Tuesday, July 31, 2007

THREE AMIGOS! Starring Coutts, Bertarell, Ellison


Click on image to enlarge
A true story about Love, Money, Sports, Power & Greed! Starring Russell Coutts, Ernesto Berrarelli and Larry Ellison. Come to a theater near you!

La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro Begins



They are off! The 38th edition of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro has started. At 15h20 the 49 Figaro sailors crossed the start line after a 20-minute delay to allow all the skippers to join the pre start area. Three boats had indivdual recalls: Jeanne Gregoire (Banque Populaire), Pietro D'Ali (Kappa ) and Nicolas Lunven (Bostik). The conditions are ideal with clear skies, flat seas and 10 to 15 knot breeze from the east.
The route
The course for La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro 2007 follows the Solitaire’s long tradition, made up of 4 legs between three countries. France, Ireland and Spain are the countries and will be covered in 13 days at sea and 1,876 nautical miles. The suspense, emotion, sporting intensity and outstanding line-up of sailors is already building for the 38th edition of the race. The adventure continues for this legendary race…http://www.lasolitaire.com/

Open 60 Ecover 3 in Auckland



Photos Mike Golding Yacht Racing and © Gareth Cooke Photography
Team Blog Entry 30.07.07 // Mike Golding Yacht Racing
It's now late Monday evening, we have today all relocated to Auckland from Wellington after a last brief visit to the yard this morning to thank the Hakes Marine build team for the hard graft they have put in over the past few weeks. Now begins the next critical phase on route to the TJV in November. Tomorrow morning (Tuesday), fingers crossed, the yacht and her keel will arrive in Auckland by truck having traversed the length of the north island over 36 hours. Its an exceptional load, in all sorts of ways, but this one requires a team of "pilots" in three vehicles that surround the boat transporter. These pilot vehicles scout ahead and each side of the yacht, stopping traffic where necessary and informing the drivers of potential difficulties ahead. Then over the coming days, the boat, keel, mast and rigging will come together for the very first time.

Read more on Mike's entry @ http://www.mikegolding.com/

Monday, July 30, 2007

Oracle's 90 Foot Catamaran

BMW Oracle are understood to already be designing a 90-foot catamaran and are expected to lodge an injunction next week to force the increasingly embattled America's Cup into a courtroom showdown.
Intriguingly, in a week where Russell Coutts was unveiled as BMW Oracle's chief executive and skipper (as outlined in the Herald on Sunday on June 24), Oracle's strategy of forcing an America's Cup contest in 90-foot multi-hulls seems to have firmed.
Cup sources confirmed that Oracle's next move is expected to be an injunction this week to halt preparations for the 33rd America's Cup. This comes after Alinghi announced last week that the regatta will be held in Valencia in 2009 and criticised Oracle's challenge to replace a Spanish yacht club as Challenger of Record.

Ellison told the New York Times said that he had spoken to Bertarelli and described the conversation as "not a pleasant phone call".
"I said, 'Our intent is not to go to court and we want to negotiate.' And Ernesto said, 'BMW Oracle is not in a very strong negotiating position.'
"I said, 'Ernesto, isn't this only one-sided?' And he said, 'Larry, wouldn't you take this protocol if you had a chance to get it?"
However, what has become apparent from the latest manoeuvres is that, while Alinghi's protocol was unpopular, Oracle's move may be even more so.

More on this story here

Sunday, July 29, 2007

US Kiting National Championships Photos





Photos H2oShots.com & Chris Ray

St Francis website is not work so we do not have results http://www.stfyc.com/
More Photos Here

Opti Worlds Photos and Results





Opti Team Racing
1. Greece 2. Singapore 3. Ecuador
The team racing event, held in ideal 12-15 knot winds and completed with in six hours, was full of surprises.Former medallists Peru and Poland did not even qualify. Then in the first race top seeds New Zealand lost out to the Netherlands 18-18 when their lead sailor crossed the finish line first to lose the race. Italy, seeded 3, went down to Ecuador.
Results of Team racing:

Opti Worlds
Only one race was sailed on Day 3 due to light and falling winds.
Chris Steele (NZL), Benjamin Grez (CHI) and Lucas Swan (BRA) have now established a clear lead and are expected to be near the top of the leaderboard when the first discard is taken after Race 6 (sorry for the error yesterday). Many of those affected by OCS/BFD penalties in Race 3 did not score well today though there are some notable exceptions such as Sacha Pelisson (FRA).

