark but caught up and came second at the finish, so it's been a very good day for us."
Eamon Conneely's Siemens (former Patches), the current world title holder helmed in Valencia by Volvo Ocean Race sailor Bouwe Bekking, scored a fourth and a first, and now lies second overall. Bekking explained the reason of the unsatisfactory result in race one: "During the first race we had quite a good start, but then a plastic bag got caught on our keel and we completely lost power. Considering the circumstances, our result wasn't that bad. The second race was much easier. We had a good start and were able to stay ahead until the finish. Today was my first day on this boat and I wasn't at my best, but I am improving. The crew did an excellent job and this first victory is a great success."
Due to the late finish of Race Two, at the time of writing no results were available for the other competing fleets, therefore a press release with the final results will be posted tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Real Club Nautico de Valencia will offer a giant "paella Valenciana" to all the competitors and its members. Racing resumes tomorrow at midday and the weather forecast predicts similar conditions to today.
The VIII Trofeo S.M. La Reina Rolex Cup is open to IMS (IMS Open, 600 LC, IMS 670), RN (1, 2, 3), Club and Classic divisions and, for the first time this year, TP 52 yachts.
CLEVELAND - The U.S. Coast Guard announced, on June 23, 2006, the award of the Response Boat-Medium production contract, valued at approximately $600 million, to Marinette Marine Corporation of Marinette, Wis.
The first boat is scheduled for delivery to the Coast Guard in late 2007.
The response boat-medium will replace the aging fleet of 41-foot utility boats and assorted non-standard boats that have been the Coast Guard workhorses throughout the United States for more than 25 years.
The response boat-medium will improve the Coast Guard's readiness and responsiveness throughout the Ninth District Coast Guard, which is responsible for more than 1,500 miles of international border and 6,700 miles of U.S. shoreline spanning eight states and all five Great Lakes.
The response boat-medium will have increased maneuverability and will be capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots (46 m.p.h.) with twin high-output inboard diesel engines that will comply with stringent EPA and International Maritime Organization emissions standards.
"These new boats will allow our Coast Guard men and women to provide a better service to the regional maritime community and work better with all of the federal, state, local and Canadian response agencies that service the Great Lakes," said Rear Adm. John E. Crowley, Jr., Commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District."
The new boats will improve the Coast Guard's response on the Great Lakes, but nothing is a greater deterrent of a boating casualty than basic safe boating practices:
~ Always wear a life jacket or personal flotation device (PFD)
~ Always maintain and have on board signaling devices, and only use them if you are in distress
~ Use VHF channel 16 for distress ONLY
~ Don't operate a vessel under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs
Irish show no signs of relinquishing hold on the leaderboard
With the three Irish teams still holding on to the top three places, they now hold a practically unassailable advantage over the rest of the teams in the Rolex Commodores' Cup with one inshore race and the long double points scoring 36 hour offshore race to come tomorrow. Fourth placed GBR White, in comparison, is 30 points off third closely followed by France Bleu.
While the Irish seem all but assured of victory the question remains - which of the three Irish teams will come out on top following the final high scoring offshore race? Only 10 points separate the three teams. Two years ago the Irish challenge fell away on the last race. The teams are determined not to let that happen again. At present the lead is still held by Ireland Green but the second-placed Ireland Orange team showed some signs of aggression today in attempting to leapfrog their compatriots. Several incidents on the racecourse today have ended up in the protest room.
In Ireland Green it was Eammon Rohan's mid-sized Blondie that scored the best result for their team with a first and a third in today's two inshore races. "We got two laylines right, nice clean air and the boat just loves that 12-15 knots of breeze," said one of Blondie's pro sailors, sailmaker Neil Mackley of their first race. The second he said, held in lighter winds was a case once again of the winning boat being the one that started closest to the pin and was first into the shore to stem the tide.
Today's results were comparatively lacklustre for Andrew Allen and Colm Monohan's J/109 No Naked Flames, superbly sailed all week until their 10th and 5th placed finishes today. The poor result in the first race was initially due to them being over early and having to restart. Then mid-fleet they became embroiled in a protest at the Rolex buoy off the Royal Yacht Squadron when Classes 2 and 3 converged at the mark. This resulted in several boats touching; one - Ian Maclean's Ker 36 Software Mistress - even broached. "We were having to dive in between two boats and unfortunately one of the twinners [a barber-hauler for the spinnaker sheet] was left on. We pulled the spinnaker in and it pulled the boat over," described navigator Simon Shaw.
Unfortunately some of the collisions were between Irish boats and once the fleet returned to Cowes Yacht Haven the Irish team leaders were hard at work endeavouring to maintain the inter-Ireland détente that has been evident throughout the week so far, and hopefully with minimal resort to the protest room.
Ultimately, the lively conditions saw some new faces on the podium today. The Rolex mark, close in to shore, provided excellent entertainment for the gathered spectators, and it was the Dutch Grand Soleil 37 Swisslife that took the corrected time win in the first race in the small boat class. With sailmaker Frans Hinfelaar calling tactics, Swisslife is skippered by Mark Flamand a veteran of three Admiral's Cups including the heinous 1979 one. "Our boat is very fast in breeze and slow without wind," described Flamand. "So we did well checking the upwind leg with the currents and decided to start at the pin end. We rounded the upper mark first and then could control the other boats."
After being disqualified from yesterday's coastal race for failing to sail the correct course, so today France Bleu team leader Géry Trentesaux on board the Beneteau 44.7 Courrier de Coeur had a blazing day scoring second and first places. "Today we were very hungry!" described Courrier crewman Thierry de Bourquenoy. "We did our best but it is more easy for us because we are one of the smaller boats. Sometimes we have the medium boats just behind us so the wind is not good for us. But this morning it wasn't like that and it was easier for us to win."
Matching the success of David Dwyer's marinerscove.ie 2 in Ireland White, so their big boat, a DK 46, posted a win in today's first race once again with America's Cup helm and Volvo Ocean Race skipper Lawrie Smith behind the wheel. According to former GBR Challenge helm Andy Beadsworth, one of the professionals sailing on board, the boat likes more breeze and enjoyed the 14-16 knots of this morning's race. "This morning there were long runs against the tide - that really helps us," said Beadsworth, keeping his fingers crossed there will be more of this in tomorrow night's offshore race.
While the last inshore race is scheduled for the morning, so early tomorrow evening at 18:30 sees the start of the offshore race. Everything, be it the outcome of the inter-Irish competition for first place or even the inter-GBR/ France Bleu contest for fourth, lies on this race particularly so as the race scores double points (or 4X the points scored in the inshore races.)
Local knowledge will play a vital part in this race, again forecast to be light, as former RORC Commodore Peter Rutter describes it: "Tomorrow night it will be fairly light, so a lot of us are thinking about our anchoring practise!"
29 June 2006 - Just two weeks after crossing the finish line of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005/06 in Gothenburg (SWE), the Ericsson Racing Team will be back in action this Sunday 2 July, to compete in the Eurocard Round Gotland Race. Skipper Neal McDonald (GBR) will lead a team composed of Volvo Ocean Race sailors, together with shore crew, for 363 nautical miles of racing.
Boasting a 69 year history, many famous yachts and yachtsmen have competed in the Round Gotland Race, but this will be the first time a Volvo Open 70 has graced her presence on the start line. Neal McDonald has done the race twice before, crossing the finish line first on Assa Abloy in 2004, and sailing on the Ericsson Volvo Open 60 last year. He is looking forward to being reunited with his fellow team mates and believes that if conditions are good, then a monohull record for the race may be possible.
"It should be great fun," says McDonald. "I am very much looking forward to doing the race again. We hope to be the fastest monohull there. It's great to have so many of the race and shore crew taking part - a nice way to wrap up the Volvo Ocean Race."
After some sponsor sailing and a quick refit, the Ericsson yacht will be fighting fit and ready to test her pace against the other yachts on the race course. For the sailors, it will be much like sailing a long in-port race. The crew which sailed the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) on Ericsson will include Andrew Cape (AUS) as navigator, Richard Mason (NZL), Jason Carrington (GBR), Damian Foxall (IRL) and Magnus Woxén (SWE). The team's Technical Director and five times Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race veteran, Magnus Olsson (SWE), will also compete on Ericsson, as will fellow VOR competitor Stuart Wilson (NZL), who sailed on Brasil 1.
For local sailor Woxén, who has grown up in Saltsjobaden and sailed over 15 Round Gotland races, the Baltic Sea should be a familiar training ground. Together with Foxall, he is competing in the Archipelago Raid this week; an extreme five day sail orienteering race around the Swedish and Finish Archipelagos. The pair (currently first in the race) will step straight off their Formula 18 catamaran onto the Ericsson VO 70 this weekend - a test of stamina, but nothing compared to what they have achieved in the past eight months.
Organised by the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS) in Sandhamn, the competitors at the Eurocard Round Gotland Race 2006 will be divided into four different classes, sailing four different courses. Ericsson will compete in the IMS and Grand Open class, commencing at 12.45 CET on 2 July, from a starting line close to Revengegrundet lighthouse. The record to beat is held by 60 foot catamaran Academy, skippered by Knut Frostad (NOR), which completed the 362 nm course in 1 day, 2 hours, 29 minutes and 50 seconds in 2004.
Valencia, 28 June, 2006 - The Jury for the 32nd America's Cup has denied a Request for Redress by +39 Challenge. The Italian team had claimed that its overall ranking after the Round Robin was made 'significantly worse' after the Race Committee broke a three way tie between Team Shosholoza, Areva Challenge and +39 Challenge in favour of the South African team. This dropped +39 Challenge into the third division.
The Italians claimed the Race Committee employed the wrong method to break the tie. +39 Challenge believed Louis Vuitton Act 12 to be a discrete event, and that the tie should have been considered unbreakable. In that case, the Racing Rules of Sailing call for either a 'sail-off' or a draw to resolve the tie (RRS C11.3).
But the Jury ruled that the Race Committee did in fact follow the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS C11.1) when it referred back to results in Louis Vuitton Act 11 in breaking the deadlock and that the provisional results should stand.
The case hinged on the definition of the word 'event'. The Jury ruled the word 'event' is defined in the Protocol for the 32nd America's Cup as meaning "all Pre-regattas", and thus, Louis Vuitton Act 11 is in fact a previous stage of the event, as referenced in the Rules. Therefore, the Race Committee was correct in the way it broke the three way tie.
The ruling means the Round Robin results for Louis Vuitton Act 12 are now confirmed and the pairing list established last night is correct.
Friday's matches
Racing in the semi-finals is scheduled to begin on Friday afternoon. Each semi-final series will be won by the first team to earn two points. The results from the round robin aren't carried forward.
"Even though we have won the round robin, a couple of poor races could mean that we finish the regatta in third or fourth place," observed Grant Dalton, after his Emirates Team New Zealand emerged top of the table with a perfect round robin record.
On Wednesday evening, the top skipper in each division chose his opponent for the semi-final matches, with Kiwi skipper Dean Barker surprising many when he elected to face BMW ORACLE Racing. Emirates Team New Zealand has won three of the five previous contests between the two dating back to last season.
Desafío Español selected Shosholoza, a team it has beaten in four of five previous matches, while Areva Challenge chose China Team. The French are 4-1 against the Chinese.
In the other top division pairing, Alinghi is matched with Luna Rossa Challenge. The Swiss defender is just 3-2 against the Italians. Similarly, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team holds a 3-2 edge over Victory Challenge, while +39 Challenge has never lost in five previous matches against the Germans.
After hopes were dashed 10 days ago, it now seems that the situation is looking more promising for the Orange II maxi-catamaran, which has been patiently waiting in Newport to set sail on her Atlantic record attempt. The opening in the weather that was spotted by the watchful eyes of the team’s weather experts appears to offer them a chance of starting on Saturday night (Sunday morning in Europe).
"We should be setting out ahead of a front," explained the skipper today, "with around a 25 to 30 knot south-westerly for the start… The only worry is that the high-pressure area off Ireland risks making things difficult for us at the end of the voyage, but it’s nowhere near as certain as ten days ago." Ideally, the crossing would be done on a single tack, without the need to gybe, but they also need to avoid getting too far ahead of the weather system to keep up the pressure, so it is a very delicate balancing act. "It is possible that we could cross on a straight line, without gybing, but if it does become necessary to manoeuvre, I prefer to start out with 12 instead of 10 men. As far as the team sheet is concerned, the core members of the « Dream Team » from the Jules Verne will be present, even if we are sad to see some pillars like Yann Eliès and Sébastien Audigane missing out as they are unable to make themselves available. We’ll be taking on board a first-timer in the shape of Pascal Bidégorry (the skipper of the Banque Populaire trimaran), which is going be very interesting." Interesting for everyone, for the Basque skipper is also launching his own maxi-multihull programme. He is obviously going to be extremely attentive and eager to gain some experience.
In terms of the logistics, Bruno Peyron has therefore set things in motion, and is planning for the crew to be in the air by noon, in order to reach the Orange II maxi in Newport as soon as possible. The technical team, which had stayed with the catamaran is already busy carrying out one final careening and removing all the unnecessary equipment (propeller blades etc.). " We’ll be casting off from Newport on Saturday to head up to the starting line at Ambrose Light. From the way things look today, the start itself should occur sometime after midnight on Saturday, local time."
Grosse Pointe, Mich. (June 28, 2006) - The wind finally came in on Wednesday, the last day of racing at US SAILING's 2006 U.S. Youth Sailing Championship, sponsored by Vanguard Sailboats and Nautica and hosted by Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. In three of the four classes raced in the regatta, it came down to the final race to determine a winner. For Royce Weber (Surf City, N.J.), Wednesday turned out to be a terrific day, as he won the Laser fleet and earned himself a spot on the US Youth World Team to compete in next month's Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship Weymouth, England, site of the 2012 Olympic Regatta. Going into the final race, Weber was locked in a tie with Zeke Horowitz (Sarasota, Fla.). When the final race had to be abandoned due to weather, Weber won the tie-breaker to take home the Robert L. Johnstone III trophy.
This will be Royce Weber's second chance at a World Championship title: he also qualified for last year's US Youth World Team and finished just outside of medal-range in fifth place at the 2005 Youth Worlds. The 18-year-old, who is also a current member of the US Sailing Team, usually likes heavy air and, for him, sailing in the light air that plagued this regatta was a challenge. "But I knew what I had to do," said Weber. "Even if the conditions were not what I'd hoped for."
Before the final race in the Laser Radial class, Teddy Himler (Manhasset, N.Y.) and Colin Smith (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) were tied for first place, but it was settled with a tie-breaker as the final race had to be abandoned. Himler's two first-place finishes in the series gave him top honors. About the final day, Himler said, "It was a nail biter, especially after the last race of the day when I hadn't finished well."
Meanwhile, in the highly competitive Club 420 fleet, 2005 U.S. Junior Women's Doublehanded Champions Rebecca Dellenbaugh (Easton, Conn.) and Leigh Hammel (Warren, Vt.) were also in a close contest going into the final race, with only one point separating them from Taylor Canfield and Nathan Rosenberg (both from St. Thomas, USVI). At the same time, four other teams were nipping at both teams' heels with only six points separating the leader from sixth place. In a thrilling final race, it was Dellenbaugh and Hammel who finished a consistent second place and won the entire regatta and US SAILING's Manton Scott Trophy. This is Leigh Hammel's second consecutive win of this trophy after winning it last year with Rebecca Dellenbaugh's younger sister Emily.
In the 29er class' inaugural appearance, Chris Vetter and Kelsee Connon (both from St. Petersburg, Fla.) took the initial lead and never let it go. With five wins out of eight races, the two demonstrated that their experience in the Club 420 allowed them to do well in the 29er, a boat they've just recently started to sail. When asked why they had made the switch, Vetter said, "We had heard that the 29ers are faster. They're just so much fun!"
In keeping with the tradition of the U.S. Youth Championship, the Dave Perry Sportsmanship Trophy was awarded to sailors in each fleet as voted by their peers. All of the competitors exhibited good sportsmanship throughout the event, especially under the trying weather conditions. Jake Sororsky (Agura Hills, Calif.), a well-respected competitor and a leader, won in the Laser fleet, and the Club 420 class winners were Andrew Mason (Corona del Mar, Calif.) and Rachael Neal (San Diego, Calif.). Fellow San Diego resident Rex Cameron won the sportsmanship award in the Laser Radial fleet based on his willingness to help during the challenging launching arrangement and Willie McBride and Craig Shifferns (both from Santa Barbara, Calif.) were selected by the 29er fleet.
Newport, R.I., USA (June 28, 2006) - With some high-profile races now in its hip pocket, Newport still has some spectacular sailing to display next month at the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. The one-of-a-kind biennial event, with racing scheduled for July 15-23, splits its racing format, giving the first half of the week (July 15-18) over to handicap racing under IRC, PHRF and the NYYC Cruising Rule, with a division for Classics and 12 Metres as well. The second half (July 20-23) is devoted to one-design racing, where four classes--Beneteau First 36.7, J/109, Farr 395 and Farr 40--will vie for their North American Championships, and another--Melges 32--will crown a national champion. An Around-the-Island Race (July 19) splits the two sessions and is scored separately.
"A summer of sailing in Newport just doesn't get any better than this," said Steven Wolff (Fairfield, Conn.), chair of NYYC's Sailing Committee, explaining that high-profile events planned for this Fall and sailed thus far--June's Centennial Bermuda Race and the New York Yacht Club's 152nd Annual Regatta presented by Rolex to name two--have made Newport the hot spot for sailors from around the world and will boost Race Week attendance. "Race Week at Newport has its own reputation for attracting top sailors and serving as championships for various classes, but there is the added consideration that the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship (including the Farr 40 Pre-Worlds) and the 12 Metre North American Championship will be held in these same waters after our event."
With that in mind, up to 30 Farr 40s from a dozen countries are expected to hit the line at Race Week at Newport, among them such familiar names as Barking Mad, Evolution, Fiamma, Groovederci, Heartbreaker, Ichiban, Joe Fly, Kokomo, Le Renard, Mascalzone Latino and Nerone. Evolution, owned by Australia's Richard Perini, is the reigning world champion, and Race Week at Newport will be the team's only U.S. event prior to the pre-worlds and worlds. Ichiban, on the other hand, has been logging more than its fair share of time on these shores. The boat, owned by another Australian Matt Allen, won the 15-boat Farr 40 class at the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex and finished second at the East Coast Championships in May in Annapolis. A few of the "rock star" tacticians expected to participate include Colin Beashel, Russell Coutts, Bill Hardesty, Jeff Madrigali, Hamish Pepper, Ken Read and Grant Simmer.
According to Jim Richardson, who has won the last two editions of Race Week at Newport with his Barking Mad, "the 2006 competition will be the most difficult one yet, both because of the sheer number of entrants and the quality of those competing. With almost all of the top contenders having committed to this event, we are definitely excited by the challenge lying ahead for us."
In juxtaposition to the flat-out racing Farr 40s will be the racing/cruising Farr 395s, also competing for their North American Championships. According to class president and defending Race Week champion Roger Wagner (Upper Saddle River, N.J.), the Farr 395 is just about the same size and speed as the Farr 40, but it is more comfortable and easier to sail, as it was designed for both club racing and performance cruising. Nearby fleets expected to feed into Race Week are in Annapolis and Long Island, where Wagner has become the East Coast Circuit Champion aboard his Farr 395 Endurance. He expects to meet on the watery battlefield of Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay the class's current North American Champions: Preben Ostberg, Bud Dailey and John Aras (Annapolis, Md.) aboard Tsunami.
"The event is fabulous, there's no question," said Wagner. "The New York Yacht Club does a great job; there are great classes and people coming; and there's no better place to come spend a week."
Besides those one-design classes competing for championship titles will be additional classes for J/105s, J/120s and Swan 45s. Defending his J/105 title from two years ago will be Thomas Coates (San Francisco, Calif.), aboard Masquerade. Among the Swan 45s committed are Massimo Ferragamo's Italian entrant Bellicosa, Steve Devoe's (Greenwich, Conn.) Devocean, Yukihiro Ishida's Japanese entrant Yasha, Dick Weismann's (New York, N.Y.) Vixen and Andrew Fisher's (Greenwich, Conn.) Bandit, which is also entered in the first half of Race Week with the intention of sailing under the IRC rule.
"That is the beauty of Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex," said Steven Wolff. "You can sail one half or the other, or compete in both sessions and try the Around-the-Island Race as well for a total of nine days of racing."
In handicap racing, the IRC rating rule will make its Race Week debut, with returning Race Week IMS champion Dan Meyers (Boston, Mass.) making the rating switch on his Farr 60 Numbers. Returning PHRF champion Andrew Weiss (Greenwich, Conn.) also will sail in IRC division aboard his J/130 Christopher Dragon. And playing off his IRC victory in the NYYC Annual Regatta presented by Rolex as well as the Onion Patch Series will be Martin Jacobson (also Greenwich) aboard his Swan 44 Crescendo.
Rolex timepieces will be awarded to the yachts with the best overall performances in IRC and PHRF divisions, as well as one-design classes competing for their North American or National Championships that meet minimum entry levels. A timepiece will also be awarded for best overall performance during the one-design segment of the regatta.
Racing will take place on Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay with up to three racing circles for the handicap and one-design portions of the week. Up to 11 races are planned per division. Shore-side activities will be hosted at Harbour Court, NYYC's clubhouse on Newport Harbor.
The New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex extends the partnership established between Rolex and New York Yacht Club in 1994 and joins the calendar of prestigious Rolex sponsored sailing events including the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, slated for Newport in September; the International Rolex Regatta; Rolex Antigua Sailing Week; Rolex Big Boat Series; Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup; and Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
LOS ANGELES---Crew applications for Roy E. Disney's Morning Light film project have closed with 538 young sailors, including about 50 from foreign countries, hoping for a position on the team that will sail a Transpac 52 in the 2007 Transpacific Yacht Race.
Candidates for "the youngest crew ever to sail Transpac" are already being pared down to the 30 who will participate in selection trials on Catalina 37s in Long Beach Aug. 5-13, all expenses paid by Pacific High Productions. The final team of 15 will be announced at the end of those trials and will undergo four months of training on Morning Light in Hawaii starting Jan. 1. They'll race the boat from Los Angeles to Hawaii on their own in July.
"We really must have touched a nerve out there," Disney said. "It's going to be really hard to pick the best of a really outstanding group of people. There wasn't a turkey in the lot. It made our job twice as hard as we thought it was going to be. I feel bad for the kids who won't get to go. We would have loved to taken them all."
Aside from being the youngest, it probably will be the most diverse crew ever to sail Transpac.
Sailing team manager Robbie Haines said, "We're looking for diversity, a crew totally inclusive concerning race and gender."
About 200 of the applications were from young women, many others from minorities. Hampton University, one of the nation's leading colleges and universities for African-American students, is located on the water of the Virginia peninsula and hopes to have its sailing team represented, as do the nation's maritime academies.
The aim is to have a crew younger than the seven young men who sailed on Jon Andron's victorious Cal 40, Argonaut, in the 1969 Transpac that averaged 22.57 years of age. Two of those crew members were 17, but the minimum age for Morning Light will be 18.
"Any applicants who will not be 18 by Jan. 1 of 2007 will not be eligible," Haines said.
All applicants will be notified of their current status on or before July 4.
Disney recently purchased Morning Light, the Transpac 52 formerly named Pegasus, from software developer Philippe Kahn.
The film, scheduled to be released in 2008, will chronicle the recruitment, training and performance of the crew through the race in 2007. None will be actors. There will be no script and no preconceived outcome.
Executive producers are Disney's Pacific High Productions and Mike Tollin of Tollin/Robbins Productions (TRP). Leslie DeMeuse will be co-producer. The film, to be shot in High Definition theatrical quality, will be distributed by the Walt Disney Co.
Good morning from Mackinac Island!!
For me, the race finished at 1:37pm ET on Tuesday. For others, its 7am on Wed and they remain on the lake, sailing, yawning and pealing back their eyes in the Northern Michigan Fog looking for Freighters, bridges, ferries, navigational aids and the occasional hallucination that comes from lack of sleep. Needless to say, this has been a very long race for everyone, but a very fun one as well.
The finish at Mackinac is a great time for the solo sailor. The “Welcome” call from the gentle, sweet voice of the race committee tops off this great adventure. From there, you tidy up ship and head into the docks where a warm hug always awaits you. I can only wonder about the talk that goes on behind our backs--who gets the unofficial,smelliest sailor award?! Beyond the handshakes and hugs comes the inspection for safety gear, some photos and receipt of the bottle of Bacardi’s Finest Rum, checking in with Race Committee and a hot shower, some more rum and time to reflect on the race with close friends and fellow competitors.
I had hoped to be able to send dispatches from the water during the race, but technology got in the way and that didn’t happen. Maybe not such a bad things as this particular race tossed so many different variables at us it might have been difficult to get much else in. Then again, there was plenty of time spent going very slow where something other than raising frustrations at weather drones would have been welcome. For this race, I’ll have to do it mostly in reflection over the next few days.
The Start on Saturday was wonderful. This was the 10th running of the Chicago Solo, I was there the 2nd year and 5 additional years as well and from my vantage point, as a new competitor that 2nd year when we had just 9 boats, looking across the water at 30 boats sailing against the backdrop of the Chicago skyline was remarkable. A tribute to the hard work the GLSS board has done in the past years to build the participation.
The day dawned clear and calm in Chicago with just a light NE breeze-something we’d be familiar with by the end of the race. The start gun fired by JT, our personal RC for the start complete with our own RC start flag, the now famous tie died Grateful Dead flag, sent us on our way. Now this race is simple in some ways, first of all, the first 180 miles is at a course of 017 degrees. That NE wind I was talking about came at us from a direction 017 degrees?dead on the nose. &nbbsp; Most of the competitors sailed up the Wisconsin shoreline with the exception of Joe Turns on Renaissance, Skyhawk and myself. We went for the middle of the lake. By late afternoon, Joe and I amused ourselves over the radio at how far behind we were. Our experience had taken us out of the race within the first 6 hours!! But crafty as we are, by the middle of the night, the competitors on the Wisconsin shoreline were having problems with light winds and slow speeds while we sailed nicely up the lake on our private wind. By mid day on Sunday we were caught up with the fleet.
Most of Sunday morning was spent in the rain with light or moderate winds on the nose.
We spent our efforts trying to get somewhere---- North, North East, North West but just anywhere. Light winds from 3 to 6 knots on the nose with an occasional brush 10 knots and a touch or two at 15. But just the slightest rain cloud or sun peaking out creating land heat would send the wind away for hours and leave us spinning in circles complaining of the dreaded triple 0’s. 0.00 on the boat speed indicator!!
Sunday afternoon found Renaissance and myself duking it out up the Michigan Shoreline. Joe Turns and I have sailed against each other many times and once again we were enjoying our friendly rivalry trying to out smart the other. Joe had the jump on me and seemed to always get just the right shift at just the right time leaving me with only the option of pulling rabbits out of my hat. The first big rabbit for me was coming up to Little Sable, Joe had 2 miles on me and I dove for a shore lift and thermal at the end of the day just as Joe tacked out and worked his way North West, patience paid off and I found that thermal breeze I wanted and scooted up the shore making up all the distance and looking like I was going to shoot out in front of him. As I came to Little Sable point it was if the laughing wind gods stood in front of me with their arms crossed across their chests blocking any further advance. As I stood there bucking a new wind and falling off to clear the point, I watched Joe sail off regaining his mileage and even more.
This pattern continued thru the rest of the race and I’ll fill in with more in a short bit. For now, its time for some breakfast and to help some fellow competitors dock after finishing.
Dave Rearick
28 June 2006 - The Ericsson Racing Team concluded its participation in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 in Gothenburg on Saturday 17 June, with a fifth place in the overall ranking. The result comes as a disappointment having started out with high expectations, but the team's attitude and improvement throughout the race, together with the corporate achievements of the campaign, are considered a great success.
The Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 is over and all eyes are on the next edition. For the Ericsson Racing Team, the 32,000 nautical mile journey around the world started on 5 November in Sanxenxo, Spain, with a victory in the first in-port race. However, a series of technical problems followed, which affected the team's progress and results throughout the event.
"These races are complicated and the technology aspects play a huge role", explains Ericsson skipper Neal McDonald (GBR). "The first two legs, in which we had problems, cost us an awful lot in terms of experience and points. We felt that we were just getting into the swing of it, and that we had improved a lot. Ericsson has been a big part of our progress; they have been extremely supportive despite our difficulties. The guys on the boat have done a great job, together with the shore team which worked extremely hard. It is a great team of professionals and we all worked as hard as we could to get every ounce of speed possible."
In parallel to the sailing campaign, Ericsson has been running a strong commercial program throughout the race, involving hundreds of customers and employees all over the world. "It has been a fantastic event for us, planning the land activities and using it as a global commercial platform", explains Bert Nordberg, Ericsson's Executive Vice-President and Head of Sales and Marketing. "Our objective was to grow our business and strengthen our brand around the globe, and we believe this has been a huge success. We have reached over 4000 people from 400 companies and we have had over 100 technical seminars around the world, numbers exceeding our expectations and targets."
The Ericsson Racing Team will now take a well deserved break. The Ericsson yacht will be used throughout the summer with a smaller team. She will race in the famous Gotland Runt (SWE) on 2 July before being used for corporate sailing throughout the summer.
Bert Nordberg adds: "We are very excited by the prospect of a new race and applaud the race organisation for enhancing the race further and adding new, commercially interesting territories to the course while maintaining the integrity of the yacht race. Of course, formal decisions need to be taken but as Head of Sales and Marketing at Ericsson, I will definitely work to ensure that we do this again."
In order to support a possible future campaign, Atlant Ocean Racing has already started working on the next edition of the event; laying the foundations for a successful sporting campaign.
Nordberg continues: "Based on the commercial success of our current campaign, I think it is very hard to find a better and more efficient platform for meeting and spending quality time with our customers in an exciting environment. Our participation in this race has contributed to growing our business and we look very positively on giving it another shot."
Ireland Green achieve some separation at top of leaderboard
Ireland Green consolidated their position at the top of the Rolex Commodores' Cup leaderboard after another day of racing in light winds and strong tides. With the wind having veered east, two more inshore races were held once again on the northeastern Solent.
The light conditions, the wind shifting between 90 and 160 degrees, and strong tides made for another taxing day for the tacticians on the 39 boats competing, but at least for the crews relief came with a break in the overcast sky giving way to a more typical mid-summer sun, conditions expected to last for the rest of the week.
The three boats in Ireland Green once again posted the most consistent performance of the day with their small boat, Andrew Allen and Colm Monahan's No Naked Flame winning the first race with a corrected time of 1:39:12 ahead of Ireland White's Checkmate on 1:42:16 and posting a second in the second race in this 13 strong class.
According to tactician Chris Main, who is one of the two professional sailors on board No Naked Flame with fellow former GBR Challenge America's Cup crew and sailmaker Simon Fry, their J/109 is enjoying the conditions as she has been optimised for light weather racing.
Today's two races were very different tactically. The first was a straight forward windward-leeward with the ebb tide assisting the boats up the beat while the second was a much more convoluted multi-leg course, with the tide against them on the first beat, causing the boats to dive into the beach at Lee on Solent. In the second race the finish order among the small boats was dictated by who started at the pin, closest to the shore. No Naked Flames, one in from the pin came second to Ireland Orange's Antix who started at the pin.
Among the big boats GBR White's Fair Do's VII belonging to John Shepherd posted a third in the first race and won the second by just nine seconds. Tim Costello's Tiamat, the Ireland Green big boat, posted an equally good result and much improved on yesterday, finishing second in both races.
"We are quite happy with that as it is tough for us in our fleet being one of the smallest boats. Playing against bigger boats all the time, we are having to fight for clear air and good starts and to get good roundings. Fortunately all those things came together today," commented Tiamat's helmsman, young Irishman Brendan Foley. Tiamat is a Mills 40, some 12ft shorter than class one heavyweights Bear of Britain and Chernikeef 2. Foley said he was particularly pleased to have stayed up with the fleet as today and yesterday the second races have been held on longer courses than they had expected.
On a day like today, intimate knowledge of the Solent and the vagaries of her complex tides were essential. Fortunately on board Tiamat they are sailing with the highly experienced professionals Mike Richards and Kevin George on board.
As a team Foley says they are happy with the light winds forecast for the rest of the week. "We'll take whatever comes. I think we are lucky to have a team where there is a good spread and range of abilities across the boats and the crews, so I think whatever conditions arrive we'll be happy with them."
Among the big boats Colm Barrington's Irish flagship, Magic Glove was the run-away leader on the water in the first race today, leading both Farr 52s around the racecourse. "We wanted to go right. We started there and were able to go right immediately," said crewman, former International 14 and 18ft skiff World Champion Rob Greenhalgh, freshly returned from winning the Volvo Ocean Race. "Upwind we are quick. Downwind we are a little slow." They won the first race on correct time, but were shovelled out of the start prior to the second race after some aggressive sailing by Bear of Britain and ended up finishing fourth.
As ever, competition in the mid-sized fleet was hottest and today the Ireland Green team's Blondie, belonging to Eamonn Rohan, finished the first race third behind Ireland Orange's Jump Juice and Ireland White's marinerscover.ie 2, but won the second by just three seconds from France Bleu's Paprec Recyclage.
One of the pros on board Blondie, sailmaker Neil Mackley said they had not done well in the first race due to choosing the wrong side of the first beat. They should have gone right where the tide was strongest. "In these conditions the tide is roaring at 2-3 knots and boat speed is only 5 knots. So it is a big percentage gain if you have even have half a knot more tide than someone else." The ratings of the boats is closest in this class, so, Mackley says, making the difference is about working hard at all aspects. They are also learning somewhat on the fly how to sail their John Corby-designed one-off fast in light conditions.
While the Irish teams are dominating France Bleu is hanging on in fourth on 28 points behind Ireland White's 26.75, Stephane Névé's Sinergia 40 Paprec Recyclage putting in a respectable fifth and a second today.
