Happy New Year s

Inside Sailing: 10th Episode 2012

Published on Dec 27, 2012
Inside Sailing takes you on a tour around the globe for some of the world's greatest sailing locations, while it lets you in on the secrets of the sport. You will learn what it takes to be a champion in many disciplines, from windsurfing to yachting!

Rolex Sydney To Hobart : Carlodownunder

Carlo"s View For Rolex Sydney to Hoabart >

Rolex Sydney To Hobart : Flying South Photos Carlo Borlenghi

Rolex Sydney To Hobart  : Flying South Photos Carlo Borlenghi

 The 68th Rolex Sydney Hobart got underway in exceptional conditions. The forecast southerly breeze providing the perfect angle for a spinnaker start and run down the harbour. The angle would prove less kind as the yachts exited the Sydney Heads and made their turn towards Hobart, finding the 20 – 25 knots now firmly on the nose. Mark Richards and Wild Oats XI looked to be in no mood to be interrupted in her bid to claim a sixth line honours, blasting off the line and showing Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin Loyal a clean pair of heels before popping out of the Heads comfortably in the lead.

An interesting night lies ahead. The decision how far to head out to sea was the first conundrum facing the crews. So far the bulk of yachts appear firm in the belief that staying inshore, and inside the rhumb line will pay better. Only, one or two boats have shown a determination to head offshore for any length of time.

 Mike Broughton, navigator on Chris Bull’s Jazz, felt ahead of the start that the fleet would do well to stay inshore for the initial section of the race, certainly until the major swing in wind direction expected during the night. This transition should see the wind back to the northeast and will have the yachts running under spinnaker for an extended period.

Earlier this morning, Gordon Maguire, tactician on Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki, indicated some of their pre-race routing suggested the bigger yachts could profit enormously from the predicted northeasterly. If it arrives on cue, they could bite a huge chunk out of the course during the hours of darkness and be lying off Green Cape by mid-morning on the second day, 27 December. The small boats, meanwhile, such as race veteran Roger Hickman’s Wild Rose, might only find themselves parallel with Jervis Bay as dawn breaks. The difference in power between segments of the fleet will be all too apparent at this juncture.

At 17:30 AEDT Wild Oats XI was 8 nautical miles north east of Kiama travelling at 12 knots, with some 50 nm under her belt after 4.5 hours of sailing. Any thought of setting a new record seemed to be on hold as navigator Adrienne Cahalan called in to report the wind speed dropping as evening arrives. Ragamuffin Loyal lies within striking distance just astern. Lahana, Ichi Ban and Black Jack round out the top five on the water. Conditions have been wet and hard on crews during these first few hours and the measure of performance differential between front-runners and back markers is clearly demonstrated by Charlie’s Dream. Averaging just 3.4 knots, Peter Lewis and crew were parallel with Botany Bay having knocked a mere 13 nm off the 628nm course distance.

 The start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart is like few other yacht races. The natural amphitheatre formed by the deep-water harbour offers great viewing potential from the water, at water level from the beaches and coves, and grandstand opportunities from higher ground. Every Sydney-sider has a favourite location, and South Head must be one of the most popular and dramatic. A huge crowd always assembles to watch the fleet barrel down the harbour and make the sharp out into open water.


This year’s spectacle was worth the effort involved. After a dreadful Christmas Day, when rain and wind battered Sydney, Boxing Day has been a joy. Blue sky and reasonably warm temperatures brought the locals out in their thousands to cheer the determined and enthusiastic crews off on their compelling adventure. How to Follow the Event


 Further information on the Rolex Sydney Hobart may be found at www.rolexsydneyhobart.com

Rolex Sydney Hobart News : Questions Loom NOR

Wild Thing skipper Grant Wharington lashes out over Sydney-Hobart race ban

@carloborlenghi

D. D. MCNICOLL 

From:The Australian 

December 26, 2012 10:48AM

 A DEVASTATED Grant Wharington has lashed out at a Rolex Sydney-Hobart ''conspiracy'', after Wild Thing was banned from the annual blue-water classic.

