Sunset & Vine had five Macs (and some trackers) stolen from the media centre in Nice last night, so today's coverage might be a little glitchy.

Rémi Laval-Jeantet, PhD former Alinghi's consultant in hydrodynamics : > To be a cat's sailor means compulsory to be a former pitchpoler. The opposed area of wings in rear winds during bear away manoeuvers already ruined our effort with the C-Class OTIP in 1990 and this had to happen over the ACs 72. ORACLE 17 also shows a fundamental error in her foil configuration. To be stable in ride height without a wand or an altitude sensor, can only happen on an hydrofoil boat if you have a surface-piercing V front foils like "L'Hydroptère" or the famous "ICARUS". TNZ has designed an "S top" for the daggerboard which allows it > i.e an "half-V" foil with a 22° dihedral angle which pierces the free surface and guarantees level stability (not an absolute warrantee, but sufficiently robust). ORACLE was suffering from erratic pitch departures and was fundamentally unstable in pitch and heave, flight mechanichally speaking. RLJ

back to the J-class days - don't race in more than ? 15 ? knots of breeze!

So I think we must be rapidly coming to the conclusion that wingsails, while profoundly cool technology, are perhaps too risky (and costly) to be used on boats this big? Interesting that the pitchpole occurred during a bear-away, not in a foiling-related incident.

If you are planning on setting a new Jules Verne record for sailing around the planet. Make sure you take Sicomin resin for any emergency repairs - see about 6 minutes in...Highest respect to the team here for an astonishing feat! Why not call Matrix Composites, even if you only intend sailing around Hayling Island!

Fabulous!

Very excruciating! 'And here is Lloyd Peyron just back from winning a double handed RTW race...' You mean Loick Peyron and the Jules Verne Trophy?

I think a lot of people have wondered why they got rid of Mitch! There's a thread on a certain other popular sailing forum all about this issue...

Is it just us, or is the AC commentary excruciating? Bring back Mitch Booth, who actually provided some first hand multihull racing experience....

I had the pleasure of joining them for the first sea trial in Los Angeles. What a stunning piece of engineering! The ride in the open sea is extremely smooth and very fast. I wish them only the very best of fortune with their endeavours. David

Hello to the tech-sailors, This boat is truly a marvelous technological achievment. It is the fulfilment of a lineage of dreamers like the canadian engineers of De Havilland with "Bras d'Or" and Fulgencio Garcia Hernandes with "Volador", 2 hydrofoils fitted with the "LBF" (Lozenge-Bow Foil ) system. The impressive improvment made by the C-Fly team is this flexible lozenge configuration which plays the role of wave shock damper. Bravissimo ! Rémi Laval-Jeantet,PhD Hydrodynamician CEO FLUXYZ

I know it's too late, but surely kiteboarding should be a demonstration event in Rio. I'm not even sure it should be under ISAF's jurisdiction. But then I expect we had all those arguments about windsurfing however many years ago that was.

It clearly works, but is this a real contender - or a red herring to get the competition to waste valuable time investigating foiling? I seem to remember that others have struggled to get cats to foil faster than they go in displacement mode, e.g. Fred Eaton's C-Class 'Off Yer Rocker'. Just a thought...

I'm all for a development class at the Olympics. However, having the representative body of the industry calling on MNAs to give their industry members millions in development cash over the next cycle is fairly rich, and stating that the choices are solely box rule or monopoly is childishly absurd. It will be cool to have kiteboarding at the Olympics, but the IKA would do well to remember how lucky it is to be there and not use this simply as a chance for self promotion. Poor start.

If I was an athlette wishing to kiteboard in four years in Rio what would I buy to start training? Are these guys serious with one olympic cycle to go still discussing what the equipment looks like. From what I have seen round our way no one is using course racing boards. Do they even know what size kite you can use? Will any of the grade 1 sailing events be running kiteboarding events this year or next?

looks like a reason NOT to include kite boarding in the Olympics, not a reason to include a development class... which will be expensive once the Rich MNAs start their development leaving the poorer nations way behind. It's got to be one design

Great day sail with the greatests! job well done James!

Fantastic!

We have since learned that Malcolm Page's replacement is likely to be Will Ryan

Good on you Ben!

It's Morgan ReeSer. 1992 Silver Medal in the 470.

What a hero!

surely he's added on 40nm rather than taking them off the record??

Hmmm tough year! Ainslie? Scheidt? Cammas? ....

why did you remove the video???

Dear James, you are right, the flap chord fraction is between 57 and 60%, which is much more than the 40 to 44% of the C-Class cats. This will lead actually to greater cambers, but not necessarily to greater lift coefficients as it was proven in the wind tunnels. Rémi Laval-Jeantet

A well-informed spy of ours in Auckland confirms that the innovation is indeed in the hidden control arms and notes that the wing has quite a large rear element, compared to the front one. What appears in the photos to be a step may be just a fairing to the flap. The vertical supports may be there to vertically support the bowsprit before the wing is stepped. They are then removed.

Interesting - so there is a step in the wing. I wondered if it wasn't the light/paintjob playing tricks

Remi's comments are going to make my observations seem even more low brow but was lucky enough to watch them stitching the pieces together from my office window. The photos don't really do justice to the step up in size from the AC45 - it is an absolute monster. It will be a hell of a challenge to get the boat out of the Viaduct but can't wait to see it unleashed in open water. Pete Melvin is like a kid in a sweet shop when pressed about how the platform will perform.

Hello to everybody, I was the designer of the wing for the french OTIP C-Class in 1990. I had carried out also several wind tunnel tests over single slotted and double slotted wings, especially the Yellow Pages ones. About the TNZ's wing, I can notice 2 major innovations : 1 > They put inside the wing the commands of the flaps (crank, cam, lever arms) to remove the parasitic drag and they probably replace them by internal cam + tracks + bell crank ). Never done before. 2 > They put a step just behind the hinge of the flappino ( second element which controls the curvature transition and the slot gap), probably on to allow a perfect flush fairing of the suction side when the internal cranks have moved. The wing is, aside this, a classical one-slotted wing. Rémi Laval-Jeantet; PhD Aero/hydrodynamicist CEO of FLUXYZ CFD company Rémi Laval-Jeantet

As a keen windsurfer,catamaran and Dinghy racer over many year I am sorry to see infighting between different types of wind powered craft and feel it is counter productive. Sailing, Windsurfing and Kite Surfing are superb sports accessible to all, and it is vital for the health of sport that it embraces new developoments and technology. I remember all too well the protestations and posturing of the established classes when windsurfers and catamarans were introduced, but look what they have done to open up new and exciting areas of water sport to participants and spectators alike. It will be the same for Kite Surfing, it is new it is exciting and just because you can't or don't want to try to do it (I tried and failed but still love to watch it!) doesn't mean it has any less value than any other form of wind sport. In fact my personal view is that the new high performance end of sailing or kiting is essential for the future health of sailing as it is pushing frontiers and young people who are the future of sport want to push frontiers and go further and faster than their predecessors. Finaly in terms of media appeal, the new developments of high performance skiffs, hull flying catamarans, windsurfers that can blast along in next to no breeze with a 12m sail or perform arial ballet off waves and now kite surfers who fly back and forth on or off the water, present an ever more visual and exciting spectacle for the public that will hopefully encourage more people to get involved. Having followed the Extreme 40's in action and witnessed the AC45's in Plymouth this year and seen the huge public interest they generate, I feel the only challenge for the sailing community is not to see which class can post higher credentials for this that or the other in the media, but how they can learn from the X40 and AC45's and bring the racing and competition right up close and personal to spectators both in terms of positioning of event ciruits, but also getting the right camera installation and media savy promotion on web sites, u-tube and television (this latter one however continues to dissappoint in terms of water sports coverage, and may well be soon irrelevant)and get more people out there sailing dinghies or cats doing windsufing or kite surfing, it doesn't matter. Fashions change all the time and you can't fight it, shouldn't fight it, just enjoy your bit of it and try to grow and promote wind powerd sport as a whole. Apologies for such a long rant. Mike Arstall

Well done to Frank Cammas and his team. A MOD 70 campaign might be possible before the next Volvo, the European tour next year and possibly the World tour as there is one ready to go! I hope so. Mark

I personally know of 1 person who has died whilst kitesurfing in Largs in Scotland. Mr Schwendtner is being a bit disengenuous with adding the racing bit to limit the current figures on kitesurfing injuries.

Excellent interview with Dalton. The '4th fastest boat' in the Volvo may be fair enough. . . 5th fastest is stretching it a little bit!

"first Irish winner of the Volvo Ocean Race: Damian Foxall" Hmmm. not sure what Justin Slattery would have to say about that! Winner on board ABN Amro!

Apart from the rather screaming question of 'Why isn't JuanK - whose record both on competitiveness an reliability is rather better than the Farr office's over the last 3 races', I do have concerns about how far they've gone down the "strict" one design rule. I suppose, if you give people leeway to - say - take a one design hull but develop their own foils they will then just go and spend X millions on that, but there really doesn't seem to be any possibility for development at all. For me, as a sailor, this was one of the main things that made the race interesting. It's not like it's possible to admire the crew work so the different paths taken by different boats on design have always been the key interest. Perhaps sails may be a possibility, but I rather doubt it given the route they've taken on everything else.

A good point certainly but I think for the next race the engineering of the boat and integrity of the one design will be more important than the raw design itself. Historically Farr has been top dog when it comes to one designs

Good question, how could Juan K be overlooked? No mention about the sails, will they be North monopoly? There would certainly be no need for that, not on cost pretext anyway.

I'm intrigued as to why the design is to be from Farr Yacht Design rather than Juan Kouyoumdjian's Juan Yacht Design. Given the track record of the Juan K Volvo 70s, you'd think that might be the obvious choice?

how about a 35 knot pitchpole on that baby ?

how about a 35 knot pitchpole on that baby ?

Holy smokes, Soon the will do away with the hulls as well, as the Swiss guys have, and we will all long for AC32

The stiffness issue is certainly very interesting. A stiffer structure develops much higher point loads, so it has to be heavier to prevent breakage. The opposite applies to a softer structure. What is interesting is the reasoning that the first puff just creates flex. Yes, but the flex is stored energy (like compressing a spring), so do you actually lose enougt to justify the weight of added stiffness???

very neat but got to question the ratio of money spent to podium places gained / kept... we all know what happens when this gets out of whack... the owner packs it in.

Quantum was built at Longitud 0 in Burriana and not by King Marine as mentioned above

What a driver Conrad Colman has been. Sponsors should be competing to finance his future plans!

This is sertainly a structual fatigue issue. In terms of envelope pushing design of Carbon Fibre structures, the ocean racing community is leading the way. So is this an issue which applies only to marginally under dimensioned structures or is it an issue which lurkes in all carbon structures. If so, what about aircraft wing sections or your 5m$ cruising yacht investment? More research into the fatigue issues of Carbon Fibre please.

I am moored next to Flyer(II) right now in the island of Naxos in Greece, immaculately converted to a cruising boat and obviously much loved. I also think I may have seen Gaia, from the first race last week near Athens.

I am moored next to Flyer(II) right now in the island of Naxos in Greece, immaculately converted to a cruising boat and obviously much loved. I also think I may have seen Gaia, from the first race last week near Athens.

I am moored next to Flyer(II) right now in the island of Naxos in Greece, immaculately converted to a cruising boat and obviously much loved. I also think I may have seen Gaia, from the first race last week near Athens.

I am moored next to Flyer(II) right now in the island of Naxos in Greece, immaculately converted to a cruising boat and obviously much loved. I also think I may have seen Gaia, from the first race last week near Athens.

i made these for our 52...1 pull for the working sheet, no clutching, no emergency unclutch. 1:4 purchase with spectra going to a spindle connected to a big drum.

I think it's to do with the medal chances of US in a kiteboarding class....

But what about supporting the current classes more and the heritage of the sports? Why not increase the classes? Also why not increase the number of sailors from countries, say the top ten countries get 2 boats per class?

Strange, she carries the same sail number as a McConachy 38 by the name of Carbonado.

I think it's going to cost a bit more than 35k to enter....

Sorry. Had a few interweb connection issues - the link is now live

"The Notice of Race for the Youth America's Cup is available here." .. where?

Aberdeen Asset Mangements share price will hopefully rocket as well on the back of this news......

Olympic swimmers are some of the tallest athletes in the games....their weights aren't representative for a sport where height doesn't provide a speed advantage.

James, we are indebted to you for a decent technical update of events over night. I would recommend the official Volvo site entice you with some folded wedge and get you signed up!

Just heard that he's been found. Zbigniew Gutkowski tells us: "After the media action seeking the lost sailor, was found near the Azores! Thank God he is alive and goes towards Brest."

Thanks Tim. Unfortunately there is a danger that both the VOR and IMOCA 60 classes may go one design, which will mean there is no offshore development class apart from the Multi50 and the Minis... This cannot be good for the sport in the long run.

Excellent article James, it's great to get detailed factual information about the different breakages without the sensationalism. It will be very interesting to see what they do for the next race. Let's hope they can get more teams on the start line.

We're watching you! Go safe and well and very very fast! JGEJ X

Juan, every body takes thier hat off to you for the job you have done in this and the last 2 Volvos. Dont blow it. By anyones book having to slow down becaues the hull is delaminating when nothing but water has been hit IS a structural issue. Sandersons story on this website quotes the same problems with the ABN boats. It does not take anything away from your team, when the limits are pushed something has to give at some stage.

Excellent article, its good to read first hand information after so many PR text saying the same everywhere.

I had to mentally add a lot of punctuation to unscramble that first paragraph!!

Nice one guys - go for it J xxx

Who said the Americas Cup had to be in slow boats?

How does this stack up with Juan K's comment about a tactical pit stop?

Thanks for your comments. Fatigue is certainly an issue and one I should have mentioned. I first remember John Shuttleworth bringing this up with regard to carbon structures on his trimaran designs back in the early 1980s...

Fascinating article, no doubt prompting plenty of armchair reaction. Here's another I'm afraid. I've used over expanded Nomex in areas of high curvature in multihull hulls and have had failures, and now think it has no place in offshore hulls due to reduced sheer properties in the expanded plane. I'm not a great fan of nomex in any carbon offshore hull as we found to our cost in early multihull carbon structures. The structural package is just far too brittle and unforgiving. The V70 hulls could be made far more durable by banning honeycombe cores and instigating a minimum core sheer value without detriment to the yachts performance. Perhaps it would add 400kg to the hull weight, but so what? It would be the same for all. We can cope with rudders and rigs failing, but I thought the days of chopping up bunks was history. Its unfair to blame the crews as they have no idea where the design limit resides - nor do the designers as who knows what wave awaits them in the dark?

Hi, great article! I am an engineering student at University in the UK. Thinking about these breakages, and also other failures, such as the mast of Jeremie Beyou's IMOCA 60, and I was wondering why nobody seems to mention fatigue? Recently I was shown a variety of failed components none of which had failed whilst under an excessive load. A large load, or series of, had been experienced by the component at some point during its operational life causing damage to the component structure which lead to its failure much later when under a far lesser load. Clearly the use of ultra sound and x-rays to try and check the composite structure for cracks aims to identify such internal damage before failure occurs. However, the pattern of events seems similar. The Volvo race has been very tough on the boats, a large percentage of the course has been upwind with repeated rough sections resulting in repeated heavy loading. Is it really a surprise that the boat's structure is tired? Thinking again about Jeremie Beyou's mast, how often does a component fail and in the following write up we hear how much the component has already endured. As Jeremie commented 'This mast had sailed around the world already and was very solid'. Some failures, such as Puma's dismasting in leg 1, are not caused by fatigue, but by other factors, such as an error in construction. However, I would like to know why fatigue has not been mentioned, when the Volvo failures seem to have all the history that you might expect to lead to a fatigue failure.

There's no way back mate. But maybe designers will be more conservative and apply some flexibility in the hulls. The stiffness increases the loads immensely, and especially in the forward sections. It has been proven on rescue power craft that carbon is too stiff and that old glas & poly, albeit heavier and sloppier, is more durable.

There's one common thread in all this, CARBON! Too stiff, too light. Let's go back to Kevlar and foam and titanium?!

These cats are so tippy! Who designed the bottom seeking bows?!

Great spectacle but seriously, Americas Cup ?, I don't think so.

Great spectacle but seriously, Americas Cup ?, I don't think so.

The crew is the ugliest chick I have ever seen!!

several clases, including Seascape18...

Anyone else notice oracles `L` foils in the competition winner bit!

Totally agree with strongarm. This race has become a bit of a joke. Only two boats left sailing in this leg - and one of those stopped for repairs. Legs interrupted by shipping stages and half-delayed starts. No boats have finished all the legs without stopping for repairs - I thought we'd done enough of that the first time with the VO70s! Only six starters doesn't help either. I suppose the next race will go through the Suez and Panama canals so they can join up all the best marketing stopovers without having to risk real ocean sailing.

From someone who was in Santander: The boat winning the races most often was the Mackay FX. The Aura was never the fastest, even when the most competent (lease incompetent) MNA sailors were on board it was always in the last 4. On the final day, there was a race between the FX 'team' sailors Molly and Alex on the boat they know very well and a couple of male Spanish 49er squaddies on the other FX. The guys won convincingly...

Ahmen brother!!

I am all for pushing the boundaries, and all for trying to improve an event, but lets be honest, this edition of the VOR is turning into a farce. legs finishing at 'secret ports' then being loaded onto container ships, mini start legs for the sake of the media, boats that are not up to the job. Every leg has been affected by at least one boat being damaged resulting in them in retiring or not starting the leg. Back to basics I say and to the Southern ocean and boats that are built to last.

Which boats didn't come from production moulds?

From Ross Hobson's comments - how very different these trials were compared to the IYRU "A" & "B" class catamaran trials in 1967 (when the Tornado was selected as an International class). Back then, the restriction was to one boat per class and performance over the entire trials, including reliability, was the defining measure. It was simple but effective, as the success of the Tornado would prove; a success only halted by the stupidity of ISAF in eliminating a multihull from the 2012 Olympic regatta.

From Ross Hobson's comments - how very different these trials were compared to the IYRU "A" & "B" class catamaran trials in 1967 (when the Tornado was selected as an International class). Back then, the restriction was to one boat per class and performance over the entire trials, including reliability, was the defining measure. It was simple but effective, as the success of the Tornado would prove; a success only halted by the stupidity of ISAF in eliminating a multihull from the 2012 Olympic regatta.

Were the trails fair?? - definitely not. A number of the dinghies were not from production moulds (as stated in the 'rules' of the trials) Some manufactures brought more than the 2 defined boats and hence got more evaluations in that those with 2 boats - and had their own professional paid sailors evaluating other boats (duhh?? hows that fair?) Some manufactures used bully boy tactics with their RIBs (which were not meant to be there) to take sailors off the boat they were meant to be testing and put them on their own boat, or blatantly preventing sailors sailing other boats Fair - NO Rigged - Possibly ISAF - weak in managing the event

Barcelona to La Rochelle is in no way a "major" competition. what a pity for the sponsors who are getting no exposure since the end of the B to B.....

I think it's time for the Volvo to admit they need to go for one-design. A boat very similar to these existing ones, but a bit heavier so it's surely strong enough not to break so easily. Volvo would supply the boats for charter and teams would bring their own sails. Or then the rule has to change so that it does not pay so much to build extremely light.

Why dont they just ship it all the way to the finish and claim they've won.Whatever happened to a round the world race where you had to sail round. If they keep breaking the boats then it merely shows they are pushing to hard.Any fool can go fast and break a boat,seamanship is about knowing when to slow down.

Fastest boat on the water is the Aura, beating the 49er etc on almost every part of the course. But, not having a professional sail team at trials (and outside the 'rules' of the trials)as a number of the other teams have, it makes it hard to shine

I disagree with the final paragraph. C-class and AC composite technology is all very obscure and generally irrelevant to Olympic boats. What you should have written is that the Cherub is 70Kg rigged and ready to sail, making it easier for female crews to handle on shore and off, and very fast despite its relatively short length, making it cheaper to ship to regattas. I think Arup are providing precisely the piece generally missing from most development boat bids for Olympic berths: reliable logistic backing from a credible, major supplier. I would also like to know which of these boats is winning the races most often at the trials.

love the Aura - has to be the boat of choice for the 2016 Olympics - and it is proving to be as fast if not faster than the opposition. Ross Hobson my totally unbiased few as Pete's V proud Dad ;-)

5 Artemis Academy members and no Phil Sharp.

" The 14 strong fleet that competed in that race is down a little this year with 11 boats taking part, but the level of competition is if anything stronger." There were actually 24 starters in the last race although only 14 finishers. http://www.thedailysail.com/offshore/09/48043/we-look-at-the-class-40-fl... The field certainly has good depth in this race from the 11 boats competing although the likes of Bernard Stamm and Giovani Soldini ensured there was plenty of competition at the front of the last race too.

