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Volvo Ocean Race Game - Day 8

Do I try to cross the equator now or later?? Now that the breeze is to starting to knock and send me is a more southerly direction.

It looks extremely light immediately to the east of PNG and therefore a difficult transition to the south.

Volvo Ocean Race - Taking Control

Catch up with the fleet as they power their way down through the Pacific towards the equator at average speeds in the high teens or low twenties.

Extreme Sailing Series Act 1, Day 3, Race 7

Some great action from the Extreme Sailing Series Act 1, Day 3, Race 7.

GOR - Cessna Citation takes the gun in Punta del Este

[Source: Oliver Dewar - Global Ocean Race]

Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel win GOR Leg 3 with Class40 Cessna Citation

After a slow final 24 hours crossing the 120-mile wide mouth of the Rio de la Plata, Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel crossed the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 finish line in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in first place with their Akilaria RC2Cessna Citation at 18:37:30 local time on Wednesday 29 February (20:37:30 GMT). The 28 year-old Kiwi, Conrad Colman, and his 41 year-old South African co-skipper, Adrian Kuttel, took 31 days 18 hours 37 minutes and 30 seconds to complete the 6,300 mile course from Wellington, New Zealand, to Uruguay.

In south-easterly breeze, Colman and Kuttel sailed the final miles off the wind, crossing the finish line between the Puerto de Punta del Este harbour break water and an inflatable buoy laid just east of Isla Gorriti. Escorted into the marina by two RIBs from the Yacht Club Punta del Este (YCPE), Cessna Citation was welcomed by a crowd of well-wishers including the Commodore of the YCPE, Horacio Garcia Pastori and the club’s Secretary, Pablo Elola, who had both been in Palma at the start of GOR Leg 1.

Mooring stern-to, Colman and Kuttel were quick to step ashore onto solid land after a month at sea. “Sign me up for the next one!” said Colman when questioned if he’d repeat Leg 3. “It was fantastic sailing, just full-on,” added Kuttel as the champagne celebrations began.

Having led the fleet into Cook Strait after the start in Wellington, Colman and Kuttel retook the lead in Leg 3 after four days of racing, overhauling Ross and Campbell Field onBuckley Systems 1,000 miles south-east of Wellington as the fleet encountered strong headwinds in the Roaring Forties. With the Kiwi father-and-son team on Buckley Systems returning to New Zealand with a serious injury to Ross Field’s back and the simultaneous decision to turn back made by Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron onCampagne de France, Cessna Citation led the fleet east, crossing the mid-Pacific bluQube Scoring Gate eight days after taking pole position with a 125-mile lead over Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon on Financial Crisis.

For the complete update, click here.

Extreme Sailing Series - Morgan Larson is the Headline Act Again…

Yesterday new skipper Morgan Larson ended his first ever day on the Extreme Sailing Series tied in 1st place with tour favourites, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild… Today his impressive form continued as Pierre Pennec’s team clung on to the top spot by just 1 point. Five different race winners out of 8 races on day 2, keeps the competition close…Read the full article here.

Volvo Ocean Race - Camper Torn Sail & Lost Miles

You have to feel sorry for these guys, nothing is going their way in this VOR.

All GOR Class40s are safely in the Atlantic

[source: Oliver Dewar - Global Ocean Race]

Conrad Colman celebrates rounding Cape Horn - Photo Cessna Citation

Having rounded Cape Horn early evening GMT on Monday, Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire have takenPhesheya-Racing through Le Maire Strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados joining Cessna Citation andFinancial Crisis in the South Atlantic after 30 days in the Pacific Ocean’s high latitudes.

However, the final 1,300 miles from Cape Horn to the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 finish line in Punta del Este, Uruguay, are proving to be as challenging as the 5,000 miles in the Pacific for the trio of Class40s that continued racing from Wellington, New Zealand. At the head of the fleet, Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel have experienced stop-start sailing with Cessna Citation as they close in on the coast of Argentina for the final 180 miles to the finish line on the northern shore of Rio de la Plata, while further south in second place, Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon on Financial Crisis have been hammered by headwinds north-west of the Falkland Islands but, finally the breeze has gone right.

On the South African Class40, Phesheya-Racing, rounding Cape Horn on Monday evening was a momentous occasion for Phillippa Hutton-Squire. While Nick Leggatt has now logged six passages around the cape, it was a debut rounding for Hutton-Squire: “We never thought we would make it when we were becalmed the last few days, but we pushed hard in the last 24 hours between the hail storms, snow and icy winds,” says the first South African female sailor to skipper a racing yacht around Cape Horn. 