+Daniel Forster 

+Daniel Forster 

His lips trembling and close to tears, Wharington, the Wild Thing skipper, said he was "absolutely devastated" to be told his super maxi yacht had been banned from this year's race.

+Daniel Forster 

Wharington said he had been further insulted by an offer to sail down the 628 nautical mile course with the other yachts but not be part of the race.

Wharington said he believed he had been targeted by "a conspiracy" and suggested some officials at the Cruising Yacht Cub of Australia were biased against super maxi boats.

"We provided the documentation and we were told on Wednesday we could go and now it is withdrawn," Wharington said after a 30-minute meeting with the CYCA race committee during which he pleaded his case.

@carloborlenghi

He and his crew headed back to the boat after leaving the CYCA where the plans to "demolish a few cases of beer."

CYCA Commodore Howard Piggott said Wharington had failed to file declarations from the designer and builder of Wild Thing that the yacht complied to ABS standards for racing boats.

Doubts had been cast over Wild Thing since race director Tim Cox told the Christmas Eve skipper's briefing that the yacht still owed him "heaps" of paperwork.

Yachts have to lodge documents covering their construction, any modifications, their international ratings certificate and compulsory safety checks before be given permission to start in the 628 nautical mile race.

Wharington was at the CYCA sailing office this morning to sign documents and he left the club to board his boat believing he had been cleared to start.

However Piggott said there was no way Wild Thing would be allowed to start and patrol boats on the harbour would be ordered to keep the yacht out of the race area.

Rolex Sydney To Hobart : Race Facts

Open publication - Free publishing - More austrailia

Vendee Globe news : ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered wishes you a Merry Christmas

Americas Cup Technolige used on wild oats : Wild Oats ready for Sydney-Hobart

Wild Oats ready for Sydney-Hobart

• Amanda Lulham 
• The Daily Telegraph 
• December 18, 2012 8:45AM

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IT was one of the most scrutinised keel unveilings since Alan Bond and Ben Lexen revealed Australia II's wings in 1983. With cameras flashing and TV crews recording the champion ocean marauder Wild Oats was hauled out of the water yesterday, exposing a bottom with some unusual bumps and lumps
and keel bits which have borrowed from America's Cup technology.
 

It was the first time the modifications, to make the multi-million dollar 100-footer faster than ever before in this year's Rolex Sydney to Hobart, have been publicly viewed and came just over a week before Wild Oats begins her quest for a record sixth line honours win in the bluewater classic. Last year the supermaxi's light wind performance was exposed as an Achilles Heel for the yacht with off-season alterations addressing the problem.

Skipper Mark Richards believes the addition of a retractable bow centreboard and keel winglets with a lineage which can be traced back to Australia II's winged keel technology could make the difference between a win and a loss in this years race to Hobart.

Both new additions will reduce drag and thus increase the speed of the yacht which last year lost the line honours race by just over three minutes.

Wild Oats needs just one second per nautical mile improvement in speed to finish 11 minutes faster than her 2011 time in the 628 nautical mile race.

And co-owner Sandy Oatley believes her off-season improvements will give her the additional speed required to race back into the winners circle this year.

"Any time there is new technology you look at it,'' Oatley said of Wild Oats constant makeovers.

"These changes will make her faster than she was.''

Now seven years old, Wild Oats has stayed ahead of the pack with attention to detail and her state-of-the-art technology reasons for her success.

"The hydraulic ram on the keel can lift a jumbo,'' Oatley said.

"She is X-rayed and checked, all the bearings are looked at. There is a lot of attention to detail.''

The latest modifications have been recently tested with great success with Wild Oats thumping the opposition by almost 10 minutes in the recent SOLAS Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour and also setting a new race record in the recent Cabbage Tree Island race, a major lead-up event to the Sydney to Hobart.

The results have seen Wild Oats XI installed as the pre-race favourite for the race to Tasmania ahead of fellow 100-footers Ragamuffin Loyal and Wild Thing and the 98-footer Lahana.

