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Alpari World Match Racing Tour 2014 World Championship Schedule
The Alpari World Match Racing Tour has today announced the schedule of events for the 2014 ISAF Match Racing World Championship. The 2014 Tour will feature six stages across three continents spanning Europe, Asia and North America - with additional events expected in Europe and Oceania in the coming months.
Over 30 match racing teams will go head to head during the season in their bid to be crowned Alpari World Match Racing Tour and ISAF World Match Racing Champion, together with a share in over US$1.4million prize money.
Sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation as one of only four 'ISAF Special Events', the Alpari World Match Racing Tour is one of the most challenging and hard fought world championships in sailing. Former Tour Champions include equal four time Champions Peter Gilmour (AUS) and Ian Williams (GBR), America's Cup and four time Olympic Gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie, and last year's newly crowned Champion, 25-year-old US Virgin Islander Taylor Canfield.
A new event on the Alpari Tour for 2014, Sopot Match Race, will take place off the city of Sopot on the east coast of Poland in July. Located on the Baltic Sea between Gdansk and Gdynia, the racing takes place metres from the shore in front of Europe's longest Molo pier (550m) attracting tens of thousands of visitors daily during the summer.
Absent from the 2014 schedule is the Korea Match Cup, which will return to the Tour in 2015.
Once again central to the teams competing on the 2014 Alpari World Match Racing Tour will be the eight 'Tour Card Holder' skippers. One team guaranteed a Tour card slot for 2014 and eager to defend its 2013 Championship Title is the USone Match Racing Team, skippered by Taylor Canfield.
The full list of 2014 Tour Card teams will be announced when they have been finalised at the beginning of March.
Alpari World Match Racing Tour 2014
Stage 1: 5-9 June Match Race Germany, Langenargen, Germany
Stage 2: 30 June-5 July Stena Match Cup Sweden, Marstrand, Sweden
Stage 3: 31 July-3 August Sopot Match Race, Sopot, Poland
Stage 4: 17-21 September Chicago Match Cup, Chicago, USA
Stage 5: 21-26 October Argo Group Gold Cup, Hamilton, Bermuda
Stage 6: 25-29 November Monsoon Cup, Malaysia
Barker: There's A Lot Of Things We Would Have Done Differently
Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker last night conceded questions were asked over team boss Grant Dalton's position on the catamaran and that Dalton's decision to agree to a lay day during the America's Cup was "clearly a mistake".
In a candid interview on why Team New Zealand blew an 8-1 lead - and eventually lost the Cup regatta 8-9 to Oracle Team USA - Barker told TV3's Paul Henry: "There's a lot of things we'd do differently".
He agreed that grinder Winston Macfarlane - who sailed several races in place of Dalton during the final series - was bigger, stronger and fitter than Dalton, 56.
"Grant was there [on the boat] for reasons other than his physical presence," Barker said. "He was there for leadership and everything else, from him wanting to be in that position."
We made decisions all the way through the campaign ... maybe yes there were people that weren't happy with Grant being on the boat. In the end I'm skipper ... Grant and I talked a lot and I was accepting of him being on the boat."
But Barker also conceded that Dalton's decision to agree with Oracle that the teams have a rest day on September 16 was an error - and that Dalton made the call without consulting the skipper.
"That was clearly a mistake. It was a decision that was made outside of our knowledge. Grant ultimately made the decision which is his right within the team.
New Zealand Herald: www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/
Marinepool TEC Fashion Collection - A Perfect Blend Of Function And Fashion
2014 saw the introduction of a completely new TEC Fashion line, designed and produced to the highest standards. TEC fashion is a cross over between functional clothing and fashion, which combines the best of two worlds.
Highly elastic fabrics with quick drying and odour preventing technical features provide unmatched comfort while the garments also protect from harmful UV rays and innovative double weave technology provides excellent moisture management. 3M reflective pipings and patches increase safety. Close fit cuts, high quality materials and a sportive design give the garments a fashionable dynamic look on and off the water.
Marinepool TEC fashion is the ideal outfit for sunny sailing days in the Med, as highly functional mid layers when the going gets tough, or for any performance sport. Performance is closely related to the optimum use of energy and is highest where none of the latter is waisted to cool or heat the body. Marinepool TEC Fashion helps keeping the body climate in balance, transports dampness quickly away from the skin and protects from wind, water and sun for a maximum of power and endurance.
