World Match Race Final

The semi finals pitted a fascinating mix of talents against each other, with four time world match racing champion Peter Gilmour (AUS) Yanmar Racing facing three time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin. Where as in the other semi final pairing it was a case of ‘de ja vous’ Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Team found him self in familiar territory as it was to be a repeat of last years all French affair when he chose fellow country man Damien Iehl (FRA) French Team as his opponent. Ben Ainslie took the first two races in his semi final match, even after clearly losing the start in the first race against Peter Gilmour, only for Gilmour to comeback and tie the score going in to the final fifth match. The racing was tight and Gilmour and his Yanmar Racing crew never gave up they just kept coming back. The final race was a good reflection of the pair’s whole semi final with multiple lead changes and whenever either team was behind, they seemed to have the tenacious ability to get right back into the race. The two teams were overlapped at both the first windward mark and then overlapped again as they rounded at the final bottom mark, leaving the match wide open until the final windward leg, where Gilmour split to the right side of the course with Ainslie headed to the left. The wind gradually shifted to the right and when they converged Ainslie had a tidy lead which he was able to hang to until the finish.

The second semi final, the tasty all French match up of Richard versus Iehl, was also a five match nail biter with neither team willing to lie down and concede defeat. After four feisty encounters the score was two wins a piece with the two teams swapping wins and the semi final looking to go into a fifth match decider. However the umpires handed half a point deduction to Richard’s team as he was adjudged to have fouled Iehl in collision which resulted in damaged to the boats. This meant Richard would have to win two more races to reach the final, as it was first to three points wins, which undoubtedly put a little more pressure onto his team. Although the fifth match was a tense affair, Iehl was able to put Richard away and secure his place in final against Ainslie.

Match Race Germany ended with Ben Ainslie (GBR) and Team Origin taking 1st place in a first to three points final against Damien Iehl (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team. Ainslie drew first blood in the final. He then went on to defeat Iehl in the second match, however Iehl was not going to let his Match Race Germany title go without a fight. He secured the third match only to be out mastered by Ainslie in the fourth and final match. This is the first event for Team Origin on the Tour this year and the win catapults Ainslie to 4th place on the World Tour standings with 25 points. However the 20 points gained for being runner up takes the Frenchman to joint 1st place with fellow country man Mathieu Richard on the Tour standings.

World Match Race Germany

Making his debut on the Tour was Italy’s Francesco Bruni who was keen to make an impression against the well polished Tour regulars but with an undefeated scorecard and a smile on his face it was clear the first day had made a good impression on him. Bruni was able to extend his lead against two of his competitors which secured him the wins, however a tight race with the current world number one ISAF ranked match racer, Seb Col, put his skills to the test and he didn’t disappoint, using a combination of good strategy and boat on boat tactics to over come his opponent.

Mathieu Richard currently number two on the Tour standings and ISAF rankings also faired exceptionally well, winning four of his five matches. After the days racing was finished, an upbeat chief umpire Philippe Gomez was pleased with the successful start to the regatta.

WMRT - Match Race Germany

The picturesque town of Langenaren on the shores of Lake Constance will be flooded with sailors and spectators this week as Match Race Germany opens its doors.

As well as hosting the German leg of the World Match Racing Tour a week long festival has been planned. Live bands will take to the stage and food and entertainment will be on offer. Children will also have the opportunity to get out on the water in Optimist dinghies.

Amongst the competitors lined up for the Tour event are reigning World Champion Ian Williams (GBR) and Bahrain Team Pindar, number 1 ranked ISAF sailor Seb Col (FRA) with the French Team/K-Challenge, current Tour leader Adam Minoprio (NZL) of ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing and four time Match Racing World Champion Peter Gilmour (AUS) backed up by Yanmar Racing. The list of talent doesn’t stop there with Triple Olympic Gold Ben Ainslie and Team Origin starting their assault on the World Championship. Defending Match Race Germany Champion Damien Ihel with his French Match Racing Team is also back to try and retain his crown, a pretty tall order some might think.