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CAMPER in the Volvo Ocean Race Documentary

Hannah Mills explains The Wave, Muscat's strategy for stadium-racing on ...

Artemis Racing AC72 Update 3

Blown Away. VESTAS Sailrocket 2 truly smashes the Outright world speed s...

24th of November,2012. This is the day that VESTAS Sailrocket 2 took speed sailing into a whole new era. Having already broken the existing Outright world speed sailing record by the biggest margin in the records history a little over a week earlier, the team took to the waters of Walvis Bay in strong winds to try and be the first to take the sport over the 60 knot average mark.
This video shows the third run of the day. The record attempt had been plagued by unusually light winds but they knew that on this day, Walvis Bay was going to deliver the goods. After 11 years of hard work on a 'roller coaster of highs and lows'... everything was in place for something big to happen. Founder and co-designer of the Sailrocket project, Malcolm Barnsley, had flown in to see his dream play out before his own eyes. VESTAS Sailrocket 2 has put a mark way up on the graph to show everyone what is possible.
*Record subject to WSSRC ratification

Aerial photography by Bernt Bruns.

Directed, filmed and edited by Ben Holder.

Against the Tide 2 - Part 1: Clipper 11-12 Documentary

ACJ 45 In Secondlife

The Match Race

65. Awards and accolades for Ben Ainslie - AC Discovered

Vendee Globe News :SANSÓ CHECKS IN WITH NEPTUNE

SANSÓ CHECKS IN WITH NEPTUNE ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered crosses the Equator for the first time in tenth position Javier Sansó is enthusiastic about the performance of the eco-efficient power systems on board After twelve days of sailing in the Northern Hemisphere after leaving Les Sables D’Olonne with the Vendée Globe round the world race, Javier Sansó has crossed the Equator on ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered and is now sailing in the Southern Hemisphere trade winds. At 23.26 Spanish time ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered made this particularly significant passage, and as is tradition for every sailor Javier Sansó made his compulsory tribute to Neptune, where all sailors ask for protection and make an offering to “King Neptune”. “When I crossed the Equator I had a little celebration of my crossing with Neptune. My celebration was one of the little luxuries that I have on board – some wonderful Jabugo cured ham (“pata negra”)– absolutely delicious!” The skipper from Mallorca praised the excellent performance of the renewable energy sources and power systems on board ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered with the weather conditions he is currently experiencing at the equator, “The solar panels are going really well and I am so glad I don’t have to turn on an engine to charge the batteries with this heat! NO PETROL ON BOARD!!!!!” “I’m now in the Southern Hemisphere although it is quite uncomfortable sailing with wind between 7 and 11 knots and shifts of up to 30º. I’m going to have to put up with it for another 24 hours until the wind shifts more eastwards and we have more upwind sailing conditions to be able to use another sail.”

Vendee Globe News : Video news reels

Vendee Globe News reel I have edited for All to enjoy in one reel

Vendee Globe News : Alex Thomson - Week 1 highlights

Published on Nov 16, 2012 by AlexThomsonRacing
The first week in the 2012/2013 Vendee Globe with Alex Thomson onboard HUGO BOSS

Vendée Globe News : Savéol dismasted

At 1945hrs (French time), on Thursday, November 15th, Samantha Davies contacted the race office of the Vendée Globe to report that her boat had dismasted. Davies is not injured. She is safe inside the boat with all the watertight doors closed. She is monitoring the situation and does not require assistance. She is wearing her survival suit and has safety equipment at hand.

 When the incident occurred, she was about 130 nautical miles northwest of Madeira (position 34 ° 20'N 19 ° 01'W). The conditions at the time of dismasting were: wind 260 °, 40 knots, swell northwest, 3 to 4 metres. But the situation will gradually improve, with winds decreasing to 15 knots in the second half of the night.

