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Light Winds Mix Fleet at Finn Gold Cup
Photo by Robert Deaves. Click on image for photo gallery.

The opening day of racing at the 2013 Finn Gold Cup in Tallinn, Estonia started slowly with light winds and a delayed start. After two races Andrew Mills (GBR) leads from Ed Wright (GBR) and Matt Coutts (NZL). Race wins went to Oliver Tweddell (AUS) and Jorge Zarif (BRA).

Racing was postponed for two hours Monday morning to wait for the wind, which when it did arrive was still only 5-7 knots. Race 1 got away after one general recall, with the wind increasing to 7-8 knots by the finish.

The second race got under way fairly promptly, though took three attempts to get it away with three boats black flagged.

In the light winds today the fleet was really compressed for most of the race with very busy mark roundings and tight upwind legs making for some exciting if mentally exhausting racing. The high scores already after just two races perhaps hints at the kind of week this is going to be, and consistency is going to be a key element. Lots of the favourites had difficult days and picked up one or two high scores.

Racing continues at 12.00 on Tuesday. The opening series of ten races will be followed by the medal race for the top ten and the final race for the rest on Saturday, 31 August. It can be followed in a number of different ways including the live video stream from ERR, GPS tracking from Trac Trac and Twitter updates on @Finn_Class. All the links can be found at www.finngoldcup.org/2013

Top ten after two races:

1. Andrew Mills, GBR, 9 points
2. Edward Wright, GBR, 10
3. Matt Coutts, NZL, 11
4. Michal Jodlowski, POL, 20
5. Oliver Tweddell, AUS, 23
6. Jonathan Lobert, FRA, 23
7. Michele Paoletti, ITA, 23
8. Deniss Karpak, EST, 25
9. Alican Basegmez, TUR, 26
10. Zsombor Berecz, HUN, 30

Full results: www.finngoldcup.org/2013/data/pre-res-race2.pdf

www.finngoldcup.org/2013

Farr 40 Worlds
It's time to deliver. After two days of racing at the pre-worlds, fifteen crews from eight countries are ready to fight for the coveted title of Rolex Farr 40 World Champions. The venue is spectacular and historic, the boats are the thoroughbred of world-class one-design racing and the competition is top-notch.

The 16th edition Rolex Farr 40 World Championship is hosted by the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) at Harbour Court in Newport, RI. Racing starts tomorrow, August 27, and runs through Friday August 30, with a maximum of 10 windward/leeward races.

Entries:
Yacht - Owner/Tactician - Country

1. Asterisk-Uno, Hasip Gencer/Ross Mc Donald, TUR
2. Barking Mad, James Richardson/Terry Hutchinson, USA
3. Charisma, Nico Poons/Morgan Reeser, MON
4. Endorphin, Erik Wulff/Max Skelley, USA
5. Enfant Terrible, Alberto Rossi/Vasco Vascotto, ITA
6. Flash Gordon 6/Bill Hardesty, Helmut Jahn, USA
7. Flojito y Cooperando, Bernardo Minkow-Julian Fernandez/Matt Ciesicki, MEX
8. Groovederci, John Demourkas/Cameron Appleton, USA
9. Nanoq, HRH Crown Prince Frederik/Jens Christiansen, DEN
10. Nightshift, Kevin McNeil/Andy Horton, USA
11. Oakcliff Racing, Oakcliff Sailing/Max Vos, USA
12. PLENTY, Alexander Roepers/Chris Larson, USA
13. Struntje light, Wolfgang Schaefer/Peter Holmberg, GER
14. Transfusion, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis/Gavin Brady, AUS
15. White Knight, Zoltan Katinszky/Erik Shampain, USA

