Saturday, June 30, 2007

Hutchinson blows it!



Terry Hutchinson blows the biggest call of his life, not just once, but twice!! Can't he see when the boat behind him is heading off to the opposite gate? Even Andy Green knows that the wind is going right! And why in the world would you jibe away when you are right on the stern of Alinghi, when all you would need to do was take them out to the edge of the course and jibe just before them? Covering them when they are slow out of the jibe and passing them to weather instead of shooting yourself in the foot again. I can hear the cow bells ringing already...

Friday, June 29, 2007

Disaster for the Emirates team






Video Recap of race 5 America's Cup Press to play

Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America’s Cup, beat Emirates Team New Zealand on Friday afternoon in perfect sea Breeze conditions to take a 3-2 lead in the 32nd America’s Cup Match.

But it wasn’t a straightforward win. The Swiss trailed over the starting line and around the first top mark as Emirates Team New Zealand showed aggression in the pre-start, forcing the SUI 100 helmsman Ed Baird to seek refuge in the spectator fleet.

The Kiwis converted that early advantage into a 12 second lead at the windward mark. But on the run, SUI 100 was coming up fast, just two lengths behind NZL 92. Then, a disaster for the Emirates squad, as their spinnaker burst. A replacement appeared to be ready, but when it was hoisted, it was clear it wasn’t rigged properly. It took a full three minutes to get the boat settled at full pace again, and by then, Alinghi had taken a lead it would never surrender.
Photos By ACM

Girls of the America's Cup Part II








Photos by (C) ACM

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Etchells Charging at the Worlds





Today's third day of racing at the 2007 Etchells World Championship was as dramatic and closely fought as you could hope for. With six races now sailed there have been five different race winners and there are just nine points separating the top four places. The forecast was for lighter winds in the mid teens but yet again the forecast was wrong. Initially the south westerly wind was around 14-17 knots but it rapidly built to 22 and continued to increase through the day averaging around 24 knots for the second race and spiking up to 27 on the final two legs.
Photos by Paul Wyeth http://www.pwpictures.com/

Spice Girls Join Team Origin For The America's Cup



The Spice Girls wannabe sailors!
Following a calculated publicity buildup, the original Girl Power group of the 1990s announced Thursday that they have agreed to sail with Team Orgin. Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal TEAMORIGIN, commented: "I am very pleased to announce the Spice Girls as part of our crew. We believe them to be a key part of our bid to win the Cup and needed to ensure that they met the necessary criteria and would give us the skills and experience we need – The spice girls certainly meets our requirements and we are thrilled that they are joining the TEAMORIGIN family. We look forward to working together closely with the girls."

http://www.teamorigin.com/
Photo by Reuters

YES! This is a joke - so stop sending us emails for the scoop!

The Worlds Best Meet in Cascais



The ISAF Sailing World Championships are scheduled to start on 28 June and until 13 July Cascais will host a unique show on its waters. Eleven World Championship titles are at stake as well as the qualification for 75% of the fleet that will go to Qingdao for the 2008 Olympics.

The numbers are amazing: 1,399 sailors, 76 nations, distributed across 945 boats on 11 classes. Three hundred and six races will take place on five race courses with an equivalent area of 1,270 football fields.

Bernardo Pinto GONÇALVES, Administrator of Portugal Vela 2007, the event organizers, is calm, 'Everything is ready for the beginning of the Championships. Only minor details are left do deal with'. GONÇALVES has no doubts about the great show that will take place on Cascais bay waters, 'It will be something unique and never before seen in Portugal. I hope that all will turn out well regarding the competition and that the audience on shore will have a great time watching the races'.

The first day of the Championships will be dedicated to administrative procedures and measurements of the boats and the opening of the Press Centre on the venue. Media awareness on this competition is more than obvious as more than 200 journalists, Portuguese and international, are already accredited.

http://www.cascaisworlds2007.com
credits © JoaoFerrand/JFF

2007 U.S.Youth Sailing Championship




With their overall win in the 29er class, Emily Dellenbaugh (Easton CT) and Briana Provancha (San Diego, CA) have won the right to be the female team representing the United States and second place finisher, Oliver Toole and Willie McBride, both of Santa Barbara, California will be the male team at the 2007 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship in Kingston, Ontario, Canada July 12-21, 2007. This was the second win at the U.S. Youth Sailing Championships for Emily, who won in the C420 division in 2005. Last year, her sister, Rebecca took home the Manton Scott Trophy.