"We would prefer more wind," said France Bleu team leader Géry Trentesaux, skipper of their big boat Courrier de Coeur. "We would prefer 15 knots and for us it is quite difficult because we have one of the slower boats in class 1. The difference between us and Bear of Britain is 12 minutes an hour, so we are sailing in a different race. But we are lucky to be here."
The top British team is GBR White on 36 where today John Shepherd's Ker 46 Fair Do's VII was the shining light. It was a day of mixed results for former Royal Ocean Racing Club Commodore Peter Rutter, whose Elan 37 Quokka, the GBR White small boat, came home third in today's first race but was seventh in the second. "We were chuffed in our own little way because we were last at the penultimate mark and managed to gain five places on the last leg," said Rutter of their performance in today's second race. "It is a testing regatta but we are still only one third of the way through."
Tomorrow sees an 0830 start for the Rolex Commodores' Cup short passage/coastal race. This scores twice the points of the inshores and will be held on a course lasting around 12 hours.
Valencia, 27 June, 2006 - The Italian Luna Rossa Challenge stunned America's BMW ORACLE Racing with a come-from-behind win on the final run to the finish. Chris Dickson's BMW ORACLE team had done a great job of building a 27-second lead at the final top mark, but Luna Rossa found a favourable shift on the left side of the run, overhauling the Americans for an exciting turn-around.
The result sees Luna Rossa join Alinghi on eight points, one behind Emirates Team New Zealand and its perfect 9 - 0 record. BMW ORACLE is one point further adrift.
Racing was delayed for two hours on Tuesday afternoon and the race officials waited for a light Easterly breeze to fill in and stabilise. When it finally did, conditions were good, with eight to 10 knots of pressure across both race areas.
Desafío Español enjoyed a royal guest aboard as the 18th crew member. Her Royal Highness the Infanta Cristina, the daughter of the King of Spain, gave the Spanish team some luck in its match over a quick +39 Challenge, with the Spanish earning an important win.
FLIGHT NINE
The match between BMW ORACLE Racing and Luna Rossa was expected to be a humdinger of a battle, and so it proved. Both James Spithill and Chris Dickson nailed perfect, full-speed starts but USA 87 tacked off to the right almost immediately after the gun fired. The American and Italian teams went hunting for better breeze on opposite sides of the course.
When they came back together it was advantage BMW ORACLE, who maintained a 10 second lead around the windward mark. Luna Rossa rolled into a gybe-set in search of different - and hopefully better - breeze but the strategy didn't work as the gap extended to 16 seconds by the leeward gate. The Americans weren't going to give the Italians a sniff of the lead up the final beat. However on the final run, the Italians broke away to the left once more and Chris Dickson stuck to his guns on the right.
This time Luna Rossa's strategy worked well. When the boats converged towards the finish it was ITA 86 that emerged ahead, now just metres from the finishing line. Luna Rossa skipper Francesco de Angelis went on to claim a brilliant victory.
Emirates Team New Zealand took early control of the match against Shosholoza but the Kiwis just could not shake off the South Africans. By the leeward mark, RSA 83 was only 19 seconds off NZL 84's lead. The underdogs continued to push the Kiwis, but Dean Barker hung on for a 30-second win.
Alinghi had Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team in all sorts of bother before the start, forcing ITA 77's starting helmsman Jes Gram-Hansen to seek shelter from the Swiss assault with the help of a spectator boat. In the end, the Danish helm did a good job of escaping Peter Holmberg's clutches and it was an even start for the two teams. A right-hand shift kept the Italians in the game for a while, but eventually Alinghi proved too powerful and sailed to a relatively untroubled 52-second win.
+39 also had some hairy moments leading up the line when it looked as though Iain Percy would break the start line a fraction too early. Although ITA 59 crossed cleanly, the ageing Italian boat could afford no such errors against Desafío Español who look increasingly comfortable in the brand new ESP 88. It was an easy win for the Spanish. There were straightforward matches elsewhere on the North course, with Areva Challenge beating China Team and Victory Challenge beating United Internet Team Germany.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – June 26, 2006 – Bavaria USA has named Wells Yachts, of Marblehead, Mass., as a new dealer representing Bavaria’s complete line of cruising and performance-cruiser sailboats.
Bruce Mundle, president of Bavaria USA, said, “Wells Yachts is a welcome addition to our growing network of dealers for Bavaria’s German-engineered sailing machines. They bring more than 40 years of experience as one of New England’s most respected centers of sailboat excellence.”
“The Bavaria product line is a great fit for our company, providing an unbeatable combination of sailability, comfort and affordability,” said Mike Conway, manager of Wells Yachts. “New England sailors have high standards, and we are very impressed with the boats’ excellent designs and rugged construction. We are proud to be able to present them to our customers.”
Wells Yachts is a full-service marina that includes inside and outside storage, trained and certified technicians and a full retail store. Wells also offers professional sailing instruction from certified American Sailing Association (ASA) instructors.
Bavaria has upgraded its entire line of cruising sailboats over the last two years, and currently offers a range of models from 30 to 50 feet in the U.S. market, as well as a 35-foot performance cruiser for the racing segment.
The Spanish Prince Felipe sailed with Desafío Español in Flight three today when the home team took on the Defender, Alinghi. But his royal presence couldn't spur the team on to what would have been its first win over the Swiss. In fact the Spanish lost both races on a difficult day against Alinghi and BMW ORACLE Racing; the new Spanish boat, ESP 88, wasn't enough to make in-roads against two of the top America's Cup teams on the planet.
One year out from the first race of the 32nd America's Cup Match, Alinghi is still a dominant team over all but the best challengers. But some challengers who spent time near the bottom of the table last year are rapidly moving up for consideration. Shosholoza, for example, earned a straightforward win over United Internet Team Germany and followed that up with a close 20-second loss to Alinghi; a performance which would have been unthinkable in the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts last year at this time.
In a disappointing turn of events, China Team was ahead and looking for its first win of the season when crew member Olivier Herledant fell overboard. He was picked up by a chase boat, and the Umpires were obliged to assess the team a penalty, allowing +39 Challenge to jump into the lead.
It was another day of light to moderate sea breeze conditions on the waters off Valencia. Racing was conducted in 7 to 10 knot Easterlies.
FLIGHT THREE
There were some closely-matched pre-starts in Flight Three of Louis Vuitton Act 11. With the 8 knot breeze shifting significantly throughout the afternoon, there appeared to be significant opportunities for an upset, for one of the less-fancied teams to topple one of the 'big ones'.
But it wasn't to be, with all of the matches running to form. Alinghi sailed away from Desafío Español's new boat ESP 88, with Spanish Prince Felipe riding as 18th man. Shosholoza defeated United Internet Team Germany, and BMW ORACLE Racing beat Areva Challenge convincingly.
Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team defeated China Team very easily, as did Emirates Team New Zealand over Victory Challenge. The match showing most promise was the Italian derby between +39 Challenge and Luna Rossa, and while Iain Percy's team did well to hang in there with their rivals, James Spithill's superior firepower pulled them ahead to a comfortable lead by the finish.
FLIGHT FOUR
Following three flights of racing where the favourites prevailed, Flight Four showed promise of some real upsets. China Team tied +39 Challenge in knots during an aggressive pre-start, with Pierre Mas dictating the approach back to the line. The red and yellow Dragon controlled the Italian team nicely up the first leg and looked set for a famous first victory for 2006.
However, a man overboard incident during the first mark rounding resulted in a penalty given against the Chinese. Teams rarely go back to pick up a man overboard, leaving the sailor to be picked up by a chase boat. But the price for not recovering a sailor to the race yacht is an obligatory penalty. In any case the Italians split from the Chinese down the run and came back marginally ahead. When China Team made a poor spinnaker drop at the leeward gate, the Italians sailed away to a clear victory.
BMW ORACLE Racing led Desafío Español by a narrow margin up the first windward leg, but Karol Jablonski got close enough to Chris Dickson to luff the Americans and get a penalty against USA 87 for failing to keep clear as windward boat. This was shaping up to be an intriguing match, until the Americans found an extra gear and sailed away from ESP 88. By the second windward leg, Dickson had gained sufficient distance to be able to shake off the penalty and still lead the Spanish home comfortably.
A particularly aggressive Dean Barker steered NZL 84 in circles around a slower Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia, handing a penalty to the Italians from which they never recovered. Emirates Team New Zealand notched up their second easy victory of the day.
Alinghi was never seriously troubled by Shosholoza, although the Defender never broke far away from the slick South African team, who are looking very strong with their boathandling and tactics. Victory Challenge appeared not to have made many mistakes against Luna Rossa, although the margin of victory for the Italians was considerable by the finish. Magnus Holmberg will be looking forward to getting into a new boat later this year. Meanwhile, Areva Challenge found good speed to sail away from United Internet Team Germany in a one-sided match.
Hamilton, Bermuda -- The centennial Bermuda Race finished with a regal flourish Saturday with the visit of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, who presented the winning trophies in the grounds of Government House during a sunset prize giving ceremony that was marked by both solemn tradition and good humor.
"The wonderful enjoyment of sailing the Bermuda Race has brought people together for over a century," said the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, who was greeted with a roar of applause when she added, "I went from sailing as a young girl to riding horses but at the end of my career I am now firmly back to sailing. I have to confess though, that I never felt seasick on a horse."
85 crews received Newport Bermuda Race awards, and the Princess Royal presented the major trophies to each division winner. Richard Shulman from Barrington RI and his crew on the IMX 45 Temptress, won first place in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse ORR Division and Timothy McAdams from Brewster MA, owner of the First 44.7 Four Stars had an identical trophy for his first place finish in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse IRC Division.
In the St. David’s Lighthouse IRC Division, William Hubbard, from New York, owner of the veteran Carter 37 Lively Lady II, brought his 12-year old daughter Alyssa on stage to accept the St David's Lighthouse Trophy from the Princess Royal and Peter Rebovich, from Metuchen NJ, owner of the Cal 40 Sinn Fein won the St David’s Lighthouse ORR Division. Rebovich picked up an additional six prizes, including the William C. Finley Trophy for the best-corrected time in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division for a yacht older than 15 years. In fact, Rebovich was back and forth to the winner’s podium so often that Lady Vereker, wife of the Governor of Bermuda, asked jokingly if he would like to take her seat in front of the stage.
In the Cruiser Division, the Princess Royal presented the new Carleton Mitchell Finisterre Trophy for the best corrected time to a beaming Eleonara de Haas from St. Maarten. Her all-women’s team on the Frers 49 Synergy, racing to raise awareness of their fledgling WAVES organization - Women Against Violence Everywhere - are the first to win a major award in this event.
The Royal Mail Trophy was presented to Joe Harris of Hamilton MA and his Open 50 Gryphon Solo for the best-corrected time in the Demonstration Division. The Princess Royal also presented the Philip S. Weld Prize to Richard du Moulin of Larchmont NY and Chris Reyling aboard the Express 37 Lora Ann racing in the Double Handed IRC Division. Raymond Renaud and crewmate Kristen Wenzel on the C&C 35 You are receiving this email because you signed up for the Newport Bermuda Newswire at www.bermudarace.com.
39 boats from the 13 teams and seven nationalities have been busy with their final preparation and practisingon the Solent for tomorrow's first races in the 2006 Rolex Commodores' Cup.
Crews competing in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's biennial team racing event for cruiser- racers are largely Corinthian, although 25% can be professional under the International Sailing Federation's crew categorisation system. Thus, on the Irish Orange big boat, Colm Barrington's Magic Glove the line-up includes two sailors fresh from last weekend's finish of the Volvo Ocean Race - Rob Greenhalgh, crewman on race winner ABN AMRO One and Pirates of the Caribbean navigator Jules Salter.
"It's good to be back on the Solent - with plenty of tide and shallow water," says Salter who grew up in Cowes and was one time navigator for GBR Challenge, Britain's last America's Cup challenger. "There are plenty of teams, plenty of boats and quite a few new boats, so it all looks good."
Salter, who sailed the long offshore for the winning British team two years ago, believes that apart from Monday, when there should be good breeze from the northeast, later in the week the wind will be lighter.
Another former Volvo Ocean Race navigator freshly returned from the centennial Newport-Bermuda race is Australian Adrienne Cahalan, who agrees with Salter's forecast for the weather. "It is going to be very light so it will be very tactical with the tides. I've been madly trying to reacquaint myself with the tides, so I reckon the GBR teams will have an advantage, but then a lot of teams have British navigators to get the local knowledge factor. People out there who are racing on the Solent Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, and who know where all the marks off the top of their heads will have an advantage, whereas for the foreigners it is quite a challenge."
But Cahalan is doing herself down. She has much experience of racing on these water having lived nearby on and off since 1990 and having competed in three Admiral's Cups, culminating in her victory with the Australian team in 2003. She believes that level of competition in the Rolex Commodores' Cup is now rivalling that of the Admiral's Cup. "It will be very competitive. The Irish team particularly have put a lot of resources and time into this Cup. There are 39 boats in this regatta. The mood on the dock reminds me of an Admiral's Cup and it will be really good racing."
Compared to the mighty Irish and British teams, the three French teams are more low key, believes Géry Trenteseaux, leader of the French effort and skipper of the Beneteau 44.7 Courrier du Coeur, the big boat in France Bleu. A higher percentage of crew on the nine French boats are amateur, although many have sailed at the highest level in the past. "On my boat I have Christophe Clevenot, who was a Tornado World Champion about 10 years ago and Yvon Quernec, who was Tornado vice-world champion, then there's Francois Lamiot, who campaigned seven Figaros and the America's Cup and Admiral's Cup," says Trenteseaux.
Trenteseaux also cites the example of the France Blanc big boat Jean-Claude Nicoleau's Codiam whose crew includes Nicolas Loday now technically an 'amateur' sailor under ISAF's categorisation but who was a World Champion in the 505 class 20 years ago. The most famous name in the French team is Pierre Follenfant, who has also competed in the highly competitive French single-handed Figaro one design class and in the first Vendee Globe in 1989. "He was a professional, but now he is a gentleman sailor," says Trenteseaux.
Compared to the boats in the Irish and British teams, the French line-up comprises more production boats. Trenteseaux points out that on average the French boats are generally shorter than their competitors and so he is not pleased with the light winds forecast for this week. "Our boats are better in medium or high winds. But we have a very good atmosphere in the French teams and we are happy to compete and be in Cowes. It is sure that it is the best place to sail in the world."
Emirates Team New Zealand took two more good wins today to remain unbeaten after four races of the final regatta in the 2006 America’s Cup season.
Today NZL 84 beat the Swedish Victory Challenge by 1min 38sec and then Mascalzone Latino by 2min 17sec.
Grant Dalton: “It was good to tuck away two teams that have shown they can win races in these regattas. Both of them have given us a really hard time in the past, even though we have always won the match races.
“In this regatta where every point counts we can’t afford to take anything for granted.”
“I think we sailed well today; we were more aggressive in the starts and we have learned a lot more about sailing NZL 84 in Valencian conditions. It was a day to get in front, build a comfortable lead and then keep it.”
Dalton said: “We were reminded today that we are exactly 365 days away from the start of the America’s Cup regatta. But we are focused on a more pressing engagement – the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers’ series which starts on April 18 next year. That’s only 299 days away.”
(The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup goes on to race against the America’s Cup defender. That regatta starts on June 23 2007.)
In today’s first race, the breeze never got above 12 knots from the north-east and swung through 18 degrees. Dean Barker and crew put the pressure on Victory from the gun and then crossed the line three seconds in front.
It was an advantage that built steadily, first on the left of the course and then the right, opening to 36sec at the first mark. On the run, NZL 84 stretched a further 28sec for a delta of 1min 4sec.
NZL 84 sailed a good second beat, opening the margin to 1min 47sec, and with the pressure off gliding downwind to win by 1min 38sec.
The day’s second match was almost a re-run of the first. Mascalzone Latino emerged from the pre-start with a penalty following another aggressive display by Dean Barker and NZL 84 grabbed the lead and extended throughout the leg.
At the first mark, NZL 84 was 50sec ahead, 53sec at the first leeward mark, 1min 48sec after the second beat and 2min 17sec at the finish.
It was a good day for skipper Dean Barker: “We got what we wanted today - two good starts and getting the penalty on Mascalzone Latino was a bonus. It’s great to get off the line in the lead and knowing the opposition also have a penalty.
“It felt very, very smooth today. We’re happy to have four wins behind us without any gear issues and with the crew sailing very well.”
The weather off Valencia today was sunny with a north-east breeze of around 10 knots, rising at times to 13 or 14 knots.
The form guide said Emirates Team New Zealand should notch a couple of comfortable wins. And that proved to be the case, with a margin of 2min 53sec against China Team in the first race of the day and 2min 8sec against +39 in the second.
Grant Dalton: “We take the wins happily but there’s still a lot of racing before this regatta is over. Today we had a good workout even though we had the luxury of being able to sail our own race against China Team and were not seriously threatened by +39.
“Even so, there’s not a team in this regatta that couldn’t pull off an upset win. So there’s no easy race; the boys have to work hard even if the margin suggests otherwise.”
NZL 84 was not troubled in today’s first match, winning the start by 9sec and taking the right of the course. NZL 84 maintained a loose cover on CHN 79 while extending the lead to 1min 22sec at the first mark. The delta had widened to 1min 42sec after the first run and to 2min 12sec after the second windward leg.
On the final leg NZL 84 extended by a further 41sec to finish comfortably ahead by 2min 53sec.
In the second race of the day, +39 got a penalty for a port-starboard incident in the pre-start. Dean Barker and crew took control after the start and sailed to a 1min 5sec lead. A 25deg shift in the breeze forced race officials to change the course and NZL 84 rounded 59 sec ahead at the first leeward mark, extending to 2min 5sec at the second windward mark and finishing 2min 8sec ahead.
There will be no respite for the team over the next few days.
“We have some tough opposition over the next three days. Tomorrow we’re up against Victory Challenge and Mascalzone Latino, both teams with a nasty bite when they get half a chance.
“We have a big weekend ahead with Luna Rossa which has been in good form on Saturday and Sunday we’re up against Spain in their new boat.”
Valencia, 22 June, 2006 - The final competition of the 2006 America's Cup season began with two full flights of racing in Valencia. Louis Vuitton Act 12 is a match racing regatta, complete with round robin, semi finals and final. In this sense, it mimics the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series, which will identify the ultimate challenger to face Alinghi in the 32nd America's Cup Match.
It was a tense day on the water for the Spanish team who are alone among the 12 competitors in racing a new boat, ESP 88. Desafío Español earned two wins from two starts, but was behind in the second race until the Umpires assessed three penalties to Areva Challenge for a flagrant foul. The jury is still out on the speed potential of the new boat.
Making his 2006 racing debut for Luna Rossa Challenge was Torben Grael, aboard as tactician. The 'Brazilian magician' lived up to his moniker early as Luna Rossa was able to throw two penalties onto Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia during the first pre-start; Grael showing no signs of fatigue after completing a round-the-world race just this past weekend.
Conditions were perfect for racing on Thursday with sunny skies generating a good sea breeze. By race time there was a 10 knot Easterly on the two race areas and this held for the two flights of racing.
FLIGHT ONE
This marked the competitive debut for Desafío Español's new boat, ESP 88. In the pre-start the Spanish did a nice job of controlling the South Africans and the new green boat led comfortably off the line as the gun fired. However, while the Spanish remained in command of this match they never stretched away from Shosholoza, who held ESP 88 to just 19 seconds by the finish.
There were problems for +39 Challenge during their pre-start against Victory Challenge when halyard problems caused the jib to fall suddenly to the deck. The foredeck crew did a manful job of rectifying the fault and Iain Percy got ITA 59 back into a controlling position by start time. Magnus Holmberg on the other hand was struggling to get SWE 63 up to speed for the start, but the Swedes were let off the hook when the Italians broke the start line a fraction too early and had to go back to restart. The Swedish seized the advantage and when jib halyard problems came back to haunt Iain Percy on the final upwind leg, it was game, set and match to Sweden.
There was more pre-start drama in the Italian derby between Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team and Luna Rossa. Mascalzone twice failed to keep clear of their rivals while on port tack and yielded two penalties before the race had even started. This required the red boat to take one penalty immediately after crossing the line, handing an unchallenged lead to Luna Rossa.
The other big teams all won their matches with ease. Alinghi beat Areva by just over two minutes, BMW ORACLE Racing beat United Internet Team Germany by a similar margin, and Emirates Team New Zealand bettered China Team by almost three minutes.
FLIGHT TWO
The second flight of racing on the day produced one of the most dramatic matches yet witnessed in any Louis Vuitton Act. Could Areva Challenge, racing one of the oldest boats in the fleet, match the brand new boat of Desafío Español? Thierry Peponnet put the French team in a great position after winning the start and sailing off towards the left hand side, with the Spanish on his windward hip. A tacking duel ensued all the way to the top of the windward leg, with both teams working to their physical limits in a bid for supremacy.
Eventually the French made their narrow advantage pay and rounded the first mark 13 seconds in the lead. Areva added to their lead a little more down the run, and dropped their spinnaker early in readiness for a gybe around the leeward mark. However some of the sail ended up in the water, allowing the Spanish to gain an overlap and earn room to round the mark. But Peponnet luffed up to close the door on Jablonski's attack, shutting the door to the point where Jablonski was forced to luff ESP 88 to the wrong side of the mark in order to avoid a collision.
The French aggression appeared to have paid off, until a few seconds later when the Umpires imposed a double penalty on Areva. The French duly took their first penalty but were still ahead of the wronged Spanish boat and the Umpires imposed a further penalty which Peponnet was also forced to take immediately. By this time Desafío Español was back in the race with a slim lead. Jablonski went on to race across the finish line untroubled by the French who, by the time they had unwound their third penalty, finished 1 minute 30 seconds behind.
Shosholoza gave BMW ORACLE Racing a good run for their money in a close match. Chris Dickson took the lead up the first beat, but when he gybed off downwind and allowed Tommaso Chieffi to get to the right of him, the South Africans took the lead for a while. However, the shifting breeze came back into BMW ORACLE's favour and they led for the rest of the match, beating South Africa by 53 seconds.
In the match that most would have expected to be the closest, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia made relatively easy work of their race against Victory Challenge, who closed the gap towards the finish but still crossed 50 seconds behind.
China Team won the start against Luna Rossa but that was the only time they threatened the Italians, who cruised away to a very comfortable win of almost three minutes. Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand also enjoyed untroubled victories in their respective matches against United Internet Team Germany and +39 Challenge.
Valencia, 22 June, 2006 - The final competition of the 2006 America's Cup season began with two full flights of racing in Valencia. Louis Vuitton Act 12 is a match racing regatta, complete with round robin, semi finals and final. In this sense, it mimics the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series, which will identify the ultimate challenger to face Alinghi in the 32nd America's Cup Match.
It was a tense day on the water for the Spanish team who are alone among the 12 competitors in racing a new boat, ESP 88. Desafío Español earned two wins from two starts, but was behind in the second race until the Umpires assessed three penalties to Areva Challenge for a flagrant foul. The jury is still out on the speed potential of the new boat.
Making his 2006 racing debut for Luna Rossa Challenge was Torben Grael, aboard as tactician. The 'Brazilian magician' lived up to his moniker early as Luna Rossa was able to throw two penalties onto Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia during the first pre-start; Grael showing no signs of fatigue after completing a round-the-world race just this past weekend.
Conditions were perfect for racing on Thursday with sunny skies generating a good sea breeze. By race time there was a 10 knot Easterly on the two race areas and this held for the two flights of racing.
FLIGHT ONE
This marked the competitive debut for Desafío Español's new boat, ESP 88. In the pre-start the Spanish did a nice job of controlling the South Africans and the new green boat led comfortably off the line as the gun fired. However, while the Spanish remained in command of this match they never stretched away from Shosholoza, who held ESP 88 to just 19 seconds by the finish.
There were problems for +39 Challenge during their pre-start against Victory Challenge when halyard problems caused the jib to fall suddenly to the deck. The foredeck crew did a manful job of rectifying the fault and Iain Percy got ITA 59 back into a controlling position by start time. Magnus Holmberg on the other hand was struggling to get SWE 63 up to speed for the start, but the Swedes were let off the hook when the Italians broke the start line a fraction too early and had to go back to restart. The Swedish seized the advantage and when jib halyard problems came back to haunt Iain Percy on the final upwind leg, it was game, set and match to Sweden.
There was more pre-start drama in the Italian derby between Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team and Luna Rossa. Mascalzone twice failed to keep clear of their rivals while on port tack and yielded two penalties before the race had even started. This required the red boat to take one penalty immediately after crossing the line, handing an unchallenged lead to Luna Rossa.
The other big teams all won their matches with ease. Alinghi beat Areva by just over two minutes, BMW ORACLE Racing beat United Internet Team Germany by a similar margin, and Emirates Team New Zealand bettered China Team by almost three minutes.
FLIGHT TWO
The second flight of racing on the day produced one of the most dramatic matches yet witnessed in any Louis Vuitton Act. Could Areva Challenge, racing one of the oldest boats in the fleet, match the brand new boat of Desafío Español? Thierry Peponnet put the French team in a great position after winning the start and sailing off towards the left hand side, with the Spanish on his windward hip. A tacking duel ensued all the way to the top of the windward leg, with both teams working to their physical limits in a bid for supremacy.
Eventually the French made their narrow advantage pay and rounded the first mark 13 seconds in the lead. Areva added to their lead a little more down the run, and dropped their spinnaker early in readiness for a gybe around the leeward mark. However some of the sail ended up in the water, allowing the Spanish to gain an overlap and earn room to round the mark. But Peponnet luffed up to close the door on Jablonski's attack, shutting the door to the point where Jablonski was forced to luff ESP 88 to the wrong side of the mark in order to avoid a collision.
The French aggression appeared to have paid off, until a few seconds later when the Umpires imposed a double penalty on Areva. The French duly took their first penalty but were still ahead of the wronged Spanish boat and the Umpires imposed a further penalty which Peponnet was also forced to take immediately. By this time Desafío Español was back in the race with a slim lead. Jablonski went on to race across the finish line untroubled by the French who, by the time they had unwound their third penalty, finished 1 minute 30 seconds behind.
Shosholoza gave BMW ORACLE Racing a good run for their money in a close match. Chris Dickson took the lead up the first beat, but when he gybed off downwind and allowed Tommaso Chieffi to get to the right of him, the South Africans took the lead for a while. However, the shifting breeze came back into BMW ORACLE's favour and they led for the rest of the match, beating South Africa by 53 seconds.
In the match that most would have expected to be the closest, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia made relatively easy work of their race against Victory Challenge, who closed the gap towards the finish but still crossed 50 seconds behind.
China Team won the start against Luna Rossa but that was the only time they threatened the Italians, who cruised away to a very comfortable win of almost three minutes. Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand also enjoyed untroubled victories in their respective matches against United Internet Team Germany and +39 Challenge.
Competition will be at its highest level ever in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Rolex Commodores' Cup when racing gets underway next Monday with the first two inshore races. The principal reason for this, many believe, is due to a strong assault from the Irish.
Last time this biennial team event was held, Ireland led up until the final offshore race. Over the course of this double points scoring race, the Irish saw victory slip through their fingers again, the regatta eventually being won by the GBR Red Team. This time the Irish have returned with three teams, half of the boats they have entered are brand new and are crewed by talented personnel such as Britain's Rob Greenhalgh. Freshly returned from winning the Volvo Ocean Race aboard ABN AMRO One, the former International 14 and 18ft skiff world champion is sailing on Colm Barrington's brand new 50-footer Flying Glove.
The Irish onslaught has affected the campaigns from other nations, most noticeably France and Great Britain, both also fielding multiple triple boat teams.
"With the work the Irish have been doing, everyone has had to raise their game" believes the RYA's Dave Atkinson, who was part of the panel selecting the British teams. "They probably started directly after the last event to plan what they were going to do, which has forced everyone to go down the same line."
Unlike the Irish boats, where owners were allowed to set up their own teams, the RYA's selection panel led by Olympic medallist Iain MacDonald-Smith chose the GBR squad. Once the three big, medium and small boats were chosen, the selection panel then grouped them together into teams. Like the Irish teams, the British ones are not divided according strictly to merit, but are all equally strong reckons Atkinson.
Alongside the two Farr 52s Bear of Britain and Chernikeef 2, the third British big boat competing is the brand new Ker 46 of John Shepherd. This will be Shepherd's fourth Rolex Commodores' Cup since he first raced his Mumm 36 in 2000. As with the Irish big boat Colm Barrington's Ker 50 Flying Glove, so Shepherd's new Fair Do's VII was built for inshore and offshore racing in the UK, but primarily with competing in the Rolex Commodores' Cup in mind.
"The Irish have gone about it in a very professional way," says Shepherd agreeing that the Irish have raised the game. "They were miffed they didn't win it last time. They want to win it, but we are happy to take them on. It is all good for competition."
While Fair Do's VII is a new boat and so potentially faster than her competition Shepherd says they are still attempting to iron out some small teething problems, something not the case with their Irish opposition. "We had a good run at the IRC Nationals, although we were second and consistently beaten by Tiamat," he says of the Irish competition. "They are a year ahead of us but we are hoping we have worked out a few of the glitches and can take them on."
Shepherd's crew on Fair Do's VII includes RYA Olympic Sailing Manager Stephen Park and Olympic coaching legend David Howlett. "We are sailing with the same Corinthian spirit we have always done and I hope we will be able to compete in a professional way but as amateurs." Racing alongside Fair Dos VII in the GBR White team will be IMX 40 Maverick of Dominic Chappell and Quokka, the Elan 37 cruiser/racer of former RORC Commodore Peter Rutter.
In GBR Black is Peter Harrison's Chernikeef 2, crewed by a mixture of young talent including two-time youth match racing national champion Nick Cherry. They are joined by Jack Pringle's IMX 40 Mankie and Jim MacGregor's Elan 40 Civils Building with Flair, both two solid campaigners on the UK circuit. Meanwhile Bear of Britain will be in the same GBR Red team as Ian Maclean's brand new Ker 36 Software Mistress on which top world ranked British match racer Ian Williams is sailing, and No Doubt, one of the first examples of Beneteau's brand new 34.7 cruiser/racer.
The British Rolex Commodores' Cup team suffered some tragic news when earlier this week offshore yachtsman and Bear of Britain co-owner Kit Hobday died after a long battle against cancer. Hobday captained the winning GBR Red team to victory in the Rolex Commodores' Cup two years ago.
"He was a staunch supporter of offshore sailing both in the Admiral's Cup and Rolex Commodores' Cup and his encouragement of youth sailing has brought forward a new generation of offshore sailors," said RORC General Manager Peter Wykeham-Martin in tribute to Hobday.
Competition will be at its highest level ever in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Rolex Commodores' Cup when racing gets underway next Monday with the first two inshore races. The principal reason for this, many believe, is due to a strong assault from the Irish.
Last time this biennial team event was held, Ireland led up until the final offshore race. Over the course of this double points scoring race, the Irish saw victory slip through their fingers again, the regatta eventually being won by the GBR Red Team. This time the Irish have returned with three teams, half of the boats they have entered are brand new and are crewed by talented personnel such as Britain's Rob Greenhalgh. Freshly returned from winning the Volvo Ocean Race aboard ABN AMRO One, the former International 14 and 18ft skiff world champion is sailing on Colm Barrington's brand new 50-footer Flying Glove.
The Irish onslaught has affected the campaigns from other nations, most noticeably France and Great Britain, both also fielding multiple triple boat teams.
"With the work the Irish have been doing, everyone has had to raise their game" believes the RYA's Dave Atkinson, who was part of the panel selecting the British teams. "They probably started directly after the last event to plan what they were going to do, which has forced everyone to go down the same line."
Unlike the Irish boats, where owners were allowed to set up their own teams, the RYA's selection panel led by Olympic medallist Iain MacDonald-Smith chose the GBR squad. Once the three big, medium and small boats were chosen, the selection panel then grouped them together into teams. Like the Irish teams, the British ones are not divided according strictly to merit, but are all equally strong reckons Atkinson.
Alongside the two Farr 52s Bear of Britain and Chernikeef 2, the third British big boat competing is the brand new Ker 46 of John Shepherd. This will be Shepherd's fourth Rolex Commodores' Cup since he first raced his Mumm 36 in 2000. As with the Irish big boat Colm Barrington's Ker 50 Flying Glove, so Shepherd's new Fair Do's VII was built for inshore and offshore racing in the UK, but primarily with competing in the Rolex Commodores' Cup in mind.
"The Irish have gone about it in a very professional way," says Shepherd agreeing that the Irish have raised the game. "They were miffed they didn't win it last time. They want to win it, but we are happy to take them on. It is all good for competition."
While Fair Do's VII is a new boat and so potentially faster than her competition Shepherd says they are still attempting to iron out some small teething problems, something not the case with their Irish opposition. "We had a good run at the IRC Nationals, although we were second and consistently beaten by Tiamat," he says of the Irish competition. "They are a year ahead of us but we are hoping we have worked out a few of the glitches and can take them on."
Shepherd's crew on Fair Do's VII includes RYA Olympic Sailing Manager Stephen Park and Olympic coaching legend David Howlett. "We are sailing with the same Corinthian spirit we have always done and I hope we will be able to compete in a professional way but as amateurs." Racing alongside Fair Dos VII in the GBR White team will be IMX 40 Maverick of Dominic Chappell and Quokka, the Elan 37 cruiser/racer of former RORC Commodore Peter Rutter.
In GBR Black is Peter Harrison's Chernikeef 2, crewed by a mixture of young talent including two-time youth match racing national champion Nick Cherry. They are joined by Jack Pringle's IMX 40 Mankie and Jim MacGregor's Elan 40 Civils Building with Flair, both two solid campaigners on the UK circuit. Meanwhile Bear of Britain will be in the same GBR Red team as Ian Maclean's brand new Ker 36 Software Mistress on which top world ranked British match racer Ian Williams is sailing, and No Doubt, one of the first examples of Beneteau's brand new 34.7 cruiser/racer.
