The winning streak continued for Peter de Ridder and his Mean Machine boat. Fresh from yesterday's two victories, Mean Machine won Wednesday's coastal race, after having crossed the scoring gate ahead of the fleet. Still, with Quantum Racing and TAU Andalucia just a couple of points behind them, the Alicante Torphy is open for grabs. After a short-lived postponment ashore, the race committee had to go further to the south in order to find some stronger breeze. The starting gun was fired with just a half an hour delay and the 16 TP52 boats went off heading southeast towards the first mark. The right side of the course was the favorite one and Mean Machine, TAU Andalucia, Quantum and Artemis opted for it. In what was probably the worst tactical decision that cost them their leadership, Bribn decided to go furthest to the right, getting trapped in less pressure. Dean Barker tacked just twice in the first leg, resulting in a 14th place at the first windward mark. It was game over from that point for the then leader. Mean Machine rounded the top mark first, closely followed by Quantum. Peter de Ridder's boat was able to hold on to its lead while behind them, Artemis and TAU Andalucia were fighting with Quantum. After rounding the leeward gate the TP52 fleet started a long upwind race to the island of Tabarca. Again the right paid off and the four leading boats sailed well, aided by the breeze that had picked up, reaching 12 knots. There were hardly any changes in the order they crossed the first scoring gate. When the fleet went behind the scenic island, Mean Machine had a third consecutive win in the pocket. When the fleet reappeared and started a long downwind stretch to the "Butano" buoy nobody could expect what was about to happen. Half way through, the breeze started dropping and shifting noticeably and the problems sprang up for the tacticians. At the buoy, the race committee was signaling a 60 degree shift that would cause upheaval in the fleet. The dying breeze was nowhere to be found except as close as possible to the coastline, unless of course you were Caixa Galicia. While Mean Machine, TAU Andalucia, Artemis and Quantum racing almost entered Alicante's port in their search for the slightest puff, Caixa Galicia found more pressure as far as possible from it and managed to climb from 8th to finish 3rd. The rest of the fleet that chose to go in between stalled, especially Matador and AUDI Q8.  read more »

While one Cup is in limbo here in Valencia, another one visited the city for the first time ever. The iShares Cup held this weekend their first ever event in the host city of the America's Cup, even if it was officially called a training regatta.

The iShares Cup is a circuit of five European events, raced aboard the Extreme 40 catamarans. This year, nine teams will participate in the circuit and without any doubt the spotlight will be on newcomers Alinghi as well as British America's Cup challenger Team Origin.

A total of five boats took part in the three-day official training event that took place from Friday to Sunday. The Defender of the 33rd America's Cup entered two teams, Alinghi White and Alinghi Black, that were joined by Holmatro, iShares and Volvo Ocean Race. Alinghi White's crew was Ed Baird (helmsman), Rodney Ardern (mainsail), Lorenzo Mazza (trimmer), Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen (bowman) and Peter Evans (5th man). Alinghi Black's crew was Murray Jones (helmsman), Warwick Fleury (mainsail), Nils Frei (trimmer), Jan Dekker (bowman) and Pierre-Yves Jorand (5th man).  read more »

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VirtualSailboatShow: Good Old Boat Magazine At the 2006, 37th Annual United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD, Good Old Boat Magazine publishers, Jerry [...]

The 8 champions and their crews taking part in this year's edition of the Trophe Clairefontaine took possession of their boats and carried out their first test and training session, inside Port America's Cup Port in Valencia. Wind conditions during the training session could be defined as acceptable. Throughout the morning, a constant and quite strong breeze was blowing throughout the America's Cup race course as well as inside Port America's Cup. Unfortunately, training started a little bit late, we suppose later than what was initially planned. The 8 boats docked out past 5:30pm and at that time the thermal breeze usually has already started to die down and there the was probably 6-7 knots of wind. There is no doubt that racing will be spectacular once the breeze kicks in. One shouldn't forget that the race course is right inside the basin and yachts have to sail two legs (one upwind and one downwind) inside the canal, meaning that at times they get extremely close to its edges, as seen in the photos. Let's say, I could have almost grabbed Ed Baird's helm if I wanted!!  read more »

(NECN: Hyannisport, Mass.) - It was a day at the shore designed to send a message. Ted Kennedy has no plans to slow down. Senator Kennedy and his wife, Vicki, went sailing Wednesday afternoon, just one day after it was announced that he has a brain tumor. On a picture perfect day for a sail, [...]