In the Laser Fleet, Colin Smith ( Fort Lauderdale, FL) beat previous leader, David Hernandez after three days of racing, posting a score line of 42 points and will qualify for the U.S. Singlehanded Championship which will be sailed later in July.
Tyler Sinks and Morgane Renoir of San Diego CA took the overall title in the C420 Fleet to cap a really great day for this team. Taylor Canfield (St. Thomas USVI) and Perry Emsiek (Corona del Mar, CA) finished with second. Both teams had been in tight contention from the beginning of the championship.

Ian Heausler (Tampa, FL) has won the Radial division with Justin Doane (Nokomis, FL) in second and Anne Haeger (Lake Forest, IL) in third. Haeger will also be attending the 2007 ISAF Youth Worlds next month in the Radial division.http://www.ussailing.org/
Photographs by Tim Wilkes.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

NZ Protests Alinghi


VALENCIA - Team New Zealand will have to wait until tonight to find out if their protest against an incident which occurred at the end of race four in the America's Cup is upheld.
Alinghi won today's race by 30 seconds to square the series at 2-2 but the protest could, in theory, turn the scoreline into 3-1 to Team New Zealand.
That's the theory - but the reality will not be seen until today in Valencia (9pm NZT) when the race jury considers the protest after a strange sequence of events at the end of race four, won comfortably by Alinghi by 30s. It was the first appearance in the Cup match of the infamous rules and technicalities - but it may be unlikely to rob Alinghi of the race or even force a re-sail. The incident occurred at the end of the race when race director Peter Reggio called on both boats to demonstrate they could lower their mainsails correctly - after which an Alinghi crewman climbed the mast. Alinghi strategist Murray Jones explained their side of the story after officials had elected to do a random measurement check on the Swiss boat.
More at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/

Update: Protest has been dismissed

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Perfect Regatta – Ask, Believe and Receive

Written by Brian Camet

It’s been sometime since I won the Youth Champs and got second place to Dean Barker in the Youth Worlds, but I still remember it like it was yesterday – actually I don’t remember it at all – not that I don’t remember it. It’s that doing well just happened. That is what brings me to write this. It’s a feeling that happened a few weekends ago sailing Etchells with my brother and my dad in the Orca Bowl in San Diego...it just a happened. What just happened you ask? Well the prefect regatta...yes the perfect regatta! Straight first places, five races, five first places – not that this has not happened before – it’s the point that something like this has puzzled me for many years. Why is it that some people can just go out and do it and others seem to get lost? Do the winners have something different that makes them better?

What was funny was at the end of the first day Vince Brun asked me what we did differently and I said "nothing". I then joked that it was found in this book called The Secret. We all laughed at what I was saying but the more I thought about what I have read in the book... and the more I spoke about it with my dad... the more I began to believe that maybe this was the secret to winning.

The ability to envision yourself making the perfect start and crossing the fleet on the first shift. In the book it talks about asking, believing and receiving – yes it sounds very corny - but this can be the difference between winning and losing. Ask: being able to have a picture in your mind of where you want to be on the starting line and hitting that first shift. Believe: you must believe that you will have the perfect start and hit the first shift. And finally Receive: you must feel good about what you are about to achieve. Shutting out distractions in your life and being able to focus on what you want to achieve is one of the hardest things that you have to focus on. You have to prepare for this - you can’t just show up and it works – granted I have see this happen, but when the stakes are high, the cream of the crop always rises to the top.

I remember what Dave Perry said at the beginning of one of the Youth Champs. He said that someone had already won this particular regatta. No, it wasn’t me, it was my brother (I came in second that year). Yet these words did ring a bell - both my brother and I had prepared for the event and we had the confidence to achieve what we were there to do. As I sit here and write this I see what is happening in the America’s Cup – I feel that the team that has envisioned themselves winning and believes they will win will receive the ultimate success. I look at Chris Dickson who had the weight of the world on his shoulders - yet what happened was that the wheels came off the bus and a program that was rock solid fell to ruins in a matter of days.

On a team that big you can’t blame the driver - even though he has the ability to turn the wheel - but does he have the ability to pick a team that works well together? The Oracle team may look good from the outside, but when you look at it closely it was a top down management style that ended up costing them a lot! That means the guy at the very top is to blame. This same thing could happen to Alinghi.

This leads me to believe that is why Dennis Conner is one of the best sailors there is. He was a yacht racer before he was a successful business man. Larry was a successful business man before he began to race sailboats. He is not able to ask and envision what he wants to achieve in sailing. I know that some say that sailing is similar to business in the form of having a plan and executing that plan, but in the long run it is the ability to envision the game that will net you the ultimate satisfaction of playing the game well.

