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Chris Rashley Wins Moth Europeans... Three Times In A Row
Photo by Martina Orsini. Click on image to enlarge.
On the final day of the International Moth European Championship, Marsala was a surprise and exceeded all expectations. There were special people, situations and surprising disappointments. The weather this week betrayed expectations, forecasts and statistics. The area is known to be one of the four windiest in Italy : we had too much wind at the beginning, then none and we risked closing this European Championship with only three valid races.
Today a north-easter of 9/12 knots, later reinforced up to 15, allowed the committee to run another two races. The Kuehne + Nagel 2013 International Moth European Championship closes with five races completed and one discard.
For the third time in a row, Chris Rashley won the European championship, showing an incredible supremacy with three first and a second, discarding a fourth place and being first in 75% of mark roundings. -- report from Sail-World.com
sail-world.com/Australia/Intl-Moth
Final top ten:
1. Chris Rashley, UK, 5.0 points
2. Michael Lennon, UK, 8
3. Jason Belben, UK, 17
4. Ben Paton, UK, 19
5. Tom Offer, UK, 23
6. Pablo Arandia, ESP, 24
7. Renker Matthias, SUI, 27
8. Jason Russell, UK, 27
9. Good Morgan, BEL, 28
10. Chris Rast, SUI, 33
Event site: www.moth.it/european2013/
The Great Cup
Grand prix catamaran racing comes to Lake Traunsee, Austria this week (8-12 May) with the much anticipated debut of The Great Cup, star turn at Allianz Traunsee Week.
The Great Cup is being sailed in brand new, state of the art GC32 catamarans, designed by Martin Fischer and built in Dubai by Premier Composites. Competing at this inaugural event of The Great Cup will be the first three GC32s built (a fourth is already en route to Europe from the UAE).
For the Lake Traunsee event, the three carbon fibre catamarans will sail under the flags of the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria and to maximise the number of teams competing, each boat is being allocated two crews, who will alternate.
The intention is to sail 12 races, or two rounds, per day, provided conditions allow. Races will be simple two lap windward-leewards with a single weather mark and leeward gate. The aim is for races to last no more than 15-20 minutes.
However The Great Cup, when it gets underway next Wednesday, 8 May, will begin with an 'around the lake' race. This will involve the three catamarans sailing from Gmunden, where Allianz Traunsee Week is based, 12km away to Ebensee at the southern end of the lake, and back again, providing competitors with the opportunity to experience the magnificent setting of the snow capped mountain-encircled lake.
M34 Team Oman Sail to Race 2013 Iroise Cup
The all-new Iroise Cup kicked off on Saturday 4 May grouping together two flagship events, the Grand Prix Guyader, Douarnenez and the Grand Prix de l'Ecole Navale. The mix of coastal courses and stage races will be great practice for the Omani team skippered by French offshore specialist Cedric Pouligny ahead of July's Tour de France a la Voile. It promises to be an intense week of racing - perhaps not as cold as the season opener in Spi Ouest but no less challenging.
After Spi Ouest, M34 Team Oman Sail spent a few days training at the Ecole Navale de Voile in Quiberon before delivering the boat to Douarnenez ahead of the weekend's competition. Tour de France a la Voile preparation requires time on the water, boat handling and hours of training, something that the M34 squad is getting plenty of.
"The Iroise Cup is the perfect format for us," said Cedric Pouligny. "It is very similar to the Tour de France a la Voile course with a mix of inshore, coastal and stage racing. As our goal is to train our young Omani recruits this is a fantastic opportunity to stretch their legs ahead of the flagship offshore event in July."
Grand Prix Guyader, the first of the two events that make up the Iroise Cup, starts on Saturday and includes a stage race to Camaret-sur-Mer, which will be hard fought. The second half of the Iroise Cup kicks off on the 9 May with the Grand Prix Ecole Navale in Lanveoc.
The Oman Sail national initiative that uses the power of sport to contribute to the development of the Omani people and to rekindle the country's maritime heritage will have three of their international trainee programmes racing the same waters during this event. The country's flagship project Musandam-Oman Air, the Oman Sail MOD70, is racing the GP Guyader, Douarnenez and the Ar Men Race ahead of the Route des Princes in June, while the pioneering Omani Women's Sailing Programme will be racing their J80 Team Bank Muscat at the Grand Prix Ecole Navale as part of their training towards the J80 World Championships in July.
