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Portuguese sailor Francisco Lobato illuminated the night with his flares a few seconds after greeting the jury's boat. The Series winner, happy and relieved, was celebrated by his friends gathered on the dock of the marina's yacht club. "It's done!" he exclaimed. And he honoured his predecessor, Charlie Dalin who arrived yesterday afternoon, too late to make up the 22 hour gap in their total elapsed time for the two legs.

"Charlie has done a very good race. I can finally relax." Impressive speed and consistency between The Charente-Maritime and Madeira, the young Portuguese made a more conservative crossing of the Atlantic to Brazil; "The important thing was to get here, regardless of the advance one minute or 20 hours I don't care, I am happy. I really thought about Sam Manuard who had dismasted just before the finish." No risks were taken in this leg of a thousand traps. "I left Funchal tired and not at all in my race, after a week of media madness" he explains. "The passage to the Canaries, with rotating winds in the west almost cost me a lot. I chose to be more conservative in the crossing of the doldrums. I was there 3 days two years ago. I lost miles on Charlie but I did not panic. I focused on my route without minding about the others. And now, my team and I, are rewarded of four years of work. I know that my partner is satisfied and I now I look forward to attack the next Figaro sea! son. "

The racing time of Francisco betwwen Funchal and Bahia is 20 days, 17 hours, 8 minutes and fifteen seconds.

His overall time is 26 days, 19 hours, 39 minutes and 18 seconds at a speed of 6.65 knots on average.

Before any Jury adjustments, he is ahead of Charlie Dalin by nearly 11 hours.

Louis Vuitton Trophy - Nice

With two weeks to go until the eight teams are scheduled to assemble for practice sailing in Nice, preparations for the first Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta are gathering pace.

The facilities in Nice are being readied, the race boats are being tested, equalised and prepared for racing, and some of the teams spent some time on ACC yachts last week, working out the kinks ahead of the first race day, November 7.

In Valencia, the site of the last America's Cup where several teams still maintain a base of operations, the four ACC boats that will be used for the racing in Nice have been set-up for the November regatta.

On Tuesday afternoon, two of the boats, GBR 75 (provided by TeamOrigin) and FRA 93 (provided by ALL4ONE - previously known as K-Challenge) arrived in Nice under tow, following a 400-plus nautical mile journey up the Mediterranean coast.

The confirmed line-up of eight world-class sailing teams for the Louis Vuitton Trophy - Nice, which runs from the 7th to 22nd November, includes:

- ALL4ONE (FRA/GER)

- Azzurra (ITA)

- BMW ORACLE Racing (USA)

- Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)

- Swedish Challenge Artemis (SWE)

- Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS)

- TeamOrigin (GBR)

- Team French Spirit (FRA)

BMW ORACLE Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand and ALL4ONE (as K-Challenge) each competed in the last America's Cup and TeamOrigin competed in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series earlier this year. While the other four teams are new to ACC racing, experienced Cup sailors are sprinkled throughout their crew rosters. This past week in Valencia, the Synergy Russian Sailing Team and Azzurra had an ACC familiarisation session using boats belonging to Victory Challenge, while ALL4ONE sea-trialled with FRA 93.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy - Nice is the first event inspired by the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland, New Zealand, earlier this year. The host team of the Nice event is ALL4ONE. Further dates and venues for the 2010 season will be confirmed soon.

