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First Wave Away Fast, Second To Start Tomorrow In 48th Transpac
San Pedro, California, USA: The first wave of 22 entries in Divisions 7 and 8 have had a great 48 hour start to their race from La to Honolulu in the 48th edition of the Transpac. The class leaders have traversed nearly 500 miles, almost one-fourth the distance to the finish in this 2225-mile biennial ocean racing classic, organized by the Transpacific YC.

Leading the pack in both elapsed and corrected time is Tracy Obert's Marjorie, a gorgeous Stephens Waring-designed 59-foot ketch built in cold-molded wood and Kevlar at Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine in 2007.

The current leader in Division 7 is Paul Stemler's J/44 Patriot, who has not sagged too far south off the rhumbline course to the finish like many of the others, and is thus minimizing the distance to Diamond Head.

An early leader in the race was the Jorgensen Brothers's J/133 Picante, but they decided to retire from the race and turn back to Long Beach, saying they were abandoning the race for having loose keel bolts. Similarly, Robert Yearsley's Jeanneau 49DS Vivacia sent a terse message on Tuesday morning that said simply "returning to rainbow harbor. taking on water from deck level. Request dock assignment." Fortunately, neither crew had any injuries nor needed any assistance to return, and both are back now in Long Beach.

No one has dropped from the roster in tomorrow's second race start at 13:00 PDT from the list of six mostly fast 40-ish footers in Division 4, the nine Santa Cruz 50's and Santa Cruz 52's in Division 5 (the so-called "Fabulous Fifties"), and the four slightly slower and older racer/cruisers in Division 6.

The Euro model forecast for Thursday looks promising to get off the coast, but then changes may be ahead

Their weather forecast looks good for their initial exit off the coast, but in slightly less pressure than the first wave due to an approaching low pressure center from the south later in the week.

transpacyc.com

Lending Club 2 Bails Out Of Transpac For Record Run
Renaud Laplanche and Ryan Breymaier co-skippers of Maxi trimaran Lending Club 2 have made the decision to withdraw from the 2015 Transpac race and instead leave Long Beach at noon on July 15th, to attempt the outright Transpac record, currently held by Olivier de Kersauson onboard Geronimo.

Lending club 2 had entered the 2015 Transpac race with the intention of beating the race record that stands at 5 days 9 hours and 20 minutes. The co-skipper team attempted this feat in the 2013 Transpac but were hindered by debris as large as tree trunks and telephone poles thought to be left by the Japanese tsunami and arrived in Hawaii just two hours outside the record.

For the past week Renaud and Ryan, along with navigator Boris Herrmann have been carefully watching the weather and concluded the weather window for the race start will not offer the right conditions for a fast race. At the same time they noted a low pressure system offering ideal conditions for an extremely fast crossing if the boat were to leave immediately.

Live tracking: https://my.yb.tl/lendingclub2/

Wild Oats XI: Hunting a Hurricane and Dodging Debris
Record breaking Australian supermaxi yacht, Wild Oats XI, will be hunting for a hurricane and dodging debris after she starts in the 2225 nautical mile Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii on Saturday.

The sleek, 100ft long sloop, which is entered in the classic on a joint charter arrangement between famous Californian yachtsman, Roy P. Disney, and the yacht's Australian owner, Bob Oatley AO, is out to score the fastest time for the race, and hopefully break the course record mark of 5 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes, 20 seconds, set in 2009.

On the current weather forecast, issued 72 hours before the start, it's a task that's not impossible to achieve.

The key to success lies with a hurricane, located well to the south of the race course, which is expected to track slowly north-west towards the fleet at the weekend. Should Wild Oats XI be able to sail to within 200 nautical miles of the eye of that storm she should pick up a slingshot effect from strong favourable winds and be averaging between 20 and 25 knots. Australian yachting meteorologist Roger Badham predicts that if this occurs, skipper Mark Richards and his crew could anticipate a race "about as fast as you could ever hope for".

During the race the Wild Oats XI crew, like all others aboard the 61 competing yachts, will be confronted by another threat in the mid-Pacific in the form of debris, some of it natural, but the majority man-made.