M34 Iroise Cup race schedule:
4-6 May: Grand Prix Guyader, Douarnenez
7-8 May: Stage race from Douarnenez to Camaret-sur-Mer
9-10 May: Grand Prix de l'Ecole Navale - inshore racing, Camaret-sur-Mer
11 May: Grand Prix de l'Ecole Navale - coastal race from Camaret-sur-Mer to Lanveoc
12 May: Grand Prix de l'Ecole Navale - inshore racing, Ecole Navale
Team Oman Sail M34 race squad for Iroise Cup
Cedric Pouligny (FRA) skipper-helmsman
Gerald Veniard (FRA) navigator
Aymeric Chappellier (FRA), tactician
Nicolas Deberque (FRA) upwind trimmer
Shane Hugues (IRL) upwind trimmer
Mohammed Al Mageni (OMA) pitman
Ali Al Balushi (OMA) bowman
Mohamed Mubarak Al Makrini (OMA) bowman
Nasser Al Mashari (OMA) downwind trimmer
Abdulaziz al Obaidani (OMA) pitman
Living Maritime History Sails Into Plymouth
Thirty lovely old traditional sail boats will be calling into Plymouth on Wednesday 8th May on their way round Britain as part of the 50th birthday celebrations of The Old Gaffers Association. The following morning the vessels will be joined by another thirty or so local traditional sailing boats for a 'grand parade of sail' around Plymouth Sound, which will take place from 10.30am until around noon on Thursday 9th. This should make a fine colourful spectacle the like of which has not been seen here for many years.
All the boats will gather at Mayflower Marina, Plymouth's only independent marina, which has deep water berths suitable for these fine old boats. From 1pm until 5pm on Wednesday 8th May the public can come and see these beauties up close and talk with the crews. Guides will take groups round the boats, some of which are over one hundred years old, and explain their history. There is no charge but donations to the RNLI would be appreciated.
On the morning of the 9th sightseeing boats will be available from the Barbican to take the public out to see the boats in all their beauty with all sails flying.
These activities are all part of a celebration of The Old Gaffers Association's 50th birthday.
The intention behind the Round Britain Challenge birthday celebrations is both to raise the profile of the Gaffers and raise funds needy for the RNLI on which so may seafarers rely. After visiting Plymouth, the Round Britain fleet will then sail off to their next stop, the Isles of Scilly.
www.oldgaffersassociation.org
www.oga50.org
The Force Sails an AC45
Photo by Erik Simonson, www.pressure-drop.us. Click on image for photo gallery.
San Francisco, California, USA: The American Youth Sailing Force (The Force) was looking for big breeze this past weekend, and that's exactly what we got. The conditions were spectacular, with winds in the high teens and low twenties, clear skies and warm temperatures.
What we hadn't anticipated was being the first Red Bull Youth America's Cup team to capsize an AC45.
In conditions much like those we'll see this summer, Helmsman Michael Menninger explained what happened Sunday May 5, "After two hours of really solid practice, we set up for a gybe-set in a mark 1 situation. As we began to round the mark and bear-off, a gust hit us as the crew came off the rail to gybe. I felt that if we continued to turn down to round the mark, we were going to pitch pull or flip."
It was a profound moment for the skipper and crew. "Continuing to bear-off did not feel like it was the right move and we were not far off of a beam reach so I thought heading up was the safest thing to do."
Sometimes it's not. "As I began to head up, I dropped the wing sheet but it didn't go out as it was on the runner. I continued to head up into the wind…but the boat was going over. It went over nice and gently. The main things are that everyone is safe and there is no significant damage to the boat or wing. It's good we are pushing our sailing and learning as a team."
See the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErK9TjgSwbk
The Mystery of Sandy Island
Where did the Coral Sea's Sandy Island go? This was the question posed by us in an article last November (see Sail-World www.sail-world.com/Cruising/) when some Australian scientists aboard the RV Southern Surveyor went to where Sandy Island was meant to be and found only 1400m of water. Now, the mystery of the disappearing island may be solved.
While the island, which was noted by Captain Cook on the Endeavour and again by the ship Velocity in 1876 more than a hundred years later, is now generally accepted to be non-existent, the mystery remained as to how the error could have started and then persisted for so many years.
Part of the answer lies in technology and the way in which digital information is translated, but the other part of the answer is more fascinating as described by the latest research.
The question which the recent study by the American Geophysical Union has tried to answer is: What actually DID the captain and crew of the Velocity observe in 1876 at the location of Sandy Island? - and what had Captain Cook observed some 100 years before? Some have suggested through online discussions that the captain observed an island that has since been eroded to wave base.
However, this is unlikely as the measured depths over Sandy Island are greater than 1400 metres and satellite imagery does not indicate shallow water over the Sandy Island region. Although the answer to what was originally observed may lie in a simple navigational and/or transcription error, one intriguing possibility is that they spotted a pumice raft.
