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HOME MOVIES
Wednesday, 3/3/10 - First it was Tornados and now it's Tsunamis! What a way to start the 2010 sailing season on the west coast. Everyone has heard about the 8.8 earthquake in Chile and the Tsunami warnings and advisories that were announced on the west coast and Hawaii. Here is footage taken in San Diego, Ca. on Shelter Island in America's Cup Harbor. Check out this two minute plus video of the tide going out at an incredible speed due to the Tsunami.
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Tuesday, 3/2/10 - Around 1,000 miles from Cape Horn, the sailing conditions are fairly lively with over thirty knots of NW'ly wind and somewhat chaotic seas. The decision to deviate from the direct course by zig zagging has forced Groupama 3 to climb to 47° S, and caused the team to lose a large part of the lead they acquired in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Nearly 750 miles across the ground over the past 24 hours, but just 575 are VMG. The detour above a rather angry low, is proving to be highly disadvantageous, to the extent that close to 350 miles have been lost from Groupama 3's lead over the past three days. However, if all goes to plan, the losses will ease over the coming hours as Orange 2 also had to make a detour the day before she rounded Cape Horn. But, given that the wind will ease as they approach Chile, in what will still be very messy seas, it will be difficult for Franck Cammas and his men to hold onto even a small cushion of a lead after this third cape.
"The sun is in the process of rising: however, we've covered a fair amount of ground to the East so the day is beginning earlier," said Cammas. "Over the past five hours, the front has crept right up with us and the wind is very shifty in terms of strength. As such we've reduced the sails to three reefs in the mainsail and staysail. The wind is gusting to forty knots and we're being forced to make headway underpowered. Fortunately the sea state isn't too bad and the boat isn't under too much pressure."
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Tuesday, 3/2/10 - An editorial on Sailing Anarchy entitled "no multis?" makes an argument against Multihulls in the next America's Cup.
"Multihulls are not viable for a multi-challenger America's Cup for one simple reason: Space. Space is a commodity second in value only to time in any well organized project." Check it out here. Photo Gilles Martin Raget.
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Tuesday, 3/2/10 - Following their hero's welcome and an unforgettable stopover in the Shandong provincial city of Qingdao, China, the teams competing in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race were treated to a spectacular send off for Race 7 of the 35,000-mile global challenge to San Francisco. As the brave sailors manned their boats and prepared to do battle with the largest ocean on the planet, thousands lined the breakwater of the Olympic Sailing Center to send them on their way. A 15-knot breeze from the north gave a gentle introduction to the 5,680-mile race to California, USA, the longest leg in the history of the Clipper Race. Read more here.
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Tuesday, 3/2/10 - For the first time in singlehanded offshore racing, the VELUX 5 OCEANS will provide a standardized package of cutting edge onboard cameras and communications management systems for the competing fleet. Read more here. Photo onEdition.
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MOVING PICTURES
Tuesday, 3/2/10 - Here's a look back at the RC 44 fleet at the Al Maktoum Trophy that wrapped up this past weekend. Big talent, hot boats and wind - that's a solid combination.
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HOME MOVIES
Tuesday, 3/2/10 - Jessica Watson looks healthy and happy as she rounds yet another cape. The sixteen year old circumnavigator is starting to see a record breaking light at the end of a long and arduous tunnel.
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HOME MOVIES
Tuesday, 3/2/10 - How hot is catamaran racing in Australia now? Some more headcam footage from Durepox.com.au at the Kurnell Cat Club "Cock of the Bay Regatta". Big Cats all together with Bundy in the F16 winning race 1 across the line.
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MOVING PICTURES
Tuesday, 3/2/10 - There are a lot of sailing simulators out on the market today. Here is another one by GeoGames, who has partnered with Stentec Software for a motion dynamic sailing simulator. This looks like one of the coolest sailing simulations we've seen. Match your sailing skills against sailors around the world. All accessible with geographic locations. Check it out at www.sailsimulator.com
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Monday, 3/1/10 - Chris Bake and his Team Aqua win the fleet regatta after a fantastic final battle whilst Torbjorn Tornqvist and Artemis conquer the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy (the combination of the match race and fleet race rankings) ahead of Pieter Heerema's No Way Back and Markus Wieser's Team Sea Dubai.
The conditions were very difficult for the last day of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44, with a very shifty breeze blowing between 8-15 knots and a pale sky covered with sand and dust and a visibility reduced to half a mile.
Team Aqua, Artemis and to a lesser extent Ceeref were in a position to win the fleet race ranking this morning. BMW ORACLE Racing took the best start at the pin end whilst Aqua managed to find clean air in the middle of the line. Things weren't going that well for Artemis, who ended up sailing in the other team's turbulences. A massive right shift made the Swedish team's life even harder whilst giving a nice edge to No Way Back and Team Aqua. In a normal race, this would have been it but this definitely wasn't a normal race. Indeed, the gusts, the shifts and the marks of course were hardly noticeable due to the dust.