Wild Oats X takes line honours


At 11.02pm tonight, in a 6 knot sou’wester and with its huge Code 0 spinnaker up, Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats X took line honours in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.
After leading the fleet out of Sydney Harbour yesterday afternoon, overnight Wild Oats X gave up her lead to Ichi Ban and then Wild Joe but managed to claw them both back and finish with a little breathing space. http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au/

Peter Gilmour triumphs in Tróia



In the final day of the Tróia Portugal Match Cup, stage that is part of the World Match Racing Tour, organized by Sun Sailing Team and Sesimbra Naval Club, with the support of the Tourism of Portugal i.p.; Troiaresort and Amorim Tourism, the winner was not a surprise. For the first time in four editions of the Portugal Match Cup, the Australian Peter Gilmour (PST) won the event, this year in Marina of Tróia, in the middle of the Tróiaresort. In the final it was expected that Ian Williams (Pindar) would create some difficulties but that did not happen, with Gilmour recording 3 victories without answer by the opposing crew.

Friday, July 27, 2007

I wanna be a rockstar



Photos by Rich Roberts
Morning Light crew - rocking the Transpac 2007!
After all this America's Cup BS, it’s nice to see the true side of sailing! The pure, uncluttered aspects of ocean racing! A perfect ending to a great idea! This is definitely going to be a great inspiration for future of sailing! We look forward to the flim! Rock on…

Thursday, July 26, 2007

America's Cup Total BS!


Image (C) Sailkarma.com
Today in Valencia Ernesto Bertarelli used part of his press conference to attack Larry Ellison. We chose to select just one phrase from Ernesto Bertarelli, which symbolises the relation between the two: "Bull shit!”It is also worth mentioning that the America’s Cup Management, the management appointed by Ernesto Bertarelli to lead the competition, seems to be under pressure. Victory Challenge was not allowed to attend the press conference since the team’s communications manager, as well as those from other potential challengers, were stopped at the door. - From Bert Willborg/Victory Challenge

You have got to be kidding! Who does this guy think he is? We thought the Cup was great...but it seems that it has gone to his head and has turned it into a joke! Nice job Erne! What a way to pi$$ all over the cup! -SK

World Sailing League 70ft Catamarans




Today, the World Sailing League (WSL) unveiled the innovative design for their futuristic 70 ft catamarans that will be raced in the new global Grand Prix series, the premier annual sailing competition. The spectacular speed-machines represent the next evolution of sailing and will be the fastest one design boats ever built.

With towering masts of over 98 ft and foiled hulls sitting at almost 40 ft wide, these catamarans represent the forefront of design technology. The boats will be crewed by nine professional sailors and one select guest and will be capable of speeds up to 40 knots,

Designer Vincent Lauriot Prévost of VPLP explained the design philosophy: “We are very excited about this catamaran because she represents a step towards the future of racing. If we consider that monohulls were the racing standard, then multihull design has stretched the performance possibilities and now ‘outmodes’ the mono. Now these multihulls armed with foils will be the next generation that will overtake the conventional multihull. WSL will spearhead this new evolution.”

With the design now finalised, fourteen of these spectacular catamarans will be built in Portugal, with the first due for completion in June 2008. The remaining boats will be built over the following 18 months, in time for promotional regattas around the world in 2009 and the first full year of the World Sailing League in 2010.

The name of this exciting new class will be announced at the unveiling of the first boat in July next year.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Optimist World Championship 2007




Photos by Alejandro Cloos
CAGLIARI, QUARTU SANT'ELENA, SARDINIA - ITALY
A new record entry of 256 sailors for the IODA World Championship is reported by hosts the Y.C. Cagliari in Sardinia. 56 countries will be represented by up to five sailors per country.

