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Gold Roman Bowl Winner Is Nordic Bear
Photo by Rick Tomlinson, rick-tomlinson.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

Round the Island Race The two existing course record holders in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race have again triumphed today as IDEC, the multihull driven by Francis Joyon crossed the finish line at 09.34.05 - so her rounding was in 04h.24m.05s and her course record still stands at 3h.08m.29s. She was closely followed by the four Extreme 40s led by Oman Sail, The Wave Muscat at 09.37.33, then Oman Sail Masirah at 09.37.57, Team Metherell at 09.44.10 and then Ecover at 09.48.45.

ICAP Leopard crossed the line at 10.10.06 so her rounding was achieved in 05h.0m.06s, way outside her record of 03h.53m.05s. The ISC Commodore Bill Pimlott presented Mike Slade with a bottle of Champagne for taking the monohull line honours.

The exquisite J Class yacht Velsheda finished at 10.45.02. She started at 5am this morning. Built in 1933 in Camper and Nicholsons in Gosport, Velsheda is the most famous of the few remaining J Class yachts left in the world today.

The winner of the Gold Roman Bowl, the top prize in the Race for the first overall on corrected time in IRC-rated classes is Nordic Bear, a Nordic Folkboat owned and raced by Brian Appleyard from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. He came second in IRC overall in 2009. This boat has beaten Madelaine who won the Gold Roman Bowl in 2007.

The Silver Gilt Roman Bowl and JP Morgan Asset Management Salver for the top yacht in the ISC Rating System Division went to First Knight, a Beneteau First 25.7 owned and skippered by an ENT surgeon, Lindsey Knight, from Leeds.

Complete results at
www.roundtheisland.org.uk

Quantum Racing and Iberdrola Win The Marseille Trophy
Photo by Jurg Kaufmann, www.go4image.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

Medcup Marseille Quantum Racing and Iberdrola's green revolution overtook the Marseille Trophy regatta, the second event of the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit, as the two green-hulled Botin Carkeek designs lifted the respective top trophies for the TP52 series and GP42 series.

Quantum Racing's (USA) victory in the TP52 Series fleet is their first event win overall since becoming 2008 TP52 World Champions in Puerto Calero, and their first Audi MedCup Circuit regatta triumph since they sealed the 2008 overall title winning the Portugal Trophy in September 2008.

The 2007 and 2008 GP42 Circuit title winners Iberdrola (ESP) leave Marseille buoyed up for the rest of the season by their first ever Audi MedCup regatta win.

Their win halts the Emirates Team New Zealand run at five successive regattas which they set off here in Marseille last year. The American crew finished 4.5 points clear of second placed Matador (ARG). -- Sabina Mollart-Rogerson

* With no racing again today due to the Force 6-7 conditions out on the Rade Sud, Iberdrola (ESP) has managed to keep their two-point lead to win the Marseille Trophy in the GP42 Series, their first-ever Audi MedCup stage win. The bright green machine, led by skipper Laureano Wizner (ESP), has shown to be fast in light air, so those conditions in the first day of racing enabled her double-bullet wins in Races 1 & 2 to take an early lead in this stage.

Besides earning the Marseille Trophy, Iberdrola also advances one place in the overall GP42 Series standings to become the runner-up to Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP).

But having only five races at this stage has benefited Peninsula Petroleum (GBR), led by Gibraltar-based owner/helmsman John Bassadone (GBR) and tactician Inaki Castaner (ESP), whose unfortunate break in their masthead crane could not be repaired after they had to drop out of Race 3. The lack of additional races in this stage has minimized the number of DNC's on the team's overall scorecard, and will leave more races in the future available for this team to play catch-up to the fleet for the remainder of the series. -- Dobbs Davis

The Conde de Godo City of Barcelona Trophy is the next regatta of the Audi MedCup Circuit 20-25 July in the Catalan capital.