The British Rolex Commodores' Cup team suffered some tragic news when earlier this week offshore yachtsman and Bear of Britain co-owner Kit Hobday died after a long battle against cancer. Hobday captained the winning GBR Red team to victory in the Rolex Commodores' Cup two years ago.
"He was a staunch supporter of offshore sailing both in the Admiral's Cup and Rolex Commodores' Cup and his encouragement of youth sailing has brought forward a new generation of offshore sailors," said RORC General Manager Peter Wykeham-Martin in tribute to Hobday.
The Rolex Commodores' Cup will be held off Cowes, Isle of Wight, from 25th June to 2nd July 2006. Thirteen teams representing France, Ireland, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium and Russia will participate.
Who is the most passionate sailor you know? Who is always on the water, taking every rules quiz or searching for that perfect cruising lunch spot? Or do you know someone who is newly converted to the sport and soaking up information like a sponge? How about a junior sailor whom you have to command to "please step away from the dinghy." Do you know someone who gives as much time and energy to building a fleet or running races as they do to working at the office?
US Sailing wants to know more about them. Each week, US Sailing selects a sailor of the week. If you know someone who should be recognized, email the US Sailing editors at eussailing@ussailing.org
Qualifying regattas to select the sailors who will represent the United States at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have been announced. US SAILING has determined nine trial events, beginning in September 2006 and continuing through March 2007. They will be hosted by several sailing organizations across the country. The sailing competition of the 2007 Pan American Games will feature nine events, including three Olympic classes -- Laser (Men), Laser Radial (Women) and RS:X (Men and Women) -- and five non-Olympic, open classes -- Hobie 16, J/24, Lightning, Snipe and Sunfish.
US Sailing Team-member Geoff Ewenson (Annapolis, MD) is on a roll right now after winning two major Finn regattas this month. Ewenson's impressive wins came at the Finn North American Championship (held in Toronto, Canada) and this past weekend at the Finn National Championship (held in Falmouth, MA). The National Championship was a hard-fought affair as Ewenson finished only one point ahead of Darrell Peck (Gresham, OR) while Bryan Boyd (Annapolis, MD) finished third. Looking ahead, the Finn Class has a number of events throughout the rest of the summer, including the Finn Gold Cup in July in Croatia, while gearing up for the Pre-Trials, October 20-22 in Newport Beach, CA.
The country’s 150 top youth sailors will arrive at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in Grosse Pointe, MI, this week to compete in the nation’s premier youth sailing regatta, the U.S. Youth Sailing Championship. The regatta will officially kick off on Friday, June 23 with a three-day advanced racing clinic taught by some of the country’s best coaches. Racing for the National Championship title will be take place from Monday, June 26 through Wednesday, June 28. The competition will be raced in four different classes of boats: the singlehanded Laser and Laser Radial as well as the doublehanded Club 420 and 29er. The event is sponsored nationally by Vanguard Sailboats and Nautica.
For more information see http://www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/youthchamp
Grosse Pointe, Mich. (June 19, 2006) - The country's 150 top youth sailors will arrive at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in Grosse Pointe, Mich., this week to compete in the nation's premier youth sailing regatta, the U.S. Youth Sailing Championship. The regatta will officially kick off on Friday, June 23 with a three-day advanced racing clinic taught by some of the country's best coaches. Racing for the National Championship title will be take place from Monday, June 26 through Wednesday, June 28. The competition will be raced in four different classes of boats: the singlehanded Laser and Laser Radial as well as the doublehanded Club 420 and 29er. The event is sponsored nationally by Vanguard Sailboats and Nautica.
Many youth sailors have been preparing for months to compete in the Championship, organized nationally by US SAILING and locally by the host club. A record of over 310 sailors applied for the total 150 spots available on the starting line. As the sailors arrive in Grosse Pointe, a few questions are on everyone's minds: who in the Laser fleet will qualify for the coveted spot on the US Youth World Team and travel to next month's Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship in Weymouth, England? And, with all of last year's winners are returning, will they be able to win again, even though some of them have switched boats or crew?
For last year's champions, getting a repeat win will not be easy. In the Laser class, Thomas Barrows (St. Thomas, USVI) will get a chance to defend his title, but it won't be easy, as one of his toughest competitors will be Kyle Rogachenko (Collegeville, Pa.), who won the Laser Radial class last year and has made the switch to the Laser. In the Club 420, last year's winning skipper Emily Dellenbaugh (Easton, Conn.) is sailing with Briana Provancha (San Diego, Calif.). Meanwhile, Leigh Hammel (Warren, Vt.), who won with Emily Dellenbaugh last year, will crew for Emily's older sister, Rebecca Dellenbaugh ((Easton, Conn.).
The boats that are being used in the U.S. Youth Sailing Championship are selected based on the classes used in the Olympic Games. The Laser and Laser Radial are Olympic classes, while the Club 420 and 29er are smaller versions of the 470 and 49er respectively used in the Olympic Games. This is the first time in the history of the Championship that competitors will be sailing in the 29er.
Every year some of the world's greatest sailors gather for the Giraglia Rolex Cup, a combination of three days' inshore racing in the waters around St Tropez and culminating in the 243-mile Giraglia Race to Genoa via the Giraglia Rock, off the northern tip of Corsica.
This year the likes of Russell Coutts - the most successful America's Cup helmsman of all time - and Roy Heiner - who masterminded Team ABN AMRO's domination of the recent Volvo Ocean Race - were present aboard some of the bigger boats. Neville Crichton had arrived with his new 98-foot canting-keeled Supermaxi Alfa Romeo in a bid to smash his own course record for the Giraglia Race, set by the previous 90-foot Alfa Romeo three years ago.
On the first glorious day's racing off St Tropez however, a group of friends aboard a humble 41-footer called Canard stole everyone's thunder. The big, professionally-crewed yachts finished far down the rankings under IMS handicap, even if Alfa Romeo romped around the 33-mile course light-years ahead of the next Maxis. Aurora's skipper Paolo Bonomo commented afterwards, with tongue firmly in cheek: "We came here only to win." He added: "We are friends and some of us have sailed together for 30 years." So how did it feel to beat a fleet that numbers some great professional sailors in its ranks? "That is a problem for them, not for us," he laughed.
In the small-boat division, two Grand Soleil 40s finished just 10 seconds apart on corrected time, with Alexei Nikolaev's Russian entry, Synergy, beating Italo Borrini's Despeinada to the punch. A further 11 seconds back was Camillo Capozzi's Polaris 33, Ala Bianca - but more of that boat later.
Whatever the outcome of the racing on that first day, the 113 competing yachts couldn't have asked for better conditions, with blue skies and the wind blowing 14 to 17 knots. Calling tactics aboard Swedish Swan 601, Artemis, Russell Coutts commented: "We had great conditions today. It was just perfect. I haven't sailed many times in St Tropez when it's been like that. Fantastic."
If day 1 was a day for the small boats, a dying breeze on day 2 played into the hands of the big boats. Although Alfa Romeo rates terribly under the IMS handicap system, such was the New Zealand Supermaxi's lead before the wind started dying that Neville Crichton took handicap victory and line honours in race 2. So efficient is this wonderboat that at times it is capable of sailing at double the windspeed, which certainly helps when wind is in short supply.
The finishing order across the line was matched almost boat for boat under handicap, with two Italian Maxis, 85-foot My Song and 70-foot Atalanta II taking 2nd and 3rd place respectively. As the breeze dropped ever lighter, the smaller boats struggled to reach the finish line before the time limit expired. Only 16 of the 43 entrants in the big boat division completed the race.
There was a similar pattern to the outcome of the small-boat division, whose 26-mile course was shortened as it became apparent that the wind was disappearing. A trio of IMX 40s took the top three places. Alberto Cogni's Clean Energy won by over five minutes from Luigi Balestra's Maluba, followed by the French boat Magic Simca, owned by Laurent Lavaysse, a further six minutes back.
On day 3, the final inshore race was only 19 miles long in anticipation of a fickle light breeze. However, soon after the start the breeze built up to a very pleasant 15 knots and the yachts completed the course unexpectedly quickly. Mad IV, Clive Llewellyn's Grand Soleil 50, won the big boat race on handicap, although of course Alfa Romeo had once again sped around the track at a phenomenal pace, despite a broken checkstay forcing Crichton to lower the mainsail 10 minutes before the finish. It meant the yacht finished only at 10 knots boatspeed instead of 15 or 16 knots.
In the small-boat division, a second inshore race win for the Russian Synergy gave note of a likely contender for handicap victory in the 243-mile race to Genoa the following day. Alexei Nikolaev's crew were showing great consistency, beating sistership Despeinada by three points for the inshore series. In the big boats, Carlo Puri Negri's Atalanta II prevailed over Ernesto Gismondi's Edimetra by 5 points in the inshore series. That evening, as talk turned to the possible weather for the long race to Italy, the 198 crews entered for the Giraglia Race attended a spectacular dinner and fireworks display at La Citadelle, which looks down across the rooftops of St Tropez. Alexei Nikolaev and Carlo Puri Negri went up to receive their trophies and Rolex watches for their successful inshore campaigns.
The next morning, attention was fully focused on the offshore campaign, with the prospect of a good wind to send the 198 boats speedily out of the Gulf of St Tropez and on towards the first turning mark at Les Porquerolles islands. Neville Crichton was burning to beat his 2003 course record of 22 hours, 13 minutes and 48 seconds. "We've measured in overlapping headsails and optimised the boat for the long race. I don't care how we do in the handicap racing. We're here to win the race to Genoa and to set a new course record."
Unfortunately the good weather forecast of the previous day was beginning to give way to a less optimistic one, with a number of holes in the wind predicted between Les Porquerolles and the Giraglia Rock. The final 70 miles from Giraglia to the finish in Genoa was even looking even less certain. Russell Coutts said the key would be to keep the boat moving for as long as possible. "Strategy is key, particularly in light winds, because you'll get huge differences of breeze. If you're in 5 knots of breeze and other people are in 2 knots or zero knots, then you'll make huge gains. The long race is all going to come down to who manages the park-ups better than everyone else."
Just before the midday start, Crichton was beginning to believe a record attempt was looking unlikely. "I think as the sun goes down, the wind will do down with it, so it's a matter of how far we can get before that happens. We'd like to think we can get to Giraglia Rock [before the wind disappears], but we don't think we will. We'll probably get half way across between Les Porquerolles and the Giraglia. After that I think we're going to struggle for breeze, then we'll get a bit of breeze in the morning and then the breeze could disappear again just before Genoa."
For the start itself, however, Alfa Romeo was tearing down the track, matching windspeed on a close reach at about 15 or 16 knots as she waved goodbye to St Tropez. With the small boats starting 15 minutes before the big boats, the whole fleet was making good progress in perfect winds as they beat upwind towards Les Porquerolles. That evening, however, Crichton's pessimistic prediction proved accurate as the wind disappeared with the setting sun. The Kiwi Supermaxi wouldn't reach the Giraglia Rock until 0917 hours the following morning. The 2003 record was looking safe, very safe, as the wind refused to grant Crichton his wish.
After some more stop-start sailing, Alfa Romeo eventually finished in Genoa at 1630 hours, with an elapsed time of 27 hours 48 minutes and 12 seconds. "A very slow race," said Crichton. "We thought we were going good until midnight last night then ran out of breeze. Up until then it looked good - we were flying. We came out of the Giraglia Rock well, but the wind died about 12 miles from the finish. So no records, maybe we'll have to try again this time next year."
Tactician Michael Coxon felt he would arrive in Genoa much earlier in the day, having just missed his plane back to Sydney. "I'm disappointed at not getting on a plane at 6.30 this evening. I was hoping to see my son play rugby on the weekend. I must have been a bit optimistic about when we would finish!" Despite the disappointment, Coxon remains an avid fan of the Giraglia Rolex Cup. "It's a great mix of conditions and different people. This was a fun race, not a lot of wind, but 100-footers are always fun. They impress me more in lighter conditions. It's amazing how this boat can do double the windspeed. The top speed we hit was 20 knots, but what's impressive is when you can be sailing with a jib top in 7 knots breeze and be doing 14 knots through the water."
The next Maxis started arriving at the Yacht Club Italiano around dusk that evening, as a new breeze started to build overnight. The smaller boats were making excellent progress towards Genoa. New boats were appearing at the top of the handicap leaderboard by the hour, and it would take some time before it became clear who had won. By late the following morning it looked unlikely that any of the remaining boats still racing would beat Ala Bianca, which had finished around 0930 hours. By midday at the Yacht Club Italiano, it was confirmed that Camillo Capozzi's Polaris 33 had indeed won. It was a wonderful victory, a repeat victory from 1997 for the same boat and the same crew.
Capozzi could not contain his delight. "A win is always fantastic, but to win the Giraglia Race two times, nine years later, with the same boat. I don't know what to say. Fantastic is not enough, it is more than a dream!" Adelaide Giromella, who sailed with Capozzi on both winning occasions, acknowledged that they had enjoyed the luck of the wind. "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."
The small boats dominated the top placings on handicap, with Ala Bianca beating Paolo Bonomo's team of friends on board the 41-footer Aurora by 20 minutes on handicap. Almost an hour behind Aurora on corrected time was the French 35-footer Teshipa XI Team. Edimetra was the first Maxi to finish, in 22nd place, with Alfa Romeo in 104th. Edimetra's owner, Ernesto Gismondi, overhauled Atalanta II in the combined rankings from the inshore and offshore races to win the combined trophy in the big boat division. A 6th place in the Giraglia Race combined with Synergy's strong inshore performance gave combined victory in the small boat class to Alexei Nikolaev by a comfortable margin.
Of the 198 starters, 151 yachts completed the 243 miles from Genoa to St Tropez. The prizegiving took place at the Yacht Club Italiano in Genoa. For line honours victory, Alfa Romeo skipper Neville Crichton was awarded a Rolex Submariner in gold and steel. For victory under corrected time Ala Bianca skipper Camillo Capozzi received a Rolex Yacht-Master in steel and platinum.
The race from St Tropez to Genoa is a race that tests sailing skill, team work and patience, but Ala Bianca plans to be back once again next year. Adelaide Giromella explained the enduring appeal of the race: "The Giraglia Rolex Cup is one of the most beautiful races in the Mediterranean. To go on the Giraglia is a dream. It's one of the oldest races. When you reach the Rock and see the Giraglia, all the efforts you have made seem worthwhile. It's the Giraglia, that's all."
Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is established as one of the classic regattas of the Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the past nine years, comprises three days' inshore racing in the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port of Genoa.
Göteborg, Sweden – June 17, 2006 – Organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race today announced a raft of ground-breaking changes to the event format with the most significant being an alteration to the four-year cycle with the next race taking place in 2008-2009.
The race route has also changed with port stopovers in Asia, the Middle East and the west coast of the United States under consideration. Though the exact course has yet to be finalized, the start port will be confirmed in the next few days.
The Volvo Open 70, the world’s fastest monohull, which made its record-breaking race debut in 2005-06, will also be the choice of design for 2008-09.
The announcement was made at a press conference in Göteborg – the finish port of the 2005-06 race. Glenn Bourke, the CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, was joined in unveiling plans for the 2008-09 event by Leif Johansson, President of AB Volvo and CEO of Volvo Group and Fredrik Arp, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation.
‘This is an exciting time in the long and proud history of the Volvo Ocean Race [formerly The Whitbread Round the World Race],’ Bourke said. ‘We felt it was prudent to add new territories to consolidate the race’s position as a truly global sporting spectacle.
‘We introduced evolutionary change in 2005-06 with the Volvo Open 70, in-port racing and an aggressive approach to our marketing communications with the clear intention of spreading the appeal and the fascination of the race to a broader audience. The race in 2008-09 will take that evolutionary process to the next level.’
Bourke added that there were at least two confirmed entries for the 2008-09 race. ‘It is unprecedented for us to be in a position to announce confirmed entries so far ahead of the start of the next iteration of the event. It underlines an overwhelming desire on the part of syndicates and sponsors to be part of the brave new world we have mapped out. We are at a more advanced stage with the planning and preparation for the next event than we have ever been.
‘In addition to the two confirmed entries we have had positive discussions with a number of potential syndicate sponsors. We fully expect some of the existing syndicates to confirm their participation over the coming months. Furthermore, we are a long way down the road in negotiations with ports in the new territories we plan to visit – that includes Asia and the Middle East.
‘We will also announce the start port for the 2008-09 race shortly.’
Referring to the break in the traditional four-year cycle of the race, Bourke said: ‘The feedback we have had from existing and prospective syndicates and sponsors has shaped our thinking on the time frame of the race.
‘We have brought the race forward in order to capitalize on the momentum that has been built up during the 2005-06 race and the excitement generated among non-sailing audiences by the Volvo Open 70. These stunning boats have captured the imagination of a whole new set of fans.’
Bourke said that the general feeling among race stakeholders was that four years was too long a break between events if a wider awareness of the race was to be sustained and sponsors were going to be able to maximise their involvement.
The speeds of the Volvo Open 70s, Bourke added, made it feasible to take the race to regions outside of the traditional route.
He said: ‘These boats have proven to be amazingly fast – cutting many days off some legs relative to previous races. For instance, the winning boat in 2005-06 completed the entire race in about 25 days less than the winning boat in 2001-02. That puts us in the luxurious position of being able to pick and choose which territories we earmark for future races.
‘We know that these boats are capable of covering vast distances in a short space of time. That has given us more options in choosing port stopover venues and has brought Asia and the Middle East into play. The die was cast to some extent because we started the 2005-06 race in Spain rather than in England, the traditional home of the Volvo Ocean Race start.’
The massive appeal of the race – the world’s premier round the world sailing challenge – has grown to such an extent that television coverage of the 2005-06 event (up to mid-May 2006) broke through the 1 billion audience barrier. To date the total cumulative television audience for the race stands at 1.3 billion. This compares to an audience of 811 million for the entire 2001-02 race. It is expected that once a comprehensive evaluation has been completed the figure for 2005-06 will approach 2 billion.
It puts the event into the top echelon of global sports coverage with exposure in over 200 countries around the world and represents a compelling commercial opportunity for race partners and syndicate sponsors.
In a joint statement, Leif Johansson, President of AB Volvo and CEO of Volvo Group and Fredrik Arp, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation, added that Volvo was delighted with the return the race had generated. It read: ‘The Volvo Ocean Race has been a great success for us. Nearly two billion viewers have followed the race on TV and surveys confirm that it continues to strengthen the Volvo brand. Expanding the race to include Asia feels totally correct and we are looking forward to continuing to develop the Volvo Ocean Race competitively and commercially’.
Representatives from Ericsson and Team ABN AMRO were also in attendance to underline the commercial benefits of involvement in the Volvo Ocean Race.
Bert Nordberg, Executive Vice-President and Head of Sales and Marketing at Ericsson, said: ‘We are very excited by the prospect of a new race and applaud the race organisation for enhancing the race further and adding new, commercially interesting territories to the course while maintaining the integrity of the yacht race.
‘Of course, formal decisions need to be taken but as Head of Sales and Marketing at Ericsson, I will definitely work to ensure that we do this again. Based on the commercial success of our current campaign, I think it is very hard to find a better and more efficient platform for meeting and spending quality time with our customers in an exciting environment. Our participation in this race has contributed to growing our business and we look very positively on giving it another shot.’
Speaking on behalf of the race-winning ABN AMRO ONE entry and the sister boat ABN AMRO TWO, Jan-Berent Heukensfeldt-Jansen, the Managing Director of Team ABN AMRO, said: ‘We have used our involvement in the event as a platform to promote the ABN AMRO brand around the world and unite our 105,000 employees. Through the extensive hospitality programme we have undertaken and the global media coverage that has been achieved, thousands of people have been able to experience this unique race and be part of TEAM ABN AMRO’s success.
‘It has always been our intention to undertake a full evaluation of the effectiveness of the campaign and take some time to reflect on the project prior to making a decision about whether ABN AMRO will sponsor a team in the next Volvo Ocean Race. Meanwhile, I am pleased to say that we will continue to campaign both ABN AMRO ONE and ABN AMRO TWO at a series of regattas and corporate sailing events over the next 18 months, the schedule for which will be announced in due course.’
The cornerstone of the race television coverage has been the 30-minute weekly programmes. These are complimented by hourly summaries and daily news feeds which have been distributed since the start of the race in November 2005. A documentary series is planned for release at the conclusion of the race. Countries where the half hour programmes have been seen range from North America to China and Japan to Finland and include such diverse territories as South Africa, Australia, Canada, Britain, Argentina, Holland, Brazil, Russia, Ireland, India and Paraguay.
The weekly programmes focus on the daring feats of the world’s elite band of ocean yachtsmen who put themselves at the mercy of some of the most extreme conditions nature can throw at them.
In order to deliver the action as it happens, there are 10 cameras on board each of the Volvo Open 70 boats which make up the fleet. Each boat has two media specialists designated to film and edit interviews with fellow crew members and capture the drama as it unfolds. Fixed cameras also bring to life the amazing speeds achieved by the world’s fastest monohull ocean going yachts.
Bourke attributes the increase in audience figures to a number of key elements of the 2005-06 race, not the least of which is the sailing challenge presented by the Volvo Open 70 and the widespread public appeal of the new generation of ocean racer.
‘The Volvo Open 70 does a lot of the talking for us,’ he said. ‘We are all in awe of their speed and performance. Thrown in the fact that you have 10 guys on board attempting to tame this beast in hostile weather conditions or cajole every last ounce of speed from them in the lighter airs, on a race track of over 31,000 nautical miles, and you have all the ingredients for cutting edge drama.’
Nearly 600 of them set out yesterday morning in tight rows against the local Easterly 'Séchar' wind. Just a handful of them had rounded Le Bouveret, at the far end of Lac Léman, by the start of the afternoon, and even fewer - heroic souls nonetheless - had made port by yesterday evening. These were the escapees of a Bol d'Or Rolex that, true to form, was hard on the sailors, gruelling for the nerves and tough on equipment.
At dawn, the fleet spans the entire width of the race zone. Solent sails flog, colourful spinnakers inflate and then deflate as if exhausted by so many nocturnal veins of breeze. In a race full of unpredictability, courage and patience are the prerequisite of the Bol D'or Rolex. Alex Schneiter and Patrick Firmenich, are the first to slide their red Psaros 40, almost surreptitiously, across the finish line shortly after 0100 this morning to take victory in Class 1. It is the beginning of a vast procession of hundreds of fine, individual tales that are both personal and secret, of sailors that have come like swallows to the spring to answer the call of the Léman.
The Bol de Vermeil goes to 'Tilt'
For almost the entire race, Alex Schneiter and Patrick Firmenich aboard the Psaros 40 'Tilt' believed that Taillevent II - Nicolas Engel's prototype which had been right on their tail since Bouveret - was going to catch them. Their greatest fear in the darkest of calm zones was to see the famous Bol de Vermeil snatched from them, a prize promised to any boat capable of lining up three class victories over a five-year period. The satisfaction of having won it, after such tense racing, lit up the faces of Schneiter's crew as the Race Committee sounded the finish gun at 0104 hours. 'Tilt' had a lead of just 12 minutes over Taillevent II, a prototype designed and built like an old style 'Class America Mini', though the anemometer was barely scraping zero.
"It's been a testing race" says Alex with a smile that seems to suggests otherwise. "Especially at the finish where we feared we'd be run over by a gust right up until the last minute." It's not easy reading the lake surface in the pitch black, with not a single breath of wind. "This Bol d'Or Rolex is exceptional, not only because we won it, but also because we've had all kinds of conditions, complete with a violent squall with 27 knots of wind. It was a complete race that was all about strategy." Firmenich takes up the theme: "It was a fabulous 'Bol d'Or Rolex! We could have lost everything just a few boat lengths from the line. You couldn't afford to mess up the final manouvres, or risk stopping a boat that was only moving as a result of its own inertia. It was very tense at the end. Thank you to the crew." Behind the first two, 'Full Pelt', a highly original prototype with a planing hull and a swing keel, designed by British naval architect and Olympic medallist Jo Richards, completes the Class 1 podium.
Storm and Some Hope
This 68th Bol d'Or Rolex will remain etched in the memory, not least for the big storm that struck mid-afternoon, while the whole fleet was stretched three-quarters of the way across the lake. It swept down across the race zone, causing a good 20 or so retirements and a great deal of emotion from the racers, some of whom saw the anemometer record winds over 35 knots. For the 400 or so boats still racing to Bouveret, this gust brought hope of a having a more wind-assisted push towards the finish. Sadly for them, the storm only left a vague chop in its wake and that quickly subsided with the crushing apathy of a race zone utterly devoid of wind.
The Toucans triumph in Class 3
The close battle between the Luthis and the Toucans finally went to the latter. 'Enaile' skippered by Yves Tournier took victory at 2117 hours after a bitter struggle, the winner finishing a mere breath of air ahead of another Toucan, Luc Munier's 'Aquatic'. The Luthi 952 'Tarangau Electronic Marine' skippered by David Vulliez broke the Toucan monopoly to complete the podium.
Festival of sports boats
The Mumm 30s were led home by the crew of 'Ville de Genève-Carrefour Prévention' who will defend the Swiss colours at the upcoming Tour Voile, which starts in Dunkirk at the end of June. Skipper Loïc Fuhrer worked hard over the winter with his crew and today he reaped the rewards of that effort by taking victory in Class 4 over another Mumm 30, that of the Frenchman Patrick Ducommun. The Farr designs managed to outwit the imposing fleet of Grand Surprises.
Alinghi is revving up for Louis Vuitton Act 12, the last chance for the Defender to match race the challengers before the America’s Cup Match next year. To recap, the last few weeks since LV Acts 10&11, in which Alinghi won one and lost one. The Swiss Defender launched the first of two new builds, SUI91, and has been two boat testing alongside SUI75. For LV Act 12, she won’t be ready and as Peter Holmberg, helmsman for this coming Act, explains: “We’ve elected to use 75, our boat of choice for the past year. She is the one that has tickled up the best for us, the fastest. SUI91 is brand new and there are a lot of bits and pieces that need to be finished before she’s ready to go racing. We believe that SUI75 is also the right boat to measure our opponents with.”
Much as in previous races, Alinghi will continue to rotate the crew, as sports director and helmsman, Jochen Schuemann, mentions: “It’s still the same policy. We are preparing for the America’s Cup Match in 2007 so it’s about the team development towards then and that is why we have to stick to the crew rotation to keep lifting the game of the whole team.”
LV Act 12 is critical from an observation stand point. It is one year, almost to the day, that Alinghi will be defending the 32nd America’s Cup and the team will be watching the weather patterns as well as the challengers. Team skipper and tactician, Brad Butterworth, outlines the point: “This regatta mirrors what is going to happen in a year’s time and although we sail against everybody, which is nice, it is important to sail in the conditions and the winds that we will hopefully get next year.” The three-time Cup winner doesn’t underestimate the importance of the upcoming competition however: “It will be hard, I think, because you see how the other three big teams have got closer to us. The Spanish have launched their new boat and I’m pretty sure they’ll sail it, and they are not going too badly either,” he adds: “It’s going to be hard to make the final four. Once you do, then it’s all on and in any given day you can make the finals or not. We’ll be pushing our hardest to try to win the regatta, but I think it’s going to be a tough call.”
Louis Vuitton Act 12 plays out from 22 June until 3 July. The 26, the 29 June and the 3 July are reserve days. There will be two matches a day with the first start at 1400 and the second at 1600. See www.alinghi.com for the pairings and current rankings.
17 June 2006, Gothenburg (SWE) - The Ericsson Racing Team arrived into Gothenburg in fifth place this evening, concluding leg nine of the Volvo Ocean Race. It was not the finish the team had dreamed of as it sailed into its home waters in Sweden, concluding an eventful and highly competitive circumnavigation. The sailors were greeted and their spirits lifted by thousands of supporters, amongst them HRH Crown Princess Victoria, Godmother of the Ericsson yacht, who stepped onboard for the final hours of their 32,000 nautical mile journey.
There were many spectator boats out on the water to welcome the local team home, after eight months of epic racing around the world. The team's most avid supporter, HRH Crown Princess Victoria, was delighted to be onboard Ericsson today.
"I am extremely happy and proud to have crossed the finish line with a team that has sailed around the world," said Her Royal Highness as she arrived on the dock. "I realized when I sailed with the team during the Rio de Janeiro in-port race, how difficult and technical racing at this level is. I find it incredible that they can sail at such a competitive level offshore as well. I am very proud of my team and to have been involved with the project since the very beginning."
The last leg of the Volvo Ocean Race started from Rotterdam (NED) on Thursday 15 June; a 500 nautical mile ride around the coast of Denmark and across the Skagerrak to Gothenburg. The leg was full of ups and downs for all the competitors, with very unpredictable weather. For Ericsson, it all started with a great comeback during the first night. She moved from sixth to third place by day break on Friday, and carried on climbing through the closely packed fleet.
"We had a good night and gained on everyone," explained Ericsson skipper Neal McDonald (GBR). "We had some really enjoyable sailing and then the fog came in and the fleet got split."
"We were set up nicely in the middle of the pack, about a mile behind Brasil 1," said Ken Read (USA). "Brunel, ABN Amro Two and the Pirates were behind us and we were well ahead of ABN Amro One, to our left. Then all the boats started to sheer off to the right. We were like the meat in the sandwich, stuck with no wind, whilst our competitors reached some breeze and sailed away. This was really the turning point in the race."
Pirates of the Caribbean decided to bail out and took a huge loss to go right, following new leaders ABN Amro Two and Brasil 1, whilst Ericsson and ABN Amro One stayed offshore waiting for the shift. "We hadn't planned to separate from ABN Amro Two or any of the other boats," explained Read. "But the wind gods dealt us a hand that we could do nothing about."
After that, despite making good progress on the fleet, Ericsson never managed to gain further places. The eventual winner was Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by ABN Amro Two and Brasil 1 in third. Ericsson finished fifth on leg nine, placing the team fifth overall in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06.
"We are disappointed for ourselves and for our supporters in Sweden, not to have got a better result" said McDonald. "It's a strange feeling that this project which I have worked on - lived, breathed and slept for a year and a half - has come to an end. We didn't get off to a great start in the race, but we battled on. It's too late to look back at what we would have done differently. We have given it our best shot, worked hard at it, and improved along the way, just unfortunately not quite quickly enough."
New Zealand skipper and America's Cup legend Russell Coutts crossed the finish line of the 68th Geneva Bol d'Or Rolex shortly before 2100 to take line honours. After some extraordinary close contact racing, keeping his crew of amateur doctors on their toes right until the last breath of wind, Coutts narrowly beat Philippe Cardis (Julius Baer), Loïck Peyron (Okalys) and Alain Gautier (Foncia.ch). At the entrance to the 'petit lac', just 5 miles from the finish, there were still four Decision 35 catamarans in the running for victory. From La Baule on France's Atlantic coast, Loïck Peyron was the first to come within sight of the line, driving hard down the French side of the lake under gennaker. At that point, Russell Coutts and Philippe Cardis were on the other side of the lake. Gybe after gybe, from wind pockets to wind holes, a different set of cards was dealt over and over again, the advantage changing ever few yards. Rooted to the helm, Coutts remained concentrated to the finish to take victory on the last gybe.
577 crafts with one, two or three hulls set off at 0902 hours this morning on the 68th Bol d'Or Rolex's lengthy start line off 'la nautique' - spanning right across the western end of Lac Léman or Lake Geneva as it is better known outside Switzerland. The wind was absent at the start, made a timid appearance, gradually building under the pallid sun as the boats made off towards the French side of the lake, the majority on port tack under large gennakers. The main players within the spectacular Décision 35 class were quick to gain the advantage. Alain Gautier (Foncia Switzerland), was on the warpath with the dynamic M2 catamarans Team New Wave and Flam, momentarily taking the lead ahead of Loïck Peyron (Okalys) and Ernesto Bertarelli (Alinghi). Once the 5-6 knot easterly wind had established itself the small M2s were able to fly a hull and hang onto the wake of the 35 footers. Two hours later, the leaders fleet passed Yvoire, leaving the lower part of the Léman, known locally as the 'petit lac'.
Despite the weak easterly wind, the magic of the Bol d'Or Rolex was once again experienced this morning as the starting gun sent the fleet off on the 80 mile dash from one end of the lake to the other. In their wake spectators on a hundred or so boats of all shapes and sizes watched as the yachts filled the entire race zone, accelerating away towards the French side of the lake The diversity of the fleet was particularly impressive this year. High performance prototypes such as Jo Richards' 'Full Pelt', Jean Psarofaghis' Psaros 40 'Sys and Co' or Alex Schneiter's 'Tilt', quickly streaking ahead of the huge monohull fleet, transforming the slightest breath of wind into speed.
Thonon in 3 hours.
Shortly before noon, with the wind still struggling to reach 6 knots, the leading Decision 35s were making 5 to 10 knots of boat speed as they hooked onto any breath of wind they could find. Only with great concentration and energy spent trimming did the crews succeed in flying a hull with the wind on the beam, causing them to accelerate to more than 12 knots. At Versoix was Bertarelli's Alinghi was in the lead but Jean-François Demolle (Cadence) and Philippe Cardis (Julius Baer) came right back into the thick of the action. Further back, still at the exit from the 'petit lac', the leading monohulls, the canting keel water ballasted Psaros 40s, fell into a wind hole; Alex Schneiter (Tilt), Nicolas Engel (Taillevent II) and Eric Delaye (Oyster Funds) momentarily finding themselves at a complete stand still. At that point, part of the M2 fleet opted to split away; Tilt, Orusla and Flam heading off for Rolle on the north shore, while Team New Wave, GLG Finances and Star Logistiques threaded their way towards Thonon on the opposite bank.
Le Bouveret in 5 hours 40 mins!
