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Big Breeze And Rolling Seas In Nice
Photo by Mark Lloyd, www.lloydimages.com. Click on image to enlarge.
'Extreme' 'on the edge' and 'intense' was how the fleet of elite Extreme 40 sailors described an action packed opening day of racing at the Extreme Sailing Series, Act 7 Nice presented by Land Rover. 20 knots of breeze with gusts of 25 knots and rolling two metre seas saw the eight Extreme 40s hurtle around the Bay of Angels with hulls soaring, bows diving and water spraying. The big breeze suited Leigh McMillan's Omani team The Wave, Muscat who came out in empathetic style, winning four of the eight races to stamp an early authority on the Nice leaderboard. But everyone's eyes were on the Danish SAP Extreme Sailing Team today, who skilfully managed to bring their Extreme 40 back from the brink of a pitch pole, but suffered race-ending damage in the process.
The Danish were not the only team for who the French Riviera proved punishing today. GAC Pindar, who have not sailed together in the Series as a unit since Porto while the team has been competing at the Red Bull Youth America's Cup, lost their port rudder while lining up to start race seven after losing their holding pin, which unfortunately for the team of young Kiwis, meant game over for the day forcing them to limp back to the dock.
A new outfit to the Series who impressed today in what is only their second Act as a team, was ChinaSpirit. Phil Robertson and his team upped the ante, after what was a baptism of fire at the UK Act just six weeks ago.
Tomorrow (Friday 4th October), the Extreme 40 fleet will go into Stadium mode, racing just metres from the shore on the Promenade des Anglais from 1400 CEST as part of Act 7 Nice presented by Land Rover.
Position / Team / Points
1. The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Ed Smyth, Pete Greenhalgh, Musab Al Hadi, Hashim Al Rashdi, 71 points
2. Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey, 61
3. Realteam (SUI) Jerome Clerc, Pierre Pennec, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bryan Mettraux, Thierry Wassem, 58
4. ChinaSpirit (CHN) Phil Robertson, Garth Ellingham, Llang Wu, Louis Viat, Nick Catley, 54
5. Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans Peter Steinacher, Matthew Adams, Simon Cooke, Kinley Fowler, 54
6. the first club by ALL4ONE (FRA) Jean-Christophe Mourniac, Romain Petit, Stephane Christidis, Arnaud Jarlegan, Julien Cressant, 45
7. SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Pete Cumming, Mikkel Røssberg, Nicolai Sehested, 31
8. GAC Pindar (NZL) Will Tiller, Matt Steven, Harry Thurston, Brad Farrand, Shaun Mason, 26
Challenging Day at the RC44 Cascais Cup
Photo by Pedro Martínez, martinezstudio.es. Click on image for photo gallery.
A two metre swell and light breeze that never topped 8 knots, demanded maximum concentration from the owner drivers on the first day of fleet racing at the RC44 Cascais Cup. It was two of the British teams competing in Portugal that had the most consistent results throughout the three race day, to sit at the top of the overnight leaderboard.
Team Aqua were the top performer of the day, finishing with a 2,3,1 score-line to take the overnight lead. Owner and helmsman, Chris Bake gave his take on the days racing in Cascias Bay. "It was pretty choppy and the wind was light but all in all we managed to find some boat speed. The first race was good the second we were a little deep off the line but managed to find a few channels in the first beat which got us to the front of the pack and managed to stay there. The third race we got off the line pretty well and were able to chip away at some of our friendly competitors and by the end had got ourselves into the lead."
The other consistent performer of the day was John Bassadone's Peninsula Petroleum finishing the day in second overall, 3 points off the lead.
Conditions are expected to be similar for the second day of racing, with light winds, but a smaller swell.
Racing continues at the RC44 Cascais Cup with four days of fleet racing from 3-6th October.
RC44 Cascais Cup Fleet Race Ranking
(After three races)
1. Team Aqua, 6 points
2. Peninsula Petroleum Sailing Team, 9
3. Katusha, 13
4. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 15
5. Team Cascais-Aleph Racing, 18
6. Aegir Racing, 18
7. Team Nika, 21
8. Artemis Racing, 24
9. Bronenosec Sailing Team, 24
10. Ironbound, 25
11. Team Italia, 27
12. Gazprom 2, 34
J/22 World Championship
Newport, RI, USA: Seven races are now in the books, and Allan Terhune of Arnold, MD has yet to relinquish his hold on first place at the J/22 World Championship, sponsored by Fidelity Investments. Dazzler, including crew of Katie Terhune, Kristine Wake and Marcus Eagan, has accumulated just 11 points thus far, including a bullet and a second in Thursday's pair of races. ThreeDories.com, helmed by Brad Julian, holds second place with 31 points. Chris Doyle's The Jug 4 1 stands two points further back in third.
