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.

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.

Zana (Konica Minolta) also in Valencia

Also at the RCN Valencia is the 30m maxi Zana aka Konica Minolta. Zana did a couple of years hard sailing around the world before suffering a structural failure in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, the same year that Skandia lost her canting keel. This boat has been sitting at the dock here in Valencia for a number of months, does anyone know what's going on? Have they dumped it and done a runner? Send in your comments.

Zana in Valencia

Chinese AC boat arrives in Valencia

I was enjoying a beautiful winters day in Valencia today and found my way down to the Real Club Nautico Valencia to find the new Chinese America's Cup yacht sitting in the yard. Apparently this boat arrived on Friday and is waiting for a final paint job. Check out the reverse bow in the photos below.

CHN-95 at RCN Valencia

CHN-95 Knuckle bow

CHN-95 in RCN Valencia

Big Boat Challenge

On Tuesday some of the biggest, meanest maxi boats in the world raced on Sydney Harbour, making for a crowded waterway. Entries included Wild Oats XI, Skandia and Ichi Ban (once a VO70). Wild Oats XI eventually won, beating Skandia by 2 minutes. Check out Andrea Francolini's website here.

Extreme Downwind Sailing

Here is a great video of some extreme downwind sailing including VO60's, VO70's and Mumm 30's. I really liked the footage of the Mumm 30 guys sending it downwind, one boat manages to stick it into the wave in front then complete a spectacular chinese gype. Click here.

Can they do it?

There are currently two teams attempting to crack the 50 knot barrier. The UK based Sailrocket team and the Australian based Macquarie Speed Sailing Team.

The first, Sailrocket are a brand new outfit attempting the record for the first time. Their design concept is a boat, quote "with no obvious stability limits". It certainly seems unconventional but they may just do it. Check out the teams latest news and video.

The second, Macquarie Speed Sailing have been there before and have a wealth of experience, Lindsay Cunningham being an instrumental part of the Yellow Pages team in 1993 when they set a new speed sailing record of 46.52knots. He is at it again and in late 2005 their wing exploded soon after starting a run. The speed at that moment was 46knots and from the graph trend, it looks as if they were on their way to 50knots. Keep updated with there progress here.

AC Fact 2 - Luna Rossa have a jumperless mast

Over the past two days the Luna Rossa America's Cup team have been testing a jumperless rig. We have already seen the defender's Alinghi and challenger of record BMW Oracle test their versions of the jumperless mast earlier this year and now Luna Rossa have decided that they need to check in on this little piece of equipment... or lack there of! We'll try and get a photo for you over the next few days.

It will be interesting to see if any other team sports one of these rigs before Act 13, considering the estimated cost of tooling, labor, materials and shipping would be around US$500,000 per mast.

AC Fact 1 - Victory Challenge go to Dubai

Today, Victory Challenge confirmed in a press release that they will be going to Dubai in January for a period of 4 weeks to continue their winter training program. Apparently Victory will not be based at the Dubai International Marine Club with Defender's Alinghi but a location approximately 3 km's away. Another surprise is that the team will fly their equipment to location in not one, but two Russian Antonovs... That must be costing them a packet! Sounds like this exercise would just be a disruption to the team. No doubt they are going places but if you consider all of the recent recruitment's and the imminent arrival of their new boat, the team appears to have "more on" than the first settlers!