Oman Unveils Majan Tri

After four months of assembly in Oman's southern most port of Salalah, skipper Paul Standbridge has been stretching the legs of Oman Sail's new Arabian 100 (A100) trimaran during sea-trials off the Omani coast. Now named Majan, after the ancient name for Oman, Oman Sail's new flagship is now operational and is heading into the Gulf and a tour of neighbouring countries.Based on the proven design of another trimaran, Sodebo, which is the holder of the solo North Atlantic crossing record, the design has been tailored for the needs of Oman Sail and their objective of training and developing Omani sailors to compete on the international stage.The launch of Majan is an ambitious addition to the project's mission to inspire a new generation of young Omanis. The first chapter was started when Mohsin Al Busaidi returned to the shores of Oman after successfully circumnavigating the world non-stop on Majan's 75ft sister ship, Musandam. From there, success has followed success as the two Oman teams took 1st and 3rd in the 2009 European iShares Cup and two Omanis are currently also sailing around the world in the Clipper Race. At the heart of all this success lies the Oman Sail Academy where young Omanis are now taking part in try sailing courses and looking to emulate their peers. Oman Sail's aims are ambitious: by 2015, the project aims to have seven academies running across the country enabling over 30,000 Omanis to try sailing. Majan will sail with a crew of seven: 50% of the sailors will be Omani offshore trainees joined by three international professional crew and a cameraman providing the one-on-one training that the recruits require at this early stage of their career. The first chapter will be a 'Tour of Arabia' starting next week from Muscat, which will include stops in UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar before Majan joins the Dubai-Muscat race back to Muscat one month later. The name Majan is used with pride within Oman and is a fitting name for a futuristic racing yacht for a country with a long maritime history. As Majan's newest crew member, Mohsin Al Busaidi, commented "The acceleration of Majan is incredible: we moved from 20 - 30 knots in one gust of wind. We now look forward to showing the world what she can do!"

Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race

Team Finland has taken line honours in Race 2 from La Rochelle to Rio de Janeiro of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race. Crossing the line at 16:00:36 local time (18:00:36 GMT) their latest victory makes it two out of two for the Scandinavian entry.

In a race which has been marked by light winds, Team Finland took an early lead out of La Rochelle but soon lost it by sailing into a wind hole as the fleet rounded Cape Finisterre. The fleet then headed on a westerly course towards the scoring gate south of the Canary Islands in an attempt to take the first points of Race 2. As weather forecasts indicated light winds across the 90 nautical mile long gate, Team Finland made the decision to bail out and focus on a ten point win into Rio. It proved to be the defining moment of Team Finland's race, as they regained the lead and held it all the way to the line.

Periods of light winds have dogged the fleet for the first trans-Atlantic crossing of Clipper 09-10. With virtually no wind at the start in La Rochelle, around the Canary Islands and for half the boats through the Doldrums, the normally reliable trade winds have also been lighter than expected. As the fleet neared its final destination of Rio de Janeiro, once again light conditions brought the leading boats to a near halt.

The Clipper 09-10 Race Committee has announced a shortened course for Race 2 from La Rochelle to Rio de Janeiro. The amended Sailing Instructions has given the teams 24 hours notice of the shortened course and the final positions will be taken at midday GMT on Tuesday 20 October. Those teams that have crossed the finish line will be awarded the relevant finishing position, while the others will be awarded the position based on their distance to finish at that time.

Once finished, the teams will make their way by fastest means, through a combination of using their engines and sailing, to the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro, which will host the fleet for the duration of the stopover.

Photo Copyright onEdition 2009© Zoe Williamson

Rolex Middle Sea Race

ICAP Leopard (GBR) was first home at the 2009 Rolex Middle Sea Race taking the award for line honours. Try as they might, Mike Slade's all-star crew were unable to crack the nut that is Rambler's course record. Arriving just before midday at the Royal Malta Yacht Club line in Marsamxett Harbour, the 100-foot Farr designed supermaxi was just over half an hour outside the mark set by George David and Ken Read two years ago. She had made a tremendous effort never straying far from the pace required despite less than perfect conditions.Slade made no excuses on the dock after stepping ashore. He believes they raced as well as they could. ICAP Leopard's record attempt was always in the balance the moment they crossed the start line. They gave it a good go though, relishing a promising forecast. Slade was quick to compliment his crew on a job well done. Even if one sails the boat to its full potential and suffer no breakages, success is still dependent upon the weather. Completing the 606 nautical mile Rolex Middle Sea Race in less than 48 hours is well within the capability of a canting keeled, water ballasted flying machine staffed by some of the world's top inshore and offshore yacht racing specialists. The wait for the next boat home was a short one. Just as during the Rolex Fastnet, Karl Kwok'sBeau Geste (HKG) had been shadowing her bigger rival for the whole course, waiting for a chink in the armour that might let her snatch the lead. Skipper Gavin Brady, tactician Francesco de Angelis and navigator Andrew Cape are a deep-filled talent pool, but even they found the conditions testing. Brady is a tough customer, but even he acknowledged the severity of the situation after Stromboli on Saturday night/Sunday morning. With two boats tied up in the harbour we have a yacht race. When Beau Geste crossed the line at 15.28 she moved into pole position on handicap. Her moment in the spotlight was short lived. Alegre (GBR) finished at 18.33 and moved back into a lead that she has held since Stromboli. Neither Ran (GBR) nor Luna Rossa (ITA) were in a position to dislodge her when they finished. Intermatica VO70 (ITA) won the battle of the two Volvo boats, beating Ericsson (SWE) on handicap although not on the water. The bulk of the fleet is still racing. 23 yachts have now retired citing various reasons, mostly sail and equipment damage resulting from the vicious squalls that persisted until Monday midday.