The boat is faster due to good design and construction. NOT due to the rig. When we were 2 boating with the Akilaria 2, we did not rake the mast. The boat is minimum weight, wwith a light mast, a low center of gravity, and an excellent build. Rather than complain, the class needs to get their rules in order, and close the loopholes before things do get out of hand.

Just to clarify that Sail Arabia - The Tour was contested this year by nine Farr 30's and Courrier Dunkerque came from France having won the Tour de France a la Voile last year and won convincingly.

Thanks James

Toby Barsley-Dale from 50° North SES responds: I will have to go back to the designer for quantifiable data, but in a nut shell he is right, the advantage does come from reduced risk of stall. However this can be applied in two ways. Firstly, as in the case of the big boats prone to broaching, it has provided better performance from a rudder enabling the helmsman to maintain control. This can also be the case in dinghies which are known to be hard to control. One example has been fitted to an International Canoe and the owner said it resolved the control issues immediately. The other option is to use the extra grip provide by the design to reduce the section thickness of the foil and therefore end up with a foil with lower drag and enhance performance on all parts of the course. My own Hornet foil has been reduced from 23mm wide to 17mm. This could be taken slightly further on higher performance boats. I hope this helps in the short term.

At what speed and angle of attack are those drag and lift figures given? All the figures I’ve seen suggest that while tubercules may offer some improvements over conventional foils: these improvements only materialise at large angles of attack (ie close to stall) and performance in typical sailing conditions is reduced. There have been a few keelboats using this idea but by and large it has only been successful on boats prone to broaching and spinning out downwind – the extra control and safety factor makes up for the slight loss in performance in normal sailing. This article suggests that performance is actually increased around the course – are there figures to support this?

Probably not well... the point was rather than taking around 2 hours for the rescue authorities to leap into action, that that all-important time period could have been reduced.

Tedious to watch even in "40kts" - still, hats off to the folk that have kept this relic in the Olympics for so long - amazing...

Quote "It should be noted that the distress message emanating from this equipment gets through to the rescue services substantially faster than it does via the ancient COSPAS-SARSAT system from an EPIRB – which is significant if you consider an incident like the Rambler 100 capsize." How well does it work when it is underwater and pointing in the wrong direction?

http://www.f18europeantour.com/

yeah, umm 25

4m seas??

Jangada Too is a J/109 and also completed the RB&I 2010.

I have not seen the details of the incident, but can I be informed why the media boat and the specific race were not both chucked out?!

So the RYA and Yachting Australia are leaving it to ISAF to add further punishment. But wouldn't a fairer outcome to both hearings have been to forgive Ainslie and un-disqualify him from those two races (he still missed the Medal Race) and do whatever the rules allow to punish the real culprits - the media boat crew and whoever authorised them. I strongly suspect ISAF should be punishing itself!

my favorite Open 60...

my favorite Open 60...

my favorite Open 60...

Okay, i'm going there...Jean, what's up with the MichDesFro??? Time for a haircut!

Great article! I really love to drill down into technicalities. It is so interesting.

Perhaps the Farr 40 class should consider why its numbers have been in decline well before the Farr400 and M38 arrived?

What a brilliant article James. I've got a lot of time for Merfyn, and now it's reinforced by his frank and honest take on curved daggerboards. Following a trend for the sake of it is the easy way out, so hats off to him for sticking to what he believes is correct. Great looking boat guys!

What a brilliant article James. I've got a lot of time for Merfyn, and now it's reinforced by his frank and honest take on curved daggerboards. Following a trend for the sake of it is the easy way out, so hats off to him for sticking to what he believes is correct. Great looking boat guys!

good luck

In fact the Melges 32 has one too...

Quite right. Well spotted. I'll change the article. Thanks. James

Doesn't the Melges 24 have a carbon keel fin?

The AC TV certainly shows up the Volvo TV!

wow what a story..

Thank you so much for Loki part one and two. It was both very interesting and very enjoyable. Please give us more of this, maybe with a better camera (carrying a light for under deck shots)and don't hesitate to go more into technical detail. Please more of this! Mats Ohlsson

awesome!

Is it our imagination or are there a lot of rigging failures occurring in offshore racing at the moment?

Mistery port is not a mistery anymore: Male

An small annotation: it was Telefonica who leaded the way through the doldrums, Camper followed

The Volvo Ocean Race is the pinnacle of fully crewed, round the world ocean racing. Let's be honest, most of us would rather see more than 6 boats competing. In the first leg, three boats failed to finish and in this leg one boat has experienced rig problems. Might it be time to consider a one design approach. It will certainly generate a level playing field, which will perhaps attract more corporate sponsorship.

I don't wish to knock the principle here, but it would be interesting to hear how many who are reading this article have actually watched any of the TV footage from Perth? Please enlighten me. Andrew

This will obviously present significant logistical issues for the team as it means they may miss the ship leaving the 'unknown' destination port bound for the Gulf

Thanks for the interesting article. I wonder if catamarans for the tv cameras would help? Rowing had the same problem a few years ago of tv boats washing down competitors and solved it by switching to catamarans which produced much less wash.

David Raison has just brilliantly demonstrated what is so good about development classes. Bravo David! IMOCA class should not be one design, if they want to curb costs take a look at the rules. Material restrictions, ISO and GL standards only limit the performance of the yacht not the cost of the campaign. If they are serious about controlling costs then enforce some resource restrictions. F1 does this but badly, several teams spend over the limit but say catch me if you can and then fine me when you do. Sailing isn't F1 no matter how you look at it which is why I believe a resource restriction/budget cap would be worth investigating.

wow !

The one design option should be restricted to 2016 and reviewed after this. Perhaps a choice of two design could be available for 2016, not the cost savings of a one one design but cheaper than the situation now, however there are a number of options that can be considered, it's finding the right balance in getting enough competitive boats on the start line and cost, which may just see a few top boats out classing all other boats.

The last paragraphs (Mike Golding's opinion) are the most realistic perspective. One design is a fashion in france due to the MOD and the Figaro, but there are no one designs in the top echelon of any other mechanical sport.

Does anyone remember the naughty Greek guy who boarded another Soling at a high end regatta and whacked an opposing helm with a paddle? This guy was a legend - he upset everyone by towing his boat (crew in it) at high speed causing massive wash and then created uproar by seducing the young daughter of the local mayor. Ainslie will have to up his game a bit if he is hoping to be considered in the same "rule 69" league. By the way - bad boy Coutts got "rule 69" thrown at him when he was sailing in Cowes once.

Television is essential for the future of the pro side of our sport, however those out on the water in the vicinity of the race course must respect the competition that's going on. It is more than possible to drive a RIB around a race course without disturbing the racing and in this case the RIB driver and whoever employed him deserve a major slap for having failed to observe that. I'm surprised Ben didn't deck him (given the penalty he might as well have).

Why, why, oh why is our sport so obsessed with television coverage that it is allowed to jepordise racing? This was a World Championship. TV RIBS should have been nowhere near the course and certainly not close enough to affect the boats. They were so close to the shore that a camera on land could have captured the shots better than the RIB anyway. The ISAF and the event organisers are to blame to for allowing any World Championship sailor to be so badly impeded that, under the pressure of competition they react as Ben did. Don't blame Ben, blame ISAF and the event organisers. Give sailing back to the salors and rethink this obsession with television. Dick

still a legend!

Interesting comment "...commitments at tradition-steeped regatta weeks..." Might we be seeing Audi Cowes Week somewhere on the horizon...?

Incredible isn't it. One of the very fastest boats in the world can maintain these speeds in the roaring forties! We must be looking at the possibility of a 40day circumnavigation. Fingers crossed!!

well deserved sponsorship.Congratulations Sam and good luck

Maiden is lying in Seychelles, looks abandoned to me..

Don't forget to add winning the Quater ton cup onboard Espada to Anabel Vose's list!

Seriously, Richard Branson and Virgin? Really, if I had a pound every time that had been mentioned.

Fantastic news. Loick Peyron is so decisive to go early, unlike the "wasted" winter two years ago. It even leaves time for a second attempt if nec. But let's hope the designer's sums are correct and the massive dynamic loads do not exceed their calculations. What a ride for Brian Thompson! PS I'm amazed to see Tristan da Cunha next to the Azores in map above!

Halleluiah! at last signs of a britsh company with some imagination and foresight to regognise the sponsorship potential of high performance sailing and can give our top sailors a platform for Sailing GB and showing what we can do, rather than being hired guns on other countries boats - let's hope it is a full blooded effort that can see our guys compete on equal terms with the best of the rest and no penny pinching accountant influenced deal.

This AC45 series is awesome, possibly even better than the Cup itself as it is team on team and down to sailing ability not all technology. The format is great with spectators in close and personal - at Plymouth we were almost touching the boats - does it get any better ? Well done to all the organisers of this and the X40 regattas where spectators and enthusiasts can see the action close up - all we need now are more UK boats on the water - we have the sailors, we have the venues how about a bit of corporate sponsorship for Sailing GB, after all you can get a whole series of publicity for what you pay a footballer in a month - gotta be value for money. Mike Arstall

Fine effort Mike. Good luck in the TJV matey. Andrew Hurst

Very interesting development. This may allow us to have a race on our hands come 2013!

yes Mike, sweet boat. I like the changes. I'd love to sail her ! an Op[en 60 is the only step beyond my new rules Canoe that interests me! cheers, Kenny

This was a good example of what the America's Cup people are trying to avoid!

More fascinating news! Presumably the additional form stability of the "scow" (I assume there are no concavities in the hull!), more than makes up for any additional windage or wave impact when beating. Raison did say at one point he slowed down 'cos of "banging"!

Sensible decision. And one that would have prevented carnage in several earlier races I can think of!

poor form

It is fascinating to see Bernard Smith's "40kt sailboat" heading for 60kts!! I am unclear whether the "lifting" foil is actually lifting the hull or in fact pulling it down to resist the "lift" from the wingsail. Also I am concerned that should the forward planing surface detach and the hull nosedive, then Larsen's head (and neck!) would receive damaging impact. As has happened to some open top powerboat drivers!

where are the photos?????

Sorry but are your sure about this? "Il mostro/Puma Ocean Racing – Botin & Carkeek VO70 - Used by Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing as training boat" I think its right now for sale at www.pumavolvo70forsale.com Didn't Abu Dahbi used to train with the old Abn Amro II and Puma used Il Mostro for trials before they have got Mar Mostro?

Hmm, this looks like PR article for nonsailing magazines

The VOR's arbitration panel led by Bryan Willis has ruled that the interpretations made by the VIG stand. http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/Rule-breach-applications-rejected/3685/...

Its Free! Pity it took about an hour to download via a pretty good Wifi connection! Also the app seems to get stuck a fair amount, you do end up having to close the app down fairly often too. 1/5

How much is it?!

Aura? I think it should be called the "Brucie" with a chin like that...

What a gorgeous looking skiff, has just made the 18's look a little dowdy!

Good grief that's slick! I want one...

Pretty Neat! If these guys swapped out the batteries for equivalent weight of fuel cells and fuel they could get a significant extension to the time in the air... lots of developments over the last few years in fuel cells for unmanned aerial vehicles, with the focus on weight saving.

Joyon is a great ambassador for our sport and a lesson to all the superstars who expect everything done for them with the monster budgets to sustain their egos. Quite humbling really. Happy days Francis

Barmy, batty but British!

More mysterious, surely, is the backer of Spindrift racing. Or perhaps not really given Guichard already drives one of his boats. . .

Excellent article. There is so much noise on Ch 16 that it is hard to monitor in the best of conditions and a distraction while racing. A Mayday call might not cut through the clutter. The personal AIS seems like an excellent solution- we have had AIS receiving for three years and added AIS out this year. Nearby boats standout easily on the chart plotter and, especially if an emergency signal were differentiated, would be crystal clear to nearby boats and lead rescuers to the exact location. Don Mitchell

While I have the greatest respect for the fact that Roland has saied the T with a mixed crew, I find it hard to support the idea that the T is at all suited to being a compulsory mixed class. In addition, Roland needs to understand that his view is tainted by a standard Anglo-Saxon view of size and gives no consideration to others such as those from Asian. Finally, he suggests some might be acting in their own commercial self interests which, knowing the people involved is pretty offensive. If he botheres to check the weight range for the womens skiff and then compared it with, say, the 49er, you would come out with the proposed weight range they have. Sour grapes, bad research and insulting well meaninged people is one of the things that led to the T being thrown out in the first place. While the majority of the cat world learnt from that, it seems that Roland must be a hangover from the bad old days.

There is no Portuguese team either, so that makes three.

It is quite a big club now! Does this mean a design flaw in this class? How do you reef a wing?

More kudo's for James, excellent articles. Hope IMOCA 60 stability etc. rules will go across the board now...

Quality articles James. Plenty for all of us to think about and discuss.

Great to hear that everyone is safe, also a very interesting post incident review for us all to follow. A key area that is interesting is that people didnt hear the may day being put out. The reality is that people do not have Ch16 on all the time where it can be heard. Perhaps manufactutrers of instruments can integrate the intruments to flash visual alerts on deck when a May day is issued by anyone, (not good for RTI maybe!) but this would alert surrounding boats to listem in to ch16

perhaps all ocean racing boats ought to have a look at the IMOCA safety rules, and take them into consideration. especially canting keel boats, where IMOCA has by far the most experience.

Many thanks for the three articles. Outstanding work. Nice one, James

Nice video!

having been there done that - thank goodness everyone is safe. BUT why no orange on hull /foils? why was escape hatch avaiable? why were liferafts not placed to be deployed when inverted? these are basic multihull and IMOCA60 rules, which seem to have been lost 'in translation' Main thing everyone is safe

Part two pls

And now he has a hurricane coming. I hope to see the boat back racing soon.

The video does not play

After I posted about my wish for a skippercam I saw the next day that they had it, good close shots from the controllable cam at wing base, and the port/stb cams can do the same thing. Close focus on the skippers has to be done to give sailing the same sort of strong human interest action content that makes tennis and golf so successful at drawing audience.

No matter what engineers and yacht designers say about technically possible or not: the sea is king and always will be.

Video is not working - has it been removed ?

Nice idea. However they already have four cameras mounted to the boat (which v cooly can be zoomed and panned, etc from on shore)and given that there are nine boats and races only last 20 minutes each...you do the maths

The lack of wind for race one was OK; it was comforting to see Mother Nature remind all these Primadonnas that she can humble the best laid plans. - Only thing I'd mention after this first day of preliminaries, is that it would be nice to have a 'skippercam' on each boat. Put a camera on the wing that can focus on the skipper, and the human interest factor will be greatly improved.

We understand Phil has since been penalised 20 minutes for the engine seal breakage. We believe that drops him to 21st place

Not a good test of the media component of the test event.

PS: If this is the Olympic test event - then there are still no results for the Women's Match Racing on the official website the following morning...

I just wish I was there!

So lets see....Phaedo has outsailed all those that started on the 29th, passed all the boats ahead of her, presently leading the race even though being a bona fide cruising boat and you only mention it in the very last sentence....Honestly, 464 miles for an allout 100 footer doesn't impress me very much.

This is totally awesome news for Mike and for sailing as a whole, it wouldn't be the same without him there for the Vendee!

James, Regarding the line: "This marks the first time that boat hull design innovation will be applied to paddleboards," this isn't quite true. Morrelli and Melvin have designed a SUP that has been in production for about a year now: http://vimeo.com/12219362 . However, these are race SUP's rather than the wave specialized shapes I imagine Laird and Juan K. will pen.

So, who was first to turnip at the finish line today? lol

We went out to watch the start in conditions which could be described as pretty biblically rainy. We got so wet so quickly that we decided to cash in our chips and go and have breakfast. Some time later, after we'd dried off, we managed to catch Alinghi and Foncia finishing. And got really, really wet again. The photos make it look like it was sunny, which I certainly don't remember!

From a Geneva newspaper -- In wind conditions that were often hard to handle, the (Alinghi) team achieved a perfect race without the slightest error. Their gamble on the way to the mark at Bouveret (Alinghi did not reef) in more than 20 knots wind, was no doubt one of the keys to this success. -- Alinghi then performed a return to Geneva at speed with a capital S, always tightly followed by Foncia who remained in contact to the end. Michel Desjoyeaux delivered an extended tacking battle with Ernesto Bertarelli and his team, which the latter finally won in 6h 25 minutes, which is the third best finishing time in the history of the Bol d'Or since 1939. -- Foncia arrived right behind, followed by Ylliam helmed by Arnaud Psarofaghis, and Okalys Corum. Nicolas Grange's boat skippered by Loick Peyron had problems at the start when a crewmember fell overboard, but succeeded all the same in catching up and gaining a spot at the foot of the podium. -- (note; Triga IV still holds fastest time of 5h01m51s, set in 1994). -- http://www.tdg.ch/8-ans-attente-alinghi-remporte-bol-or-2011-06-18

Anyone else notice that the AmericA's Cup new logo is a bit similar to this MetallicA one? http://vgtribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/metallica.jpg

How ya doing, KM? Maybe Shoebridge has it totally backwards. He said they were happy with the venue, but the boat and format needed work. But probably the venue has the most quirks, actually; When they require $12 million for an environmental OK/permits for a sailboat race! - - As detailed in the following apologia to idiotic red tape: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/06/america-s-cup-short-cash-plannin...

I'm not clear what it is that these teams have entered, but wonder what makes the San Fran mayor so sure they're going to be competing for the America's Cup in 2013. Most of them entered the AC World Series precisely because the rules were changed so that they didn't have to enter the actual America's Cup at all. I enjoyed Kevin Shoebridge's comments. Talk about damning with faint praise.

... Why we need a racing format that grabs enormous ratings? To cheer these guys up! (see link) http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0RVP5bM-oXw/TfkIT1RlN5I/AAAAAAAAPEg/KsZaMbTV4X...

Inspired move or two unpopular classes?

So....not MichDes then...

'Our Camel of the Oceans' ... ;-)

This is good! I want to see these 45's optimally raced and presented, without the distraction of the preposterously extravagant 72's. The 45's are more than enough boat to test the idea of drawing much bigger audiences to the sport.

This may well be a red herring...

About time Moose surfaced after his experience with Origin, rather see him out sailing though!

Beach entries, delayed AC72... but it's all going fine??? Best thing that ever happened to the Cup. Looking like a farce! Complete joke is the AC34...

Indeed - a few teething problems it seems... https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150185846916455.296010.35151...

Bet you enjoyed writing that headline!

Judging by a photo of the yacht at the moment it's going to need a lot beer. The bulb just came off.

Like your style 381394

or you could have a multihull. . .

Why all the engineering? The same righting moment could be achieved by a few crates of beer on a transverse sliding track. A fading breeze could be compensated for by an increased thirst. Just a thought.

What the hell is a choke vortex?!

James, very interested to find out what will happen here, talk over with a few mates over a beer or 5 on the weekend, they all kind of thought that with Mascalzone Latino dropping out might pave the way for a few more to 'drop out', but everyone was a bit confused as to what will happen now, especially who will take over the record and how this will have an effect on the cup as it is. I doubt there will be much change in the format now though!

are there not two hulls missing?

Most likely candidate is surely Artemis. If I bump into Bob Fisher next week I'll ask the wise one if there is any precident, but I don't think there is

Bad times for the Cup and very bad time for Mascalzone Latino, but where does this leave the Cup? Surely now as there is no Challenger of Record this Cup cycle is now void? Will be interesting to find out what the plan is now from Oracle Racing. Who is going to step forward as the next Challenger? Surely Larry would of been doing anything possible to stop this happening, maybe his pockets are not as deep as we think?

The only English boat there was 'Illegal Immigrant' a qtr tonner sailed by Willy McNeill which won class 5.

No footage from other classes?

Nice one James - I wanna go on that!!!

"We hope ISAF realise there is no need for an evaluation event" . . . nice, fair, consultative, transparent, not-at-all-dodgy. Actually, the IOC will probably love the idea. Just make sure you wrap your 'gifts' nicely when you hand them over.

Mike Birch is an example to us all!

Roger that...

please please buy a muffler for your microphone...

It's not possible to watch the video. It is now "Private".

Marco's gummy-bear navigation system is now stuck on the ceiling... : o

Hi Hannes, a conference paper... the analysis was really done quite ad-hoc, a scientific paper would need a more scrupulous approach. Someday maybe I'll find the time. Cheers, Mikko.