Roy P. Disney, a veteran of 20 Transpac races, said that he has been alarmed by the increase in flotsam on the race course in recent years. -- Rob Mundle

Dubarry Crosshaven - 'Race Face' Protection
It's pitch-black. We're on the wind halfway across the Irish Sea, heading for 'The Rock' in a Force 6 - and it's building. On the rail we might look like a troop of Japanese snow monkeys on valium but we've huddled into something like comfort when skip calls the headsail change we've been dreading for the last five minutes. Three minutes later I'm clipped on with my feet on the leeward toerail with an armful of changed foresail when a wave engulfs the foredeck. The water clears and I'm still onboard thanks to the combined efforts of my tether and the stanchion lodged in my crotch. Lucky me.

Sail change over I'm back on the rail but my feet are cold and wet and my enthusiasm for this caper ebbs quickly away, unlike the sea water - the boots were still wet a week after the finish in Plymouth. It's 1989 and, though the stylishly weathered Shamrock boot is much in evidence, the Crosshaven is but a dream. Had I been wearing Crosshavens, the gaiter and drawstring would have kept my feet dry and my race face on. Funny how something so simple can be so incredibly effective.

Dubarry Crosshaven - Born at sea

dubarry.com

TR2015: Further Podium Positions Decided
While the oceanic speedsters of the Transatlantic Race 2015 have long since docked after making the 2,800 mile crossing from Newport to The Lizard in just over a week, a thought needs to be spared for the nine boats still at sea. Six of these have been battling the North Atlantic for two and a half weeks, while the back marker of these, Paul Anstey and Craig Rastello's Florida-based C&C 41, Dizzy, this morning has broken the '500 miles to go' barrier with an ETA at The Lizard of Saturday afternoon.

The only boat to make her way up the English Channel to Cowes in the last few hours has been Earl St. Aldwyn's elegant, fast, Shipman 50, Zephyr. She crossed the finish line off The Lizard at 03:47:09 UTC yesterday (23:47:09 EDT on July 13) and then ticked off the Coastal Race, arriving in Cowes early this morning (03:13 UTC).

Zephyr is one of two Royal Yacht Squadron boats completing in the Transatlantic Race 2015, alongside Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's Open 60 Grey Power. She currently leads the Cruising Class in which she is first to finish.

CORRECTION: In yesterday's release we reported the wrong finish time for Rambler 88. The correct time for George David's maxi at The Lizard was 11:08 UTC (07:08 EDT) on July 13th, causing her to beat Jim Clark and Kristy Hinze-Clark's 100' maxi Comanche on corrected time by 7 hours 2 minutes and 49 seconds.

transatlanticrace.com

ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final
The first day of the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final in Vladivostok, Russia gathered pace after a short postponement due to strong winds. Once the winds fell beneath 20 knots the sailing started, with 27 matches in all for the day.

Two sailors, America's Nicole Breault and Russia's Vladimir Lypavskiy, both ended the day with a perfect record to sit top of their respective divisions. Breault leads the Women's division with two wins from two on the day while in the Open division Lypavskiy boasts four from four.

Lypavskiy's perfect record was under severe pressure during his match with Japan's Kohei Ichikawa. In a tight encounter, Lypayskiy was penalized for not keeping clear during the tack, but he managed to win the match in the final centimeters when he took his penalty just at the finishing line using all of his luffing rights.

Match racing resumes tomorrow.

nationscup2015.ru

TP52 Worlds: Double Bullets for Provezza, Azzurra Lead
Photo by Max Ranchi, www.maxranchi.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

Race wins have been somehwat elusive for Ergin Imre's team on the 52 SUPER SERIES circuit this season. The crew which has British Olympian Andy Beadsworth on the helm, American Tony Rey calling tactics and ace Palma based Nacho Postigo pushing the buttons on the navigator's computer, had proven their potential in Valencia and Porto Cervo.

To dates their best scores have been two second places in the season's curtain raiser in Spain's America's Cup city and their fourth overall in Sardinia contained a second in the 31 miles coastal race and a couple of thirds.

But the Provezza team composed two back to back wins today on the Bay of Palma at the TP52 World Championships Peurto Portals, elevating themselves to second overall and chasing hard behind the championship leaders Azzurra who posted a second and third to sit five points clear at the top.