A perfect day's racing was the unanimous verdict on the cloudless 20+ knots of the seas off Cagliari. All starts were perfectly clean with the only apparent OCS proving to be a late starter from a previous division!

Reigning world champion Julian Autenrieth (GER) opened the defence of his title in splendid style with two wins on day 1. At this very early stage Pierre Quiroga in second place is one of three French sailors in the top 20 and is followed by two Italians who qualified at this venue in similar winds. Five of the six continents represented have sailors in the top 20 and four in the top 10.

Lara Vadlau (AUT) is the slightly unexpected leader of the girls.

Results click here http://www.optiworld.org
More photos form open ceremonies click here http://www.cloosweb.com

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Video: Russell Coutts Signs with Oracle


Click button to play
Russell Coutts signs with Oracle
Kiwi Russell Coutts has announced that he's signed with the Larry Ellison backed BMW Oracle from San Francisco. Video from http://www.stuff.co.nz

We told You So! Russell Coutts and Larry



Photo Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
July 18th we reported that Russell and Larry signed a deal for the next Cup - Well its official as of today. Earlier today in Valencia, Larry Ellison, owner of BMW Oracle, announced that Russell Coutts had signed with the team in the role of CEO and skipper. "I am very delighted to be here. It is a great opportunity for me, a great leadership role offered to me by BMW Oracle," Coutts told a news conference in Valencia. More photos and audio at http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/

Another hard day on the Tour


Photo © Jean-Marie Liot / TFV07
Update from the Tour
The thirty competitors of the Tour de France Sailing Race sailed only one leg today. The Race Committee had to quickly end the race because of the difficult weather conditions. Toulon Provence Méditerranée – COYCHyères (Fabien Henry) is still at the front of the overall ranking.
The wind stayed between 15 and 18 knots during the departure but it got stronger and stronger toward the end of the leg. Christine Briand, head of the Race, explains: “the weather conditions were hard to handle; the wind went up to 33 knots. Even though the boats can sail in a force-8-wind, it simply became too dangerous for the sailors and their boats”. The Race Committee sent the Mumm 30s back to the harbour after the first leg for safety reasons.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Not a Good Day...



Photos by DG
A Beneteau 40.7 name Barracuda suffered keel damage and sank on the Mackinac return delivery. The keel struck the bottom repeatedly during heavy seas in shallow waters before failing. Three people were rescued, according to accounts from eyewitnesses, and no injuries or casualties have been reported.
More on this story here and here.

Record Beaten! Groupama 3



Franck Cammas and his nine crew have smashed the Atlantic crossing record in a time of 4 days 03 hours 57 minutes 54 seconds (time in the process of ratification), at an average of 28.65 knots over the 2,925 mile course. Groupama 3 crossed the finish line off Lizard Point on Tuesday at 00 hours 00 minutes 49 seconds (French time), improving on Bruno Peyron's time of (4d 08hr 23' 54'') by 4 hours 26 minutes. http://www.cammas-groupama.com/
Photos Yvan Zedda

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Looks good...


Pegasus Racing - lat 25 03 N, lon 143 42 W
Today was time to do our rig-check. That means yours truly ‘grinding’ Richard up the mast, and Richard checking every fitting and point of attachment before we get into the (hopefully) stronger trades in Hawaiian waters. Richard is 225 pounds and grinding him all the way up the mast is a good effort. And, of course, Richard has to have trust in my abilities to control the situation. It is truly teamwork. And it does make for great pictures. The first large one is a picture of Richard taking a picture of himself at the top of the mast. The second picture is a picture of the boat seen from the top of the mast. I am steering the boat while Richard is checking the rig. This is tricky, but not quite as dangerous as it sounds. Richard and I both have young children and we are cautious.- Philippe Kahn

Thank God we made it!

More like "Thank God the keel didn’t fall off"! If not it would have looked like this! Pyewacket was the first to finish today in the 44th biennial Transpacific Yacht Race from California to Hawai'i. Disney's 94-foot boat, sailing in the fastest boats division, crossed the finish off Diamond Head at 11:11 a.m., seven days after the start.