Doh! Apologies. My fault. Working now...

Same here.. No video at all

I've got Flash 10.2 installed but no video

nor me

Video doesn't work for me either

 My Macs are pre Intel. Can we have a less high tech video!!

Theyre going to need antifoul on the deck at this rate!

Moving the rig even further aft is the best way to mitigate "down the mine" issues. Pushing a fuller bow under water will just slow the boat quicker - not good in a puff off the wind, you need to run away from it.

Seems incredible they can get away with only superficial damage to the wing and resume racing next day! If this is going to be a common occurrence maybe the bows should be redesigned with more bouyancy!!

Hi Mikko, nice piece of work. Are you going to present it in more detail at one of the conferences next year (e.g. Lorient)? Cheers, Hannes Renzsch

What's an "indian around the top mark"?

Still not working.....

TPT = more expensive due to low fibre deposition rate. 1000g/mm/M2 for "normal" UD - so more than 40 layers of 25g/M2 UD pre-preg to get less than 1mm of laminate?...technically cute, but can this be good?

We may have to wind our neck in... we understand that Tele Blue may not be going now...

Why so few photos??

Chinese will invent a new character for their alphabet, to describe these boats? http://www.youtube.com/user/ExtremeSailingSeries#p/u/0/R6sTPgnJ-Do

Quantum & ETNZ were designed by Botin, not JV. Just a reminder. Thanks.

Snail's pace. This is an unbelievably lame announcement. We know that Telefonica are doing a two boat campaign. The new boat is a Juan K-designed sistership to Puma and Groupama. It will probably be skippered by Iker Martinez (an announcement formally is due next week). A modified Telefonica Blue is going again with a youth crew. Having learned their lessons from last time when they were based in Alicante, the crew has been training out of Vigo on the Atlantic coast where there are some waves.

Mmm. It is working, it is just a relatively hi res file and takes 1-2 mins to get going, according to the speed of your connection. Apologies. We are looking into a fix for this

10+ replays of adverts and No Video?

Call it the Auld Mud? Prevention didn't entirely work, I saw Peyron and Dick gleefully tossing them back and forth during the live broadcast. The organizers could also have fashioned (just for the symbolism of course) giant water balloons!

Very good. Nor are they giant fur balls. In fact the giant brown balls were given out at the finish of the first Barcelona World Race (they are supposedly depictive of the World crews have just sailed around). As they hadn't twigged the symbolic nature of their spherical gifts, the skippers on that occasion entered into a game of 'catch' with the Spanish princess who had presented them. To make it much more obvious this time around (and to prevent a repeat of such un-regal behaviour) the globes have on them some judiciously positioned pearls interlinked with gold thread depicting the course...

To anyone more proficient in Spanish... When the starving crew of MAPFRE were given their trophies, did they reveal if those are giant chocolates, or meatballs?

Nice report James - we're all a little gobsmacked but very excited in Plymouth. Can't wait for both the racing, but more for the showcase!

Twice in Plymouth in one year, James, you must be thrilled! This is good news for the Rolex Fastnet, since Plymouth will have to discover some proper bandwidth finally.

One of the more creative April Fools stories I've seen!

The best comedy since Only fools and Horses!! Mr Payne has been had by a certain Kiwi fella! Bless him for being C... struck. 15 45s, and a huge following in the heart of uk sailing territory, sounds great!

Good reporting James! Plymouth looks like a very good choice (what a delightful breakwater they have); Especially good if the odds of getting becalmed are lower there, than anywhere else?

Getting a headache from the '15 teams&12 countries' puzzle in today's update of the AC34 parlour game? For a neat solution, look here: http://www.voilesetvoiliers.com/club/blogs/voir/Lebras/billet/1101/

B&H's new device relays your coordinates by smoke signals, to start it up just apply the tip to any overheated B&G unit... : P

How long have Benson & Hedges been making marine electronics?

Hurry up with that inversion test Marco, and send us pictures of her bottom!

Nice to see that Berlusconi distances himself from any suggestion that he is "just about dinner parties with scantily dressed young girls" by having, oh yes, a scantily dressed young girl emblazoned 30 foot high om the main!

Web broadcast of the christening scheduled 9pm CET tonight; the 'Birth' video at this same link is nicely done. http://www.multionedesign.com/en/video.html

Great that Lemonchoix will be there with Prince de Bretagne! ... Did someone entice him by dangling a carrot? Perhaps we'll see a few other Multi50's in the race, supposing they finished dealing with troublesome leeks, etc.

We'll be having a crawl over this imminently

Another enjoyable week of headline writing in store for us

A much larger pin holding the hydrofoil to the boat would be more reassuring...perhaps there is a lanyard fitted just in case?

This am Sodebo is doing 9kts in a F2, and the Doldrums look pretty wide atm! What I meant was mission impossible in this boat. The question is does Coville want to try again in Sodebo's current configuration. What mods could make it faster? Or would only a longer boat with a larger rig and it's singlehanded problems do.

Maybe not mission impossible yet, but it also threatens to become the 2010 Route de Rhum in reverse...

It is a large round number now, isn't it! Coville made very good time up the south Atlantic but that low producing northerlies cost him dearly. And Joyon really raced home after crossing the Doldrums too. I'm afraid Thomas' boat is only a refinement of IDEC and not significantly faster, and since Joyon was also fairly lucky with the weather, it's beginning to look like mission impossible.

Idec's now approaching a 400 mile lead. I wonder if Joyon isn't finding this the perfect race format, surrounded with all the comforts of home?

Ooo snappy, is a man bag standard issue too? Good on 'em for getting sponsorship £££'s, but wow, not my choice of wheels.

Great news for the AC, I hope they find the rest of the sponsorship.. Is it me or do Team NZ have a bigger gennaker than we have seen photos of before??

another great example of Oracle controlling the Controllable. Hopefully the next boats will have much better graphics to excite the public

Where's the "like" button?!

And being a Sailrocket fan has been a wonderful exercise in patience, also!

Some hollow logs make a Bermuda Dinghy look underrigged...

LC Island Blossom

LC Island Bird

'Glide' from the 1860's, surely deserves some megabucks?

logcanoeglide.org/

 

I hope "Larsen can talk" was said tongue in cheek; he, with his 'warts and all' detailing of all their efforts, successes AND failures, is THE most interesting person on the planet when it comes to wind powered motion. More leading edge tech stuff like this, and less PR blurb from mega-buck hollow log sponsors I say, anybody agree?

Libya Gulf Record Attempt:

 Hope this works, haven't done this speedsailing stuff before...

 

 How current is the 'Current Poll'?  Choice #1: Exceedingly.  Choice #2: On par with Saif's PHD thesis from LSE ...

Fabulously interesting! (how to get the boat started isn't so mysterious, Helena just needs to give it a good push! ...see gallery/model testing on sailrocket.com)

Coville has done well to catch up somewhat on Joyon's incredible times by the Horn. However he now has 19days to make up 687mls, so 36mls a day or 1.5kts faster all the time to equal the record. This sounds difficult in what is essentially the same boat. However Joyon had several slow days coping with the south Atlantic high, so if Coville has better luck some overhauling is possible. We could be in for a nail biting finish.

With the help of some flares they can light up the area and take snapshots of each other? At the moment you could toss a wet cat from Neutrogena to Sodebo.

Pity that it's not a 46 footer!?

Coville has gained about 220 miles v. Joyon during the last 24 hrs. He's deserving of some good conditions the next few days! Has he had contact with any of the nearby BWR teams?

We're running some more trials of "Theater Style" racing in the 49er in March. Theater style is similar to the Arena style in that it is a short course where the boats are contained. One major difference is that it's tailored for a TV audience more than a live audience as we use swim lanes to create an artificial boundary but keep good quality wind. Have a read about the plans at: http://www.porttackcharter.com/2011/02/23/palma-test-of-theater-style-ra...

The implication is that Oracle, ML, ETNZ and Artemis have paid for their boats, but the others have not. . . or is it just that Oracle, ETNZ and Artemis have paid and the others have not, which is why, although it 'might' be ML to use the practice boat next, they are currently not able as they haven't paid for their AC45.

I know it's too late in the season to start again after repairs. However I think at only one attempt in two seasons, are the Banque getting value for money!? Allowing the team to wait this long for the "ideal" weather window, which in reality does not exist, does seem overindulgent. They must take the view that there's no such thing as bad publicity! In fact the return trip with the short board was fast enough to suggest they had a chance if they'd continued, but no doubt Pascal made the right call.

Your wish has been granted...!

I think the title should read 40kts for 30hrs!?

Most of the boats have now decided they have to stop. After hearing about the gorgeous french women in the marina! Several teams have suddenly discovered new broken items on their boats.... VP's manager probably devised this clever plan... at 6min40secs here: http://www.youtube.com/user/BarcelonaWorldRace#p/u/5/P3sh-M8Xo08

Looks like they can make port before bars close, Saturday night. It would be well-earned. It was a damn quick round trip to the S. Atlantic!

Hear hear, from Cairns, Far North Queensland. Martin Hadley

Well spotted... Going these speeds in a 10ft trimaran in the Southern Ocean would indeed be a feat.

I'd like to publicly wish Paul and the Vestas Sailrocket team the very best of luck with Vestas Sailrocket 2. I've met and spoken with Paul a few times, whilst working on Team Phillips at Totnes and whilst testing the first Sailrocket at Portland and I have to say Paul is wonderfully open and perpetually upbeat about his plans, the boats, etc. and is happy to talk to whoever stops by He is always enthusiastic (even when things don't go to plan) and is utterly dedicated to speed sailing as a whole and to his desire to take this record. I shall be following Sailrocket 2 with avid interest and encourage others to do so too. Good Luck Paul and Vestas Sailrocket 2. Neil Thomas

Is Sodebo only 10ft long then??

Is Sodebo only 10ft long then??

PY? How lame is that? Isn't that why God (read Mike Urwin) invented the Sportsboat Rule?

How does he manage to get any sleep at all! These are ferocious speeds he's maintaining for days on end. It does seem as though the Irens wave piercing bow "does what it says on the box". One also wonders how many times Francis stood Idec on it's nose as well.

If he doesn't pull off this miracle, David, then he will still own the movie rights to an upcoming classic: How Don Quoville (with his steed Sodebo and autopilot Sancho Bob) Tilted at the Virtual IDEC Around the Planet... Separately, does anybody know what the mysterious still image is, at 6min22secs into this Oracle 'for your eyes only' video? ... Is it the bottom of a foil casing? http://www.youtube.com/user/OracleRacingTeam#p/u/2/jUjNCgJ13Ik

At 1000mls behind and with 43 days left to match Joyon's record, Sodebo will have to make up almost exactly 24mls a day! So sail at 1kt faster all the time to equal the record! I suppose theoretically the boat is slightly faster than Idec but this is a big ask. Joyon only had a couple of slow days ascending the Atlantic and Coville doesn't seem to enjoy this kind of luck. Too late in the season to start again!

Two nice videos now posted from the YCF Energy Team presentation. To switch from one to the other I think you are supposed to snap your fingers - this is not a YouTube facade, you know - it is a proper Yacht Club! http://www.ycf-club.fr/HTML/homeparis.html

Brittany would be nice! (given ACRM must be considering an ACWS 'fête' for the AceyQuaranteCinqs)

Today's conference at the Yacht Club de France, twittered here by Pierre-Yves Lautrou: http://twitter.com/PYL

Well done Jez Fanstone - a great loss to the UK Olympic struggle and a huge NZ gain. Hope the wife and kids will let you come back one day!! On the the other hand the weather here is s**t - and to be honest Lymington is really a bit quite at this time of year! Even Nick Rogers (retired) seems to be in NZ - so I'm off to Antigua in that case. Love ya!

Well it took G3 three attempts before they got round in one piece. B.Pop were always likely to need more than one attempt, which is why I was surprised they've waited so long to make it. Still I'm just an armchair critic!!

Worked here in Safari, but it's a very long HD segment and took 5-10 minutes to load ... Spent the intervening minutes admiring how BanquePop seemed hove-to in the quietest spot of the South Atlantic as dawn arrived - hopefully in order to regain some utility from their centerboard?

Are the videos not working for anybody else or just me? I've tried in Safari and Firefox.

The weather's demonstrating that all models are just models, and waiting a year for the "perfect slot" is not imho justifiable! However BP has caught up G3 rapidly in the last 24hrs and with luck they'll ride the present low into the the virtual lead.

easy now boys...

This is pornography to an old Tornado sailor :-)

Coutts breaks his own news embargo with these remarks yesterday? "In fact, I'm extremely confident, and we will probably get more like 10 (AC34 teams) by the time entries close at the end of March," he told journalists in Auckland. (see link below for more) Well, supposing there is no embargo, then the secretiveness of all these teams/backers/sponsors means they are all emulating Larry, by haggling to the last minute? http://tvnz.co.nz/sailing-news/oracle-expect-many-challengers-4009463

Loïc Le Bras has a blog entry on this, 'History Repeats?' http://www.voilesetvoiliers.com/club/blogs/voir/Lebras/billet/1043/

Believe it or not, BanquePop may, perhaps, be casting off this morning, depending on circumstances, and departure still appears uncertain... Fortunately they are not sponsored by an airline; but they are the best advertisement for flying instead!

Grinding...So much Grinding

Some nice shots of the ACQC by aerial artist Thierry Martinez here: http://www.thmartinez.com/en/thumbs.php?FolioID=254&stat=1

Good to see the Container Programme continuing, great that they've stepped into the TP class, the Owner/Drivers are going to have a fantastic time this year.

Did I say 'Gladstone'? Of course I meant to say Gladwood...

Some multihull veterans must have had difficulty chewing their croissants this morning, when they saw Gladstone's eyewitness description from windier day 2: "It was very hard, or impossible to find fault with the AC45 ... Handling was an absolute dream... Tacking was unbelievable - far quicker than a monohull - even an AC class yacht - and more akin to a very well sailed foiling moth..." http://www.sail-world.com/Europe/Americas-Cup:-AC45-ticks-all-the-boxes-...

If there is someone who doesn't know what "cool" is all about, just watch this! I was petrified to hear that the old AC boats would not continue. I love the Chess game of match racing, and the finish of the AC32 was the ultimate sail race finish. However, I did own and sail a Tornado, and by god, this looks pretty cool.

Am I alone in thinking they really should have had a go last year. Conditions are never perfect. The boat is bigger than G3 and should break the record if it stays in one piece!

Looks like it's trying to be a dumbed down VO70, eg fixed keel, single pedestal etc. A marked difference from the current and previous Clipper boats.

New video today, from One-Design-Boatbuilder-Heaven ... (the only thing more inspiring than this, is what Branson is doing with his spaceships?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPiqeHP7_uA

• Enhanced online broadcasting (EOB) to deliver a personalized viewer experience... What might this signify? • The AC34 megasite brings everything under its Wing • You choose the mix of cameras/mics/commentary following your favorite team(s) • The AC34 megasite gets social and your friends drop in to watch and comment the racing • EOB soon rearranges traffic and advertising, kinda like SuperMalls impacted Main Street • But will it boil down to a drag race? • San Francisco 'drag goddess' has already addressed this topic! And I quote (him or her, who knows) ... "I encourage whatever floats your boat or creams your Twinkie!"• Which reminds us of another inevitability: Several AC34 protest hearings will feature the 'Twinkie Defense'...

Let the funding begin!!!

And quicker than you can say, 'Baghdad by the Bay'... an AC34 variant in the long line of 'Der Untergang' parodies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7K-y6tHFnY

You know you are in San Francisco when: Your hairdresser is straight, your plumber is gay, etc. etc. ....... AND when all your local sailing traditionalists are prepared to jump off the Golden Gate, in protest of nautical licentiousness! (see video, new today) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xivNKFulYhU&feature=player_embedded

