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Kiwis Win Red Bull Youth America's Cup
Frenetic aggression and elite racing was the order of the day for the youth sailors of the Red Bull Youth America's Cup on Championship Wednesday, as New Zealand Sailing Team with Emirates Team New Zealand prevailed over nine other teams from around the world to take the inaugural title on San Francisco Bay.
The New Zealand team was challenged early and often by its fierce rivals on Full Metal Jacket (NZL) and ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team from Portugal, who finished second and third, respectively. These 19-24 year old young guns and future stars of the America's Cup were shining bright as they carved out a pathway for themselves into the professional ranks.
The leaderboard was tight throughout the regatta. The 10 youth teams, representing 8 countries, pogoed up and down the points' table with each race result leading to tense moments on the final day.
In the end, just three points separated second from fifth place. When the Swiss Team TILT won race 7, they became the sixth different crew to claim a race win in the regatta.
The big winner on the day was the ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team, who scored a second place to lift themselves onto the podium ahead of the Swiss and the American Youth Sailing Force who had a disappointing eighth place finish, dropping from third to fifth overall.
Final standings
1. NZL Sailing Team with Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 2-RDG-7-3-1-1-4 - 57 points
2. Full Metal Jacket Racing (NZL) 7-1-4-6-6-3-5 - 45
3. ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team (POR) 3-6-1-8-8-5-2 - 44
4. Team TILT (SUI) 8-5-2-2-9-7-1 - 43
5. American Youth Sailing Force (USA) 1-7-3-5-7-4-8 - 42
6. Swedish Youth Challenge (SWE) 6-2-9-1-4-6-10 - 39
7. Objective Australia (AUS) RDG-10-6-10-2-3 - 38
8. Next World Energy (FRA) 4-4-8-4-5-9-6 - 37
9. All In Racing (GER) 5-8-5-9-3-8-9 - 30
10. USA45 Racing (USA) 9-9-10-7-10-10-7 - 15
(RDG = redress awarded by International Jury)
ORACLE Team USA Announces Race Crew
ORACLE TEAM USA unveiled its crew to race in the 34th America's Cup today. With Jimmy Spithill at the helm, the 11-member crew will comprise the starting lineup when the team's quest to defend the America's Cup begins on San Francisco Bay this Saturday.
Spithill, the youngest winning skipper in America's Cup history, takes the helm again, this time on the team's AC72 catamaran. The crew also features grinder Shannon Falcone, grinder Rome Kirby, grinder/tactician John Kostecki, wing trimmer Kyle Langford, grinder Jonathan Macbeth, jib trimmer Joe Newton, grinder Gilberto Nobili, grinder/strategist Tom Slingsby, grinder Joe Spooner and grinder Simeon Tienpon.
Jimmy Spithill, Helmsman
Birthdate: June 28, 1979
Jimmy boxes with fast hands, serves a fast ball in tennis, needs horsepower under his right foot and, on a race boat, likes to "send it." He is the America's Cup's youngest-ever winning skipper, and twice he's been named the Australian Male Yachtsman of the Year. Going fast is what he does.
Shannon Falcone, Grinder
Birthdate: June 28, 1981
Shannon's first footsteps as a child were on his father's 44-footer Caccia alla Volpe. He went on to win several championships around the world including a 33rd America's Cup.
Rome Kirby, Grinder
Birthdate: June 6, 1989
Rome is among the youngest members of ORACLE TEAM USA. He recently completed the around the world Volvo Ocean Race onboard with PUMA Ocean Racing, sailing more than 39,000 nautical miles.
John Kostecki, Grinder/Tactician
Birthdate: June 7, 1964
San Francisco native John Kostecki was the first sailor in the world to collect the sport's "Grand Slam," after winning the 33rd America's Cup, adding to his round-the-world 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race victory as skipper and Olympic silver medal at the 1988 Games.
Kyle Langford, Wing Trimmer
Birthdate: July 30, 1989
As the youngest sailor on ORACLE TEAM USA, Kyle is accepting the challenge full-on. He is no stranger to skipper Jimmy Spithill. The Aussie compatriots teamed together in 2010 aboard yacht 17 to win the RC 44 World Championship and RC 44 World Match Race Championship.
Jonathan Macbeth, Grinder
Birthdate: March 26, 1973
Seasoned sailor Jonathan "Jono" Macbeth has garnered his fair share of championships, including a Louis Vuitton Cup win and two America's Cup titles.