Marseille Trophy

TP52 Series - Top Five
1. Quantum Racing, USA, 22.5 points
2. Matador, ARG, 27
3. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE, FRA/GER, 29.5
4. Emirates Team New Zealand, NZL, 31
5. TeamOrigin, GBR, 31

GP42 Series - Top Five
1. Iberdrola, ESP, 10 points
2. Madrid-Caser Seguros, ESP, 12
3. AIRISESSENTIAL, ITA, 15
4. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero, ESP, 17
5. Peninsula Petroleum, GBR, 24

www.medcup.org

'Speedboat' Leads - 175 Miles To Go
Photo by Daniel Forster, www.yachtphoto.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

Newport Bermuda Start The lead boats entered the Gulf Stream at around sunset Saturday, heading upwind into a moderate southwesterly wind with as much as 4 knots of favorable current in the long, hot meander that they have been steering for since the race start on Friday afternoon. Speedboat, at 100ft the largest yacht in the fleet, was making more than 12 knots over the bottom. The earlier "champagne conditions" were behind them as they pounded into big, square, confused seas.

iBoattrack positions at 11 AM EDT Sunday showed Speedboat averaging almost 11 knots with 175 miles to the finish. At this rate she is behind the 48-hour elapsed time race record for cant-keel, Open Division boats - She has to average 13knots for the whole race to beat this time.

Ran was 38 miles back. Following close on the heels of this English boat in the Gibbs Hill Division were Titan XV, Beau Geste, Bella Mente, Rambler, Il Mostro, Vanquish, and Genuine Risk. This tightly bunched pack of eight has been separated by only a few miles since the start.

By this morning the 'big boat' leaders were clear of the Stream and entering the 250-mile stretch of often confused wind and currents between the Gulf Stream and Bermuda. Race veterans wryly call this "Happy Valley," for it is where the race is often won and lost.

In Class 1, the St. David's Lighthouse Division class for boats of about 40 feet, Sinn Fein, the two-time defending St. David's champion, has chosen a course well to the right of the fleet leaders, and her close class rivals sistership Gone with the Wind and the Tartan 41 Aurora, and charting a route 50 miles west of the rhumb line.

In the Double-Handed Division, two of the light-displacement Class 40s, Dragon and KamoaE, have a healthy lead on elapsed time, but Richard du Moulin's Lora Ann remains in contention. The Cruiser Division leader is the 56-foot Clover III, well ahead of the bigger boats in this Division. -- John Rousmaniere

* While the focus of attention has been on the big, Open Division boats, Carina, a Class 3 McCurdy & Rhodes 48 skippered by Rives Potts, appears to have made the most of the Gulf Stream.

At 15:00 EDT, Carina was an incredible 60 miles ahead of Triple Lindy, the next boat in her class, and is now within 300 nautical miles of Bermuda. This is the biggest lead in any class at this time. With Potts at the helm, Carina finished first in Class 3 and fourth in the St, David's Lighthouse Division in 2006. in 2008 she finished second in Class 3 and tenth in the division.

BermudaRace.com

New Distributorship For Ocean Safety
Ocean Safety Ocean Safety has taken on distributorship for Kannad marine safety and emergency location beacon products. This announcement coincides with the June launch of two new products from Kannad - the Safelink AIS SART and the Safelink Epirb.

The Kannad SafeLink AIS SART is a manually deployed survivor location device. Once activated it transmits structured alert messages within the VHF frequency, providing an emergency AIS signal to ships, land stations and any other vessels equipped with AIS receivers.

The new Kannad SafeLink EPIRB, with an integral 20 channel fast locating GPS, is designed to be more compact and easier to stow with a vastly improved 6 year battery life along with its unique feature - the user replaceable battery.

www.oceansafety.com

Giraglia Rolex Cup History Written Richer Still
Shockwave won Giraglia Rolex Cup. Photo by Luca Butto / Studio Borlenghi. Click on image for photo gallery.