Racing will take place a stones throw from the shoreline in Langenargen which is sure to see its share of visitors keen to watch the action and listen to the lively commentary throughout the day. The boat of choice is the Bavaria Match 35.

Match Race Germany is the second stop on the 2009 Tour and has $50,000 in prize money on offer. The next six weeks will see four Tour events tightly packed and by the end of the first week of July half the Tour will be completed. Teams will need to stay focused and fight for every World Championship point.

World Match Racing Tour

After a long day that had it all starting with long delays with no wind, then light and shifty conditions, and ending with a building breeze and waves 24-year old Adam Minoprio (NZL) and his Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Racing team of David Swete, Tom Powrie, and Dan McLean have won the Marseille International Match Race, the first event of the 2009 World Match Racing Tour.

Minoprio had two formidable French obstacles on his path to victory today, starting with Damien Iehl and his French Match Racing Team, who he met in the Semi-Finals. But the series did not start off well, as the Kiwis misjudged the start and were caught over the line early at the gun. Unfazed, Minoprio and team kept their focus in the light and shifty conditions to find a little advantage on the right side of the course and gain back enough to pass Iehl in the middle of the first windward leg.

Showing great composure rather than just reactionary covering tactics, the Kiwis let Iehl take the right while they sailed into a little more pressure they saw to the left, and promptly extended their one length lead to three. It was never less than this for the remainder of this first match.

As the weak sea breeze continued to weaken, Minoprio and team once again were behind at the start in the second Semi-Final match, but managed to roll over Iehl just before the bottom mark. The two teams split, the Kiwis left and the French right, but Iehl got stuck in a windless hole, allowing Minoprio to sail in to an insurmountable 8-length lead at the second top mark, and from there it was on to the Finals.

Minoprio was now up against Mathieu Richard and his French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit, who had just come off a tough 2-1 series of his own against another antipodal young gun 23-year old Torvar Mirsky (AUS). While the teams switched boats, race managers switched the course around towards a late-building westerly Mistral, bringing with it some choppy wind waves on top of a 1-metre swell.

Αs the breeze started dying, and shifted even further right with the setting sun, starboard tack became difficult as the boats slammed head-on into waves often bigger than the wind. This put a premium on proper gear-shifting, and Minoprio and team did this well when it counted. After taking early control off the line to leeward of Richard at the start they simply extended away from the French to take and early lead and never looked back.

Meanwhile in Petite-Final action, Mirsky avenged his loss to Richard in the Semi's by defeating Iehl in straight matches 2-0.

Final Results
1st Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
2nd Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit
3rd Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
4th Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team
5th Ed Baird (USA) Alinghi
6th Sébastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge
7th Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza
8th Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
9th Philippe Presti (FRA) French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit
10th Ian Ainslie (RSA) Team Proximo
11th Pierre Antoine Morvan (FRA) French Match Racing Team
12th Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onboard

Marseille International Match Race

An impressively strong field of Tour Card holders and qualifying teams line up for this week's 2009 Tour season opener at the Marseille International Match Race. The newest event of the ten-stage 2009 World Match Racing Tour will also be its first as 12 teams prepare for Marseille International Match Race, held over 10-15 March and hosted by the Yachting Club Pointe Rouge (YCPR). The assembled field is one of the strongest yet seen, lured by the opportunity to compete against the best talent in the sport, valuable Tour points earned towards the World Championship, and a piece of the €50,000 prize purse.

With three-metre seas and blustery 25-35 knot Mistral conditions in the harbor, Principal Race Officer Gerard Bosse and his race management team from the Yachting Club de la Pointe Rouge decided to postpone the start of the Marseille International Match Race until tomorrow. The 12 teams assembled for this first event of the World Match Racing Tour stayed ashore to rest up and keep their powder dry, as tomorrow will likely be a full day to try and get through Stage One of the competition, a single Round Robin pitting all teams against each other once.

World Sailor of the Year

ISAF and Rolex are proud to announce that the female and male winners of the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards 2008 are: Alessandra Sensini (ITA) and Ben Ainslie (GBR).

