iShares Cup 2008

The final pieces of the jigsaw are now in place for the 2008 iShares Cup Sailing Series. The venue for the German leg of the European tour has been confirmed as Kiel, on the Baltic Sea, and Tommy Hilfiger has been announced as the ninth entry in the series.

Kiel, in northern Germany, is the third new venue for the 2008 iShares Cup and home to the fourth event on the circuit - the Extreme 40 fleet will race there from 29-31 August, offering guests and spectators a chance to get a great close-up view of the fast-paced iShares Cup racing.

The bustling city has a strong maritime history, and lies on the busiest artificial waterway in the world, the Kiel Canal. Every June the city holds Kiel Week, the largest sailing event in Europe, which combines dinghy and yacht racing with a festival of ships, music and fireworks. The event welcomes about three million visitors annually, who perch on the sea walls and rocky coastal defences to watch around ! 2,000 boats ranging from massive tall ships to racing yachts and Olympic dinghy classes. The iShares Cup racecourses will be held in the same fantastic sailing amphitheatre.

Artemis Transat

The big news today certainly is the official entry of Steve White aboard Spirit of Weymouth in the IMOCA Class taking the number of IMOCA skippers to thirteen. Having completed his qualifying passage, the young Brit takes his place amongst a very impressive lineup of all the greatest names in singlehanded sailing with only four days remaining until the start on Sunday, 11th May at 1400 BST. On the other hand, Patrice Carpentier will finally not be at the start in Plymouth on Sunday in the Class40 category which leaves the Class40 with 11 skippers on the start line.

Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race

Hull & Humber has won Race 9 of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race, crossing the revised finish line at 2022 GMT on Tuesday 6 May. It is the team¹s third individual stage victory of the 35,000-mile race which is being contested by ten internationally-backed 68-foot yachts.

Hull & Humber was one of a group of boats which also included New York, Qingdao, Nova Scotia and Uniquely Singapore who have been matching each other move for move in the bid for a podium position and the all-important points to add to their overall tally and for much of the race from Santa Cruz several of them have been within sight of each other.

Qingdao was second across the finish line at 2313 GMT, followed nine minutes later by New York in third place at 2322 GMT.

The results are provisional until all the skippers have submitted their race declarations for scrutiny by the race committee. If the results remain as they are Hull & Humber¹s victory will take them into overall first position, one and a half points ahead of second placed New York.

Because of the lighter than expected winds that the fleet has been experiencing since leaving the Californian port, and the forecast for the coming days, yesterday the Race Committee made the decision to shorten the course for Race 9, in accordance with the Sailing Instructions. The finish line is now off the coast of Mexico at ŒGate Angel¹, one of several pre-determined gates included in the Race 9 course. The rest of the fleet is expected to cross the finish line over the next 36-48 hours and will then motor sail towards Panama, with the arrival of the first yachts anticipated on 13 May.

The Green Team

The Green Team celebrated the completion of their new Volvo Open 70 with a "Thank You China Event" at McConaghy Boats in Zhuhai China. Construction started in October and has been completed on schedule, with the boat due to leave on a ship bound for the UK on 8th May.

The boat has been constructed in a facility located approximately 60 miles north of Hong Kong. The mainly Australian led team at McConaghyÌs has been working alongside American designers Reichel Pugh and structural engineers Applied Structural Analysis Ltd (ASTA) from the UK, as well as a 90 strong Chinese build team. A total of 40,000 man hours have gone into the completion of this boat.

The 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain on 4 October 2008, it will for the first time, take in ports in Asia. Spanning some 39,000 nautical miles, stopping at around 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.

Audi MedCup

With just one week to go to the first race of the season for the AUDI MedCup Circuit, activity amongst all teams in preparation for racing is at an all time high.

The 2008 racing season is opening up all over Europe. Amongst the world’s racing fleets next in line to start competition is the AUDI MedCup Fleet of TP52s, who will stretch their legs in earnest in just one week’s time on the waters of Alicante, Spain.

And with just one week to go a little further up the Spanish coast in Valencia a flurry of new boat commissioning is still going on. Whereas plenty of boats from last year’s season are revelling in the ability to be ready on time, practicing and testing new equipment and sails, many other teams are fighting the clock to be, not only ready but, competitive from the first race.
In previous years the MedCup Circuit featured the ability to drop several races across the season. The net result was that it wasn’t a disaster if a team was late or not fully competitive at the beginning of the season because discarding the worst results would help the overall score.
This year, for the first time, the AUDI MedCup Circuit does not allow any discards at all. Every race – and there could be as many as 60 - will count. Starting the season slowly will not be a possibility for any team with the overall AUDI MedCup Circuit trophy as an objective.
Of last season’s teams that are ready on time and ready to race both Caixa Galicia and Bribón are amongst the favourites to be fast on Day One in Alicante. Both boats have been extensively modified over the winter, Caixa Galicia with a new bow and new mast and Bribón with a new stern and mast.