Results of the Pre-Worlds

1. Enfant Terrible, Alberto Rossi, ITA, 12.0
2. Barking Mad, James Richardson, USA, 17.0
3. Charisma, Nico Poons, MON, 18.0
4. Transfusion, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis, AUS, 30.0
5. Flash Gordon 6, Helmut Jahn, USA, 33.0
6. PLENTY, Alexander Roepers, USA, 35.0
7. Groovederci, John Demourkas, USA, 39.0
8. Asterisk-Uno, Hasip Gencer, TUR, 42.0
9. Nanoq, HRH Crown Prince Frederik Prince, DEN, 43.0
10. Nightshift, Kevin McNeil, USA, 48.0
11. Struntje light, Wolfgang Schaefer, GER, 51.0
12. Flojito y Cooperando, Bernardo Minkow / Julian Fernandez, MEX, 57.0
13. Endorphin, Erik Wulff, USA, 60.0
14. Oakcliff Racing, Oakcliff Sailing, USA, 61.0
15. White Knight, Zoltan Katinszky, USA, 65.0

farr40worlds.com
farr40.org

Hearings Put Heat On Team Oracle
It might be high irony but on August 27 (NZT) Oracle Team USA could suffer a significant blow to their defence of the America's Cup over cheating allegations - because of a rule put in place to rein in free-speaking Emirates Team NZ CEO, Grant Dalton.

The rule, unofficially dubbed "the Dalton clause", was put in place last year and could see OTUSA cop what might be the biggest penalty ever given to an America's Cup defender. The Dalton clause could allow a team penalty to be added to any given to individuals.

The smart money in this regatta is going on the expulsion of between one to three OTUSA team members, possibly members of the shore crew. The jury could also decide to censure OTUSA - with their options ranging from a metaphorical smack on the hand to a fine, docking points in the America's Cup match or disqualifying them from a race or races.

This all stems from the contention that illegal lead weights were found in all or two of the three OTUSA AC45s used in the lead-up event, the America's Cup World Series sailed in 2012-2013. The jury have been holding an investigation into that - and their announcement yesterday is essentially a signal that they feel there is enough of a case to answer to require two hearings.

One is to hear allegations of gross misconduct against an individual or individuals under Rule 69; the other under Article 60 to see if OTUSA has breached the Dalton clause, concerned with protecting the reputation of the Cup.

The jury's deliberations are held in camera and are protected by a confidentiality order. However, the feeling among many sailors and America's Cup observers is that the jury will also move to penalise OTUSA as a team.

If they dock points or disqualify them from a race or races, that will hand a lead to the challenger - most likely ETNZ - even before the racing starts, a unique twist in America's Cup history. -- Paul Lewis in the New Zealand Herald

www.nzherald.co.nz/sport

Key West Registration Is Open!
Registration for Key West Race Week is live and the entries are coming in! Quantum Key West 2014 is the ideal winter escape for world-class competition, unique shoreside fun, and Florida's southernmost sunshine and dependable breeze.

Top tier programs from Europe and the US will compete in exciting one design and rated classes. The TP52's will be holding their second consecutive US Super Series; strong one-design classes include Melges 32, Melges 24, Swan 42, and J/70.The exciting High Performance class and mini-maxis will be back.

Enter now and let the world know you are planning to race in North America's premier winter regatta! January 19 - 24, 2014.

Entries and more: www.premiere-racing.com

The Wave, Muscat Clinch Victory In Cardiff
Photo by Mark Lloyd, www.lloydimages.com. Click on image for photo gallery.

In excess of 120,000 people, the biggest crowds the Extreme Sailing Series has ever witnessed in its seven-year history, crammed around Cardiff Bay over the four days of the Extreme Sailing Series Act 6, Cardiff presented by Land Rover to witness the battle of the Bay first hand. Leigh McMillan's team were unflappable on the final day, winning three of the seven races and the Omani team will walk away from Wales as champions - and with it regaining an advantage on the overall Series leaderboard. However, despite winning on Welsh waters, McMillan is preparing for the battle for the 2013 Series championship to go all the way to the end of the line: "We're not any more confident after this win, we've got a lot of work on our hands. It's going to be a huge fight all the way to Brazil."