It took the leaders 5 hours and 40 minutes for the front runners to round the Bouveret mark and begin the return trip to Geneva. The D35 Cadence was the first to round at 1442, followed by Alinghi, Banque Gonet skippered by Russell Coutts, Julius Baer then Foncia. Before the mark, Loick Peyron on Okalys was totally becalmed resulting in him being overtaken by the M2, Team New Wave, skippered by Bertrand Geiser, who had taken a a more northerly course around the lake, close to Lausanne. Peyron eventually rounded the mark and immediately set off towards the Swiss (northern) side of the lake. This proved to be a winning option as Okalys and Julius Baer, then Banque Gonet and Alain Gautier's Foncia hit nearly 10 knots as they approached Cully. Meantime Alinghi and Cadence were locked in a series of gybes in the light airs on the French side - a shorter but higher risk course in the wind shadow of the mountains. Here they passed the first monohulls still on their outboard leg to Bouveret, led by Taillevent II. While the multihulls headed off again under gennaker, the first of the hundred strong fleet of 'Surprises' were passing Rolle, the boats spread out across the entire width of the lake.
"We got off to a great start" said Xavier Lecoeur, helmsman on 'Mirabaud 2' "but our extended route towards Yvoire didn't bear fruit. We battled the whole day in a light 3 to 4 knot wind, enough to keep the sails filled and race with the boats in our class. The difference is down to the quality of the trimming and the extent of concentration." Well positioned in the centre of the lake as the D35s were closer to the shore, Bertrand Geiser and Christophe Stamm's M2 'Team New Wave' momentarily took the lead in the overall results.
The storm dictates
It was forecast.and it happened. A little after 1700 hours the fleet were struck by a sudden, violent squall, complete with rain and a violent 20+ knot gust of wind and a massive W'ly rotation. This enabled the bigger leading multihulls to dive south towards Evian, and the monohulls still en route to Bouveret to hoist a spinnaker and accelerate downwind. The storm wreaked havoc among the fleet, race management having to deal with around 20 incidents including broken masts and capsizes. Rock solid on the helm during the fierce gusts, Russell Coutts shot back into the lead off Rolle, snatching pole position from Loïck Peyron who was still fending off Philippe Cardis (Julius Baer). Ernesto Bertarelli (Alinghi) was the worst victim of the gusts. His D 35 dismasted off Evian in the worst of the thunderstorm. At the entrance to the 'petit lac' and with Alain Gautier chasing him closely, the outcome was far from certain. Even the 'little' M2 Team New Wave still looked set to upset the hierarchy of the bigger D 35s.. At the end of a breathtaking final full of suspense, Banque Gonet and Coutts came good; Philippe Cardis taking second place for the second year running.
Brunel skippered by Britain’s Matt Humphries beat Ericsson into Goteborg, Sweden this afternoon to score their best result in the Volvo Ocean Race when they finished in fourth position on this leg at 15:26:48 GMT.
Brunel missed the Southern Ocean legs of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 after the team temporarily withdrew in order to give the boat a substantial refit. With her new modifications and some adjustments to the crew, this team, which was hampered at the start by lack of funds and time on the water, has now proved competitive.
Matthew Humphries said:
“We were hoping for third, but got ourselves into some conditions that did not suit the boat. We just wanted to show that we could get the boat going.
“Fourth place is a spectacular result. The amount of work that has been done on the boat is unbelievable. It is nice to finish in front of the overall race winner and it feels fantastic to have beaten Ericsson into their home port.
“The guys have done a tremendous job. We are tired but it has been a great few days. We know that fourth is only beating two other boats, but for us, we are very happy.”
Ericsson, skippered by fellow Brit, Neal McDonald, started the Volvo Ocean Race with a sparkling win in the first in-port race in Sanxenxo, Galicia, Spain at the beginning of the event, but it was only on leg seven that the team claimed their first podium position when they finished second across the Atlantic from New York to Portsmouth, UK. They followed this with a third on leg eight around Britain and Ireland, having seemed to have found their form at last. Goteborg is Ericsson’s home port and the team will be disappointed not to be on the podium here in Sweden.
“It was a really frustrating leg. I will take away lots of great experiences from this race. We’ve had a great team and really great sponsors,” said Neal McDonald
“It has been a real roller coaster ride. It is a wonderful feeling to be home and to see so many people come out to cheer us in,” added the only Swede in the race, Maxnus Woxen.
"The only thing we know how to do, is to go in a straight line at 40 knots. Here you have to know how to extricate yourselves from a fleet of over 500 boats, find wind where there isn't any, accept that you're going to lose a boat length in order to gain two.. It's a whole different ball game and something I have a great deal of respect for!" The description comes from the Breton sailor Alain Thébault, skipper of Hydroptère and patron of this 68th version of the Geneva Bol d'Or Rolex. Alain, who is working with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne takes in the pontoons of « lanautique » with amused surprise.
575 skippers and as many boats are currently undergoing registration and boat launchings. Toucans, 6 mJ, large and small 'Surprises', Psaros 40 .welcome their crews one by one in a great flurry of mainsail and solent tests. The Bol d'or Rolex is a real festival of sailing with sailors from all over Switzerland and Europe. The sailors' true motivation is almost forgotten amidst the good humour reigning on the lake; that is an annual sporting challenge wide open to the vagaries of the weather and the changing pace of the miles in the shadow of the omnipresent mountains. "This year is a very good vintage" observes Thierry Chapatte, President of the Organisation Committee, "We are quantitatively in the upper bracket, playing host to increasingly homogenous classes, for a real sporting competition where the logic of the class measurement is respected."
"Each year, we hear it said that the Swiss side has the advantage, then it's the French.". The Fécamp sailor Xavier Lecoeur, winner of the Québec Saint Malo 2000 in a 60 footer, has come to Geneva for the second year running to rub shoulders with a fleet of over 100 Surprises, the 'darlings' of the Bol d'Or Rolex. "The Bol d'or Rolex is an incredibly demanding race, both as a result of the number of competitors who literally helm the entire width of the lake, and because they do battle in light, fickle winds on an enclosed race zone. This requires high vigilance and a very particular kind of observation. A lot of the elementary rules of racing are rewritten here."
Participating in the Bol d'Or Rolex for the fourth time, Loïck Peyron will be attempting to rewrite the old saying, as Ernesto Bertarelli has already done, which states that whoever wins the 'Genève-Rolle-Genève' race, will not win the Bol d'Or. "We won here just last weekend on Nicolas Grange's D 35 Okalys. We'll be trying to contain the attack from Alain Gautier, Russell Coutts and Ernesto Bertarelli" explains Loïck, an enthusiast of the Léman races for over 10 years.
The 'forecast' is a word that is always received with a smile here. The 2005 version of the Bol d'Or Rolex was marked by the records for slowness. The forecasts for 0900 hours tomorrow morning don't auger well for wind and the records in the 7 registered classes* (plus the two multihull classes) don't look likely to topple. For now a stormy mist has settled over the lake. Just 5 knots of SW'ly will provide downwind conditions for the start. From that point competitors will have to deal with the stormy local phenomena and, tomorrow, it's the quality of the sailors' observations on the water that will make the difference.
ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) is leading the Volvo Ocean Race in the last push to the finish line in Gothenburg, Sweden, but the wind has dropped and they are sailing at less than one knot while the nearest boat, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) is closing and still managing five knots. Cayard is now within a mile of the Dutch boat and Brasil 1 is only three miles behind her. Both boats still have wind and therefore speed.
“It’s a nervous time here on ABN AMRO TWO,” wrote navigator Simon Fisher this morning. “We are ghosting through the water at the head of the fleet and we are praying that we have enough breeze to carry us over the finish.”
The finish is only 17 miles away and the finish order is by no means certain.
In the most thrilling of finishes, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard/USA) finally crept past ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) in the closing moments of leg nine and crossed the final finish line of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 in Goteborg, Sweden, today at 13:44:06 GMT (14:44:06 local time) to a rapturous welcome by thousands of onlookers cramming the race village in Lindholmen.
On this beautiful Swedish summer’s day, thousands of spectators lined the islands and surrounding shoreline as well as taking to the water to applaud the Pirates as they scored their first win of the event and in so doing, secured their position of second place overall in the event. ABN AMRO TWO finished in second place at 13:48:56 GMT, just four minutes 50 seconds after the American boat.
After leading for most of leg nine, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) finally crossed the line at 14:32:15 MT to take the third podium position, and confirm her third place overall. This is a fantastic achievement for Brazil who has never had a team represented in this race until now.
On finishing, Paul Cayard said:
“This couldn’t have been scripted better by anyone in Holly wood.
“I feel bad for the ABN AMRO TWO guys, but at the end of the day, we were racing to win, so we had to take advantage of the situation.
“This is the best welcome into any port that I have ever seen. Gothenburg couldn’t have welcomed us any bigger and you can’t go out on a higher note than that.
“We were one of the most consistent boats with 11 podium places. That’s smart sailing. We were in last place a couple of days ago and we got lucky.
“It’s all over now. We have a great group of guys, we’ve had our down moments, but no one quit and we just did what champions do and pull together.”
Race patron HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden was waiting on the dockside to welcome the Pirates and to present the trophies to Paul Cayard and his team for winning this leg and also to Sebastien Josse for finishing second. Joining the Prince were Fredrik Arp, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation and Leif Johansson, president of AB Volvo.
Paul Cayard and The Black Pearl, the last of the racing yachts to be launched, initially took the offshore option in the opening stage of leg nine, but as the inshore route appeared to be more favourable, the team took the expensive decision to cut their losses yesterday and head towards the Danish coast, leaving Ericsson (Neal McDonald) and ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) out to sea. Their reward came slowly, but surely, as they started to overtake, first Brunel (Matt Humphries) and then Brasil 1.
For the young team on ABN AMRO TWO, the final few hours of leg nine could not have been more intense. As they ghosted to a halt at the head of the fleet, just 16 miles from the finish, they could only look over their shoulders as the Pirates bore down on them. Cayard’s team maintained their speed and crept past the Dutch yacht, taking the lead at just after midday, GMT.
ABN AMRO TWO snatched the lead from Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) yesterday at 1600 GMT, and initially took a six mile lead, which, by 2200 GMT had stretched to 15 miles. Overnight, the team still managed to average 10 knots, but as dawn rose, the wind died leaving the team in a nail-biting situation, with a much deserved win slipping through their fingers as the crew was left powerless.
Sebastien Josse, skipper, said:
“It good for us to be back on the podium. We are little disappointed not to be first, but sometimes you pay and sometime you win. If I can do a good campaign I would love to come back and do another Volvo Ocean Race.
“We have had some good results but for this young team with the second boat and I think it is good for the future.”
Torben Grael, said:
“It feels very good to have finished third overall especially after a very difficult second leg. For our project it is a very great achievement to finish third.”
Dateline: Hamilton, Bermuda. As David St Clair Brown’s New Zealand super maxi 'Maximus’ led the fleet into the Gulf Stream yesterday (Saturday), the challenge facing all 263 crews was to pick the most advantageous point of entry into the Stream and ride the favorable back-eddies. Crossing the Stream is what makes this ocean classic a true navigator’s race.
Their second problem is the wind. If it goes light overnight as predicted, the boats will be swept along by this moving carpet of warm water and will then face the problem of punching out on the last stage of the race to Bermuda.
Television commentator Gary Jobson is racing aboard Kodiak II skippered by former winner E. Llwyd Ecclestone, Jr. As they entered the Gulf Stream yesterday, Jobson said. "The weather is considerably different to the original forecast. We approached the Gulf Stream at 11 knots which was a good morale booster. Now, tactics become all-important."
In the early days, it took a thermometer dropped into the water, to determine when you were in the Gulf Stream and help you navigate a way through the eddies and currents. Skip Sheldon, winner of the 2002 Newport/Bermuda race, who is racing his Reichel Pugh designed Zaraffa againin this Centennial race, reflected yesterday. "In those days, your boat went 5 knots at best across the Gulf Stream and invariably faced a 4 knot counter current. It all changed in the '80s when you could view the exact course of the Stream via satellite imagery. Now, some of us can average 11- 20knots. With technology, the role of the navigator has changed to one of strategist."
For Open 50 sailor Joe Harris, his fast moving Gryphon Solo was only 30 miles from the Gulf Stream at Noon on Saturday. "We are watching the sea temperature, which will rise from the mid-60 degrees F to the high 70's. We are monitoring the difference between our speed through the water and our speed over the ground so that we know exactly when we are in the Stream," he said. "The wind is forecast to go very light overnight so we hope that we can get through the Stream early so that we can maintain steerage in the fast-flowing current."
The record number of yachts participating in this year’s centennial Bermuda race was down by two from its original 265 count yesterday after the Transpac 52 Decision skippered by Stephen Murray from New Orleans, hit a submerged object on Friday night. The crew is safe and due to return to Newport.
Another early drop-out was the British Open 60 Pindar Artemis skippered by Nicholas Black after she grounded on a rock moments before the start. She was lifted out for repairs yesterday and will not be rejoining the race. – Laurie Fullerton
Today, ABN AMRO ONE crossed the line in last place. But who cares? With a total of 96 points, the team has won the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 with two legs to spare, but it gives a certain piquancy that the team, which has been so dominant for so long, should come last in the last leg.
“It’s my Everest, my Olympic rings, my childhood dream,“ said Mike Sanderson (NZ), the skipper of the Dutch boat the ABN AMRO ONE team affectionately call Black Betty, when he won leg seven in Portsmouth. This was the point in the Volvo Ocean Race when the team knew they could not be beaten, but they still had two more legs to complete before they could finish the race in Goteborg.
As Mike Sanderson held aloft Fighting Finish, the striking Waterford Crystal winner’s trophy, presented to him and his team by HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, surrounded by 120,000 people who had watched the final stage of leg nine unfold, the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 concluded.
“Who cares about this leg”, said Sanderson on the dock. “We have won the Volvo Ocean Race and that is what it is all about. There is nothing wrong with today and the result, I promise you that. Gothenburg is the home of the Volvo Ocean Race and it is just great to be here. It was a bit slow getting in, but being here is just fantastic.
“This is the best dream for all of us. We wanted to win the Volvo Ocean Race, but unfortunately it was a bit of slow bus to get to the party. It is a dream come true for us at ABN AMRO and we are just over the moon with the result.
“I am not going to make any promises now on the dockside, but the Volvo Ocean Race is a wonderful race. We all love it and there is a good chance that we will all be back. “
And with that Mike Sanderson was ceremoniously thrown in to the water by the shore crew, swiftly followed by the rest of the team.
In 1997 Camillo Capozzi sailed his ageing Polaris 33, Ala Bianca, to victory in the offshore race of the Giraglia Rolex Cup. Nine years later, sailing with the same boat and much of the same crew, Capozzi has repeated that performance and upstaged the newer, professionally-crewed boats entered in the 197-strong fleet.
There is nothing particularly special about Ala Bianca, a Ron Holland design built in the early Eighties, but Capozzi and his five crew have sailed together for years. They may not be professional, but their approach to the race is professional and their understanding of each other is complete. Capozzi could not contain his delight. "A win is always fantastic, but to win the Giraglia Race two times, nine years later, with the same boat. I don't know what to say. Fantastic is not enough, it is more than a dream!"
Of course, as with every offshore race, the wind played a big part in the outcome. Adelaide Giromella, who sailed with Capozzi on both winning occasions, said the wind had worked in favour of the smaller boats in the fleet. "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."
Sometimes referred to as the Fastnet Race of the Mediterranean, the outcome of this year's Giraglia Rolex Cup bears many similarities to last year's Rolex Fastnet Race. There the New Zealand Maxi, the rotating-masted, canting-keeled, hydraulically-powered Maximus took line honours by a country mile in a frustratingly light-wind race through the English Channel and Irish Sea. With the rest of the fleet still stranded in no wind, it looked as though Maximus would win on handicap as well as line honours, until a new breeze brought the smaller boats surfing back towards Plymouth at high speed. A 30-year-old French 33-footer Iromiguy stole Maximus's thunder and won the race on corrected time.
This year Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo, another hi-tech Maxi from the Antipodes, dominated the race for line honours although the New Zealand owner never really expected to feature in the race for handicap victory. None of the big boats even got a sniff of victory this year, with the first boat over 60 feet being the 65-foot Maxi Edimetra in 21st place. Alfa Romeo was 91st.
When Ala Bianca sailed across the finish line just before 0930 hours this morning, it seemed unlikely any of the remaining yachts could catch her on corrected time. So it proved, with the 33-footer winning by just under 20 minutes on IMS corrected time from the 41-footer Aurora. Almost an hour behind Aurora on corrected time was the French 35-footer Teshipa XI Team. So this year's 243-mile race from St Tropez really did play into the hands of the small boats.
Adelaide Giromella hopes that one day Ala Bianca might win for a historic third time. "Nine years ago we won against a hundred boats. Today we won against almost 200 boats, and we won with the same boat. It would be wonderful to do it again, but you never know. It's an old boat compared with Alfa Romeo and all these big new boats. It's really special to be the winner in one of the oldest boats, and against so many teams with professionals on board. But we are a good team, and that is one of the most important things for success. There is no way to be successful if there is something wrong between the crew. If you have a good crew who can do many different jobs on the boat, that is very powerful, and even more powerful if you get on as a team. In a way, you always win if you have a good team spirit."
The race from St Tropez to Genoa is a race that tests sailing skill, team work and patience, but Giromella and the Ala Bianca crew plan to return next year, like every year. "The Giraglia Rolex Cup is one of the most beautiful races in the Mediterranean. To go on the Giraglia is a dream. It's one of the oldest races. When you reach the Rock and see the Giraglia, all the efforts you have made seem worthwhile. It's the Giraglia, that's all you need to say."
The prizegiving will take place on Saturday afternoon at the Yacht Club Italiano in Genoa, when the winners will be presented with their trophies and Rolex watches. Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is established as one of the classic regattas of the Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the past nine years, comprises three days' inshore racing in the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port of Genoa.
13 teams from six countries will be pitching up in Cowes, Isle of Wight at the end of next week ready for the 26 June start of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's biennial Rolex Commodores' Cup.
"We're very pleased with the response this year," says Peter Wykeham-Martin, General Manager of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. "We are delighted to see some new faces with the first Russian team in the event and it is good to see old friends returning to the Solent."
Each of the 13 teams comprises three boats and each of these in turn must fall into a different performance band determined by its IRC rating. Thus teams will comprise slow, medium and fast-rated boats. The small boats, for example, range from the high performance Ker 32 Checkmate, competing in David Dwyer's Ireland White team, to the larger cruiser racer Elan 40 Civils Building With Flair, skippered by Jim McGregor and sailing for England Black alongside Peter Harrison's Farr 52 Chernikeef II, which is now managed by the UKSA, and Jack Pringle's IMX40 Mankie.
Racing takes place over six days and includes seven inshore races, a short passage/coastal race on the Wednesday of up to 12 hours duration, while the event as usual will culminate in the 24-36 hour long offshore race finishing on the Saturday. Two years ago the long offshore race ran as part of RORC's Channel Race, but this year it will stand alone. The duration of the races also dictates their scoring, thus the inshore races count for half points, while the long offshore race concluding the event scores double, ensuring the event does not climax until the final moment.
Despite this being a traditionally a cruiser-racer event - only 25% of each boat's crew can be ISAF Category 3 professionals - competition has never been so high as it will be for this year's Rolex Commodore's Cup. Of the six nations, Great Britain, France and Ireland are all fielding three or more triple boat teams.
"The Irish who were just beaten last time are clearly determined to win it," says Wykeham-Martin. "But they face strong competition from not just the home teams but also from the traditional competitors like the French and Dutch. We are looking forward to a close series with some of the best Corinthian sailors in Europe competing for the Rolex Commodores' Cup."
While Serguei Kotsiouba's Russian entry Follow Me sailed for Team Europe in 2004, this time the Russians return with their own three boat team. This will be led by Swan 45 Murka, regularly raced on the Solent by owner Misha Mouratov. Sergey Bryuzga's Sinergia 40 Juga, from St Petersburg spent last season competing in the Baltic. Bryuzga says his crew is freshly formed but includes a mix of seasoned amateurs some with 20 years experience, plus some younger sailors. Making up the Russian team is the chartered HOD35 Zarafa to be skippered by Vice President of the Russian Sailing Federation Vladimir Loginov, also with a crew from St Petersburg, including two Olympic sailors.
But the team to beat this year are probably the Irish. After seeing victory slip through their fingers at the end of the long offshore race two years ago when they fielded a single team, this year the Irish are back in force with three teams, including several brand new yachts.
"They came so close last time and we were encouraged by that," says Fintan Cairns, Commodore of the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA). "It was important to have more than one team, so we got all interested owners together and left them to develop it from there and they have gone the full hog and got new boats built and everything."
Leading the charge, as he was two years ago, will be Colm Barrington, this time in a brand new Ker 50, Magic Glove. He is teamed up in Ireland Orange with another new Jason Ker design, the 37 footer Jump Juice belonging to Cork-based sailing couple Conor and Denise Phelan and Anthony O'Leary Corby 35, Antix, the ICRA's 2005 Boat of the Year.
Tim Costello's Mills 40 Tiamat is the 'big' boat in Ireland Green. Aside from winning the Scottish Series last year immediately after her launch, Tiamat also won her class at last weekend's IRC Nationals in the Solent. Costello is joined by Eammon Rohan's brand new Corby 37 Blondie and Andrew Alen and Colm Monahan's J/109 No Naked Flames.
Another new boat is David Dwyer's Mills 39 marinerscove.ie 2 in the third Irish team. While Dwyer will be skippering his 39-footer, he is also entering another boat, marinerscove.ie 1, a brand new DK 46 with a skipper yet to be announced. These two are joined by the Ker 32 Checkmate sailed by the Cork-based MacCarthy brothers.
The contest in the Volvo Ocean Race is hotting up as the fleet beats up the Danish coast, 46 miles off Hvide Sand with just five miles separating first place to last. Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) is holds the lead, two miles ahead of ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse). Grael’s nearest rival on points overall is Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean, who is currently in fifth place on this leg, three miles behind the Brazilians. In this scenario, Cayard and Grael are equal on overall points, but Grael would take second place in the race overall in this tie-break situation as the Brazilians have won a leg of the race and Cayard’s team has not.
The second scrap in this final leg affects fourth position overall. Currently ABN AMRO TWO is in second place on the leg which raises them to fourth on the overall leaderboard, relegating Ericsson (Neal McDonald) to fifth. However, there are still 237 miles to race to the finish in Gothenburg and with the wind forecast to go light, it’s game on.
Brunel (Matt Humphries) reported fog at 0800 GMT this morning and the team was relying on its radar to track the boats around them. The wind initially freed the fleet earlier this morning, but it has now gone hard right into the north east and the fleet are all close hauled on starboard tack. The fleet has 129 miles to race to the northern tip of Denmark and the entrance to the Skagerrat sea.
Alfa Romeo has won line honours in the Giraglia Race by a massive margin, although light winds prevented Neville Crichton from getting anywhere close to breaking his own course record for the 243-mile race. Boat for boat, his new canting-keeled, hydraulic-powered 98-footer is a far more potent package than the previous Alfa Romeo, a conventional 90-foot Maxi, but a lack of wind saw the winning Maxi finish more than five hours outside the record set in 2003.
Finishing at 1630 hours local time, with an elapsed time of 27 hours 48 minutes and 12 seconds, Crichton was disappointed not to have bettered the record. Speaking at the Yacht Club Italiano in Genoa this evening, the New Zealander commented: "A very slow race. We thought we were going good until midnight last night then ran out of breeze. Up until then it looked good - we were flying. After that, Magic Carpet came right up to the back of us. I'm not sure how far behind us she is now. We came out of the Giraglia Rock well, but the wind died about 12 miles from the finish. So no records, maybe we'll have to try again this time next year."
Michael Coxon remains an avid fan of the boat and the Giraglia Rolex Cup, despite the slow passage from St Tropez. "We enjoy sailing in the Med," said the tactician from Sydney. "It's a great mix of conditions and different people. This was a fun race, not a lot of wind, but 100-footers are always fun. They impress me more in lighter conditions. It's amazing how this boat can do double the windspeed. The top speed we hit was 20 knots, but what's impressive is when you can be sailing with a jib top in 7 knots breeze and be doing 14 knots through the water."
Clearly Coxon felt he would arrive in Genoa much earlier in the day, having just missed his plane back to Sydney. "I'm disappointed at not getting on a plane at 6.30 this evening. I was hoping to see my son play rugby on the weekend. I must have been a bit optimistic about when we would finish, after having finished a lot earlier with the 90-footer a few years ago."
At least Alfa Romeo has arrived, however. The remaining 196 boats are still bobbing about on a near windless Mediterranean, wondering when the breeze might fill in and carry them the rest of the way to Genoa. Alfa Romeo rounded the Giraglia Rock off the north coast of Corsica at 0917 this morning. Magic Carpet passed the same point at 1148, and then Our Dream led a constant trickle of Maxis around the Giraglia from 1300 hours and onwards throughout the afternoon. The two Swan 601s were faring well, with Italian Cuordileone leading the Swedish Artemis crew by 11 minutes at the Giraglia. Cuordileone was also leading the 70-footer Atalanta II, which won the big boat division of the inshore racing earlier in the week.
Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is established as one of the classic regattas of the Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the past nine years, comprises three days' inshore racing in the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port of Genoa.
15 June 2006, Rotterdam (NED) - It was a determined Ericsson Racing Team that left the dock in Rotterdam this morning, for the start of leg nine of the Volvo Ocean Race. After finishing second and third in the previous legs, it is hungry for a last stab at victory as it sails into its home waters in Gothenburg, Sweden, where it will be greeted by its godmother, HRH Princess Victoria of Sweden. The fleet is expected to cross the finish line late on Saturday 17 June, bringing this eight month event to a dramatic close.
The last leg of the Volvo Ocean Race kicked off at 13.00 local time out in the North Sea, in 15 knots of northerly breeze. Ericsson took a good start, and the team seemed determined to stick to its original strategy - sail offshore on starboard tack - whilst all the other boats, except Pirates, opted for the opposite tactics.
With light winds forecast, leg nine promises to be a highly tactical race, with plenty of windless patches along the way. Led by British skipper Neal McDonald (GBR), Ericsson will be tussling hard to beat ABN Amro Two and secure fourth place on the overall leaderboard, but expectations are higher as McDonald confirms:
"With ABN Amro Two it is as simple as who beats who, and the best way to achieve this would be to win the leg - if we can achieve both these goals it will be ideal."
"You do this to come first," confirms navigator Andrew Cape (AUS). "ABN Amro Two will be part of the equation, but winning is the thing."
Being the only Swedish sailor in the Volvo Ocean Race, Magnus Woxén has a special incentive to achieve a good result. "I have lots of friends and family who will be cheering us on and I am very much looking forward to seeing them all in Gothenburg. This leg will be marked by some intense, close racing with the fleet, which is always fun. We will certainly give it our best shot for all our fans and sponsors."
Ericsson is joined by Irishman Tom McWilliam, who replaces trimmer Richard Bouzaid (NZL). Born in 1967, Tom has been sailing professionally in England for the last ten years, competing in all sorts of classes. He is also a sailmaker & designer.
Chris Tibbs, meteorologist for the Ericsson Racing Team, predicts that "as the wind eases this afternoon, it will back to the northwest. There is likely to be some rain and most of the leg will be sailed in 8-13 knots of wind. During the latter part of Friday and Saturday, the only thing missing from the North Sea is isobars, which indicates that the wind may get even lighter."
Rotterdam, The Netherlands – June 15, 2006 – For the final time the sailors in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 waved goodbye to their families and friends from the Veerhaven, Rotterdam as they set out on the 470 nautical mile sprint leg to the finish port of Göteburg, Sweden.
The support for the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 in Holland has been unbelievable and today did not disappoint with hundreds of spectators lining the dockside to wave the fleet on their way and many more taking to the water.
The boats put on a spectacular display as they departed, circling around outside the Veerhaven and then parading down the River Maas under mainsail, with ABN AMRO ONE as lead boat, to the cheers of the crowds.
All eyes were on Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean and Torben Grael’s Brasil 1 at the start as it was expected that these boats would stay close together and match each other move for move. Cayard’s tactic was to concentrate on his own game and he timed the line to perfection to win the start.
Overall race winners ABN AMRO ONE, skippered by Mike Sanderson, were a little over zealous at the start and broke the line early. Quick to realise, ‘Black Betty’ was hastily turned around to re-cross the start line.
There was a difference of opinion between the six navigators and as Brasil 1, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and ABN AMRO ONE headed for the shore, The Pirates, Brunel (Matthew Humphries) and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) all made the decision to head out to sea.
The gamble to split from the fleet and head to shore has initially paid off for Brasil 1 and as they head off on their way to Göteborg they have a small lead over ABN AMRO ONE. Brunel, who set off this morning with just nine crew members after Graeme Taylor (AUS) was forced to stay onshore due to illness, is currently lying in third place overall, with ABN AMRO TWO fourth.
Pirates of the Caribbean took the surprising decision to split from Brasil 1 and are currently in fifth place with Ericsson, who is at present heading in the opposite direction of the fleet in a make or break move, trailing in sixth position overall.
However with 479 nautical miles remaining of the final leg, there is still a lot to play for as the boats have to navigate some tricky waters and make crucial tactical decisions that could win or lose them the race.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands – June 14, 2006 – The Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 fleet will set sail tomorrow on the final leg of their epic 31,250 nautical mile journey around the world. Leg nine is a 470 mile sprint to Göteborg, Sweden.
ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) may have won the overall trophy for the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 but leg nine will see a final showdown for the remaining podium positions between Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael). Pirates of the Caribbean currently holds second place overall but with just four points separating the American team from Brasil 1 there is still all to play for.
A second battle for fourth place is also being waged, between ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) who are currently separated by half a point. McDonald is looking forward to the sprint to Sweden and will be hoping to bring his Swedish boat and the only Swedish crew member in the race, Magnus Woxen, into their home port in first place. For the final leg Ericsson will be joined by Irishman Tom McWilliam who has replaced trimmer Richard Bouzaid.
For Brunel, who rejoined the race in America, this will be their final chance to shine. Matt Humphries (GBR) will again take on the role of skipper for the final offshore leg and will be hoping to bring Brunel into his home of Sweden in a strong position.
The original forecast was for a slow light wind sail but as of today the weather looks more positive and it is predicted that the fleet will take 48 hours to sail to Sweden.
Race Meteorologist Chris Bedford explains the prognosis: “Weather forecasts for leg nine are looking more and more positive. Earlier in the week, the forecasts were predicting another extremely slow leg with light upwind conditions and another possible drift-off as the fleet approached the Danish coast and rounded the northern dip of Denmark to make their final approach to the finish. But over the last 24 hours, the weather models have been suggesting gradually stronger winds – especially for first 12 hours or so of the race.”
The race course for leg nine is slightly different from the other legs, in the fact that it is a variable course in order to get the boats to arrive into Göteborg on time. The minimum length of the leg is approximately 470 nautical miles but if the fleet picks up the pace then the race committee has five different options to lengthen the course in between Skargen, on the northern tip of Denmark, and the Trubaduren lighthouse outside the Gothenburg archipelago.
The leg will produce some tricky conditions for the navigators as they decide whether to tack up the coastline or to head offshore seeking better breeze but the only thing that is guaranteed is that every move that Pirates of the Caribbean make will be closely watched by Brasil 1.
The Volvo Open 70’s will be depart from the Veerhaven, Rotterdam, at 0930 (local) and head out to an offshore startline outside the mouth of the River Maas.
June 15, 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherlands – After nearly 70 races, in five countries, during seven months it all came down to the last day to decide the winner of the Volvo Extreme 40 grand prix series. After a final head to head in Rotterdam, Motorola-CHR won the Rotterdam series while Team Tommy Hilfiger took the overall series trophy away with them.
On the final day it came down to three boats Basilica, Motorola-CHR and Team Tommy Hilfiger battled it out for the top spot this afternoon in three exciting races. A gusty breeze of around 15 knots came in to please the catamaran sailors today but brought torrential rain with it making the spectators lives a little harder. The best wind of the week made for a fitting end to the grand prix series as the cats could really show what they were made of.
In the first race Basilica, Motorola-CHR and Tommy Hilfiger fought it out on the tactical race course, all covering each other but the Brits on Basilica came out on top followed by Tommy Hilfiger and Motorola-CHR. Conrad Humphreys skipper of Motorola-CHR commented, “We got nailed on the start of the race which was unfortunate but got ourselves back in there.”
The second race of the day became the series clincher when two protests between Basilica and Tommy Hilfiger were lodged, which would eventually decide the overall grand prix leader board. These protests were taken to the jury after racing finished, who heard both parties and subsequently disqualified Basilica for an incident at a mark. The second protest was then thrown out for lack of evidence.
The first disqualification lost Basilica not only the Rotterdam series but the overall grand prix trophy. James Grant skipper of the Basilica team was obviously very disappointed. “We have a great team and have really enjoyed this series. These are fabulous boats and we have achieved so much in these past months so we are really proud. We would have never got through it without our sponsors, our supporters and our families. We have been blown away by it all.”
Motorola-CHR came back in the third race to win and before the protest the team thought they were second but after the hearing they moved up to poll position for the Rotterdam series. An ecstatic Conrad Humphreys thanked his whole team and the organisation for all their help and support. “It went down to the wire today – it was the equivalent of a World Cup penalty shoot out. We put the cat amongst the pigeons yesterday, which meant that the final podium place as well as the Rotterdam series was up for grabs. After 70 races, you couldn’t have written a better script for the last day. I’m really pleased for the Motorola team, Leigh, Will, Hamish and Vikki for all their effort and thanks to our sponsors for all their support.”
Tonight Team Tommy Hilfiger with Randy Smyth at the helm were celebrating in style as they held the Volvo Extreme 40 overall grand prix trophy high on the podium. Smyth and his team won the series in Baltimore and in Portsmouth but it was still down to the last day and a protest room to give them their title. “It’s been the biggest day. No one likes winning in the protest room, I like winning on the water but if that’s what it has come down to and I am very happy that we have won. We have a great team and a fantastic sponsor plus we really enjoy ourselves; we have loved the last few months.”