Ben Ainslie made history once again this evening as the first person ever to have won the Award three times in his career.

"It's so difficult to describe my feelings in this moment," said Sensini upon being named the female ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year. "It's an honour to stand on the same stage as the best sailors in the world and receive this recognition. I remember seeing the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and dreaming of being on the podium with my country's flag. I've now completed 5 Olympics, that's 20 years of adapting to new technologies and changes and to be here now, tonight, is so important and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart."

"Like Alessandra I would like to give a big thank you from my heart to everyone who made this happen," Ainslie said, gesturing to his parents and his sister who joined him at the Award ceremony. When asked what his plans are for the future Ainslie's ambitions were clear: "The next goal for Britain is to try for the America's Cup- we have a great British team. There are a lot of America's Cup heroes in this room and we hope to see you on the water in the near future," he added with a smile.

Troia Portugal Match Cup

After yet another picture-perfect day of match race sailing off the Troia resort venue, three French teams have emerged among the top four of the standings after 13 flights of racing at the seventh stage of the World Match RacingTour. ISAF number one-ranked Mathieu Richard (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit continued their winning ways adding three more wins to his score card, and losing only once to team mate Damien Iehl (FRA), who lies in fourth. And another team mate, Sebastian Col (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge, has had an even better day, winning five matches to earn a 6-1 score to lie in third among the field of twelve teams at Troia Portugal Match Cup. The day’s racing started leisurely, with the westerly seabreeze filling in about midday to a perfect 8-10 knots before shifting around a bit as PRO Miguel Allen and his race management team did their best to adjust the courses. A strong ebb tidal flow cutting left to right across the course area also made for interesting tactics on both upwind and downwind legs, with long starboard tack beats and early gybes favoring those who could take and hold this position. A brief delay and course readjustment in the late afternoon allowed racing to continue in a new fresh westerly, with genoas traded for jibs in the last two flights.

World Sailor of the Year

Nominations are now invited for the 2008 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards, the most prestigious award of recognition in the sport of sailing. The list of nominees and winners since the first presentation in 1994 is an exceptional roll call of the world's top sailors from all disciplines of the sport.

There is only one male and one female ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year, who will not only win the coveted Rolex timepiece and trophy, but receive true recognition of their achievement from their peers across the world.

Nominations can be made by anyone and the only criteria are that sailors must have performed an "outstanding achievement in the sport" during the qualifying period of 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2008. Nominations should be sent in to ISAF by 10.00hrs (UTC) on Friday 5 September 2008 on the official form which can be found via www.sailing.org/worldsailor

A shortlist will be drawn up by ISAF from all of the nominations received at the ISAF Secretariat by the deadline and those sailors will go on to become the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year 2008 Nominees. The 126 ISAF Member National Authorities will then vote for one male and one female sailor who they believe merit the Awards.

Preventing Collisions at Sea

The Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, or COLREGs, was subject to lively debate at the recent 54th meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency specializing in marine safety. At the meetings of the Safety of Navigation (NAV) Sub-Committee of IMO it was decided not to accept proposals from Italy for fundamental changes to COLREGS, a position supported by ISAF.

The proposals were contested in written and oral submissions by the delegations of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), IAIN (International Association of Institutes of Navigation) and New Zealand. Thirty more delegations spoke at the meeting attended by 95 delegations.

The initiative from Italy, initially tabled in 2006, aimed to improve safety at sea by defining a new class of vessel to be called “pleasure craft” to be required to keep clear of shipping in many circumstances not envisaged in the present COLREGS. But it was argued that the proposed rules would cause confusion and the proposed new light and sound signals would impose considerable and unwarranted expense on owners.

Whilst the number of reported collisions between small craft and large ships was small it was accepted that the lack of a common format made it difficult to analyse relevant statistics. The development of a recognized format is likely to follow.

Attention was drawn by ISAF and others to the accommodation under existing COLREGs of local schemes for traffic control and the separation of small and large craft, as effectively practiced in the port areas of, for example, the Solent, Harwich, Rotterdam and Sydney.