Roma Wins The War

Coming into the final day of racing, Roma enjoyed a nine-point margin over nearest rival, Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP), and with excellent teamwork, good boatspeed, and consistent results the Italian team lead by helmsman Paolo Cian (ITA) needed only to finish within three points of the local-based team to claim the overall GP42 Global Cup crown. On paper, this looked easily achievable, but the highly-competitive nature of this class means nothing is predictable, especially in the perfect 14-17 knot conditions of today's racing.

In the first race, for example, the two front-runners found themselves tangled up with each other and Team Nordic, all fighting for a pin-end start as the fasted path to the favored left side of the course. Aggressive maneuvers between the three resulted in flags, shouting from the teams, and a whistle from the on-water jury before the three disentangled and set off for the left corner. Keeping clear of the fight with an perfectly-timed start in the middle of the line, Javier Goizueta’s (ESP) Caser-Endesa (ESP) took and held the lead for their second win of the series. Roma’s (ITA) third place and Islas Canarias Puerto Calero’s (ESP) second place in this race closed the point gap down to eight, but there were still two races left.In the second race, Team Nordic (SWE) was this time nowhere to be found, having dropped out for an unrepairable gear failure on their deckhouse, yet somehow Roma and Islas Canarias Puerto Calero got tangled up, fighting yet again for the pin. The Italian team won the fight this time, forcing the Canarians to tack away and duck the rest of the fleet coming off the line on starboard tack, but Roma paid the price of being slow and barely able to clear the pin end.Yet this power of the pin kicked in further up the leg, allowing Roma to stay close and hang on as the breeze built and Islas Canarias Puerto Calero found a favorable lane on the right side and put her awesome boatspeed in these conditions to work and take the lead. With Caser-Endesa having to fight off a late charge made by Jose Maria van der Ploeg’s (ESP) Turismo Madrid (ESP), and the two finishing overlapped with Caser-Endesa in the lead by a mere metre, Roma was able to go into the final race with a strong position: a 7-point gap now with the local Canarias team and only one race left.

In this race Caser-Endesa this time took the pin for themselves, and in a playbook now very familiar after four days of racing, they led to the left corner, crossed everyone close to the layline, led around the top mark and offset, and simply continued to lead around the track to extend to victory. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero had tried repeatedly to get into a passing lane, and for a while Caser-Endesa would make aggressive covering manouevers to prevent this, but the 3-point gap needed to fill with other boats to take the runner-up position from the local favorites just couldn’t be overcome, so Caser-Endesa, with owner Javier Goizueta (ESP) on board as a guest, had to settle for being third overall but satisfied as winner of the day on scores of 1-3-1, their best day of the series and second time being champions for the day.

This is the final event of the GP42 season, after an impressive debut in this year’s Audi MedCup’s five stages, an Owner-Driver Championship in Cascais, and this spectacular Global Cup finale in Lanzarote.

The next event for the GP42 class will be at next year’s Audi MedCup Circuit Stage One in May, 2010 in Portugal.

