Groupama 3 Record Attempt

It was 20h12'16''UT Wednesday, when the maxi-trimaran Groupama passed the Ambrose Light on her way out of New York harbour. The race against the clock begins with 2,925 miles ahead of the trimaran. The time to beat - 4 days 3 hours 57 minutes 54 seconds - resounds in everyone's minds. To stand a chance of beating her own reference time set on 24th July 2007, Groupama 3 will have to cross the finish line off Lizard Point, the South-West tip of Britain, prior to Monday 3rd August at 00h 09' 10'' UT.

After three weeks on standby in Gateway Marina to the south of Brooklyn, Franck Cammas and his men have today snatched what is a great opportunity to attack the North Atlantic record. Sylvain Mondon from Mto France, onshore router has this to say: "A line of stormy squalls from the SW hit New York during the course of the afternoon and produced a considerable wind increase on its way through. This enabled us to take the start a little earlier than we initially planned."

The weather window opening ahead of Groupama 3 is forecast to see some stiff conditions and a steady rhythm, which will certainly appeal to Franck Cammas and his crew!

Region of Sardinia Trophy

Emirates Team New Zealand won all three races on the first day of the Region of Sardinia Trophy for the TP52 Series. Three wins from three starts allowed Dean Barker (NZL) and the crew of Emirates TeamNew Zealand to not only take a comfortable overall lead after the first day’s racing at the Region of Sardinia Trophy, the third event of the 2009 Audi MedCup Circuit, but also to more than double their overall lead on the season long Circuit.

Italy's Francesco Bruni called tactics for Matador as they posted a first and second on the 2nd day, rising to challenge the Kiwi dominance in the TP52 Series while his compatriot Vasco Vascotto won twice in the hot seat on the GP 42 Airis. Winners of the season’s opening regatta in Alicante in May, Matador (ARG) proved the most consistent TP52 performers of the second day of racing off Cagliari in the south of Sardinia. With a first and a second place in gentle sea-breeze conditions which struggled to reach double figures, the Argentine team which has Italian Francesco Bruni as tactician read the difficult first windward-legs well.

In the GP42 Series, which managed to complete all three scheduled races, Vasco Vascotto guided Airis to win the first two races, while the Italian monopoly was maintained as Series leader Roma won the third contest. A penalty turn at the top of the second beat proved costly for the Circuit leader Roma.

As the Audi MedCup Circuit 2009 reached its theoretical mid-point Artemis won the Coastal race and only one point separates the top four GP42 Series teams after 3rd day's three races.

On a blistering hot day on the Gulf of Cagliari, 2007 Audi MedCup Champion Torbjorn Tornqvist (SWE) and the crew of Artemis kept their cool to execute a clinical victory in today’s 29.2 miles coastal race and leap-frog Matador (ARG) for second place in the overall standings for the TP52 Series’ Region of Sardinia Trophy regatta.

In the GP42 Series, where three races were completed in variable sea breeze conditions, a 3,5,2 scoreline for the day sees Airis lead the overall series from Roma Mk 2, their Italian compatriots also sharing the same 16 points tally as third placed Caser Endesa. It could scarcely be closer after three different boats, Roma Mk 2, Caser-Endesa and Islas Canarias Puerto Calero won successive contests today. And the young fourth placed Canarian team are still only one point off the lead on 17 points.

A fifth and second place from two contrasting races for Emirates Team New Zealand sees them top the leaderboard again while three back to back wins for Islas Canarias Puerto Calero gives them a two points lead.

Four and a half points separates regatta leaders Emirates Team New Zealand from Artemis going in to the final day’s racing of the Region of Sardinia Trophy after two very different and challenging windward-leeward contests off Cagliari.

Fortunes ebbed and flowed between the two top teams. ETNZ’s Grant Dalton summarised it as ‘winning ugly’ after emerging in second place from a mentally bruising second race which saw Artemis recover from 10th to steal three places at the bottom of the final run.

Emirates Team New Zealand add the Region of Sardinia Trophy to the Marseille Trophy after a composed final day of racing in a building Mistral breeze, while Islas Canarias Puerto Calero win the GP42 Series Regatta. Emirates Team New Zealand’s boss and mast-man Grant Dalton (NZL) had his wish today as the Mistral breeze returned to present a final crescendo as the Kiwi team sailed cleanly through three final races to secure the Region of Sardinia Trophy, their second successive regatta title after also winning last month in Marseille, France. Emirates Team New Zealand sailed with precision across their races to score a third, a first and, as a final flourish in the 22 knot Mistral, a second place which ensured they topped the final standings by 14.5 points ahead of Matador. Artemis who started the day in second slipped to third place ifor the regatta.