The brand new TEC Fashion collection comprises ultra elastic trousers and bermudas for women and men for ultimate wearing comfort as well as short and long sleeved polo shirts and t-shirts from 4-way stretch fabric. Wind and water resistant 3D designed softshell jackets and vests, made from multi-layer stretch fabric are light weight and super comfortable. The new mid layer jackets and vests combine an ultra light nylon shell with a premium 3M Thinsulate® filling into a warm, water and wind resistant garment that is simultaneously a fashion statement. Last but not least highly functional jackets, utilizing the latest in 3-layer fabric technology protect from anything the weather gods might throw at you.
The new TEC Fashion Collection by Marinepool.
Design. Technology. Passion.
Slattery, Fisher, Mclean and Harmer Join Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
Ireland's Justin Slattery, Australia's Phil Harmer, Britain's Simon Fisher and New Zealand's Andrew McLean have joined Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's crew for the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15.
Joining Ian Walker's crew this Monday are four sailors with a combined total of 12 Volvo Ocean Race campaigns between them.
They join Emirati crewman Adil Khalid, Australian under-23 recruit Luke Parkinson and British onboard reporter Tom Bushell.
All four have previously raced with Walker, Abu Dhabi's double Olympic silver medalist skipper.
For bowman Slattery, this will be his third lap of the world with Walker and his second Volvo Ocean Race as an Abu Dhabi crew member. Likewise navigator Fisher will be racing for Abu Dhabi for the second time after competing as a helmsman and sail trimmer in the last race.
McLean and Harmer previously raced around the world with Walker two editions ago. In the 2011-12 race Harmer was part of the winning Groupama crew and McLean finished second on CAMPER - this time both plan to use their experience to help Abu Dhabi's quest for a Volvo Ocean Race victory.
The final member of the nine-man crew list will be announced in the coming weeks. After visiting the Emirati capital this week, next on ADOR's agenda are safety tests and sea trials aboard their new Volvo Ocean 65.
The one-design boat will hit the water in Southern England in the next weeks. Trials should be completed by the beginning of March when the team will sail to its training base near Lisbon, Portugal.
volvooceanraceabudhabi.com
volvooceanrace.com
Multi 50 Maitre Jacques Broken Float Washes Up
Click on image to enlarge.
Nearly three months ago, on November 3rd, 2013, the Multi 50 Maitre Jacques trimaran sustained heavy damage on her starboard float while she was taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the double-handed race from Le Havre to Itajaí, Brasil.
Early in the afternoon of November 3rd, the two French co-skippers, Loic Fequet and Loic Escoffier, were sailing in big seas at speeds of between 20 and 28 knots on starboard tack in 25 knot winds and 4-5 meter waves, when they suddenly heard two cracks and realised that the front section of the their trimaran's starboard float was damaged.
In fact, the front third of the starboard float had snapped and broke away. The Multi 50 trimaran was approximately 130 miles from La Coruña, Spain and was able under her own sail to make it to the Spanish port. From there, she headed to Port la Foret in southern Brittany, where she would spend the winter and be repaired.
Well, another miraculous, recovery took place today. After drifting for nearly three months in the Atlantic Ocean, not only did the broken section wash up in France, roughly intact, she was spotted and recovered by a fishing boat a few miles from Port la Foret.
Valencia Sailing: www.vsail.info
Seb Josse & Gitana Team Back In The IMOCA Class
The Gitana team has confirmed that their skipper Seb Josse will be on the start line of the 2016 Vendee Globe, with plans to rejoin the IMOCA 60 class and the Ocean Masters World Championships circuit in 2015.
While it is the second Vendee Globe experience for the team, it will be the third for Josse who competed in the 2004 and 2008 editions. He recalls: "My history with the Vendee Globe began some 12 years ago, in 2002, when I was entrusted with the helm of my first IMOCA project. That Vendee proved to be a journey of discovery. I set out on an old boat, which wasn't really competitive. However, those three months of sailing and my fifth place taught me a great many other things. The race helped me to my feet…
"In 2008, I returned at the helm of a latest generation monohull. Unfortunately my race was cut short off New Zealand due to structural damage. That retirement has been a great frustration to me and until today it has left me with the sense that my story with the Vendee Globe remains unfinished.