Puerto Calero GP42 Global Cup Final Results

1. Roma (ITA, Paolo Cian), 27 points

2. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP, José María Ponce), 33 points

3. Caser-Endesa (ESP, Juan Luis Páez), 34 points

4. Turismo Madrid (ESP, José María Van der Ploeg), 48 points

5. Quebramar Xacobeo 2010 (POR, Felipe Regojo), 55 points

6. Airis (ITA, Roberto Monti), 58 points

7. Península Petroleum (GBR, John Bassadone), 84 points

8. Nordic Team (SWE, Magnus Olsson), 97 points

Extreme Sailing Series Asia

OC Events, organisers of the award winning iShares Cup, the European Extreme 40 Sailing Series, has announced today the creation of the inaugural Extreme Sailing Series Asia to be staged between November 2009 and March 2010. The first year of the Asian series will include events in Hong Kong, Singapore and Oman with the possibility of a fourth venue to be confirmed, and with a plan to grow this to a six-event series by 2011/12. Bids have already been received for the future series from a number of other venues across Asia.

After the spectacular finale of the six-stage European iShares Cup circuit last weekend in Almería (Spain), five of the boats were packed up to be shipped directly to Hong Kong. Mark Turner, CEO of OC Group, which includes the Series’ organisers OC Events, declared: “The iShares Cup has been running very successfully for three years now in Europe and the Extreme Sailing Series Asia is the next step in the evolution of this exciting sailing format - a format which has become a benchmark in terms of changing the way sailing is seen. Our aim is to build this series each year on the same foundations on which the European iShares Cup has been built - a comprehensive sailing entertainment event that packages the sport to appeal to the public, media and provide experiential VIP client hospitality. For this inaugural series in Asia we won’t be focused on the public side directly, instead we will work hard on the VIP and media aspects, as we did in the early iShares Cup years. But, of course, our aspiration is to build this circuit up over the coming years to match the award-winning iShares Cup format including a strong public element.”

Each event will consist of five days of racing, combining the established format of short, easy to understand races, a media day, VIP sailing days and special events. The Extreme Sailing Series Asia Notice of Race has been issued today and the announcement of the first of the competing teams will follow imminently. Five boats have already committed to the Asian circuit, as in the first year of the iShares Cup series in Europe.

iShares Cup

Oman Sail Masirah has won the iShares Cup 2009, but it came down to the last leg of the last race on the last day of the last regatta at the iShares Cup Almeria in Spain, with Gitana Extreme - LCF Rothschild pushing Oman Sail Masirah right to the very last minute with a superb final performance.

Pete Cumming and his crew held their nerve despite the strong comeback of Yann Guichard and the Gitana Extreme crew. Almeria's usually strong winds never materialised, with light winds adding to the nerves of the 10 teams challenging for the Andulician final event of this benchmark season for the Extreme 40 Sailing Series.

Franck Cammas' Groupama 40 crew finished third on the event leaderboard ahead of Oman Sail Renaissance, although Loick Peyron had the comfort of claiming third spot on the overall iShares Cup 2009 leaderboard ahead of Cammas. Shirley Robertson's Team iShares sailed an excellent regatta to win the mid-leaderboard battle ahead BT and LUNA, to finish 5th overall. Tens of thousands of spectators, the biggest stadium audience of the year, packed the port of Almeria to witness the double points final race of the season.

Final results
1. Oman Sail Masirah, 132 points
2. Gitana Extreme - Groupe LCF Rothschild, 129
3. Groupama Extreme, 112
4. Oman Sail Renaissance, 96
5. LUNA, 96
6. Team iShares, 83
7. Holmatro, 82
8. BT, 79
9. Rumbo Almeria, 73
10. Ecover, 89

iShares Cup 2009 overall:
1. Oman Sail Masirah, 53 points
2. Gitana Extreme - Groupe LCF Rothschild, 52
3. Oman Sail Renaissance, 42
4. Groupama Extreme, 41
5. Team iShares, 27
6. BT, 26
7. LUNA, 26
8. Holmatro, 24
9. Ecover, 10

