Hyeres Completed

It was neither particularly pretty nor was it winning ugly, but Russell Coutts, skippering the crew of owner-helm Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis, finally lifted the Breitling MedCup trophy on the final day of his third season competing on the world’s leading fleet racing circuit. A nervous tenth followed by a solid fifth was enough for Coutts and the hand- picked team on Artemis to clinch the 2007 Breitling MedCup Circuit. In a light easterly breeze with a 17 points cushion to protect Artemis made a shaky start to the first of two final windward leeward races. Forced to the wrong side of the left favoured track Coutts, Tornqvist and team rounded the first windward mark 13th, with only one boat behind them. They recovered two places on the second beat, and one on the final run. The second race start went marginally better, but with four boats recalled for jumping the start gun at the pin end of the line, Artemis effectively had the title secured by the first windward mark. With Swedish businessman Tornqvist driving the 2007 Judel Vrolijk design, and at least six present or past America’s Cup winners among the afterguard and crew, Artemis won the 2007 title by just eight points after 32 windward leeward races and six coastal races over the five series regattas this season. Winning the Hyères Trophy, Artemis became the fifth different boat to win a regatta overall this season after Bribon in Alicante, CxG Caixa Galicia in at Breitling Regatta, Siemens Matador in Copa del Rey, Palma and the outgoing 2006 champions Valle Romano Mean Machine in Portimao, Poretugal.

Trophee BPE Transatlantic Race

The close race continues in the Beneteau Figaro one design class Trophee BPE transatlantic race. Already, the single-handed sailors have been racing their small Figaros constantly for more than two and a half weeks.

The match race continues between Thomas Rouxel and Charles Caudrelier, still only separated by 1.3 miles at the front of the fleet. However they still face a real threat to both their north and south. Overnight last year's Solitaire winner Nicolas Troussel has pulled up to third place and with the easterly trades wind airflow, of all the competitors is lining up to have the hottest angle into the finsh at Marie Galante. It also appears that at present he has more pressure - having averaged more than a knot faster than the leaders over the last four hours.

Among the most northern group Marc Emig has been making good progress too and this morning is 41.7 miles off the lead compared with 63 miles at the same time yesterday.

The forecast is still showing the wind to be getting lighter on the right side of the race course, so it will be interesting to see if Emig is still able to make gains over the next 24 hours.

Yacht Carrier at Monaco Yacht Show

Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT) has released the schedule for its newly launched super ship, the 686-foot (209 meters)Yacht Express, and has plans to make a special visit in September to the Monaco Yacht Show. The ship is the largest vessel of its kind in the world with a semi-submersible dock bay that allows yachts of any size to be safely floated on and off as cargo. It was added to the DYT fleet to provide yacht owners with faster and more frequent delivery of their luxury power and sailing yachts across the oceans.

Built in Yantai, China, Yacht Express has an official delivery date of May, 2007. In June, it will travel within China to Shanghai, then to Kaohsiung, Taiwan before making its way to Brisbane, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand. August will mark its first transpacific voyage, from Auckland to Ensenada, Mexico. After a run to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the ship will cross the Atlantic, reaching Toulon on September 13 and leaving Toulon for Monaco on the 16th, arriving in Monaco on the 17th. It will remain moored offshore during the Monaco Yacht Show's run from Tuesday, September 17 through Saturday, September 22, and depart the next day for Genoa.