In the GP42 Series Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP) won four of the final five races to take the Region of Sardinia Trophy, needing only to finish in the final race to be sure of their first regatta win this season.

Aegean Rally

The International Aegean Sailing Rally is a traditional yearly event organized by the HORC (Hellenic Offshore Racing Club). It is the oldest and most prestigious sailing regatta in Greece. Since 1964, it gathers contestants from around the world as well as all of Greece's top sailing teams. Every year the top boats show up on the starting line for a race. Among them there are some of the finest yachts and best trained crews of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The 46th Aegean Rally starts today from the Saronic Gulf. This year the rally visits Syros, Leros and Samos, before returning to Cape Sounio.

Transpacific Yacht Race

The double-handed record for the Transpacific Yacht Race (Los Angeles to Honolulu) has been broken. At 4:38:35 am HST Tuesday 14 of July, Philippe Kahn and Mark "Crusty" Christensen, crossed the Diamond Head finish line in the Open 50, Pegasus 50, in a record time of 7 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds. They shaved over two and a half days off of the previous record set by Howard Gordon and Jay Crum in 2001 also with an Open 50, Etranger in the most enduring and greatest ocean race in the world covering 2,225 nautical miles from Los Angeles to Honolulu. It seemed unusual to be taking photos of Kahn and Christensen as they backed Pegasus 50 into the slip at Waikiki Yacht Club after having spent days viewing their blog. They used their Motion X GPS application for their iPhone to get instantaneous performance feedback and to communicate to the rest of the world and share their story with AV blog postings.

A staggered start, weather patterns and tactical decisions combined so that boats keep streaming into Ala Wai in Honolulu and the greeting parties can barely keep up with the pace. Aloha welcome parties overlap. The consensus among the sailors is that it was a fun and fast race.

ORCi Worlds

No racing on Sunday due to blustery conditions; Bohemia Express and Sagola win Corinthian Trophies in Classes A and B.

Through consistently excellent performance through this week of inshore and offshore competition, George Andreadis’s (GRE) GS 42R Meliti IV has been crowned the 2009 ORC International World Champion in Class A. Giuseppe Giuffre (ITA) and his team on his M37 Low Noise has also won the World title for Class B.
The event, hosted by Circulo della Vela (CVB), scored a total of 5 inshore and 2 offshore races in conditions varying from light to blustery. In fact, conditions were brisk enough today to prompt CVB race managers to first delay the start of racing, then ultimately abandon the effort altogether as the strong 25+-knot northerly had not showed signs of abating at all today.

“We feel really happy to have achieved this victory,” said Andreadis. “The whole team worked really hard and the results have paid off.” Over the past three decades of active competition in several competitive classes Andreadis has been a perennial champion, but this is his first ORC International World title, even as that title was within his grasp at last year’s Worlds in his home waters near Athens yet slipped away on the final day of racing. But this was not the case here in Brindisi, where his win was highly convincing: Meliti took an early lead in the week’s racing and held and extended that lead daily despite stiff competition in a crowded 36-boat class.

And in an even more crowded 41-boat Class B, Giuffre’s Low Noise briefly lost the lead after the offshore race results, but regained and even extended it back after inshore racing resumed yesterday. In fact, Low Noise dominated this class inshore, winning all but one of their five races.
Teams entered in Class A and Class B who had no more than one ISAF Group 1 crew member on board and only Group 1 helmsmen were eligible to be scored for the Corinthian Trophy in each class. In Class A Vodri Doprava Evropska’s (CZE) 5th-placed GS42R0 Bohemia Express was the top-scoring Corinthian entry, while in Class B it was Fausto Pierbon’s (ITA) runner-up GS37B Sagola on top of the 34 entries (83% of the class) eligible for this trophy. In Class A there were 21 (58%) Corinthian entries.

“Suitable World Champions have been crowned here in Brindisi,” said ORC Chairman Bruno Finzi. “The wide variety of conditions, the large number of races, and great depth of Corinthian and non-Corinthian talent in a large field of entries all created a challenging contest. We extend to them our heartiest congratulations, and a profound thanks to the organizers from CVB and all their sponsors for a fantastic event.”