St Tropez saw 202 boats depart in perfect conditions for the start of the 243-mile offshore race in the Giraglia Rolex Cup. With sunny skies and a strong south-westerly blowing, 98-foot Supermaxi Alfa Romeo led the charge out of the Gulf of St Tropez and along the French coast to Les Porquerolles islands. Neville Crichton and all the other skippers were keen to make as much progress as possible during Wednesday before the breeze switches off.
"I think as the sun goes down, the wind will do down with it, so it's a matter of how far we can get before that happens," said Crichton, who is hoping his new canting-keeled Maxi can improve on the record time that his previous Maxi set in 2003. "We'd like to think we can get to Giraglia Rock [before the wind disappears], but we don't think we will. We'll probably get half way across between Les Porquerolles and the Giraglia. After that I think we're going to struggle for breeze, then we'll get a bit of breeze in the morning and then the breeze could disappear again just before Genoa. So I think we could get two parking spots - but hopefully only one for us and two for the little boats."
Judging by the way Alfa Romeo shot away from her rivals at speeds up to 15 knots, Crichton's wish could well come true. The Australian-built Maxi is in a league of her own. The silver-grey Supermaxi rounded the Rolex mark clear ahead of a pack of six conventional Maxis - My Song, Magic Carpet, Our Dream, Y3K, Dark Shadow and Capricorno.
Last night the forecast had been looking good for Alfa Romeo being able to break the 22 hours, 13 minutes, 48 seconds time for the race via the Giraglia Rock near Corsica to the Italian port of Genoa. But this morning the New Zealand skipper was less confident of bettering his 2003 time. Even the breathtaking Alfa Romeo needs wind in order to move. "The record is look pretty safe. If we get 3 knots wind we can do 5.5 to 6 knots speed with a Code 0, but underneath 3 knots we struggle a wee bit."
Crichton believes the predicted wind and the course could well suit Artemis, the Swedish-registered Swan 601 owned by Torbjorn Tordqvist, who has signed up America's Cup legend Russell Coutts as his tactician. Coutts on the other hand, believed Alfa Romeo's speed could do her a big favour. "Alfa Romeo should reach the new breeze first, and it's going to pay to be as close to the rock as possible when the new breeze comes in," said Coutts, also from New Zealand. "The first day until midnight tonight should be straightforward, with a south-westerly sea breeze, and we'll hold that until pretty late. Then from tonight onwards it will get pretty tricky. The big choice is whether to go down the rhumb line to the Giraglia Rock, or to head north or south of it."
Although Artemis performed surprisingly well in the inshore races of the past three days, Coutts says it would be unwise to read too much into those results for an indicator of success offshore. "Strategy is key, particularly in light winds, because you'll get huge differences of breeze. If you're in 5 knots of breeze and other people are in 2 knots or zero knots, then you'll make huge gains. The long race is all going to come down to who manages the park-ups better than everyone else."
While the race yachts are focused on the Giraglia Race as a competition, others are taking the 243-mile passage at a more leisurely pace. Dutch sailor Bas Nederpelt is racing in his first Giraglia Rolex Cup crewing aboard an immaculately restored Swan 65 called Peak. Nederpelt is not expecting to achieve a particularly good result but is happy just to be taking part. "The boat dates from 1973, so she is a modern classic, the same type of boat that won the Whitbread Round the World Race over 30 years ago. So she is a good seagoing boat for stronger winds, which we are unlikely to get in this race, unfortunately. But this is a good event. I think it's the most important long distance race in the early part of the season. It's long enough, but not too long for my liking."
For Pepe Ribes, who just a month ago was being rescued from the Atlantic Ocean after the 70-foot Movistar was on the verge of sinking during the Volvo Ocean Race, the Giraglia Rolex Cup represents a big change of pace. The Spanish professional is doing the mid-bow role on board 95-foot luxury Maxi, Magic Carpet. "This is nothing like my recent sailing, this is a different philosophy altogether. I'm enjoying it a lot and it's very cool. The boats still have all the sails to sail all the angles, so it's still technical sailing." The food on board will be a far cry from the packeted, freeze-dried mush that he has had to endure on his passage around the world. "I think tomorrow we will have bacon and eggs for breakfast, which I am looking forward to, and this evening we will have dinner at the table. It is nice to come back to some luxury sailing!"
Of the smaller boats who started 15 minutes before the big boat division, Patrick Testo Ferry's First 40.7DK, Lady V, secured one of the best starts, although the two Grand Soleil 40s that claimed 1st and 2nd in the inshore racing will be strong contenders offshore. Alexei Nikolaev's Russian team on Synergy will be enjoying the 15 knot breezes early in the race, while Italo Borrini has sailed Despeinada to a number of top three finishes in recent Giraglia Races, so he will know all about the 'park-ups' that Coutts was referring to, and how best to avoid them.
Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is established as one of the classic regattas of the Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the past nine years, comprises three days' inshore racing in the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port of Genoa.
Valencia, 14 June 2006 - The America's Cup trophy is returning to New York today, arriving business class after flying from Geneva (the home of the current Defender, the Société Nautique de Genève) via Spain (where Valencia is the current host city).
The visit is a homecoming of sorts; New York was home to the 'Auld Mug' for 132 years. The boat that started it all, the America, was commissioned by a syndicate of New York Yacht Club members, who sailed across the Atlantic to win a race around the Isle of Wight. For that victory, they were presented with the trophy that we now call the America's Cup.
From 1870 until 1920, the America's Cup was regularly staged in New York Harbor, and all the way up to 1983 the competition was dominated by the New York Yacht Club. Following Alinghi's victory in 2003, the America's Cup is returning to Europe and its 32nd edition is taking place in Valencia, Spain, with the final Match scheduled to begin just one year from now.
To mark the occasion the current organisers of the America's Cup have arranged for the Cup itself, along with the Louis Vuitton Cup (presented to the winner of the challenger selection series), to tour the Big Apple and be on display at Rockefeller Center. The trophies will be available for public visits on Sunday 18 June (12:30 EST) and will ring the bell to open the trading day on the NASDAQ stock market on Friday.
On Monday 19 June at 12:30 EST there will be a live video link-up between New Yorkers enjoying their lunch hour Midtown at the Rockefeller Center and the skipper of the current Defender of the Cup, Alinghi, along with past American winners and team members of the current American team, BMW ORACLE Racing.
As part of the promotion in New York, an America's Cup exhibit will be on display at the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan from the 15 June to 3 July, including one of BMW ORACLE Racing's yachts, USA 49, along with a historical pavilion with information about the competition, remote-control replica race boats of the 12 teams competing in the 32nd America's Cup, and real-time racing footage, live from Valencia during Louis Vuitton Act 12, a match racing regatta, from the 22 June to 2 July.
Victory Challenge has today begun construction of its boat for the 32nd America’s Cup.
“This is a big day for us, the entire boatbuilding team has been raring to go,” says Killian Bushe, boatbuilding manager.
He was also boatbuilding manager for the two Dutch ABN AMRO boats that will arrive in Göteborg later this week for the finish of the Volvo Ocean Race. A boat built by Killian Bushe will win the round the world regatta for the second time in a row.
Victory Challenge’s shipyard is close to where the ABN AMRO boats are headed. Even before the final leg is over it is obvious that ABN AMRO ONE is the overall winner.
“For me it feels like mission accomplished. It’s the second time in a row.”
Killian Bushe was also boatbuilding manager for the Illbruck boat that won the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-2002.
For the last few months he has been employed by Victory Challenge. It is Killian Bushe that has managed the work on building the new bows, both for Örn (SWE 63) and Orm (SWE 73). They have been part of the modifications of the boats that were built for Auckland 2002/2003 – ahead of the year’s pre-regattas for the 32nd America’s Cup.
But Killian Bushe and his team in Göteborg have also prepared the construction that began today. This includes the completion of a 40-metre long oven which is an important part of the process when building a carbon fibre composite boat.
“You need a constant temperature and a high air flow,” says Killian Bushe.
Building an America’s Cup boat requires 25,000 man hours. At present the boatbuilding team comprises 10 persons. It will grow to 25 persons.
“The new boat will be ready for shipping to Valencia before the end of the year,” says Killian Bushe.
Parallel with the preparation of the shipyard, the design team, led by Mani Frers, has carried out its work.
Mani Frers was also Victory Challenge’s boat designer for SWE 63 (Örn) and SWE 73 (Orm) ahead of the America’s Cup in Auckland 2002/2003.
“With Killian Bush as boatbuilding manager and Mani Frers as boat designer we have a fantastic team on the boat side. I’m very glad about that combination,” says Magnus Holmberg, skipper and helmsman.
Even if the nationality rules have been relaxed for the 32nd America’s Cup there is one important nationality requirement remaining. Those boats that take part in the challengers’ series, the Louis Vuitton Cup, and in the America’s Cup final, must be built in the country the challengers come from.
The Swedish Gamla Stans Yacht Sällskap is responsible for Victory Challenge’s challenge.
At the same time as the boat building begins, Magnus Holmberg and his crew are continuing their preparations ahead of the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12, the final match racing act before the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007. Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12 is the year’s last pre-regatta and will be held 22 June to 3 July. Victory Challenge will compete in SWE 63, which has been further modified since the pre-regattas in May.
June 13, 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherlands – Tricky conditions made the Volvo Extreme 40s day on the water very hard today with a mix up of results in the first race and all to play for going into the last day of the round the world series.
Light winds below five knots plagued the fleet today, with races being abandoned and postponed all early evening. The first race saw Motorola-CHR skippered by Conrad Humphreys get their own back on their biggest rivals Tommy Hilfiger and Basilica by winning the race. Team Motorola-CHR were joined today by round the world navigator Andrew Cape who is currently sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race. Holmatro upped the anti and came in second, a great result for the Dutch team in their home country. They were followed by Basilica, Tommy Hilfiger and Team Volvo Ocean Race.
Two races were then abandoned and a third postponed until finally the second and final race of the day started. This saw three of the cats fly off the start in a small gust of wind, leaving Holmatro and Volvo Ocean Race floundering for a minute or two. Tommy Hilfiger came back to win this race, shadowed by Basilica and Motorola.
With only one day left before the overall winner of the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix series, the teams are feeling the pressure. A protest between Motorola-CHR and Tommy Hilfiger occurred today which will be decided in the morning and could effect the standings. Tommy Hilfiger leads by eight points with Basilica in second only one point clear of Motorola-CHR in the Rotterdam Grand Prix.
James Grant skipper of British cat, Basilica spoke of the tactical day, “It was so hard today and really tricky. We made the best of what we had and sailed hard. We’re happy with a second and third. Tomorrow will be a big day.”
Lee McMillan helm of Motorola-CHR certainly enjoyed his day, “We had the best day of the fleet with a third and a first so we are very happy. Every day seems to get harder and harder here but we are looking forward to the last day as it’s all so close and it’s all to play for.”
The Bol d'Or Rolex has always attracted the most extreme boats, each attempting to make the best of the typically light, but fickle conditions found on Lake Geneva.
Over the last two seasons a new breed of superfast multihull has come to do battle at Switzerland's premier regatta. This year there will be around 40 such multihulls fighting for supremacy on Lac Léman (as the local people call this 72km long crescent-shaped stretch of water) for the 68th edition of this annual regatta.
Divided into two Classes, the M1 and M2, the competition between the multihulls promises to be thrilling, unpredictable and spectacular in the extreme. The Décision 35s and their smaller M2 catamaran siblings, will be displaying their amazing capacity to sail in all types of wind - an essential requirement for coping with conditions on Lake Geneva where the wind is usually light in the extreme, but where violent gusts can bowl down from the surrounding mountains.
The 40 or so multihulls competing in this year's Bol d'Or Rolex, are mainly catamarans. The Décision 35s (or D35s) are now universally admired for their state of the art design and high tech carbon fibre construction. They are the fastest boats on the lake and with owners such as Ernesto Bertarelli, the man behind Switzerland's successful challenge on the last America's Cup and famous skippers such as Alain Gautier and Loïck Peyron, they are also the most high profile. Winner of last weekend's Genève-Rolle-Genève'race, Peyron is returning to try to defend Bol d'Or Rolex title after his victory last year on Nicholas Grange's Okalys. For the D35s, the Bol d'Or Rolex also forms part of their championship for the Julius Baer Cup.
Another smaller class of high speed one design catamaran really booming in Switzerland is the M2. This class originates from the former F class multihull, the rule being reworked, adapted and simplified to make boats that are attractive, fast and spectacular, while remaining within a tight budget. This formula seems to be highly successful: on the start line of the Bol d'Or Rolex last year were 20 examples and of these eight were new. This year 29 M2s are entered. Of these 19 are the latest breed of Ventilo M2.
Rodolphe Gautier, head of the M2 class association explains why this class is booming. "First, we are not bothering ourselves with too many rules. We have a gentleman's agreement between all the owners so that all boats delivered by the yard will remain exactly as they are, so they are equal. The design is beautiful, it is easy to sail, and the price is not too much - about 90,000 Euros the same as a cabriolet! All those factor are leading people to want to sail them."
If the wind is very light for Saturday's race as the forecast at this stage is predicting - less than 5 knots - then there is good chance the M2s will be giving the Decision 35s a run for their money.
In the wake of the faster multihulls will be more than 500 monohulls, setting sail from the same start line off Geneva at 0900, Saturday 17 June, where amateur sailors will race alongside international stars of the professional racing scene. The monohull fleet is divided into seven different classes by size. In Class 1, the largest are the three extreme Psaros 40s, each featuring a canting keel, water ballast and trapezes for the crew and a performance not far short of the multihulls. Yet these will take the start alongside 8-10m cruising boats, such as the ever popular Surprise and Grand Surprise yachts. At the other end of the spectrum many boats are entered with more classic lines, with varnished wooden hulls and rigs, such as Christine Smith's beautiful La Belle Poule in Class 7.
Coming out of a long, hard winter, competitors are impatient to start the race, something felt all along the banks of Lac Léman. Alec Tournier, General Secretary of the Société Nautique de Geneve and organiser of the Bol d'Or Rolex, is delighted with the keen interest of the Swiss and other nearby countries in his club's annual race from Geneva to the turning mark at Bouveret at the opposite (eastern) end of Lac Léman and back. "The Bol d'Or Rolex is the most important sailing event in Switzerland. All the winter, sailors on Léman wait impatiently for it to happen. As with past year we are expecting 500-600 entries," he says.
Live coverage of the race
A new facet to the 2006 edition of the Bol d'Or Rolex: The possibility of seeing how the race unfolds in real time thanks many of the boats being equipped with GPS beacons and transmitters. Around 100 boats - the five favourites in each class, as well as to fifty competitors whose application was selected in a draw- will be fitted with this tracking equipment. Thanks to this gear members of the public can monitor the progress of competitors in real time.
13 June 2006, Rotterdam (NED) - Excitement is building in Rotterdam as competitors in the Volvo Ocean Race brace themselves for the ninth and final leg to Gothenburg, Sweden, which starts on 15 June. Lying just 0.5 points behind ABN Amro Two and fifth in the overall ranking, the Ericsson Racing Team will be fighting hard to keep the Dutch boat behind, although the ultimate goal is of course a victory in its home country!
With another light wind forecast, the start of the 500 nautical mile race has been moved to the earlier time of 11.00 GMT out in the North Sea. The current forecast predicts that the yachts will be beating on starboard tack during the first day, in around 10 knots of wind.
"It's going to be a light start," says Ericsson skipper Neal McDonald (GBR). "We will be racing upwind for the first part, and it is likely that we will see the return of the North Sea millpond. It could be a very tactical leg and there will be a lot of racing with the fleet in sight, which is always fun. We will have oil rigs and busy shipping lanes to negotiate, so still plenty of obstacles."
After the start, the course will take the fleet away from the coast towards Denmark. Halfway up the peninsula, a nasty, shallow spit, the Horns Rev, extends out from the Danish coast at right angles and will have to be watched. Once it closes on the top of Denmark, the course will take the fleet close in at Hirtshals and then along the white sands that lead to the northern tip of Denmark at Skagern.
From Skagern, it is a short hop across the Kattegat to Gothenburg, past the myriad of islands in the way. With lots of corners and a mixture of upwind and downwind work, there will be plenty of opportunities to make gains.
Ken Read (USA) confirms: "The shorter legs with land in the way are the most tactical, with options to go inside or outside and play the wind shifts. There are tonnes more variables that have to be considered, and you are so close to the other boats all the time that mistakes are magnified and good moves are rewarded."
"The only pressure is to beat the kids and secure fourth place," says Read, "but nothing would be more fun than entering Ericsson's home waters in the lead, so that's the clear goal."
Neal McDonald is looking forward to the arrival into Gothenburg, having won the leg four years ago, at the helm of Assa Abloy. "Last time Gothenburg was terrific for us and I have no doubt it will be the same this time. The Swedish public is very excited and knowledgeable about the race, so I am sure it will be a great reception."
The Volvo Ocean Race fleet is expected to arrive into Gothenburg on Saturday afternoon or evening, 17 June.
June 13, 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherlands – The Volvo Extreme 40’s put on a show today for the crowds in Rotterdam. Both the warm weather and the fresh breeze gave the teams a chance to shine as the leader board mixed up and Tommy Hilfiger moved to the top.
A breeze of eight to ten knots with fluky gusts kept the crews on their toes for all five races today on the Maas. The first race started with Tommy Hilfiger taking line honours quickly followed by their close rivals Basilica and Motorola-CHR.
As the teams got used to the reaching course the second race got underway and Basilica and Tommy Hilfiger’s fight ensued even more intensely with the British boys coming out ahead of the Americans. Holmatro came in third followed by Team Volvo Ocean Race and an unfortunate Motorola-CHR in fifth.
By the time the third race came through every catamaran team knew that, if they won the start then they had a good chance of winning the race. This was due to a reaching course being set for them because of space restraints in the river and the direction of the wind. Nigel Pitt the skipper of Team Volvo Ocean Race managed their best place of the series today with a win in this third race followed by Tommy Hilfiger and Holmatro with Basilica and Motorola fighting it out at the back.
Basilica headed up by James Grant took the lead in the fourth race whilst outpacing their rivals Hilfiger and Motorola-CHR. They had a great day but Grant believes it’s all about the strength of your crew. “We did well today. We outsmarted our rivals and our boat handling was better. Once you get your nose out in front then it’s had for people to get past you on this sort of course. We have a strong team both physically and mentally.”
Holmatro pulled a first out of the bag in the fifth race with Basilica and Tommy Hilfiger following and Motorola in fourth. Conrad Humphreys was disappointed today as the team slid from first to third place by ten points. “It was a bad day for our team we were shy of the line a few times and that didn’t help because if you didn’t win the start you were stuck behind the others playing catch up. It was good to have the breeze though and get some pace on, with water over the deck.”
So with two more days left in the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix. It’s all to play for. Randy Smyth skipper of Team Hilfiger certainly enjoyed his day as he moves to the top of the leader board again. “It was a big day and great to move up a spot. Basically today we were fighting against Basilica and Motorola-CHR. I liked the course that was set today it gave the spectators a great view and mixed it up for the competitors too. You have to be very quick thinking with this sort of course as a split seconds decision can make or lose you boat lengths. It was a great day.”
With race 2 of the Giraglia Rolex Cup commencing in a healthy 10 knots but petering out to almost zero, today's conditions played into the hands of the big Maxis. Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo shot round the 29-mile course in the Gulf of St Tropez in just over three hours, finishing almost an hour before the next boat, Pierluigi Loro Piana's Reichel/Pugh 85, My Song. Crichton expects to win through the water but he has no expectations about success under the IMS handicap system which governs this regatta. However, today's dying breeze prevented the smaller boats from making an impact and so Alfa Romeo won the race on corrected time.
Bowman and sail coordinator on board the winning boat, Craig Bowie, said the wind had certainly done Alfa Romeo some favours: "On the last leg to the finish, where the wind was clocking around, that pulled us away from the fleet. We could straight line it into the bay rather than needing to gybe our way down. At that point the breeze had already started getting lighter and it started swinging around for the boats behind." The other great advantage that Alfa Romeo possesses is an impressive power-to-weight ratio, which means the boat virtually creates its own wind. "We have the advantage that we can hold good apparent wind compared with most boats," said Bowie. "Reaching along today, we got up to about 15 knots in 10 to 12 knots of breeze."
The price that Alfa Romeo pays for her advanced technological design is a poor handicap under IMS, but that didn't matter today. Such was the effect of the lightening breeze, the results through the water proved almost exactly the same on handicap, with My Song finishing in 2nd on corrected time, just over six minutes behind Alfa Romeo. Carlo Puri Negri's Atalanta was 3rd which, combined with an 8th from the first race, moves the IMS Farr 70 up to first overall in the big boat division. The duelling Swan 601s - Artemis and Cuordileone - took 4th and 5th on handicap in today's race, which also moves them up to 4th and 5th in the overall rankings.
Torbjorn Tornqvist, owner/driver of Artemis, enjoyed the race despite the challenging conditions. "Today was a different race compared with the stronger winds we had yesterday," said the Swedish businessman. "But we sailed very well, it was difficult conditions - light winds and waves - very tricky. We had to avoid a cruise ship on the first leg - which lost us some time - but something like that happens every day for every boat. You have to take life as life comes. You learn that lesson when you are racing in the Mediterranean."
As the breeze dropped ever lighter, the smaller boats struggled to reach the finish line before the time limit expired. Only 16 of the 43 entrants in the big boat division completed the race. The top five finishers from race 1 were all outside the time limit and have plummeted down the overall rankings.
There was a similar pattern to the outcome of the small-boat division, whose 26-mile course was shortened as it became apparent that the wind was disappearing. A trio of IMX 40s took the top three places. Alberto Cogni's Clean Energy won by over five minutes from Luigi Balestra's Maluba, followed by the French boat Magic Simca, owned by Laurent Lavaysse, a further six minutes back.
Yesterday's winner, the Grand Soleil 40 Synergy, finished 5th today, behind the three IMX 40s and another Grand Soleil 40 Despeinada in 4th. Skipper of the Russian team on Synergy, Alexei Nikolaev, commented: "We are sailing with more people than we should be, because we are training up for a new Transpac 52. But this means we are sailing a little too heavy for light winds like today. It wasn't good weather for us. We need strong winds to justify the number of crew. Maybe the wind will be stronger tomorrow.."
Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is established as one of the classic regattas of the Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the past nine years, comprises three days' inshore racing in the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port of Genoa.
June 10, 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherlands – The Volvo Extreme 40’s changed sailing venue today and moved from their inshore course on the Maas to outside on the open sea on the coast of the Hoek van Holland. Motorola-CHR came out on top today, five points clear of rival Team Tommy Hilfiger.
The day started with a light breeze as the catamarans were motored down through the Maas with a fleet of spectator boats accompanying them. By the time they reached the open water hundreds of boats were out to watch them race as well as see the last three of the Volvo Ocean Race yachts arrive from leg eight.
Tommy Hilfiger (Randy Smyth) won the first race closely followed by Motorola-CHR (Conrad Humphreys) and then Team Holmatro (Mitch Booth) who all dipped under the maximum length of time a race can take. Unfortunately for Team Volvo Ocean Race (Nigel Pitt) and Basilica (James Grant) they were just out of time so were not awarded any points for the first race.
Randy Smyth skipper of Tommy Hilfiger, on the dock today spoke of a brilliant day on the water, “I’ve never seen so many spectator boats. At times they were wall to wall around us. It was such a blast sailing around in them. We loved sailing out in the ocean as it’s a new venue and you can compare your speed against the other boats. We’ve never had so much room.”
The second race got underway in a little more breeze, with Team Holmatro coming out on top giving them some much needed points. The Basilica boys came back to form and finished second after narrowly missing out on first as Mitch Booth on Holmatro gybed inside of them at the bottom mark.
By the time the third race came round the wind had picked up to a fresh ten knots giving the teams a little more to play with. Basilica finally came back and won the race with Motorola-CHR continuing to get good results making them the overall leader after two days of sailing in Rotterdam.
British Tornado sailor Leigh McMillan helming onboard Motorola-CHR felt the team was getting back to the standard they had before in the series in Rio de Janeiro: “We prepared a lot for this regatta and we have our heads together here. It’s great to see our results are getting better.”
The final race of the day was going to be a ‘dash for cash’ up the Maas in front of the thousands of spectators who had lined the shore. Unfortunately due to the weight of spectator boats on the Maas the race was forced to be abandoned before the finish.
Tomorrow sees a lay day for the Volvo Extreme 40’s as the Volvo Open 70’s will be back out in action for the Rotterdam in-port race.
The Volvo Extreme 40 series will recommence on Monday 12 June.
The Dutch sponsored Brunel, skippered by Matt Humphries, became the fifth boat to cross the finish line in Rotterdam, Holland after completing leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started from Portsmouth, UK on June 2.
Finishing today at 1246 GMT, the team had a promising start to the leg where they were in the top three. But the weather conditions did not suite the newly modified boat, which now has many of the characteristics of the TEAM ABN AMRO boats in that she performs better in more breeze, and this will be a disappointing result for Humphries and his team.
The majority of the leg has been spent battling with Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) with whom they were in touch, and often in front of for much of the leg. But when the team had to alter course dramatically to avoid a cable laying ship just after they rounded Duncansby Head, they watched their hard-fought gains on the two other teams evaporate.
ABN AMRO TWO, the final yacht to complete the course, is expected to cross the finish line in less than an hour.
At 1104GMT this morning, Paul Cayard brought his team of Pirates, racing The Black Pearl, across the finish line in Rotterdam, Holland to complete leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race in fourth position.
Although this is a disappointing result for the team – the first time they have been out of the top three since March, enjoying a string of second and third placings – Pirates of the Caribbean retain their second place on the overall leaderboard.
“We got separated from the lead pack and could never catch up,” said Paul Cayard earlier today. “The writing has been on the wall for a couple of days that we would not win the leg and in fact the best we could do was finish fourth.
“Brasil 1 sailed a great leg and our congratulations go to them. Well done guys.
“We have lost three points of our lead over Brasil 1 but that’s OK. We have two races left to go and we will be putting our best effort in as usual and I think we will come out of this just fine.”
Instead of the usual end of leg celebrations, the team will be working as fast as they can to prepare the boat for tomorrow’s in-port race. They will have to completely unload all the offshore gear, life rafts, emergency rudder, survival suits, change some sails, and clean the boat inside and out, including giving the bottom a polish, but they will have the help of the shore team.
The next boat to finish will be Brunel (Matt Humphries), followed by ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse).
After today's race is abandoned, Team Germany finish second & Monaco third
June 10, 2006 (Porto Cervo, Italy) - The Sardinia Rolex Cup 2006/ISAF Offshore Team World Championship, hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, ended with an abandoned race due to the extremely light breeze that did not allow the Swan 45 class to complete the course within the time limit of 120 minutes. At 3pm, cut off time for the start of re-sail of Race Nine, the Race Committee called it a day and the home team, Sardegna, claimed victory.
Team Germany ended the championship second, 15 points behind Sardegna. Team Monaco came in third at 88 points, followed by Team Italy with 89 points. While for Team Germany it would have been virtually impossible to bridge the 15-point gap in last remaining race, the battle for the second and third spot in the overall standing would have been fierce.
At the prize giving on the Piazza Azzurra, in front of the YCCS Clubhouse, the winning team, which included Stuart Robinson's TP52 Santa Ana, Stefano Polti's Swan 45 Mintaka and Vincenzo Onorato's Farr 40 Mascalzone Latino, were awarded with the Sardinia Cup Challenge Trophy and the Rolex Offshore Team World Championship Trophy, together with the much coveted Steel and Gold Submariner Rolex timepieces.
As he stepped off his TP52 Santa Ana, Stuart Robinson, who is a member of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, praised his team: "It's fantastic to win. Great team effort all round - our boat, the other boats. Porto Cervo is a great location and we had a great week. The team had steady results, seconds and thirds all week, with a couple of firsts. Everyone has sailed very well and the consistency of the team has paid off." Continuing the praise of his fellow teammates, Robinson added that, "We really felt part of a team. We had dinners, barbeques and drinks together. We had meetings every morning and it's really nice to have been a member of the home team, and particularly as the winning team."
Santa Ana's tactician, British sailor Adrian Stead whose background includes America's Cup, Round the World and Olympic regattas, was jubilant about his team's results: "Fantastic, what a great performance. Today I think we were a little unlucky that our Swan 45 didn't finish the race on time as they were winning in their fleet, we were second in the TP52s and the Farr 40 was still having a reasonable result. It's been a brilliant team event. We've been one of the top teams every day and particularly on our boat we feel that we sailed really well, especially at the end of the regatta."
For Mintaka's owner, Stefano Polti, it was a surprisingly successful debut in the Sardinia Rolex Cup. Freshly drenched in champagne, Polti could not stop praising his crew and team: "It is such a good feeling, I am so happy. This is my first Sardinia Rolex Cup and I was very honoured to be on the team with Vincenzo Onorato and Stuart Robinson. We sailed well, all the guys were awesome, Roberto Spata (mainsheet trimmer) and Matteo Ivaldi (tactician) couldn't have done a better job. I am simply thrilled."
Vincenzo Onorato, owner of Mascalzone Latino and President of the Mascalzone Latino Capitalia America's Cup team from Italy, feels that he had to work twice as hard to earn this victory: "It's been a very difficult world championship, as we had to sail in really light air, which is the condition that I hate the most at the helm. We are extremely happy as we worked really hard, never losing our concentration and finally we've been paid back for our efforts."
Micheal Illbruck's new TP52 Pinta scored a series of brilliant victories throughout the series, but suffered a sharp decline in performance yesterday, when interestingly, Illbruck was not at the helm. Pinta's lacklustre results yesterday, combined with the last place finishes for Struntje Light and Opus One respectively in races 7 and 8, combined to leave Germany with a huge gap that would have been all but impossible to bridge even if Race 9 had been completed. Despite his team coming second, Pinta's tactician John Kostecki, Olympic medallist, Volvo Ocean Race winner and America's Cup veteran, appeared pleased with their overall performance: "It was a light air regatta, but it was a good event with a lot of close racing. We're really happy to have done the Sardinia (Rolex) Cup. We're a new programme and we're trying to learn as much as we can and improve our performance. The boat has gone really well, we have a good crew and we're really happy."
Despite fielding virtually the same team as 2004 - including crews that boast Olympic, America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race talent - defending champion Team Spain ended the championship in fifth place. Tornado sailor and ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year in 2005, Fernando Echavarri, tactician onboard Mutua Madrileña-Movistar, was also making his debut: "This has been my first Sardinia Rolex Cup and the first time I come to Sardina too. I am really impressed with the place and the surroundings, I am sure this is a real sailors' paradise."
The next Sardinia Rolex Cup will be staged in 2008, probably with the same format and team composition as this year. The owners, class representatives and crews have already widely expressed their satisfaction with this year's regatta and will meet over the next couple of months in order to define the 2008 event. ISAF President Göran Petersson, feels that the mix of classes and professional/amateur sailors in this event has been highly successful: "It's very interesting to see how close the racing is. The boats have professional crew and amateur crew blended together. This puts an extra element with the nationalistic team effort. We really like that and think it could really develop. The classes, too, are interesting. They are high-ranked, big boats with great prestige. We certainly hope the event will continue to grow and ISAF will support it." Of the venue and organisers, Petersson was equally positive, "This area offers some of the best sailing conditions in the world and the club is one of the utmost prestige and tradition and they have delivered a fantastic event."
In September the waters off Porto Cervo and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda will host two highlight events of the Mediterranean season: the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, which dates back to 1980 and each year attracts an impressive fleet of these majestic yachts, and the Rolex Swan Cup, biennial event that transforms Porto Cervo in the centre of the Nautor's Swan world with upwards of 100 Swans racing.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands – June 11, 2006 – New Zealander Mike Sanderson skippered ABN AMRO ONE to victory in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 in-port race in their home port of Rotterdam.
ABN AMRO ONE, which is registered and christened in Rotterdam, worked her way into the lead in the early stages and did not look back. In front of a huge spectator crowd they crossed the finish line 3 minutes and 20 seconds in front of Torben Grael’s Brasil 1.
After a postponed start due to a large wind shift just after the five minute warning signal fired, the in-port race got underway in 8-10 knots of wind. Neal McDonald’s Ericsson was a little too quick off the line and had to turn back after starting prematurely.
ABN AMRO ONE hit the line with pace, hotly pursued by Brasil 1 and Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean who went on to challenge the Dutch boat all the way around the 20 mile race course.
With added confidence after winning leg eight yesterday, Brasil 1 was on top form and pushed hard throughout the leg, closing the gap to just 15 seconds at one point. A decision to split tacks from ABN AMRO ONE on the third upwind leg saw the Dutch team pull out a 1 minute 26 second lead. The Race Committee’s decision to shorten course on the downwind leg due to the dying breeze, saw ABN AMRO ONE take line honours. Brasil 1 crossed the line in second place followed by Pirates of the Caribbean who finished 51 seconds behind Brasil 1 in third place.
Ericsson managed to recover from the start and came from behind to finish fourth which was helped by a boat handling error onboard Sebastien Josse’s ABN AMRO TWO when they managed to twist their headsail during the second mark rounding, forcing them to drop it and re-hoist it again.
The Dutch/Australian entry Brunel skippered by Australian Grant Wharington for the in-port race moved up to finish fifth with ABN AMRO TWO sixth.
Overall, ABN AMRO ONE has an unbeatable lead and heads up the overall leaderboard. Brasil 1 maintains third place overall but managed to close the gap by half a point on second placed Pirates of the Caribbean.
Due to navigational error on leg eight, Brunel were forced to retire from the leg which results in ABN AMRO TWO overtaking Ericsson overall and holding fourth place with Ericsson fifth.