Leigh McMillan and his crew of Musab Al Hadi, Hashim Al Rashdi, Pete Greenhalgh and Ed Smyth came flawlessly out of the blocks today, enabling them to get out of the clutches of their competitors and sail their own race in punishingly light winds. The team kept it consistent and delivered 11 race wins over the course of the event.

While the crowds basked in the sunshine of a beautiful bank holiday Monday, out on the race track shifting winds that got lighter as the day went on saw tactics become trickier. In the challenging conditions - perhaps the most challenging the fleet have faced all year - mistakes were punished hard, something Morgan Larson and the Swiss team found out. Failure to get off the start line in the second race and a penalty in the fifth race for hitting a mark ultimately proved costly, allowing McMillan to extend his lead.

Next stop for the Extreme 40 fleet is Nice, on the French Riviera for the final European stop of 2013 and Host Venue for the penultimate Act of the year, 3-6th October.

Extreme Sailing Series 2013 Act 6, Cardiff

1. The Wave, Muscat, OMA, Leigh McMillan, Ed Smyth, Pete Greenhalgh, Musab Al Hadi, Hashim Al Rashdi, 239 points
2. Alinghi, SUI, Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Pierre Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey, 225
3. SAP Extreme Sailing Team, DEN, Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Pete Cumming, Mikkel Røssberg, Nicolai Sehested, 223
4. Red Bull Sailing Team, AUT, Roman Hagara, Hans Peter Steinacher, Matthew Adams, Simon Cooke, Graeme Spence, 212
5. Realteam, SUI, Jérôme Clerc, Bruno Barbarin, Tanguy Cariou, Cédric Schmidt, Thierry Wassem, 180
6. ChinaSpirit, CHN, Phil Robertson, Garth Ellingham, William Wu, James Williamson, Nick Catley, 162
7. GAC Pindar, NZL, Brad Farrand, Ian Williams, Thomas Hedegaard, Thomas Bentham, Tom Blampied, 135
8. Team Wales Land Rover, GBR, Dave Evans, Chris Grube, Bleddyn Mon, Tudur Owen, Trystan Seal, 125

Extreme Sailing Series 2013 overall standings after Act 6, Cardiff presented by Land Rover

Position / Team / Points

1. The Wave, Muscat, OMA, 46 points
2. Alinghi, SUI, 45
3. Red Bull Sailing Team, AUT, 37
4. SAP Extreme Sailing Team, DEN, 35
5. Realteam, SUI, 28
6. GAC Pindar, NZL, 26
7. Team X Invitational 21
8. Team Korea, KOR, 16

extremesailingseries.com

Is This The Oldest Yacht In The World?
Model of Peggy. Photo by WM Nixon. Click on image to enlarge.

Serenely she sits, with all the heightened elegance of a still beautiful grand dame who, despite a hectic youth, has lived long and well to take her place in a position of respect, verging on reverence, within the community But then anyone, whatever the life they may have led, would be deserving of some sort of special appreciation if they'd managed to reach the age of 224 still in reasonably good order, still looking much as they did more than two centuries ago. Yet that is the case with the 26ft schooner yacht Peggy. When you attend upon her in her home in Castletown in the Isle of Man, it's as if time has stood still since the 1790s.

We sailed over to the Isle of Man recently for the Peel Traditional Boat Weekend. As it had been expanded to include the final Irish Sea gathering for the Old Gaffers Association Golden Jubilee, it was felt that the least we could do, before the revels began, was to pay our respects to the ultimate old gaffer of them all, across at her home port on the south coast of the island. And if the Peggy of Castletown isn't the oldest yacht in the world in more or less intact order, then we'll be fascinated to hear of any vessel having a better claim. For by any standards, the Peggy is extraordinary.

Today, in the boat cellar at Bridge House, you can see the Peggy and all the features which made her such an able flyer. She still has the slots through which George Quayle lowered his primitive centreboards, and on racks on the wall are the original spars she carried when in her racing prime. This indeed was and is a formidable racing machine, and it's no exaggeration to assert that, in her miniature style, she was an early example of the type which reached its supreme development with the schooner America.