It surprising the BMW has pulled out nearly a year after AC33 and one must assume there have been other challenges. Clearly there has been a lot of discussion about the challenges of the new format. The new Americas Cup 34 poses some interesting issues that first loomed potenitialy on the horizon in February at the 33rd AC in Valencia. These included foremost the high likelihood that AC 34 would again be a competition with multihulls and hence new challenges of design, present costs, owner involvement, crews, race rules, and tactics. I was fortunate to have been at the 33 rd AC and to have spoken to a number of the people involved, in confidence at the time, because of the uncertainties of the future of the possible future multihull format. Some of these conversations can now be shared. Racing multihulls in AC has been a $100 million question after Valencia. One of the first concerns was whether it would even be possible under the stipulation of the Deed. Steven , a friend of historian John R has researched the history of the Deed and the implications. His take: “Based on the Deed, a race of mutual consent , it would be possible” if all parties agreed. Another question was whether there was the motivation to repeat the AC in multihulls. After introducing myself as having raced a 60 foot ORMA triamaran (Larus Roc, ex- Paragon), I asked several people their view. Paul Cayard, the winner of previous ACs and Whitbread Around the World Races, commented” The problem is the cost for most teams” What about a box rule, I asked, to help contain costs as he had proposed previously as a racing format together with Russell Coutts? “A box rule would work – that s what Russell Coutts and I tried to do with the 70 foot trimaran racing circuit. It would be difficult.” After thinking some more he said “We have of course the little AC and something like that would work.” Indeed, this was the ground work for the new AC format, including the fixed wing. Paul recently has announced he will be leading team Artemis, the Swedish entry. Paul is married to a Swede, Pelle Petterson, daughter. Petterson is famous as a Swedish Olympic sailor and skipper of Swedens’s clallenges in 1977 and 1980.. What did Vincent Lauriot Prevost , the designer of for VLPL and the designer of many successful racing French trimarans think? “Personally, I think it would be interesting but if BMW Oracle wins, it is unlikely to happen. Bertarelli would like to do a multihull AC but I don’t think he’ll win. I of course support BMW Oracle.” Vincent was part of the design team for BMW Oracle and with a likely French entry, the question will be who he’ll work with, since VLPL has been the leading designer of French racing trimarans. Cam Lewis, has raced all sorts of multihulls, including the 1988 Deed of Gift Challenge Race in the solid wing mast catamaran Stars and Stripes with Dennis Connors. He also raced in the 105 foot catamaran Team Adventure with Larry Rosenfeld. Cam was enthusiastic “ Once you ve tried and ridden a roller coaster, you may get addicted to the ride; if you’ve never tried a roller coaster, you don’t know what you re missing unless you try one. That’ s the problem that there is not much motivation among teams( because of experience) and the costs would be high. The boat crews would be keen to do it again.” Joseph Ozonne, the wing design coordinator for BMW Oracle, and who also worked for VPLP on ORMA 60 foot trimarans, was excited about the technology and the concept of advanced specialized teams for hulls, foils, wing, mast, new software products such as Solid Works (developed by my neighbor Michael Paine) and Rhino, and that all these could be brought to bear on designing the state of the art type of boat like BMW Oracle. He spent nearly three quarters of an hour over coffee detailing for the benefits of a wind sail, including the engineering aspects, which were very interesting although regretfully much went over my head. He stressed the importance of a “global package” in developing the boat. The benefits included easier to model, less load on the mainsheet, lighter weight, higher lift coefficient and hence less compression loads, easier to deal with the pressure gradients from the top of the 225 mast to the bottom, quicker self tacking and acceleration, and less drag. With the twin pieces, the leading keeps wind adherent to both sides and then the slot between the two allows wind to flow from the forward piece through the slot between the two to the leeward side of the trailing second piece. This further enhances leeward adherence of the wind with less shear and turbulence. Hence, wind shear is reduced and drag reduced. The slot is also increased by greater camber in the wing. Why not then two slots like the C class? “ The lift coefficient is so good therefore we don’t need increase the number of slots and complexity”. “When we need more lift, we can also add the gennaker which the C class cannot”. With ORMA 60s the wing mast rotates like on BMW Oracle – how does that change with a wing mast? “We have a sensor in the wing leading edge (the sort of eyes on the leading edge), they look like eyes, and from out computations we get the right angle” There did not appear to be many tell tales on the wing mast – how do you sail it and setup the sails correctly? He replied “The first time the crew took out the boat, they thought they could just go out and sail the boat, and came back saying it did not work. We then had to convince them they would need to sail by the numbers and information from the sensors, computed left coefficients, optimums and then achieve the predicted targets”. The targets were confirmed by sailing to the maximum and then reaching the stall points of the wing. How important is curvature and camber when for airplanes this is small? “For planes this is not important but for birds and lower wind speeds it is and that is why it has a high reserve camber” “I wish I had 5 years to develop further the wing design but we had a time limit to come up with a high coefficient of lift wing sail” Well he now has that. He thought it would remain to be seen what happened “but eventually it will have to happen” A true prediction, with perhaps the knowledge of what the team was thinking. At the cocktail party on the Monday evening, after some listless sailing but very impressive performance with no wind by BMW Oracle, I talked to Russell Coutts. He was excited and animated about his teams performance in the weak breeze that day. “Did you see how she did?!! Were you on the water?” I had been on the water on the media boat and had been watching the virtual sailing screens and with just the wing mast versus Alinghi with soft main sail, BMW Oracle was doing 4-6 knots while Alinghi was doing 3-4 knots. So, was he interested in another AC multihull race “Yea, definitely” but clearly the discussion was going to have to wait till another day after the races. He asked me “where do you race out of?” and I related some of what we had done with our 60foot trimaran and that I had kept my boat near Newport (Wickford, RI). “Newport is a great place” and clearly he d like to see some AC races there. Obviously, with his position, I could not pursue this further given the situation but clearly Newport has a rich AC history with the most AC races held there and Larry Ellison is rumoured to recently have purchased one of the Newport mansions. After the Sunday night Alinghi fashion show, I complimented Ernesto Bertarelli on his style and commented about the parallel “cats sailing during the day, cat walk at night” both with capable sailing legs and beautiful twin bows and hulls. Did you he want another AC multihull race “Yes, but first I must win”. It will be interesting to see what campaign, if any, Bertarelli mounts since his boat was a catamaran but with soft sails. Building a smaller boat will not likely be a problem but building a wing sail, something that the team did consider for Valencia, will be more challenging. On Day 6 day off, the day before he helmed Alinghi in the first upwind leg, the only time he helmed a leg, and also Alinghi outperformed BMW Oracle, I had lunch with Loick Peyron (see below). We shared a lot in common and many years before he’d competed and been beaten by my old boat (as Paragon). We had a very good conversation, and his comments were incisive and his charm gracious. As far as AC he felt that something like a 100 foot boat would be ideal because of the excitement of close handed sailing and with a careful box rule, costs could be contained. He also mentioned he was working with his brother on another Race, like the 2000 Race but predicated on the future of AC multihulls. As it has turned out, he and his brother have joined together to mount a AC team. This would be a formidable team because France has the most experience with large multihull designing, building, sailing, and sailors. There is a potential for a first time ever win by France of the Americas Cup. I also asked Loick about around the world sailing. He felt the races should be arranged with larger multihulls and with in harbor races with smaller boats. For the next AC, there will be of course the 45 foot catamarans for the younger sailors to encourage the develop of country teams. Of course, I could not resist asking him what he thought about the speed of the boats and there handling compared to an ORMA 60. His comment was that oncee Alinghi rose up on one hull, which she did very quickly, then the boat was not as involving, partly because she is not sailed that fast since most sailing is light wind sailing. His best speed was over 40 knots in a ORMA trimaran. At the Alinghi base, a group of us had a chance to speak to Lord Richard Branson about his views. He made it clear he was not planning to race a Virgin boat unless his friend Sir Keith Mills from Team Origin withdrew. “No, Britain has a well sponsored boat but if things should change then I would consider (an entry). At this stage there are no plans for a Virgin Americas Cup”. He made the comment that he thought most owners would prefer a monohull but volunteered “I like small boats like Hobie cats and enjoy sailing them” at his BVI residence at Necktar Island, BVI. With Team Origin’s withdrawl, the possibility of a Virgin team may be possible. Now that the decision has been made for a catamaran, some new questions arise ; Most owners are sailors and traditionally have liked taking the helm but with multihulls this is a steeper learning curve because of the quick changes and increased speed. The line is finer between success and error. Clearly, helming is less conducive to the owner driving, although, Larry Ellison was on the stern of his boat during the second race in Valencia. The cost of developing Alinghi and BMW Oracle was clearly very high, in the range of $100-$200 million, but these were bigger boats than the new 72foot AC boats. This may be still a barrier to entry. My companion on many of the trips and dinner was Ron Young. He had managed Bill Koch’s successful AC cup campaign, the last successful campaign in 1992 by an American syndicate (America 3) prior to AC33 and gave the insight that rarely is the quoted amount for a campaign, in the case of Bill Koch’s, $68 million a true reflection of the cost and that total costs may be considerably more. Clearly the box rule and a boat that is not that bigger in length than the 1988 60 footer with a wing mast, does help contain costs but does not sacrifice much in speed and drama. The costs of the wing mast however are less well defined. Does the decision to choose a catamaran versus a trimaran matter? Very quickly in the AC 33 race it became obvious that the BMW Oracle boat was going to be sailed as a catamaran and not a trimaran. Obviously, the ORMA class of trimarans were also sailed mostly as catamarans, with two hulls out of the water. So what then were the advantages of a trimaran over a catamaran, particularly since sea state was not much of an issue (the races were going to be with less than 15 knots) and so the benefit of upwind performance and sailing close to the wind was not a much of an issue. The latter issue of upwind performance was not so important because both had hull foils that could be used to improve upwind angulation to the wind. I asked James Spithill about this. “You’ve stripped off the central rudder, dagger board and sailing the boat like a cat. Tacking is traditionally better with a trimaran – is the center hull necessary?” downwind pointing may also be affected. His comment was “You are correct. Still needed to add stiffness” “the center hull allows us to move the wing mast backwards and forwards along the hull which we could not do with a catamaran”. Looking at the boat from my photographs and the aerial views, it is clear that the outer hulls (amas) on BMW Oracle were considerably longer than Alinghi. The rules stated the boats had to be 90 feet at the water line and up to 90 feet wide. What then was the advantage of a trimaran? With these parameters there were two. With a trimaran a boat floats on its center hull when a rest and the amas are either out of the water or bouncing on the water, thus the measured length would be typically the center hull. This thus allows the amas to be considerably longer, as was the case, whereas with a catamaran, this advantage can not be obtained other than making long bows that are out of the water but this does not aid performance much because of the then curved shape of the under water segment. Hence Alinghi’s challenge over BMW Oracle’s length. The other advantage was then that when sailed as a cat, the full length of the amas could be utilized and according to the Texel formula, the length of the hulls is a very important contributor to speed and holds true quite well even for large multihulls, such as 60 foot ORMA trimarans. Another potential benefit of a trimaran is that there are two instead of one hull that can have water ballast added. The cost is the potential extra weight. The race tactics will also be of interest. For AC 33 the first race was a traditional windward leeward race but over 40 nautical miles, won by BMW Oracle in 15 minutes and 25 seconds. The second race was a triangular circuit with the base of the triangle on the windward side of the course, allowing for a fast beam reach, for a total distance of 39 nautical miles, which BMW Oracle won in 5 minutes and 29 seconds. On the beam reach, virtual screen showed BMW Oracle reaching 33 knots. I had a conversation with Ed Baird who has enjoyed sailing trimarans in the past. The obvious concern would be the speed and rapid acceleration of multihulls and he noted that when sailing from 45 degrees to 75 degrees one has to be careful about the risk of rapid acceleration and capsizing as they experienced during training with an ORMA 60’ trimaran. He put this down to their crew’s inexperience and poor communication and this lead to the change in the design with Alinghi nets being closer to the water so that if she capsized, the crew would not be suffocated by the nets. Also, all of the crew carried knives because of the huge size of the nets in case they needed to escape. I asked what about the dial up since the boats closing speeds will be 30 knots to 40 knots when entering the course and it is very difficult to quickly turn a large multihull down wind and gybing? Obviously the port boat has to give way on entry on the course. He agreed “Yes it takes more time.” Having once nearly T boned a Swan 55’ with my 60’ trimaran while on a port close hauled tack at 16knots, I am well aware of the difficulty because Larus Roc would not turn behind the approaching Swan and only a quick tack prevented an accident, with my 52’ beam boat missing the Swan by about ten feet. Thus, the course entry is of interest in AC33. The commentators missed that when Bertarelli at the helm headed directly at BMW Oracle on the entering the course, he initially tried to turn downwind to gybe around and the windward ama initially dipped, clearly seen from on the water at the race start but not from the helicopters video, but then he was forced into the position of having to tack because of the boat not responding. Hence, the penalty point and later penalty turn at the finishing line. What about man over board? Before the Marion Bermuda race we found making turns to pick up a MOB did not work and we found the quickest way in a big multihull was to start the motor and reverse – fortunately we practiced this and when we did have a MOB, this worked admirably. Ed noted that for AC33 the chase boats would pick up the MOB person and there would be not penalty unless it was deliberate. He noted that when looking for pressure, the crew on a downwind they needed to look downwind for evidence for wind since the boats sail faster than the wind downwind, a counter intuitive notion. Indeed, an ORMA can sail at 2.5 times wind speed in light winds. He pointed out that Russell Coutts would release a balloon at the windward mark and see if the crew could beat the balloon to the finish line. He expected less tacks when compared to monohull AC sailing because boat speed drops by about 70% and the boats loose 20 to 30 seconds per tack. Hence less tacks but still keeping in contact with the competitor. He expected larger distances between boats and little “TV of both boats.” This was largely true with except for the end of the first leg of the second race and this will be the challenge for AC34. It is also noteworthy that wind direction and tides will be less important but wind strength will be much more important – wind speed increase from 6 to 7 knots can increase speed by 20%. Virtual sailing screens, overview footage, including mast cameras and helicopters, showing the action, the much more active process of sailing multihulls, will help draw in TV/Web audiences. Furthermore, the potential for dramatic crashes and crash boxes breaking off (part of the design of the new AC boat bows), will even attract some interest, dare one say, from those who watch NASCAR (as Cam suggested) and certainly Formula 1 racing. Just as Formula 1 racing shows off the latest technology that then trickles down to everyday cars, so the modernized update of AC will undoubtedly have spin offs for everyday sailors. It thus ironical that multihull are no longer in the Olympics and that in the latter 1800s, Herresdorff sailing of a faster catamaran, resulted in a lost century of potential development of multihulls with AC. Maybe this time the audience for AC will be bigger than bull riding. The latter was more popular than AC 32 on Vestus during AC32. For sailors, the contribution of the new AC format will be very important, rejuvenating the sport of sailing, bringing in new young sailors who are more action orientated because of computer games, increasing the advertising audience, and the development of more advanced technologies, and maybe wing masts for more boats. Lunch with Loick Peyron On Thursday the 13th February of the 33rd Americas Cup I had paella lunch with Loick Peyron and his charming wife Christina. Loick and I had struck up a conversation about sailing ORMA 60s and he had raced against my boat in the 1980s and 1990s and when he heard the name of Paragon, he threw up his arms and said what a great boat she was and how ahead of her time she was. During our lunch I had the opportunity to ask him a lot of question about his thoughts about AC and around the world sailing. What are the biggest differences between ORMA 60s and Alinghi apart from light wind speed? “Well ORMA 60s are faster and more on edge but because sailing with two reefs you can have lower center of moment and thus faster in strong winds (higher speeds can be achieved). At 15 knots, Alinghi may get 35 to 34 knots but that s because big sails and not reefing (BMW Oracle did over 30 knots on the beam reach in the second race). Acceleration is very fast with Alinghi as with ORMA 60s, but not as fast, but once up on a hull it’s very stable and feels very safe. Not like ORMAs and concern for capsizing and edge. Also Alinghi does not have the acceleration an ORMA 60 when going from 35 to 110 degrees that ORMAs have and concern for capsizing. Little nervous from 45 to 75 but then very stable.” What about an AC multihull : “certainly would be interesting” What box rule would you envisage? 70 foot? “Well I ve been thinking a lot about that. No 70 is too slow and small. Would need 100 foot. Would be a good size and not scare teams off. Look at Dubai Arab class boat – its 100 feet.” Would you have a triangular course like ORMA 60s? “ Not sure but I ve been thinking a lot about this. The problem with multihulls is that tacking duels (foretelling AC race strategy) will be minimal (there was only one in the two AC races in Valencia and many thought there would be none and this was after the first upwind leg tack that Loick helmed and had Alinghi leading). Probably would be better to have gates that boats go through.” With the death of the ORMA class, what do you think of the proposed 70 foot ORMA or 70 class races suggested by Coutts and Cayard? “ The problem is the boats may have inshore races for the public but that does not work. As far as the public is concerned, that’s off - shore. It has to be in harbors, like Claire Fontaine and here in Valencia (40s). Also, the Extreme 40s. The public loves that. Look at the ORMA60 in Nokia OOPs. I raced them in Stockholm harbor. It was great. That’s what we need.” What about round the world multihull races – obviously sponsors and public like stops rather than non stop races like Whitbread but like Volvo? “Interesting, I was talking to my brother today about that this morning. 70s are obviously too small for Around the World but going back to the Arab class, they need to be 100 feet and there are already two of them. I think there should be something like 100 feet (race) around the world.” Like the Race? (A second Race is planned like the 2000 race Bruno Peyron arraigned previously). “Yes, but with stops, in harbor racing” But 70 s are too big and inshore with them does not work. I think you should have the 100 footers from port to port like Volvo.” And then have smaller boats like 40s in harbor? “Yes, you have to have small boats in harbor with the same crew sailing them. 40 foot maximum because they need to fit in containers. Its ridiculous to have big grinder crews flying in for the in shore races – it s too expensive” So should the there be powered winches and hydraulics? “ No, no, no. I don’t like that at all. For this race I was against power but this is about the best technology”. We then talked more about non sailing topics like our children (their three girls and a boy) and our favorite racing watches (we both had the same) and the one he was required to wear for French TV. After a very interesting and pleasant meal, I wished him and his charming wife every success. “Impressive, happy to be here, great event, planning next step.” Will AC34 be the first for France? Lars Svensson, MD, PhD raced his 60 foot ORMA trimaran from 2006 to 2008 in 9 races in New England and the Caribbean and won 7 and his team’s record of 60 hours for the Marion Bermuda race still stands. He now sails a F31 with his family.

And sixth place was so much fun last year, that they just had to do it again! I hope Mr.and Mrs. Z have a good sense of humor...

Those are some of the best offshore yacht pics I've seen!

There's spin and there's spin and if BMW's goal was really to win lots of court cases then it has done so. The 'ultimate goal' of winning the America's Cup on the water has in any real terms not yet occurred. . . damning inditment of Russell Vision.

Hope you don't think of T10's and J22's as sportboats............

Maiden was moored on a pontoon at Eden Island, Mahe in September this year. Appears complete, but in need of some tlc.

Hello to TDS's members, I was involved in C-Class design during 1990-1991 in France and carried out also extensive wind tunnel campaigns on to assess real lift / drag performances of slotted wings over these boats. We tested single-slotted and double-slotted wings. To give additional details : > an highly well tuned catamaran soft sail reaches a max CL of around 1.4 to 1.5 (depending on the effective aspect ratio, sheet tension....) > C-Class wings were from CL = 2.25 to 2.44 with less gaps than it was formerly believed between single and double slotted...Low figures due to low Reynolds number circulating flows. A bigger significant leap in CL needed a design breakthrough coming from fundamental physics of high-lift. We succeeded in reaching CL max = 2.62. If double slotted C-Class wings were penalized, this was mainly due to the complex external double-stagged levers, conecting rods, cams, and old profiles used on Yellow Pages. Anyway, the much higher AC 72's Reynolds number will re-distribute playing cards. About induced drag, the devil is again in the detail as the geometric aspect ratio is rule-frozen and twist managment will be truly a crucial matter. I will simply add about the failure of the foiling Moth-Style "Off Yer Rockers" something that has been guessed by Steve Killing himself...Simply, if you lift the whole of a catamaran planform at each edge, the equivalent virtual roll axis move sidewards from the downwind hull towards the cat's symmetry x'Ox axis and the effective righting moment drastically falls... R.Laval-Jeantet, PhD

The star is not the way to go. The keelboat racing should be there, but it should be Men's match racing in the same fleet of boats the women use. That way the match racing AC 'big names' (Percy, Cayard, ETC) can race at the Olympics, the costs barely go up because the fleet of boats are already there, so win win. Star sailing is just way too costly for anyone but the very wealthy or sponsored to even think about taking up.

He nailed it with the backwardness of the funding. It is much harder to find funding for sailing in the US. We have had to pull teeth to get around a 5k grant to get george peet and myself to the moth worlds. Bora from simon's computer

He nailed it with the backwardness of the funding. It is much harder to find funding for sailing in the US. We have had to pull teeth to get around a 5k grant to get george peet and myself to the moth worlds. Bora from simon's computer

There is no doubt that the ISAF has lost the plot in their desperation to retains Olympic status. The IOC is playing on those fears for all they are worth. If you have to build special facilities, then the real logic it you should make more use of them by expanding the event. As skiing has done, adding new variants (snow boarding, short course) not throwing out the type of sailing that the majority take part in. G New

And they need better broadband at the conference centre

i totally agree with ian! yes, the starboat is an old class but it´s working quite well (reputation, quality of sailors, spread) i don´t think sailing on any olymipc level can be much cheaper than star sailing. the cost will increase in other parts of an olympic campain and if you sum it up it is nearly the same...

Never sailed a Star. Probably never will. And yet while all the other Olympic fleets get one of the world's best sailors occasionally, the Star fleet has 12. Never 100, but always a good batch. By far the hardest Olympic fleet. There are reasons for that.

If the Star is plain too expensive, then is there a cheaper, more modern, more one-design, two man keelboat alternative? Something like the RS K6, but cooler?

Totally agree that there should be a keelboat, but not sure that the Star represents keelboat sailing across the Globe. Surely something with a few more crew? But then we are in arguments of cost and accessibility etc etc.

Guichard makes a few remarks here: http://www.letelegramme.com/sports/voile/team-gitana-guichard-prend-la-p...

Very good argumentation. I absolutely agree on all point... we do need a keelboat, and we also need technical boats, not just "monopoly" boats like the Laser.

Beach volley ball goes sailing! What a concept. DWB

With him all the way. Bring back the Star and allow rthe acknowledged heros (that the IOC desperately wants) and banish the mixed excuse me in 470s - it isn't an Olympic option of any value. Fish

Wow, those are some long, high aspect rudders! And boards. A bit of a crowded field with the xtreme 40, Seacart 26, Marstrum 32, Raider 302, Toro 34, Farrier 32...

Strike 'God'. Insert Good.

Tonight, watching the X40's present their plans for 2011, it seemed to me they effectively polished off Russell-Vision's lunch; A full schedule of venues, roster of teams, and all done with efficiency and good public relations. God show! It puts that much more pressure on AC34's wingmen, and cinematographers.

goforit

It certainly is. Why did it stop? I've always thought two handed racing such as the RBR is much safer than singlehanded. All that boat preparation should be enjoyed by more than one sailor!

This is most excellent news. The Royal Western YC are to be congratulated

Aleph Team France, today announced in Course au Large. What does the name Aleph come from? http://www.courseaularge.com/articles/17319/Aleph-challenger-officiel-po...

There is video now, showing the upturned Region Aquitaine Port Medoc, the rescue of the sailors by cargo ship, and interviews in Gibraltar. Lalou describes how the capsize occurred at 5am in a sudden 50-knot gust. http://aquitaine.france3.fr/info/aquitaine/exclu--les-photos-du-sauvetag...

Difference between pier (http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://statenislandusa.com/images/...) and peer (http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph...)

I'm sooo old. My first race boat had a blooper and we had fun sailing downwind in heavy air with spinnaker and blooper (a cheater nylon genoa that flew to leeward of the spinnaker) because the pinched stern IOR (you kids do not know what that was either) boats would spin out on a heavy air run. Don Mitchell

49ers are doing similar things with fleet racing these days. Aiming at having the event conclude in about 1.5 hours with a winner through fleet racing. Check out 2 vids from the recent trial in Fremantle: http://www.youtube.com/user/benremocker?feature=mhum#p/a/u/2/40mr2-bcAX4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXf8VPs7OxU

Long is good! Real english sentences and detailed quotes, not soundbites. If it's interesting, let it run!

Obviously, Murray was talking about a possible scenario that took a big bite out of it, by removing the biggest part - the personnel costs. It is hard to say who is being disingenuous around here sometimes. Read the Grant Dalton interview: “I think it is less than Keith Mills thought [100 million Euros]. Even if he is right - and he might be because you could easily spend that - there is no way in a million years that we could get anything close to that.”

Quite. Long is good. I worry deeply about Murray's handling of the budget situation, however. He is going around saying you could do an AC on E20m if you take away the personnel costs by using dinghy sailors. And then says that the most expensive thing is the personnel costs. Disingenuous to say the least.

No need to apologise James! Great article and fascinating stuff. What else are we supposed to read in our lunch hour on a cold December day in Blighty!