The fleet now have a few days to recover until they head off again on the final leg from Rotterdam to Göteborg on Thursday 15 June.
Some of the world's greatest sailors have gathered in St Tropez to compete at the Giraglia Rolex Cup, and yet it was a group of friends and part-time sailing enthusiasts who won race 1 in the big boat division on a perfect Sunday afternoon. With the sun shining and the wind blowing 14 to 17 knots, the 113 boats couldn't have wished for better racing.
The conditions were clearly to the liking of Paolo Bonomo and his crew of friends on board the Canard 41 Aurora. With a slight increase in the breeze late in the race, this worked in favour of Aurora and other boats at the smaller end of Class 0 and Class 1. "Of course we expected to win," said Bonomo with a twinkle in his eye. The reality is that in handicap racing - where boats ranging from 30 feet up to 100 feet or more are pitched against each other - no one can expect to win. You just sail your best and hope that some luck goes your way.
So when Bonomo went on to say, "We came here only to win," you had to take his comments with a pinch of salt. "We are friends and some of us have sailed together for 30 years," said the smiling Italian. So how did it feel to beat a fleet that numbers some great professional sailors in its ranks? "That is a problem for them, not for us," he laughed. On corrected time under the IMS handicapping system, Aurora finished just over three minutes ahead of Paul Nicolai's French-crewed Fauve. Nicolai's Dufour 44 beat Clive Llewellyn's Grand Soleil 50, Mad IV, by just 12 seconds on corrected time.
The bigger boats enjoyed the 33-mile race around the Gulf of St Tropez, even if the results didn't necessarily go their way. Neville Crichton's magnificent, multi-million dollar race yacht Alfa Romeo might have finished just 29th on handicap, but the Kiwi businessman didn't mind. Possibly the most technically advanced racing yacht in existence, the 98-foot canting-keeled machine gobbled up 33-miles in just two and a half hours, averaging over 13 knots around the track. Watching the boat move through the water, you have to wonder whether there is an engine driving a propeller underwater. But no, this is a sail-powered beast, albeit with an engine to help the crew operate the swinging keel and the sail controls with push-button hydraulic technology.
For Crichton, the three days of inshore racing in St Tropez are an opportunity to work up boat and crew in readiness for the big race on Wednesday, the 243-miler from St Tropez to Genoa via the Giraglia Rock off the northern tip of Corsica. "We're not expecting to do well in the round-the-can racing. We've measured in overlapping headsails and optimised the boat for the long race. I don't care how we do in handicap racing. We're here to win the race to Genoa and to set a new course record." If he does set a new record for the race, it will be his own record that he breaks. Sailing his previous Maxi, also known as Alfa Romeo, Crichton set the existing record time of 22 hours, 13 minutes, 48 seconds back in 2003.
While Alfa Romeo is set to spend the week racing in glorious isolation at the head of the fleet, today's race gave a hint of a good match race developing between two Swan 601s, Cuordileone skippered by Leonardo Ferragamo and Artemis skippered by Torbjorn Tornquist. The Swedish owner has three-time America's Cup winner and Olympic Champion Russell Coutts calling tactics, and today Artemis prevailed over the Italian boat by 37 seconds. Coutts commented: "We had great conditions today. It was just perfect. I haven't sailed many times in St Tropez when it's been like that. Fantastic. It's been great to race out there with another boat and gauge your performance. We got a nice side of a big left-hand shift up the first leg, so we got ahead. But then we had some spinnaker problems during the first hoist. Cuordileone caught us up, and that actually made it a pretty good race."
In the small-boat division, just 21 seconds separated the top three finishers on corrected time. Two Grand Soleil 40s grabbed the first two places, with Alexei Nikolaev's Russian entry, Synergy, beating Italo Borrini's Despeinada by just 10 seconds. Camillo Capozzi's Ala Bianca finished in third place, just 11 seconds behind Despeinada. Italo Borrini has enjoyed a strong run of form at the Giraglia Rolex Cup, winning the small boat division in 2004 and finish runner-up in 2005, and he looks set to continue that success in 2006.
Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is established as one of the classic regattas of the Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the past nine years, comprises three days' inshore racing in the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port of Genoa.
11 June 2006, Rotterdam (NED) - The sixth and last in-port regatta of the Volvo Ocean Race turned in favor of local heroes ABN Amro One this afternoon in Rotterdam. Following a premature start, Ericsson managed to climb up the ranking, passing two boats and finishing fourth. With one offshore leg to go, Ericsson is now fifth on the overall leaderboard, just 0.5 points behind ABN Amro Two.
Sailed in 3 to 8 knots of wind and on a flat sea, the race took place off den Haag, in front of hundreds of spectator boats. In comparison to previous in-port races, it was a static race with one side of the course paying off all the time. Consequently there were few opportunities to pass; the only position change being Ericsson moving up the fleet.
The regatta started later than scheduled because of the shifting wind. The starting line was quite narrow, and the current was strong, forcing the competitors to take some risks in order to get a good start. Positioned to leeward of the fleet, Ericsson crossed the line a couple of seconds before the gun and was therefore forced to sail back and cross the line again.
"Our strategy was to win the pin end of the start line and sail to the left side of the course," explained skipper Neal McDonald (GBR). "We nearly pulled it off, but unfortunately we had a premature start and this made it hard from then on. We were over the line by about two seconds."
During the first beat, the leading boats all went for the left of the course, benefiting from the current and stronger breeze and forcing Ericsson to the less favorable right side of the waterway. At the top mark, the verdict was clear: ABN Amro One, who took the best start, was leading Brasil 1 by 55 seconds and Pirates of the Caribbean by 1 minute 25. Meanwhile, Ericsson was already suffering a three minutes deficit on the leader.
"Our focus after the start was to try and chew each competitor up one at a time. We were aggressive with our tactics and we did a good job, but with a fleet of this caliber it is very hard to make a comeback," said tactician Ken Read (USA).
Ericsson´s good crew work and coordination throughout the race allowed it to overtake ABN Amro Two and Brunel, and close the gap on the leading boats.
Brasil 1 and Pirates of the Caribbean were so busy fighting for the second spot overall that they let ABN Amro One sail alone to victory, in front of their supporters. Brasil 1 took second place, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean and Ericsson.
Ericsson is now 0.5 points behind ABN Amro Two on the leaderboard, and concludes the Volvo Ocean Race in-port overall ranking in fourth place. Mathematically, it can no longer reach a final podium position and will have to beat ABN Amro Two during leg nine to Gothenburg; the final offshore leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Swedish crewmember Magnus Woxén concludes: "We now need to sail a good final leg into Gothenburg to end up fourth overall. Our goal is to win, but most important is that we beat ABN Amro Two."
June 11, 2006, NEWPORT, RI -- Strong westerly winds -- with and without sun -- greeted the fleet for the New York Yacht Club’s 152nd Annual Regatta, presented by Rolex. A total of 132 yachts, including a record 51 Onion Patch entries, sailed in the Annual Regatta June 10-11. On Saturday, the seven-class 78-boat White Fleet – IRC endorsed -- was outside the bay and managed one race. The Green and Blue Fleets – in the relative calm of Narragansett Bay -- sailed two or three races.
If Saturday featured a building breeze, with gusts to 30 knots, Sunday was its mirror image: 18 knots at the start and eight at the finish.
Preliminary results show Blue Yankee, Bob and Farley Towse (Stamford, CT), winning IRC1; Bambakou, John Coumantaros (New York, NY), IRC2; Dsk Comifin, Danilo Salsi (Milan, Italy), IRC3; Hot Water, John McLeod (Toronto, Canada), IRC4; Four Stars, Timothy McAdams (Brewster, MA), IRC5; Crescendo, Martin Jacobson (Greenwich, CT), IRC6; Kalevala II, Tapio Saavalainen (Washington, DC), IRC7; American Eagle Anthony Chiurco (Princeton, NJ), 12-Metre Classic; Courageous, Craig Millard (Newport, RI), 12-Metre Modern; Rush, Bill Sweetser (McLean, VA), IRC non-endorsed; Elan, John Hammel (Arlington, MA), PHRF; Amorita, Jed Pearsall (Newport, RI), Classic; Zealot, John Merrill (Stanardsville, VA), NYYC CR; Ichi Ban, Matt Allen (Bellevue Hill, NJ), Farr 40; and Indefatigable, Phil Lotz (New Canaan, CT), J105.
The wind was gentle on Friday and from the south for the optional Around the Island Race, as 80 yachts, ranging in size from the 100-foot Maximus – corrected-time winner of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005 – to a J/29. The island designated for circling this time was Prudence, not Conanicut as it usually is. The dramatic and ongoing removal of the old Jamestown Bridge precluded the fleet from rounding that island. As the breeze dwindled, the course was shortened; the largest boats sailed 21 nm, the smaller 14.
In the Round the Island Race, Harrier, Stephen Munger (Greenwich, CT), won IRC Class 1; Better Than, Andrzej Rojek (Brooklyn, NY), IRC Class 2; Kalevala II, Tapio Saavalainen (Washington, DC), IRC Class 3; Rush, Bill Sweetser (McLean, VA), IRC non-endorsed; Miss Marvelous, Pierre du Pont (Rockland, DE), PHRF; Fortune, Don Glassie (Newport, RI), Classic; Zealot, John Merrill (Stanardsville, VA), NYYC CR; and Nefertiti, Jon Wullschleger (Mamaroneck, NY), 12 Metre. This was the second race of the day for the Farr 40s, sailing a three-day regatta, Machine, Peter De Ridder (Monaco). The winner of the Rolex Cup for a two-boat team in the Round the Island Race was Crescendo, Martin Jacobson (Greenwich, CT) and Bright Star, Richard Breeden (Greenwich, CT).
June 9, 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherlands – The Nieuwe Maas in Rotterdam provided some tricky conditions for the first day of the Volvo Extreme 40 grand prix racing series.
Team Motorola-CHR helmed by British Tornado sailor Leigh McMillan successfully mastered the light winds and tricky tides to finish the first day of the final grand prix series in first place overall. A second place in the first race was swiftly followed up with two race wins to give the British team of McMillan, Conrad Humphreys, Will Howden and Hamish Oliphant an early regatta lead. Team Motorola-CHR leads by four points to their nearest rival Team Tommy Hilfiger.
Skipper of Motorola-CHR, Conrad Humphreys was very pleased with his team’s performance, “It was a good day for us but it was hard to be consistent in the conditions. Plus it’s nice to find some form after Portsmouth. I think the extra work on the foils has definitely made a difference. We have spent quite a bit of time on them. The other important thing is to keep your cool when you are out there in not a lot of breeze because even if you are last you never know what can happen to the others.”
Team Tommy Hilfiger, the current overall series leaders also had a exciting day, skipper Randy Smyth commented, “It was a great work out today!”. Crew member Jonathan Farrar spoke of the challenging conditions compared to the heavy weather they had in Portsmouth. “It was pretty fickle breeze out there so it was hard to showcase the boats but I think we did a good job of it. We are really looking forward to sailing tomorrow outside in the sea off the Hoek van Holland. We should have lots more breeze and a great spectator fleet.”
Newcomer to the fleet Nigel Pitt, helming Volvo Ocean Race, is currently third today after scoring a 4-2-5 scoreline, followed by Basilica in fourth. James Grant skipper of the all British boat was obviously disappointed by their result today after winning the Portsmouth series. “We took the wrong side so we had to tack twice and lost out to Tommy Hilfiger with the lack of breeze. But really it was only three races and we have 15 left so it’s all to play for. In Portsmouth we got full points on the first day and today we only managed 50% so if you average that out it’s not too bad. It was real game of snakes and ladders out there.”
Mitch Booth and his team on Holmatro came in fifth place despite getting the same points as Basilica. On count back Basilica beat Booth in the last race after having level peggings till that point. “It was a hard day for a sailor who wants to go racing today. Unfortunately the little wind made sailing very tricky out there. We saw a few good little rides at times which would have been good for the spectators and TV but for the sailors it was a tough day.”
Tomorrow the fleet will head out of the Maas to Hoek van Holland on the North Sea where they will race on the Volvo Open 70 in-port race course and greet the arriving Volvo Open 70’s.
The Volvo Extreme 40s will be towed out of the Maas and will race a number of short races before making a ‘dash for cash’ up the Maas where a 1000 Euro prize purse will be up for grabs.
It has been the slowest ride ever around Britain and Ireland for the fleet of six yachts racing in leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race to Rotterdam in Holland.
The leg began from Portsmouth last Friday evening, June 2, in fickle and variable breeze which varied in strength and direction. It was a slow trip down the Solent and out into Christchurch Bay and by 0400 GMT the fleet had only covered 66 miles.
Ericsson (Neal McDonald) had taken over the lead in a position that she was to dominate for the whole leg, followed closely by Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and Brunel (Matt Humphries).
On day two as Ericsson continued to strut her stuff, the Pirates sailing The Black Pearl realised they had forgotten to bring with them their endoscope, the piece of equipment which allows the crew to see if the rudder and keel are free from debris which can slow the boat down. Skipper Paul Cayard was unimpressed when he had to back the boat down twice and then ask Anthony Merrington to go for a swim to check that nothing was slowing it down.
At the close of day two, the fleet was level pegging as they passed Land’s End and made their way out into the Irish Sea.
Day three, Sunday June 4, dawned with the prospect of very little wind and the fleet was soon left wallowing with no boat speed, mid way between Cornwall and the south of Ireland. The land was too many miles away to create any sea breeze effect and no one was very optimistic about the long range weather forecast.
At 0400 GMT on day four, the fleet was within a mile of the Fastnet Rock and still struggling for breeze. Brasil 1 was hot on the heels of Ericsson and the Pirates were in third place. As the fleet started to make its way up the Irish coast, the crews passed the time by observing the local wildlife. Dolphins darting beneath the clear blue sea were in abundance, and thirsty racing pigeons landed on several boats to hitch a ride.
“Our pigeon spent a whole day onboard,“ said Andre Fonseca from Brasil 1. It inspected the interior of the boat and was especially interested in the navstation where it walked across the keyboard. “It ate with us and drank our water and as it’s still here, we are thinking about putting it into the watch system. Who knows, it might spots some wind somewhere,” he added.
ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) had a race with a flock of seagulls which easily swam up to the boat to have a look at what was going on. “I think it would have been easier to ride their bow wave, as opposed to them riding ours,” laughed navigator Simon Fisher.
Although there was little wind, the Irish scenery more than made up for it. “Our day started sailing in and out of the mist rolling off the hills and, as the sun rose and the mist burnt off, it gave way to spectacular views of rolling green hills and a weather-beaten rocky coastline. With castles and towers stationed on each headland, it gives you the feeling of sailing through a scene out of Lord of the Rings,” said Simon Fisher.
Day five saw freshening conditions and ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) came steaming up through the fleet in her customary fashion, arriving alongside Brasil 1 and just behind Ericsson. With 857 miles to the finish, only eight miles separated the fleet from first to fifth place, while Brunel, who had gone off on a flyer in search of more breeze, was 18 miles behind.
The leg was taking longer and longer and at 2200 GMT on day five, the race committee shortened the course by 76 miles. Instead of sailing around Fair Isle, situated between the Shetland and Orkney Islands, the fleet would now sail straight to the Duncansby Head lighthouse on mainland Scotland, but to get there, they would have to run the gauntlet through the notorious Pentland Firth. Although it would save miles, the new course would raise huge tactical and navigational challenges.
The Pentland Firth separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland and the entrance to the Firth is only 6.3 nautical miles wide. The exit is even narrower – 4.6 miles, and the crews would have to navigate 11 miles of islands, headlands, rocks, tidal rips and whirlpools before they reached the safety of Duncansby Head at the eastern end.
There are two routes through the Pentland Firth: the Outer Sound and the Inner Sound. The Outer Sound is the passage between the islands of Stroma and Swona. It is 2.5 miles wide and is the usual route through, but the Inner Sound is only 1.25 miles wide and is the much more difficult passage between the island of Stroma and the Scottish mainland. Decisions in the fleet had to be made.
Day six, and patience was the key. The fleet had a frustrating night and ABN AMRO ONE, whose turn it was to be in the lead, had only managed to average six knots as they approached the Butt of Lewis lighthouse. The fleet was in no doubt as to the part of the world in which they were sailing. Gone were the Caribbean-like clear blue seas and skies of the day before. Day six dawned with cold air and grey clouds. It was the Hebrides and very remote.
At 1600 it was Brasil 1’s moment in the sun when they took the lead. Ericsson was second and ABN AMRO ONE was third, but they were all only a mile apart. The wind was almost non-existent.
In a chess match of all chess matches, day seven, June 8, began as fleet made their choices and attacked the Pentland Firth. It was to be the deciding point of the leg. Ericsson, ABN AMRO ONE and Brasil 1 all took the risky Inner Sound, while Pirates of the Caribbean, Brunel and ABN AMRO TWO chose the Outer Sound and paid the price. The first three boats got cleanly away while the others fell foul of the tide. By 1000 GMT, Pirates in fourth place, was 58 miles astern of Brasil 1 in third. Later that day, the leading pack was streaking away, while the trailing three were frustrated, tired and hungry. The front-runners were nearly 100 miles ahead and the tail-enders were less than impressed.
“We are hanging in there, despite how absurd this leg has gotten,” said a cheesed off Paul Cayard. “We have been parked up at least once every 12 hours in the last two days,” he said. Onboard The Black Pearl, the Pirates only had four meals left and just over 400 miles to sail to the finish in Rotterdam. They rationed their food to one meal for every hundred miles. At their average speed of 5.7 knots, the Pirates were not going to be eating often!
The fleet was, by now, very definitely split into a ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ fleet. The leading pack of three – the ‘gold’ fleet - had another reshuffle and Ericsson regained the lead. The ‘silver’ fleet of Pirates of the Caribbean, Brunel and ABN AMRO TWO were now detached from the leading pack by up to 108 nautical miles.
Meanwhile, the in-port race in Rotterdam had been rescheduled for Sunday, June 11, but would the fleet arrive in time? It would be touch and go. Today at 1000 GTM, with just over 100 miles to go to the finish, the racing is as tight as ever at the top of the fleet. Brasil 1 has over taken Ericsson again and is a mile ahead. “It looks like the fickle weather pattern has not finished with us yet,” concludes McDonald. “Even fro the last 300 miles, it looks like Mother Nature is going to torment us a few more times before the finish. ABN AMRO ONE and Brasil 1 are in sight, so the battle rages on.”
With less than 12 hours until the winner of leg eight crosses the finish line in Rotterdam, it is still anyone’s game and only five miles separates the top three in the ‘gold’ fleet. They are currently 60 miles north east of Cromer in East Anglia, 90 miles east of Grimsby on the Indefatigable Banks, 88 miles off the coast. Pirates of the Caribbean leads the ‘silver’ fleet, which is 110 off the coast and still north of Newcastle.
As day eight dawns on leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race the leading yacht has just 223 miles to go until the finish line in Rotterdam. The boats have maintained speeds of up to ten knots throughout the night helping to propel them to that line as quickly as the weather gods will allow.
Ericsson (Neal McDonald) currently occupy the top spot of the leaderboard followed by Brasil1 (Torben Grael) in second. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) have fallen back to third place, a mile behind the Brazilian boat.
The leading pack are approaching the edges of Dogger Bank in the North Sea, an area of water of some 6800 square miles. Water depth ranges from 15-36 metres, about 20 metres shallower than the surrounding sea. The bank is littered with shipwrecks, one of the more unusual being the Lightship LV83, an intact lightship standing upright in 33 metres, rising to 20 metres at the top of the light tower. In 1931, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom took place below the bank, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale. Its focus was 23 km beneath the bank, and the quake was felt in countries all around the North Sea, causing damage across eastern England.
Paul Cayard and his lost souls onboard the Pirates of the Caribbean have broken free from ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brunel (Matt Humphries) and are some ten miles ahead of the two rival Dutch boats, sailing to the west of zero longitude (the Greenwich Meridian Line) while the remainder of the fleet is sailing east of the line.
No significant change in the wind is forecast for the next few hours but the fleet will hopefully continue at this pace with the front runners arriving in Holland in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
With less than 200 miles to go to the finish of leg eight in Rotterdam, the racing is as tight as ever at the top of the fleet. Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) has overtaken Ericsson (Neal McDonald) and is a mile ahead, 80 miles offshore, 40 miles south of Newcastle and still north of the River Humber. The constant sail changes and the pressure of sailing in close company with their rivals is tiring the crews and they are desperate to reach port now. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) is holding onto third position, just four miles behind the leader.
“I look back over the last few days racing, tired but happy,” said skipper Neal McDonald last night. “The boys have put up a great fight, and despite the rather docile weather, what a fight it has been. I can’t remember the number of place changes since the start off Southsea. We have been in sight of at least one boat all the time, which always makes the racing more intense, more tiring, but much more exciting,” he added.
Meanwhile, the second string is only level with the Firth of Forth, about 100 miles off the Scottish coast and still has 275 miles to race to the finish.
“It looks like the fickle weather pattern has not finished with us yet,” concludes McDonald. “Even for the last 300 miles it looks like Mother Nature is going to torment us a few more times before the finish. ABN AMRO ONE and Brasil 1 are in sight, so the battle still rages on.”
In the usual pattern, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet has had yet another reshuffle in the ‘gold’ fleet this evening, and Ericsson is back at the top of the leg leaderboard with ABN AMRO One (Mike Sanderson) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) just a mile behind. The same has happened to the ‘silver’ fleet. Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) now leads Brunel (Matt Humphries) from ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse), but the three boats are now detached from the leading pack – the ‘gold’ fleet - by up to 108 nautical miles.
“It looks as if the fickle weather pattern has not finished with us yet,” writes Ericsson’s skipper, Neal McDonald. “Even for the last 300 miles it looks like mother nature is going to torment us a few more times before the finish. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) are in sight, so the battle still rages on,” he added.
Ericsson is currently 113 north east of Newcastle, while Pirates of the Caribbean is only 16 miles south east of Rattray Head which the leaders passed hours ago.
Monaco gains one position and stands third, behind Team Germany and Team Sardegna
June 7, 2006 (Porto Cervo, Italy) - The outcome of one of last night's protests has affected the overall scorings of the 2006 Sardinia Rolex Cup and ISAF Offshore Team World Championship, currently under way in Porto Cervo.
Alessandro Barnaba's Farr 40 Fiamma (Team Italy) was disqualified in Race Two, where it had come first, for breaching Rule 49.2. As a consequence, Team Italy lost one position to Team Monaco in the overall standings and now lies in fourth.
Sandro Pantaleo's Farr 40 La Marachella (Team Alpe Adria) also was disqualified from Race One for a breach of Rule 13, however this has not affected the overall standings: Team Alpe Adria remains last.
Current Team Standings after 3 races:
Position - Team - Points
1 - GERMANY - 23
2 - SARDEGNA - 25
3 - MONACO - 36
4 - ITALY - 37
5 - SPAIN - 41
6 - USA - 46
7 - ALPE ADRIA - 49
June 8, 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherlands – Rotterdam will host the final showdown in the Volvo Extreme 40 grand prix series, which gets underway tomorrow.
The spectacular catamarans provide the in-port entertainment to the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 and will wow the crowds when they sail on the confined waters of the Maas in front of Volvo Ocean Race Village in the Veerhaven.
After completing four grand prix events in Spain, Brazil, America, and England, the five teams have arrived in Rotterdam for their final series and are looking forward to some close racing. Conditions will be testing for the teams and similar to those experienced in Baltimore, America – confined space, gusty winds, tide and commercial shipping.
Racing will be tough at the top as two boats in particular fight it out for the inaugural Volvo Extreme 40 overall series winner trophy. Randy Smyth’s Tommy Hilfiger is just two points in front of the all British Team Basilica and with a minimum of 15 races to be sailed in Rotterdam there is all to play for.
Tommy Hilfiger excelled in the Baltimore grand prix event but lost out to Team Basilica in Portsmouth, who managed to close the overall series events points. Both teams have played a game of cat and mouse around the world and now it will be time to see who will excel to take the overall winners trophy.
To add to the excitement, Saturday 10 June will see the fleet heading out of the Maas to the North Sea where they will race on the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 in-port race course, providing an exciting show for the spectator boat fleet that go out to greet the Volvo Open 70’s after their 1,500 nautical mile trip around Great Britain and Ireland.
Dutch sailing fans will be able to support Team Holmatro crewed by Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen who represented The Netherlands at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Team Holmatro are currently placed fourth overall but are just two points away from a podium finish.
Conrad Humphreys’ Team Motorola-CHR helmed by British Tornado sailor Leigh McMillan hold third place overall, four points behind Team Basilica, and they will be keen to maintain their position on the podium.
Racing commences at 15:30 (local) on Friday 9 June and continues through to Wednesday 14 June. On Saturday racing will start at the earlier time of 12:30 and the boats will race off Hoek van Holland. Sunday will see a lay day for the fleet, whilst the Volvo Open 70’s compete in their in-port race, and then racing will recommence from Monday through to Wednesday.
Overall Series Rankings (after four events)
1st Tommy Hilfiger 32 pts
2nd Basilica 30 pts
3rd Motorola-CHR 26 pts
4th Holmatro 24 pts
5th Volvo Ocean Race 20 pts
The Ericsson Racing Team is leading the fleet, with just 390 nautical miles to go until the finish in Rotterdam. With ABN Amro One and Brasil 1 hot on its heals, nothing is certain until the finish gun fires. The first yachts are expected to arrive in Rotterdam on Saturday after nine days of racing during what has been the slowest leg of the race so far.
The six-strong fleet, which started out from Portsmouth (UK) on 2 June, has now been racing for seven days after being plagued by light, fluky winds for much of leg eight. Racing has been extremely close amongst all the yachts, as they sailed around Ireland and up to Scotland. Last night they negotiated the fearsome Pentland Firth on the north coast of Scotland and a tactical decision by the three front runners - Ericsson, Brasil 1 and ABN Amro One - paid off. They sneaked through the narrow Inner Sound, dodging between the island of Stroma and the Scottish mainland, while trailing boats - Pirates of the Caribbean, Brunel and ABN Amro Two - opted for the Outer Sound route and fell foul of the tide.
Brasil 1 and Ericsson have been match racing for the entire leg and ABN Amro One has now joined the party. According to this morning's 10.00 GMT position report, Ericsson is back in charge of the fleet, beating in 13 knots of south-south westerly wind. To windward, ABN Amro One sails just two nautical miles behind, followed by Brasil 1 three miles behind. The team has extended its lead over fourth placed Pirates of the Caribbean to 58 nautical miles.
Crewmember Ken Read (USA) comments: "Being a fan of Ericsson watching this race would be like being a Boston Red Sox fan back home for so many years. So close but just can't quite pull away. Well, like the Sox we plan on pushing harder than ever to the finish and hopefully break the streak. No curse of the Bambino here."
With the light forecast expected to continue for the next 24 hours, the current ETA for the leading boats in Rotterdam is Saturday morning. Provided the entire fleet arrives by midnight on Saturday, the in-port race will take place at 09.00 GMT on Sunday 11 June.
June 7, 2006 (Porto Cervo, Italy) - The second day of the 2006 Sardinia Rolex Cup and ISAF Offshore Team World Championship, organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, had a slow start. The starting sequence was delayed by an hour and a half due to the lack of wind, however the Race Committee was still able to complete two windward-leeward races. The tacticians had to deal with a shifting and unstable easterly breeze ranging between 8 and 11 knots. In the fickle wind, the fleet had to fight hard for a good spot off the starting line, and in both sequences a couple of boats were over the line early. While the TP52 fleet was able to sail into clear air immediately after the gun, stretching away from the rest of the fleet, the Swan 45s and Farr 40s were forced to sail in a compact group, with very tight and loud mark roundings.
With five races now completed and a maximum of four still to go, the home team from Sardegna, with Stuart Robinson's TP52 Santa Ana, Stefano Polti's Swan 45 Mintaka and Vincenzo Onorato's Farr 40 Mascalzone Latino currently leads on 43 points. Natalia Via Dufresne, double Olympic medallist and strategist on board Santa Ana (4, 2 for the day), summed up the difficulties in the light wind: "We were sailing really well but the conditions were really tricky. I think we have a problem with the speed sailing on port, but it's been an incredible day despite the changing conditions and the multiple shifts". Like everybody else in the fleet, Natalia loves sailing here: "Porto Cervo is a fantastic place to sail and spend some time. It's the first time I've sailed here and the surroundings are great".
Team Germany lies second with 46 points. Michael Illbruck's brand new TP52 Pinta so far has scored three wins and two thirds, and the team is extremely happy with its performance so far: "The division has some very good boats, Bribon and Santa Ana are two of the top boats in the class," commented Illbruck, adding: "We are very, very happy. The second race had very difficult conditions. When the breeze drops below 7 knots, there's just not enough pressure. But all in all it's only our second regatta and we happy with where we are. Every race we learn a little more, are a little more comfortable. We're on the right track." As to being part of a team, Illbruck sees tomorrows distance race as being an opportunity to really help his compatriots: "we have to do well in our class and our teammates have to do well in their class. In the coastal race it will be a bit different. We will be up front and we can communicate more with our team."
Team Italy is in third with 57 points, tied with Team Monaco. This morning Team Italy lost one spot in the overall standings due to the disqualification of the Farr 40 Fiamma in Race Two, where it had come first, for breaching RRS 49.2. After yesterday's disappointment, America's Cup helmsman Tommaso Chieffi, calling the tactics on Fiamma, was happy about the outcome of day two: "Today we scored two seconds and unfortunately if it hadn't been for yesterday's DSQ we would surely have been in a much better spot in the overall standings. Today's racing was very challenging as we had two different winds on the two sides of the course. In this light air it is especially hard for us, as we are the smallest class in the fleet and we need to find lanes of clear air in order to get away from the bigger boats ahead of us. It is like sailing in a mine field." The first race of the day, Race Four, witnessed strong leadership from Pinta who took line honours with a comfortable margin. However, fellow team members Opus One and Struntje Light were unable to match Pinta's success, both finishing in sixth. Among the Farr 40s, Team Spain's Nerone was able to gain an early lead and finish first, showing a much better performance than yesterday. Francesco Martino's Swan 45 T.Too of Team Alpe Adria sailed to victory with a brilliant race. However, despite their success, they weren't able to improve the overall standings of their team. Alpe Adria, already hampered by the failure of its TP52 to start any races, found the world caving in this morning when its Farr 40 was disqualified from the first three races for fielding an ineligible helmsman. Whether La Marachella will be able to secure an approved helm for the remainder of the championship remains to be seen.
For Race Five the Race Committee selected a longer course, with three laps instead of two, and the fleet took over two hours to reach the finish line, as the wind gradually got lighter and shifted all over the race course. The Farr 40 Nerone and the Swan 45 Vertigo were over the line early, whilst their team's TP52, Bribon Movistar, fought a tight duel with Team Sardegna's Santa Ana. José Cusí's Spanish entry eventually took line honours. Pinta ended its winning streak coming in third. Among the Swan 45s, Opus One took its first victory of the series, while the Farr 40 Mascalzone Latino gained its third. Internationally renowned match racer Marcus Wieser, calling the tactics on Opus One, stressed the importance of quickly getting into a lane of clear air: "We finished sixth and first today. It was quite shifty and very light breeze. When you get a line through the first upwind beat and you can pass a few boats without any bad air then you are lucky. We were lucky in the second race today. We got a really good start line and a right shift, so we were far ahead at the first upwind mark and could finish the race quite easily in first position." Reflecting on a reversal of fortune from a poor result in race 4, Wieser felt: "We didn't do anything different, but in the first race a TP52 tacked on us and we had to tack away again and we were not free to sail to the left side as we wanted to. All areas were locked. We were just reacting and not acting anymore." Overall though, the German team is happy, "yesterday we were leading, we are second now, but we are only halfway through the series. So we have to hang into it and tomorrow is a new day."
The weather is now quite stable and tomorrow's conditions are expected to a little better than today. According to Captain Filippo Petrucci, official meteorologist of the Sardinia Rolex Cup, "in the morning the thermal breeze will gradually shift to the right becoming easterly and increasing from an early 9 knots to 15 knots in the middle of the day." Tomorrow the fleet will tackle the island race in the waters of the Archipelago de La Maddalena.
Provisional Team Standings after 5 races:
Position - Team - Points
1 - SARDEGNA - 43
2 - GERMANY - 46
3 - ITALY - 57
4 - MONACO - 57
5 - SPAIN - 58
6 - USA - 75
7 - ALPE ADRIA - 96
In a few hours, the pack of three at the head of leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet will run the gauntlet through the narrow entrance to the Pentland Firth. Not a very nice place to be in darkness when it will be much harder to see the tidal eddies, rocks and islands. The Pentland Firth is 11 miles long and currently the fleet is 30 miles from the Duncansby Head waypoint in adverse westerly tide. The tide will change at 0400 GMT which will put the leading group in the right place for the advantageous tide.
Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) has clawed her way into the lead in the last six hours, taking Ericsson (Neal McDonald) with her. Ericsson is now level pegging with ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson). Leading the second bunch of three, 22 miles behind the pack, is Pirates of the Caribbean, and skipper, Paul Cayard, is worried that the boat does not seem to have good speed in the light air. “It is hard to believe because the Farr boats are supposed to be fast in light air, but we haven’t been,” he said. Cayard hasn’t been able to catch the first group, but they are in sight every now and then and that keeps the Pirates hopeful. He also has to watch out for ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brunel (Matthew Humphries) who are only two miles astern.
The wind is still almost non-existent and there is very little wind forecast for the remaining part of the leg to Rotterdam which is predicted will finish on Saturday.
The first three yachts in the fleet have finally rounded Duncansby head, the north east tip of Scotland in 10 knots of breeze. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) passed first, followed very closely by Brasil (Torben Grael) and then Ericsson (Neal McDonald). Now all that remains is for them to get south as quickly as possible to Rotterdam, which is easier said than done in the light air forecast. The tidal streams flowing through the Pentland Firth earned it the title of ‘hells mouth’ in the early days of sail. There are many tide races in this area with names of, the Swilkie, the Bore of Huna, the wells of Tuftalie, the Duncansby Bore and the Merry Men of May.
