Following the recent birth of his second child, for personal family reasons British sailor Brian Thompson has made the difficult decision to step down as co-skipper to Guillermo Altadill in the Barcelona World Race. Brian will remain with the team as coach to pass on his IMOCA 60 experience to Guillermo and a new co-skipper who will be selected in the coming weeks, in time for the Rolex Fastnet Race starting 12th August.
“This has been an extremely difficult personal decision for me, as ever since this race was announced I’ve been excited by the prospect. The new Farr boat we have has been superbly built, and we definitely have a chance of being on the podium with her. The boat went in to the water last week, and I am looking forward to finally seeing her sail and to developing her for Guillermo and the team. But I am very disappointed that I won’t be onboard for the Barcelona World Race but my family has to come first in this case,” concluded Brian.
In addition to Brian retaining an integral part of the team, British sailor Neal McDonald is joining the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team as Performance Technical Manager from now until the start of the Barcelona World Race. McDonald brings extensive experience to the team with his background in offshore racing at the very highest level. The team is in discussion with other top-level offshore skippers and an announcement will be made in due course to confirm the co-skipper.
The title sponsor of Altadill's campaign for the Barcelona World Race will officially be announced on the 2nd July.
Traverse Area Community Sailing is pleased to invite your junior sailors to join us in our annual Cherry Pit Regatta on Friday, July 6!
The Notice of Race and the application is attached with this message and will also be available at the TACS website.
This regatta is open to all Junior Sailors (ages 8-17), regardless of club affiliation, and will be sailed in the following classes with a minimum of 5 boats needed per class:
A) Single handed - Lasers (Full, Radial, & 4.7)
B) Doublehanded - JY 15s
C) Triplehanded - Interlakes
Other classes may be added if 5 or more boats enter.
The regatta will be held on Boardman Lake in Traverse City (see map below).
TACS may be able to supply boats to interested sailors on a first come first served basis. Contact Jim Sorbie at 231-590-5341 or at jsorbie@centurytel.net for information.
After the regatta join us back at Hull Park (600 Hannah, near the corner of Woodmere & Hannah, see map below) for the awards ceremony and a picnic.
LONG BEACH, Calif.---The U.S. West Coast's largest inshore keelboat regatta ushers in the first weekend of summer when Acura presents Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week Friday through Sunday, co-hosted by the Long Beach and Alamitos Bay Yacht Clubs.
Among the headliners is the title sponsor's namesake, Dave Ullman, who will be seeking his third consecutive win in Melges 24s---this time as the reigning world champion following last month's wildly dramatic victory at Santa Cruz, Calif.
Ullman will share his secrets in a boat speed talk at Long Beach YC Friday at 10 a.m., followed by a competitors' briefing at 10:30.
There will be as many as 130 one-design and PHRF entries from 24 (the Melges) to 68 feet (Mike Campbell and Dale Williams' Kernan 70, Peligroso, and Al Schultz's Andrews 70, Vicki). All are scheduled for seven races on three courses, one inside and two outside the breakwater. Racing will start at 1 p.m. Friday and at noon Saturday and Sunday, conditions permitting.
About two-thirds of the boats are one-designs. Fifteen J/105s are the largest fleet, while seven Farr 40s will be celebrating their 10th year of racing in the world. Beneteau 36.7s and venerable Schock 35s are also well represented.
The regatta will mark the local introduction of the Flying Tiger 10 sportboat with eight entries. The FT10, a 10-meter designed by Bob Perry and built by Bill Stevens at Hansheng Yachts in Xiamen, China, was first sailed in the U.S. by Tim Chin of San Diego in the "Little Ensenada" race from San Diego last October. This spring John Pacquin's Elusive from San Diego won the Sprit B class in the Newport to Ensenada race and small fleets competed in the Yachting Cup and San Diego NOOD events, winning top boat honors in the latter.
Chin, the international class president, said, "I became the class guinea pig" when he ordered one of the first two boats sight unseen on the Internet last year after consulting with Perry and Stevens, but it has worked out well. With a crew weight limit, Chin said, the boat can be sailed with "six big guys," but it's usually sailed with seven average size people.
"The boat is very nimble," Chin said. "It responds much quicker than your usual keelboat. I would describe it as a dinghy that wants to be a keelboat. It excels in light to moderate wind and can be a handful in 18 or 19 knots, which we may see at Long Beach."
