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FFVoile Partners with Next World Energy for Red Bull YAC
During the first week of September, in between the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup finals, the city of San Francisco will be hosting the Red Bull Youth America's Cup, for teams with members under 24 years old. The AC45 of France's Next World Energy team will be taking part in this high-level competition. In order to prep the young competitors who will represent France, a sports partnership has been signed between Next World Energy and the French Sailing Federation.
The French challenger ENERGY TEAM was to introduce a youth crew at the San Francisco competition. "Our objective is to take part in the America's Cup in four years, so it makes sense for us to prepare for the future," explains Antonie Mermod, Technical Director of Energy Team. With the support of Next World Group, a European firm based in San Francisco, the team put in place a recruitment plan, and together with FFVoile began selecting the team members at the end of 2012. Up until the final selection is made for the San Francisco race (only six sailors and one alternate will be selected to be on board of the AC45) the young individuals being considered are training on various boats. In Naples on the AC45, sponsored by the Swiss watchmaker Corum, on an Open 7.50 at the Spi Ouest in France, and more recently at the Belle-Ile race, as well as at the Trofeo Pirelli in Portofino on Extreme40.
FFVoile is providing logistical and technical support during three intensive training sessions. The first one is currently taking place in Lorient from May 13-24, on an Extreme 40 catamaran.
The French National Sailing School's (ENV) expertise together with FFVoile's experience will be put to use in training the team. Two executives from the School will participate during these sessions.
AC72s Return To Training In San Francisco
Photo by Erik Simonson, www.h2oshots.com. Click on image for photo gallery.
On Thursday, less than 10 hours after a no-sailing recommendation period expired, three America's Cup teams resumed training on San Francisco Bay.
For ORACLE TEAM USA and Luna Rossa, sailing again meant a return to their training programs on the Bay. For Emirates Team New Zealand it was their first sail on the Bay since arriving en masse as a team earlier this month.
* Artemis Racing: Update From Paul Cayard
Artemis Racing is back to work. We will only race if our sailing team believes they are safe racing AC72s. This confidence will be dependent on many criteria, one of the most important of which is the new safety criteria and rules changes that the America's Cup organizers and competitors will adopt.
Regarding the accident on San Francisco Bay, Artemis Racing is still in the process of conducting its own internal review. I understand that frustration exists out there because questions remain about the accident. It was, however, a complex event. We want to give it the time, respect and professionalism it deserves, so we thank everyone for their continued patience during this process.
artemis-racing.americascup.com
Once In A Lifetime
Celebrating her centenary, the winner of the first Fastnet Race in 1925, Pilot Cutter, Jolie Brise now sailed by pupils from Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire. Photo by Rick Tomlinson, rick-tomlinson.com. Click on image to enlarge.
Since 1925, the Royal Ocean Racing Club's iconic 608-mile race around the Fastnet Rock has captured the hearts and souls of millions of people. This August, The Rolex Fastnet Race will have the largest number of participants in its 89-year history. Over 350 yachts, and as many as 380 yachts, from five continents and over 22 different countries will be taking part.
Rhe original winner of the first race in 1925, the Pilot Cutter Jolie Brise, celebrating her centenary, is also competing and this diversity is the reason why the Rolex Fastnet Race is so special.
Built in 1913, Jolie Brise has participated in the Fastnet race four times, winning three races including the inaugural race in 1925. Her career as a pilot boat was short-lived, owing to steam replacing sail, she became a fishing boat for a time before being bought by E.G Martin in 1923, a founder member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Evelyn George Martin met with a group of distinguished sailors, including Algernon Maudsley, to discuss an ocean race. Martin pulled a ten shilling note from his pocket, placed it on the desk and asked Maudsley if he would do the same. In that moment, the Ocean Racing Club was formed. After some discussion a race 'from Cowes round the Fastnet and back to Plymouth' was announced for yachts not exceeding a waterline length of 50ft. Jolie Brise won the first race and also won in 1929 and 1930 and to this day, she is the only yacht to have won the race three times.
