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Postponement flags - quote of the week

2010-02-17T17:02:00Z

I’m a big believer that the postponement flag should be taken off the committee boats, put into a glass cage and broken only in case of an emergency. You know, when Captain Cook sailed around the world he didn’t have the opportunity to postpone races because it was too windy or too light. I believe that if a race is scheduled at 12 o’clock it should always start at 12 o’clock and if you want to consider yourself among the best sailors of the world you should be able to sail under all conditions.

Quote by Gavin Brady, skipper of Mascalzone Latino, in an interview with Valencia Sailing.

Audi vs BMW in 34th America's Cup

2010-02-15T11:23:00Z

After BMW Oracle Racing’s victory in the 33th America’s Cup, we are already looking forward to the 34th America’s Cup. Three years ago, quite a few teams expressed their interest in participating in the Cup, but it needs to be seen how much of those teams can find the funds needed to mount a multi-year campaign.

It’s now up to BWM Oracle Racing and Mascalzone Latino - Audi team to agree on the location, date and format of the next America’s Cup. One thing I would like to assure everyone about the 34th America’s Cup is that there will be a completely independent jury and completely independent umpires,” said Larry Ellison. “It will be an independent company that manages the next America’s Cup and it will be a level playing field for all competitors.”

Newport, Rhode Island is named as possible venue of the 34th America’s Cup. Newport was the home of the Amercia’s Cup for all matches between 1930 and 1983, when the Cup left the USA for the first time since it’s inception and moved to Freemantle.

BMW Oracle (USA) wins first race of the 33th America's Cup

2010-02-12T16:05:00Z

After months and years of legal battle and 2 postponed races on monday and wednesday, the 33th America’s Cup finally started today on 14:35. The breeze was rather light (5 to 8 knots), but the boats had no problem racing at 20 to 25 knots around the 20 mile race course in front of Valencia.

It was a very interesting race where both boats showed that they truly are the best multihuls ever built. Lots of people seriously doubted if a deed of gift match (the first in over 20 years) would be an interesting match race or if one of the boats would be really superior to the other one, as was the case in 1988. Twenty years ago Dennis Conner’s giant catamaran “Stars and Stripes” then won 2-0 with a delta of more than 18 minutes on both matches.

The Swiss Alinghi team took the lead at the start after BMW Oracle missed theirs, but lost terrain quickly. BMW Oracle’s wing proved very powerful both up- and downwind and contributed to their win. In the end they had more than 3500 meter lead over the Swiss Alinghi team. The next race is scheduled for sunday, February 14th 2010.

America's Cup 2010: first race postponed till Wednesday

2010-02-08T15:27:00Z

Today was the first day of the real battle of the 33th America’s Cup, one of the biggest and most anticipated sailing events ever. I am not going to write about the legal battles that preceded this day, not writing about the use of engines or wings, about the strange fact that we have a “winter” race in the northern hemisphere. I hope I don’t have to write about the final decision that the court of New York still has to make about the use of 3DL technology by the swiss team…

Because of all the legal battles, we have a strange America’s Cup ahead of us. One without strict rules. In fact, the only rule concerning the yachts is that the length-over-water should not exceed 90 feet. Both teams chose a multihull with a huge mast, but the comparison stops there. Alinghi chose a catamaran with “traditional” (although high-tech) sails, while team Oracle went for the extreme: their trimaran is powered by a huge rigid wing.

The first of thee matches had to take place today, but was postponed to Wednesday Feb 10th, due to a lack of stable wind.

Wally Yacht Tiketitan lost in fire

2010-02-04T13:49:00Z

The magnificent and iconic Wally 88 Tiketitan was destroyed by a fire in a shipyard in Palma de Mallorca yesterday. Tiketitan (called Il Sovereign these days) was designed ten years ago by German Frers and built by Green Marine. She is one of the original fast and easily-handled Wally superyachts, and the first Wally with a canting keel.

It’s said to see a beautiful boat end like this, but at least she went like she came: spectacular.