Racing against DC in Etchells has taught me that you have to look farther ahead of the game then what you see just in front of your bow. When you race against someone like Dennis, Vince and even Terry Hutchison, you know that you need to play like a world champion chess player - you have to play three or even five moves ahead - or else....checkmate!

U.S. Youth Sailing Championship: Day 2



New Orleans, LA (June 26) - It was a most interesting weather day on Monday in New Orleans. Competitors left the dock at approximately 9:30 am CDT in very little wind and bright sunshine. Over the course of the next hour the wind varied but remained generally below 5 knots. Just after 11:00am the wind began to cooperate and both PROs began races in a building wind in advance of a coming summer rainstorm.

As racing progressed the race area was overcast by a dark clouds off to the north and east of the race course. The wind picked up and shifted somewhat to the South, making for very interesting racing. As Race 4 was concluded in all classes, the front began to arrive and thunder was heard in the distance. The RC signaled an abandonment with return to shore for lunch to await more favorable conditions. Unfortunately, after the passing storm the wind was less cooperative and the RC abandoned racing for the remainder of the day.

For all the results see www.usyouthchamps.com/
Photographs by Tim Wilkes.

On the edge of our seats... NZ wins!








Video Recap of Race 3 America's Cup - Press to play
Emirates Team New Zealand won its second consecutive race in the 32nd America’s Cup Match, beating Alinghi by 25 seconds in a thrilling race that will go down in the books as one of the most exciting matches in Cup history.

www.americascup.com/en/
Photos by ACM

Moth World and European Champs



Thrilling day, today. The world champion Simon Payne breaks the hook of the rudder and must come back ashore. Raimondo Tonelli breaks the rudder twice and Rohan Veal (2005 world champion) wins again the 2 races of the day.

Torbole sul Garda, Monday 25 June 2007 - First day at the World and European championships of the class Moth. Very thrilling! The world champion Simon Payne breaks the hook of the rudder and must come back ashore. Raimondo Tonelli breaks the rudder but he has the time to come back to the course for the second race. The Australian Rohan Veal, without his biggest challenger, could then win the 2 races of the day.

"I was third - says Simon while reparing his boat - and I was really trying. It is really a pity because it is not easy to recover two DNF. The conditions you can have here at the Garda Lake are hard but beautiful, here you must sail always with great attention. Because of the waves the boat touches always on the sides. One of these touch have may be damaged the hook of the rudder. Tomorrow I will be again in the water!"

"It is very hard to race with these conditions - said Rohan Veal
after finishing his races - because you must continually adjust your Moth. It is really hard. We need less waves and less wind. The winner of this rea´gatta will be a real champion in these conditions!"

This the actual top scores after 2 races and before protests:
1. Veal (AUS - 1.1.), 2. Babbage (AUS - 3.2.), 3. Vials (GBR - 3.4)

Photos By: Roberto Vuilleumier
More awesome photos at www.slidebox.it/

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Pull out the checkbook!!


Drama at the Etchell Worlds
Even though the regatta has yet to begin it was a day of drama here at the 2007 Etchells World Championship in Cowes. Whilst preparing for the start of today’s practise race GBR1353 Arbitrator, helmed by Graham Bailey with Stephen Bailey and David Heritage crewing, was seriously damaged in a port/starboard collision with GBR987 Bedrock.

The damage to Arbitrator was severe and the boat was initially feared to be in danger of sinking. Graham Bailey takes up the story – “The incident happened in the pre-start about three minutes before the gun. We were on starboard and we realised that the port tack boat hadn’t seen us so we began to tack to avoid them.

The other boat tried to bear away round the back of us but it was too late and they simply accelerated into us, hitting us and then ripping through the aft quarter. The immediate call was for lifejackets as the boat was rapidly filling but fortunately the damage was all in the aft tank and the bulkhead held.

Photo by Fiona Brown

It's All Tied Up!!




Video recap of race 2 America's Cup

This America's Cup has been a procession - he who leads round the first mark wins - but Barker threw all that overboard with a fine manouevre.

Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth's 16-race winning streak in America's Cup finals ended when he tacked conservatively on the second beat and Barker shot his boat into the windward position, then taking advantage of a wind shift and establishing a commanding 15s lead into the final downwind run, lengthening out in the final run.

Until that mistake and Barker moment, many minds were beginning to turn to the fact the last three America's Cup matches had produced a 5-0 scoreline. Alinghi had again demonstrated superior boatspeed - and this time in conditions supposed to benefit the Kiwis.