In this final episode, our cruisers hike up a hill behind the bite on Norman Island. A million dollar view of the BVI awaits. The south side of Norman Island provides an ocean scape as our cruisers comment on a magnificent cruising vacation with our film’s producer, Gary Jobson. With their boats at anchor below, [...]

Valencia Sailing asked Davide Tagliapietra and Doug Schickler of Schickler-Tagliapietra to give their insight into the fleet of VO70's gathered in Alicante. Valencia Sailing: What are your impressions of the boats and the rule development? Schickler-Tagliapietra: Everybody knows the rule has become a much tighter design space. The boats are limited in displacement range, and keel weight is controlled independently. In the small range, the boats will probably all try to be at the light end, of course with the heaviest bulb possible. Using higher modulus fibre in the masts, and the very impressive carbon rigging will make a nice step forward in performance. Safety and reliability concerns have driven other new rules, especially in the keel area. Not all of the changes are founded on sound engineering, but the stakes are high for Volvo and the resulting boats are undeniably awesome. Valencia Sailing: There have been a lot of interpretations to this more refined rule, comments? Schickler-Tagliapietra: This keel weight rule has unfortunately led to a near "attack" on the interpretation process concerning the keel of one team. Even more unfortunate, VOR found itself in a position where it felt the best way forward was to amend the NOR so a boat without a valid certificate could start the race. They have tried to disarm the situation, but the precedent is troubling. Valencia Sailing: Any other interpretations of interest? Schickler-Tagliapietra: One about the use of a rotary keel actuator instead of rams. It's use was denied, but it stirs the imagination. There is an interpretation concerning the use of spray rails for lift, thus declaring it an appendage. The spray rails will trickle down to other long distance race yachts - a good development from IMOCA's and these boats. Valencia Sailing: Can you give us a summary of the boats and teams, from a designer's point of view?  read more »

Perfection. That could be the best way to describe Mean Machine's performance in today's difficult conditions that resulted in their fifth consecutive win in the Alicante Trophy. They have a fast boat in stronger winds, their starts were flawless, crew work was great and tactics perfect, calling correctly all three major wind shifts. The low pressure hanging over most of eastern Spain produced a nice strong breeze of around 14-15 knots, forcing teams to change their sails before the start. Still, the breeze was sifting and it took the race committee some time to establish a course. After the postponement flag was lowered, the fleet opted for the pin end of the starting line but a general recall sent the boats back to zero. After another postponement, the race finally kicked off at 2pm. Mean Machine had an excellent start and zoomed to the right, together with Artemis and AUDI Q8. On the contrary, Bribn, Desafo and Platoon opted for the left. Still, Mean Machine lead from the beginning, rounding the top mark ahead of Artemis, Desafo, Platoon and Bribn. AUDI Q8 and Mutua Madrilea could have had better luck but they were squeezed out around the crowded buoys. The downwind leg didn't see many changes in the top positions. During the final approach to the leeward gate, it was already visible there was less pressure around the course. After half of the fleet had rounded the leeward gate, the breeze began to radically drop to the point of leaving CAM completely stalled. The race committee was left with no option but to shorten the race course to three legs and establish the finish line at the windward mark. Once again, Ray Davies, tactician aboard Mean Machine, worked his magic and called the wind shifts. After heading to the right and holding on for 5 minutes, Peter de Rider's boat tacked in order to follow the left shift that would happen. Not only were they able to fend off any possible attack from Artemis, they increased their final lead to over 1 minute. Artemis and especially Desafo, second and third consecutively, had a very good day. The Spanish have a fast boat but their performance left much to desire in the first three days. They finally seem to have corrected their major weakness so far, the poor starts. Mean Machine has a 6-point advantage over Quantum that in turn is just two points ahead of Bribn, without forgetting TAU Andalucia, another 2 points behind. With two races scheduled for Saturday, and given the ups and downs in performances, the Alicante Trophy is still up for grabs.  read more »

This is the fifth in a series of videos describing the roles of crew members aboard the BMW ORACLE America’s Cup Racing Yacht. In this episode we ride along on the weather boat with team meteorologist, Chris Bedford. Chris heads the weather team, receiving updates from other team weather boats and weather buoys strung out [...]

This is the fifth in a series of videos describing the roles of crew members aboard the BMW ORACLE America’s Cup Racing Yacht. In this episode we ride along on the weather boat with team meteorologist, Chris Bedford. Chris heads the weather team, receiving updates from other team weather boats and weather buoys strung out [...]