Since 1977, Dauntsey's School Sailing Club has sailed and maintained Jolie Brise.
Since 1930, four yachts have come close to equalling Jolie Brise's three overall victories, but none have yet to succeed. Olin Stephens' Dorade (1931 & 1933), Capt. J.H.Illingworth's Myth of Malham (1947 & 1949), Dick Nye's Carina (1955 & 1957) and Niklas Zennstrom's Ran 2 (2009 & 2011). This year, the mini maxi Ran 2 will be attempting to win the trophy for an unprecedented third consecutive year.
Dutch Feeling At Home In Medemblik
The Dutch teams made the most of the day at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik. At the end of the third day of racing, there is a Dutch boat in the top three of all classes at the exception of the 49er were Holland is not represented.
Pieter Jan Postma in the Finn and the Sonar team of Udo Essel took it all in the three races sailed in freezing conditions. They are now in the lead.
Paralympic champions Udo Essel, Mischa Rossens and Marel van de Veen proved today with three victories in the Sonar that they trully deserve their Gold medal. "We took a long break after London, so it is great to see that we are still up to it. It gives confidence for the future." The Dutch sailors are conserving their lead in the Nacra and the RS:X Men.
Mandy Mulder and Thijs Visser (NED) increase their lead after two bullets in the Nacra. The french and Swedish teams have close results with Moana Vaireaux and Manon Audinet (FRA) in second overall.
Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) in the RS:X class is flying away with a win and two second places.
The result is very tight in the RS:X women, with the top five within five points. Hei Man Hayley Victoria Chan (HKG) conserves a narrow lead from Moana Delle (GER). Third place is taken by Dutch windsurfer Lilian de Geus.
The Danish are again proving their domination in the skiff with Jonas Warrer and Peter Lang enjoying a 14 points lead over French Julien D'ortoli and Noe Delpech in the 49er.
Palma SWC winners, Ida Marie Baad Nielsen and Marie Olsen (DEN) take a narrow two points lead in the FX over Germans Tina Lutz and Susan Beucke. Early leaders Annemiek Bekkering and Claire Blom (NED) are now in third position.
The dual at the top continues between Laser World number 1, Australian Tom Burton and Palma winner Andy Maloney (NZL). They place first and second in the first day of the Laser final with the top 25 boats. In the women, Alison Young (GBR) shares the lead on equal points with Irish Annalise Murphy.
World #1 Matt Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) are back in the lead in the 470 class after two wins and a third place. In the women, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) are increasing their lead after top two places and a win. The other two races were taken by Dutch team of Afrodite Kyranakou and Anneloes van Veen (NED) who climb in third position.
It is a close score in the 2.4 after three more races sailed in freezing conditions. The top three win a race each with Megan Pascoe (GBR) leading from Barend Kol (NED) and Helena Lucas (GBR).
Tomorrow will see the last day of the final stage and the last chances to qualify for the top 8 in the skiffs and the medal races scheduled for Friday night, and the top six in the other Olympic classes who will race their medal race on Saturday.
The forecast on Friday is for medium winds.
A Sad Story
From Dobbs Davis, who received this message from the Ukraine:
Tuesday, 7 May 2013 at 12 pm, a group of 25 heavily armed men in cars without registration plates climbed over the fence of the Sailing Academy yacht club and without presenting any id introduced themselves as the representatives of the Vyshgorodski region's executive service and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Supported by numerous rangers of special forces, they occupied the whole territory without presenting the resolution on enforcement.
Entrance of the club was blocked by the car with the taped state registration plates with equipment for burglary. These unidentified persons hang locks the gate and did not allow anyone to enter the territory of the yacht club. Private security company organized the armed support to the unknown persons who entered the territory.
Sailing Academy yacht club experienced last spring night armed attack by five professionally trained persons wearing military uniforms which resulted in fire and complete destruction of three sailing yachts from 29 to 36 feet length and damaged property on other yachts. The assaulters are not identified till now.