Artemis Transat

The Artemis Transat race fleet of 13 IMOCA Open 60 boats and 11 Class40 boats have arrived at Sutton Harbour, Plymouth and so have the crowds - an estimated 25,000 of them over the opening weekend. Plenty of attractions bring thousands of visitors to the Race Village and the Ocean Racing ! Exhibition that forms part of the education programme. The inaugural B arbican Jazz & Blues Festival sits at the heart of the cultural programme with top-line acts performing throughout the start week. ECOVER 3 skipper, Mike Golding, will officially start the 13th edition of the race from onboard the Royal Navy's HMS Argyll on Sunday 11th May at 1400 BST.

Congressional Cup

After winning 15 of his 18 round robin contests, Brady drove through the sailoffs with a steady and steely determination in sweeping local pride Scott Dickson and Sweden’s Johnie Berntsson--who was coming off seven consecutive wins—in two straight races each in the semifinals and finals, respectively.

Berntsson had swept France’s Philippe Presti, 2-0, in the other semifinal, and Presti took the measure of Dickson in the consolation final.

Brady, a New Zealand native who has lived in Annapolis, Md., since the mid-90s, won his first two Congressional Cups in 1996 and ‘97 when he was only 22 and 23, then his third in 2006 after building a professional sailing career of America’s Cups and various ocean races.

Brady collected $10,000 of the $41,000 prize pot. Simon Minoprio won $1,000 for winning the fleet race for those who didn’t reach the sailoffs.

The 10 six-man crews are sailing Catalina 37s owned by the Long Beach Yacht Club Sailing Foundation, rotating boats daily.

Final standings

1. Gavin Brady, New Zealand, 15-3 (14.5 points)
2. Johnie Berntsson, Sweden, 13-5.
3. Scott Dickson, U.S., 12-6
4. Philippe Presti, France, 10-8
5. Simon Minoprio, New Zealand, 10-8
6. Damien Iehl, France, 8-10
7. Dave Perry, U.S., 8-10
8. Andrew Arbuzov, Russia, 6-12
9. Pierre-Antoine Morvan, France, 6-12
10. Chris VanTol, U.S., 2-16 (.75 points)
*—-Deduction for causing excess damage.

Clipper 07-08

With the Californian sun shining and ten knots of breeze from the north west, Race 9 of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race series began at 1300 local (2000 GMT). Uniquely Singapore was the first of the ten-internationally sponsored yachts across the line, closely followed by their Asian rivals, Qingdao.

With a start line positioned just half a mile due south of Santa Cruz Harbour, where the Clipper fleet has been berthed for the duration of the nine-day stopover, the beginning of the 3,116 nautical mile race to Panama provided a great spectacle for the crowds gathered along West Cliff Drive, Lighthouse Point and Santa Cruz Wharf. A small flotilla of yachts from the Santa Cruz Yacht Club, the host for the crews during their stay, was also in Monteray Bay to wave off the teams as they headed south.

As they jostled for position at the start, the majority of the teams chose to fly their Yankee One headsail, the largest of their compliment of headsails, with Liverpool 08, westernaustralia2011.com and Jamaica opting for their smaller Yankee Two as they crossed the line in third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Choosing an inshore course Hull & Humber were next across the line followed by Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper, New York, Nova Scotia and Durban 2010 and Beyond. As the fleet rounded the windward mark and headed out of Monteray Bay, Qingdao had managed to move ahead of Uniquely Singapore and with the winds remaining constant Liverpool 08 and westernaustralia2011.com were preparing to change up to their larger headsails.

