I'm stuck in Palma, at the Copa del Rey AUDI MAPFRE. Here's the entire decision by the NY Appellate Division that gives Alinghi, at least provisional, victory. If you are lazy to go through the entire text, here's the juicy part: Accordingly, the orders of the Supreme Court, New York County (Herman Cahn, J.), entered March 18, 2008 and May 13, 2008, which, inter alia, declared CNEV's challenge invalid and GGYC the Challenger of Record under the Deed of Gift, should be reversed, on the law, with costs, CNEV declared the Challenger of Record, and, in keeping with the Deed of Gift's requirement that the defender be given at least 10 months' written notice to prepare for the challenge, the 10-month notice period should be tolled until service of a copy of this order.  read more »

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 »

TSC interviews New England Rope’s Kevin Coughlin at the 2005 U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD. With so many types of line available, which ones should a cruising sailor choose when it’s time to replace those aging halyards and sheets? Kevin gives some incite into proper rope selection for cruising boats. Be sure to [...]

The Morrisons and Riglers take a group jump into the sea at The Baths. Then they continue their BVI cruise with a sail to the “drowned” island of Anegada. Anegada means drowned land. Its highest point is only 28 feet and much of the island’s interior consists of salt ponds. But at the water’s edge, [...]

One of the fun things about rigging a Laser is attaching the clew of the sail to the boom. In the good old days of Laser sailing when Gary Jobson was a lad and Anna Tunnicliffe wasn't even a twinkle in her daddy's eye, we used to tie the clew to the boom with a piece of line inventively known as the "clew tie-down".

One thing you need to know is that it's always been part of Laser legend and folklore that you have to have the clew tie-down tied as tightly as possible. This is something to do with leech tension but as I never really understood how sails work in the first place please don't ask me what a tight leech has to do with going fast or pointing high or both. But all the top guys believe it does, so that's good enough for me.  read more »

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 »

A couple of weeks ago I challenged readers to this blog to tell us their "sailing bucket lists", the sailing ambitions and dreams that they wanted to achieve in the rest of their lives. Apparently it was not an easy question to answer for some folk. Perhaps that is natural. People who expect to live for many decades probably do find it hard to focus on drawing up one of those "must do before I die" lists. We are all caught up so much in day-to-day living and don't often plan our sailing activities more than a year or so ahead at best.

When I turned myself to the question I found it a difficult assignment too. I really don't have many of those "must do" sailing ambitions. Apparently my mind doesn't work that way. When thinking about what sailing dreams I would want to pursue, I found myself thinking in generalities rather than specifics; and I discovered that the ideas that came to me were more about what to include in every year in my sailing life. Stuff like: "Every year sail somewhere I've never sailed before."  read more »

TheSailingChannel presents an exclusive video preview of a major new sailing documentary, Ice Blink: A Family Navigating Life’s Ice-Clogged Waters. If you like this preview you’ll love the 56-minute documentary available on DVD. Purchase the Ice Blink DVD and the companion Book, Into The Light, at TheSailingChannel.tv. DVD: $17.95; companion book, Into The Light: [...]

At around 2pm on Friday afternoon, Alinghi went back to water onboard its two Extreme 40 catamarans that sported the team's colors and logos. After a pause of several days, the Defender of the 33rd America's Cup took its black and white catamarans for a test sail off Valencia's coast.

Although it was a gorgeous day for tourists, with clear blue skies and spring-like temperatures, most probably Alinghi's crew didn't enjoy the most ideal sailing conditions. As one can easily see on the photos, I doubt whether wind speed went over 1-2 knots.

According to the Alinghi website, the team will start training from tomorrow. In addition, always according to the website, on board the white X40 were designers Jean Claude Monnin and Pierre Yves Jorand, and sailors Murray Jones, Nils Frei and Juan Vila. On board the black boat were designers Dirk Kramers, Daniele Constantini and Luc Dubois, and sailors Yves Detrey and Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen.  read more »