Shockwave won Giraglia Rolex Cup The last boat to finish the offshore race of the 58th Giraglia Rolex Cup, organized by the Yacht Club Italiano, crossed the line at 20.40CEST last night after some 56 hours at sea. By no means an endurance record in this historic contest, in 1976 it took the first boat 68 hours to complete the course. At 36-feet, Ivo Olivero's Viva Corte (ITA) is half the length of Neville Crichton's Shockwave (NZL). Whilst Crichton deservedly will take the plaudits for overall victory and for a job extremely well done, it is yachts like Viva Corte that made up the bulk of the record 220 yacht fleet that set off on the 241 nautical mile route from Saint-Tropez to San Remo, via the rock from which the event take its name.

At the Giraglia Rolex Cup the long distance race is the prize every competitor dreams of winning. It has the full 57 years of history behind it and has been won by many of the most famous yachts of the past half-century. For Neville Crichton victory completes the trifecta for this event. He has won line honours five times, broken the course record twice and now won overall. There are few records to match his, "we've won line honours in the past, and although we would have liked to win that too we knew it was impossible. If the 100-footer (Esimit) finished the race she would win line honours. It was nice to win overall, since that is what we set out to do, it was our target and it is what we have achieved."

Ahead of this year's race, conditions suggested a record might have been on the table for the canting-keeled Esimit. As it was, the Giraglia Rolex Cup never follows quite what is forecast. It was a relieved Simcic that crossed the line in first place on Thursday. After an awkward start, even the second half of the race had proved a nervy time as the wind threw curve ball after curve ball at the 30.5 metre racing maxi and the chasing pack, which included Shockwave, threatened to catch her.

Simcic won a bucketful of prizes over the course of the week, including the Trofeo Beppe Croce for being first to the Giraglia rock.

The third major set of trophies of the day was awarded for the best result over both the inshore series and offshore race in the 2010 Giraglia Rolex Cup. Frank Noel, owner of Near Miss (SUI), was the recipient of the Trofeo Nucci Novi and a Rolex Submariner chronometer in steel, presented by Lionel Schurch of Rolex Geneva.

A nice touch at the beginning of the prize giving was the introduction of Luciano Fratini. In 2007 Fratini came across the yacht Jalina, left rotting in the Elba islands. Jalina just happens to be the overall winner of the first two editions of the Giraglia race in 1953 and 1954. Fratini has spent the past three years restoring Jalina to her former glory and plans to compete with her in 2011 Giraglia Rolex Cup. Coincidentally, earlier this year Rolex and the Yacht Club Italiano had been fortunate enough to locate and acquire the original cup awarded for the first ever Giraglia, a trophy that had been missing for many years. In a short ceremony Jalina and the historic trophy were reunited.

The dates for the 59th Giraglia Rolex Cup are scheduled for Saturday, 18 June to Saturday, 25 June 2011.

www.giragliarolexcup.com
www.regattanews.com

Vuelta a Espana a Vela Sets Off from Sanxenxo to Calpe
Photo by Maria Muina, www.mariaphotos.com. Click on image to enlarge.

Vuelta A Espana A Vela Sanxenxo, Spain: Radiant sunshine, tranquil seas and some gusts of northerly breeze saw the start of the fourth leg on this Sailing Tour of Spain, set to take the eight yachts taking part from Sanxenxo to Calpe.

Considered the 'grand' leg of this Tour, the IMOCA Open 60s have some 880 nautical miles in front of them, with some particularly tricky points ahead on the course. The approach to and passage through the Gibraltar Strait, moving from Atlantic to Mediterranean waters, Cabo de Gata and Cabo de Palos all promise to throw up some big emotions in this regatta, especially with the forecasted lack of breeze for the second half of the leg.