"It's great to see all ten boats racing again," says Joff Bailey, Race Director. ³The teams have a wild downwind ride for the first half of this race which will see them achieving some great speeds and they will make rapid progress south. They will all try to make as direct a route possible, parallel to the coast, but at the same time trying not to get too close as the effect of the land my reduce wind strength. The trick along this initial part of the race is to try not to damage too many of the downwind sails. Several boats have recently been penalised for damaging sails and once the Race Committee considers the repairs and replacements in Santa Cruz further penalty points may be awarded. Joff continues, "As the fleet approaches the southern tip of Baja, California, the winds will start to reduce and become much less stable in direction. At this point the direct route along the coast is heavily favoured in terms of the least miles. However, fickle and inconsistent winds closer in may see some teams opting to sail further offshore in order to benefit from better wind speeds and direction." During the Californian stopover the crews of the ten teams, representing 26 different nationalities, were able to take some time out to enjoy what the region has to offer. Those who stayed in the local area took in local attractions such as the Santa Cruz Boardwalk amusement park where they swapped the roller coaster ride of the Pacific Ocean for one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the US, The Big Dipper. Others headed to the city of San Francisco to take in the historic sites of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Fisherman¹s Wharf.

The first of the Clipper teams, Uniquely Singapore, arrived in Santa Cruz on 16 April, achieving their first win of the Clipper 07-08 series in Race 8 from Hawaii. The final two yachts, Durban 2010 and Beyond and westernaustralia2011.com, arrived a week later following a delayed departure from Honolulu due to essential work on their new rigs, after both yachts were dismasted in the previous race from Qingdao, China. The fleet's arrival in Santa Cruz marked the first time the biennial Clipper Round the World Yacht Race has stopped on the west coast of the US in its 12-year history.

Commodore of the Santa Cruz Yacht Club Brett Grippenstraw said, "We've really enjoyed having you guys here, the Clipper crews and the Race Team, and we¹ve had a great time and made a lot of new friends. Hopefully we can find a sponsor for the next race and get you back here in two years time, we¹d love to see you again."

The Californian stopover of Clipper 07-08 coincided with the Strictly Sail Pacific boat show, in Oakland, California, where Crew Recruitment Manager David Cusworth gave several presentations to Californians interested in taking part in the next edition of the Clipper Race.

44th Congressional Cup

For a day that opened with what his opponent called "a big crash," Gavin Brady's Wednesday turned out fine in the Long Beach Yacht Club's 44th Congressional Cup presented by Acura.

In fact, the three New Zealand sailors in the fleet have no complaints after the first of two round-robins leading to Saturday's championship sailoffs. Brady, rolling with eight consecutive wins after an opening loss, leads the Kiwi clan at 8-1, followed by local resident Scott Dickson (6-3) alone in second place and Simon Minoprio in a three-way tie for third at 5-4.

But Brady's win against Antoine-Pierre Morvan wasn't pretty. In the pre-start sequence he rammed the Frenchman's transom and his spinnaker pole hooked onto the rival's luff line, leaving the boats temporarily inseparable. Brady drew a penalty, but built enough of a lead to erase it with a turn at the end of the race.

It was a lively day with unusually strong southeast winds of 15 knots that shifted 60 degrees right and faded to 6 in mid-afternoon---the opposite pattern of normal Long Beach sea breezes.

Dickson, the leader coming in at 5-0, lost three of his four races, although he was in position to win two of them. Dickson saved a lead when Morvan carried him a couple of hundred yards past the windward mark, but then lost it, and the race, when he momentarily lost control while leading Morvan downwind.

2008 Audi MedCup

The 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit consists of six events in four countries and could see as many as 60 races sailed by the end of the season. In a no discard race circuit, meaning that for the first time every race counts, extra emphasis is being placed by teams on their ability to finish consistently well and the reliability of their boats. Equipment failure and retirement will prove costly on points – as will tactical risk taking on the race course. Never before has a 60-race series been organised for a fleet of this calibre featuring the very best sailors in the world, be they Olympic medallists, America’s Cup winners, owner-drivers or One Design champions.

20 teams from 12 nations are now in the final three-week countdown to the opening event of the 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit to be run in Alicante, Spain (12 - 17 May). In Alicante, as at all subsequent events, teams will race a five-day regatta featuring as many as nine inshore races and one coastal race.

The 20-boat fleet is split between eight brand new yachts, yachts that are currently in the process of being commissioned and made race ready, and 12 teams and their yachts that represent the best from previous years of the MedCup Circuit. Many of this latter group have extensively modified their yachts over the winter, with new bow sections, rigs, appendages and deck layouts. But significantly many of this latter group have also been training hard and involved in race and speed practice sessions in the pre-season so as to take maximum advantage of their competitive situation whilst the new and potentially quicker yachts are brought fully up to speed.

The profile of the crews across the fleet, although essentially the same as in previous years, sees a further refinement in professionalism as training for this year’s circuit appears to have been much more widespread than before, with some teams even sailing in other classes in the build up to the Audi MedCup Circuit such as the Melges 24, RC44 and Farr 40 classes.