The Master at Work

2009-07-25T10:06:00Z

One of the masters of yachting the last twenty years is Paul Cayard. He’s participated in various events, ranging from the America’s Cup over the Volvo Ocean Race, even the Olympics. The last few days, he was in Sardinia sailing on the TP52 Artemis.

Have a look at the way he guides Artemis to the finish line. Photo by Nico Martinez

Cutting Edge technology for 33th America's Cup

2009-07-06T09:59:00Z

Cutting Edge you say? Have a look at this blade-sharp hull of Alinghi’s giant 90 feet catamaran for the 33th America’s Cup which will (probably) be held in February 2010.

Longtze European Tour Deauville

2009-06-19T11:04:00Z

The Longtze European Tour was in Deauville a few days ago and raced in high-wind conditions. Boy, have a look at this video. The boats are planning all the time, and are so maneuverable, it seems they are just playing a tagging game with each other. I’d love to get on board on one of those!

Is the ISAF watching this and considering as a replacement for the Tornado?

Alex Thomson flies behind his Hugo Boss Open 60

2009-05-12T18:56:00Z

Alex Thomson’s Open 60 Hugo Boss is back in the water, and it looks like Alex has found himself a new toy to take along those long trips round the world. He tried a Carafino “Hydromatic” board, a kitesurfing board with a foil underneath.

“The conditions were perfect with good breeze and sunshine adding to the feel good factor on the day. I haven’t been ‘foiling’ before but I loved it. It’s pretty extreme – at a certain speed the hull is lifted above the water and the craft skims along on the hydrofoils at great speeds. It’s like snowboarding, just on water,” explained Alex.

Alex clearly enjoyed himself in the Solent. He plans to take part in this year’s Fastnet and Transat Jacque Vabres races.

Even a 2m shark can't take Wild Oats XI's victory in 2008 Sydney - Hobart

2008-12-29T11:27:00Z

Wild Oats XI won this year’s edition of the Sydney - Hobart race for the forth time in a row. Never before in the history of this 628 mile ocean classic has a yacht achieved this.

Although Wild Oats made it very clear that they absolutely wanted to win the Sydney-Hobart this year, the race didn’t start extremely well for skipper Mark Richards. A torn spinnaker soon after the start, a close encounter with a two-meter long shark and the fierce competition by Skandia didn’t make things easy for the maxi’s crew.

By finishing after 1 day, 20 hours and 34 minutes, Wild Oats was just under two hours too late to break their own record-time which they established in the 2005 race. Although they now hold the record of the most consecutive wins and the record-time, they still need a fews years to beat the Morna/Kurrewa IV record. Morna managed to win the race seven times (under two different owners and two different names). If anyone will ever be able to break that record, Wild Oats will be it!

The end of Leg 1 of the VOR is near

2008-10-31T16:33:00Z

With less than 600 miles to go, Ericsson 4 will likely be first at the finishing line in Cape Town, South-Africa. We’ll have a more detailed review of the first leg next week, when all ships are in.

In the meantime, we’ve selected this picture to be our “52Sails picture of the week”. Freddie Shanks has to do some tough grinding onboard of Green Dragon. Image (c) Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race.

Virgin Money has to abandon record attempt

2008-10-26T08:34:00Z

Virgin Money had to abandon her attempt to break the Atlantic sailing record. The ex-speedboat maxi faced huge waved, sailed trough storms but had to declare defeat when a huge monster wave shred the Spinnaker, washed a ten man life boat overboard and ripped a huge gash in the mainsail.

However, the team is very confident they’ll be back. “Virgin Money will soon be fighting fit and ready to take on the Atlantic again in the very near future”, sir Richard Branson declared. “You learn to respect the awesome power of this ocean and to admit when she has you beat. But I truly believe that next time Virgin Money will set a new world record that will secure its place in the record books for many years to come.”

His two children (Holly and Sam) have announced they want to be there on the next attempt as well!