The spectacular start by Sanxenxo's port was given at a punctual 12:05 (local time) with gusty breeze of up to 15 knots. For the first two sections of the leg, to and from the Morrazón marker buoy the yachts were on a beam reach. A little over the starting line and Vincent Riou's PRB made a strategic play to the leeward side to take the lead of the fleet. To the windward side Movistar and W Hotels-Nova Bocana were battling against each other. That was also the order that the yachts rounded the buoy before setting course to exit the Pontevedra estuary. Estrella Damm made some good decisions at the start of the leg, climbing positions after the starting shot with Safran not far behind, followed by GAES Centros Auditivos, Central Lechera Asturiana and Pakea Bizkaia.

Overall Rankings, Vuelta a Espana a Vela

Position, Boat, Skippers, Nationality, Total Points (Leg 1, Leg 2, Finisterre, Leg 3 )

1. Safran, Marc Guillemot, FRA, 4,5 (1+2+0,5+1)
2. PRB, Vincent Riou, FRA, 6 (2+1+1+2)
3. W Hotels-Nova Bocana, P.Rivero/ A.Piris, ESP, 12,5 (4+4+1,5+3)
4. Movistar, I.Martínez/ X.Fernández, ESP, 14,5 (3+3+2,5+6)
5. Estrella Damm, P.Ribes/ A.Pella, ESP, 16 (5+5+2+4)
6. GAES Centros Auditivos, D.Caffari/ A.Corbella, GBR/ESP, 20 (6+6+3+5)
7. Central Lechera Asturiana, J.Merediz/ F.Palacio, ESP, 24,5 (7+7+3,5+7)
8. Pakea Bizkaia, J.Mumbru/ C.Sanmarti, ESP, 28 (8+8+4+8)

www.vueltaespanavela.com

Kieler Woche: Not Everybody Could Race Today
Less wind on day two of Kieler Woche meant that not all classes could continue their races in the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Only the RS:X, 2.4 mR, 49er and the Women's Match Racing competition had the chance to sail close to the coastline. "The weather conditions were very strange today. We had enough wind on the courses near the harbour, but the further you go out the wind dropped. So we had to think about how we can have the same conditions to sail all classes closer to the shore, maybe one after each other. But we really hope we will have better conditions on Monday," explained Jobst Richter, Chairman of Kieler Woche.

There was no racing in the 470 fleets today despite the efforts of the race committee; the wind was just not stable enough. Renowned coach of the Australian Olympic Team, Victor Kovalenko was beaming from ear to ear on the dockside with his protegees performance at the start of Kieler Woche.

"I am very happy that they became the members of 'Three Bullets Club', the sailors who won three races in one day at a Sailing World Cup event, Euros, Worlds or the Games. It is indication of top level skills in our sport" referring to 470 Mens leaders Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page and also of Tom Slingsby in the Laser class.

There was no racing for the Lasers, Laser Radials, Finns or Stars today but Monday's forecast expectations are for more breeze and a chance to get the race schedule back on track.

Racing continues until Wednesday 23 June when the Medal Races take place live in front of the harbour.

* The wind was great on the match race course; we were one of only four fleets that got in some racing. The wind was light and although it slowly shifted to the right all day to the sea breeze direction, it held enough for our races to be completed.

Entering the final race, we had already locked ourselves into the gold fleet, but we wanted to have a good race to keep practicing everything we have been working on. Both us and Lucy Macgregor advanced out of group A, both with 6-1 records. Our fellow USSTAG team mates in group B also won their round with a 6-1 record to advance to gold fleet. It was rewarding to see that our hard training in Chicago at the Chicago Match Race Center, the week before we got here, paid off.

Tomorrow we start the gold fleet racing. The gold fleet races are for seeding in the quarter finals, and the top two teams from the repecharge round will come up and join the gold fleet for the quarters. -- Anna Tunnicliffe, teamtunnicliffe.com

www.kieler-woche.de

Clipper 09-10 Race 12: Cape Breton Island to Kinsale, Ireland
Photo by onEdition. Click on image for photo gallery.