After speaking to Davies, the race office contacted the Cross Griz Nez (France's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) to release an urgent Notice to Mariners (AVURNAV). All vessels navigating in a 200 nautical mile radius around Savéol were informed of the incident and the position of the boat.

Louis Vuitton Cup News : Artemis Racing take to the Bay on lucky November 13th - AC UNCUT

The Artemis Racing AC72 hit San Francisco Bay under sail on Tuesday for the first time, with the team training for over three hours in winds of 8-12 knots.

It was a milestone moment for the team who has seen this inaugural test sail delayed first by a damaged wing sail and then by structural issues with the platform during load testing last month.

But the problems have been forgotten today. When the team returned to base after sailing there were a lot of smiles among the crew.

“It’s a big milestone for the team,” said skipper Terry Hutchinson, who came off the boat with a noticeable bounce in his step. “We’ve been working tirelessly towards this day and have had a few setbacks which have been painful for all of us to deal with, so this is the first day of many and it’s nice to get it rolling.

Louis Vuittion Cup News :
“We were quite conservative about the way we sailed the boat today and we worked through the process methodically and signed off on the checklist. You have to show these boats respect; you can tell already that this is going to be a beast.”

Juan Kouyoumdjian, principal designer for the team, said the first sail was all about working through structural tests to ensure the boat was sound. He said the boat passed with flying colors.

“Today was about slowly loading the boat and making checks and then when those boxes are ticked and no funny noises are heard, going on to the next step,” he said. “It was successful. Nothing happened that shouldn’t have happened, so it’s been good.”

“We’re very excited to get out there for day one,” agreed team CEO Paul Cayard. “It was a perfect first day – nothing bad happened and we got a lot of valuable data… We have 30 sailing days we can use, so we’ll review everything tomorrow and plan to get back out on Thursday and do it again. We have to learn in the most efficient way possible with the days we have.

“The first day sailing in every America’s Cup is significant,” he said. “But this Cup it’s a quantum leap because the boats are a new class, it’s catamarans and the wing… And we’ve had a few setbacks, we’ve taken it on the chin a little bit, so it was a big deal for us to get out there and have a good day.”

American Youth Sailing Force Red Bull YAC Trials

Published on Nov 12, 2012 by PressureDrop2010
The team from American Youth Sailing Force talk about their day on the AC 45during trials for the 2013 Red Bull Youth America's Cup. © 2012 www.pressure-drop.us

Programme 5, Nice - Extreme Sailing Series 2012

Published on Nov 13, 2012 by ExtremeSailingSeries
http://extremesailingseries.com Double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson presents programme 5 of the official Extreme Sailing Series TV Series coming to you from the French Riviera where the penultimate Act of 2012 played out in front of thousands of local spectators from the 18-21 October.

Sun, wind and action drew the crowds to the Promenade des Anglais who witnessed Pierre Pennec lead his French team Groupe Edmond de Rothschild to a well-deserved Act win on their home waters and with it put them back in the hunt for the overall 2012 Series title. The scene is now set for a four-way fight for the Series podium places at the 2012 finale in Rio de Janeiro - watch how the Act unfolded here, including exclusive interviews with the key players

Programme 5, Nice - Extreme Sailing Series 2012

Published on Nov 13, 2012 by ExtremeSailingSeries
http://extremesailingseries.com Double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson presents programme 5 of the official Extreme Sailing Series TV Series coming to you from the French Riviera where the penultimate Act of 2012 played out in front of thousands of local spectators from the 18-21 October.