Joe Newton, Jib Trimmer
Birthdate: December 16, 1977
Australian mates skipper Jimmy Spithill and Joe Newton formed a tight bond in their early days competing with Young Australia, and the duo went on to win the 33rd America's Cup in 2010.
Gilberto Nobili, Grinder
Birthdate: April 29, 1974
Gilberto Nobili, "Gillo," is not only an America's Cup champion but also a double-agent for the team - sailor by day and Java developer by night, building customized displays for each crew member onboard the AC72.
Tom Slingsby, Grinder/Strategist
Birthdate: September 5, 1984
Tom Slingsby is an all-around athlete, with a promising tennis career and a gold medal in sailing from the 2012 Olympic Games in his past and the 34th America's Cup Finals in his future.
Joe Spooner, Grinder
Birthdate: October 31, 1973
Entering into this 34th America's Cup, skilled sailor Joe Spooner already has two America's Cup titles, three Fastnet Race wins and a Rolex Maxi Worlds championship in his trophy case.
Simeon Tienpont, Grinder
Birthdate: January 20, 1982
Simeon is no stranger to speed, sailing with the record-setting 24-hour monohull run in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2005-06 and a 33rd America's Cup title. He is a jack of all trades from a shipbuilding family and studied design and construction of yachts at university.
America's Cup Final Schedule
Best-of-17 series
Saturday, Sept. 7: Final Race 1 (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 2 (2:10 pm PT)
Sunday, Sept. 8: Final Race 3 (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 4 (2:10 pm PT
Tuesday, Sept. 10: Final Race 5 (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 6 (2:10 pm PT)
Thursday, Sept. 12: Final Race 7 (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 8 (2:10 pm PT)
Saturday, Sept. 14: Final Race 9 (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 10* (2:10 pm PT)
Sunday, Sept. 15: Final Race 11* (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 12* (2:10 pm PT)
Monday, Sept. 16: Reserve Day
Tuesday, Sept. 17: Final Race 13* (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 14* (2:10 pm PT)
Wednesday, Sept. 18: Reserve Day
Thursday, Sept. 19: Final Race 15* (1:10 pm PT), Final Race 16* (2:10 pm PT)
Friday, Sept. 20: Reserve Day
Saturday, Sept. 21: Final Race 17* (1:10 pm PT)
Sunday, Sept. 22: Reserve Day
Monday, Sept. 23: Reserve Day
(*If necessary)
Marlow Excel Dinghy Series Upgrades
The upgrades to the Excel Dinghy Series launched at the beginning of the year prove successful for new breed of high performance Olympic classes. The higher performance 49er rigs, the 49erfx and Nacra 17 all demand higher performance than ever from their ropes.
Excel Elite 90
Excel Elite 90 utilises the super high strength Dyneema SK90 yarn which is 15% stronger than the Marlow standard SK78 equivalent. The cover features a highly durable blend of Technora and polyester which improves abrasion resistance 300% compared to a full polyester cover.
Excel Racing GP 78
Compared to Excel Racing 78, the cover features a highly durable blend of Technora and polyester which improves both abrasion resistance and also grip in wet hands.
British sailing team member and 49er European champion Dylan Fletcher explains "Performance and reliability are key factors, the members of Team GBR are upgrading some high load lines such as spinnaker halyards to Excel Elite 90. The added abrasion resistance and improvement in strength can only benefit our performance and decrease needless retirements due to gear failure."
Annalise Murphy Wins Two More Races Today
Photo by Richard Langdon/Ocean Images, www.oceanimages.co.uk. Click on image for photo gallery.
Strong winds and big waves meant tired bodies and minds at the first day of racing for the Final Series at the Laser European and World Championships on Dublin Bay. Experience gained over years in the Laser proved as valuable as physical strength and stamina as Brazil's five times Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt climbed into the overall lead of the Laser European Trophy regatta.
Local favourite Annalise Murphy continues to delight her army of supporters, sailing on her own home waters, as she reeled off another two race wins to lead the women's Olympic Laser Radial class by a comprehensive 15 points.
Murphy maintained her perfect score line, now counting seven wins from the eight starts so far and discards a second place. British Sailing Team's Alison Young, who finished in fifth at the 2012 Olympic regatta - one place behind the Dublin helm - is now up to second place, whilst the Netherlands Olympic silver medallist Marit Bouwmeester lies third.