And she has survived through a fortuitous miracle of preservation. -- WM Nixon in Afloat Magazine

afloat.ie

Marlow Excel Dinghy Series Upgrades
The upgrades to the Excel Dinghy Series launched at the beginning of the year prove successful for new breed of high performance Olympic classes. The higher performance 49er rigs, the 49erfx and Nacra 17 all demand higher performance than ever from their ropes.

Excel Elite 90

Excel Elite 90 utilises the super high strength Dyneema SK90 yarn which is 15% stronger than the Marlow standard SK78 equivalent. The cover features a highly durable blend of Technora and polyester which improves abrasion resistance 300% compared to a full polyester cover.

Excel Racing GP 78

Compared to Excel Racing 78, the cover features a highly durable blend of Technora and polyester which improves both abrasion resistance and also grip in wet hands.

British sailing team member and 49er European champion Dylan Fletcher explains "Performance and reliability are key factors, the members of Team GBR are upgrading some high load lines such as spinnaker halyards to Excel Elite 90. The added abrasion resistance and improvement in strength can only benefit our performance and decrease needless retirements due to gear failure."

www.marlowropes.com

31st Knickerbocker Cup
The 31st Knickerbocker Cup (KCup), an international match race event, will take place on Manhasset Bay from August 29 - September 1. The winner of the KCup will go on to race in the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda, a World Match Race Tour event.

The KCup brings a field of top-notch sailors and umpires from around the globe to Manhasset Bay Yacht Club (MBYC) in Port Washington. Ranked #2 in the world, Taylor Canfield, Team USOne, US Virgin Islands, is a veteran competitor in the KCup, but the championship has remained elusive for him - 2013 may be his year. Challenging Canfield will be #12 ranked Nicolai Sehested, Tre-For Match Racing, a young Dane who is also a veteran of this event; and #14 ranked Eric Monnin, Okalys-Corum Team, Switzerland, who is new to Manhasset Bay.

Rounding out the international contingent are David Gilmour, Team Gilmour, Australia, ranked #24; Mark Lees, Team Echo Sail Racing, Great Britain, ranked #33; Stratis Andreadis, Atalanti Racing, Greece, ranked #43; and Ashlen Rooklyn, Ballyhoo Racing, Australia, ranked #46.

The U.S. is represented by three teams: Dustin Durant, Long Beach Match Racing, from California, ranked #26; Chris Poole, Riptide Racing, from Maine, ranked #40, and Stephanie Roble, from Chicago, ranked #7, in the Women's Rankings and #86 in the Open Rankings.

Each team has five or six crew members, sailing Swedish Match 40 sailboats on loan from Oakcliff Sailing, in Oyster Bay. Racing begins Thursday morning and continues through Sunday afternoon. -- Talbot Wilson

www.knickerbockercup.org
www.manhassetbayyc.org

NACRA 17 European Championship
After a very exciting Medal Race the Duch team Mandy Mulder & Coen de Koning wins the 1st Nacra 17 European Championship 2013. After some postponement because lack of wind the final Medal race with the top-10 teams could start in the afternoon round 02.30 PM. The top-4 after 12 races with at that moment 1st the French team Francois Morvan & Marie Riou (41 points), 2nd the Suisse team Matias Buhler & Nathalie Brugger (41 points), 3rd the French team Moana Valreaux & Manon Audinet (43 points), 4th the Dutch team Mandy Mulder & Coen de Koning (46 points) was very close together and the results (counting double) of the Medal-race should make the final results.

In a light and shifty wind the Austrian team Thomas Zajac & Tanja Frank won the medal race, with 2nd the Dutch team Mandy Mulder & Coen de Koning and 3rd the French team Franck Cammas & Sophie de  Turckheim. This changed the overall final results completely:

1st NED 46 Mandy Mulder & Coen de koning (50 points)
2nd FRA 65 Moana Valreaux & Manon Audinet (53 points)
3rd FRA 43 Francois Morvan & Marie Riou (55 points)

For all results and images see:
www.nacra17class.com
www.centroveladervio.it

'Huntress' Wins Grand Prize at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week
Photo by Andrea Francolini, www.afrancolini.com. Click on image to enlarge.