Leggatt and Hutton-Squire sighted Horn Island’s western peak from 27 miles to the south: “From here the excitement and happiness set in on board!” reports Hutton-Squire. As the sun began to set at 56S, Phesheya-Racing arrived three miles off the cape. “It’s a very jagged coastline with sheer cliffs and no trees,” she notes. “The birds had increased in numbers and the dolphins had come out to ride our bow.” However, the magic moment was interrupted as the satellite phone began to ring, the VHF suddenly crackled into life and the AIS warning light started to flash busily after a month with barely any shipping activity.

For the complete update, click here.

Volvo Ocean Race - Day 9 Leg 4

Team Telefonica's Joca Signorini celebrates a new arrival to his family, a baby girl!

Extreme Sailing Series - Danish Team Complete Act 1 Line-Up Starting Tomorrow

[source: Extreme Sailing Series]

Fighting talk on the dockside, find out what the sailors expectations are ahead of the first day of racing for 2012

A new team in the form of Team Trifork from Denmark can finally be unveiled today as the 8th team in the starting blocks for the first Act of the Extreme Sailing Series™ 2012 in Muscat, Oman. The team will be co-skippered by Jes Gram-Hansen on helm and Rasmus Kostner, tactician, who both come from a World Match Racing Tour and America’s Cup background, alongside the youngest member of the team, 26-year-old Jonas Hviid-Nielsen on bow combined with the Extreme 40 race experience of Pete Cummings (skipper of the winning Extreme 40 team in 2009) and Simon Hiscocks from the UK. It has been a long journey for the Danish team that began a year ago as Jes Gram-Hansen explained:“Rasmus and myself went into different sailing programmes like RC44 and Farr 40 after the 32nd America’s Cup in Valencia but all the time our dream was to create our own team. We analysed what kind of circuit would be the one to go with, and with the changes to the America’s Cup and the Extreme Sailing Series being more and more the series to be in, we decided to try and build a team for the Extreme Sailing Series. So we invested all our money into buying a boat a year ago and then we spent most of the year in Denmark taking out business people from companies to show them what we love and what we think would be a good way to be involved in the project. We have long-support from Trifork (a software company) which we have in been a good relationship over the years along with our clothing partner, Simon Spurr, to help get us here to the start line in Muscat.”

Rasmus Kostner, Team Trifork co-skipper and tactician

The team’s expectations are as you would expect for the ‘newbies’ to the tour: “We have a lot of respect for the guys who have been on the tour and some of them have sailed multihulls for a long time,” continued Jens. “We’re here to learn and I’m sure we will make some mistakes but we’ve got two great English guys with us, Simon Hiscocks and Pete Cummings, so, hopefully, they will keep us out of trouble! Hopefully, we’ll improve over the season with a longer term goal of overall victory in a couple of years time.”

After various stints of team training up the Omani coast at Massanah, the racing starts for real tomorrow, Tuesday, 28th February, in Muscat. The live race coverage will start at 1130 GMT on Wednesday (29th Feb), streaming on Thursday (1st March) and Friday (2nd March).

Read quotes from the sailing teams here.

Extreme Sailing Series - Act 1, Muscat Promo

A nice little promo video for the first act of the Extreme Sailing Series 2012 due to start on February 28.

Volvo Ocean Race Game - Leg 4 Start

Sunday, February 19th, leg 4 of the largest online sailing game will start. This leg takes us from Sanya to Auckland. The briefing is now available on the website - http://www.volvooceanracegame.org/


There are 3 mandatory legs in this game (5, 7 and 9) and your points from 3 other legs will contribute to your final score. Now is the time to jump in and get enough mileage to be eligible to win a brand new IWC watch or Volvo XC60!


Become our friend or add us to your watchlist, just search for thesailingscoop within the game.

Sanya In-Port Race Preparation

A countdown to the Sanya Haitang Bay In-Port Race scheduled for Saturday February 18, 2012.

Aqua take the first event of the RC44 season

[source: RC44 Class Association]

© MartinezStudio.es

A three hour wait for the breeze to fill in delayed proceedings on the final day of the RC44 Puerto Calero Cup, AEZ took their second race win in Lanzarote, but Team Aqua were not far behind giving them their first event win of the 2012 season.

Puerto Calero has shown to be a real test for the 14 teams competing in the first leg of the RC44 Championship Tour. After their winter break it was the reigning champions who showed they could change gear in the wide range of conditions in Lanzarote.

