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Transat Bakerly
Le Cleac'h puts a marker down for the Vendee Globe
He is known as the Jackal in French sailing because of his relentless competitive zeal and Armel Le Cleac'h lived up to his name with an impressive win in the IMOCA 60 class of The Transat bakerly today - his first victory in the class in 10 years.
Le Cleac'h's elegant blue and white monohull, Banque Populaire, with its trademark dark blue sails, crossed the finish line under clear blue skies off Sandy Hook at 11:27 local time - 16:27 CET.
The two-time Vendee Globe runner-up had completed the 3,050-nautical mile course from Plymouth in 12 days, 2 hours and 28 minutes and 39 seconds. His total time includes a 31-minute penalty for the accidental breakage of his boat's engine seal. Le Cleac'h informed the Race Director about this at 16:26 local time yesterday.
The French skipper had sailed a total of 3,751 miles through the water at an average speed of 12.91 knots. As he crossed the finish line, waving in his moment of victory to his shore team on their coach boat, Le Cleac'h's main rival for line honours in the IMOCA 60 class, Vincent Riou on PRB, was 31 miles out to sea.
Ever since day three, as the leading IMOCA's surged westward after turning to starboard at Cape Finisterre, Le Cleac'h has kept Riou at bay and covered his every move.
* Lamire romps home to claim the honours in the Multi50s
The relatively unknown French sailor Gilles Lamire, stormed across the finish line of the Transat bakerly off New York Saturday evening at 16:50 local time, to complete his first big win in professional sailing aboard French Tech Rennes St Malo.
The 45-year-old, who hails from the small Breton town of Cancale, ran away with the competitive Multi50 class, completing the 3,050-nautical mile course from Plymouth to New York in 12 days, 7 hours, 51 minutes and 17 seconds. The final time includes a 31-minute time penalty for accidental breakage of the boats engine sea.
He sailed 4,090 miles through the water at an average speed of 13.85 knots.
This was a resounding win for the French skipper whose nearest and better-known rival, Lalou Roucayrol on Arkema was still 350 miles out to sea, when the celebrations started on Lamire's boat.
* British sailor Richard Tolkien has been rescued by a cargo ship after sustaining a head injury during the solo The Transat bakerly race from Plymouth to New York.
Tolkien, 61, was racing his IMOCA 60, 44, some 800 miles west of Horta in the Azores and was fixing a broken staysail stay when he was hit twice in the head by the furling drum. He began bleeding badly and called the nearest ship for assistance before abandoning his yacht.
Hopefully with the aid of his yacht's tracker, Tolkien will be able to recover his yacht. He has entered the Vendee Globe later this year and was using The Transat bakerly to qualify for the race.
* Joschke suffers damage to her boat
The Franco-German sailor Isabelle Joschke is currently assessing her options with her shore team after she discovered structural damage to the bow area of her Class40 yacht, Generali-Horizon Mixite, in the north-Atlantic.
Joschke, aged 39, had been leading the very close battle at the head of the Class40 fleet at a position about 630-nautical miles east, southeast of Nova Scotia but is now deciding where to head to, to make repairs.
The boat was sailing on starboard tack in 30 knots of wind when Joschke heard strange noises coming from the portside bow area, forward of the main bulkhead.
On inspection, she discovered water coming into the sail locker and quickly rolled her staysail and turned the boat downwind, 180 degrees away from the race heading.
It seems the failure is a crack in the hull which means there is no chance that she can continue upwind to New York, still over 1,000 miles away. This is a bitter disappointment for Joschke who was sailing a remarkable race in her first outing on a Class 40.
* Loick Peyron's tribute to Tabarly is cut short
Click on image to enlarge.
Today Loick Peyron, skipper of Pen Duick II, informed The Transat bakerly Race Management that his nostalgic voyage from Plymouth to New York had come to an end following damage to his staysail which has torn off the bridge of his boat.
Sailing over 3050nm 'the old way' as a tribute to the achievements of double Transat winner Eric Tabarly and sailing legend Mike Birch, triple Transat winner Peyron will now divert to Quiberon l'Ecole Nationale de Voile (ENVSN) in France midway through his voyage, no longer able to sail his boat into the wind.
This downwind delivery back to Quiberon ENVSN, where Pen Duick II has been owned and used as part of the sailing school for nearly 50 years, should take the skipper around 10 days to complete.