Matador TP52 World Champion 2009

On Friday local favourites Bribón lead the TP52 World Championships after winning Race 5 in the light, sticky conditions on their home waters. After making a strong start double Olympic Star class medallist, tactician Ross MacDonald along with navigator Marcel van Triest (NED) read the shifting breeze at the top end of the first beat precisely, calling a good layline which allowed them to ease away around the windward mark ahead of Matador (ARG) which over-stood slightly. In 6-7 knots of breeze Bribón were able to extend on the downwind leg to build themselves a comfortable margin, winning by 1 minute and 24 seconds, well clear of a dramatic finish behind them as Synergy (RUS) gained more than half a minute on the last run. Their hitch out to the left brought them extra wind pressure which allowed them to steal across the bows of Quantum Racing and Matador to wrest second palce. Second at the final windward mark, the Argentinian boat just made third, getting the better of Quantum in a heart-stopping finish. Only one second was judged to be the difference between the two.
On Saturday a frustrating attempt at a coastal race in very unsettled wind conditions was abandoned after seven miles and one hour and ten minutes of often heart-stopping racing to leave Bribón’s four points lead at the top of the ten boat TP52 World Championship fleet going into the final day of racing.
Matador trump Quantum Racing on countback to win the TP52 World Championship title after a breathtaking final day which was in the balance right until the final sums were computed. It could not have been much closer when the Argentine crew on Matador lifted the TP52 World Championship on the waters they call home in Europe, the Bay of Palma, this afternoon. They lift the title on countback ahead of the 2008 world champions Quantum Racing (USA) who also finished on 23 points after seven races. Matador won the final race to match Quantum Racing’s pair of race victories this week, but their three third places trump the American crew's final hand which inluded two thirds and a fifth.
Quantum Racing (USA) may rue missed opportunities, and in effect the 2008 title holders came within a few metres of defending. Artemis, Torbjorn Tornqvist’s crew with Paul Cayard (USA) calling tactics finished third overall ending up on equal points with the Russian crew on Synergy who take fourth.
The next event for the TP52 fleet will be the first Audi MedCup 2010 regatta on the 10th of May.

Changes in VOR

The new look Volvo Open 70 Rule, published today along with the Notice of Race, confirm changes set to enhance the fleet racing in the 11th Volvo Ocean Race, which will start from its new home base of Alicante in Spain in the autumn of 2011. The changes come as a result of extensive analysis carried out over the past 12 months by the Rule Management Group led by technical expert Ken McAlpine (Volvo Open 70 Rule) and rules expert Bill Edgerton (Notice of Race) in consultation with previous competitors.
Changes include a move to furling or hanked headsails – no headfoils are allowed and a reduction from 24 to 17 race sails per boat. A single-boat team can only build 15 new sails prior to the race, and a team using a new boat and a second generation boat can build only 23 pre-race sails. Stacking of sails and equipment is restricted to the mid section of the boat below deck.
There are also strict limitations on masts and appendages. The total weight of the yacht has now been increased so that it must fit into the weight range of 14,000 – 14,500 kg, and a maximum keel fin and bulb weight has been set at 7,400 kg.
The limit of the construction of only one new boat per team is a new feature; however, a team is permitted to campaign an additional second generation boat. There is a total ban on two-boat testing before the race and if a single-boat team is using a separate second generation training boat, which they do not enter in the event, the team is limited to only 110 sailing days during 2010.
In addition to the 2,000-nautical mile qualification run, which has been a feature of the Notice of Race for some years, each team must now compete in a new 600-nautical mile qualification race, which will be held prior to the race start in Alicante.
The crew limit for an all-male or mixed team remains at 11, including the Media Crew Member (MCM), but new this time is the requirement for three crew members to be born on or after 1 September 1980. A female team can, however, comprise a crew of 14 including the MCM, representing three additional crew members over an all-male crew. No additional crew members are permitted onboard for in-port racing, which this time will be held in each stopover port.
The points system has also been overhauled and points for offshore legs will now be multiplied by five, and scoring gates multiplied by two. The in-port races will not attract a weighting and points will continue to be awarded for the best performances over two races to be held on each in-port race day.
The key objectives when drafting the Volvo Open 70 Rule and the Notice of Race were:
• to reduce costs for participating teams
• to ensure improved safety and reliability of the boats
• to ensure that the Volvo Open 70 Class maintains its status as the fastest and most spectacular offshore racing monohull
• to ensure that an entrant can be competitive with a second generation boat from the 2008-09 race