Chris Bake and the crew of Team Aqua (GBR) started the week slowly with a 10th and 13th, but quickly got in the groove slotting in four wins, a second, third and fourth to give them victory by 11 points over second placed Aleph Sailing Team (FRA).

The team will retain their golden wheels for another event but are wary of the competition for the rest of the season. “Every boat out there is a concern, they all have the capacity and they all have their days,” said Bake, however the team were chuffed with their first win of the season. “For the team obviously every win is a great win, especially in this class where the teams really give you a run for your money, as you saw the first few days. It’s easy to make a mistake and once you do that its game over, so all in all its really appreciated by all the team that we were able to pull out another great event.”

For the young French team missing an eighth place in the final race secured them second overall, exceeding their own targets for the event as the team’s tactician, Mathieu explained. “It’s a fantastic result for us second place, we couldn’t expect such a good result so it’s great. The team is improving at every event. We had a good first year and I think this year the team is pretty strong.”

Artemis made up the podium, just two points adrift of the French, Torbjorn Tornqvist teaming up with Artemis Racing’s CEO, Paul Cayard for Lanzarote.

AEZ seemed to excel in the lighter shifty conditions, the team from Austria clinching the final race of the series, adding to their win from the previous day and taking them up to fifth overall.

Rene Mangold’s team have been a regular on the Tour since 2009, over the winter they bought in new tactician, Markus Weiser (GER) who has high expectations for the season. “The last two days have been very good for us, they worked out really well, we had a shocker in the second day, we were second to last after four races and we were really disappointed, we had a few boat handling problems but recovered quite nicely. We have a few new sails for the next event which will make us a little more competitive.”

Volvo Ocean Race - NDT - Behind the scenes

A short interview with Stefano Beltrando, who is a NDT (Non-Destructive Testing) expert for a number of teams in the Volvo Ocean Race. This is a great opportunity to hear about the work that goes on behind the scenes at each of the stop overs.

Full on start to the RC44 season

[source: RC44 Class Association]
The 2012 RC44 Championship Tour kicked off in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote with a full day of match racing. A familiar team was at the top of the leader-board after nine flights and six matches a piece, and some new faces showed they will be real contenders this season.

Match Racing at the RC44 Puerto Calero Cup - Photo © Nico Martinez

Match racing in Lanzarote - Photo © Nico Martinez

RC44 Puerto Calero Cup – Match Race Results
(After six races)
1. Team Aqua (GBR2041) 6-0
2. Katusha (RUS007) 5-1
3. Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS13) 5-1
4. Aleph Sailing Team (FRA17) 4-2
5. No Way Back (NED18) 4-2
6. RC44 Team CEEREF (SLO11) 3-3
7. Peninsula Petroleum Sailing Team (GBR1) 3-3
8. AEZ RC44 Sailing Team (AUT44) 3-3
9. RUS7 Sail Racing Team (RUS7) 2-4
10. Artemis Racing (SWE44) 2-4
11. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP1) 2-4
12. Team Nika (RUS10) 3-3 (-2 penalty points) 
13. Ironbound (USA1) 0-6
14. AFX Capital Racing (ITA7) 0-6 (-1 penalty points)


Ask Team Aqua (GBR) what makes them so good and they will always answer ‘consistency’, and the key to that consistency has to be their team. Cameron Appleton (NZL) was at the helm today and had a familiar team around him, names like Matt Cassidy (USA) and Andrew Estcourt (NZL). With six wins and no defeats their season started as it ended in 2011 and credit went to the team. “The guys really need to take credit for today they did a great job, it was tricky and everybody got tested, every boat had issues and a big part of what they did all day long was what got us around the race course in such good shape.” Cameron Appleton, match race helm and tactician, Team Aqua.


Former World Match Race Champion Ed Baird (USA) is new to the class; today he took the helm of Synergy Russian Sailing Team and they nearly finished the day with a clean sheet, had it not been for a ripped spinnaker in their race against Katusha, who also finished the day with a 5-1 score-line with new helmsman in the form of four-time America’s Cup winner Brad Butterworth (NZL).

Baird was happy with his first day’s racing with the Russian Synergy team. “It was really exciting conditions today with the big shifts and big gusts which was a lot of fun. The team is fantastic these guys are very well prepared I’m impressed with how well they sail the boat, it makes my job a lot easier when I know that everything is going to go smoothly. Unfortunately we had one race where we broke the spinnaker and lost that race but otherwise it was a very good day!” Tomorrow, owner Valentin Zavadnikov will take over the helm.