Hosted by Sail Newport, the five-day event marks the 30th anniversary of the J/22. Although teams were initially sent to the inside course on Thursday, the breeze was unstable so the fleet returned to shore. After a brief time, the Race Committee decided to move to the ocean course where winds set in at 6 to 8 knots. J.R. Maxwell got on the podium in race six, with the familiar Terhune and Will Welles' Cougar close behind. In race seven, Terhune won handily, while Julian and Martin Kulman's New Wave completed the top three.
Racing continues through Saturday for the 71 teams from Canada, the Cayman Islands, South Africa and the USA.
Complete results, regatta information and live racing updates are available at www.j22worlds.com
America's Cup to Gold Cup
Hamilton Bermuda: Sir Ben Ainslie (UK) will be sailing next week for the Ben Ainslie Racing Team (BART) sponsored by Argo Group. He returns to match racing in Bermuda fresh from the rush of Team Oracle's America's Cup history making comeback. The British hero will have to change gears big time as he steps aboard the classic International One Design (IOD) sloops sailed in Bermuda's Argo Group Gold Cup Oct 8-13.
Stepping from the Team Oracle 40 knot foiling multihull to IODs with full keels, he'll compete against the world's best match racers in the top 11 skippers in the ISAF Open Rankings. He faces the 8 Alpari World Match Racing Tour (AWMRT) Cardholders. All these skippers in the Gold Cup have match-raced traditional monohulls all year, at about 10 knots max. Ainslie did get in some practice with the IOD fleet in San Francisco, but the proof will be in the racing on Hamilton Harbour.
"It probably would take the multihull AC72 30 seconds to get from the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club side of Hamilton Harbour to the Salt Kettle on the South shore. It's a bit different with the IOD," Ainslie remarked. "I'll have to shift gears. It will be a lot of fun."
"The IODs are great boats for match racing. We always love going to Bermuda for the boats and the style of racing."
"We are returning this year to focus attention on the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation (ASSF) that has been established since Bart's tragic death in the America's Cup practice racing in San Francisco this year. The Ben Ainslie Racing Team, called BART, is racing in the Argo Group Gold Cup to raise awareness for this worthwhile cause in memory of our late friend and fellow sailor.
"Bart and the charity are the reason we are racing, as well as the reason we are getting the band back together."
Seahorse November 2013
What's in the Latest Edition Of Seahorse Magazine
Making it pay
Extracting maximum value from that Volvo Ocean Race campaign. Richard Brisius, Sam Dulka And Kevin Fylan
Fast and fun... the 52 way
With a new TP52 rule in the offing for 2015 Rob Weiland celebrates having as many as five brand new builds in the pipeline
Building (two) better Mini Maxis
Those raceboat builds are getting rolling once again. Marcello Persico
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Tornado World Championships
Club Nautico Santa Eularia, Ibiza, Spain: With Wednesday as a lay day the sailors were raring to go on Thursday morning. The weather had changed overnight with the sun hiding behind the clouds and the wind blowing a steady force 3-4 from the East. The change in wind direction bought large rolling waves into the bay and the race course, with the wave height around a maximum of 2.5m.
The brisk easterly and lumpy sea was challenging for most, but the front runners including the Greek team of Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis followed by Italian and German teams had pulled away from the main fleet by the end of the first downwind leg. By the end of the race the fleet was spread across the course with several crews retiring from the race. Iordanis and Konstantinos held onto the top spot for race 5 putting them out in front in the championships by 10 points.
At the end of the first race, the race committee took the decision to abandon the second race due to poor conditions and the number of boats returned to shore with damage.
With 5 races completed there's still plenty to play for going into Friday with only 1 discard counting so far.
Top five after five races:
1. Iordanis Paschalidis / Konstantinos Trigonis, Greece, 4 points
2. Roland Gaebler / Nahid Gaebler, Germany, 14
3. Brett Burvill / Faris Aznan, Australia, 15
4. David Krizek / Zdenek Adam, Czech Republic, 18
5. Makus Betz / Nikolas Betz, Germany, 21
RORC Announce New Transatlantic Race For 2014
The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) has announced the introduction of a new Transatlantic Race starting in November 2014.
The RORC Transatlantic Race will set off from Lanzarote, Canary Islands and finish in the Caribbean, at a destination to be confirmed. The 2,800 nm east to west race will act as a feeder for yachts participating in the 2015 RORC Caribbean 600, held annually in February from Antigua.