The class rankings at 0800 BST Sunday
ULTIME
1. Francois Gabart/Macif - 8 days, 8 hours, 54 minutes and 39 seconds at sea
2. Thomas Coville/Sodebo - 8 days, 18 hours, 32 minutes and 2 seconds at sea
3. Yves Le Blevec/Actual - 10 days, 12 hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds
IMOCA 60
1. Armel Le Cleac'h/Banque Populaire - 315.2nm to the finish
2. Vincent Riou/PRB - 69.67nm to the leader
3. Jean-Pierre Dick/St Michel Virbac - 189.88nm to the leader
MULTI 50
1. Gilles Lamire/French Tech Rennes St Malo - 427.1nm to the finish
2. Lalou Roucayrol/Arkema - 239.81nm to the leader
3. Pierre Antoine/Olmix - 591.54nm to the leader
CLASS40
1. Isabelle Joschke/Generali-Horizon Mixite - 1090.4nm to the finish
2. Phil Sharp/Imerys - 9.44nm to the leader
3. Thibaut Vauchel-Camus/Solidaires en Peloton-ARSEP - 20.68nm to the leader
Fourth Gold Cup For Scott
Giles Scott. Photo by Robert Deaves. Click on image to enlarge.
Giles Scott (GBR) lifted the Finn Gold Cup for the fourth time today in Gaeta, Italy, after a spectacular medal race sailed close to the shores of the impressive and historic old town.
While Scott had done enough to secure the title, and the race for the silver was reasonably secure, the battle for the bronze was very hot. In the end Jonas Hogh-Christensen (DEN) took the silver and Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) took the bronze. The medal race was won by Hogh-Christensen.
With four Finn Gold Cups under his belt Scott is now has the second highest number of titles, only headed by Ben Ainslie (GBR) who has six.
The final race, before the medal race, went to one of Thursday's star performers Oli Tweddell (AUS) who moved up to 11th overall. The junior prize went to the stand out performer of the week Phillip Kasueske (GER). Second junior was the current Junior World Champion Ondra Teply (CZE) while third was Arkadiy Kistanov (RUS).
Results after medal race (medal race in brackets)
1. Giles Scott, GBR, 23 (3)
2. Jonas Hogh-Christensen, DEN, 40 (1)
3. Pieter-Jan Postma, NED, 62 (5)
4. Jake Lilley, AUS, 67 (4)
5. Giorgio Poggi, ITA, 68 (2)
6. Ioannis Mitakis, GRE, 75 (10)
7. Fabian Pic, FRA, 82 (8)
8. Tom Ramshaw, CAN, 85 (6)
9. Ed Wright, GBR, 88 (7)
10. Phillip Kasueske, GER, 93 (9)
*|YOUTUBE:[$vid=auQOLNSB9co, $max_width=500, $title=N, $border=N, $trim_border=N, $ratings=N, $views=N]|*
Old Dog Masters New Trick
Switching from heavy monohulls to light M32 cats has so far done little (or nothing) to slow down six-time World Match Racing champion Ian Williams as Andy Rice reveals...
Just as Fremantle 1987 marked the end of the 12-Metre era, Fremantle 2016 would mark the start of a new era in the Tour, with the M32s replacing the keelboats that have been the traditional choice of the match-racing world. The aim is to realign the Tour more closely with the modern America's Cup, both in terms of the boats and also the course configuration, which is now pretty much identical to the Cup, including the high-speed reaching starts.
...For the final it turned out the 38-year-old Williams was a young gun again... and the young gun won, Williams beating Hans Wallen 3-0.
Asked to reveal the secret to his success, well, even Williams was a little stunned to have done so well so soon. 'But if there's one thing I think I've always been good at, throughout my career, something I've been very focused on, is looking at ways of improving the different parts of what we do, always trying to learn and move things on.'
Williams was then asked how his team of day one in Fremantle, just five days earlier, would have performed in the final. 'No chance. You can see how much the quality of the sailing has moved on with each day here. We're so much better than we were, and of course we're going to need to keep on improving throughout this year. We can't afford to stand still.'
The World Match Racing Tour couldn't afford to stand still either, and it hasn't. Fremantle was a first glimpse into a brave new world. We've seen the future - and it works.
Full article in Seahorse
www.seahorsemagazine.com
Canfield Conquers Copenhagen
Taylor Canfield (ISV), US One, has won World Match Racing Tour Copenhagen after beating Iker Martinez (ESP), Team Espana, in the most extraordinary circumstances. After taking straightforward wins in the first two matches of the final, in the third match Canfield found himself in a much tougher battle with the 2008 49er Olympic Champion who was improving by the race.
The early lead went to Canfield who always looked stronger at the start, but Martinez found a way past at the top of the beat. With the gusty wind pulsing hard, both boats nosedived badly on the downwind leg, and they regrouped in time to discover they were rapidly converging - collision course - on the same leeward gate mark. Martinez never gave Canfield mark room, forcing US One to ride over the top of the buoy and hooking it up underneath the trampoline.
Martinez, charging his way up the course, was given a penalty by the umpires and the match effectively restarted from scratch. However it wasn't long before the Spaniard had sailed clear of Canfield again and looked set to win the match and take the score to 1-2. Just a 100 metre dash to the finish line to keep Spanish hopes and dreams alive, but no! The Team Espana crew unfurled the gennaker in the mistaken belief that they had another lap to complete. Canfield, some way behind, steered US One across the line unchallenged and undefeated, 3-0 in the Final. Victory in Copenhagen, and $33,000 richer.