"I'm very happy with the Gitana Team's choices and I'm all too aware of the incredible opportunity Ariane and Benjamin de Rothschild are giving me by enabling us to get involved in such an adventure. For a sailor, the Vendee Globe is much more than a mere race."
EFG Bank (Monaco) Wins Opening Leg of EFG Sailing Arabia - The Tour
Click on image to enlarge.
With Frenchman Sidney Gavignet at the helm the team, which includes two local Omani sailors crossed the finish line in Doha at 18:59 beating the ever-threatening Messe Frankfurt Sailing Team, who led the fleet for most of the breezy run, by just 25 seconds.
In this, the region's only long distance offshore sailing endurance race between Bahrain and Muscat, Messe Frankfurt's Marcel Herrera demonstrated just how important it is to train consistently for an event like this. He and his team, which comprise a variety of sailors from the UK with an average age of 26, have been training hard in Plymouth for the majority of the year and this first leg result is a reflection of the work the team has put into its campaign.
The results of EFG Bank (Monaco) and Messe Frankfurt Sailing Team are even more impressive considering they both ran aground sailing close to the shore trying to keep out the 3kts of tidal stream. EFG Bank (Monaco) also suffered jib failure on the start line and was last to start.
The timing of The Tour's arrival to Qatar couldn't be been better, coinciding with Qatar National Sports Day celebrations
sailingarabiathetour.com/en/home
Structural Engineers Needed
NASA Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans LA USA
AND
Southampton, UK
Blade Dynamics is looking for structural engineers to join their technical team in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The successful candidates will work within an established team of world class engineers and materials scientists to design, develop, manufacture and test the next generation of wind turbine blades. The role will involve managing specific project tasks, or a whole project, from the initial conceptual design through prototyping, testing, certification and production. Candidates will have at least a M.S. and two years of post-graduate experience or a B.S. and five years of experience in a related industry (automotive, aerospace, high performance marine or wind blade industry), in a structural engineering role.
Requirements
- Excellent understanding of structural design principles and practices.
- Experience in structural design using advanced composite materials.
- Ability to perform classical hand calculations and develop spreadsheets for design and analysis purposes.
- Proven experience using FEA (Abaqus, Ansys, Nastran, etc).
- Ability to approach engineering tasks from first principles.
- Excellent analytical skills (gathering, organizing and analyzing data; drawing conclusions).
- Some experience using CAD tools like AutoCAD, SolidWorks, CATIA, etc.
Knowledge in one or more of the following areas will be considered as a plus,
- Structural testing.
- Structural dynamics.
- Fatigue and fracture mechanics analysis.
- Aeroelasticity and aerodynamics.
- Structural reliability.
- Experience working following design codes and liaison with certification bodies.
In return Blade Dynamics will offer a competitive salary package and the opportunity to be part of an exciting young company, working in the new and dynamic field of wind turbine technology.
If you would like to be a member of the Blade Dynamics Team, please submit your resume and covering letter to: making sure 'Structural Engineer' is the subject line of your email.
Deeper Red Ink
San Francisco's red ink from the 34th America's Cup doubled Monday, with updated figures showing the city lost $11.5 million hosting the event.
Preliminary figures released in December showed the regatta had cost taxpayers at least $5.5 million, but that number did not include expenses for the Port of San Francisco, a city department with its own budget funded by rent revenue from its property, not taxes.
The Cup and two related exhibition matches in 2012 had a net cost to the port of $5.5 million, and their cost to the general fund, the city's main spending account, was revised upward to $6 million, according to a new report by the Board of Supervisors budget and legislative analyst. That meant the event cost the city a total of $11.5 million.
The latest analysis, requested by Supervisor John Avalos, a critic of the regatta, also presented a mixed picture on the economic benefits for San Franciscans, finding that officials failed to track local hiring and the inclusion of small businesses during the 2012 events. During the 2013 competitions, however, more than half of the 953 people hired under contracts with race organizers were San Franciscans.
