Troia Portugal Match Cup

Light fluky breeze and strong tides delayed the start of racing today in Day Three of Troia Portugal Match Cup, with the resumption of the Round Robin not commencing until mid-afternoon and extending right up to sunset. But once the late seabreeze did finally fill, it provided the opportunity for great match race action in all flights, with multiple lead changes, penalties, and early starts keeping the assembled shore side spectators on edge. Once the dust settled, it became clear the French Match Racing teams led by Mathieu Richard on Team French Spirit and Sebastian Col on K-Challenge were continuing their dominance of the event, with Richard on a nearly undefeated record of 9 wins in 10 matches sailed, and Col on 7 wins in 9 matches sailed. Other teams that excelled today included Magnus Holmberg (SWE) and his Victory Challenge team, winning 4 of their 5 matches including a successful re-sail match from Flight 9 against Paolo Cian.

X35 Worlds

With a fresh breeze and clear skies at Cala Galera completed the last day of racing of the X-35 World Championship, organized by the Yacht Club Italiano and the Circolo Nautico.

The fleet of competitors cast off from the quays of Cala Galera and headed out to sea at 10.30. The excellent weather conditions, with an east-northeasterly wind of between 16 and 18 knots and swell waves permitted a closely fought first heat that started at 11.15.

The race was dominated by three boats that finished well ahead of the rest of the fleet: Mike Richmond and his British crew in Cool Runnings crossed the line first, ahead of Celox skippered by Achim Griese of Germany (silver medallist in the Star class at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984) and by Raimondo Cappa's Sberressa with Francesco De Angelis and Lars Borgstrom aboard.

The wind dropped slightly, settling at around 12-14 knots for the second race of the day that got underway just after 13.00. It was won by the Dutch crew aboard Nicholas Bol's Quantum Racing Holland, followed by Alberto Signorini's L'Irascibile with Tommaso Chieffi calling the tactics and by Pietro Nicolini's Ave Maria.

At the end of the ten races held from Wednesday 24 September through to today Saturday 27 September, Alberto Signorini's L'Irascibile was crowned X-35 World Champion 2008.

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.

Troia Portugal Match Cup

Mathew Richard from the French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit, the number one ISAF ranked sailor in the world, continued his excellent form after winning the recent World Tour event in Switzerland with a storming day at the Troia Portugal Match Cup, winning four of his five matches on the opening day.

Richard defeated Manual Weiller from Spain, then local hero Alvaro Marinho in a close match, Kiwi Adam Minoprio, and rising Aussie star Torvar Mirsky, finalist in Match Cup Sweden, who had his wings clipped by a masterful French display in the first flight of the day. However, this seemed to only spur on the young antipodian, who went on to match Richard’s winning ways in the shifty 6-8 knot breeze, taking the next four matches. In his final race of the six man group, Mirsky was brilliant, shutting out Manual Weiller in the closing seconds. Racing started mid-afternoon after a misty, breathless morning, the wind gradually filling from the west into the mouth of the bay into which the Troia peninsular juts, south of Setubal near Lisbon. The second group managed only one flight before both the wind and the light faded, with reigning World Match Racing Tour Champion and current leader, Ian Williams from the UK, winning the battle of the Brits, taking down newcomer Nick Cherry in his very first Tour race. Frenchman Seb Col again showed his class having won the biggest event of the year in Korea, he defeated the hugely experienced Magnus Holmberg from Sweden in a spirited opening match. Meanwhile another America’s Cup veteran, Paolo Cian from Italy kicked off his challenge for the Troia Portugal Match Cup by beating Bjorn Hansen from Sweden, with a stunning sunset rounding off the day.

Alinghi wins the iShares Cup

With five European venues and 79 races behind them, Alinghi celebrates the iShares Cup season win in Amsterdam! Ed Baird, Rodney Ardern, Lorenzo Mazza and Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen won the iShares Cup season trophy today as well as the Amsterdam event trophy, making this their fourth consecutive event win. The team sailed their first race on an eXtreme 40 in May in Lugano, Switzerland, with mixed results and a capsize, but with these early learning curve hiccoughs out of the way, the crew settled in to a steady winning streak that saw victory in Hyères, France; Cowes, UK; Kiel, Germany and today in Amsterdam. This iShares Cup season is part of a much wider picture for the America’s Cup Defender, Alinghi, and is just one of several multihull learning platforms that the sailing team has been focusing on this summer. The Defender faces the possibility of a Deed of Gift (DoG) match, something currently being pursued by the American challenger BMW Oracle Racing in the New York Court of Appeals, and so the team is preparing for all eventualities. Alinghi is continuing to build the DoG boat in Switzerland and will continue to hone its multihull sailing skills with the Décision 35s on Lake Geneva (where the team is currently leading the Challenge Julius Baer with one event to go) and the 41footer ‘Alinghi Black’ in Valencia. In parallel the team cannot neglect its monohull training and continues to race on the Vrolijk IRC66 Numbers and the maxi yacht Alfa Romeo and with an eye on the team’s vision of a multi-challenge America’s Cup, Brad Butterworth, Alinghi team skipper, is organising challenger meetings this autumn to plan for the future.

MedCup Circuit 2008 Completed

Terry Hutchinson and the crew of the American boat Quantum Racing won the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008 with a day to spare in Portimao, Portugal when only one race could be completed on the penultimate day of the Portugal Trophy Regatta. As the breeze fell away to force the abandonment of the second race on Friday, Race 7, and then precluded any further competition it meant Quantum Racing had built a n unassaibale lead of 52.2 points over second placed Bribon with no more than three races possible Saturday for the 15 boat fleet.