ORCi Worlds

In a similar 10-18 knot Sirocco as the first day, the leaders of the ORC International Worlds fleet have sailed the first half of their 87-mile offshore race, with Piero Paniccia's Cookson 50 Calipso IV leading the fleet around their turning mark near Otranto at 17:56:58 local time. Next around only a little more than a minute later was the Russo-Brenco-De Falco syndicate's GS 56R Athanor-Ola-Citta di Siracusa at 17:58:13, and third George Vasilopoulos's Farr 520 Brave at 18:17:52.

It was little surprise that Calipso would be challenging so close to the larger Athenor, as this Farr design has a canting keel, a feature favorable in the long beat to Otranto, and is only one of its kind in the 77-boat fleet representing 7 countries in this year's competition. If the breeze holds and Calipso is able to slide downwind at speed back north towards Brindisi, she could be in as early as 2100 this evening. The post-sunset forecast, however, is not favorable to this, as the breeze is expected to lighten and go back to the north.

This race to Otranto and back is actually scored as two 1.5-point races in the no-throwout competition, so performance today and tonight is critical towards earning points towards the World Championship crown.

George Andreadis’s (GRE) GS 42R Meliti IV has extended their lead in the Class A standings of the ORC International World Championship by finishing yesterday’s two-part 82-mile offshore race in 2nd and 3rd place. With the 1.5 weighted bonus points earned in these races, and combined with their 3 -1 performance in the inshore races on Tuesday, this puts them into a 16 point lead over Ricardo Di Bartolomeo’s (ITA) GS42R MAN in this 36-boat class. Andreadis, a perennial champion in many classes and events, is hopeful his team’s performance continues for the two remaining days of racing.

ORCi Worlds

Two races are now completed in the ORC International World Championship, and provisional results indicate George Andreadis’ GS 42R Meliti IV leads Class A on scores of 3-1. In Class B, Guiseppe Guiffre’s M37 Low Noise won yet another race to have double-bullets on his scorecard.
Conditions were near-perfect today, with a southeast breeze settling in to 10-15 knots in strength, but with enough shifts and puffs to make for interesting tactics for the fleet. As the detailed Performance Curve Scoring results indicate, racing in Class A is particularly close, with the top five places in Race 2 finishing to within a minute in corrected time.

But in Class B Guiseppe Guiffre's M37 Low Noise has taken a strong initial jump over their 40 rivals by winning double bullets today. Low Noise holds a 4-point lead over nearest rival Alvorosky, a GS 40R owned by Franceso Siculiana.

What Class B may have lacked in their closeness of corrected time results compared to Class A they more than made up for in levels of aggressiveness on the starting line, with two general recalls made on the start of the second race. The 1-knot south-flowing current was also in part to blame.

Tomorrow racing resumes with the start of the coastal offshore race, which is actually scored as two races with a 1.5 point value each as boats are timed at the turning mark and at the finish. The actual course and its length will not be announced until tomorrow so race managers can give the best course possible based on the weather forecast to fill the ORC's mandate to have this race be approximately 24 hours in length and provide a variety in conditions suitable for an offshore World Championship.

Match Cup Sweden

3 July – Quarter final day, brought an early westerly breeze that built throughout the competition. The racing started a little after 10am and by midday the crowds were out in force enjoying the sun and sailing. An on-form Torvar Mirsky (AUS) took on a resurgent Sebastien Col (FRA). With the extra sailing Sebastien Col has seen this week and a tough repechage he clearly had more fight in him that the young Australian and took only three matches to dispatch him to the 5-8 competition and elevate himself to his first Tour semi of the year. Local hero Magnus Holmberg (FRA) was paired with Damien Iehl (FRA). Holmberg, still looking for his first victory at Match Cup Sweden looked very confident going out to race and pressed Iehl hard but a slippery Iehl found a slight edge and eased his way to a 3-0 victory dashing Holmberg’s hopes of a coveted win. The all French duel between Mathieu Richard (FRA) and Philippe Presti (FRA) promised much with Presti gunning hard for his fellow French Team mate. Richard however show amazing control and superior strategy loosing only one match to Presti when Presti managed to gain the right hand advantage. With a final score line of 3-1 and with both Ian William’s and Adam Minoprio out of the Tour points at this event Richard is now in a position to leap to the top of the Tour leaderboard, third or better will secure that. The biggest match of the day taking five matches to decide was the Gilmour vs Berntsson head to head. Gilmour took the first match after loading Berntsson with penalties. Berntsson took the next two matches returning the penalty to Gilmour in both races. Gilmour came out blazing in match four.
In the first half of the 5-8 Competition Torvar Mirsky took on Johnie Berntsson and won. Magnus Holmberg took out Philippe Presti to head for the 5th place race. Victory gave Magnus 5th place and Mirsky 6th. In the other playoff Berntsson took 7th leaving Presti with 8th.
Day 5 of Match Cup Sweden was ladies day with the Women’s semi’s and finals.