Pieter Heerema was the top rated owner driver on the water with No Way Back (NED) winning four, and losing two, defeats coming from Team Aqua and the French Aleph Sailing Team steered by Mathieu Richard. A good start to the 2012 season and some new additions to the team as Heerema explained.“We thought it might get a bit too windy for a good day of match racing but it worked out really well, in fact the weather was absolutely fantastic.We have some new team members and our new tactician (Ross MacDonald) worked really well with the crew, so we’re very happy.”

With the NE wind picking up to 20 knots at times and the fleet raced to the leeward side of the Island, it really was a baptism of fire for the 14 teams. One team whose results really didn’t reflect their performance on the water was AFX Capital Racing Team (ITA), but the Italian team were in no way down beat at the end of the day. “The racing today was fantastic. I really enjoyed it even if we lost all of our match races. For me it was my first experience and for most of the team the boat is a new one so with each match we found more details that we need to improve on. I’m looking forward to the fleet racing; we can work on the boat speed and have some good races for sure, I am very optimistic about that.” Massimo Barranco, owner AFX Capital Racing Team.

With six matches completed by each of the teams in Lanzarote, the continuous round robin will carry on throughout the season at every RC44 event until the end of the season in Croatia where the 2012 RC44 Match Racing Champion will be crowned.


The fleet racing which counts for the RC44 Championship starts on Thursday 9th February at 12.00GMT. Racing continues through to Sunday 12th February; Follow the racing on the live blog at www.rc44.com.

Volvo Ocean Race - Maintenance in Sanya

A video update of current shore team activity in Sanya. It seems that the modifications and repairs are never ending!

See the Volvo Ocean Race YouTube channel for more updates.

Kiteboarding Trials for 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

[source: ISAF]

ISAF has announced that Kiteboarding format trials will be held in Santander, Spain from 21-25 March.

In May 2011 ISAF Council selected Windsurfing and/or Kiteboarding as a possible event for the 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition.

ISAF and the IKA have proposed the following format options for Kiteboarding to be trialled in Santander: short track, slalom , course racing and enduro.

ISAF is inviting Member National Authorities, National Kiteboard Associations and Kiteboarding manufacturers to nominate a maximum of one man and one woman to attend the format trails.

Click here for the full press release.

Australian 18ft Skiff Championship

Thurlow Fisher Lawyers with skipper Michael Coxon and crew Aaron Links and Trent Barnabus have retained their 18ft Skiff Australian Championship with a race to spare winning 3 of the first 4 heats. These guys are certainly now favourites to take out the JJ Giltinan Championship to be sailed from February 17-25 on Sydney Harbour.

We like this little piece of video we found at www.18footerstv.com

More strong upwind conditions for the GOR trio

[source: Global Ocean Race, Oliver Dewar]

The first week of Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 has been the most demanding of the entire circumnavigation so far with strong conditions for the five double handed Class40s from within hours of the start in Wellington, New Zealand, on Sunday 29 January.

Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel led the fleet in to Cook Strait from the shelter of Wellington Harbour with Cessna Citation right into 30-knot headwinds and big seas forcing the fleet to reef for the first night at sea. As light faded, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron took pole position with Campagne de France as Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon split from the fleet and took Financial Crisis on a flyer south parallel to the coast of South Island.

As the main pack of the fleet dropped south-east leaving Chatham Island to port, the leadership changed constantly and the speeds increased with Ross and Campbell Field on Buckley Systems delivering the highest average of 14 knots with Campagne de France, Cessna Citation and the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire with Phesheya-Racing all polling averages of 13+ knots.

By Wednesday, Financial Crisis had re-joined the group as the fleet prepared for strong south-easterly headwinds with Buckley Systems leading and 20 miles separating the front three boats with Campagne de France furthest south a 49 degrees. Beating into a Force 8-9 gale with the boats hurled through immense seas took its toll and on Thursday evening at 48S, Ross and Campbell Field – leading the fleet on Buckley Systems – and Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron on the Franco-British entry, Campagne de France in second place, abruptly turned north. Initially this was thought to be a move to avoid 40-50-knot headwinds, but injury and gear damage on Buckley Systems had forced the Fields to head for port in Auckland, 1,000 miles to the west, with Mabire and Merron making the same call.

For the complete update, click here.

Volvo Ocean Race Game Leg 3 Finish

We finished Leg 3 in 2912th spot, an improvement from leg 1 & 2, but I think we can do better again in Leg 4.

In the Malacca Strait we closed in on the top 1000 but once the leaders reached Singapore they got a little extra puff an opened up a really nice lead.

Overall we are now 4536th out of an estimated 177,000 boats! Not bad, although the car looks out of reach at this stage!