The IMO meeting welcomed the success of New Zealand’s national education programme involving 400,000 leisure craft. A number of ISAF Member National Authorities (MNAs) organize similar schemes. The promotion of voluntary training on a wider basis, with the co-operation of ISAF, is expected to follow.

The use of AIS-B by small craft was noted as another means by which small craft and large ships could become better aware of each other’s presence, helping them to assess the possible risk of collision and to take appropriate early avoiding action.

It was part of ISAF’s case that when possible a small craft should avoid putting herself in such a position that under COLREGS a large ship will be required to alter course or speed to avoid a collision.

The ISAF International Regulations Commission, representing ISAF at IMO, works on behalf of all leisure sailors on a wide range of safety, environmental and other issues at an international level.

ISAF Offshore microsite - www.sailing.org/offshore

ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards

November is known as the time of the International Sailing Federation's (ISAF) Annual Conference and the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards.

The Awards are recognized as one of the highest honours a sailor can receive in recognition of his/her outstanding achievements and this year's official award ceremony took place last night, November 6th in Estoril, Portugal at the Penha Longa monastery. Out of all of this year's fantastic nominees only two could walk away with the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year titles, and the exceptional winners for 2007 are Claire Leroy (FRA) and Ed Baird (USA), making this night a true tribute to match racing.

Claire Leroy has been the # 1 skipper on the ISAF Women's World Match Race Rankings since May 2005. Like many professionals, sailing has been a consistent part of Leroy's life since her childhood.

American Ed Baird took home the male 2007 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award for his incredible achievements as helmsman aboard Alinghi, winner of the 32nd America's Cup.

ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame

Last night (5 November) in Estoril, Portugal, the International Sailing Federation announced Paul Elvström, Sir Robin Knox-Johnson, Dame Ellen Macarthur, Olin Stephens, Barbara Kendall and Éric Tabarly as the first six inductees for the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame.

Many of sailing's star names together with members of royalty were in Estoril to celebrate the achievements of the six inductees at a gala Dinner and Presentation, one of the centrepiece occasions of ISAF's Centenary celebrations. Over the past 100 years, sailing has seen many heroes and legends, and the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame has been created to recognize the achievements of those who have made the sport what it is today.

His Majesty King Constantine, ISAF President of Honour and Honorary Chairman of the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame, said: "The six inductees are all legends of the sailing world and are heroes to thousands of sailors around the world. They represent the very highest level of achievement across various aspects of sailing.

"One hundred years of sailing has created many worthy sailors, but tonight we are here to recognise a few that have made sailing their life. Their achievement has contributed to enhancing, promoting and evolving the sport of sailing, but overall they have amazed, influenced and inspired both on and off the water."

The inductees were presented with the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame trophy, - designed by renowned Portuguese artist, Cristina Leiria - by His Majesty King Constantine and ISAF President Göran Petersson. One of the sailing world's best loved commentators, PJ Montgomery, presided over the Awards ceremony.

Paul Elvström, Robin Knox-Johnson, Ellen MacArthur and Olin Stephens were in Estoril to receive their awards, whilst Jacqueline Tabarly, widow of the late Éric Tabarly, accepted his award. Barbara Kendall accepted her award from PJ Montgomery on film.

ISAF President Göran Petersson paid tribute to the ISAF Centenary and to the array of stars, sailing celebrities and members of Royalty who had gathered for the launch on the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame. "I'd like to thank you for being here, and I'd like to extend this thanks to everyone - our friends and fellow sailors - tonight is a wonderful celebration to share with you all. 2007 has certainly been a year to remember," he said.

The Awards nights was held at the spectacular Estoril Casino and generously sponsored by Portugal Tourism, Estoril Tourism and Cascais Municipality.

The ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame has been launched in ISAF's Centenary year to celebrate sailing achievement, greatness and contribution to the sailing world.

Nominations for inductees were submitted by ISAF members, with the final decision confirmed by the ISAF Executive Committee. The Honorary Chairman for the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame is His Majesty King Constantine, who is also an ISAF President of Honour.