The regatta is the last stop in the Ullman Sails Inshore Championship Series, following Newport Harbor YC's Ahmanson Cup, San Diego YC's Yachting Cup and California YC's Cal Race Week. Oscar Krinsky and Chris Redmond's 1D48, Chayah, and Alec Oberschmidt's Reichel/Pugh 50, Staghound, are tied for Fast 50 Fleet honors, while Geoff Longenecker's Melges 30, Nemesis, is working on a sweep to repeat in the Sportboat fleet, and radio hostess Laura Schlessinger's J/145, The Doc, is a runaway leader in the Fast 40s.
It will be a Transpac tune-up for several boats, including Peligroso, Jim Morgan's Santa Cruz 50, Fortaleza; Will Durant and Rick Brizendine's Santa Cruz 52, Relentless, and two new boats---Roger Sturgeon's STP 65, Rosebud, and It’s OK, an Andrews 50 sailed by the Tres Gordos Sailing LLC team of Lew Beery, Andy Rose and Tom Purcell. They'll start the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race from nearby San Pedro on July 12 and 15.
Special awards: Satariano Boat of the Week, to the winner of the most competitive class; PHRF Boat of the week; Yacht Club Challenge competition for three-boat teams; the Kent Golison Family Trophy; the Travel trophy, and championships for the Catalina 37 Nationals, the J/29 West Coast and the Olson 30 and Schock 35 Pacific Coast.
A new website, AudioSeaStories.com, brings the enjoyment of books on tape into the electronic age with 10 newly released seafaring tales. These audio productions have been created for boaters as well as for those who dream of life at sea.
The favorites in the initial audiobook offerings are the classics, such as Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World and John Guzzwell's narration of his own best-selling Trekka Round the World. Other bestsellers are Jaja Martin's narration of Into the Light, written by Dave and Jaja Martin, and Greg Smith's narration of the philosophical book about his circumnavigation, The Solitude of the Open Sea.
Other books produced for sale on the AudioSeaStories.com website include three children's stories by John Vigor, a classic tale of four boys who circumnavigated the eastern half of the U.S. 100 years ago, two novels of the thriller/detective genre, and a collection of 100 short musings and philosophical articles.
Available for download or on CD in two formats (MP3 or standard audio CD), these books can be played on iPod or similar players or on standard CD players. The stories are sure to make the drive to work or to the marina go more quickly and are just the thing to enjoy during a relaxing evening or an invigorating exercise session. Slip on your ear buds or turn on the stereo and hop aboard!
AudioSeaStories.com has been created by Good Old Boat magazine as a way to preserve classic tales of the sea for a specialized niche of audiobook fans: boaters and those who dream of the sea. Good Old Boat (www.goodoldboat.com) was founded in 1998 with a focus on articles for the do-it-yourself sailors who are restoring, maintaining, sailing, and loving the fiberglass sailboats from the 1950s through 1990s.
Seven new sailors join the Ericsson Racing Team: Tony Mutter, Dave Endean, Noel Drennan, Brad Jackson, Richard Mason, Stu Bannatyne and Ryan Godfrey. Together with skipper John Kostecki and all the team united around them, they have decided to make the Volvo Ocean Race 2008 - 09 their primary objective.
Stockholm, June 19, 2007 - The Ericsson Racing Team moves into a new phase with the arrival of seven new crew members. "I was looking for guys that are keen to win", explains Ericsson Racing Team skipper John Kostecki. We need sailors who already have the experience of the Volvo Ocean Race, but also people who have the ability to work openly. The most important criteria is having a winning mind set."
Multiple Volvo Ocean Race or America's Cup racers Tony Mutter, Stu Bannatyne, Dave Endean, Brad Jackson, Richard Mason, Noel Drennan and Ryan Godfrey have this quality; they are the first crew members to formally join the Ericsson Racing Team.
"Basically, we want to have the best people at each position, and we want all the members of the team to be hugely motivated", explains Ericsson Racing Team Managing Director Richard Brisius.
Dave Endean, Brad Jackson and Tony Mutter were members of the winning team ABN AMRO One in the last Volvo Ocean Race, whilst Noel Drennan won four years earlier onboard Illbruck, with skipper John Kostecki. Richard Mason sailed against them all onboard Assa Abloy (2001-02) and Ericsson last year whilst Stu Bannatyne was watch captain onboard movistar. As for Ryan Godfrey, he sailed (and raced) many more miles than a round the world regatta - although never going round the world. He is also a top sailmaker, recently involved with BMW Oracle Racing in Valencia.
The team will carry on growing at a regular rate. "All the new crew members are involved in the choice of the future recruits, under John Kostecki's leadership", comment Brisius. "It is a great way of creating a homogenous team."
In parallel, Anders Lewander, skipper of Ericsson's second boat with an all Nordic crew, is starting his recruitments.
Please plan to join us for the annual Spencer Weersing Memorial MC Scow
Regatta at the White Lake Yacht Club on June 16-17, 2007.