A recent study of the 2001-2002 eruption of a volcano along the Tofua Arc off Tonga found that sea-rafted pumice associated with this eruption traveled more than 3000 kilometers westward, reaching the eastern Australia shoreline within a year after eruption.
The formation of this 'pumice raft superhighway,' which passes by the location of Sandy Island, lends weight to the idea that the Velocity - and the Endeavour - may have captured a moment when some sea-rafted pumice was traversing the area.-- Nancy Knudsen in Sail-World.com
For the full study in EOS by the American Geophysical Union:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EO150001/pdf
Minimise Carbon Monoxide Risks On Boats
Boaters are being urged to safeguard against carbon monoxide poisoning with the help of a free guidance booklet.
MP Barry Sheerman, chairman of the All-party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group (APPCOG), has urged boaters to safeguard against the noxious gas by following Boat Safety Scheme advice.
Fire and safety company Safelincs has worked with the Boat Safety Scheme and The Council of Gas Detection and Carbon Monoxide Monitoring (CoGDEM) to produce a free booklet, 'Carbon Monoxide Safety on Boats'.
Harry Dewick-Eisele, managing director of Safelincs Ltd, said: 'Carbon monoxide build-up in boats is often overlooked.
'With the temperatures as low as they have been over the last few weeks, many boat owners have had to heat their cabins with heating appliances that have not been used for a long time and which might not have been serviced for a while.
'In recent years, escaped flue gases from solid fuel stoves or generator exhaust gases have been responsible for most of the deaths of boaters from CO poisoning.'
Download the leaflet at www.safelincs.co.uk or call 0800 612 6537 for free printed copies.
Nations Cup Regional
Lelystad, Netherlands: After winning the European regional final of the Nations Cup in Lelystad this weekend, Viktor Ogeman, the young Swedish skipper, said his experience in the DS37 boat could give him an edge in the grand final of the Nations Cup in Middelfart, Denmark, in August.
With his two crewmates - Herman Andersson (bow/pit/trim) and Patrik Sturesson (tactics/main) - match racing on the B/One boats, Ogeman came from a flight down in the semi-final against Denmark's Joachim Aschenbrenner before beating Finland's Staffan Lindberg in the final 2-0 in dying winds on Sunday.
The open competition of the Nations Cup final in Middelfart from August 6-10 will be raced in DS37 boats, the women's event will be sailed on Match 28s.
The bi-annual Nations Cup is the showcase event for emerging match racing talent and former winners include Ed Baird, the 2007 America's Cup winning helmsman.
The 25-year-old Ogeman is bidding to become the first Swedish man to win the Nations Cup - Helena Strang won the women's competition in 1993.
There was no women's event in Lelystad, that will take place at Viana do Castelo, Portugal on June 12-16.
Results
1. Viktor Ogeman (Sweden)
2. Staffan Lindberg (Finland)
3. Joachim Aschenbrenner (Denmark)
4. Mati Sepp (Estonia)
5. Jurjen Feitsma (The Netherlands)
6. Felix Oehme (Germany)
7. Martin Mehus (Norway)
ARC Adds Second Start
Demand from sailors world-wide for spaces in the 2013 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC 2013) has been unprecedented. The thirty extra boat slips recently installed by the Las Palmas Port Authority has enabled the ARC to grow to a maximum of 245 yachts for 2013; despite this, the ARC was full by the end of January, with the waiting list closed a month later. With numerous fresh enquiries continually being received, ARC organiser World Cruising Club has been working on a way to provide extra capacity for more cruisers to join the world's most popular cruising yacht rally.
Having considered many options of how to satisfy the wishes of sailors to take part in this international cruising rally, and listened to feedback from previous participants, World Cruising Club has launched an alternative start for the ARC, which also includes a stopover in the Cape Verde Islands.
Called ARC+ the new route will depart from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Sunday 10 November, two weeks ahead of the traditional ARC start.
A stop in the Cape Verdes has been added to introduce ARC sailors to another archipelago en-route to the Caribbean, and gives an attractive route alternative to those owners returning to the ARC for whom this is not their first Atlantic crossing. The ARC+ fleet will re-group in the Cape Verdes before setting off with the trade winds across the Atlantic to Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia.
ARC+ will be limited to 50 cruising boats, and will be run very much in the spirit of the ARC, maintaining the unique atmosphere that has developed within the Rally over the preceding 27 years. On this new route there will be no competitive racing, only fun results calculated for those who'd like to join in.
www.worldcruising.com/arc/event.aspx
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The Last Word
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