Terry Hutchinson and the crew of Quantum Racing on Saturday added the Portugal Trophy to the regatta wins in Mallorca and Sardinia which contributed to their overall victory in the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008. After winning the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008 title with a day to spare, Quantum Racing added victory in the Trophy of Portugal to cap their triumphant five months long season over which they won three of the six Audi MedCup Circuit regattas.

Steered by skipper Terry Hutchinson (USA), who started putting the winning campaign together just less than one year ago and has raced on the circuit over each of the three previous years, Quantum Racing won in Cagliari on Sardinia in Italy, at the Breitling Regatta on Mallorca, Spain and now in Portimao on Portugal’s Algarve coast.

A first and a fourth placed today for Quantum Racing pushed them to the top of the overall Portugal Trophy standings, winning by four points from Matador (ARG) who were let down by a disappointing 11th in the first race. Winds were light again and expired entirely in the late afternoon but the re-scheduled morning start allowed two decent windward -leeward contests to be completed. Quantum’s sharp starting and acute tactics were key to their victory in the first race, just holding off Bribón by seven seconds.

MedCup Portugal

Without leaving the dock in Marina Portimao Quantum Racing took a big step closer to the endgame, winning the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008, when the double points Coastal Race was cancelled due to the lack of wind. Basic arithmetic, conventional logic and the wind as per current forecast for the final two days of the season points to a maximum of 75 points to be scored, completing each of a possible five races left this season, as things stand. Quantum Racing (USA) have 45.2 points in hand over second placed Bribón (ESP). In third place Matador (ARG) are 24.8 points behind Bribón and two points clear of Artemis (SWE) whose slender chance of retaining the 2007 MedCup title that Torbjorn Tornqvist (SWE) and his crew won in Hyères a year ago were wafted away by the gentle breeze today.

MedCup - Portugal Trophy

Leaving the Portimao race course having dropped six points off their Circuit lead it was hardly crisis time for Quantum Racing when they finished 10th in Race 6 of the Portugal Trophy Regatta - only their third double points score of 50 races so far of the Audi MedCup season - but the American boat did cede the regatta lead to Paul Cayard and the Spanish America’s Cup team on the green hulled El Desafio.

In light and shifty winds, between five and eight knots, Desafio posted a seventh and a second place to lead the second placed Argentinian boat Matador by a single point on the Portugal Trophy regatta leaderboard.

Alberto Roemmers’ Matador crew not only had the best day in the fifteen boat fleet, winning the first race and finishing second to Platoon powered by Team Germany in the second contest, but they overtook Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis, to now hold third place on the overall Audi MedCup Circuit standings going in to Thursday’s crucial double points coastal race.
A delay was required until the wind spread more uniformly across the course area but there were still patches of lighter pressure and changes in wind direction through both races to challenge the brains of the afterguards. It was the same pair of boats which lead to the windward mark in both races. Platoon Powered by Team Germany with Jochen Schuemann steering and Rod Dawson on tactics and Matador which is steered by Guillermo Parada (ARG) with Francesco Bruni (ITA) as tactician. Matador eased through Platoon on the first run, getting a little lower and deeper into better breeze first and went on to win comfortably by 54 seconds, while the Platoon managed to make their early lead stick in the second race, crossing the finish line 41 seconds up on second placed Matador.

With their local hero 1996 Olympic bronze medallist Hugo Rochas calling tactics, there was a promising result for the local Portuguese crew on Pedro Mendonca"s Bigamist 6 when they finished fourth. The 2005 Reichel Pugh design is now the oldest boat in the 15 boat fleet but lies a very respectable 11th overall, gaining one place in the regatta standings today.

Portugal Trophy Regatta

The American boat Quantum Racing moved 11 points closer to winning the Audi MedCup Circuit today as Audi Q8 and Synergy had their best set of races of the season so far, Audi Q8 lie second on the same points as regatta leaders Quantum Racing. In the moderate breezes, 11-18 knots mainly from the North West, the racing was close and even. As the Russian crew on Synergy became the 12th different team to take a winning gun on the Circuit this season, triumphing in Race 2 in fine style, so too Riccardo Simoneschi’s Audi Sailing Team powered by Q8 (ITA) came good with their best day yet, scoring a ninth then two second places to lie second sharing the same overall points as Quantum Racing. And if Synergy had not let slip their third place which they held until the final 400 metres of the last race of the day, they too would have been on 13 points.

Portugal Trophy Regatta

After an interesting, exacting and even-sided practice race in perfect light wind conditions and warm sunshine on the Algarve's Atlantic waters off Portimao, Portugal, the stage is set for the final regatta of the Audi MedCup Circuit, the Portugal Trophy regatta. On the water breezes just reached double figures, 10 knots at most, but it was evident that all crews were pushing hard at each of the practice starts. Only after two general recalls and under the hollow threat of a black flag did the practice race get under way. Confidence and morale took a jump aboard Riccardo Simoneschi’s Audi powered by Q8 (ITA) after they took the winning gun. With Charlie McKee (USA) making the tactical calls reinforced by the thoughts of Thierry Peponnet (FRA), the Italian boat managed to overhaul Spain’s El Desafio on the last run, getting into a strand of better breeze, winning by three boat lengths.