Fascinating story...For those in SoCal, tomorrow night at California Yacht Club Tom Ehman and Pete Melvin will present their current picture of what is happening and where this compelling drama is taking us. Next year should publicly demonstrate a formidable change of direction for the Auld Mug. The continuing sponsorship by Louis Vuitton adds continuity and tradition to the otherwise radical 'new' AC. We have much to look forward to. David Collins

Pathetic?? errr spoilt child?? Err Hypocrite??? err Boot on the other foot.............

Roland and Nahid Gaebler who are campaining on behalf of the Tornado point out, the following mixed data from the multihull world: The actual World champion in Open Tornado World championship is a mixed team. Many of the World champions in the Hobie 16 Class are mixed teams Women Sailing Legends Ellen MacArthur and Shirley Robertson sailing on Extreme 40 multihulls with a mixed team. Vice-World champion in ISAF combined Worlds 2007 in Cascais was a mixed team. Vice European Champion 2010 in Hobie 16 is a mixed team. 20% of Top 10 in Tornado Worlds is mixed teams (Place 1. and 7.). 40% of Top 10 in German Tornado Crew Ranking list is Women (from 81 Crews)! More women sail as a crew more than sail as a helm in Tornado. 3:7 ratio for helm/crew in mixed teams. Denmark send mixed teams to the Olympics in 1984, 1992 and 2000 The Tornado and 470 class had successful mixed teams in the past Olympics. Our ultimate sailing Legend Poul Elvström places 4. at the Olympics 1984 with his daughter Trine They have started the site www.mixedsailing.org

Wilted as his prospects now appeared, Lionel romained determined to ketchup. And as he stalked them, his leading rivals took a beeting from mother nature. End(ive) of story? He was first to turnip at the finish line!

Let us hope with a one design that an adequate margin of strength has been built into these beams. Designers in general do seem to be still underestimating the dynamic loads on racing trimaran beams. Any failure will be disastrous for the new class.

...lettuce say, it was no small potatoes, getting that headboard car down from the top of the mast...

Lemonchois: It sure looked like he was in a pickle, for a while; But he stayed cool as a cucumber, and then ...

It's quite admirable the way Lemonchois has sorted out the structural problems this boat had, improved it, and then persevered in the RduRhum to win through. After his earlier triumphs in larger multis, his reputation is now sky high.

Moth at the Olympics? Come on, they are funny boats but leave them where they are. My list is: Finn Tornado mixed Star 470 Men 470 Female 49er mixed Lser Men Laser Female Match Race Men Match Race Female Windsurf can go with "beach sports" together with Beach Volley.

Moth at the Olympics? Come on, they are funny boats but leave them where they are. My list is: Finn Tornado mixed Star 470 Men 470 Female 49er mixed Lser Men Laser Female Match Race Men Match Race Female Windsurf can go with "beach sports" together with Beach Volley.

Looks like hull speed to me...quite spectacular!

Foiling moth, are you joking, replace the class with the strongest most athletic guys and replace it with a class which can have a scenario of lightest person wins!!

What is that black smudge on Tim Kelly's upper lip area?

well, ISAF is as usual about 15 to 20 years behind, I am afraid they will never learn it. This would have been a possibility to bring Olympic sailing up to date, instead they stick with the Finn and the 470 and a keel boat class for women that nobody is really interested in.

Big gear, bigger balls!

no solid wing foiler then......

" These awards are a joke." ----- but I was transfixed by the glory of it, as long as Lobke Berkhout was in the frame.

Well - surprise, surprise - two Olympic sailors. These awards are a joke.

Another feather in Francis' cap, enhancing his already great reputation. The southerly route paid off in this RduRhum. In fact Cammas could have thrown his lead away by diving north to cover Coville, due to the unexpected southerly winds at the finish. The lurking tropical storm could have caused problems, and the weather was bad in Biscay after the race had crossed. It confirms that starting a transatlantic race in November is risky, it's too late in the north Atlantic and too early in the Caribbean!!

Yep - they have to do a nice anti-clockwise lap of Guadeloupe and approach the Pointe a Pitre finish line (on the south side of the island) from the west. Yours, wishing I was there... etc

Absolutely fascinating!

Great! I live in Geneva and have had the chance to sail a Ventilo M2 from time to time, is there any chance of a C class taking a trip down here to see how they compare? Unreliable wind might be an issue, especially for longer races and let's hope Ernesto wouldn't be offended on his home turf but would be great to see one day. John

I can find no reference to the final route. Judging by Joyon's course now the finishers have to circle Guadeloupe anticlockwise? In which case we already know the first three places!

The figures on the RdRh website seem misleading to me. G3 is 55nm upwind to either the SE or SW corner of Guadeloupe, so around 100nm tacking in ever lightening airs in the lee of the island, currently doing 7kts! Joyon on Idec by contrast is 170nm from the SE point of the island, but reaching in at 18kts. Although no doubt his wind will lighten too. However I think this is going to be very close, Joyon's boat is much lighter and easier to handle.

Amazng footage. Hugely impressive that he was able to video with so much carnage going on! Shows what you can do with a simple on board camera if you put your mind to it!

The award for 'Happiest Guy on his Veranda', (the envelope, please) ... goes to Arnaud! http://www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com/fr/s08_multimedia/s08p06_zoom...

I think you mean algorithms, not logarithms...

Gavignet had the presence of mind to take some video during his boat's breakdown and his rescue. It is on the RdR offshore video page: http://www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com/fr/s08_multimedia/s08p03_vide...

The Route du Rhum site points out today, they have all the participants' onboard-recorded VIDEOS at following LINK! http://www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com/fr/s08_multimedia/s08p03_vide...

Great interview James. Francis is such a gentleman - I ve only met him once, after OSTAR on Eure et Loire, which inspired me to later buy his old boat Paragon. We had a lot of fun racing her under the name Larus Roc and the Marion to Bermuda record still stands of some 60 hours five years later. Lars Svensson

Super interview James! ----- It's your lucky day, Route du Rhum fans, Here's a list of boats that are sending in their own VIDEO from mid-Atlantic!.... If you know of others, then POST them!... Most of you probably don't know about them, these video reports are not integrated on the official RdR website, but they give a lot more 'atmosphere' than you get from just staring at the tracking page! ----- The Viewer Friendly Award goes to Roland Jourdain who has ENGLISH SUBTITLES (there is otherwise just a lot of rapid-fire french of course...). The Best Music Soundtrack award goes to Thomas Coville. The Most Daredevil Cooking Appliance award goes to Christopher Pratt (see video Nov.5)----- Next RdR there will be much more camerawork like this, on the official site. It IS going to become 'de rigeur' (ain't that so, Russell?) ---- Even Franck Cammas (what a Prima Donna ;-) is going to have to do it ---- Here's the Names&LINKS to the video pages (take away the asterisks) ***** Roland Jourdain/Veolia Environnement***www.canyousea.com/en/sailing-news/2010-11-05,329506.htm ***** Thomas Coville/Sodebo*** http://www.sodebo-voile.com/carnet-medias/videos.html ***** Chris Pratt/DCNS *** www.lesfilieresdutalent.com/index.aspx?section=117&type=8 ***** Marc Guillemot/Safran *** www.safransixty.com/spip.php?article2079 ***** Vincent Riou/PRB *** www.prb.fr/voile_index.php ***** Yann Guichard/Gitana *** http://www.gitana-team.com/fr/gitana2/2010/gitana11-routedurhum.aspx?m=n... ***** Arnaud Boissiéres/AkenaVeranda *** http://www.akenavoile.com/videotheque.html ***** Whew! That was an exhausting comment!

Yet more interesting features on a FOncia! Interstingly the old Foncia had her boards moved to the outside 'toed-in' position after she changed to Movistar colours. So I assume that Iker and Mich have been sharing informaiton from all the sailing they have been doing.

HI James, thanks for the article really good. Any chance of adding descriptions to the photos, they are great but sometimes not sure what i'm looking at. Captions would be a real benefit. thanks, Martin.

fantastic .. sam sure knows her stuff..

Recall how inseparable ACTUAL and CREPES WHAOU were, all the way to and from St Petersburg, back in May? ...... Here's a sequel: http://voile.whaou.com/actualite/grosse-frayeur-nocturne/a256.html

For part two, I think that a PINK BIKINI should be obligatory. ........................................... No! Put that away James! (I was thinking of Samantha).

a) on a dinghy this is the equivalent of having a motor hidden in the frame of a Tour de France bike

excellent vid. part two please.

more please!

How about: "Our falcon just ate your stupid octopus."

So is it time to: a) Ban electronics from dinghy racing (except stopwatches I guess); OR: b) Accept that skills of judging your distance to the start line and judging the magnitude of windshifts and taking related decisions are now irrelevant/redundant? Mike

fitted with a new wingmast and renamed ENZA New Zealand... It was a fixed carbon mast.

Sam Davies informs us that because the supposed 40 knot winds are to the west of a depression that is rapidly dissipating, it is hard to tell exactly how strong they will be come Sunday night/Monday morning

In the next few weeks, will other french multihullers vow ~allegiance~, to the position taken by the Peyrons? I'd like to see that! They deserve support.

And this is just the beginning! I cannot wait for the entry list to develop. David Collins

This is an excellent initiative by the Peyron brothers. It would be a huge attraction to see the French coalesce around an America's Cup team driven by 'can do' patriotism.

Now we're talking... That's the spirit. I hope they can pull it all together. God knows France has the talent. No CiC issues there... and it sure would make things interesting.

Oh Boy! I almost feel sane now!

Can't wait to see those 100ft tris together! Driving to St Malo on Thursday. David Bains

Where can we find results?

woop woop - some of the teams are going to play

good article

Can't wait!

Forgot to add: The best comparison for the Færder Race is actually the Round the Island race. I have sailed in them all, and surely this author can't have sailed in the Fastnet :-)

King Harald is a fantastic sailor that is hard to beat in any competition. But, please do not compare "The Færder" race with the Fastnet Race. Færder Race is an inshore race that is renowed for for it's unpredictable winds in the archipelago, and this year was no different. The Færder lighthouse is no more than .5 nautical miles from the nearest island and the course makes you only sail in unprotected waters for 2-3 nm at the most.

Bottom picture looks suspiciously like a 'Bonner'on the jib (or Boneur as it is known in France). Never happened in my day...!

The Tornado is unequivocably the most beautiful of multihulls. It just looks 'right'. I have a couple of issues with this press release though. It's missing one bullet point: * - More Excessively Inappropriate use of Capitalised Words than Ever Before. The statements "carbon mast", "...made under pressure in an autoclave in carbon/epoxy/Nomex honeycomb sandwich" and "eco friendly" are mutually exclusive. There is nothing eco friendly about producing carbon fibre, or using an autoclave, or using epoxy resins. Same applies to all other composite boats of course, but if you're going to play your trumpet then expect people to hear your tune. I do wish them luck.

(Actually, this is in response to "100km/hr under sail") That should be *ante* - unless you're making an obscure pun............. What's with this ghastly "This discussion is closed: you can't post new comments."'?........................................... Did you get this software secondhand from the Chicoms? .......................................... From the lead: "The anti has once again been upped with the world sailing speed record over 500m which is now up to 54.10 knots."

I think the name is amazing. Does anyone know what Oystercatcher 1 looked like?

Looks awesome, just hope that it can get to the East Coast sometime!

Great Group! Good luck everyone

No comments being allowed tonight (!) regarding the new Kite record. So I will just post this remark onto some other article! And, how did this Namibian 'channel' find its way to your 'Offshore Records', guys??? LOL ....................................................... Many have sailed faster than this, Who knows how many times... it has been on snow and ice, certainly, but "under sail" nonetheless. Why not install a refrigeration unit on that ditch in Namibia next season?.......................................... I think the kite fraternity realizes that their records are 'kite-specific" when descriptions like the following apply; quoting from above article: "he tested the speed sailing zone twice, on Friday and Monday, to familiarise himself with the area. This comprises a channel dug out parallel to the beach, which enables the full optimisation of speed records under sail."

Definitely. A windmill that could take the boats directly upwind (as they tried out on a Prout catamaran once). That would remove any port-starboard issues

Instead of a wingsail they should go for a wind turbine, propeller arrangement.

5(g) SELF-STEERING Automatic and wind-vane devices for steering may be carried but not used, except in the 2-handed division when they may be used. This amends IRC Rule 14.

A perfect storm of progress! Engineers have known for over fifty years that a wing sail would out perform a soft sail, but all that extra weight, what to do back at the dock; and then there is the serious issue of reefing? Even the basic challenges of both tacking and gybing have given boat builders considerable heartache with the construction of solid sail devices. Recent continuous improvements in engineering and materials have combined to provide soft sail multihulls with the ability to extend their performance potential and set spectacular offshore records. Russell Coutts is the supreme match racing champion of his generation, and has gone on to conceive the highly successful monohull RC44 which provides superb match racing for its constituents. How fortunate we are that he should look outside the box and develop an America’s Cup that will clearly place the contestants in the fastest match racing boat imaginable. No one is disenfranchised here. Monohull sailors can make the switch if they choose to as James Spithill demonstrated so eloquently in February. David Collins

Indeed this is a very sad end to what could of been a great campaign for Great Britain. But you have to look at all the facts really. The first has to be down to the size of Mills wallet and his expected sponsors, its going to be very hard in this climate to find the £100 million to get this campaign working and working well for sponsors to find it attractive enough. The second is the current team and what there plans are, obviously there is Ben and the other olympic hopefuls. There is no way in the world that they wouldn't compete at the 2012 games, but would that of been different if the games were held else where? I think it would of. But that begs the question, if the AC was the year after, would they still of been involved? I again doubt this very much, mainly due to the sponsorship, but also very much around what the output has been from the BMW Oracle camp in terms of boat. Could you really see Ben out there competing at the highest level in anything other than a mono? If there was time to get the ground work in, lots of training etc, then maybe he would, but that would then put him out of the Olympics (well maybe). I just hope that this Americas Cup actually comes to something worth while. Its suppose to be for the masses, but are people that interested? I know I am, but maybe that is due to me wanting to see the Americas fail at this. I hope they don't. I would of opted for 75ft canting keel versions of the TP52, with a mixture of race courses, but then am I the target market for this americas cup?

Re America Cup participation It was obvious, given the lack of interest at Cowes in the AC boats and the contrasting interest in the I-shares Cats that a wing sail cat was the way forward if flat water venues were going to be considered rather than going back down the heavy displacement keel boat route, which only look great when run in big waves and wind - contrast Perth 1987 with recent events. The amount of development Oracle has done in my view is being overstated. They had the benefit of taking over Conners wing mast data from 1988, but given the amount of time they had all they actually did was ensure it stood up in San Diego before shipping to Valencia. Every outing was put on U-tube so it is possible to watch what they were able to test. In Valencia Oracle was only there for a couple of weeks and did two races in very light conditions, all that is documented. It looked like the Alinghi Cat combined with the Oracle rig would have been really quick, so neither participant came out with a perfect set up. Oracle cobbled together a system for putting the mast up, also they put wind turbine blades up at sea without too much difficulty, a quick and easy system can be evolved given some thought. Also if you are going to sail in 20kts + the rigs would have to be a lot smaller, the hulls would hit terminal velocity and thereafter the problem is increasing efficiency and reducing drag - much of this information re large blades will be available in the wind turbine sector, which operate pretty near peak efficiency. The real problem is the economy and the proximity to the Olympics. There are sound business reasons for not sponsoring an event like this when substantial cuts are on the way. It would have been viable for a large number of teams to enter using a variation of the existing AC rule, but it may be a better event long term with 4 teams using modern technology rather than 10 teams sailing very boring old tech. Once the AC goes cutting edge, it wont go back - which will leave the likes of Origin out permanently, because the Tec gap is narrower now than it will be in 4 years time and once a full cycle has taken place it will take 10 years to come fully up to speed and be competitive. So this is a sad day because instead of being in on an exciting state of the art project the UK is side lined, all the skilled sailors will be picked up and go abroad and a great team who could have won the cup, will be broken up. Charles Apthorp

Sad. But not suprising. Origin are not alone amongst teams not being happy with the new boats and format. As I have written elsewhere this is a vision of the Cup controlled by sailors, rather than business people or owners. No bad thing. but it is different. And I am not sure viable commercially. We will see.

Rubbish, absolute rubbish, how lame are your interview skills? 1. With the Olympics in London, Ben, bart, and Iain were always going to choose to do the Olympics rather than an America’s cup which most likely they will not win. However Sir Mills knows full well he will not get the sponsors he needs to make the cup possible without these people. Bottom line, he is simply not rich enough. 2. Surely if you want to win you have to do two tournaments anyway, one would be training, getting used to the boat, i am sure larry will win but at least you will have the experience for next time. Why is he not doing this..... comes down to money...

Very sad indeed. Mills had got a great team together and - on a level surface - they would have done very, very, very well. How long can the AC go on like this? Crazy!

Oh dear

It's not really Ainslie that matters. Britain has 3 of the first 5 Finn sailors... The same is not true of the Star.

Sadly in this day and age I suspect that is all the information the reporter could get hold of as both crews will have been told not to comment to avoid prejudicing any litigation which results from the incident!

I echo Adrian's sentiment...sounds very much like the Nioularge ender, thankfully with a happier ending.

"During racing Marjatta was involved in a collision with Harlekin. Fortunately no one got hurt!" Is that all the reporter has to say about an incident that reminded me of the infamous Nioulargue incident, from the photos at least? An incident I witnessed first hand from the lee rail of Kentra. "No one got hurt"! Come on, that's not good enough.

Interesting that the Mayor uses the words: "highlight San Francisco as the only location for this event". Following on from RC's presentation definite hints at a multi-venue proposal.

Give up the funny farm Ben. Sail the Olympics and win!

I think Ainslie should go for the Olympics

TeamOrigin core crew will be competing at the Bermuda Gold Cup during the TP52 Worlds and the Emirates Team NZ TP52 has been sold to an Australian and is heading down under

question. why are both team origon and emtz racing??

“It’s hard not to be impressed by the commitment BMW ORACLE Racing, Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison have made to fix this thing,” Is this deliberate, or a slip of the tongue? I would say that they've fixed it up good and proper with their choice of boat!

Very nice article. The bullfight analogy is excellent.

The AC45s look set to be build, all or in part, at BMW Oracle Racing's own facility in Warkworth, some 50km north of Auckland. So say reports in the NZ press: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/4131802/Cup-batt...

KingMonkey: Hiring Alinghi's engineers, added to all the French expertise used for Dogzilla, would have to discourage the eight teams that Coutts says they are expecting, or at least hoping for. It would seem self-defeating if they have corralled all the know-how, but in the next months we'll hear the details. Another protocol stumbling block could be regards the 'Use of Patented Products', where "Use of a design or process for the Hull, appendages, Masts and other spars, rigging, and sails for which a patent has been granted or is pending is prohibited unless the design or process is available to all Competitors on a reasonable commercial basis." If brilliant new wing technology is expected, isn't it a complication if everyone is supposed to have equal access to it? But since BMWOracle have probably more patent-related gear than anyone else, maybe this is an example of magnanimity... ... I like to keep in mind that the hosts for the AC34 have celebrated their annual highlight with the famous 'Seaweed Soup". And it's outrageous, because there is NO SEAWEED in it! http://www.norcalsailing.com/archives/Entries/2010/3/7_Seaweed_Soup_Reci...

This website issue is a matter of developing content and traffic. See for example the "Media Commitments and Public Appearances" in the protocol. A lot of elaborate content is planned on being generated, and it isn't intended as a charity for the rest of the internet. The individual teams will probably benefit, they are promised 'exclusive use and control of all their content', so for instance Alinghi's webpages from AC33 would have been OK except for any 'moving or still images or animations of racing during the Event or Event information'. But you can imagine how the master website might have problems if it does not appear neutral between the teams. Any editorial bias in relation to good news or bad news (or bitter arguments between rivals, which fits in both categories) will cause trouble. You recall how BMWOracle set up their own completely separate show during AC33. They had their own internet broadcast with sympathetic announcers, interviews etc. all in defiance of the parallel efforts by the AC33 hosts. I'd say it looks like the protocol contains features meant to prevent anyone else repeating that behavior.

After the fiasco of AC33 I vowed never to waste time or money on visiting another Americas Cup. I have now changed my mind! For an ordinary sailor there is not much that beats the adrenaline rush of a highly technical cat like an F18 or A-Class. The development of an AC45 one design cat and the prospect of an AC72 cat for me has brought back excitement to the Cup. Once the date and venue for the World Series is announced I will book my ticket.