The elapsed-time record of 6 days, 16 hours, 4 minutes, 11 seconds was set by Morning Glory two years ago. That time passed at 2 a.m. today. Bummer!

MedCup TP52 Circuit Images




2007 Breitling MedCup TP52 Circuit, Regatta 2.
Regata Breitling-Iles Balears, Puerto Portals, Mallorca.
Final Results after seven races:
1 CxG Corporacion Caixa Galicia - 24pts,
2 Artemis T Tornqvist, SWE – 34pts,
3 Siemens A Roemmers, ARG- 59pts,
4 Patches E Conneely, IRL-62pts,
5 Windquest De de Vos, USA- 66pts

http://2007.medcup.org/news/?idioma=2
Photos Medcup

The God Pod


Inisde look into Pegasus Racing 101
1. Yellow foul weather gear hanging, drying.
2. The camping gas stove with the pressure cooker. All of our meals are vacuum bagged and get thrown into the pressure cooker.
3. Philippe doing the navigator's job, scribbling on the board.
4. A red fleece and a blue cushion, I sleep on the nav station seat and that is my pillow.
5. In the forefront, vacuum-bagged meals. These are our total rations for the day.
6. Our sink, only salt water, manual pump. Good to clean dishes and stuff.
7. On the nav station panel, right, you can see the handsets that control the two Iridium satellite systems (the best!) and the Fleet-33 (faster but you can’t really count on it).
8. The fantastic M-802 single side band is the box on the lower right corner.
9. Note the Logitech trackball by my right elbow, mice are not an option with the elements, the constant motion and the heterogeneous reflective surfaces. We use Velcro extensively and the wiring is non-trivial. Everything is at least twice redundant.
http://www.pegasus.com/log.htm

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Dream Team Brazil...


Gisele Bundchen has been named the world's richest supermodel, raking in $33 million a year... almost as much as Russell Coutts will be making! Gisele joins the ranks of some of the best Brazilians in Sailing, Formula 1 and Soccer! (football for the rest of you!)

Robert Scheidt, Torben Grail, Vince Brun, Rubens Barrichello and Pela

Here's Gisele ripping it up in the islands! Next Beijing 2008!

Can't get enough check out her site! http://www.giselebundchen.com.br/

Video: Volvo Youth Worlds Final Day


Click button to play!

Friday, July 20, 2007

Groupama 3 breaks 24hr distance record


Groupama 3 new 24 hour record holder after sailing 784.4 miles!
Ever faster, ever further...Fantasy for some, victory for others! At this particular game of 'I'm the quickest', Groupama 3 and Franck Cammas have just deposed Bruno Peyron, previous record holder for the greatest distance covered in 24 hours by a sailing boat, devouring 784.4 miles during their first day's sailing at an average speed of 32.68 knots. In so doing they have improved on the previous record by 17 miles. Unfortunately, a few minutes prior to completing their first 24 hour stint, the port foil of the maxi trimaran broke. Fortunately the damage won't compromise Groupama 3's record attempt. http://www.cammas-groupama.com/

Just In: Pegasus Racing hits a net



Photos Philippe Kahn
Ouch!!!! We just got a big net. It's wrapped all around our leeward rudder. We lost half of our boat-speed. We have a plan: we’re going to use a mainsail batten as a tool. To get to the net, we will put full cant on the keel, I will drive the boat DDW (dead downwind) giving us windward heel and allowing the rudder to get out of the water. Richard will climb over the side and untangle the net. Now we will execute our plan. Wish us luck!
UPDATE ON SITUATION:
We did it! So picture the boat on its side in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Richard standing on the side (clipped-in), armed with a carbon mainsail batten and yours truly driving the boat to balance it on its side, just as the wind hit 18 knots accompanied by big swells. It was way too dangerous to focus on anything but the task at hand. On a fully crewed boat this is much easier, in our case, if one goes in the water, it becomes much more challenging rapidly. All is well that ends well. We lost two hours. Two precious hours. We’ll have to push even harder. -Philippe Kahn http://www.pegasus.com/log.htm

in 16 knots of breeze...