The RORC racing calendar attracts sailors from all over the world to compete during the season in over 20 races and comprises a series of highly competitive inshore and offshore IRC Rated events throughout the year. The new RORC Transatlantic Race will be the longest and final race in 2014, making it another busy year for the London-based Club. It follows a season of regular RORC races as well as the international Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race and Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup.
The host port for the start of the race will be the 450-berth Puerto Calero Marina situated on the south side of Lanzarote, only 15 minutes from the island's international airport.
The marina is also home to Team SCA, the all female crew training for the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race and Ericsson, Groupama and Puma have held training camps here in recent years.
The race, commencing over the weekend of the 28th and 29th November 2014, will be run under OSR Category 1 and the start date will allow time for competitors in the Rolex Middle Sea Race to get to the start of the RORC Transatlantic Race in good time and for the yachts to finish in the Caribbean before Christmas.
To register interest and for more information, contact the RORC Race Office: T: +44 (0) 207 518 3131
E:
Young Champions Gather For Renaissance Re Jr. Gold Cup
Photo by Talbot Wilson. Click on image to enlarge.
A fall classic returns to Bermuda's shores on Oct. 10-13 with the 11th annual RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup - a championship of champion's event for the world's top Optimist dinghy sailors. With 13 international champions from 17 countries overall, the world's best will compete in a regatta that includes some 40 Bermudians ranging in age from nine to 15.
The RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup, held at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club ,not only offers many young Bermudians their first taste of international competition, this event is clearly emerging as fertile ground for future world-class sailors. Because it coincides with the Argo Group Gold Cup - the penultimate race on the World Match Racing Tour - the youngsters meet, watch and learn from the best match racing sailors competing today. And many are in fact alumni of past Junior Gold Cup's including 2012 Gold Cup winner Taylor Canfield of the US Virgin Islands who is returning this year to defend his title.
This year's RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup features top international sailors including Lukas Hesse, 14, of Germany who was 7th in the 2013 IODA World Championships. Additional top competitors include Milo Gill-Taylor, 13, the 2013 UK National Champion, Max Quirk from Australia, and Enrique Saavedra from Mexico. In keeping with this event, when last year's 1st and 2nd place competitors were from Ireland and Argentina respectively, these two countries have sent strong competitors in Harry Durcan of Ireland and Santiago Duncan of Argentina.
There will also be something electric happening for Bermuda's RBYC and Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association (BODA) Squad this coming Saturday with Sir Ben Ainslie of Great Britain - who has won this event twice -running a special clinic for the Bermuda Opti sailors the weekend prior to their Junior Gold Cup races. -- Laurie Fullerton
Red Kite II Aiming To Be A Giant Killer
Photo by Guy Nowell. Click on image to enlarge.
The Red Kite II philosophy, says owner Anthony Root "is to put together a mix of hard-driving, highly competitive and skilled sailors who are friends on and off the boat and work together as a collaborative and supportive team" and this is certainly no different as they prepare for the Audi Hong Kong to Vietnam race that starts on 17 October.
There will be seven crew on board the Archambault 35 owned by Anthony since 2009, including Kevin Peet, one of New Zealand's top sailors.
Red Kite II has participated in staggering 230 races since 2009, with 140 wins (61%) and 209 podium finishes (91%). She has won her division in all her offshore races (five races to the Philippines and one to Hainan). With fellow competitor Freefire, Red Kite II is one of only two boats to win the San Fernando Race twice in a row on IRC handicap. It is the only IRC boat in 50 years of the event to win its division in the Hebe Haven Yacht Club Typhoon Series five years in a row. It won its division in the China Coast Regatta in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and won its division in the China Coast Race Week Overall in 2012.
First conceived in 1996 when it was run at Lunar New Year, this 656nm Category 1 offshore race is now a biennial fixture in the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club sailing calendar. A constituent event of RHKYC's popular China Coast Race Week, the race makes the most of October's prevailing north east monsoon to give competitors a thrilling, predominantly downwind race from Hong Kong to Nha Trang on Vietnam's eastern seaboard. The 2013 edition will see a sixteen-strong fleet chasing the current race record of 42h 45m 41s, which was set in 2004 by Grant Wharington's Skandia.
www.rhkyc.org.hk/hkvietnamrace.aspx
Featured Brokerage
1998 Open 60. EUR 189,000. Located in Belgium.
The Open 60 is currently berthed in Belgium and is seriously for sale and ready for immediate use. Very well maintained! She has always sailed under Imoca specifications, has done 2 Vendee Globes and 1 Velux 5 Oceans, Brunel copes with all Eco 60 and Imoca specifications
This Open 60 with rotating wingmast and swingkeel underwent a total refit in 2006.
Brokerage through Bach Yachting International: www.yachtworld.com/bachyachting/
Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com
The Last Word
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