Results after four Races

1. Azzurra, A & P Roemmers, ARG, 14 points
2. Provezza, Ergin Imre, TUR, 19
3. Ran, Niklas Zennstrom, SWE, 20
4. Platoon, Harm Muller Spreer, GER, 24
5. Bronenosec, Vladimir Liubomirov, RUS, 24
6. Phoenix, Eduardo de Souza Ramos, BRA, 24
7. Sled, Takashi Okura, USA, 26
8. Alegre, Andy Soriano, GBR, 26
9. Quantum Racing, Doug DeVos, USA, 26
10. XIO, Marco Serafini, ITA, 35
11. Gladiator, Tony Langley, GBR, 37
12. Paprec, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, FRA, 38

www.52superseries.com

Triplets In A Squib
Harry White, Charlie White & Tom White. Click on image to enlarge.

A trio of 15 year-old brothers who started sailing Optimist dinghies at the age of eight at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club (RVYC) on the Isle of Wight, will be racing in the highly competitive 11-strong Squib class at this year's Charles Stanley Cowes Classics Week. They will race on Tuesday 21st July, the Winkworth/Royal Victoria Yacht Club Race Day, then again at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week in August. Hudson Wight Performance Sailwear is official clothing sponsor for Cowes Classics Week and is also supporting the identical triplets as a personal sponsor.

Charlie, Harry and Tom White, quickly progressed to racing in earnest and dominated the Oppie class, collectively going on to win all the Series championships. They took part in mainland open championships in Lymington, Datchet and at Grafham Water, sailed an RS Feva in the 'On Board' Championship at Southampton Boat Show in 2011 and won.

The boys will be racing the RVYC Squib 'Alice', Sail number 777. The Squib is a 19ft fixed keelboat with mace coloured sails. They have been busy this week practicing their spinnaker skills and will be hoping for a mid-fleet position on Tuesday, although they are up against some very high calibre sailors.

www.hudsonwight.com
www.cowesclassicsweek.org

Lipton Cup
Photo by Trevor Wilkins. Click on image to enlarge.

Cape Town, South Africa: Today's race has just been won by UCT Yacht Club team Southern Charter UCT Maverick. It was an extremely close call, with today's runners up Royal Natal Yacht Club's team Orion B2G2 closely on their heels. Defending Champions Royal Cape Yacht Club finished in third place.

The first race on Monday was won by local Hout Bay Yacht Club team LTC Phoenix, Tuesday's race was abandoned because of a lack of wind. Yesterday's race was won by the local defending champions from this year's host club Royal Cape Yacht Club, with Royal Natal Yacht Club's Team Orion B2G2 following closely in second position.

Racing is scheduled to take place tomorrow and Friday - however, Friday's weather forecast might cause the last race to be cancelled.

www.liptoncup.com

Tour Voile: Perfect Day For Combiwest
CombiWest had the most consistent results today. They won the final race after two thirds and two seconds in previous races. Damien Iehl, who was at the helm today, took his team to victory in the last Stadium Races day on the french west coast. Groupama maintains his overall leadership with a second place, while Prince de Bretagne takes third.

The fleet waved goodbye to the Atlantic seaside with a serie of Stadium Races today in Les Sables d'Olonne. In perfect sailing conditions, north-westerly breeze 12 to 15 knots, he competitors sailed three qualification races, with two finals for the best 14 boats and one final for the others.

It was definitely an underwhelming day for Spindrift who scored two victories but finished 9th of the first final and got disqualified in the second for being too early on the start line under black flag (with PRB and Vannes Agglo).

Tonight the boats are dismantled to be delivered by truck to Roses, on the Mediterranean coast, for Act 6 to start on Friday with a coastal race.

www.tourvoile.fr

ISAF Invites Bids for 2017 ISAF Youth Match Racing Worlds
The International Sailing Federation is now inviting all Member National Authorities to bid for the 2017 ISAF Youth Match Racing World Championship.

The ISAF Youth Match Racing Worlds is now in its second year with this year's fully subscribed event being held in Swinoujscie, Poland and the 2016 event in New Caledonia, France.

Bids must be received by the ISAF Secretariat and must include confirmation of support for the bid from the relevant Member National Authority.  Bids will be reviewed by ISAF and a decision announced in November 2015.

Bid guidelines.

Bids to host the 2017 ISAF Youth Match Racing Worlds must be received by Friday 2 October 2015.

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The Last Word
Kisses are a better fate than wisdom. -- e. e. cummings

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