-
29 Oct 2009 02:52
The Dark Side
10/29/09
Seems perfect, given Halloween is right around the corner...
Every year in our club we hold a season-ending regatta. There's a prize for the first boat to arrive, but also another for the best mockery. For the fourth consecutive year, this prize was won by the crew Florean-Ciapessoni. This year they assembled this boat from an old 420 hull and other spare parts, then they painted it black.... and they called it "The Dark Side." - Anarchist Carlo.race report
Geraldton ClassicFrom Paul Eldrid at Evolution Sails.
The 220 Nautical Mile Fremantle to Geraldton race was held in challenging conditions with winds gusting to 35 knots from the south and a confused sea. Frank Saraceni’s new Bakewell-White 11m Alfresco bolted after rounding Rottnest Island and setting a course North to Geraldton. Much smaller than her larger rivals, Alfresco pushed hard all afternoon and night to emerge at the front of the pack at day break.Dave Walling and Vern Williamson’s Farr 40 IRC The Next Factor was in hot pursuit, with Trevor Taylor’s Martin 49 Optimus Prime holding a long way offshore, Tony Mitchell’s Farr 47 Sled staying inshore and Phil Child’s Farr 49 Knee Deep close behind in the middle, with Davidson 50 Finistere in proximity. With all boats on the red line and doing speeds in the 20’s, all were inside the record time until the breeze backed off approaching sunrise.
As the breeze shut down, the smaller boats behind fell from contention and the race was well and truly on for Line Honours and corrected time. In one of the biggest surprises and closest finishes in history, the little 36’ Alfresco raced down the channel in Geraldton Harbour leading overall, with The Next Factor only minutes behind and certain to take IRC Honours, followed by Sled. Alfresco, The Next Factor and Sled all had new sails by Evolution for the race.
Representing Evolution at the race were Paul Eldrid. Rees Howell , Ben Gardiner, Emily Pettersson (WA) and Rodney Keenan & Timn Slatter (NZ). Alfresco . Line HonoursWinner. Bernie Kaaks Image The Next Factor . IRC& YAHWinner.Bernie Kaaks Image For Frank Saraceni it was vindication for his new little boat and his decision to build a state of the art, new generation boat that would meet the depth restrictions in his home waters of the Swan River and Fremantle, instead of building a larger but reduced draft boat. For Dave Walling and Vern Williamson’s The Next Factor is was another important win on their quest to win back to back Western Australian Offshore Championships and the coveted Siska Trophy. TonyMitchell was estatic with his new Sled and to lead his more seasoned, bigger rivals home, although later withdrawing due to an unfortunate mark rounding issue after 200miles of racingg inside Geraldton Harbour. The return race starts this Friday at 0930, and in what looks to be a much more sobering return race, teams can expect stiff S – SW winds up to 30 knots and cold nights. The race can be followed here
10/29/09
ac
Best Option?10/29/09From Coutts & GGYC...
Valencia is the best option to get the America’s Cup back on track as soon as possible. This is what sailing fans from around the world are waiting for. Both BMW ORACLE Racing and Alinghi still have bases in the Port America’s Cup. The infrastructure created to the specification of the Swiss defender is in place, available and ready to recreate the atmosphere of the previous America’s Cup in 2007.
Last week Cristobal Grau, Director of Sport for Valencia City, said it would only take a few weeks to have Valencia back in action. Today the Mayor of Valencia, Rita Barbera, said her city would welcome the Cup back with open arms. In her ruling at the New York Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Shirley Kornreich confirmed the primacy of the governing Deed of Gift document for the America’s Cup. This means that Société Nautique de Geneve (SNG) must choose a Deed-compliant location. Although Valencia is in the Northern Hemisphere, it is possible to hold the 33rd Match there in February because both SNG and Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) had agreed to it by mutual consent. Read on.
on board
DFL10/29/09
From our mates on the Class 40 Keysource in the Solidaire Chocolat...Well, we're in week 2 now, 7 retirements from the 24 starters and we find ourselves DFL. Our decision to come South certainly has yet to pay, the weather we'd seen hasn't materialised and we're haemoraghing miles like it's going out of fashion. Still, we're in 17th out of 24 and we can't finish any lower than that - we have to ignore our position in the fleet and really put the hammer down to pick up some places. The other two boats who've headed south - Axa Atout and Adriatech - are a couple of hundred miles in front and they're our targets.
