Two old sayings were once again verified in today's races, second day of the Alicante Trophy. First, consistency pays, as proved by Dean Barker's Bribn and Terry Hutchinson's Quantum Racing. Second, don't count out the new boats and there is no better proof than the 62-year old Peter de Ridder who helmed the brand new Mean Machine to two victories out of three. Wind conditions varied, getting better as the day progressed. The initial start was given under cloudy skies and a breeze of around 6-7 knots. The first sun rays had started poking through the clouds and the breeze built up at 10-11 knots when the second start was given. Finally, the 16-strong TP52 fleet went off the starting line for the third time under sunny skies, choppy seas and 14-15 knots of southern breezes. Read below the report and photos from each race. Peter de Ridder, Skipper and Helmsman of Mean Machine Yesterday we were pretty disappointed and we had a good chat about our strategy and tactics, and tried to do better today. We were already very happy with the 5th and it got better with two firsts. We had a good start and we liked the right; that gave us an edge on the other boats. Most of the time in that situation you just stretch ahead, and we were clear, so were comfortable. I think picking the right, the tactical decision was important; it wasnt boat speed, but a better strategy plan executed. Nothing changed boat handling-wise it all came together thats all. Alicante Trophy / Provisional standings after 5 races Race 1 It looked as if we were about to go through a repeat of yesterday's scenario but it fortunately didn't turn out to be that way. The race committee fired the starting gun right on time when there were 6-7 knots of southern breeze. The fleet opted for the pin end with CAM and Desafo crossing the line early and getting penalized. The right hand side of the course paid off handsomely for the boats that chose it. Despite a mediocre start, Bribn, helmed by Dean Barker, managed to work its way up the fleet and lead at the top mark. Platoon, the German boat crewed by sailors of the America's Cup German challenger, squeezed in at the top mark between Bribn and Matador. The right side of the course remained the favorite one throughout the race and the top 3 leadership was not altered. There was an intense battle between Artemis and Mutua Madrilea in the fourth spot, but last year's champions prevailed in the second beat. Vasco Vascotto's boat opted for the wrong side of the course and slipped 5 positions.  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 [...]

(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, [...]

James Spithill needs no introduction. The Australian match race maestro is in Puerto Calero, racing in the RC44 Gold Cup at the helm of CEEREF, Igor Lah's Slovenian boat. He clearly dominated the first round robin of the event's match races yesterday, winning 5 out of 5 races, despite having the jib falling apart in the first race. We talked to Spithill earlier this morning on the issue of the BMW Oracle trimaran and the team's first phase of sea trials in San Diego. Valencia Sailing: What are your general impressions from the BMW Oracle trimaran? James Spithill: Its awesome. Its the coolest thing I have ever sailed; its simply an incredibly powerful sailing machine. The whole trimaran, multihull world is another world and there has never been built something similar to this boat, with this power-to-weight ratio. Its very exciting to steer a boat like this. Valencia Sailing: Did you have much multihull experience before sailing that trimaran? James Spithill: No, very little. As soon as we knew that it looked like it was going to go into a multihull challenge I started to get into some racing. Before the boat was built we spent time on the Groupama trimaran, doing some racing there but I come from a monohull background, the whole sailing team really. Thats why we have Franck Cammas and some of his guys involved. Valencia Sailing: Was it a steep learning curve?  read more »

Mallory Cup Mens Championship Quarterfinal Eliminations for the Sailing Association of Intermountain Lakes , May 24, 2008 , Elephant Butte Lake State Park , New Mexico Regatta results The Mallory eliminations for SAIL were conducted on borrowed J/24 sailboats, with teams rotating among the boats between races. Winds were mostly medium in strength, typically 814 knots. Courses were windward-leeward with four or five legs per race, with each leg 0.4 to 1.1 nm long. Several support boats and a large cast of volunteers helped run the races. Barbara Hawn was event chair, Pat Byrnes was principal race officer, and Gary Sander chaired the protest committee.  read more »

Wednesday morning finally saw some America's Cup activity in Valencia, not related to the infamous legal case in New York, even if one could argue about its relation to the world's oldest sports event. Desafo Espaol, the now-invalidated Challenge of Record of the 33rd America's Cup, summoned the press in its base in order to present the team's TP52 and GP42 campaigns for the summer as well as give the current state of affairs in the challenger. Present where Agustn Zulueta, general manager, John Cutler, technical director and in charge of the TP52 campaign, and Laureano Wizner, helsman and skipper of the GP42 campaign. According to Zulueta, the team's current strategy revolves around three main points: 1. Desafo Espaol is primarily an America's Cup challenger and as such it had to adapt its program to the current difficult situation. The main objective is to save money. One of the most drastic decisions was to completely abandon the design of an AC90 yacht. 2. The team has now three sponsors; Iberdrola, the Valencia Region and Quebramar. In order for them to have a return on their investment and given the absence of any America's Cup activity in 2008, the obvious strategy was to participate in the TP52 and GP42 circuits. Iberdrola will use them as a roadshow in order to promote its services around Spain. 3. The TP52 and GP42 campaigns are merely training tools. They will also serve to keep the sailing crew together and eventually bring back sailors that had joined other America's Cup challengers.  read more »