5 July 2009: The arrival of a cold front over night brought clouds and cooler conditions for day 7 of Match Cup Sweden. Race Management had to set up a shorter three lap course across the fijord. It was Peter Gilmour who dominated the day winning his semi final and then the final without dropping a match and casting aside the strong challenges from Damien Iehl and then Mathieu Richard. The semi finals got underway just before 09.30 and first up were Peter Gilmour and Damien Iehl. The first match was the closest of their series with Iehl taking an early lead though he was carrying a penalty. Gilmour attacked the next two matches leading Iehl round the course to finish off his semi 3-0. The second semi final pitted the two French Match Racing Teams of Mathieu Richard and Sebastien Col against each other. Col won the first two matches but Richard rallied in the third. The fourth match was all Col but Richard held his nerve to take the win. In the deciding match Richard managed to push Col out to the starboard layline and lead him into the finish.

The petit final featured Seb Col (FRA) against Damien Iehl (FRA) in a first to two point duel. Iehl took the first but only just. Then Col returned the favour in the second to push them into a decider. A fired up Sebastien Col blazed off the line in the third match leading Damien Iehl throughout and taking third place.

Overall Results
1st – Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
2nd – Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Team
3rd – Sebastien Col (FRA) French Team/K-Challenge
4th – Damien Iehl (FRA) French Team
5th – Magnus Homlberg (SWE) Victory Challenge
6th – Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
7th – Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
8th – Philippe Presti (FRA) French Match Racing Team
9th – Peter Wibroe (DEN) Wibroe Sailing Team
10th – Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch
11th – Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
12th – Mattias Rahm (SWE) Stena Bulk Sailing Team
13th – Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onico
14th – Francesco Bruni (ITA) Team Joe Fly Match Race

Alinghi Cat Unveiled

Alinghi, the Defender of the 33rd America's Cup, unveiled its 90ft catamaran this weekend in Villeneuve, Switzerland. This multihull represents a culmination of Swiss multihull heritage and is the first step in Alinghi's development process towards the 33rd America's Cup in February 2010. The boat will be launched by helicopter next week on Lake Geneva before the process of ‘debugging' begins and the boat goes sailing for the first time.

Grant Simmer, design team coordinator, comments on the achievement: “Firstly this boat only exists because of Ernesto Bertarelli's 100% commitment to the team and his support and enthusiasm for this project. The boat demonstrates the talent and creativity of the designers and the skill and dedication of the boatbuilding and technical teams in building a boat of this complexity, facing many different challenges along the way and solving them to pull the project together. Finally, and more recently, the sailing team has defined many of the systems; they have worked with the designers to define the simplest possible solutions for what is already a very complex boat.”

Rolf Vrolijk, chief designer: “People who see the boat for the first time seem surprised at how light and fragile it looks, that is really their first impression. Creating it has been a huge team effort, both in the design and the build groups; it has been a phenomenal team effort to come up with the concept and it really represents the depth of our group. For the moment we have pushed the envelope as much as we would like, this boat is really a base for further development and over the coming weeks we will collect as much information as we can and cross check it with the predictions, this will help us assess what level we are at and then to optimise from there. We have several opportunities and possibilities to change the concept but first we need a solid base to do our studies from.”

Murray Jones, strategist and design team responsible for mast and rig programme: “This multihull is nothing like you've ever seen before in a big boat. It's like a small boat but scaled up. It's a highly finely tuned and engineered boat that's light. It's a piece of art. Alinghi 5 has evolved from the Swiss sailing boats, like the 41ft ‘Le Black'. The basic engineering concept has come from ‘Le Black' but everything else has come from the Alinghi design team, starting from a completely blank sheet of paper, with no preconceived multihull ideas. We started designing it and building it and we've done a lot of sailing and testing on ‘Le Black' and the Décision 35s so we've incorporated some of the ideas we've picked up sailing these boats.

The focus of the concept and the design and build of the boat has been on what we need to sail a Deed of Gift Match: up/down racing of 20miles. We haven't focused on the other team at all, only concentrating on what makes our boat go the fastest. It's been a big job for quite a small design team and we'll see the results soon.”