Sailing Academy lost the legal case from the Ministry of defense of Ukraine. Ukrainian court made the court proceeding classified and did not allowed representatives of the yachtsmen to participate in hearings.
According to the court decision the building of the club should be demolished and yacht club's fixed assets of Sailing Academy should be transferred to the Military Intelligence unit of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine.
Sailing Academy operates yacht club over 14 years and has near 50 members of the yacht club with sailing school for children and adults. Sailing Academy is a member of the Sailing Federation of Ukraine and for 13 years in a row was the organizing authority of Hetman Cup - the most prestigious sailing event in Ukraine. The Sailing Academy supports ORC rating office in Ukraine. The Sailing Academy never used any public funds to support its activities.
The Sailing Academy made appeal for the Supreme Ukrainian court and will apply to European Court. The land disputes and raider attacks initiated by the state in Ukraine became quite regular event due to attractiveness of land plots as well as defunct and corrupted court system.
Hedley Calvert
Hedley Calvert, one of Tasmanian most prominent and successful offshore racing yachtsmen over a sailing career spanning five decades, died in Hobart today in his 80th year, after an extended illness.
Calvert was the eldest of the sons of Chas Calvert, a Huon Valley orchardist and yachtsman, with four generations of the Calvert family becoming successful yachtsmen, nationally and internationally.
Hedley Calvert followed his father as a prominent orchardist but sailing was his passion from boyhood, in Cadets and Rainbows before moving up into the Derwent keelboat class and then as a helmsman of many fine ocean racing yachts. His brothers, the late Barry Calvert and Don Calvert also became champion yachtsmen, with great success in the International Dragon class for both Barry and Don, and at the Admiral's Cup for Don.
In 1965 Hedley had built the Huon Lass, designed by British naval architect Robert Clark who had designed the famous Caprice of Huon for his father 15 years previously. Huon Lass was a most competitive yacht in her class and with her began Hedley's annual ritual of competing in Sydney Hobart races, 15 in total.
In 1974, he was awarded the Tasmanian Star of Sport and in 2010 he was inducted into the Tasmanian Yachting Hall of Fame for his contribution to yachting.
Following his racing career, Hedley cruised extensively including a voyage to New Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Hedley and Judy also lived in Mooloolaba on Queensland's Sunshine Coast for several years where Hedley was an active member of the Mooloolaba Yacht Club.
Hedley was a 53 year member of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and also a member of the Huon Yacht Club.
Hedley Calvert is survived by his wife Judy and daughters Susan and Louise and by his brother Don. Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced. -- Peter Campbell
Industry News
Slovenia-based boatbuilder Elan Yachts has appointed new distributors in Chile, the Czech Republic, Poland and Australia.
In Chile, Windmade Spa will represent the Elan brand from its base in Santiago. Yachtcharter Marten, a well-established charter and yacht sales company, will cover the Czech Republic, while Best Boats Sp zoo will handle Poland.
In Australia, Elan Yachts will be represented by US Boats.
Founded in 1949, Elan is one of Slovenia's leading producers of permance sailing yachts and cruisers. The company operates from a 16,000sq m facility in Begunje na Gorenjskem.
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OneSails are pleased to announce the addition of a new loft to the group. Located in Genthod, Switzerland, just 3km away from Geneva the 170sqm loft overlooks Lake Geneva and is ideally situated in the bay of Creux de Genthod where more than 200 boats between 20 and 40 feet are moored.
Benjamin "Ben" Fluckiger, 32, an accomplished sailor and well known Swiss sailmaker with over 10 years of industry experience is responsible for technical and operational management whilst his brother Nicolas will look after administration and day-to-day control.
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Sarah Rickarby has joined Complete Marine Freight in Ocean Village, Southampton.
Sarah comes with more than 10 years of experience in marine shipping, dealing with the safe movement of yachts and powerboats around the World. She is already proving a great asset to the UK team who have dramatically expanded their business based.