Actually from a pure standpoint of fair and balanced protocal and even start for everyone, this seems by far the closest to even as you will get. In the past the event has always been seriously slanted towards the defender so if the only area in which they have an advantage is with the boat, then there is not much to complain about. There is plenty of talent out there on the design side available and with the introduction of the 45's as a starting point you have the ability to get up to speed quickly. Anyone further interested should probably contact some of the c-class gurus, which has already begun happening. I hope though that this does not adversely effect the C-Class itself.

What is the point of not being able to have their "own" websites? I would be interested in hearing from someone who could "actually" explain that one...

The Americas Cup is no longer the yacht racing event it once was, it is now a commercial exercise the main objective being to attract media interest, viewing figures, sponsorship and ultimately cash. 72 foot cats hurtling around a racecourse at 20 knots plus will make a fantastic spectacle, but it will also make for a pretty boring match race which is what the AC is supposed to be about. There is no doubt that monohulls are the best boats in which to go match racing and make for the closest racing; exciting for people who understand the finer points of the sport, but pretty boring for the general viewing public. Perhaps the time has come for people to stop referring to the Americas Cup as the ‘pinnacle of our sport’, it may be the pinnacle of sailing but is not the pinnacle of the sport of the sailing.

Why are they always affraid of no close racing, the Little AC saw plenty of this with only 3 basic rules guiding the design of the boat, length, width, sail area. What was so great about the 2010 AC was seeing the different approach taken by each team. In the end, boats will converge, but we have to remember, this is a race that starts NOW, it is a race in the first instance of the designers and builders, and then they get to test and race on the water. Dont constrain the design more than you have to in fear of what probably will not happen!

Well,,,,is this progress??? We will all see,,,,I am glad that there is some hope fro developing youth sailors,,,just what this sport needs...

"The fairest cup ever", and yet the elephant in the room remains and - as I have just found out from this article - is actually much larger. Coutts fobs off their 3-year experience practicing match racing in multihulls, and designing a similar, if not entirely identical, boat as not being relevant. Now we hear that, not only has he hired, in the Alinghi engineering team, the only other people who could have helped other syndicates catch up, but also, the BO design team have just put together - with the headstart that only the defender could have had - the design for an AC72 miniature in the shape of the AC45 one design. I'm afraid in my view, anyone who doesn't see that as an absurd, unsporting advantage is pretty deluded. And hiring 'most of' the Alinghi engineers before anyone knew what the boat was is pretty cynical.

Looking through the Protocol I see that teams are not allowed their own websites - and that instead each team will be given space on americascup.com. So much for creating fan bases and innovative online communications. Can you imagine Liverpool FC, or Red Bull Racing being told they cannot run their own site. Will be interesting to see this (not) working in practice...

Hi there INVICTUS. Far be it from me to disrupt your celestial preoccupations ... but; Would there be anything about the revealed AC72 design which you might like to TWEAK? Might it be said that today's revolving AC 72 catamaran proposal look like it would be more suited to parading on Castro Street, than racing on the Bay? How I wish there were an itty bitty forum on this site! :-)

Hi James You keep doing it - ORION = small bows ALPHA = larger bows (sailed by Ashby and Spithill) CANAAN = intermediate Good article though.

Following today's presentation - which was good! - I'm finally going to vote in the longstanding "should multi's be in the 34 AC?' Poll. Absolutely!

Bertarelli's latest boating venture is to provide a patrol vessel, as part of a £3.5 million gift from his Foundation, to guard the world biggest marine reserve around the Chagos Archipelago.

From all the devoted attention you would think that press conferencing is a new Olympic discipline. Let's just give Coutts the medal and tell him to hurry it up... But what is more spectacular and gloriously Italian than the Centomiglia? ... Sadly I did not find any photos of Jo Richards helming a flying bulb last Saturday (whatever happened to that project?), instead he won his class with Full Pelt. http://www.giornaledibrescia.it/fotogallery/la-regata-nelle-immagini-di-... http://www.centomiglia.it/pdf/2010/ClassificaCentomiglia.pdf

Here's a little item I was very happy to read: "La rumeur - toujours elle! - prétend même que les Américains pourraient aussi modifier le format des parcours. Du traditionnel losange dans lequel les adversaires se battaient, on passerait à une sorte de rectangle, afin d'obliger les immenses multicoques à rester au contact et rendre la compétition visuellement intéressante." Once (regrettably only once) I took part in a multihull regatta with a square course, in a harbor, and it was the most wonderful experience for sailors and spectators alike. If you're doing multihulls, then the REACHING LEGS are a hugely desirable feature which should be put to best possible use. This Swiss article yesterday also suggests that Bertarelli might be content to stay on the sidelines FOR AC34, despite the multihull orientation. http://www.lematin.ch/sports/voile/bateaux-prochaine-coupe-ailes-321614 Alinghi says they will be making some announcements soon, and it would be great if they picked up the gauntlet. But I wouldn't fault EB if he is disinclined, and spends his time and money elsewhere. The way in which Coutts/ Ellison/ Ehman methodically went about wrecking the Swiss hopes for AC33 must reduce the appeal of the otherwise very charming San Francisco.

Adriaan, there's something on pages 4-5 here, and the video below: http://www.futurefibres.com/newsletter/13/ http://riggingnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-wrap-ii.html

- 72  x 60  ft2  CATAMARAN

- 3'000 sq.ft  ONE-SLOT WINGSAIL

- MINIMUM WEIGHT = 15'000 lbs = 6.8 T

- SAN FRANCISCO BAY

- SEPTEMBER 2013

First across the line is what matters. I like it. Too bad there is no piccie of that spinnaker take-down roller system.

So they've built a pure race boat thinly disguised as a Wally, and they're unhappy that the other Wallies (you've gotta love it haven't you) are unhappy about that.

Crikey Jerry, did someone spill your beer last night? But those in the know would certainly have more respect for your SB3 world championship! Whether it's the multi millionaire Wally owners or the club GP14 sailor moaning about his PY number, handicap racing will always have its politics! I'm sure we've both been there in the past to some extent!! :-)

Quite frankly who gives a shit....? Rich boys play thing, playing in a rich boys racing class, and when someone wins what does it mean anyway..? Some dodgy handicap system, that is completely arbitrary, so all completely meaningless......if they had entered and won, it would still be as meaningless as whoever wins anyway...which is who?? It is hardly an ISAF proper world championship, or did ISAF sell out and try and sanction it for a few wally quid....

Sept 4-5 saw the Multi50's gathered in Fécamp and there is a nice scenic photo album at the following link, where relaunched Prince of Brittany has her sails up - but Lemonchois chose to forego racing Sunday, to stay in one piece for the RdeRhum. http://picasaweb.google.fr/lemo76/Multicoques_2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCNyQytL... As to the results, the Crépe rested on top of the Shamrock, who stayed in front of the Window behind which Lalou could be seen...

Hope you wrong,,mradventure,,San Fran, or Newport, or any place in between would be great!!

In the san francisco bay area we know we will get kicked in the balls and the cup will not be in the San francsco Bay area.where its should be ( big Brease great place to watch from) we know they will toss us some little bone of an event (big deal Circus tent for a few days) its of to Europe and we know it,so much for Americas cup. Thnaks larry

Alain,great to have you in Cowes and to sail with you and the team. I look forward to your next adventure...

I just say...WOW!

Hello dear James, Obviously, Canaan is the most sophisticated C Class ever built, a super wonderful achivment. However, in your comments, describing the moving of the rudders under the transom as an innovating feature seems to be a slight usurpation. The first hanging rudder ever put under a C-Class transom was on "Miss Lancia", the 1978 italian challenger. This was copied later in 1980 on "Patient Lady 5" and tried again on the challenger "Signor G".

Yes - senile dementia in one so young. Now corrected

Hey James You need to stop confusing Orion and Alpha! Alpha was 2nd in all races with Gashby and Spithill

"The Canadians overhauled the Australians on the first leg, but then there was a full on match race for the remainder of the race, as good a demonstration as anyone could wish that these complex boats can be match raced." Full on match race? Where was that? There was not one match race tactic used the whole day.

"It is the only offshore team international competition left.” Andrew McIrvine Really? what is the ISAf offshore Team world championship then, the Sardinia Cup? 8 teams all from different countries and arguably a higher quality fleet with top boats from the Farr 40 fleet and Melges 32 fleet

My (virtual) hair stands up on end everytime I watch this

What a lovely bloke - good luck to him and all the team

We've got fantastic footage made by Sunset & Vine APP Www.syzmotheuro2010.ch

Highlighting comments is an improvement, no sweat! Not that I take even the gospel as gospel, and Montgomery is capable of spin. But Rome harboring cats? Who has ever heard of such a thing? .... http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Cats_of_Rome/70091482 http://goeurope.about.com/cs/rome/a/rome_cats.htm

Thanks - did spot this and rumour exchange is stating Rome in solid wingsail cats but until we hear something categoric from our friends in San Fran don't take anything as the gospel... even from the eminent Montcommentry. And apologises for are rejigging the forum area. We launched this prematurely and instead will be focussing on these comments.

No sooner do I return from summer vacation (It was hot and delightful, thanks for asking), than I find there's been a housecleaning here at TDS where all the nasty gossip has been chucked out! Here's some more, regardless; an intriguing blend of fact and fantasy...? http://www.radiosport.co.nz/SportsNews/spyac/Detail.aspx?id=180821 http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/sport/latest-sport/4040599/Orac...

What about some official spectator boats? If thay're not too big and have a suitably aware "pilot" to advise the skipper where to go, they could possibly be allowed closer to the racing than other spectator craft. Add in a good commentator and maybe some big screen graphics and you have a few rather expensive ticket sales.

Rob A, I take my hat off to you

W60 "Heineken" / "YAMAHA 1" located in Adriatic Sea. Boat received nice new interior and is offered for occasional day chater. Austrian owned

Thats so sick!!!!!

Mr. Boyd, With the I4C just around the corner, I hope that you have plans to cover the event. If I could get time off from work, I would offer to help with the coverage. I am hoping to be there for set-up day and if so I will send you some photos. But other than that, I do hope that you have plans. Thanks, Tom

Coutts seems to talk more than sail these days...

Stunning!!! I'm sure that the class won't ban it.

Any chance to see you in Silvaplana with it ?

And I already thought the foiling Moth was the coolest sailing development in my life time... /Martin

So, it looks like the Jaguar branding wasn't a photoshop job - but underneath it's still a beemer!

He has a long lense on - I am guessing he didnt see it. Must have been gutted when he realised that he missed the shot of the day!

Puma Avanti (ABN Two) already on her way out to Abu Dhabi as training boat.

Okay...so was there like a boat full of topless models sitting right off the quay? I'm trying to figure out what else could've been so totally absorbing that the old fellow with the camera was completely oblivious to the Extreme 40 dredging a new chunk of harbor right next to him!

Jaguar used to sponsor teh ex Brindabella in Australia in 1997 - 2000. However the boat lost its rig in two successive Syd-Hob races and was always named as the "Jinxed Lynx" due to the logo on its sails etc.

Are they not using the BMO boats? In which case will be interesting to see exactly how the branding appears in reality.

Where were the Brits?

Think you will find their secret weapon, wingnut and super spy Adam May booked himself in months ago.

Well maybe they should buy a ticket and come down and learn a few things about wing sails in Newport this August, stop claiming disadvantage and start up the learning curve. It's the best opportunity they will ever have to see a flock of wings at the same time. We'd happily show them them around the boats. Magnus Clarke

Just had a quick look at some of the clips. Taking the 'what boat' argument out my view is that two (port and starboard) remotely controlled cameras at the masthead give the most innovative view. Add in one decent roaming cameraman on the boat and you have all you need. Scrap the crappy music and just have mikes and good quality commentary. The masthead camera - if controllable can take really good footage of the other boat, not just look down the mainsail for us to comment on the trimmers ability.

Technically most of them are still Swiss aren't they?

Good to see the Jaguar sponsorship as well but how does the "promote British" bit sit with more Kiwis on board....?

That's a lot of logo. . . I wonder how much cash they got in return. And how this sits with Volvo?

Great to see Fleury and Daubney in there, exactly the sort of quality - and in the right area (trimming) that TO needs. Good to have Ardern and Vila too, don't get me wrong.

Does that mean AC 35 will be a cat and not a dog?

This will be a huge push forward for AC, no matter which format they choose. The dramatic push forward to TV audiences and a fair playing field should rid us all of these decades of court battles dominating sailing news. The 49er class has some interesting plans for formats, have a read at: http://www.porttackcharter.com/2010/06/21/theater-style-racing-49ers-to-...

Apply that same argument to the Extreme 40 World Championship where they only had six boats!

Can you really call a competition between boats from only four nations a World Championship?

In the US, sailing is regarded as "only for the rich",,,ESPN changed that somewhat with the addition of Budwiser race cams on Dennis Conners Stars and Stripes in Perth, provided the non sailors with a new perspective on the sport...Hope the new trials go well in presenting new opportunities to open sailing to new fans.....

Both F1 and Moto GP are popular and watched globally. Aspects they have in common are multiple participant teams and a series of races throughout the year. The larger number of participants gives rise to a larger number of "television moments" and the battle for 4th or 5th can be interesting when 1st place is sewn up. The series based nature allows teams to come back from technical deficiencies and improve technology continually. I think this maintains the interest of the spectator. The time between America's cup events makes it harder to hold spectators attention. In addition, continued coverage would allow new spectators to learn about sail boat racing. This is essential if its popularity is to expand outside those who already race sail boats to a more general public interest. All in all I think the Blue Riband event for sailing has to move away from the match racing basis. America's cup technology racing every two weeks with multiple competitors: that is something I would definitely follow.

ABN AMRO One/Delta Lloyd was, as of last weekend, sitting on the hard at Endeavour Quay, Gosport

As pointed out by Andyn above - the thing the public will tune into most are crashes. This may make good car crash TV, but it won't make a good competition and sponsorship doesn't come with crashes. "Your logo on this sinking boat" won't sell. BO are doing this the wrong way round. They should be picking the boats and then working out how best to film them. In any case, it is hard to see what the huge numbers of cameras on the RC44s and X40s during their normal series have missed. I would rather they got on with the rather more pressing issue of choosing a venue and a date so that some of the other teams might have a chance in competing.

Regarding the 'sailing for the masses on tv' debate. Just searched YouTube for the most popular sailing clips: First - 18secs of a sailing boat cutting infront of a ferry and being run down 4.7m views, Second - a collection of boat crashes 2.2m views, Third a bunch of girls in bikini's Dolphin watching...

Great photos of a great sportboat!!,,,Wish we had scenery like that on the US Gulf coast!

Just gorgeous pictures. Well done!

Juan K was always a rather volatile choice. He might do something amazing (Black Betty), or he might do something shocking (Maiden Hong Kong). I understand this is more to do with the 'in house' team that Simmer wants but if we are to believe that our dear Editor is in the loop - and he usually tends to be - I think there's a fairly hefty hint above to the fact that they are upgrading!

Read a few things about this today, sounds interesting to say the least. Does anyone have an idea which VO 70 he has in mind for this? In the press release and sponsorship stuff on his website there are pictures of Team Russia. What sort of mods do you think they will have to do?? Smaller rig?

Winston – AUS modified and lengthened out of class. The boat (as of 12/07/10) is sitting on a mooring off Woolwich in upper Sydney Harbour.

Unless she's moved, Merit Cup was sitting on the hard in Ibiza as of 2008.

Juan K has designed some quick boats around the world but I don't recall any quick ones around the buoys. Why is Team Origin looking beyond our shores for a new designer? There are a number of good British designers capable of designing a quick AC boat,I can recall one British designed boat in the last Americas Cup that was recognised by many as being very fast.

Very good idea ! Any chance to give me some more informations about the Merit (89-90) converted to a Ketch sitting in Palma. Our WRWR team would like a revival to be organized on the boat !

Brooksfield was owned by Dusan Puh from Slovenia and renamed Veliky Viharnik , lightend and modified to compete in all the North Adriatic Open races

fazizi is in chicago owned by the polish sailing association currently getting a mini refit in preperation for this years chicago to macinac race

Yes new Zealand endeavor is for sale in Norway along with la poste from the same race they were used for corporate entertainment and I waa boat captain ncak in 2000 2001. There was a reasonable number of sails for both boats and a spare rig for endeavor on the uk if anyone needs any more details please get in touch mikedwatson@yahoo.co.uk

I sailed on board Innovation Kvaerner in the 2003 Sydney Hobart. She was chartered by Formula 1 sailing (which I think no longer exists) for the race, and Dee Caffari was the skipper. We said goodbye to the boat in Hobart. But I don't have any more up to date information.

The Decision ketch destroyed in a fire would have been Merit. La Poste was sold a few months ago - she had been run by the same company which has New Zealand Endeavour. The Merit in Trapsa, Palma is the 1989 boat which was converted to a ketch.

One of the 2 1993-4 DECISION built farr ketches was completely lost in a fire in La ciotat about 10 years ago; not sure if it was la poste or merit cup

ROLLY GO http://www.rollygo.it/ believe in Rapallo / Italy

Amer Sport Too and Assa training boat are for charter in the north adriatic

Hamish Oliphant definitely sold the 2001/2 Team Tyco to ABN Amro to use as their training boat. Anyone from ABN Amro know what happened to it after that?

Kosatka is for sale, Lying Lymington. €1.1m with containers (Berthon ad in Seahorse).

TOSHIBA is also owned by Speedsailing and located in the Baltic (Warnemünde / Rostock)

illbruck (now "Glashaeger") and SEB (now "Rostocker") are located in the Baltic Sea and owned by a company called "Speedsailing" (www.speedsailing.de)

1981/82 I sailed Disq d'Or 3 badged as Prestige Krost in the Lisbon to Cape Town Bartolomeu Diaz race with Bertie Reed in 1987. Prior to that she was Stabilo Boss in the single handed BOC round the world race with Bertie. After the Portugal race we had some coastal races in South Africa and then the boat was sold to Tracy Edwards and became Maiden and went for its 3rd round the world race.

Assa was hugoboss 2 which was sold to Pindar/Bahrain to join the Pindar VO60 (ex newscorp) fairly sure it's in the middle east based in Bahrain.

Now that's silly! Dumping possibly the best - and certainly the most innovative - designe4r around. Reminds me of TNZ firing Tom Schnackenberg.

2005-6 movistar was lost on the North Atlantic leg. (All crew recovered).

ncb ireland along with martela were or still are charter boats in bahamas. i worked on ncb while she was in greece then named athina

Grand Louis seen out in Hawaii mid 80's, owned by Arapoff. Might still be out there. New name, don't remember.

Ceramco sold to Newport Bch, Ca, became 'Winterhawk". Was homeported there for 10-12 yrs then sold to Gulf of Mexico area? Yamaha & America's Challenge still berthed in Newport bch, Ca. Sadly aground (sand/mud) on every tide. Never sailed. Sayula still under original owner, cruising Mexico.

First Mike Sanderson and then Juan K who off course historically have been pretty close. The TP52 does not seem quick and the Americas cup is not sailed in the Southern Ocean. RV would be a great move.

NZ Endeavour is listed in Yachting World as for sale and lying in Elba, Italy (info@maxisails.com)

Could this be the second stage that leads to the downfall of yet another British Americas cup campaign? I hope not, but sad news that Juan K will not be getting the crayons out for Team Origin for the next Americas cup. Juan K may have designed a few wrong boats in the past, but also he has designed some awesome winners. Lets just hope that Origin know what they are doing!

The 93-94 Merit cup ketch has been sitting in in Trapsa Marina, Palma de Mallorca for the last 4 years. She never moves.

Djuice Dragon 2001-02 race boat now "Southern Excellence" based on Sydney Harbour. Other boat was sold to the UK IIRC. "The Card" and "British Defender" now based at Airlie Beach in Queensland. one of the 97-98 Merit Cup boats is for sale on Hydney Harbour. The two EF Boats are also based in Sydney - http://www.kookaburragroup.com.au/site/charter-spirit/

Djuice Dragons - VO60 Now 'Project Racing' doing charter work Sitting Ocean Village Southampton

Peter von Danzig is now Peter von Seestermühe, owned by Christoph von Reibnitz (www.peter-von-seestermuehe.de)

When can we see some pictures?

Fazisi used to race the Chicago to Mackinac race the last few years.