Sydney/Hamilton Island, Australia: A motor mechanic with a knack for consistency behind the wheel and his Sydney crew, who capitalised on the water in this year's light air Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, have taken out a major prize at the award-winning regatta, an Audi A6 allroad vehicle ($117,900 mlp), for one year.

Philip Grove's Huntress, a Sydney 39Cr representing the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Balmain Sailing Club and contesting its first Race Week, narrowly claimed top honours in Performance Racing Division 1.

This winning result was combined with the layday Audi Final Drive Challenge at Hamilton Island airport when more than 100 people were pitted against the clock by Audi's Chief Instructor and Australian Top Gear presenter, Steve Pizatti.

All yachts were invited to send a crew member to get behind the wheel of Audi's mighty Audi R8 V10 plus model. It is the fastest car produced by the luxury carmaker, and is powered by a hand-built 5.2-litre V10 engine that demolishes 100km/h in just 3.5 seconds and reaches a top speed of 250 km/h.

After his two timed laps around the track, Grove's mastman, Marco Bergamuncha, had secretly recorded the most consistent times. When coupled with Huntress' final score at the end of their seven-race series, a one point divisional win over Matt Allen's defending Farr 400 Ichi Ban, Philip Grove was declared the winner of the major prize from Race Week's principal sponsor, Audi.

The 30th edition of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, held from 18 - 24 August, was open to a wide spectrum of sailboats - from sport boats to cruising yachts, cruiser-racers and grand prix level keelboats, plus a new multihull and MC38 division and the creation of First Fleet division for the four originals from the 1984 starter's list.

The fleet of 157 yachts tackled a week of light winds with the addition of several playful baby whales and their watchful parents.

Twelve divisions battled it out on the stunning Whitsunday Islands courses while ashore the social calendar offered exquisite lunches, dinners and fashion.

Division winners:

IRC Racing, Hooligan (TP52, RPAYC), skippered by Marcus Blackmore
IRC Passage Division 1, Storage King Wallop (Sydney 41, LMYC/RMYC ), skippered by Peter Hewson
IRC Passage Division 2, L'Altra Donna (Summit 35, CYCA), skippered by Andy Kearnan

Performance Racing Division 1, Huntress (Sydney 39Cr, BSC/RSYS), skippered by Philip Grove
Performance Racing Division 2, Jump (SB20, CYCHI), skippered by Greg Hyde

Cruising Division 1, Circe (Beneteau Sense 55, SYC), skippered by Ross Johnston
Cruising Division 2, Next Light (X35, RPAYC), skippered by Chris Ryan
Cruising Division 3, Starkers (Catalina 350, TCYC), skippered by Alan Stark

Non-spinnaker Division 1, Smart Choice (Hunter 50ac, RYCT), skippered by Rodney Smart
Non-spinnaker Division 2, Christina Jay (Beneteau 343 Oceanis, SCYC), skippered by Stuart Pascoe

MC38 OD Division, Vino (MC38, MHYC), skippered by Chris Hancock

Multihull Division, Box Office (Box 8.5m, RQYS), skippered by Matt Johns

First Fleet, Hitchhiker (Frers, RPYC), skippered by Peter Briggs

www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.au

Featured Brokerage
1987 Jeanneau Attalia, EUR 31,800. Located In Limassol, Cyprus.

This Yacht has been restored and has a reconditioned engine, wood work has been freshly varnished etc. Hull has been treated with International epoxy primer and covered with fresh antifouling.

Brokerage through Golden Comet Marine Ltd.: www.yachtworld.com/goldencometcy/

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

The Last Word
Forgiveness is the best charity. It is easy to give the poor money and goods when one has plenty, but to forgive is hard; but it is the best thing if one can do it. -- Meher Baba

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