Currently stuck in (another) hole and beating upwind in what I would guess is about 4 knots of pressure. However the suns just rising over North Africa and the sky is stunning. Racing aside we've already had a great experience, from lots of dolphins to flying fish, sea turtles and the most amazing dawns/dusks and night skies (I counted 6 shooting stars two nights ago) Putting everything we can into getting past the Canaries and into some decent easterly flow which should hopefully carry us at pace towards the next mark of the course - the gate at St Barts. I hesitate to say trades as with all the lows crossing the North Atlantic it's not exactly trade wind conditions and we're having to head very south to get into them.
On board the only problem had been the electronics, we've sailed most of the race with no weather data and only one B&G display working - however the only reliable info is the boat speed and the course/speed over ground (though I should give depth the benefit of the doubt!) - our AIS is faulty, our tricolour broken, our active echo and satellite comms upsetting each other as well. These are not excuses for our performance to date, all our running rigging and sails are ok and our back-up Raymarine pilot working fantastically (only works on heading though). I think when we get to Mexico we're going to have to work out why all the electrical issues - whether the kit is crap or whether the guys installing it all are useless.....
Have been trying not to think too much about the boys up North (we're 850 miles behind the leader and I reckon that will rise to 1,000 before we start getting some decent miles to the mark) though hats off to them. They've been sailing in appalling conditions day after day and getting their boats through it in one piece whilst still going fast, particular big ups to the amateurs racing up there, the lads on Orbis and the guys on Palanad and Plan des Enfants. There aren't many of us all amateur crews racing, most of the boats have at least one pro on board and it's great to see them slogging it out with some of the true legends of short handed offshore racing. Today's mission is to make some decent progress towards the Canaries - they're just over 100 miles away now - and grab some miles on the boys in front. Thanks to everyone for all of the support - more here.
J/120 Sinks10/29/09We've heard from two sources that the J/120 J/World, sailing in the Baja Ha skippered by our friend Wayne Zittel has sunk today somewhere off of Ensenada. All on board are thought to have escaped to a liferaft but we don't know anything else. Anybody?
30 Rock10/29/09
From anarchist Sarah during the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic Auckland-Russell race last week.Made it to Russell! Great day for the 30s, all three of them beat the record to Russell and beat all the 40 footers. Pretty unusual that the finish order should go: cats, 50 footers, 30 footers, 40 footers! First 30 in was the Elliott 9.55 Overload, launched 18 months ago, followed by the two Shaw 9s (pictured above0, Deep Throttle with Karma Police a minute behind. No official results yet but all three boats beat the 30 footer record of 11.5 hours by an hour or more.
Conditions were mostly 20 knots, some over 20, with KP's top speed 19.9 knots and mostly sitting on about 14-16 knots under gennaker before a 20-mile beat into the Bay of Islands to the finish. It was a record-beating race: Alfa Romeo, the Reichel Pugh 100 footer, smashed the overall record (set by a cat) by 36 minutes, The record for the 120-mile race is now under 7 hours!
other media
Classic10/29/09Speaking of the Coastal Classic, how about racinga 49er in a 120 mile offshore race? And kicking ass? It happened. This great story from Sunlive.
Since New Year, Peter Burling (18) and Blair Tuke (20) have had the idea of sailing the Coastal Classic Auckland to Russell race on Labour Weekend in their 49er skiff.
Peter and Blair have been sailing the 49er together for over 12 months aiming for the 2012 Olympics. The 49er is a high performance skiff with the focus being on speed rather than endurance. Read on.M 24 worlds
I was so busy plugging stats into my Blackberry that it was hard to get a good perspective on the course as we raced from one end to the other. I didn't know it was possible to hang onto a captain's chair with the death grip and still type at the same time. Well, I guess it's not since apparently I misspelled "Full Throttle" as "Fukk Throttle". I like to think of it as "Fuck throttle, we don't need that shiz cause we're a rocket today." Do rockets have throttles? I don't know, but Fukk Throttle performed pretty consistently towards the top today, with a 5th and 11th place, putting them in 4th Overall with 31 points. That is great considering there are so many star players throughout this fleet.
Search the Site