The list of sailors to compete in the C-Class I4C is an amazing list. It will be great to see Glenn Ashby and Lars Guck back on the same race course again. The willingness of Steve and Fred to share their knowledge and their boats in hopes of creating a great event and one the brings excitement to the sailing community while growing the class is to be commended. I do hope that The Daily Sail is able to cover this event. I know that you usually work the Europe circuits, but this event is changing and growing with each passing day. Thanks, Tom Siders

This event is going to look very bizarre. . . after 3 days of X40 fleet madness, Cowes Green is going to be gifted with the spectacle of a 2-boat round the island race in 20-year old designs with heavy displacement hulls. "And here they come, coming up the green. . . still coming. . . a bit further up the green. . . and now they're on the green, just very slightly further up" etc.

Not sure what happened to W60 Odessa or the crew for that matter, but it will be great to catch up with old friends....Conrad

And the breaking news is that Ashby and Spithill are racing the Little America's Cup the 3rd week in Aug in Newport. Should make that match race quite interesting and exciting. Go LAC!

Get the old MAIDEN there - I saw her in the Seychelles (Eden Island Marina) last Month...... Sam

Stopping by the old Prez' abode is ok with me.

Anyone else think it might be a good thing if BO stopped tw*tting about and got on with answering the rather important questions of 1. when and 2. what for the next AC?

With immortal words of Michael Palin from monty Python's Life of Brian: Damn do good-ers... But now honestly, does anyone buys that PR nonsense about promoting EU when you see a bunch of shrewd businessmen backed by the russian gas giant?!?

GazProm...pipe dream - thank you James.

James, Will you allow users to add Youtube type videos?? Cheers Chriswah

know your history, mate. sails & equipment have been exchanged amongst defending trial participants for decades. Just google: Ted Hood.

Defender Trials: “….to win the Defender Trials, and to win the Match representing GGYC.” With this clause the defender appears to be “printing more boats”. They will have a range to choose from over and above the two their own team is allowed to build. This creates another set of challenger trails on the defender side, but with only one winner: GGYC. Are these “other teams with experience” going to be allowed to represent their own yacht clubs if they beat GGYC. It would appear from the above that they are not. So GGYC in effect could have a limitless number of boats in it’s line up, coordinated in order to cover a range of options. In addition, they can waste sail cards for boats that aren’t going to make it, developing sail options for the ones that do. Yes this has happened in the past between challengers after elimination (American Challengers swapped in gear to DC in 1987 after they had been eliminated). But to my knowledge this hasn’t occurred before via such a loophole. It’s effectively unlimited resource for the richest national challenger. Shades of Bill Koch/America Cubed?

Great reading - enjoyed the detail and winner's enthusiasm! Mark

The structural engineering was conducted by the Australian office of Gurit-SP. With all materials supplied by Gurit-SP

Has anyone else made the connection? BP CEO Tony Heywood may have come in for criticism for going yachting this weekend in the middle of one of the worst ever man-made environmental disasters, menwhile BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg is another man with a passion for our sport - he was CEO of ASSA ABLOY and then Ericsson when they sponsored boats in the Volvo Ocean Race....

They'll be fixing the top of the mast again in Marseilles, bugger!

There's definitely one going begging in Valencia...

When are they going to add a wingsail???

It's a wonderful achievment as one the rare "canard" sailing hydrofoils, indeed. Cheers. About the technology which is related to this boat, the most of it comes from a Canadian warship FH-400 "BRAS d'OR" which is the only fully-flyng hydrofoil able to reach 65 knots in a 1.5 m high swell WITHOUT ANY ELECTRONICS. FH-400 was a very clever design including a "V" super-ventilated (cavitation forced with atmoispheric air) front foil which acts as the pitch and heave sensor. The patent which covers "C-FLY" is obviously based on the same principle which have been described in several technical papers from the canadian engineers. A spanish engineer named Fulgencio Garcia HERNANDES also rided a small canard called "VOLADOR" using the same innovative canadian works. GIVE BACK TO CAESAR what belongs to him....Sincerely Yours, RLJ

that looks very good fun, slightly annoying Kiwi in the background though!

I was on the windward pod during this filming - the acceleration was really impressive, but you didn't feel like you were going get jettisoned off the back as it was so smooth on the foils. Cool looking at the speedo and seeing the numbers jump: 22,27,29,31 without anything in-between! Once up on the foils the headsail is almost continuously trimmed on as the apparent moves forward, with the main being wound up the traveller.

Time to build a second one and go racing! That should attract funding. David Collins

Absolutely brilliant British design. The front foil concept of pitch damping is particularly good and to use them as fwd rudders is genius. Must be some complicated steering linkage! It's always made sense to me to support the bow.

Any news of the arrivals in Cork yet?

Here here

what's new Jon? It's happened many times before...

What a disgrace, how can the boat that won the selection trials (A35 Waterjet) not be in one of the top two teams - this reeks of old boys sticking together

Am I alone in thinking that the LVT is totally and completely whack? While no doubt there are little pieces of match racing that are interesting if you are watching it live on TV (there wasn't any), in the main it really is like watching paint dry. We have been going for two weeks thus far.... typically the time it takes to run the Olympic Games. What is more, the common practice of borrowed boats not being very good or not being treated well has totally taken over this regatta. So many breakages and the Aleph accident took out the whole thing. GBR 75 and GER 93 were in Nice 6 months ago. Why aren't they here as back up? In what serious sporting contest can you honestly say "we had to scrap the quarter finals because we didn't have time". Laughable!

It wasn't a holiday - it was REALLY hard work!!! Racing cruising caravans, erm, sorry - catamarans - around the cans!!! Sam x

With all that corporate hospitality going on, the extra deck space makes perfect sense...

What is his involvement - if any - with Origin now?

Not many Poms on that British boat!

Well, the powered winch record (owned by Leopard) is at present slower than Mari Cha's time, so i guess that is a lower objective...

not mari cha's record, but the powered winch record. two entirely different things...

The Medal race at the last olympics in the 49er class was the sort of racing viewers want to see - changes to the points scoring system and the number of boats in a race in my view doesnt actually matter; racing to be good on TV and I dont think it has event to be live, needs action and lots of it - some of the most striking TV was of the 1997 America Cup in Perth in 12m all 28 tons ploughing thru waves etc looked great. To get the best 'visual racing' the races need to be started when there is wind and waves, have about 30 boats and do away with penalties for infringements like mark rounding and port and starboard - you want to see people crashing in on port at the weather mark, getting struck in - lots of action for the TV viewer make it exciting ! - obviously use a supplied boat ....... Charles Apthorp

Sailing will never reach high public figures before the race can start on time without general recalls and the winner of the last race will also be the winner of the regatta. The sport of sailing is too conservative, and one should look at the recent changes made to cross country skiing and biathlon to learn how brave thinking dramatically enhances the public image of the sport. The ISAF report addresses the issues of format in 3.27 and 5.52 of the report, now available on ISAFs website, and suggests new formats including head to head competition between boats and various qualification systems should be considered. One such format may be the following: The entire fleet sails a qualifying regatta consisting of number of races, say 10 or 12, under the same scoring system as used today. The top six teams then have three races, the last boat in each being eliminated. The three remaining boats then race in a three boat final, where the winner of the regatta becomes the first to win two races. The silver and bronze medal winners will be determined by their finishing order of the last race. In two of the oldest trophies of international sailing, the America´s Cup and the Scandinavian Gold Cup, the emphasis is on qualification and winning races. I honestly cannot see why this should not apply to olympic sailing as well. In 1999 such format was introduced during an international regatta for 49ers in Norway. Several of the worlds best teams participated, and it became sufficiently popular among the sailors to be followed up during a Scandinavian circuit for the class in 2002. The racing was extremely tense, close and audience friendly. The format combines the best elements of fleet- and matchracing and lends itself well to TV production which, supported by tracking and good graphics would be exactly what sailing needs. Regards Mikkel Thommessen,

Sorry to see Moose go, but if that's what the boss wants, that's what he gets! Let's hope this isn't a thinly veiled purging of 'Foreigners' from the team because in that case Pablo (POL), Nick Bice (AUS), Julian Cressant would have to go as well to name a few as would newly appointed Juan Villa (ESP) on the TP and Peter Isler (USA), we'll see!

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8694562.stm The UCI have just annouced that there will be only 1 place per country in the sprint competitions for the cycling - surely this is going against "the IOC specifies that the best athletes should be represented and clearly at present this is more true at World Championships where there is no one boat/nation limitation."

I sa wa similiar pattern while working in mountain biking, where they had world championships, world cups etc (similiar to skiing). The public could not understand if you won a world cup you wer enot worl champion. My recommendation woudl be to have world championships ever odd year, Continental champs ever even, Olympics ever 4 and then commonwealth games etc 2 following the olympics. At Olympics all kit shoudl be supplied (legacy to host or donation to poorer countries) and decorated in national colours. Qualification shoudl be through regional allocation and world championship placing. World cup should be renamed in to world series or world sailing league.

Amazing how I was described as an "odd-ball", "fruitcase" and "idiot" when I first warned that sailing will be out of the Games within a generation. Now ISAF has woken up and methinks it's all a bit too late....

Good riddance. The team can move on now. Ian - no. Sid - no. Jim Salts - no. Grant Simmer - possible.

If not on the windward foil, where would you have him? presumably it is less about having the chappy on the windward foil, but NOT on the leeward one, which needs more lift or less downward force (weight plus downward component of sail pressure). The only other position for him would be in the water....

What is the point of having that fellow on the windward foil when by immersing more of it, more lift will be generated. It's the leeward foil that needs to be adjusted.The windward foil is working fine as the weather hull is out of the water. Foil-borne cats are notoriously difficult to design!

The TV coverage definitely needs to be improved. It seems with the BBC that because sailing is a niche sport they'll give it coverage but the bare minimum so when you do get to see races there is not time for a commentator to explain the current standings and you only get highlights of the race so it's hard to follow what's going on even as a sailor. An extra two minutes before the race for someone to explain the course and how it works would go a long way to holding the interest of non-sailors who in this day and age if they don't understand hit the red button and choose another sport!

If the report is big enough perhaps it will hurt when those who voted in self interest rather than sport interest are hit with it. Maybe then the risk to the sport will be recognised by those more concerned with the risk to themselves.

I think the best thing to do is to opt for women's match racing in favour of young, exciting skiff sailing. The number of countries that really excel in womens match racing is HUGE and the yachts are really cheap - really anyone can afford them.

It would be a pity to lose sailing from the Olympics. Unlike some sports, where the Olympics is a bit of a sideline compared to other competitions - soccer, tennis and golf come to mind - it is the pinnacle of a major branch of our sport.

On expanding presence in regional games - Laser & RSX I can understand, but why would the 470 be a good idea?? A boat which most of the big sailing nations already have a significant technical advantage... On TV - changes to the format are one part, but being able to tell boats apart at distance (the little country flags aren't really adequate) is a big failing point at the moment. Lots of identical white boats don't make it easy to follow and while Virtual Spectator is an excellent tool you miss a lot of the action by spending extended periods looking at it. The other part is the standard of the commentary. The last Olympics was (Ben Ainslie's guest spot excepted) pretty poor (from a UK perspective). There seems to be a happy medium that sailing seems unable to find here - either you get experienced sailors who aren't too good on the microphone, or you get professional(?) commentators who don't have the in depth knowledge of the racing. Just been re-watching the mostly excellent coverage of the Cascais Medcup - while Martin Tasker has done sterling work as a presenter for various big events there are a lot of long pauses in his commentary. It was interesting when they cut to Dobbs Davis, watching the GP42s, that his delivery was much more urgent and exciting. Back on the TP52 course the commentators just talk over the moment when Origin's bow goes down in a huge gust that takes them out to the big lead in the race they won. If commentators can't even spot the significant parts of the race and present them in a dramatic style then how on earth can we ever exepect non sailors to switch on to the sport....

I am another surprised supporter to learn that Moose has been removed from his post and agree with Tim Sewell and others that we should collectively thank him for what he has achieved for the Team thus far, hanging in there through thick and thin, and support him in his next venture. However, we also need to fully support our Team going forward under whichever guiding hand remains steady as she blows. Rod's got steady hands... and some time on them now!

Sir Keith Mills... more like Sir Alan Sugar... 'YOU'RE FIRED!' Big shame. Sanderson is a LEGEND and has clearly shown huge commitment to the team. How he's kicked out without a formal press release is very odd. PS The Cascais TP52 event made great veiwing- Thank you.

Rod Carr to start with, hopefully sabilize and make sure some British faces get a fair chance to make the team!

As the team grows, seems to me that Moose needs replacing with a number of people: 1. Head coach 2. Head of design coordination 3. Head honcho The head coach should be someone well known to the afterguard already. The other two roles should feature a whole lot of cup experience between them.

Can't see that Walker would be right - he is from a different 'set' and is much proficent as a sailor than manager (see decisions from GBR Challenge)... Much better to look to either Rod Carr or Jim Saltenstall - great at creating an environment that supports the sailors whilst pushing them hard to succeed. Alternatively, Simmer would be a stong choice but again - cultural issues may follow...

okay - can we have some suggestions for replacement please? Ian Walker has been cited, but its been pointed out to me that there may have been an issue with him and Ben/Perce pre-GBR Challenge days. Alinghi head honcho Grant Simmer? Venerable coach Sid Howlett? Who best to herd the cats?

Such decisions are never taken lightly and will have been thought through at length and taken in the best interests of making Team Origin a winning one. We should all respect the work Moose has done at the Team and wish him well and support him in his next venture. Likewise we should remain right behind Team Origin and whoever steps up to the position of leading the team in the quest to bring the America's Cup back to Britain.

The America's Cup never fails to disappoint with intrigue even when it disappoints with news

Genuinely shocked by this news and find it hard to comment before we've heard Keith Mills' put-in, but sacking Moose, which is clearly what has happened, after two events - Auckland on the WSTA and the Cascais TP52 - of their first "proper" year together as a team is very strong coffee. It will be interesting seeing the muck fall out of this. Is this a Mills / Moose clash or something that has happened on the boat.

Team origin will never win the cup with Ainslie and Percy leading the team. Any team that has been successful has always had a strong management and a team of sailors that are part of a selection process. With Ainslie's position in the team cemented this is like Man U with 10 players picked before the start of the season. A situation that Fergie would not relish.

"Evaculating" - that's a great new word! Ian Walker is the man for the job surely - although he really should be on the sailing team so maybe that wouldn't solve the problem entirely. Mike

Enjoyed the Mach2 love-in. Glad to be firmly under the radar!

I continue to find most of what Trouble says about the cup troubling. At least he doesn't go back into his usual diatribe about making the boats deliberately slow in this article. Surely the whole idea of independent management is taking away control of the event from one entity and spreading it across a committee of varied interests: defender, challenger, past winners and expert representatives voted in by the first three. What Trouble constantly bangs on about is one commercial entity - in this case LVMH - having control of the challenger series. Of course sponsors must be looked after carefully and the sports and teams which they put money into must ensure they make a return on their investment. But Trouble's comments that LVMH has somehow input funds into the AC out of some greater philanthropic calling are absurd. They've made tons and tons of cash out of it: that's why it's the "oldest association in sport". Qantas sponsored this year's Australian Grand Prix but to my knowledge had minimal input in making up the rules. As far as I am concerned - in any case - it would be a sign of an America's Cup in much better health if it was capable of selling jeans or strawberry milkshakes rather than over-priced handbags and posh booze, but I appreciate there are those who see sailing's "exclusivity" as a good thing rather than an embarrassing global failure of the sport!

If the nationality definition is birth, at least you can only have one. But then it would be tough on someone who was born on holiday abroad! if you start allowing parents' and grandparents' countries of birth, let alone nationalised citizens, then you start losing the point.

how about some love for the Series guys?

how about some love for the Series guys?

"So you can design a class rule so that the boats are effectively identical and what matters is that we are all sailing in boats that our branded in our colours, that we built and that we love and have respect for and if his is better in 5 knots in choppy waters, it isn’t that important.” Is it just me or does that sound both phenomenally unlike the America's Cup and also a bit rubbish? If I wanted to see a bunch of people screwing up sail changes and starts in identical boats I can go to most sailing schools in the world. I find it alarming that Hutchinson appears to be willing to throw away the key tenets of America's Cup sailing. i.e. it is a design contest. Without that, there is no point to it.

That is quite a ridiculous closing comment by Whelan. This class has styled itself at the top of the professional circuit and so the administration should be up to managing professionals. Not telling them to be quiet or they'll lose their income.

Sounds like an arms race to me whe you have to cast a new bulb when you could use add ons! The spirit always gets taken to the edge. Sounds to me that a bolt on winglet that enhaces performance (also assisting AC foil developemnt) is a very cheap solution and should be encouraged. Its not as if these boats get grounded on the GP circuit. Andy McLelland

Alex Haworth writes: From memory the original “culture” of the TP52 rules as developed for the Med Circuit was “express exclusion”. If it wasn’t expressly allowed then it was expressly disallowed. An attempt to limit the arms race. So it comes down whether those wings are part of the bulb or not. If they were cast in the same mould at the same time, you could argue they were “the bulb” (just a bulb with a different shape to the norm bu nonetheless a bulb as defined under the rule). If they are add ons then you could argue they are not “the bulb” – and therefore expressly disallowed from the 800mm ruling.

Two person foilers are alive and well. Do a writeup on the R-class skiff in NZ.

Ladycat also has a guy onboard this season, with six women; sailmaker Arnaud Gavairon from Voiles Gautier. He's trimming the main now that Dona Bertarelli is going to be on the helm herself. Should be a good interview at the end of season? Good luck to them!

as far as i understand it...the great schooner Atlantic that set the original bench mark record time over the TransAtlantic course was actually powered by 2 steam genenerators that powered her halyard and primary winches!!!!! When is everyone going to stop bagging stored power, powered winches, canting keels etc and when is the Speed Council going to get onside and allow Leopard and Speedboat to claim the outright record should they be lucky enough to claim it? I for one can't wait to see these 2 great boats going head to head...bring it on- I can't wait to get out there!

Blimey - a Finn sail is 4,000 Euros. That is alot of money for something so small.

rules, rules and rules. As long as the boat is powered by sails, my money and interest is for the fastest crossing possible. Power boats have been eclipsed by the latest generation of offshore multihulls, and for monohulls to match this sort of performance they will need some hydraulic grunt.

I think the issue here is why allow powered winches in the first place?  It is said that they add to innovation in the sailing world as many think that "man-power" is one of the current limitations in terms of boat speed - if they were mandated we would see bigger and badder offshore boats (think Dogzilla in an offshore guise).  You could on the other hand argue that they prevent an "arms race" for records.

However Mari Cha IV was innovative (mainly in its rig configuration and sheer size) and didn't use powered winches.  And it wasn't cheap...

Hey Louay, great video. You need to bin the cheesy muzac though! How about a bit of Murray Walker commentary?

Ah, but it's in the Bermuda triangle...

With 15 boats out last night and another 5 due to launch in the next week the racing is as good as it gets in the eastern solent. Tuesday and Thursday evening races are complimented by a longer race on Sat. Any one who wants to try the racing should drop a e-mail to the class website and join in the visitors race.

I thought J24's had sealed forepeaks and cockpit lockers so they wouldn't sink!

Shopping for a pair of softball cleats for my daughter this weekend, she had to have the Pumas, after cheering on il Mostro. The boat, the graphics, the media, Puma City... It worked for our 10 year old! (and her parents) Go the Kitty!

If they wanted a bumper, why didn't they integrate it with the bow - terminate the bow in a flat stem like a Cadet bow and have a Gucci, shock absorbing, plastic moulding which finiahed the lines of the boat.

Can any one explain why the Elliot 6's have that HORRIBLE bumper on the front - don't they thinks the Olympic women are capable of not hitting each other!?

We'll have this table licked one day...

Alarming news - when has monopoly lowered costs for anything man made?

Yes, lets finish in Southampton where one man and his dog will come and watch it. Did you ever go to one of the Volvo starts in Town Quay - the local turn out was pitiful, I'm embarrassed to say. They even coincided it with Southampton Boat Show

In fact OD Yachting inform me that sales inquiries in Europe should go to: Cemil Okten at info@odyachting.com

Why Finish in Galway and not add a sprint to finish in Southampton, the traditional finishing point for this race and technically difficult for the navigators.

Where's the rest of the race??

There is a much greater dose of normality in this course. The last event seemed highly contrived, but this makes sense and will be easy to follow. Taking away scoring gates and keeping an in-port in each and every port make the scoring system much easier to follow, and having Auckland instead of a 3rd Asian stopover will get the boats into the Souther Ocean as well.

I certainley hope we'll see some in the UK! Boat #1 is launched and sailing (the one you see in the pics). Boat #2 will be completed within the month. Sales inquiries in Europe should go to: Mehmet Cayirezmez [mehmetc@runbox.com]

yes third year of match racing.

Nice! Are they coming to the UK?

