Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Alex Thomson climbs the mast

Check out this video of Alex Thomson climbing the 27m mast of the Open 60 Hugo Boss just before entering the southern ocean in the Velux 5 Oceans yacht race. During the video he reminds himself how stupid he is for not lowering the spinnaker before going up. Little did he know that the canting keel head was soon to fail. Imagine that! 27m up a mast, hundreds of miles from anywhere and the boat capsizes. He's got to be glad that scenario did not eventuate! See the video here on Alex's website.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Wild Oats XI Xmas - New Year Double

The 98ft super maxi Wild Oats XI is now the first ever yacht to win both the Sydney to Hobart and Pittwater to Coffs Harbour yacht races in the same Xmas - New Year period.

Wild Oats finished the Hobart on December 28, allowed the crew a quiet few drinks at the Customs House Hotel then took off back to Sydney arriving January 1, 2007. The Coffs race started on January 2 from Pittwater (1 hour north of Sydney) and the yacht completed the 226nm course in 21 hours 48 minutes, about 3 hours outside the record - it was upwind the whole way, so not a bad feat considering!

Coffs Harbour is not deep enough for the super maxi, so she had to turn around and head straight back to Sydney - no rest for the wicked!

British AC team to be announced

There is a press release going round the traps with news of a British AC team to be announced on Thursday, January 4 at the Design Museum in London. Rumour has it that Sir Keith Mills is a major financial backer of the campaign.