[Source: BMW Oracle] Valencia, Spain, 1 July 2008: BMW ORACLE Racings sailing will continue a full program of training and competition in RC 44s and Extreme 40 catamarans through the European summer while it waits for delivery of its new Americas Cup multihull boat, skipper Russell Coutts (NZL), said today. As part of a stepped-up multihull program, the team also confirmed today that it will field two entries in the iShares Cup at Skandia Cowes Week 2-4 August, part of the highly-competitive iShares Cup Sailing Series. Coutts and multihull consultant Franck Cammas (FRA) will share the afterguard duties for one entry in the Cowes regatta, with helmsman James Spithill (AUS) and tactician John Kostecki (USA) on the other. Final crew lists will be confirmed closer to the regatta.  read more »

From the press release: Eight top quality teams signed-up so far for 2008 iShares Cup With the Extreme 40 catamaran fleet now numbering 14 boats, there is potential that even more will make the start line of the five iShares Cup events, which begin in Lugano, Switzerland, on May 30. The entry list reads like a Who's Who of sailing, bursting with the very best skippers and crews in the sport. America's Cup sailors will be lining up against Olympic medallists, ocean racers, and world champions, all coming together on the unique iShares Cup sailing circuit. Fleet at the start, Amsterdam 2007 Vincent Curutchet/DPPI/OC Events With the next America's Cup looking set to take place in multi-hulls, the Swiss Defender Alinghi will be putting their cat-sailing skills to the test in this year's iShares Cup. America's Cup-winning helmsman Ed Baird has been putting in plenty of training in the Extreme 40 with the Alinghi crew in Valencia. Even this multiple world champion admitted that the powerful catamarans can be pretty challenging: "It was hard at first - going down from 17 to just four crew, but after the initial learning curve it got to be pretty exciting!" He compared the spectator-friendly iShares Cup city courses to recent America's Cup racing close to the shore in Valencia, saying: "It's a good kind of racing for the sport to have, as the shorter the race the more evenly matched the boats are." TEAMORIGIN, the British Challenger for the next multi-challenger America's Cup, will also be lining up in the series. Current iShares Cup champion Robert Greenhalgh, who skippered the winning boat on last year's circuit, leads the team. Rob is joined by his brother Peter, a top skiff sailor and part of the 2007 winning Extreme 40 crew, as well as other key members of the British Cup squad. This year's series has also drawn double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson back to the Extreme 40, having competed in two events at last year's iShares Cup. "Last year really whetted my appetite, but this year's going to be a bit different with the pro teams really upping the ante," she explained. "I love the boats and am really looking forward to going sailing on them again." Shirley will once again take the helm of JPMorgan Asset Management, showing her mettle as the sole female skipper on the circuit.  read more »

Mallory Cup Mens Championship Quarterfinal Eliminations for the Sailing Association of Intermountain Lakes , May 24, 2008 , Elephant Butte Lake State Park , New Mexico (continued) Technical Data and Notes: Boat Rotation and Points Kachina blue flag 4441 Wild Thing yellow flag 44 Coyote brown flag 2514 Team R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Meins Kachina Wild Thing Coyote Kachina Wild Thing Perry Wild Thing Coyote Kachina Wild Thing Coyote Jessee Coyote Kachina Wild Thing Coyote Kachina Scoring Summary Team R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total Jessee 3 1 1 1 1 7 Perry 1 2 2 3 3 11 Meins 2 3 3 2 2 12 Friday, May 2, 2008, Practice Race 22:21:15 Prep flag up (times reflect GPS set to GMT 1, subtract 6 hours for local time, 6:02:39 adjustment for start boat timer) 22:25:15 Start abandoned 22:43:14 Start 22:58:21 Kachina 1st to  read more »

When umpiring the most difficult part of the "job" is to be in a position where you can see what the rule infringement is. To be at the right place at the right moment. This involves anticipation of what the sailors will do, quick reactions and skill with the rubber boat. But even if you can do all these things perfectly, it is impossible to be at the right place all the time. Simply because sometimes you need to be at two places at once. This is where the wing comes in. In the wing a driver and a designated umpire communicate to the match umpires by arm signals or by radio, relevant information. They are the second set of eyes the umpires need to get a three-dimensional picture.

Positioning of the wing boat is - as with the umpire boat - the key to successful 'winging'. Generally speaking the wing boat needs to be at a right angle from the boats related to the position of the umpire boat. When the latter is behind to look at the distance between the boats, the wing is beside the boats to look for the overlap. When boats cross, the umpire boat is with the port tack boat, and the wing with the starboard tacker.  read more »