460 nautical miles still remain of this trying leg before the crews can dock for the penultimate time. Given the right conditions we all know how fast boats these are, but with little wind no sail boat can sail fast and they just have to eke out as much speed as possible from the breeze they have. How frustrating for them and a daunting prospect with still so many miles to go to the leg finish.
Overnight, the fleet racing in leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race negotiated the fearsome Pentland Firth and it was pay day for the first three boats. Ericsson (Neal McDonald), Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) ran the gauntlet and sneaked through the narrow Inner Sound, dodging between the island of Stroma and the Scottish mainland, and cutting off the corner to the rounding mark at Duncansby Head, while the second string opted for the Outer Sound route between the islands of Stroma and Swona and fell foul of the tide.
As Ericsson parked, within boat lengths, Brasil 1 tried to lee bow them in four knots of wind and failed. “They reached off to leeward in the narrow channel, and I thought for a moment,” writes Kenny Read from Ericsson, “that we had this next move in the chess match of all chess matches. But no. They got a little puff to leeward and pushed ahead. At the same time we could see ABN AMRO ONE about a mile and half back, feverishly tacking up the right side of the channel, which we thought was odd as were heading down the channel towards the very northern tip of Scotland, which was within a couple of miles, and our right hand turn towards the finish.”
The next thing the Ericsson team heard was ABN AMRO ONE easing her sheets and doing 12 knots, roaring past Ericsson and Brasil 1 as they parked in the current. The water where ABN AMRO ONE seemed, to the Ericsson crew, completely ‘glassed off’. “A great move by them,” writes Read. “Personally I was ticked off as it was something we could have tried, but didn’t.”
Now, the leading three boats are sailing happily, 26 miles north east of Rattray Head, currently making 14 knots of boat speed, while the trailing pack are close inshore to Noss Head and barely making four knots, 58 miles behind.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands – June 7, 2006 – Due to the lack of winds that have slowed the progress of the fleet on leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 from Portsmouth to Rotterdam, the decision has been taken to delay the In-Port race by a day to Sunday 11 June.
With over 500 nautical miles to sail to the finish, the expected time of arrival into Rotterdam has shifted to late Friday evening or Saturday morning.
At a meeting with race management, syndicate and port representatives, chaired by Volvo Ocean Race CEO Glenn Bourke, all parties felt it prudent to change the date in order to give the crews sufficient preparation time given the late arrival into Rotterdam.
The start time for Sunday’s race has also altered from the original time of 12.30 to 11.00am local time.
Glenn Bourke commented: “The weather prognosis we have is not conducive to the fleet finishing in time to compete in the in-port race on Saturday. We have shortened the course as much as we can and there are no more avenues that are available to us.
“It is imperative that we hold the in-port race as many of the teams still have an opportunity to improve on their overall positions. It is just an unfortunate set of circumstances that have led to this decision. We have done what we feel is best for all stakeholders in the race – but ultimately we are in the lap of the wind gods.”
In another change to the Rotterdam programme, the Volvo Extreme 40s will compete in a series of races on Saturday on the course designated for the Volvo Open 70’s in-port race and spectators will also be able to enjoy the arriving of the Volvo Open 70’s.
Current Leaderboard (not including leg 8)
1st ABN AMRO ONE, Mike Sanderson (NZL) 84.5 pts
2nd Pirates of the Caribbean, Paul Cayard (USA) 59.5 pts
3rd Brasil 1, Torben Grael (BRA) 52.0 pts
4th ABN AMRO TWO, Sebastien Josse (FRA) 48.5 pts
5th movistar, Bouwe Bekking (NED) 48.0 pts
6th Ericsson Racing Team, Neal McDonald (GBR) 45.0 pts
7th Brunel, Grant Wharington (AUS)/Matt Humphries (GBR) 8.0 pts
Leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race is already taking longer than it should. With an in-port race planned for Rotterdam on Saturday, the Race Committee has shortened the course by 76 miles, which could, at the current pace, make the leg half a day quicker.
The change of course will occur at the northern tip of Scotland, by changing the rounding mark of Fair Isle to Duncansby Head. The fleet was informed of the proposed change late this afternoon, and once agreement from each boat had been sought, the change of course was confirmed officially tonight at 2040 local time by Inmarsat C message.
The fleet will now leave Duncansby Head, which is a lighthouse situated at ˚38'.65N 03˚ 01'.50W, approximately 175 miles to the north of the fleet, to starboard.
In the last few hours, the fleet have been tacking along the west coast of the Isle of Lewis. The leading boat, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), are currently 30 miles from the Butt of Lewis which is located on the northern most tip of this island.
A few miles behind the front runner, Ericsson (Neal McDonald) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) are locked in a head to head battle. Meanwhile, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) are having their own close quarters race 12 miles further south.
At the back of the fleet, Brunel (Matt Humphries) are trying a different tactic by staying further out from the shoreline. Light winds are forecast to continue today, making slow progress for the whole fleet.
The fleet has had a frustrating night and ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) is only managing six knots as they approach the Butt of Lewis lighthouse. With less than half of leg eight left, and more light breeze on the way, patience is going to be a key ingredient and the mental challenges of this leg are working the sailors as hard as the physical challenges on the legs before.
Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) are neck and neck, two miles behind the Dutch boat, with Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard), ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brunel (Matt Humphries) all in sight of each other approximately 14 miles behind.
It is going to be a slow haul to the Butt of Lewis, eight miles north east the fleet, where the fleet will turn and sail 40 miles due east to Cape Wrath around the top of Scotland.
Weather expert, Jennifer Lilly says conditions will stay light for all of today, with a little upwind sailing this morning, fading into more drifting later today. Stronger south westerly winds will fill in on Thursday but they will veer right towards westerly and will be short lived, as they are associated with the pressure gradient around the southern periphery of a low passing well north of the course.
Much to their relief no doubt, the fleet are now experiencing slightly more favourable weather conditions. The winds have picked up over the past few hours to a gentle 15 knots from the south, allowing them to maintain boat speeds in the mid teens.
There are currently just twenty miles offshore of the northern tip of County Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland and the fleet is now divided by twelve miles from front to back.
Ericsson (Neal McDonald) and Brasil1 (Torben Grael) have been neck and neck throughout the night but it is Ericsson who currently have the edge at the top of the leaderboard.
Mike Sanderson and his crew on ABN AMRO ONE have moved up the rankings to occupy third position and Brunel (Matt Humphries) have fallen back to sixth after losing nine miles to the fleet in the past six hours.
Finally, they have less than 1000 miles to go until Rotterdam but with the light winds forecast to continue, it may be some time before they reach the finish line.
Ericsson (Neal McDonald) leads the fleet steadily north on leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race and is now 10 miles north of the northern tip of Ireland, while Brunel (Matt Humphries) has taken a flyer 23 miles to the west in search of wind. The rest of the fleet is tightly bunched, just two miles separating them west to east, and the leader, Ericsson, has 96 miles to go to Barra Head, the southernmost tip of the Outer Hebrides.
Matt Humphries’ decision to take Brunel out to the west is one that can’t be made by the by Paul Cayard. From a points perspective, Cayard has to keep The Black Pearl in touch with Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) to protect his position of second place overall. If Pirates of the Caribbean and Brasil 1 were to finish this leg in their current positions, Cayard would lead Grael by just 5.5 points leaving the fight for overall second place very much open with an in-port race and another leg to go before the finish of the event in Gothenburg, Sweden later this month.
At the head of the fleet, Ericsson is enjoying 17 knots of breeze, with the rest of the fleet in slightly lighter conditions, but the short term forecast is for the wind to start dropping this afternoon and the fleet will head into another area of no wind again tonight and tomorrow. As the fleet approaches Fair Isle, the rounding mark at the top of Scotland, a broken down cold front will likely give them approximately 15 knots of breeze.
With the fresher conditions, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has come steaming up through the fleet, achieving the highest 24-hour run – a miserly 239 nautical miles. “The breeze filled in and ABN AMRO ONE was just plain faster than us,” wrote Paul Cayard this morning. “This again raised the anxiety level in me as we were finally on a point of sail that we should make some gains and were not. This morning, ABN AMRO ONE has continued to sail away from us in 15 knots of wind, flat running, and now has sailed right up along side Brasil 1. This eases my anxiety as it is just that ABN AMRO ONE is a rocket, not that we are going that badly,” he added.
With 857 miles to go to the finish, only eight miles separate the fleet from first to fifth place, with Brunel 18 miles from the leader, in sixth place.
Portsmouth, R.I. (June 5, 2006) - US SAILING, the national governing body for the sport, has determined the ranking system for the 2007 US Sailing Team. Each year, US SAILING names the members of the US Sailing Team based on athletes' performances at a series of qualifying regattas. The 2007 ranking system names at least three qualifying events for each Olympic class. US SAILING's 2007 Rolex Miami OCR and the Pre-Trials are mandatory events for all 11 classes. The ranking system for the 2007 US Sailing Team determines the top-ranked athlete in each class who will be selected to compete in the 2007 Olympic Test event, scheduled for August, 2007, in Qingdao, China.
The qualifying events for each class selected for the 2008 Olympic Games are:
Finn (Men) - Must sail, must count all three events:
Finn Pre-Trials - Newport Beach, Calif., October 19-22, 2006
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
Finn Midwinters - Fort Lauderdale, Fla., February 1-4, 2007
470 (Men and Women) - Must sail, must count all three events:
470 Pre-Trials - Long Beach, Calif., October 25-29, 2006
North American Championships - Miami, Fla., January 12-15, 2007
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
49er (Open) - Must sail, must count all three events:
49er Pre-Trials - San Diego, October 19-22, 2006
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
North American Championships - TBA, February 1-4, 2007
Laser (Men) - Must sail, must count all three events:
Laser Pre-Trials - Newport, R.I., October 11-15, 2006
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
Laser Midwinters East - Clearwater, Fla., February 22-25, 2007
Laser Radial (Women) - Must sail, must count all three events:
Laser Radial Pre-Trials - Newport, R.I., October 11-15, 2006
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
Radial Women's North American Championships - Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
February 1-4, 2007
Neil Pryde RS-X (Men and Women) - Must sail, must count all three events:
RS:X Pre-Trials - Long Beach, Calif., October 25-29, 2006
RS:X Championships - TBA, January 12-15, 2007
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
Star (Men) - Must sail, must count Pre-Trials and Rolex Miami OCR, plus one of the other two events:
Star World Championships - San Francisco, Calif., September 27 - October 8, 2006
Star Pre-Trials - Marina del Rey, Calif., October 19-22, 2006
North American Championships - Miami, Fla., November 14-19, 2006
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
Tornado (Open) - Must sail, must count all three events:
Tornado Pre-Trials - San Diego, Calif., October 12-15, 2006
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
North American Championships - TBA, January 30 - February 2, 2007
Yngling (Women) - Must sail, must count all three events:
Yngling Pre-Trials - Newport, R.I., October 11-15, 2006
Rolex Miami OCR - Miami, Fla., January 21-28, 2007
Women's Yngling North American Championships - Miami, Fla., February 1-4, 2007
As part of US SAILING's Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC) ongoing mission to facilitate the success of elite performance athletes, the US Sailing Team will choose the top three (3) ranked sailors in each of the 11 classes. The athletes chosen to represent the United States at the Olympic and Paralympic Games will receive the highest level of support, fundraising and coaching from US SAILING.
The US Sailing Team is coached by High Performance Director Gary Bodie (Hampton, Va.), and Olympic Coaches Luther Carpenter (Laporte, TX) and Skip Whyte (Wickford, R.I.). Sponsors of the 2007 US Sailing Team are Rolex Watch U.S.A., Nautica, Vanguard Sailboats, Gill, Zodiac of North America, Sperry Top-Sider, Harken, New England Ropes, Nikon, Extrasport, and Team McLube.
Charlevoix, Mich. - On June 7, 2006, the Coast Guard's final 180-foot WLB-class sea-going buoy tender, USCGC ACACIA (WLB 406), will be decommissioned in an official ceremony at Station Charlevoix at 10 am EDT.
The ACACIA is one of 39 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built for the United States Coast Guard between 1942 and 1944. ACACIA was commissioned on September 1st, 1944 in Duluth, Minn., and was one of the latter tenders built during the Second World War. The cutter is named after the original Coast Guard Cutter ACACIA that was sunk by a German U-boat off the British West Indies on March 17, 1942, and has been stationed in Charlevoix, Mich., since 1990.
ACACIA's area of operation extends from Chicago on the southern shores of Lake Michigan to Alpena on Lake Huron, where the ship and crew perform aids to navigation duties, search and rescue of lost or disabled vessels, and icebreaking assistance during the cold winter months. ACACIA assisted innumerable ice-bound commercial vessels and maintained the vital waterways of the Great Lakes for over six decades, and now, after 62 years of distinguished Great Lakes service, her final crew will walk down the gangway one last time and the cutter's commissioning pennant will be lowered. ACACIA will sail to Chicago at the end of the month, and will remain on the Great Lakes as a museum in the Chicago area.
June 5, 2006 --After just two days into a leg expected to take five days and the Volvo Ocean Race boats only just rounding the south-westerly point of Ireland, there was concern today whether the boats would arrive on time for the in-port race in Rotterdam on Saturday June 10th. With average speeds in the fleet of around 5 knots the boats were still slowly working their way west in the hope of picking up better winds out in the Atlantic.
After a good start from both ABN AMRO boats in Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon, the boats failed to find the bigger winds and have been idling along ever since. Nick Bice, Watch Captain on ABN AMRO TWO summed up the scene saying, “This has been some of the slowest sailing we’ve experienced and the signs are that it’s not going to get any better for a while now. Our highlight today was watching a seagull paddling alongside us. At one stage he quickened his pace and overtook us.”
In his daily log from the boat, Navigator, Simon Fisher said, “In these quiet waters we seem to be a source of amusement for the local wildlife, not only have the gulls paid us a visit today but also a group of curious dolphins. This has been a fairly common affair during our race around the world but this time was a little special. With the sea completely calm we could see them darting about deep beneath the water gracefully and effortlessly, a view that is usually hidden from us by the wind and the waves.”
“The mood on board is relaxed however,” continued Fisher, “especially given this is normally the most frustrating of conditions. With the fleet all bunched close together there is little speculation as to what the other boats are up to allowing us to centre our focus on going as fast as we can with the little wind we have. That isn't to say we haven't been without entertainment though. Whilst trawling the airwaves for weather a little music from an Irish radio station got everyone jumping while we were waiting for the breeze to arrive!!”
In the last position report from the boats ABN AMRO ONE posted the blistering average speed of 6.5 knots showing that conditions were not improving. Mike Sanderson said, “It’s just wriggle, wriggle out here. This isn't the only tricky part of this leg though as there is plenty of fun and games coming up yet. We are now just two days into what was supposed to be a 5 day leg and so right now it's looking like we have all got another race on our hands - and that is to get to the in-port race in Rotterdam that is scheduled for Saturday. It's looking slow!”
CHEBOYGAN, Mich. ? On June 10, 2006, the distinguished career of the Coast Guard’s largest domestic icebreaker, USCGC MACKINAW (WAGB 83) will come to an end in a ceremony also marking the commissioning of the vessel which will carry on her namesake and legacy, USCGC MACKINAW (WLBB-30). The decommissioning/commissioning ceremony will be held on June 10, 2006 at 1 pm EST at the Coast Guard Olds Memorial Moorings in Cheboygan.
“As I remember it, it was cold, snowy at times, and wind from the northeast which had blown the water back up the Maumee River high enough to flood the dry docks.” This is an excerpt from a letter written by Minerva Halbert, then Minerva Youngs, who was at the launching of the MACKINAW. She was one of eight women welders who helped build the USCG Cutter MACKINAW (WAGB-83). That was 62 years ago; MACKINAW was later commissioned on December 20, 1944 for the sole purpose of keeping the shipping lanes open during the ice season.
During her first winter of service MACKINAW made 17 passes through the Straits of Mackinac and escorted eight combat vessels. If not for the MACKINAW the vessels would have been ice bound until spring. Over MACKINAW’s 62-year career, she has accumulated many stories. In 1948, she assisted 12 ice-locked ships in Buffalo, N.Y. In 1965, MACKINAW assisted after the collision between the U.S. CEDARVILLE and the NORWEGIAN TOPDALSFJORD by receiving both survivors and casualties. In 1984, MACKINAW played a major role during the St. Clair River Ice Jam by directly assisting 13 vessels stuck in the ice and helping to open a passage for 75 other freighters and ore carriers that awaited at both ends of the river.
This is how it has been year in and year out between December and April, MACKINAW broke ice to maintain the flow of commerce through shipping channels of the Great Lakes and connecting rivers. She lived her motto “We move ships when no one else can” During the non-ice breaking season MACKINAW’s missions included search and rescue, aids to navigation, law enforcement, and public relations.
MACKINAW (WLBB-30) will not only carry on the traditions and missions of WAGB-83, but will also be responsible for maintaining some of the aids to navigation of USCGC ACACIA, a 180-foot buoy tender that is also being decommissioned in June 2006. Built in 1944, ACACIA has also served the Great Lakes well in her distinguished career.
MACKINAW (WLBB-30) is a one of a kind 240-foot icebreaker and buoy tender, built at Marinette Marine Corporation, in Marinette, WI. She was launched on April 2, 2005, and the Coast Guard took possession of the ship on November 17, 2005. Subsequently, the new cutter has undergone rigorous operational testing, training and area familiarization patrols. The command and crew of MACKINAW (WLBB-30) are eager to continue the proud legacy of Great Lakes icebreaking, upholding her motto, “Forging a Path with Strength and Honor.”
This unique event is open to the public, though early arrival is encouraged due to a large expected attendance.
7 teams to compete for Sardinia Cup and ISAF Offshore Team World Championship titles
June 5, 2006 (Porto Cervo, Italy) - All is set in the idyllic setting of Porto Cervo, Sardinia, for the start of the 2006 Sardinia Rolex Cup, which this year has attracted seven teams: Alpe Adria, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Sardinia, Spain and USA. The Sardinia Rolex Cup has always been a team event where sailing nations send their finest racing yachts and crews to battle not for individual honours, but for the international prestige that comes with representing the best team on the water. The Sardinia Cup has been held every two years since 1978, and in 2004 its status as a grand prix event was further enhanced when it was granted the accolade of ISAF Offshore Team World Championship.
The Sardinia Rolex Cup, organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, will run from June 5th to June 10th. Racing starts tomorrow and the programme includes windward/leeward races and a distance race, set in one of the most spectacular point-to-point racing arenas in the world. If the legendary Mistral wind blows, the funnelling effect of the narrow channels of the archipelago of La Maddalena will demand the very best in boat handling techniques from the crews.
According to Captain Filippo Petrucci, official meteorologist of the Sardinia Rolex Cup, "the weather will gradually improve starting from tomorrow, as an area of high pressure will settle over Sardinia, driving away the cold front that since last week has brought heavy rain over Porto Cervo. Tomorrow's racing should feature a light northwesterly breeze of 10-12 knots, while from Wednesday the wind will shift to the northeast and increase to 12-13 knots".
Since its first edition, the Sardinia Rolex Cup has grown and evolved with the sport of offshore keelboat racing. The three yacht designs selected for this year's Sardinia Rolex Cup represent a good cross-sec¬tion of state-of-the-art, modern yacht racing design. Each nation team is made up of three boats, two of which are highly successful one-designs, the Farr 40 and the Swan 45, while the third is a box-rule class, the TP52. Teams collect points by combining the scores of their three boats, with the winning team finishing with the lowest points score.
YCCS Commodore Gianfranco Alberini is eager for the games to start: "The Rolex Sardinia Cup is a biennial event that we always look forward to. Racing as part of a team is challenging and the stake is high - both the Sardinia Cup Challenge Trophy and the Rolex Offshore Team World Championship Trophy. The entry list is very impressive and the crews feature many of the top sailors from the international racing circuit. I hope that the fleet, the organizing committee and our world renowned race course will prove to be first-rate ingredients for a top class event."
The strong international fleet will provide plenty of close action. Defending champion Spain heads the line up, with HM King Juan Carlos onboard its TP52 entry Bribon Movistar. Pedro Campos, who will helm Bribon and was at the helm of the IMS 50-footer Bribon Telefonica MoviStar in the 2004 Sardinia Rolex Cup, has competed so many times in this event that he cannot remember the exact number: "I've been racing in the Sardinia Rolex Cup for at least eight or ten years. We won it twice and we are definitely looking forward to some exciting racing, we will try our best. The level of competition is extremely high and it's going to be very difficult to defend our title, especially as we now race with the new TP52 class. However, we feel quite confident with our team - the Farr 40 and the Swan 45 are the same that we raced together with in the last Sardinia Cup. We have similar crews, same boats and same owners, only Bribon is completely different." For the Movistar crewmembers that recently had to abandon ship during the Volvo Ocean Race, the Sardinia Rolex Cup will be an interesting change of scene. "There will be four of the Movistar VOR crew racing on our team here in Porto Cervo, including myself, and we will all have to get a feel for our new surroundings," continued Campos, adding: "there is no sure favourite at this stage, all the teams are very competitive. We will have to wait and see. The only sure thing is that the Sardinia Rolex Cup is a truly great event." The Farr 40 Nerone and the Swan 45 Vertigo complete the Spanish team.
Although Spain won the last event in 2004, it has been Italy who has traditionally been the strongest nation in the history of the event. It has won six of the 14 editions of the Sardinia Cup. Germany has lifted the Cup three times, whilst the USA and Spain count two wins and Great Britain one. Amongst the famous names lining up this year are the 2006 Acura Key West Farr 40 winner Mascalzone Latino of Vincenzo Onorato (ITA) and Stefano Polti's (ITA) Swan 45 Mintaka, current leader of the Swan 45 Mediterranean circuit. Amongst the TP52s set to compete are Michael Illbruck's (GER) Pinta and John Buchan's (USA) Wokita.Com.
The social programme is typically impressive. Competitors at the Sardinia Rolex Cup will be officially greeted tonight with a welcome cocktail held in the clubhouse that overlooks Porto Cervo Marina. Tuesday features the Rolex Party for owners and crews in the Piazza Azzurra, whilst on Friday the YCCS-Rolex Owners' Dinner will take place in the sophisticated surroundings of one of the Mediterranean's most exclusive yacht clubs. The week will end with Saturday's Prizegiving Ceremony, where the Sardinia Cup Challenge Trophy and the ISAF Rolex Offshore Team World Championship Trophy will be awarded to the winning team, together with the much-coveted Rolex timepieces.
Sardinia Rolex Cup Hall of Fame
1978 ITALY Vanina, Yena, Dida V
1980 USA Acadia, Merry Thought, Tatoosh
1982 ITALY Brava, Almagores, Mandrake
1984 GERMANY Pinta, Rubin, Container
1986 U.K. Full Pelt, Pocket Batll Ship, Marionette IX
1988 GERMANY Rubin XI, Container 88, Saudade
1990 ITALY Mandrake, Larouge, Brava
1992 ITALY Mandrake, Brava Q8, Botta Dritta VI
1994 GERMANY Omen, Aerosail Astro, Aerosail 3
1996 ITALY Capricorno, Brava Q8, Breeze
1998 ITALY Blu Storm, Brava Q8, Breeze
2000 SPAIN Bribon, Movistar Activa, E-Mocion
2002 USA Bambakou, QQ7, Profit
2004 SPAIN Nerone, Vertigo, Bribon Telefonica
Sardinia Rolex Cup 2006 Entry list
Yacht Name - Owner - Helmsman - Yacht Type - Team
A-TEAM - A.P. Action Team - Gianluca Montella - TP 52 - ALPE ADRIA
T.TOO - Francesco Martino - Francesco Martino - Swan 45 - ALPE ADRIA
LAMARACHELLA - Sandro Pantaleo - Sandro Pantaleo - Farr 40 - ALPE ADRIA
PINTA - Michael Illbruck - Michael Illbruck - TP 52 - GERMANY
OPUS ONE - Wolfgang Stolz - Wolfgang Stolz - Swan 45 - GERMANY
STRUNTJE LIGHT - Wolfgang Schaefer - Wolfgang Schaefer - Farr 40 - GERMANY
ORLANDA - Alessandro Pirera - Alessandro Pirera - TP 52 - ITALY
SWANTASTIC - Lorenzo Bortolotti - Lorenzo Bortolotti - Swan 45 - ITALY
FIAMMA GBR 25R Alessandro Barnaba Alessandro Barnaba Farr 40 ITALY
ANONIMO - Riccardo Simoneschi - Riccardo Simoneschi - TP 52 - MONACO
JEROBOAM - Vittorio Codecasa - Vittorio Codecasa - Swan 45 - MONACO
JOE FLY - Giovanni Maspero - Giovanni Maspero - Farr 40 - MONACO
SANTA ANA - Stuart Robinson - Stuart Robinson - TP 52 - SARDEGNA
MINTAKA - Stefano Polti - Stefano Polti - Swan 45 - SARDEGNA
MASCALZONE LATINO - Vincenzo Onorato - Vincenzo Onorato - Farr 40 - SARDEGNA
BRIBON MOVISTAR - Jose Cusi - Pedro Campos - TP 52 - SPAIN
VERTIGO - Marco Salvi - Marco Salvi - Swan 45 - SPAIN
NERONE - Massimo Mezzaroma - Massimo Mezzaroma - Farr 40 - SPAIN
WOKITA.COM - John Buchan - John Buchan - TP 52 - USA
ATLANTICA RACING - Carlo Perrone - Carlo Perrone - Swan 45 - USA
VITA SANGEMINI - Giovanni Arrivabene - Giovanni Arrivabene - Farr 40 - USA
The fleet have now passed 6 miles north of the Scilly Isles. Wind speeds have stayed around 7-9 knots with a top boat speed of 10 knots over the last 6 hours.
Since the last position report, the fleet have separated into two factions. The leading group consists of Ericsson (Neal McDonald), Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) who are still racing at very close quarters. The second group consists of ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brunel (Matt Humphries) who have taken a more northerly course. ABN AMRO TWO have just recently overtaken their sister ship ABN AMRO ONE.
The fleet are currently 121 miles south-east of the Fastnet Rock and 130 miles from Mizen Head on the south coast of Ireland.
It has been a slow Leg 8 so far. The wind might have jumped to the giddy heights of 15 knots for a brief period at the start on Friday, but since than has stayed pegged well below ten knots.
The fleet are in two minds as how best to proceed. At daybreak the three Farr-designed boats, Ericsson, Pirates of the Caribbean and Brasil 1 were sailing in a tight group slightly to the south of the two ABN AMRO boats and Brunel. At the time, the wind was a reasonable eight knots from just west of north.
After a slow Saturday it has been a slow Sunday so far, with the land being too many miles away to create any sea breeze or drainage effect. Currently the boats are virtually in the centre of the St George’s Channel, mid way between Cornwall and the south of Ireland.
Since then the wind has disappeared and the fleet is now wallowing in no wind and with no boat speed.
Pirates are nominally leading from Ericsson with Brasil 1 in third, but the three other boats have lost ground and there are now 17 miles from front to back – the back being ABN AMRO ONE. What wind there is clearly is very shifty, the Farr boats furthest to the west able to make some ground heading just west of north, the trailing three, particularly ABN AMRO ONE and Brunel, wriggling like fish on a hook. The fleet clearly expects wind to come from the north as they are sacrificing westing to get north.
Sailing in these conditions is very trying on the crews and is just as physical – though in a different way, Paul Cayard explains, “Contrary to what you may think, the light air is difficult sailing. We are constantly stacking the boat one way or the other in order to induce heel.
“It seems slow to cant the keel to leeward so we try to get the heel we need with stacking the gear to leeward. Also, light air is difficult helming conditions requiring a lot of concentration. The good news is that we are not slamming the boat around and having her make scary noises.
“Looks like it is going to be a long one.”
Original weather routing showed the likelihood of good reaching conditions coming to the fleet by the time they got to the Fastnet Rock, but latest predictions have that scenario not happening and light to very light winds affecting the whole fleet. Indeed one of the navigators has predicted the boats not reaching the northernmost point of the course until Thursday. Friday’s In Port race in Rotterdam might have to be rescheduled if that forecast plays out.
Mike Sanderson wasn’t too optimistic about the weather, at least his overall position in the race is secure, “Long range it's not looking very good for us, with never really an opportunity setting itself up where we will be able to let ABN AMRO ONE do her stuff. Oh well, we will just give it our all and see what we can do. Very glad though to know that we’re not relying on a good result in this one to claim the overall win, that's ours for sure and so I have to admit that sleep on the boat is just that little bit easier for me to get now than it has ever been.”
The lead boats are currently 77miles from Lands End with 101 miles still to go before reaching Mizzen Head on the south west tip of Ireland
As the Volvo Ocean Race fleet moves slowly north west, there is all to play for in the Irish Sea today. All the yachts have spent the past few days fighting each other for every precious knot of breeze, as they creep across to the Fastnet Rock at the bottom of Ireland. The fleet has split with one pack pushing their way through the high pressure system on a direct course to the rock, whilst the other is attempting to sail round it to the north.
In the past six hours Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) has got a small spurt on and are neck and neck in the lead with Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald). Paul Cayard and his Pirates on The Black Pearl have been temporarily relegated to third but only by a mere one nautical mile.
Ericsson’s new navigator Andrew Cape thinks the high pressure which is sitting on top of the whole fleet will move east and come back to bite the yachts on their way back down to Holland. “We have not had over 3 knots of wind speed for several hours so progress is painful. The fleet is definitely heading for a record run in the next 24 hours for the shortest distance travelled. The water is like glass as far as the eye can see with random zephyr creating a few ripples and giving the nearest boat a temporary advantage.”
The three front runners are currently sailing at an average of three knots while the three back markers ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brunel (Matt Humphries) are to the north east of them and in more breeze.
All three of the pack to the north east, have caught up on the leaders massively in the past six hours. Especially ABN AMRO ONE who has gained 11 nautical miles and moved from last at 1000 GMT today to fourth currently. Mike Sanderson reported earlier his concerns with the leader’s choice of route. “We didn't like the way that the leaders where heading, in our opinion it was just too dangerous to just punch straight into the middle of a high. By doing that you are relying on the fact that it is moving.
“This is one time when I don't think either options will be right, if the Farr boats have snuck through the high and are getting into the southerlies on the western side, then they will be launched and we will be the big losers, if our side pays and we are wriggling along in a light nor westerly then who knows what will happen.”
The teams all seem to be concerned today at the length of time they may be out at sea for due to the light winds. They are worried about missing the In port race in Rotterdam the next stopover but more importantly for some they may run out of food. Paul Cayard the skipper of the Pirates of the Caribbean has already started the preparing for this eventuality, “At this point, we are looking at rationing food. We brought food for six days which would have been one day more than needed. We won't starve but a bit of food management is prudent at this point.”
The light winds and sunny weather look set to stay for the foreseeable future but the heat is still on in the Irish Sea. Will the north easterly pack wiggle free of the leaders? Or will the high move north east and engulf them also?
The Volvo Extreme 40 Class, which competed during the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06, made its debut at the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race today. No records were broken, in the light and frustrating breeze, but Team Holmatro put in a spectacular performance and took line honours in the 50.1 mile race which attracted over 1587 boats.
It was a hard fought race and after eight hours, the first three Volvo Extreme 40’s, Holmatro, Tommy Hilfiger and Team Motorola – CHR all finished within 5 minutes of each other.
This was the first time the Volvo Extreme 40 class have competed in a category 4 race. Expectations were high for a fast finish when the boats reached the half way point of the race in just one and a half hours. However the strong tide and dying breeze meant the boats spent the next 7 hours in light, variable and very frustrating conditions.
Guest on board the winning boat Holmatro, Gael Pawson from Yachts and Yachting enjoyed the VX40 experience immensely.
“It was an amazing race of snakes of ladders. The slightest bit of breeze and you are flying on these boats. It was unbelievable how close the class was, right up to the finish it could have been anybody’s race.”
Skipper of third placed Team Motorola Conrad Humphreys commented,
“It was an awesome start, we got to the right end of the line at a nice angle and we were flying down as far as Yarmouth. It was a frustrating race with moments high speed action followed by long patches at all.
Having said that, we’d love to come back to the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race next year, with a few friends. We’d love to see a British Grand Prix event on the South Coast next year. I think everyone enjoyed the spectacle of the VX40 class racing round the Isle of Wight today.”
Richard Lewis - Sunday Times spent the day on Motorola
“This is a thrilling experience – often you report on sporting events from the press box which can be a pretty static experience. Its’ not until you get on these boats that you realise that this is sport at the highest level and its’ amazing to take part.”
Round the world record solo yachtswoman Dee Caffari was on board Basilica.
“It was a great opportunity to sail with these guys because I have never sailed a multi-hull like this before and it was nice they gave me some responsibility navigating. There are still talking to me so I must have done an ok job.”
The north and south equally split arms of the Volvo fleet are slowly but surely converging on the Fastnet rock, which is situated a few miles off the south west coast of Ireland. The lead boats are currently 20 nautical miles from the picturesque rock and its lighthouse, the most southerly point of the Republic of Ireland.
The current Fastnet lighthouse is the second to be built on the rock and the highest in Ireland, with the focal point of the light 48.5 metres above high water mark. It has the name Carraig Aonair in Irish, which means simply ‘Lonely Rock’.
The whole fleet is still so close that only 10 miles separate leader from back marker.
As the fleet approaches the peninsular of Mizen Head situated in the west of County Cork the wind has decreased from 9 knots to 4 knots over the last six hours since the last report and the fleet is struggling for find any breeze they can. They are currently 11 nautical miles east of Mizen and within a mile of the Fastnet Rock.