Sarah also has yachting events experience, having been a logistics manager for the Extreme Sailing Series working with all the leading teams: Artemis, Gitana, ETNZ, Oman Sail, Red Bull, Luna Rossa, GAC Pindar. She also worked for America's Cup teams in San Diego, New York and Italy during 2012/2013.
Onshore, Sarah has also managed logistics for Land Rover expeditions in Morocco and Canada.
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On Monday 13 May, the Professional Charter Association (PCA) celebrated 21 years of activity in true traditional style, onboard the classic English motor yacht, Seafin, kindly provided by Warwick Bergin, in the Solent on England's South Coast.
Twenty PCA members joined together to toast the milestone with a splendid lunch and a special 21st birthday cake.
The PCA was originally set up to allow charter operators to share information on MCA codes and today members enjoy supplier discounts and solid relationships with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Members strive to provide a professional service to their clients, across a vast range of sail and power vessels, of all sizes, within the UK and with some members also operating in the Mediterranean.
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Port Tarraco, one of the Mediterranean's only marinas with nine meter draft, making it ideal for deep water berthing of superyachts and megayachts, is upgrading its onshore power system to 6.6 kV. This latest standard in onshore power provides 6,600 volts, which is the system used by new giga yachts. This is backed up with Port Tarraco's existing 1250 amps at 400 volts onshore power, making Port Tarraco now one of the only Mediterranean ports able to offer commercial and merchant marine standard power systems, which are becoming more commonly used on super and mega yachts.
The availability of stable, high power systems from the shore means that yachts in the marina can operate using single cables connected to shore power rather than running on-board generators while in port.
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On May 1st, the European holding Deck Developpement, owners of the world marine fitting Wichard and the yacht sail management systems Profurl, acquired the Losange Group in a strategy to consolidate its leadership in the marine industry. Based in France, the Losange Group is composed of Facnor (manufacturer of furling systems), RDM (mast manufacturer based in La Rochelle - France), Sparcraft Rigging (manufacturer of standing and running rigging), and Charleston Spars, also known as Sparcraft USA (mast manufacturer based in Charlotte, NC - USA).
In the United States, this acquisition will soon result in the merging of the two entities, Wichard Inc and Sparcraft USA, into one global company. It will also mark the rebirth of Sparcraft USA after a long period of difficulties.
To achieve this goal, Deck Development will invest in the infrastructure in Charlotte.
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Germany's HanseYachts has reported sales of €51.7m for the first nine months of fiscal 2012/13 - a 21 per cent drop compared to the same time last year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) improved by €0.3m to - €2.9m and write-downs amounted to €3.5m. Consequently, EBIT has slightly improved by €0.1m to - €6.3m compared to the same period last year.
"Overall market demand for sailing yachts still remains at a low level," says Hanse in a statement. "Recovery over the short-term is not to be expected - in particular against the background of the economic situation of the countries along the Mediterranean rim.
"The only highlights have been the excellent sales volume in Turkey, stable demand in Germany, as well as the rising sales figures in the US. Within our sector, however, there is marked predatory competition that has been particularly reflected in competitive pricing."
Featured Brokerage
2005 Chantiers Structures Pogo 1. 127,500 GBP. Located in Hamble, UK.
This privately owned, professionally refitted Class 40 racer-cruiser is for sale. Refitted and race prepared without consideration of cost for last years AZAB and again for the 2012 Round Britain and Ireland Race, this excellent example of the early racer-cruiser Class 40 genre is reluctantly for sale for personal reasons.
Last Class 40 measurement 2011 and updated IRC rating 2012. Viewing highly reccomended and will not dissapoint. An ideal entry level Class 40 for family racing and cruising and available to be trial sailed for prospective buyers
Brokerage through Key Yachting Ltd.: www.yachtworld.com/keyyachting/
Complete listing details and seller contact information at uk.yachtworld.com
The Last Word
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