Clipper Race As the fleet set off from Cape Breton Island yesterday afternoon Cork, who began Race 12 on Thursday, played a great tactical card and went into Stealth Mode, a move that will shield their position from the chasing pack for 24 hours.

The Clipper fleet is racing under IRC handicap rules to account for the differences in the Clipper 68s and the Challenge 67 which, although a foot shorter, is eight tonnes heavier.

So the chase is on and it began in spectacular fashion with a downwind start in the harbour at Sydney, Cape Breton Island, and a flurry of spinnaker flying in the narrow channel; a breath taking sight for the spectators on the quayside, a breath-holding moment for the nine skippers on board.

Spirit of Australia could secure overall victory on this race depending the results of their closest competitors. It is sure to be another exciting race though. Less than 24 hours since the remaining yachts left Sydney just four miles separates them.

As the fleet passes to the south of the tiny French territory of St Pierre et Miquelon Cape Breton Island, Uniquely Singapore, Spirit of Australia, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital and California are all at level pegging, looking for the edge that will allow them to pull away from the rest of their competition.

Cork will reappear from Stealth Mode later this afternoon and the full extent of the task ahead of the fleet will be revealed.

Positions at 1500 GMT Sunday 20 June

Boat , DTF. DTL
1. Cork , 1779nm (Stealth Mode: at 1800GMT 19 June 2010)
2. Hull & Humber , 1862nm to finish
3. Uniquely Singapore, 84nm to leader
4. Team Finland, 84
5. Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, 84
6. Jamaica Lightning Bolt, 85
7. Spirit of Australia, 85
8. California, 85
9. Cape Breton Island, 86
10. QIngdao, 1866nm, 88

www.clipperroundtheworld.com

Conway Media Round Ireland Race
Photo by David Branigan, http://www.oceansport.ie Conway Media Round Ireland Race Local youth entry Pride of Wicklow led the 37-boat fleet in the start of the Conway Media Round Ireland Race, the 704-mile biennail event that is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. However, it was Piet Vroon's Tonnerre de Breskens 3 that quickly took over duty as on the water leader for the southerly stage to the Tuskar Rock as a foul tide took effect.

Vroon himself had a last-minute change of plan and is not sailing as he was taken to hospital for treatment on Saturday night. The 80-year old Dutch skipper is a regular competitor in this and other major offshore races.

Steve White's Open 60 Toe in the Water, sailing as Rosslare Europort opted for a conservative start and soon headed offshore to deeper water to avoid the sandbanks that line Ireland's East Coast. By early evening, both he and Vroon's crew were squaring up to decide the lead.

Amongst the chasing pack, the two-handed crew on daft.com comprising helicopter pilot Mick Liddy and his co-skipper Mark Pollock who is blind were making steady progress although their Open 40 carries a significant IRC handicap and the pair are watchful of the other seven two-handed crews in the fleet.

Earlier forecasts of near calm conditions have proven unfounded and though light winds are expected, near-classic Round Ireland conditions of fresh south-westerlies for the Atlantic seaboard stage are expected from Tuesday. Neverthless, most crews have reported adding two extra days provisions for the race that could take til next weekend to decide the outright winner. -- David Branigan

www.roundirelandyachtrace.ie

Featured Brokerage
Featured Brokerage Boat 2006 Reichel / Pugh 72, EUR 2,200,000. Located in Valencia, Spain.

Pinta is a beautifully built Reichel & Pugh designed 72 foot Racer / Cruiser. Launched in 2006 and, as you would expect from a yacht carrying the famous Pinta name, is in fabulous order. Her full carbon construction combined with a beautifully engineered cruising interior does provide the best of both worlds. Not only can Pinta race with the best, she can easily by used for family cruising.

Brokerage through Ancasta Yachts: www.yachtworld.com/ancastayachts/

Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com

The Last Word
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -- Henri Bergson

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