Information about the boat
Boat type: Catamaran of carbon composite construction

Where built: Alinghi Villeneuve + Décision Corsier, Switzerland

Length waterline: 90ft

Hours to build: 100,000 manhours

Square metres of carbon fibre used: 30,000m2

Match Cup Sweden

Fantastic racing conditions allowed the organizers of Match Cup Sweden to complete the repechage round on Thu 2 July, which saw Johnie Berntsson and Sebastien Col emerge as the final two skippers that will join Mathieu Richard, Peter Gilmour, Torvar Mirsky, Damien Iehl, Magnus Holmberg and Philippe Presti in the Quarterfinal Round, scheduled for Friday.

The repechage round was full of excitement. Johnie Berntsson was on fire winning all three matches including a nail biter against Adam Minoprio. It started badly for Berntsson as he was awarded a penalty just after the start for tacking too close to Minoprio. Berntsson’s plan won out and he crossed the line as Minoprio desperately tried to throw in his penalty turn.

The final Flight of the repechage left Peter Wibroe needing a win and for Berntsson and Col to loose in order to get into a three way tie on 5 points and an increasingly complex count back depending on the results of the other matches in the flight. But nothing could stop either Berntsson or Col who both blitzed their final matches against Bjorn Hansen and World Champion Ian Williams respectively to dive into the quarter final.

It was a disappointing day for Tour leader Adam Minoprio and second placed Ian Williams. Both were swept out of the repechage and out the World Championship.

Richard stepped up and chose fellow countryman Philippe Presti for the quarterfinals. Peter Gilmour shied away from a home country match against Torvar Mirsky and picked Berntsson. Damien Iehl wasted no time, singling out Magnus Holmberg. That left Torvar Mirsky up against Sebastien Col.

Barcelona World Race 2010

French sailor Jean-Pierre Dick, winner of the inaugural around-the-world Barcelona World Race, has confirmed his participation in the second edition. Jean-Pierre Dick is among the elite of skippers with wins in several of the world’s great oceanic races. The start of the next Barcelona World Race will be on 31 December, 2010.

Jean-Pierre Dick will be at the helm of the next Paprec-Virbac, which is presently under construction in New Zealand. It was aboard Paprec Virbac 2 that he secured his sensational victory at Barcelona, establishing the record the skippers will be aiming to beat in eighteen months time: 92 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes and 49 seconds.

Last winter Jean-Pierre Dick took part in the Vendée Globe, once again sailing aboard Paprec Virbac 2. On this occasion he was forced to retire from the race after hitting an unidentified floating object in the Southern Ocean, at which time he was leading the fleet.

Since registration for entries opened on 18th June last, the Barcelona World Race organizers have been working closely with those skippers who have expressed an interest in racing in the next edition. Nine boats took part in the first race, and it is expected that there will be between 10 and 12 on the start line on the last day of 2010, of which at least three should be Spanish entries.

MATCH CUP Sweden

DS 37’s set sail on the shore’s of Sweden’s Marstrand Island 29 JUNE 2009. The beautiful island of Marstrand located an hour north west of Sweden’s second city, Gothenburg, plays host to Match Cup Sweden. It was a good day for the French Teams with all four taking 2 wins. Also starting well was Torvar Mirsky, fresh from his victory at Portugal Match Cup and the runner up here last year. Current World Champion Ian Williams had a solid start to the event and returned a 2-1 scorecard for the day.

30 JUNE 2009 six quarterfinalists determined at Match Cup Sweden. Day Two of Match Cup Sweden, stage 5 of the World Match Racing Tour saw more beautiful weather, more spectators and of course more great match racing. Today saw Peter Gilmour, Damien Iehl and Torvar Mirsky finish first, second and third respectively from Group A. They were joined by French Match Racing Team members Mathieu Richard, Philippe Presti and Magnus Holmberg from Group B. All six now qualify for the quarterfinal round which will start on Friday. The remaining teams from both groups will now go through to the repechage which will be a full round robin where each skipper will race against each other team. The top two skippers from the repechage will then go through to join the other quarter finalists. Day Two was once again dominated by the French with three members of the French Match Racing Team all through to the quarterfinals. Leading the way in Group B with 5 wins was Mathieu Richard, his only loss coming at the hands of countryman Philippe Presti. In Group A Peter Gilmour showed why he has won this event six times, losing only to the last two winners of Match Cup Sweden, Bjorn Hansen and Mattias Rahm. Joining Gilmour direct into the quarter finals was his old rival and local hero Magnus Holmberg.