Although Scheidt leads the overall European Trophy regatta now by ten points after a 23rd (discarded) and a third place today, it is the Netherlands Ruttger van Schaardeburg who leads the European Championship.
In the European Championship Van Schaardenburg leads only on countback, sharing the same 27 points tally as Britain's Nick Thompson and Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic. Thompson, twice runner up in the Laser World Championships, was the most consistent, lowest scoring sailor in the Laser standards today with his third and second.
And in the Laser Men's Radial World and European Championships Australia's Tristan Brown also holds on to his superlative form, extending his overall lead in the world title chase, although Ireland's Finn Lynch - who won silver on these waters at the ISAF Youth World Championships last year - now leads the Europeans.
www.lasereuropeans2013.com for full results.
Audi SB20 World Championships
With under a week to go until the first race of the 2013 Audi SB20 World Championships hosted by COYCH in Hyères, France, the entry list is shaping up with 100 boats expected on the start line on Monday 9th September. Audi's title sponsorship of the Championship ensures that not only will the competitors have a great event on the water, but they will also be well entertained ashore.
2013 will see the sixth edition of the SB20 World Championships. The SB20 World Championship trophy has never before been lifted by a team from outside of the UK. The pressure from the home grown French talent and ever increasing Russian class quality will put the top seeds from the UK under immense pressure if they wish to retain the trophy for a sixth year running. 7th ranked ISAF Women's Match Race sailor Claire Leroy (FRA) will race with three times 420 class World Champion Magali Pallanca's (FRA) in an all female entry. Along with Sophie de Turchkheim's (FRA) part female team Leroy/Pallanca's teams will both fly the livery of luxury French cosmetics company Clarins who have sponsored these two French teams.
European Open and British Blokart Championships
Click on image to enlarge.
The largest single-make land-sailing event in the world is due to take place in Weston-super-Mare UK from the 20th-22nd of September. The British Land Speedsail Association are hosting the European Open and British Blokart Championships. A Blokart is the best selling type of land-yacht in the world; it allows people of all ages and abilities to compete equally.
There are well over 100 pilots coming from all over Europe, but also some from further afield including Australia and New Zealand. It will be the largest landsailing event in the UK this year.
The Secretary of the BLSA is a paraplegic competitor (British champion and ranked 3rd in his class worldwide) and loves the fact that he can compete fairly against able-bodied pilots.
The youngest pilot competing is Annabelle, who is 10, and there are a couple of competitors at the other end of the age range who are in their 70s.
Mike Bushell did a great piece a few years ago on BBC Breakfast: www.bbc.co.uk/news/11729603 and you can see more video clips and find more information on the website www.theblsa.com
Fleet Battle Thick Fog and Strong Tides
The Clipper fleet ceased racing today at 1500 UTC following a decision to shorten the course due to prevailing conditions.
This will enable yachts to reach Brest tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon local time.
Race Director Justin Taylor explained: "At 1200 UTC today I emailed the fleet with instructions on shortening the course. This is because the forecast for the next 24 hours is for very light winds. This coupled with the fact that the majority of the fleet are in an area known as the Alderney Race which is subject to very strong tides. This means that they would be left with the prospect of anchoring to stop them losing ground."
At 1500 UTC (1700 local) the yachts ceased racing and are in the process of emailing their positions to the Race Office. The Race Director will use these positions to calculate the rhumb line distance to Creac'h Lighthouse on Ushant. The yacht with the shortest distance to this lighthouse will be provisionally awarded 1st place until the position can be verified using a photograph that the skippers take of the time and their position.
This position to the lighthouse may vary slightly from the places shown to Brest on the Race Viewer.
Justin Taylor added: "Once they have ceased racing they will make best possible speed to Brest by motor-sailing. I anticipate the first arrivals tomorrow at 1200 UTC or 1400 local time."
Provisional finishing positions to follow.
Building (Two) Better Mini Maxis
They are not only building (eight or more) Volvo Ocean 65s down at Persico Marine's substantial modern facility in Nembro
AZt the beginning of August Persico Marine delivered the fourth hull of the new fleet of Volvo Ocean 65s with hull number 5 already well advanced. Meanwhile, Marcello Persico, managing director of Persico Marine, has also recently signed two prestigious new contracts for 72ft custom raceboat designs, for sistership Mini Maxis Ran V and Chrisco. 'For Persico Marine a new chapter begins,' explains Marcello, 'since with these two Mini Maxis our main point of contact is the final owner.'