Richard Branson on track to beat the trans-Atlantic record

2008-10-23T10:32:00Z

Billionaire and adventurist Richard Branson left New York yesterday for a sailing trip with his two children. Not an ordinary sailing trip, no. The man best known for building the Virgin empire, has been breaking records sinds the 1980s. The record he wants to break this time is the “Trans Atlantic” record, to sail from New York to Lizard Point off the coast of England.

The crew of his “Virgin Money” 99ft maxi yacht (which started its life as “Speedboat”) consists mainly of members of the TEAMORIGIN America’s Cup team, including a few Olympic medalists. But the most remarkable crew members are Richard’s daughter Holly (26) and son Sam (23). Holly will serve as a medic and said she was fully prepared to face the icebergs and cold waters. Son Sam is very confident and isn’t worried about the risk of navigating the Atlantic in the foul weather: “I think it’s more going to be just very unpleasant,” he said. “The chance of anything going real wrong is not real high. We’re in a great boat with a world class team.”

The current record holder is the spectacular Mari Cha IV, who made the trip in 6 days 17 hours 39 minutes 52 seconds in 2003. She was skippered by Mike Sanderson, who is a also a co-skipper on this attempt. Will he be able to break his own record? “52Sails.org”:http://52sails.org will keep you posted!

UPDATE: They are well on track to beat the record, but face some rough seas. Check out this on board footage:

Olin Stephens sailed his last trip

2008-09-15T15:39:00Z

The great Olin Stephens passed away over the weekend at the age of 100. As a yacht designer he was without equal, drawing the lines for the winners of eight of nine America’s Cup matches between 1937 and 1980.

Olin J. Stephens II is considered to be one of the most prominent naval architects of the 20th century. He master the unique art of creating very fast yachts that just looked stunning. From the 1931 Dorade over the J-Class Ranger to several 12-Meters and the best of the Swan designs, they all passed Olin’s drawing table.

His design firm, Sparkman & Stephens also designed the first two winners of the Whitbread Round the World Race: the Swan 65 Sayula II won the inaugural edition, while the ketch Flyer won the 1977/8 Whitbread with Conny van Rietschoten at the helm.

In his autobiography, ‘All This and Sailing, Too’ Stephens wrote, “I was lucky: I had a goal. As far back as I can remember I wanted to design fast boats.”

And that he did, contributing to the design of over 2,000 yachts before retiring from the firm in the early 1980s. We wish him all the best on this final trip.

VOR ships will be part of Ecological Research

2008-08-08T07:47:00Z

The Volvo Ocean Race is taking part in a pioneering project aimed at finding out how the oceans have been affected by ships’ exchanging of billions of tonnes of ballast water.

Each boat in the race will be involved in the programme which was initiated by the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), the logistics partner of the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race. The dedicated “media crew” member on board will be responsible for taking regular water samples using a sophisticated testing process based on bioluminescence using a measuring instrument called a luminometer.

The race route provides scientists with a rare opportunity to analyse the biomass of the water in open seas not on the regular shipping lanes. It will advance scientific research as to how foreign invaders found in ballast water are upsetting the eco-systems in the world’s great oceans.

“Invasive species are one of the four major threats to the world’s oceans, the other three being global climate change, marine pollution and overfishing,” said WWL’s Global Head of Environment, Melanie Moore, during a recent briefing to a Media Crew Member workshop in Race HQ in Whiteley, Hampshire.

“What we want to look at is the mass of species along the race route. That’s the benefit of what the crew can do for us. It’s about conducting research that will go towards creating some better ballast water treatment systems for the future,” she added.

The research at sea by the Media Crew Member involves taking a regular water sample, recording the mass of species in the sample, reporting the results electronically and then having them published on the Volvo Ocean Race website. A scientific report of the findings will be published post-race.

To put this research in perspective, the IMO has issued a dire warning about the threat of invasive marine species carried across the world in ballast water.

“Unlike other marine pollution, from which the environment will eventually recover, the impacts of invasive marine species are most often irreversible.”