The new findings come as Mayor Ed Lee's administration has reached an impasse in negotiations with software billionaire Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA sailing club about hosting the next Cup in 2017.
Alexandra South Joins GAC Pindar Team
GAC Pindar has announced that 2013 18ft Female Skiff World Champion, Alexandra South, will be their fifth team member for this season's Extreme Sailing Series.
Sydney-born South is the final member of an all-Aussie crew and will be making her Extreme Sailing Series debut at act one in Singapore, between 20th - 23rd February.
South, who hails from a sailing family and started sailing at just four years old, is a beneficiary of the 'fifth sailor' rule, introduced by series organisers OC Sport in 2012, stipulating that one member of the crew must either be female, under 23, or classified as an amateur by ISAF.
Twenty-year-old South started in a Sabot during her junior years before moving up to the Laser Radial. Most recently she's excelled in the 18ft Skiff and was crowned Yachting Australia Female Sailor of the Year after she became the 2013 18ft Skiff Female World Champion.
South will join new GAC Pindar skipper, Seve Jarvin, who, like South, also started his sailing career as a youngster on Sydney Harbour, before becoming a seven-times 18-foot Skiff World Champion. Supporting them will be Ed Smyth who has competed in three America's Cups and was part of last year's Extreme Sailing Series-winning The Wave, Muscat team, Sam Newton (27, Bowman), part of Oracle Team USA's America's Cup winning crew and Troy Tindill (30, Mainsheet), who sailed with Artemis in the America's Cup World Series, all of whom will bring considerable experience.
www.gacpindar.com
www.extremesailingseries.com
Report: Bounty's Captain Made Reckless Decision
The tall ship Bounty was lost because the captain made a "reckless" decision to set sail into Hurricane Sandy, according to the first official report on the sinking.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday released its 16-page report. A separate Coast Guard investigation is ongoing.
The report summarized the events that led to the Bounty's sinking and ruled the probable cause was the "captain's reckless decision to sail the vessel into Sandy's well-forecasted path, which subjected the aging vessel and the inexperienced crew to conditions from which the vessel could not recover."
The report also said a lack of oversight from the HMS Bounty Organization, which owned the ship, contributed to the sinking.
Sign-Ups Start For Round Britain & Ireland Race
Long-time RNLI supporter Tony Purser is one of the first people to sign up for the Round Britain and Ireland Race run by the Royal Western Yacht Club in Plymouth. A seasoned veteran of the event, Tony has taken part three times before and is pleased that the RNLI is the chosen charity partner for the 2014 event.
The two-handed race, which will start on 1 June is run every four years and first began back in 1966. The race starts and ends in Plymouth with stop overs in four ports. Entries are now being accepted for the race, which is open to all yachts and multihulls between 30 and 50 feet in length, crewed by two people only. Tony will be racing with Plymouth sailor Mark Hanley onboard Tony's Cornish built yacht Backlash, a 40 foot Australian designed multi-hull that he keeps in Plymouth:
'I was a bit of a late starter, taking up sailing at the age of 40 when I read a book about a man who bought a boat and sailed it back from Hong Kong. My wife says I'm a sadist. I groan and moan about this race and say I'm not doing it again but there's something very special about the event. It's quite an achievement to sail around Britain and extremities like the Shetlands and the weather can be a tremendous challenge, there's always a gale at some stage during the race.'
Tony, who claims to be 72-ish, says he's raised around £1,000 for the RNLI each time he's taken part in the Round Britain and Ireland Race because he feels the charity deserves as much support as possible.
Featured Brokerage
2008 King 40. GBP 240, 000. Located in Hamble, United Kingdom.
Any sensible offers will be considered. Tokoloshe has been campaigned by the same owner since new and has had no expense spared in order to keep her competitive and looking good.
All sails by North. 3dl, 3di and panelled delivery sails.
34 sails in total including 2012 and 2013 sails.
Re faired and re painted 2010.
New deck paint 2013
Spare rudder, spinnaker pole and much more.
This yacht is very well equipped and prepared and is ready to sail.
Brokerage by Blue Marine Yachting: bluemarineyachting.com
Contact:
David Bartholomew
0778 086 0134
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
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