There will be four MC races on Saturday and two MC races on Sunday. Enjoy
beautiful White Lake either as a regatta participant or spectator.
Spencer Weersing Regatta NOR can be found at:
http://www.wlyc.org/weersing%20NOR%20'07.htm
Spencer Weersing Regatta On-Line registration is available at:
http://www.mcscow.org/fleet24/2007/
This regatta provides a nice opportunity for MC Scow sailors to participate
in a regatta on the weekend prior to the MC National Regatta on June 21-23,
2007 at Torch Lake.
MC National Regatta NOR is available at:
http://www.tlycc.com/2007_MC_Nationals_Notice_of_Race.htm
It is also a nice opportunity to participate in a regatta on White Lake
prior to the WMYA Westerns which will be held at the White Lake Yacht Club
on August 2-5, 2007.
WMYA Information is available at: http://www.wmya.org/
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.---New boats are nice, but four Santa Cruz 70s harkened back to their glory days Sunday by sweeping the top four spots overall on corrected handicap time in the second biennial First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup.
Not to say there weren't any records set. Jim Madden, a competitor and chairman of the big boat inshore event, announced at the awards ceremony that organizers of the Balboa and Newport Harbor Yacht Clubs had topped their goal of raising $400,000 for the Hoag Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute, believed to be the largest amount ever raised by a charitable sailing event.
Ed McDowell's 21-year-old Grand Illusion, with Patrick O'Brien taking over as skipper and helmsman in the owner's absence, led the way on the water, followed by Tim and Tom Hogan's Westerly, Doug Ayres' modified Skylark and Brack Duker's Holua.
The 15-boat fleet represented a variety of some of the West Coast's best racers over the last few decades, from Ragtime, now owned by Chris Welsh, in the 70s to Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 in the 21st century. But handicap ratings and good sailing trumped new technology this time as the 70s---a.k.a. the iconic "sleds" that dominated downwind racing in the 80s and 90s---sounded a triple blast from the past.
After the 70s came Morning Light, Roy E. Disney's team of young chargers and subjects of a documentary film in progress but who seem more bent on becoming world-class racers than movie stars.
Roger Sturgeon's new STP 65, Rosebud, won Class A in its maiden regatta, while Grand Illusion also topped Class B and Oscar Krinsky's 1D48, Chayah, came from behind to edge Andy and Camille Rasdal's DK 46, Valkyrie, in Class C.
Appropriately, it's been McDowell who has been leading the sleds' resurrection of the class on the West Coast, even if he was on a cruise ship in Italy and wasn't here to see his boat sail into Sunday with a commanding points lead and one race to go.
O'Brien, who has been sailing on Grand Illusion for 17 years, said, "It's been a very good weekend for us. Today we decided just to sail safely and conservatively, but it was still a tough day."
The wind was a light 8 to 9 knots with boats often overlapped in the mark roundings, but the 70s and smaller boats at least didn't have to worry about Magnitude 80 and the new ocean racing thoroughbreds: Madden's Stark Raving Mad III and Roger
Sturgeon's Rosebud of Roger Sturgeon. They were quickly long gone in all five races over three days.
"They're spectacular," O'Brien said, "but we're happy with the 70s. We're trying to get this class going again. Ed is not going to get a new boat."
Sturgeon was as happy with the performance of his new boat, despite losing its hydraulic power assists on Day 2, as he was about the charitable success of the event.
"This is such a good formula it ought to be marketed," he said. "I don't know of anything this big in sailing. We were so tickled to be invited back and that it came together for us against all odds. All credit goes to the crew. Whatever you throw at them they'll find a solution."
Krinsky, who had Chris Redmond at the helm and Paul Bishop calling tactics on Chayah, said with a nod to dock neighbor Morning Light, "My guys are great---my kids. It was fun."
Tim Hogan, whose Westerly (formerly Mongoose) came on strong the last two days, said, "A lot of it was local knowledge, and it paid off"---for Westerly in particular by making a couple of strong pin-end starts and hitting the left corner hard. "We were out there to have fun with a lot of old friends."
Magnitude 80, owing everybody more time than it takes to read this, looked great in winning the first four races, but stumbled into a come-from-ahead setback in Sunday's finale. When principal race officer Mike Wathen shortened the course for the second of three laps, Mag 80 sailed far past the new windward mark before realizing its error. Stark Raving Mad III and Rosebud sailed past to finish 1-2.
Finally, Disney was more than pleased with Morning Light's performance in the crew's first series racing test marked by quiet and crisp boat handling and tactics.
"They're doing a terrific job," Disney said, adding this nugget of wisdom: "A quiet boat is a fast boat."