Instead of the choppy, sloppy water and patchy wind of race one, there was a breeze of 9-10 knots; the lighter airs which the team had been hoping for. Barker won a thrilling, aggressive pre-start but it was Alinghi who put themselves in the right place at the right time in terms of position on the water, picking the wind shifts off the water and generally finding more pressure than Emirates Team New Zealand.
Photos by ACM

Saturday, June 23, 2007

RC 44 Team Omega Wins


Coutt’s Team Omega wins 4th RC44 Championship Tour Event in Lugano
Pristine conditions in Lugano provided the perfect setting for Team Omega to win the first RC44 event in Switzerland. Team Omega’s helmsman, Roland Pieper, Vice President of the Swiss Sailing Federation, was delighted with the win. In today’s racing, Team Lightbay celebrated another first, while Mascalzone Latino showed consistent improvement with two second place finishes and a win in the final race.

Despite Team Omega’s collision with Mascalzone Latino during the start of Race 6, the team was ready to race this morning, having swiftly installed their new ‘crash bow’ yesterday evening. It seemed fitting that three-time America’s Cup winner, Russell Coutts win the RC44 Lugano Yacht Club Cup on the first day of the 32nd America’s Cup.

Second place overall went to Mascalzone Latino, followed by Team Aqua in third and Lightbay in fourth. The owners and their crews will now begin preparing for the challenging conditions of Lake Garda for the next event of the RC44 Championship Tour, from 12-15 July.

1,800 boats sail around the island race






The world’s largest and most famous yachting race, the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, is taking place today in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England. Nearly 1,8000 are competing in the 50-mile course around the Isle of Wight in a race that sees some of the biggest names in the sailing world competing with weekend sailors and family crews.

Ten hours into the largest yacht race of its kind in the world and hundreds of boats are now approaching the finish in Cowes as the bulk of the fleet returns through the eastern Solent. Heading for the line, the yachts are having to beat into the south-westerly wind, cross-crossing each other constantly as they tack.Six hours earlier, Mike Slade’s brand new 100 footer ICAP Leopard was the first monohull to finish at 09.23.05 just over 18 minutes off the record that Mike himself set in 2001. He said: “We are absolutely thrilled with the new ICAP Leopard. She feels fantastic, really well balanced and for a brand new boat straight out of the box, she performed superbly today. St Catherine’s Point is always tricky but we had a cracking sail round the back of the island to Bembridge with the kite up all the way from The Needles. With today’s wind direction, we had a lot of tacking to do up the Solent, which slows you down, so sadly we didn’t quite beat the record, but we’re not disappointed at all - and there’s always next year!”

For all the results see http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/

What's Ed Watching?


What’s Ed Baird watching in his heads up display mounted to his sunglasses? - We can assure you it's not Versus TV coverage in America…He would have to wait for the commercial to tack! Our team of experts believe it to be a new wireless device that gives him all the boats data - speed, wind, and when to tack…Transmitted from his modified Camel backpack! No hose for drinking, just a black cable on the back side! Can this be the secret weapon that will win the America’s Cup?
©ACM 2007/Photo:Guido Trombetta

Let’s get ready to rumble...


Photo ACM

Friday, June 22, 2007

Kiwis go with the Stinger...


Oh that's gotta hurt!

As expected they have made some subtle changes to their race boat NZL92 to try to match Alinghi and optimize the boat for the predicted weather conditions.
The most obvious change is the switching of bulbs from their shorter one, which had a New Zealand flag on it, to their slightly longer one, which is decorated with a brightly colored Buzzy Bee.

Photo by Chris Cameron

Leopard 3 - Ready to pounce





Tucked away in Southampton (UK), Leopard 3 as been preparing over the last few weeks in Empress Dock in front of the Oceanography Centre waiting to make it's depute at the Round the Island Race tomorrow!

Leopard has been designed to meet the demanding requirements of a luxurious, signature charter yacht, a passage record breaker, and a race winning super maxi in a new concept developed by Farr Yacht Design

http://www.leopard3.co.uk/

Photo by Dan Stoker

Bringing the Heat!


Photo ACM
The Swiss Defender of the Cup revealed its sailing team. The helmsman will be the American sailor Ed Baird, who has been tasked with steering SUI 100 to victory. He’ll be up against a motivated Challenger in Emirates Team New Zealand. Later Emirates Team New Zealand won the coin toss, and the Kiwis will have the favoured starboard tack entry into the start box for the first race. The teams will alternate thereafter.

The girls of the America's Cup















Let the racing begin!
©ACM 2007/Photo: Carlos Lujan