Copenhagen 2016 - Overall Results
1. Taylor Canfield (ISV), US One
2. Iker Martinez (ESP), Team Espana
3. Nicklas Dackhammar (SWE), Dackhammar Racing
4. Yann Guichard (FRA), Spindrift Racing
5. Mattias Rahm (SWE), Rahm Racing
6. Sally Barkow (USA), Team Magenta 32
7. Ian Williams (GBR), GAC Pindar
8. Bjorn Hansen (SWE), Nautiska Racing
9. Phil Robertson (AUS), Waka Racing
10. Johnie Berntsson (SWE), Flux Team
11. Evan Walker (AUS), KA Match / CYCA
12. Nicolai Sehested (DEN), Trefor Matchracing
13. Chris Steele (AUS), 36 Below Racing
14. Michael Hestbaek (DEN), Team Hydra
15. Sam Gilmour (AUS), Neptune Racing
16. Steven Thomas (AUS), Royal Perth Yacht Club
17. Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN), Aschenbrenner Racing
18. Hans Wallen (SWE), Wallen Racing
19. Eric Monnin (SUI), Albert Riele Swiss Team
20. Mans Holmberg (SWE), Team Holmberg
Do It Yourself (Sailboat)
Click on image to enlarge.
The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh has announced the acquisition of a major new addition: Do It Yourself (Sailboat) from Warhol's "Do It Yourself" series. First exhibited at the Stable Gallery in 1962, the painting represents a key moment in Warhol's career, a reaction against the then-reigning style of Abstract Expressionism and a presentation of painting in the context of mass media, anticipating the Pop style that would make him a superstar.
Do It Yourself (Sailboat) is one of a five-part series made in 1962, around the same time Warhol painted 32 Campbell's soup cans, and about two years before he moved into his first "Factory." When he created the series, the artist was moving out of drawing and hand-painting, and just beginning to experiment with silkscreens and stencils. Based on the mass-produced model of instructional paint-by-numbers kits, the series also features a violin, land- and seascapes, and flowers.
Clipper Panama Cup - Day 16: Forecast Squalls Set To Liven Up The Doldrums
As the PSP Logistics Panama Cup continues, life in the Doldrums is frustrating the teams regardless of their position in the fleet, with one team covering as little as 35 nautical miles in the last twelve hours of racing. In the blistering heat, intense concentration is needed to eke out any advantage in the wind and current that can help them on their way towards Panama. The conditions are poles apart from the Pacific Ocean crossing and are testing the teams' skills in a very different manner.
LMAX Exchange continues to lead the fleet but is closely followed byClipperTelemed+ 2.9 nautical miles behind, and Unicef another 7NM back. Leading the Overall Race Standings too, LMAX Exchange Skipper Olivier Cardin reports on the close racing his team finds itself in almost 3000NM from Seattle.
As it stands, Visit Seattle's Ocean Sprint time looks set to remain unbeaten as the teams further back have struggled with patches of light wind across the course. Still completing the Ocean Sprint, PSP Logistics has altered direction from the fastest route through 17 and half degrees north and 16 north in search of winds that will help its overall race position, and in the process is unlikely to beat Visit Seattle's time of 10 hours 1 minute.
With wind holes and squall activity forecast, will the chasing teams have the chance to catch the leading pack?
Letters To The Editor -
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* From Sean Paterson: re Youth Worlds NOR
I think someone at World Sailing should proof their NOR better.
NOR 4.1 Fees are stated in Euros... yet the table immediately below shows entry fee in $NZL. Given the € - $NZ exchange rate is around .6 a $1500 entry fee is only €875.00 most will be keen to see the NZ currency kept.
So what is it?
Featured Brokerage
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2008 Mills 37 - CRAZY HORSE. 95000 GBP. Located in Howth, Ireland.
S Glass/Foam Core/Epoxy. Built by Davie Norris.
Contact
Ben Cooper
+44 (0) 1590 679222
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2008 Melges 32. 83000 USD. Located in Torquay, England, UK.
Hull number 175 (2008). In immaculate condition with no defects and a high polished finish.
3M black non skid on cockpit floor. Cockpit bags replaced with velcro pads for winch handles / radio / bottles etc.
Traveler, mainsheet and backstay controls all run as per class rules.
Engine is the original Tohatsu 9.9. Has received constant servicing throughout its life, still running fine but needs to be regularly serviced.
Contact
Joe Hall
Farr Yacht Sales Europe
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Tan 66 - NEW BOAT
The latest entrant into the large performance cat market comes from an all-French design and build team working under the management of Dubai-based Tan Yachts - which was founded by entrepreneur Xavier Bouin. Looks very roomy
Contact
Xavier Bouin
+971(0)55 602 53 86
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
The Last Word
'Oh, smell the people!' yelled Dean with his face out the window, sniffling. 'Ah, God! Life!' -- Jack Kerouac, On The Road