The new Ran has been designed as was the team's previous boat by Rolf Vroljik, with the decision to award the entire build contract to Persico Marine being based largely upon the added value that the Ran team identified in terms of service. That the Persico Marine team also now includes some of the best boatbuilders available on the international market also played a part in the choice of yard for the Ran project.
Persico Marine now boast 6,000m2 of enclosed build space - more than enough to allow the two new Mini Maxis to come together alongside the company's ongoing VO65 output. The same female mould tooling will be used for both Ran and her sistership Chrisco which also leads to some useful build economies - even for these top-end programmes.
Full article in Seahorse magazine:
www.seahorsemagazine.com
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* From Butch Dalrymple-Smith: Bob Fisher is only partly right in his condemnation of the 34th America's Cup.
Apart from the aberrant period when 12 metres and IACC yachts were used, the America's Cup has always been raced in the fastest yachts that contemporary technology could create, so the 34th AC has followed precedent accurately. There have always been controversies and arguments, so the current regatta is well on track. Traditionally there used to be only one challenger, so in many ways the 34th event is closer to its roots than the past eighteen were.
When match racing tactics first became an integral part of the America's Cup, the only other match racing event was the Congressional Cup. Now that there are scores of match racing events and even an international points champion, it is less important for the AC to be primarily a match race. It can return to being a drag race and technology contest. And anyway, if the AC72 class is allowed to mature the boats will become more equal and we'll get high speed match racing too.
The nationality issue is a recent modification to the AC concept, applying only between 1958 & 2003, and it is easy to see why Grant Dalton wants to re-establish it. But here I actually agree with Fish and Dalt. Nationality rules for sailors make sense, though the design & build should be left open as it is so difficult to define and to police.
Where Bob Fisher is also 100% right is that the competition has been betrayed by the idea of making it "viewer friendly". Why for heaven's sake? What has the general public got to do with it? Enthusiasts will always find the column inches they need to follow the event and it is a waste of time putting it on television. Viewing figures have no relevance to the quality of any sporting event apart from boosting the celebrity of the participants and justifying commercial involvement. Take that away and we'll get back to egomaniac billionaires sailing the old America's Cup we know and love.
* From Daniel Charles: The America's Cup jury has brought the whole of sailing into disrepute with one of the most misguided decision in the history of all sports.
Penalizing a team for something which happened in another class in another set of regattas (from which the culprits have auto-expelled themselves in repentance) is incomprehensible for a general public used to ad quod damnum - penalties proportional to the crime"
Giving a life sentence over the careers of the concerned crews for what in other classes would be a normal quest of excellence demonstrates an absolutist interpretation of the law akin to chopping the hand of a petty thief.
Not penalizing the jury and the race and class organisers of the AC45 circuit for failing to enforce the class rules is an unacceptable self-exemption: these authorities failed in their enforcing duties; a law with no enforcement is void and passing the buck to another event is grotesque.
There is no doubt that the jury decision applies the rule to the letter -and this is precisely the problem. Sport juries, with their literal interpretation of the law, forget what criminal judges all over the world have known for centuries: that the law is imperfect by essence and has to be interpreted to fit the crime.
While this America's Cup is a total mess, Bob Fisher's claim that "The Cup is about duelling to a certain extent" is contradicted by a September, 1987 ruling of the New York Supreme Court saying that the Cup is "a design contest"; this ruling (which The Fish supported at the time) excludes the use of one-designs that some (such as Russell Coutts, to the author in June) might considered in the future. If one is unsatisfied with the wishes of the America's Cup donors, the choice is simple: forget the Auld Mug and create another event. Before dreaming of the future cup, a post-mortem is needed to understand how this whole mess could be generated under the watch of the most hallowed professionals. Would it be that our professionals (whether designing, racing or communicating) have -as the current mess proves- no panoramic vision of the sport? Would it be that our professional structure is vitiated? OMG!
* From John Horn: I don't usually agree with Bob Fisher and have followed almost as many AC's as him, but usually from an armchair and on TV. I think in this case he is absolutely right in his comments and assesment today in Scuttlebutt Europe. Please let's hope NZ can win and get back to some proper matchracing.
I have watched every race so far and followed the build-up and I am sure there is something to be learned from AC34, but at present I am not sure what it is.
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