"We felt that the temperature was dropping brutally", explained No Way Back's owner Pieter Heerema at the end of the race. "This was a clear indication that the wind would turn right and blow from offshore." Indeed, the wind started veering in the middle of the second beat, sending half of the fleet way over the lay line and giving a beautiful opportunity to Artemis to catch up. The wind carried on turning right during the last spinnaker ride, forcing the boats to finish under jib however without affecting the results much. No Way Back won the race ahead of Team Aqua and Puerto Calero, whilst Artemis recovered well, going from last to fourth and keeping a chance to win the overall title. Read the rest here.
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Monday, 3/1/10 - Here's the latest from the two teen girls who are both out on the ocean looking to become the youngest to circle the globe alone and unassisted.
Jessica Watson
"Well that's it. Another ocean and cape down! It took a while with light winds for the last few days but Ella's Pink Lady has passed under Cape Agulhas, but being 400nm south of land I couldn't quite see it this time. A bright orange half moon and a spectacular sky of stars was enough of a celebration. But of course, I also put a bit of a dent in the chocolate supplies and let off a few party poppers!
There's still so many miles to cover across the Indian and then around the bottom of Australia, but it really feels like we're on the homeward leg now. Only 4,200nm till Cape Leeuwin and Australia, a very exciting and slightly scary thought!"
Abby Sunderland
"Today I called home in the morning as usual but this time everyone sounded more than a little worried. While I was talking to my mom, my dad was on the phone with the Coast Guard. They Had recevied a lot of calls from people who were worried about the tsunami. They were calling to check my position to see if I was in any danger. They were pretty concerned and said that I was right in the middle of where they were expecting the tsunami to go. The guys at Commander's Weather assured us that I would not be in any danger but it was a good reason to just go over everything on the boat since the boat is not heeled over as much as she was earlier this week."
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Monday, 3/1/10 - Karl Kwok's Farr 80, Beau Geste, was awarded the RORC Caribbean 600 trophy for best yacht overall under IRC, the line honours trophy for monohulls and Class trophy for IRC Super Zero. Check out more of the RORC Caribbean 600 here.
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Monday, 3/1/10 - Tony Rey, sailing for George Andreadis on Etchells 1368 sailed on the water like a gold medal figure skater: gaining points with every turn and making the whole competition look like a cinch. Check out more photos and the rest of the story at Sail World.
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Monday, 3/1/10 - TEAMORIGIN have just completed a few days on-water boat preparation and shake-down with Emirates Team New Zealand in the two race boats that will be used for the forthcoming Louis Vuitton Trophy event. Check out Valencia Sailing for the rest of the story. Photo Chris Cameron.
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Monday, 3/1/10 - With 45 days to go, Charleston Race Week organizers are excited to announce the inclusion of IRC racing in the South's biggest and most exciting multiclass keelboat regatta. "IRC hasn't really caught on here in Charleston yet," said Race Director Randy Draftz. "But with hugely successful boats like Teamwork and Stark Raving Mad,and true Grand Prix racers like Vincitore entered in 2010 Charleston Race Week's IRC Class, we're certainly starting off with a bang!" Read here for more. Photo Paul Wyeth.
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MOVING PICTURES
Monday, 3/1/10 - Match racing wizz-kid Adam Minoprio talk about his new experience on the RC 44 where he sailed in the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy that concluded on Saturday.
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HOME MOVIES
Monday, 3/1/10 - Hard to know what to say about this video. We love the Seacart, and while seeing a guy move his bowels going 20-knots is impressive, it might not be the promotional material the Seacart folks are looking for...
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MOVING PICTURES
Monday, 3/1/10 - The 2009 Giltinan Championship winning crew of Euan Mc Nicol, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas were the masters of the dreadful conditions which prevailed during Race 13 of the Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship on Sydney Harbour yesterday. Here's some more footage from the recently held Giltinan.
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Friday, 2/26/10 - Sixty miles better in 24 hours: Groupama 3, in pursuit of the Jules Verne Trophy, is continuing to extend her lead in relation to Orange 2's course in 2005. The weather conditions remain excellent for making fast and effortless headway towards Cape Horn, around 3,000 miles ahead on the same latitude.
This is beginning to become a habit. It's been a week now that Groupama 3 has been accumulating 650 to 750 mile days - 5,650 miles in eight days, which is almost twice the distance of an Atlantic crossing. It just goes to show then that the situation is also favorable for devouring the Pacific.
Franck Cammas and crew are now ahead of a front, which is pursuing them, as was the case in the Indian Ocean. Should the phenomenon continue as far as the tip of South America, this will give them an added bonus to add to the 430 miles that the giant trimaran has already amassed since Tasmania.
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Friday, 2/26/10 - Sailing World Magazine is picking the Boat of the Year nominees again and they have some good stuff to choose from. Get the lowdown here.
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