Located on the promontory of Mizen Head is an old signalling station, a weather station and a lighthouse. The Mizen Head signal station was built in 1910 to save lives off the treacherous rocks at Ireland’s most south westerly point, but all is extreemly calm on this wind less night.
Earlier this morning the six-boat fleet racing in leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race passed the famous Fastnet Rock, in what seems like the slowest passage ever. The leaders have now passed Mizzen Head and are heading north towards Gt. Skellig on the south west tip of Ireland.
The frustration of sailing in volatile and variable light airs will continue for at least another 24 hours as the large area of high pressure is drifting slowly east. The fleet is eagerly awaiting the stronger south-south westerly winds on the western periphery of the high. The average speed over the last 24-hours for leading yacht Ericsson (Neal McDonald) is only 5.4 knots and only 129 miles have been covered in that period.
Ericsson still leads the fleet in the north, with Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) hot on their heels, just a mile behind, and watching every move. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has taken a more southerly route, and the rest of the fleet have taken the same decision.
With still over 1000 miles to cover to reach the finish in Rotterdam, leg eight is slow going, although only 14 miles separate the fleet from first to last, and the contest is still open.
With half of the food onboard already consumed and not even a third of the way into leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race, it will be a slimmer set of sailors who eventually arrive in Rotterdam after their scenic tour of Ireland.
At present, the fleet is gybing up the western coast of Ireland and slipping along quite nicely in 12 – 14 knots of breeze. The leaders are 34 miles west of Slyne Head and just 11 miles separate the boats from east to west, with Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), the nearest to the shore.
Although the top two places remain the same, there has been some reshuffling of the pack and now Brunel (Matthew Humphries) occupies third position and ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has slipped back to last place, with the second Dutch boat, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard). Seven miles now separates the fleet from first to last place.
Although there has been little wind, the scenery has more than made up for it and this morning began when dawn revealed some of the most rugged and beautiful coastlines imaginable. Jerry Kirby, from Pirates of the Caribbean, said that the racing was great but the scenery was spectacular. The day was spent gybing in and out of every bay to take advantage of the wind shifts and taking a closer look at coast at the same time.
Simon Fisher from ABN AMRO TWO wrote: “Our day started sailing in and out of the mist rolling down off the hills and, as the sun rose and the mist burnt off, it gave way to spectacular views of rolling green hills and a weather-beaten rocky coastline. With castles and towers stationed on each headland, it gives you the feeling of sailing through a scene out of Lord of the Rings.”
Weather forecasts indicate that there will be very little wind for the rest of this leg, so gazing at the scenery will at least occupy some curious minds and help reduce the boredom.
As the fleet sailed passed the Lizard and Land’s End earlier this evening, they were less than half a mile from the Cornish coastline, making spectacular viewing for anyone looking out to sea.
Over the last 6 hours, boat speeds have averaged 5-10 knots with ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) briefly touching the highest speed of 17 knots.
Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald), Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) have been fighting a very close battle over the last few hours. The leader board has changed several times with all three boats currently positioned neck and neck. Just behind the leaders, both ABN AMRO yachts have their own jostling match to contend with. Only one mile separates ABN AMRO ONE and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse).
As the fleet leave the English coastline and head across the Irish Sea, the high pressure system centred just to the west of the Scilly Isles, means the fleet may see a further drop in wind speed. However, concentration and sail trim will be crucial with such close racing carrying on through the night.
Portsmouth, England – June 2, 2006 – Thousands of spectators lined the waterfront at Gunwharf Quays to wave goodbye to the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06.
As the six boats headed off the dock and out to Southsea castle for the start, each team laid a wreath in the water in memory of ABN AMRO TWO sailor Hans Horrevoets, who passed away on the previous leg.
In brilliant sunshine and a gentle breeze the Volvo Open 70’s got off to a spectacular start with Brunel, skippered by Englishman Matt Humphries, breaking the line first followed immediately by Sebastien Josse’s ABN AMRO TWO and five times Olympic medallist Torben Grael skippering Brasil 1.
The Solent was always going to prove a challenge for the teams as it is renowned for throwing up a mixture of conditions and today it didn’t disappoint, providing very fickle and tricky winds.
Within twenty minutes of the start, the breeze dropped to 5 knots as the teams navigated their way through the huge number of spectator craft that lined the race track.
As the breeze dropped, both of the ABN AMRO boats began to slow, providing an opportunity for the Farr designed boats to excel. Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean managed to maintain speed to push through the fleet into the lead followed by Brasil 1 and Ericsson skippered by local Hamble sailor Neal McDonald.
As the fleet headed towards the gate at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, they were met by a second wave of spectator boats from the mainland sailing port of Hamble and from Cowes marina.
Torben Grael, renowned for his expertise in light conditions, was the first boat through the Cowes gate, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean and Ericsson. ABN AMRO TWO led sistership ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson/NZ) through the gate with Brunel bringing up the rear.
As the fleet continued through The Solent, flanked by an armada of spectator craft, the wind continued to challenge the teams. Brasil 1 maintained the lead as they headed towards The Needles at the start of the 1,500 nautical mile journey round Britain and Ireland to the penultimate Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 stopover port of Rotterdam.
June 2, 2006: At 1730 hrs (BST) today ABN AMRO TWO crossed the start line in first place just off Southsea Castle, Portsmouth, to begin leg 8, the penultimate leg of the 2005-6 Volvo Ocean Race. In a fickle sea breeze, the fleet started cleanly and set off on their ‘Round Britain and Ireland’ course, en route to Rotterdam, the home of TEAM ABN AMRO. Amongst a fantastic fleet of spectator craft the two ABN AMRO boats reached away towards the turning mark in Cowes, Isle of Wight, in first and second place.
Simon Fisher, the British navigator onboard ABN AMRO TWO commented: “The forecast for this leg isn’t great for us. I think once we are out of the Solent the track we take round the Lizard will be pretty important tactically too, it’s an unusual course. There’s still lots for us to play for in these next two legs and in the Rotterdam inport race too, so we’ll be putting the pressure on and have really stripped the boat out in preparation. It’s been great for me to be here at home this last week, but we’re looking forward to reaching Rotterdam.”
Skipper Mike Sanderson (NZ) commented before the leg start: “In a way it would have been good for us to have had the race finish here, having already secured enough points for the win. The forecast doesn’t look too good for our boats in the next leg, but we are going to go out there and enjoy racing against these amazing five teams. This could be one of our last opportunities to sail together with everyone having different plans after the race so we are just going to make the most of sailing as a team. It’s been a long road getting here and so it’s good to take some time to enjoy our victory! It would be great to have a good result into Rotterdam for the bank; ABN AMRO ONE was christened there, so it’s an important stop for us.”
ABN AMRO TWO are currently in fourth place overall just three and a half points behind Brasil 1 and nine points behind the Pirates of the Caribbean in second place. Whilst ABN AMRO ONE can no longer be beaten in the Volvo Ocean Race, it is entirely possible for ABN AMRO TWO to pull through to take one of the two remaining podium positions, with a maximum of 17.5 points still available for the taking in this race.
Having battled with the tricky tides of the Solent, the boats race out towards the Lizard this evening, past Lands End and out towards the Fastnet Rock, before heading northwards round the west coast of Ireland and up over the top of Scotland.
Before the leg start in Portsmouth today, members from each of the six boats placed wreaths in the water as a mark of respect for Hans Horrevoets, crewmember of ABN AMRO TWO, who tragically lost his life in leg 7. The fleet are currently expected to arrive in Rotterdam next Thursday afternoon.
Current Overall Results
1st ABN AMRO ONE – 84.5 pts
2nd Pirates of the Caribbean – 59.5 pts
3rd Brasil 1 – 52 pts
4th ABN AMRO TWO – 48.5 pts
5th movistar – 48 pts
6th Ericsson – 45 pts
7th Brunel – 8pts
West Michigan is privileged to have the best location in the Midwest for small boat sailing. Our inland lakes and the shore of Lake Michigan are perfect for this inexpensive outdoor activity. Torresen Marine is a long time supporter of small boat sailing and would like to introduce you to this amazing sport.
The fun starts with the Torresen Marine Sailing Demo Day on the beach at Muskegon Yacht Club, 3198 Edgewater. We will have a Laser, Sunfish, Butterfly, JY 15, RS Feva, Precision 15 and Precision 18.5 available. The RS Feva is a new sailboat with a spinnaker for the sailor who demands higher performance. We will have experienced sailors available to help you between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m on Saturday, June 24, 2006. There is no charge for this event so please give Peter or Dick a call at 231-759-8596 to schedule a sail.
This event kicks off the Summer Boat Sale. All Vanguard, Butterfly and JY 15 boats sold between June 24, 2006 and July 1, 2006 will be eligible for free gear. Choose from a Seitech dolly or a Storm deck cover. Any Precision Boat sold during the same time period will qualify for a Nissan Outboard engine included at no charge.
All ages and skill levels are invited to these events.
Come join the fun!
Dateline Muskegon, Michigan
Hosted by Fleet 36, this annual regatta was again a huge success second only to the North American’s in number of boats. Thanks to the locals, the weather, the sponsors, and especially the turnout from the Detroit fleet. After nearly a year of e-mails and phone calls, twenty-seven boats came forth to do battle on and off the water. Starting with the normal Friday night shenanigans with food being provided by Sarah Rooks and the Watermark Lofts development.
Saturday’s start time of 11:00 am is a tried and true opportunity to prep, puke, and lather up with a great bloody before the wind rolls in to do its job. And as usual by gun time we had 15 knots of breeze for some great sailing on this inland lake arena. The southwesterly showed little advantage from one side to the other with the left side of the beats maybe being the safer bet. The leaders early are the most common names in the Midwest with Mike Dow and friends catching the first bullet followed closely by locals Stirred Not Shaken (Ken Gray, Pat Sagan, Josh Wallace, and John Schumacher), then Chuck Holzman, Bora Gulari, and crew bringing on third. Without going into to a blow by blow description, it’s safe to say that in this wind clean starts and clean lanes both up and down played a big part in the scoring recipe. Four races on Saturday set the theme for Sunday. Dow leading Holzman, leading Muskegon’s Jim and Becca Beebe, leading Paul Hulsey, leading Stirred Not Shaken to round out the top five.
Saturday, Sarah Powers and My Auto Import Center provided the night’s dinner. Dinner was a slow southern boil cooked by Scotty Miller and Dave Burlingame. You can read the evenings details on Sailing Anarchy under the Muskegon forum.
On to Sunday… found a cooler full of Bloodys in the cockpit and 20+ knots of breeze on the lake. After a couple of general recalls, the racing got off with a 6-leg race in some very stiff breeze. Saw lots of boats struggling with keels in the air, kites and people in the water, and some screaming downwind speeds. After this six-leg bludgeoning we decided to get to shore before someone got hurt or a rig came down. Dow took a downwind blow and Bora and Chuck took full advantage to move ahead in the series. Third and fourth was decided by a boat length at the finish.
Special thanks go out the continued support from Torresen Marine for providing the boats, people, and equipment necessary to pull this regatta off.
Back on shore the early season celebrating continued with burgers and fun on the lawn with the fun turning into blurs. Mr. Clean got lots of attention, as he is a sailing journalist with plenty of cobwebs in his closet. Look for some great sailing in the Midwest with the next stop in Hulsey Country and the Bayview Yacht Club of Detroit. If you want to see some great regatta pictures go to Blink Photography and in the upper right hand corner click on the bio/contact/links area. Then click on my pictures. Enter the event: mlges24midwestseries. Then enter the album. Some great shots here.
See you next year at this great season starter.
| Melges 24 | |||||||||
| Hull No. | Sail No. | Skipper | Place | Total | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | Race 4 | Race 5 |
| 1 | 660 | Holzman | 1 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | 613 | Dow | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 89 | 615 | Hulsey | 3 | 26 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 3 |
| 10 | 175 | Gray/Sagan | 4 | 28 | 2 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 176 | Beebe | 5 | 38 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 16 |
| 7 | 160 | Vowels | 6 | 39 | 17 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| 55 | 500 | Hollerbach | 7 | 40 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 2 |
| 99 | 619 | Convexity | 8 | 49 | 10 | 3 | 20 | 11 | 5 |
| 50 | 46 | Lindhout | 9 | 55 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 13 | 12 |
| 11 | 31 | Moxie | 10 | 59 | 11 | 7 | 21 | 10 | 10 |
| 14 | 511 | Podmajersky | 11 | 60 | 6 | OCS | 13 | 5 | 9 |
| 4 | 217 | Torresen | 12 | 60 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 9 | DNF |
| 0 | 142 | Miller | 13 | 67 | 14 | 4 | 16 | 14 | 19 |
| 2 | 570 | McCliment | 14 | 73 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 12 | 6 |
| 32 | 12 | Wenzler | 15 | 75 | 8 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 15 |
| 12 | 113 | O'Neill | 16 | 82 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 18 | DNF |
| 19 | 99 | Lewis | 17 | 82 | 21 | 15 | 12 | 21 | 13 |
| 57 | 510 | Rozelh | 18 | 83 | 16 | 19 | 11 | 20 | 17 |
| 18 | 458 | Schoendorf | 19 | 85 | DNS | 18 | 14 | 15 | 11 |
| 9 | 346 | Steyn | 20 | 88 | 22 | 14 | 18 | 16 | 18 |
| 20 | 202 | Bunn/Henderson | 21 | 92 | 9 | 17 | 22 | 17 | DNF |
| 13 | 13 | Frisinger | 22 | 105 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 23 | 20 |
| 30 | 30 | Bowen | 23 | 107 | 19 | 25 | DNF | 22 | 14 |
| 22 | 86 | Andrews | 24 | 119 | 24 | 22 | 19 | DNF | DNS |
| 83 | 153 | Leonard | 25 | 124 | 25 | 24 | DNS | DNF | 21 |
| 16 | 14 | Telemaque | 26 | 127 | 23 | 23 | DNF | DNF | DNS |
It has been said that when two sailboats are in sight of one another, there is a race going on. Who among us has not given a little tweak to the vang or a click on the winch when another boat is approaching, even while cruising.
Serious racing, where there are start and finish lines, requires a lot more than adjustments if you are intent on winning. Your boat must be sound so that you can finish a race without a breakdown. You must do all that is possible to make the hull go through the water with the least resistance. The sails must be in good condition and trimmed properly at all times during a race. Anything lacking in your preparations turns into an excuse for not winning. You and your crew, if you have one, need to think "race" and nothing more from well before the start until the boat has crossed the finish line.
I personally have never been cruising. When I go sailing it is in a race. I have made many deliveries but always tried to complete them in as short a time as possible (a race). I have never gone to a starting line without knowing that I was going to win that race. Needless to say, I have had many disappointments. The yachts upon which I have raced range from eight-foot prams to seventy footers. All made great races.
Racers need to get psyched up. Crew involvement in boat preparation helps everyone share in the victories long before the race starts. Thinking fast helps generate speed. You want to have sailing speed on your mind long before heading for the starting line. There is more to racing than steering and sail handling. Make sailing second nature. Sort of like walking, do it for a while and you don't need "left foot right foot", it becomes automatic. The more functions that you automate, the more time you have for thinking off the top of your head.
The best way to win races is to get a good lead - and maintain it.
2 June 2006 - Leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race started from Portsmouth today, in light and shifty conditions. The Ericsson Racing Team started in the middle of the pack, and is currently second with 1,500 nautical miles until Rotterdam. The penultimate leg promises a very tactical and tricky race, with big potential gains and losses. The six-strong fleet will sail out through the western end of the Solent, past the Needles and into the English Channel, headed for Lands End, the Scilly Isles and the infamous Fastnet rock, south of Ireland.
Friday's race started at 17.30 local time just off Southsea Castle, where thousands of spectators lined the shore. Conditions were light and shifty, with 10 knots of south easterly breeze at the start, easing off to just 2-3 knots. After a close start, ABN Amro Two led the fleet off the line, followed by Brasil 1 and Pirates. Ericsson got out in fifth, but soon started climbing back through the fleet.
The course takes the boats upwind from Southsea towards Cowes and through a non-scoring gate just to the east. Later this evening they will leave the Needles to port, before heading out into the English Channel, headed for the next waypoint at Mizen head.
The first few days of the leg will be very light, in stark contrast to the transatlantic crossing. Sitting at the forefront of the navigators minds will be the high pressure system that is dominating the Irish Sea and showing very little signs of moving.
"I have done five Fastnets and this looks like it will be similar to a couple, where you have super light air and it is like breeze minefields everywhere," says Ken Read (USA), who will work closely with Ericsson navigator Andrew Cape (AUS) and skipper Neal McDonald (GBR) on tactics and strategy. "In these conditions you have to choose your route and hope for a combination of some good fortune and tactical skill to get you in the right spot."
According to Read, the best approach with any distance race like this is to split it up into multiple races with headlands. "The first race will be to Portland Bill, which is the first headland that we come to," says Read. "Then to Lands End, the Scilly Isles, Fastnet rock and so on."
"The next two days will be very important," says Irish bowman Damian Foxall (IRL), who believes it will be a leader's race once the boats head up the west coast of his homeland Ireland. "The wind is expected to fill in once we round the Fastnet and Mizen head. This is when it will be crucial to be in the front of the fleet. There is likely to be good pressure as we get up to Northern Ireland and Scotland and it will become a downwind race."
The sailors are expecting another case of the rich getting richer and passing opportunities could be limited during the second half of the race. Once the boats reach the North Sea, they will head straight down to an offshore mark near Ijmuiden to the north of Rotterdam, before sailing south down the coast to the finish north of the entrance to the Maas waterway. The Ericsson Racing Team predicts an ETA of 8 June in Rotterdam.
"When I got off the boat after the transatlantic, I remember thinking 'oh my god I have to get on that boat again in a week and a half'. But now the stopover has gone by, honestly I can't wait - I am really looking forward to it!" concludes Ken Read.
For the 68th year straight, the Société Nautique de Genève is organising the infamous Bol d'Or Rolex, the greatest European sailing competition on inland waters, to be held on 17th and 18th June 2006. The newly elected President of the Organisation Committee, Thierry Chapatte and his team, are currently directing the great Helvetian nautical festival.
Between 550 and 600 boats are expected on Lake Léman, divided into 7 monohull classes and 2 multihull classes. Talented amateurs from all around the globe will spend the weekend sailing alongside the world's sailing stars such as 2005 winner Loïck Peyron, Russell Coutts, Ernesto Bertarelli, Dominique Wavre and Alain Gautier, winner of the Vendée Globe 1993.
The grouped start promises to be a spectacular event for both spectators and competitors alike, with all the boats massed together on a single start line spanning the entire width of the lake. The multihulls and the large and small monohulls, are free to manoeuvre around on a start line split up into three. The small monohulls will set off from the South, the multihulls from the North and the rest of the fleet will take up position in the centre of this line.
The course starts off the harbour of Geneva and includes rounding a mark situated at the South-Eastern extremity of Lake Léman, near Bouveret, prior to the finish at Geneva. The 150km or 80 mile course enables racers to discover the Swiss lake in its entirety.
A new facet to the race this year is that the general public have the opportunity of following the progress of participants in the Bol d'Or Rolex in real time. Thanks to a solution put in place by technological partners LogiFleet, INSER and Cross Systems, the position of a hundred competitors will be accessible to internet users.
For this particular race, boats will be equipped with a GPS beacon coupled to a GSM system. The information transmitted by these beacons will be used by a cartographic website to supply precise information on the position, speed, direction and trajectories etc adopted by the boats.
The cutting edge, one design catamarans will race in a class of their own and records could be smashed if the conditions are right.
The five high speed boats, Basilica, Holmatro, Motorola-CHR, Tommy Hilfiger and Volvo Ocean Race, have been a huge attraction, drawing spectator crowds in their 1,000s right across the world during the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06.
The JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, run and organised by the Island Sailing Club, will be their first race outside of their normal in-port racing circuit. The race will give them the opportunity to shine in the 50 mile course.
Current race leaders of the Volvo Extreme 40 circuit are ‘Tommy Hilfiger’ with 32 points. Skipper Randy Smyth (USA) commented: “This is going to be the first time pitting the Volvo Extreme 40s against the rest of the sailing world. So far we’ve only sailed on the grand prix circuit. Racing these high specification yachts is going to be really interesting for the sailors and the spectators, and checking out how these high speed machines fair against the rest of the sailing world is going to be fantastic.”
Jonnie Hutchcroft (GBR) from the same team, who grew up in the area commented: “I’ve raced around the Island before. I’m really proud to be involved with these boats, we could even break some records. We hope to be the fastest round the Island but the main thing will be that we’re bringing together these five state-of-the-art, one design boats and will be sailing with everyone else.”
Greg Homann, one of the crew aboard ‘Volvo’ lives on the Isle of Wight and explained how he felt about doing the race around sailing ground he knows so well: “It’s going to be exciting doing the (JPMorgan Asset Management) Round the Island Race and will be the first time we’ll be competing in a proper offshore race. It’s going to be really interesting to see how they go. We’re really looking forward to it!”
Another team who will be visiting their old stomping ground is the Hayling Island based crew, ‘Basilica’ who are looking forward to sailing in front of a home crowd. Onboard will be Dee Caffari, fresh from her record breaking solo circumnavigation of the globe ‘the wrong way round’, against winds and currents onboard her Challenge 72 Aviva.
Team Basilica skipper James Grant (GBR) explained: “Having Dee on board Basilica for the (JPMorgan Asset Management) Round the Island Race is fantastic news for everyone. Her round the world accomplishment is awe inspiring and we hope we can add a Round the Island race victory, possibly even a new record, to her long list of accomplishments.”
The Volvo Extreme 40 Class will start the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race with the other competing multihulls at 06.20hrs. The fleet start from the famous Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes, racing westabout to The Needles, round St Catherine's Point, the Bembridge Ledge buoy, and then back into the Solent finishing at the Royal Yacht Squadron line.
The JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race Village will be open from midday on both Friday 2nd and Race Day, Saturday 3rd June. It will close at midnight on Friday and one o’clock a.m on Saturday. Live entertainment will begin at 8pm on Friday and 4.30pm on Saturday. Further information can be found at www.roundtheisland.org.uk
Understanding sailboat racing is very similar to understanding mathematics. I can spend years with exposure to both and never fully understand either. I’d like to think I am not the only one out there with this dilemma.
To preface these statements I should offer the following information. I am not a sailor. I have been sailing too many times to count. I have raced about half of those times. Yet, I do not consider myself knowledgeable or skilled enough to be deemed "Sailor". With this in mind, let me explain some of what I find boggling about sailing and sailboat racing.
Sailing fundament number one, terminology. You must understand that no part on a boat is named what it would seem. Nautical terminology is a language in and of itself, dating back beyond the 13th century. Although the terminology has remained essentially unchanged, it has also expanded many times over with the advent of new technology. The physical actions correlating to a boat have their own names, as do all the parts on the vessel. So a pulley is not a pulley (call it a sheave). And turning is no longer turning (that’s tacking or gybing). Sound like jargon? Well, this is just the tip of the terminology iceberg.
Let’s say you manage to understand nautical terminology. Now you need to apply it. To do this you should understand sailing from a scientific point of view. Supposedly the sail is like a bird’s wing. Whatever it is that makes birds and airplanes fly makes a boat go too. And the wind directly behind you pushing you forward is not really ideal. Also it is a rare occasion that a sailboat travels in a straight line from point A to point B. Did I mention that your vessel is better off with the wind coming at you from some angle? Science? Yes. Common sense? Absolutely not.
With the know how and terminology down (in theory) you should be able to set sail. Yet it is important to know that sailboats are unruly beasts. They are tipsy and slippery. They are not necessarily comfortable. And they rely on wind and water, which is ungovernable at best.
Some folks will take right to sailing. They just get it. Naturals we call them. Others will suffer mass confusion, and often fear. Some think they have it down, to the amusement of those who have actually figured it out. Like any skill the levels are as numerable as sailors themselves.
At this time I should also mention one of the evils of traveling via water…motion sickness. Yes, I have enjoyed at least an hour of my life lying on a filthy floor of a boat wracked with nausea. Better sailors than myself have recounted terrifying stories of illness and days lost. But let’s not dwell on the ugly stuff.
All right, here we are skilled sailors out on the boat, sailing away. Now lets add a new complication, other boats. As with driving a car, there are “rules of the road”. When commanding a boat, though, there is no road. It would seem that all hell would break loose with no lines to follow and boats running about willy nilly. Yet, accidents are few by comparison with autos. And the system, complicated as it is, works quite nicely.
Assume at this point that we have mastered all the skills we need to sail comfortably and confidently in most conditions and under the rules of navigation. Now we will add the element of competition.
Sailboat racing has it’s own complicated set of rules. These rules are spelled out in book form and updated every few years. The Racing Rules of Sailing is a small book stating the rules, and a larger book to accompany it is Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing. Yes, that is correct. One book in complicated wording, and a 2nd in layman’s terms. As an example let’s take a random rule, like #18.4, pertaining to gybing when boats meet. Here is the rule, “When an inside overlapped right-of-way boat must gybe at a mark or obstruction to sail her proper course, until she gybes she shall sail no farther from the mark or obstruction than needed to sail that course.” WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE? (To those of you who do know what we are talking about I would ask that you not inundate my email box with the answer. Thank you.) I’ll tell you what we are really talking about, per the “Larger Book”, two pages of easy to read explanations on how vague this rule really is. The explanation utilizes words like commonly, thinks and likely. These are all words leaving the rule up to vast interpretation.
Yes, the rules are wordy. But pretend you get them at this point. So now take a swing over by the race committee boat to see what the course is. There you’ll see several flags being changed accordingly. This flag corp. display is useful knowledge that each boat needs. Don’t forget to check out the bunch of numbers posted too. This is your plotted course. Good luck.
Before the race commences you need to contend with the starting line. The preparation for the start may be more complicated and important than most of the actual race…go figure. There is such mass confusion, for the unknowing like myself, during the last minutes prior to the start of a race. Boats are weaving tightly about one another. In and out, port and starboard, rights of way. In the midst of this madness those with the knowledge are applying the rules of racing. The more boats on the course, the more rules due to the numerous situations occurring. It is, to say the least, intense. Nor I can think of another sport where the race starts prior to the race.
The starting horn has blasted and the real race is on. Boats are to head toward sequential marks placed about the course. You would think that the vessels would all travel in the same direction. NO! Wrong, it is an open field. Hells bells! It is up to the discretion of each boat to choose the path they feel best suited to the task. And from what I can tell it is an educated crapshoot at best. So, boats are travelling in all directions, at all speeds with one mark in mind.
Whilst on the boat you will hear your fellow (experienced) sailors comment on the whereabouts of the other vessels. “So-and-so is out front” and “so-and-so is passing”. These statements will likely not be obvious to a new racing sailor. Why? Because those boats in reference are usually 30 acres away headed in a different direction. And yet the statements are often right on the nose!
I could go on for paragraphs on how confusing sailing is and racing in particular. Why bother? You get the picture, and have likely had moments of association. In reality I enjoy most of the time spent on a boat. In fact whilst racing I have found a sweet numbness. I do what I am told to the best of my ability, and blank my brain out for the ride. The last time I used this technique I think my geometry teacher was hovering over my desk in desperation.
After leaving Portsmouth, UK, this evening in breeze which varied in strength and direction, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) leads the hunt across Christchurch Bay, just 22 miles south west of the Needles on the western tip of the Isle of Wight and 18 miles from Portland Bill, on the Dorset coast, as the crow flies.
As the fleet approached the western end of the Solent, Paul Cayard and the Pirates from the Caribbean tacked over to the Beaulieu shore on the mainland in a move which cost them two places, letting Ericsson (Neal McDonald) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) slip by.
Brunel (Matthew Humphries) and ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) both opted for the middle lane out of the Solent which left them trailing almost out of sight of the leaders as they wallowed in little or no breeze and they have still not been able to make up the three mile deficit.
Currently, all boats in the fleet are averaging around five knots and the forecast is for the breeze to remain light for at least the next 24 hours, indicating frustratingly slow progress for the fleet as the teams head back down the English Channel, a piece of water they covered in reverse only days before, but in the teeth of a howling gale.
High tide at Portland Bill tonight is 2209 GMT and this will mean that the fleet at least has the tide with them as round the race at Portland and head across Lyme Bay.
1 June 2006 - The eighth and penultimate leg of the Volvo Ocean Race will kick off from Portsmouth (UK) tomorrow, Friday 2 June, at 17.30; a 1,500 nautical mile dash around Ireland and the UK to Rotterdam (NED). With an expected arrival date of 8 June, the sailors are predicting a tricky, light air leg, in stark contrast to the previous transatlantic crossing. The Ericsson Racing Team has strong ambitions, after achieving second place on leg seven.
"We had a fantastic welcome here in Portsmouth," says Ericsson skipper Neal McDonald (GBR). "It has been a very busy stopover, but great to be home and catch up with my friends and family. We had a really good day sailing on Wednesday and now its time to put all our energy into this next leg."
Friday's race will start at 17.30 local time, scheduled to collide with high tide and the mass exodus of hundreds of supporters from work. The start off Southsea Castle will provide a great viewing platform for spectators, immediately to the east of Portsmouth Harbour. The six-strong fleet will sail out through the western end of the Solent, past the Needles and into the English Channel, headed for Lands End, the Scilly Isles and the Fastnet rock south of Ireland.
For navigator Andrew Cape (AUS), it will be his first time sailing offshore with the Ericsson Racing Team, having previously sailed onboard movistar. "It will be a light, tricky start to the leg, with a high pressure dominating the Irish Sea," explains Cape, who predicts a slow start to the race. It currently looks like there will be two options - one to the right which will take the boats close to the Irish shore, the other to the left, going out into the Atlantic and skirting around the high pressure system. The first will be the shortest route, but also means a long stretch of sailing upwind in light airs. The other would mean sailing a greater distance out to the west, but at a slightly faster downwind angle.
"The early stages might decide the leg and we will be looking to get a good jump," says Cape. "Personally, I am looking forward to a quiet leg after such a tough race across the Atlantic, although I will enjoy the mental challenge."
From the Fastnet rock, the boats will turn the corner and head up the rugged west coast of Ireland, where big Atlantic swells can pound the shore in big breezes. They will round the coast of Northern Island and continue north past the Hebrides and the top of Scotland. The fleet will then enter the home straight - south down the North Sea, dodging oil and gas fields, and across to Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe, across some of the most congested shipping lanes in the world.
"It could be a very challenging leg," comments McDonald. "There will be lots of headland and corners to turn as the yachts race around the island, so plenty of opportunities for boats to get stuck. The key will be getting to the Fastnet in good shape and getting around the high pressure system."
Portsmouth, England – June 1, 2006 – There will be no short cuts or easy passages to mainland Europe when the Volvo Ocean Race fleet departs Portsmouth tomorrow (Friday, June 2) on the eighth leg of the world’s premier ocean race.
When the start gun goes from Southsea castle at 1730 local time the route the fleet will take is tricky and very much the long way round.
Before reaching the open waters of the English Channel, the teams first have to tackle The Solent, the narrow strip of water which lies between Portsmouth (mainland UK) and the Isle of Wight, notorious for its tidal quirks and sand banks.
After passing through a gate off Cowes, on the north side of the Isle of Wight, the fleet will leave the Needles to port and head west down the English Channel. Once they have passed the Fastnet Rock, off Ireland, they head north for the second part of this leg, going almost as far as the Shetland Islands, on the northern tip of Scotland, before turning south into the North Sea for the final approach into Rotterdam, Holland.
ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson/NZ) goes into this penultimate leg with the overall winner’s trophy already in the bag, but they will still be racing hard to bring ‘Black Betty’ first into her home port.
“The boat has Rotterdam written on the back and it was where she was christened. It is our home port and we are really looking forward to getting there as it will be a big stopover for us,” commented Sanderson.
With first place taken, second position will be hard fought. Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean will be looking for another podium finish to firm up their second position overall. They currently lead Brasil 1 (Torben Grael/BRA) by 7.5 points but the light conditions forecast for the start might just suit Grael, who is know as the magician for his ability to triumph in fickle winds.
After posting their first podium position in the offshore legs so far, Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald/UK) will also be hoping to go one better. They are currently 3.5 points behind ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) who are currently placed fourth overall.
After rejoining the event in Baltimore, Brunel (Grant Wharington/AUS) only has eight points on the board, but performance evaluation of the boat is key for this team and they will be happy with the improvement it has shown so far after its major refit in Australia. British skipper Matt Humphries steps up the role as skipper again for the offshore leg and is looking forward to the challenge;
“We are feeling good. The boat has come a long way since Melbourne and we have seen some real potential. We are feeling confident and are hoping to show everyone what Brunel can do. Round Britain and Ireland is a race I have done a few times and is a race that I would really like to see Brunel successful in.”
Leg eight, although short, at just 1,500 nautical miles, will give the navigators plenty to think about: inshore versus offshore breezes, tide and current to be factored in, shipping, oil rigs, islets and rocks all to be avoided.
Weather models are suggesting that a large area of high pressure will be centred just southwest of Ireland which will provide light, north westerly breeze at the start, which could give the fleet a fairly slow exit from the Solent under spinnaker. Sea breezes in the late afternoon may see the winds shifting to the south or southwest within 10 miles of the shore, but by late on Friday evening, the winds will return to the north but generally decreasing as the boats get further west.
Listeners can tune in to the restart live at www.volvooceanrace.org or at Express FM (93.7 FM).
The Volvo Open 70’s are expected to arrive into Rotterdam around the 7 June 2006.
Current Leaderboard
1st ABN AMRO ONE, Mike Sanderson (NZL) 84.5 pts
2nd Pirates of the Caribbean, Paul Cayard (USA) 59.5 pts
3rd Brasil 1, Torben Grael (BRA) 52.0 pts
4th ABN AMRO TWO, Sebastien Josse (FRA) 48.5 pts
5th movistar, Bouwe Bekking (NED) 48.0 pts
6th Ericsson Racing Team, Neal McDonald (GBR) 45.0 pts
7th Brunel, Grant Wharington (AUS) 8.0 pts