Photo Richard Clarke - click on image to enlarge
Pegasus racing update July 20th, 21:45 utc - lat 25 38 N, lon 134 31 W
After rain squall piled upon rain squall, refreshing but very light breeze, we managed to catch a squall that had 22 knots of breeze in front of it and ride it for 45 minutes. We chose to sail low in front of it because jibing quickly is not an option with the the two of us on a powered up 50 foot boat - twice the size of a Melges 24 and 4 times the loads! As our ride started to fizzle out, the sky cleared, the puffy trade wind clouds reappered and we're now sailing in 16 knots of breeze, lively seas, and pointing right at Honolulu.- Philippe Kahn

US 29er Girls Win Youth Worlds 2007


29er Girls: USA Gold, GBR Silver, AUS Bronze
In the girls 29er fleet it was the American duo of Emily Dellenbaugh (17) and Briana Provancha (18) who claimed the gold medal with a race to spare in a fleet of 18 boats. 'It hasn’t really sunk in yet,' exclaimed helm Emily Dellenbaugh, the daughter of top America’s Cup sailor David. Both Emily and crew Briana were thrown into the dock in traditional fashion once they realised they had won.'We didn’t expect to do this well,' said an elated Dellenbaugh, but Provancha, who claimed the silver in Korea two years ago with Megan Magill says they were always aiming for a top five finishing position. Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth from Lymington in the UK won the last race and took the silver medals, ahead of the pre-race favourites, Australia’s Hannah Nattrass and Michelle Muller who were only two points behind the British girls.

Groupama 3 breakneck speed 39.4 knots


North Atlantic Record
Leaving New York yesterday, Thursday 19th July at 18:02'55''TU, on its attempt at the North Atlantic record (New York - Lizard point), currently held by Bruno Peyron with 4 days 8 hours 23 minutes 54 seconds, Franck Cammas and his nine crew have had a spectacular start to the course! Drawing on the quintessence of Groupama 3 on flat seas blown by a strong S'ly wind, the crew is stripping away the miles at breakneck speed. Clocked at 39.4 knots at midday, Groupama 3 had nearly a 44 mile lead* over Orange 2's time at 1600 UK time today.
Already 682 miles devoured! At 1600 hours UK time, after 21 hours at sea, Groupama 3 had already covered 682 miles. An important figure as in addition to the North Atlantic record, Franck and his men are also aiming for the record for the greatest distance covered in 24 hours. This has been the `property' of Bruno Peyron and Orange 2 since July 2006, with 766.8 miles on the speedo. Verdict this evening at 20:02'55'' http://www.cammas-groupama.com/

Just sailing along! PR 101


Pegasus Racing 101- Update July 20th 01:00 utc - lat 25 31 N, lon 130 52 W
Beautiful sailing in the trades with the wind holding up nicely. Now we’re entering the third part of the race: running to Honolulu in the trades. The race course is a mine field of squally clouds that build up in the late afternoon when the ocean is still warm and the air temperature cools down rapidly creating a condensation effect. These clouds can build up rapidly with considerable vertical development and ‘mature’ during the first part of the night, creating massive updrafts and sucking the air behind them. They tend to collapse around 4 am and can leave you trapped in zones of no wind for hours on end. And, of course, that tends to be the time of the night when we have the hardest time focusing. Richard has great eyes for those weather features. So I’m going to make sure that he gets plenty of rest early.

Here is where we are on the chart. We are very happy with our approach to Honolulu. Now we are in our slot: we are sailing a true wind angle of roughly 40 degrees, the wind is from the North East at 30 degrees and our course over the ground is about 256 degrees. Straight to Honolulu. In Honolulu, the trade winds are blowing at about 80 degrees. Therefore, we expect a persistent right shift of 50 degrees over the next few days. As the wind shifts, we will jibe to port inside the layline to Honolulu as we expect that persistent shift to occur. When and where to jibe will be a big decision for us. And, jibing this boat with only two of us in over 20 knots of wind is quite tricky. - Philippe Kahn