Sun, wind and action drew the crowds to the Promenade des Anglais who witnessed Pierre Pennec lead his French team Groupe Edmond de Rothschild to a well-deserved Act win on their home waters and with it put them back in the hunt for the overall 2012 Series title. The scene is now set for a four-way fight for the Series podium places at the 2012 finale in Rio de Janeiro - watch how the Act unfolded here, including exclusive interviews with the key players

Alex Thomson 'The Time is Now' Vendée Globe Race Start

Russel

China Cup ; Day Two 91 Boats

photos by STUDIO BORLENGHI/Stefano Gattini

Saturday 27 October 2012, Shenzhen

Day 2 of racing at China Cup

Seven jump the gun and give the lead to Beijing Sailing Center

There were some surprises in store for sailors as they looked at the results after day two of the China Cup International Regatta in Shenzhen. Such is the competitive nature of the Beneteau 40.7 fleet, seven boats jumped the gun in today’s first of three windward/leeward races, and paid the price with an OCS disqualification. Highest profile of those who started too early were the top two teams from yesterday’s Simpson Marine Passage Race, Jono Rankine’s Vatti Sailing and Gery Trentesaux’s Courrier Team.

Chief beneficiary of this upset to the leaderboard was Rick Pointon’s Beijing Sailing Center, last year’s winner of the Beneteau division in the China Cup. “We had a pretty bad race, crossing the line in something like 15^thplace, so it was nice to discover we got an 8^th after all,” said Pointon, a British sailor who relocated to China six years ago and founded the Beijing Sailing Center. He has a number of local Chinese sailors racing on the crew, 

including helmswoman Summer Song who finished 8^th at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 when she was steering the Yngling keelboat on home waters. “Summer is doing a fantastic job steering the boat,” said Pointon. “Many of us are sailing together for the first time here, and that first race today highlighted some communication problems that we needed to sort out.” And sort out those problems they did, scoring a 2,1 in the next two races.

Sitting 9 points behind the leaders is Beneteau China – TBS, skippered by ocean racing legend Michel Desjoyeaux. While some might have expected the two-time Vendée Globe winner to find the 34 mile Passage Race more to his liking, he only managed 8^th yesterday, whereas on today’s short windward/leeward courses he scored 3,8,3. The French crew sit a point in front of Australians, Team Vicsail skippered by Robin Hawthorn.

There were some dominant winners in other classes, such as Stanley Chan who steered Constant Wind to 1,2,1 scores in the Far East 26 fleet, a scoreline exactly matched by Graham Young’s B32, Bits and Pieces, in HKPN 2 handicap division. It’s a similar story for Bridget Chan with 1,1,3 on her S&S 36 Windseeker, comfortably leading the HKPN 1 handicap fleet. However the most enviable scoreline of all went to Yan Yuye with three bullets for Sea Wolf, the Archambault 40 currently dominating IRC division 3.

Three months ago, a Soto 27 keelboat didn’t even exist in China, but after a rapid building programme there are 10 of these new one-design boats competing in Shenzhen this week. Jim Johnstone, of J-Boats fame, is skippering Liu Zhou Riviera Team with a crew that he has been coaching intensively in the art and science of sailboat racing. However Johnstone was blaming himself this evening after letting his Argentinean rivals on Team Goldrooster slip past him on two occasions. “I just lost my head a couple of times today, forgetting the important stuff,” said Johnstone. “With 91 boats on the race track – even if you’re not racing all of them – the wind in the middle of the course gets very chopped up and it’s often better to sail at the edges.” Agustin Eujanian’s crew hold a one-point lead over Johnstone after scoring 1,1,4 today. As Goldrooster’s helmsman, 

Andy Domato, pointed out, the 4^th place should have been better but for the jib halyard releasing at a critical point of the race just before the windward mark when they were leading. That gear failure saw three boats slip past, but the Argentineans are certainly looking strong if they can avoid such errors for the remaining two days of competition.

On Sunday the 91 boats compete in one windward/leeward heat and an Audi Round the Island Race, with moderate breezes forecast.

* The China Cup International Regatta 2012 takes place on 26th to 29th October 2012 in the waters of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Its consist of four days of racing organised by Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (RHKYC), Shenzhen Marine Sports Base and Shenzhen Vanke Longcheer Yacht Club (LYC). There are 91 entries representing 18 nations: Colombia, Australia, China, Hong Kong, China, Germany, France, Israel, Turkey, Singapore, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Mauritius, Argentina, Uruguay, Philippines, USA and the Netherlands.

Regatta Website: www.chncup.com

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/chncup