Telefónica take the hat-trick with a Leg 3 win

Telefónica took another win in Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race in what many of the crew have named as an extremely tough leg.  Telefónica may have had Code 0 troubles on the first day but with their "never give up" attitude the team pulled it back together to sail through the tricky Malacca Strait and lead the fleet in to the South China Sea, never looking back. 

Puma had a tough leg with several mishaps, a collision with a tree trunk, a snare with a fishing net and then to top it off, their flyer off to the east in the early stages of the South China Sea did not pay off.

IAN ROMAN/Volvo Ocean Race

Leg 3 results:

1. Team Telefónica - 12d 19h 58m 21s
2. Groupama Sailing Team - 012d 21h 45m 24s
3. CAMPER with Emirates Team NZ - 012d 23h 28m 23s

4. PUMA Ocean Racing by BERG - 013d 00h 29m 12s
5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing - 013d 03h 05m 05s
6. Team Sanya - 014d 04h 35m 16s

Official website http://www.volvooceanrace.com/

Artemis AC45 training in Valencia

Artemis Racing have started their two boat training session in Valencia, Spain this week. Artemis now have two AC45's and are sure to benefit from their latest edition.


We like this work by team photographer Sander van der Borch.

Photo credit: Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

Photo credit: Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

www.artemisracing.com

VOR Game Leg 3 - Day 13

Tough times in the Malakka Strait with extremely flukey conditions. I'm going to stick to the west coast at the moment and hope that with the next weather update the winds move into the north. This is also the closest angle to the next mark. Currently sailing at 135 TWA in 5.50knts of wind. I don't think the polars on the wiki are correct!

2012 MOD70 European Tour unveiled

The MOD70 European Tour has been announced today and is set to be a huge hit on the European stage. Let's hope they have a media team to take up the challenge of creating some fantastic online content as we have  seen with the America's Cup World Series and Volvo Ocean Race.


Read the full press announcement here.


Official website http://www.multionedesign.com/en/

TP52 Class Announces 2012 Racing Circuit

KEY WEST, FL—Following a series of meetings held during Quantum Key West Race Week, members of the TP52 class are pleased to announce its plans for grand prix racing in 2012 and beyond.

Rob Weiland, TP52 Class Manager, says the class is forming a management group owned and controlled by members that will be responsible for event management, event marketing, sponsor and media coordination as well as recruiting new teams to join 52 racing.

“There is strong support and enthusiasm for this structure, not only among owners, but also potential sponsors who have been part of the discussions. TP52 racing will continue in 2012 and beyond at the same high-caliber level as in previous years,” says Weiland. “With class ownership and control, we expect to establish a strong, stable racing program that will continue to expand and excel.”

This year, the class will be racing in a circuit with consistent race management including on-the-water umpiring. The circuit winner will be the best-performing boat in five qualifying events. The regatta schedule will include:

- Palma Vela, Palma, April 18 – 22 (tune up event)
- Trofeo Conde de Godo, Barcelona, May 23 - 27
- Sardinia Cup, Porto Cervo, June 11 - 17
- Royal Cup, Palma, July 10 - 14
- Copa del Rey, Palma, July 16-21 (does not count toward trophy)
- France Cup or One Ton Cup, TBD in France, September 18 – 22
- Valencia Cup, Valencia, October 9-13

Weiland says IRC 52 and Soto 40 teams are invited to join in the racing. “We’d like to increase the participation, which not only makes for more exciting competition, but will also provide a chance to race for the Sardinia Cup, a team event with two-boat teams consisting of a 52 and a Soto 40.

For all events except the Copa del Rey, the 52s—whether a TP52 or IRC52—will race boat-for-boat. “The  IRC52s will have to be within a TCC limit for this,” says Weiland. “That limit is set slightly above the TCC that a TP52 has in order to accommodate features such as carbon rigging, which under IRC carry a rating ‘penalty’.

“Just as we are experiencing at Quantum Key West Race Week, this will provide close and exciting racing,” adds Weiland. “Level rating, as such, is not a novelty, but the mix of level raters and box rule 52s is unique. For sure there is a lot to learn; we will start with an open mind and very few limits.”

At Copa del Rey, Weiland says the 52s will race under IRC. “That suits the event organization better and maximizes the number of boats on the start line. We hope to see well over ten teams competing in Palma.”

Weiland says the class will begin working with the clubs involved in the 2012 program immediately, while the organizational details are finalized for the management group. The 2013 calendar will be announced no later than August 2012. Plans for next year tentatively call for a return to the Americas early in the season.