Really Cool

Good to see ETNZ again leading the way in getting on with it. With at least 2 AC teams expected in the Volvo, and perhaps 4 now sailing in the TP52s, it is good to see the world's best sailors getting into some properly organised racing and not left to suffer at the vagaries of defining a 140 year old document and the vanities of the billionaires that fancy controlling it.

Excellent news ! Will we also see a MG 30 racing ?

"Skipper Ken Read [...] was at the helm of Puma’s il mostro throughout the entire Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009" ?!

For the record - Rebel is woned by Stewart Whitehead.

Agreed! Fantastic boats. I've had the privilege to sail on a number of these in a number of different countries, from the 1997 Fastnet on Babbalas to this year's Easter Challenge on Ran! Now, if only they were allowed to fit bigger primary winches!.... or am I just getting old?

Have sailed the 45 many times - best crash was at the One Ton Cup in Marseille in 2000. We approached the leeward mark just behind Bounder and surfed up a wave and into their cockpit.

Surely this year will be the third year with the matchracing for the 45's.

Be interesting to see what they mean about 'crew lists' and how much data they want. Nice way to get everyone's email addresses/mobile numbers. Not sure that really everyone on the crew needs to know what is going on with the SIs. Surely just a dedicated 'crew site' is what they need for all the social stuff.

looks like a good boat but please tell me they are going to get rid of the bumper off the front ??

Watch this space...

Cammas all alone on G3, was one subject in a French article a couple of days ago...

He'd given it some consideration as they made their way up the Atlantic toward the Jules Verne finish, and his main thought was: 'Fortunately, it's only going to last for about 8 days."

They've got a shorter mast planned, smaller sail area, and different deck gear including leg-driven winch arrangement.
Cammas also said that he tried solo-reefing during the transport home from Brest to L'Orient, and was so exhausted by it he needed to go to bed afterwards.

He said the boat has some advantages to 60-footers, not being as uppity and therefor allowing easier skippering - except for during maneuvers; during the transitions and any sail handling he risked being at a disadvantage.

http://www.sports.fr/cmc//voile/201012/cammas-refaire-de-la-regate_27624...

No comparison really, but here in the TDS forum, although it might be looking like a solitary posting from the outside; it is becoming surprisingly crowded!

Spambots from all over the place seem to have found it is a comfortable, relaxing address during their time off. I'm having to elbow my way through them, to get from one forum to the next!

They don't drink, or smoke, or have any sense of humor - they show a deplorable lack of interest in the America's Cup, if I may say so - and were it not for the fact that it is a Catholic holiday I'd be inclined to send them away with the password to that Italian sailing forum, where everyone's address is displayed 'in flagrante'.

For the time being I can still escape down to the 'private forums', where things are less hectic... but if you don't hear from me in a few days it is likely because they have become so numerous as to physically block all the exits...

Tony Bullimore still has his big cat and I believe it's currently at its home base in Bristol while he tries to find funding for a re-fit.

Enlighten us please on the format of this revival of the Little AC. Fleet racing or match? Fleet race eliminations for defender and challenger and then match? So far, not a word about this on the host NYYC site!

Sir, I'm not sure if this article is intended to clarify the benefits of the DSS system or promote new exciting boats. Rather the latter unfortunately. It would be very interesting to see two identical boats, one with DSS and one without, and really find out the difference in performance. There should be some points of sail where it is better and some where it is not. It would be most interesting to know.

Hopefully not in Multihulls...

playstation just have been sold and search for re rigging for racing again

Here in Hobart we say all power to Bruno. The VOR has lost the plot in terms of being a round the world race in the tradition of the Whitbread. Corporates, not capes, mark the course. Other events that use the Suez and Panama are not circumnavigations. What we need is same-day vision of The Race 2 from the Southern Ocean, through to the Horn. We have the chopper-equipped ships to do it, but not the money.

I can think of another cat and another tri that might have a similar future...

Team Adventure is IN and ramping up for The RACE 2 ! Cheers, Cam

I heard playstation has an engine and is being used as a diving platform

Fosset's boat was last used to as a camera ship to film the Disney movie,Morning Light. I expect its in and around San Diego.

Playstation/Cheyenne was converted to a powerboat/submarine platform in 2006 for Fossett's proposed deep-sea submarine record. She filmed the Morning Light TP52 during the 2007 Transpac and is now in Alameda, CA, still rig-less and for sale (submarine included).

HHFS. I wonder what the late great Stewart Morris would have had to say about this. Maybe Stuart Walker would like to comment. Bob

Apologies Sander - duly credited...

They have done well to claw back the deficit incurred in the south Atlantic. And also to demonstrate that they now understand how to use hydrofoil assistance in the southern ocean without breaking the boat.

Well, they've done it! What a fantastic recovery after the setbacks in the south Atlantic. It does demonstrate what a high benchmark Peyron set. It is also a pity that Banque Populaire didn't set off too, the comparison would have been awesome. But Cammas deserves a lot of credit for repairing the boat twice and persevering.

"Although it was Friday in Auckland and a business day, a respectable-sized spectator grew in size as the afternoon wore on." I love that.

photo credit: www.sandervanderborch.com

Nice photos Ian :-)

In a sudden death match, leading round two marks, do you really want to head off in search of shifts rather than sticking like glue to your opponent?

If you want to be sure of staying ahead and winning, you cover your opposition. That never changes.

loyalty, an endearing trait

Great stuff. Groupama just gybed on top of Orange to stay between them and the finish.

Great news Nigel - well done & best of luck

Check that out for savvy logoness. The new sponsor's gilet discretely unzipped to reveal Aviva.

Dicussion on our boat - J/109 was why we had to go to East Bramble, and then race across the strong west tide north of Ryde Middle. Seems that the White group get nice tight little courses close to the river and the Black group have to go elsewhere. Just means our course area will always be across the tides. Our last mark was Norris! Brought back memories of Cowes Week...

Having followed one or two other Jules Verne attempts I think Groupama have been incredibly unlucky with the weather this time around. This is their third attempt - they deserve to get it. Next tds update tomorrow morning.

Er, "Yankee" was owned by Gerard, not Gerald, Lambert.

Groupama does seem to have broken through into light trade winds and is now doing 20kts again. However this is a large deficit to make up in ten days. She has been unlucky in the South Atlantic where one might have expected the large tri to have an advantage. Let's hope for decent beam winds to slingshot them back to Britanny.

Race on. Can Groupama go 10% faster than Orange over the remaining 4300 miles to the finish?

Beautiful boat. the interior is absolutely perfect!

Great coverage on sail.tv - live, highlights and as live rerun (with the waiting edited out). Shame they don't have the A team of commentators - PJ and Andy Green.

Think they might need a few spare boats! This looks like a great fun version of our sport - a bit like the Extreme 40s, but more compact with smaller boats and crews. ring it on!

What a nice idea, but it looks like road show... On the other hand just look to DN circle, no advertising and publicity but pure fun for much less money...

Yep, this is Highland Fling, just making sure you are paying attention! Thanks for the proofing.

Photo is of new Highland Fling not Titan 15.

Where was I! huuuuuu

I don't think the picture is Titan 15... http://yachtpals.com/files/news/titan-15-sailboat.jpg

Hi 696616, We are just loading up the Sail TV player on the site which will carry the racing live. Not sure about a highlights show yet.

Does anyone know if there is live coverage or daily highlights in the UK?

Wow, this is fantastic. Oh by the way, maybe there's a "as new" wing sail around at a bargain price, for the Maxi ;-)

Looking at the GBR crew list it seems a shame that it is not even 50% british crew members

One can only be relieved the structure has stood up this time. The onboard videos are fascinating. They still have a mountain (or South and North Atlantic) to climb. But in theory a large tri should be better to windward than a large cat. Let's hope they get the breeze to demonstrate this!

I'm not entirely sure why I wasted my time with that article: "Most designers focus performance optimization on increasing power. Our solution is to reduce drag, by all means possible" Does we really think that other designers don't optimise drag?

I'm not entirely sure why I wasted my time with that article: "Most designers focus performance optimization on increasing power. Our solution is to reduce drag, by all means possible" Does we really think that other designers don't optimise drag?

Dream - on! Too much drag from that rig and soft sails for the speeds he's talking about. He needs hydrofoils and a wing sail. Remember BMWO was faster without the big genny in certain winds and directions. Where's the righting moment coming from? A giant International Canoe with dumpable ballast in variable geometry "wings" is a possibility - until it capsizes. IMHO Wiz

This makes me think of a couple of things: Surely a monohull with a flying ballast bulb is a Pacific proa! Whatever happened to Yves Parlier's Mediatis Region Aquitaine planing catamaran?

There is a randomness in nature, but no ways can one call it a lottery. Breakage are design related, very few beakages fall in the random lottery category. These teams are in the forefront of Engineering, Metrology , Human Endurance. Lottery I dont think so.... Gary Player said 'the better I prepare the luckier I get'

Rod's outstanding contribution to British Olympic Sailing goes back to his days as our coach in the eighties.....I well remember his support in the LA Pre-Olympic Regattas! Well done and good luck Rod!! JD Tornado

I think the game gave a chance to make a huge step in sailing R&D with adding some NASA tricks in the technology. Unfortunately it was only two-boat racing...but great job anyway. Congratulations to Larry.

Yes, unfortunately record attempts like this are part-lottery over breakage prevention, almost a total lottery with the weather and only then down to the skill of the crew and the speed of the boat

Having spent many happy hours in the tropics debating the correct collective noun for flying fish, my suggestion is a squadron. Less polite terms were however to be heard during their night-time kamikaze manoeuvres.

Are you allowed to cant the rig? If so, then why not try it? It was one of the significant differences between the two AC boats that was mostly ignored. If it didn't make a difference the ORMA boats wouldn't do it!

Yes let's hope all the beefing up of the floats is enough. It's quite noticeable in the videos how high the lee float is riding when G3 is reaching, with obviously huge loads via the foil case. They are doing well to be finding 30kts a routine speed! However they're still less than a day ahead at halfway point so this record isn't broken yet, they've still got to traverse the Pacific, and must not be slowed too much ascending the Atlantic.

Wooden rudders a consequence of limited budget!!! We will be looking to do some new ones before Newport And, no, not UNDER the tramp, but trapezing on the inboard side of the leeward hull, just in front of the front beam (low windage position!) Twin wires now standard on C cats. Better than Big AC - I could not possibly comment (bearing in mind our hosts will be New York Yacht Club!) Norman.

wooden rudders?

Welcome to the 'wild thing' (possibly spelled with an 'a' in thing), with the crew to leeward to coax the weather hull out

Didn't know you could twin-wire a C-Class Cat!

Hope it all goes well - this could be better than the big AC :-)

it looks like crew is in a position under the tramp while the boat is sailing?

Ellison speaks. Out of work Tornado sailor? Bored French Multihull legend? See below for the job centre latest. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7288043

Totally under-rated spectator and TV friendly example of competitive sailing at its best. 20 minutes of 18 footers beats hours of America's Cup or offshore racing any day. Great shots... Anyone who says that sailing can't be a compelling sports entertainment product needs to sit down and watch some of this stuff. It should have a much higher profile than it does.

Larry - Let your victorious helmsman have one last sail on your fantastic boat - have a go at Round the Island and see if you can set the record for eternity. If you really want to be popular, enter USA 17 for the RoI race itself - 19th June - and let 1,800 sailing boats with circa 10,000 racing enthusiasts see it for real.

Here here 938302!

You deserve all the support available to you Knut. The Volvo has been and still is the race all offshore sailors dream about. Keep strong and you will be the victor. The Volvo brand is one of safety and I for one believe the race is in safe and exceptional hands.

Interesting... I remember sitting in on the press conference at the end of the 2005-06 race where Glenn announced the 2008-09 route. Whilst the final stopovers were not announced in detail until later on, the teams had more to go to sponsors with earlier than this time. If the route is finalised, stop drip feeding it out so you get more press releases in, and let teams know the route so that they can go to sponsors with something definite. Too much talk and not enough action.

Ericsson has had a few bad years with the recession, and has laid off quite a lot of staff in the division I worked in a year or two ago. Running an expensive sailing campaign against those sorts of economic results probably isn't politically acceptable to staff and shareholders.

I have to laugh at Knut Frostad "a sailor" talking about bringing in "breaths of fresh air" (non-sailors) it'll be funny if he loses his job at some stage. You never know they might even get a car racing guy in and put 4 wheels on the boats and race them round a land based track and then really increase the audience figures - good man Knut, be careful what you wish for.

It's the crash and burner the media audience wants to see. Now if they had the balls they would buy a shed load of Extreme 40s, give each team 4 boats to allow for the inevitable damage and crashes. They would hold the event with a minimum wind speed of 18knots on short tight race couses with many short to back races ie best of 7 to decide who progresses from each match Opp's I have woken up and stopped dreaming.... In reality those involved will revert to their self interested type and build slow monohulls and tell us they are technogically advanced when every knows they are not.

multihulls would be great, but limit them to a 60ft box rule with say 120ft mast height as for match racing - you betya, with a multi being 'slower' to tack there are real advantages in being aggressive and making your opponent tack/take a penalty - and that's what match racing is all about, pushing the opposition into an error..... you could really save cash and use the Extreme 40's as the match racing boats - Mark Turne, where are you when sailing needs you? ;-)

And this is me replying to Alex....

You could have a solo offshore slam (which MichDes has) of Solitaire du Figaro, Artemis Transat, Route du Rhum and Vendee Globe

A doublehanded offshore slam - Transat Jacques Vabre, Figaro's Transat AG2R and the Barcelona World Race.

The 600 miler slam - Sydney Hobart, Fastnet, Middle Sea, Caribbean 600, Newport-Bermuda (you could also include Transpac and Round Gotland).

The grand grand slam really must be Olympic gold, America's Cup win, Volvo win and Vendee Globe win. Whoever did that would truly warrant our undivided attention.

Well spotted - in fact, Cape of Good Hope. I've changed it now, so no one will be any the wiser. The power of the web! Ha!

That should be Cape Agulhas (not Cape Horn) to Cape Leeuwin surely - I know G3 is fast but not that fast!

No, The excitement is not due to the speed. In AC33 we saw mostly a drag race. The AC32 was the pinnacle, nerve wrenching till the very end. All the intricacies of yacht racing tactics and strategy were visible and in play all along the race. This is what we want to have, but of course it can be achieved in TP52’s or VOR70’s for example. Written by an old Tornado sailor.

No, The excitement is not due to the speed. In AC33 we saw mostly a drag race. The AC32 was the pinnacle, nerve wrenching till the very end. All the intricacies of yacht racing tactics and strategy were visible and in play all along the race. This is what we want to have, but of course it can be achieved in TP52’s or VOR70’s for example. Written by an old Tornado sailor.

If it's a "team challenge", do it in 1 designs. If Team Challenge means design and development too ... how many budgets are there out there that can sustain that?

As a Naval Architect the Extreme90 proposal can only be encouraged but a few obvious problems arise straight away which will make the decision to go for a multihull a hard one if not impossible. And in my opinion it has nothing to do with politics or the (assumed) manoeuvrability of multihulls. The main reason not to go for a multihull will be space; you can park at least two monohulls in the space on a single multi and assuming two boats will be allowed (as it will be a new class) the team bases would have to be at least twice the size. Now we also have to take into account that the proposal includes a solid sail which will require the boats to be moored of a buoy and thus the space required to park your solid wing rigged Extreme90 is approximately 3000m2 without allowing for much space to manoeuvre a fleet. That amounts to huge mooring fields when you get multiple teams with two boats and that is just not feasible. Looking at the design itself the obvious part is the proposed heavily overlapping genoa for downwind work. Assuming the boats will achieve comparable AWAs as the two boats in the 33rd Cup one is looking at a AWA of less than 25degrees and as such the heavily overlapping sail plan is pretty inefficient. Comments from the Alinghi Design Team have told us that scaling a design does not work and a blank canvas to decide on the sail plan is required. There is a reason why BMWOracle’s rig has been moved back numerous times with the head sails hardly overlapping even on the downwind legs. My personal opinion is that the America’s Cup does not need to be sailed in the fastest boats around to honour the history of the event, a major requirement is however to be at the forefront of technology and as such the new class should allow much more freedom to develop specifically the aero-package on the boats (inflatable luffs, fairing on rigging and spar, etcetera). I think it is a given we all want to see a rule that promotes a boat that can sail in a wide range of conditions (5-30kts TWS, no sea-state limit) so the boats can race a much larger percentage of the time. I would love to see the fastest boats find a place in history but the 34th Cup-rule has to take into account much more than outright speed. Solid sails and multihulls do not seem to be a feasible option when considering space and transportation requirements and I do not think the Cup will be worse for it. Design will still be a deciding factor as it always has been and always should be if we want to keep the America’s Cup special and honour the heritage.

In some ways I agree with Mitch and for the self proclaimed pinnacle of the sport, why not go for the performance of a multihull. But, you would have to agree that the recent "spectacle" was a little breeze dependant, didn't over stretch the umpires and as one boat was faster, the wonder of the other competitors effort was completely overshadowed. And there was only one other competitor. I think a few other little things have to be considered apart from the boat. Such as a venue with at least a little more wind so a half reasonable schedule can be kept, (might help the spectators at the very least), and don't forget what happened with the Orma 60 class when the dominance of one boat killed the competition and ultimately the class despite having truly spectacular hardware. The selection of the boat for the next cup is going to be a tricky call, no wonder Russel is going on holiday for a bit. My vote is for something that will go out to race in Cascais at the allotted hour regardless, and return win or lose still in one piece. I'm not sure that this is a crucial point in sailing history, i think a crucial point in sailing history was when a multihull class was excluded from the 2012 Games and i am still amazed that whomever made that decision has not been hounded out of office. But, for the Americas Cup to return to being a truly great event it needs a big handfull of entrants, who must be allowed to be competitive in the boat of choice. This will mean limits on technology, budget and time. Sponsors as well as patrons will be required. A place in history awaits for whoever sorts this out. Steve Mellors

Great to read the debate on type of boat for Cup 34. I wonder why all the sailors from this cup( Alinghi and BMWO ) are fully converted and support Multihull as a viabale solution for the future? It because they have experienced it and seen the potential imho. I can understand the regular Cup sailors that have been sitting on the sidelines just wanting to return to thier comfort zone of racing slower monohulls, some are even suggesting to create a super fast, high performance mono , but then you may as well have a multihull if you are searching for that extreme performance. This is a crucial point in sailing history to move the sport forward and I just hope that the decision makers and sailors who influence them have the vision to carry on what we saw last week. Mitch Booth, part time multihull sailor

Hi David - solo round the world in multihulls is about the only thing which hasn't been done so far, so I reckon it is a case of 'when, not if'. You just need the appropriate fearless Ravussin or Bourgnon brother...

As to why Banque Populaire - haven't left. I know they have gone Code Green recently and then bailed out. I guess they just haven't seen the exact conditions they want. These records are getting very hard - Sodebo, you will remember spent most of the summer in NY and then never had the right weather window...

If any of the BR crew are reading this - perhaps you could add some more explanation on this.

Now, looking at that picture I am wondering if they have just anchored somewhere for lunch and Mark is looking up pork rib marinade recipes on the internet?

Agreed. Make it happen Russell!

Seems to me that we're all overlooking a great AC34 venue - Key West - which would be viable in a "mutual consent" match in the Northern Hemisphere winter. Think about it; spectacular visual location, infrastructure to support an event of this size, mix of breeze conditions but with a bias towards breeze on and last but not least...much of the racing could be broadcast live in Prime Time in Europe. What could be better?

Dammit - one of the joys of thedailysail Mk1 was that you could make corrections and no one would be any the wiser...

Yes, awesome indeed and we can't wait to see it. However I have always felt that The Race is the wrong name for this event. Assuming there is no breakage and there are no new boats built - then who is going to win? The finish order will be Banque Populaire, Groupama 3, Orange 2 and then a bunch of also-rans pretty much in date order of when they were built... Perhaps someone could get PlayStation off dive boat duty?

Firstly - apologies for the large blocks of text. We'll put some time in on the styling and functionality of these so they look better.

Frankly in the end it probably doesn't matter what the defender/challengers decide, whether it is a billionaires' fest or merely a millionaires' one. The America's Cup has always proven to have its own momentum, thankfully with the occasional rogue element to bring it back on track.

As to the profiting out of the Cup then, as you say 'to the victor go the spoils'. However in my view it is an acceptable, perhaps even integral, part of the Cup's complex political process for a team to attempt to try and skew the event in their favour if it is with the aim of winning on the water. It is a step too far to do this for their own, or worse still, their team principal's own financial gain.

Serious Machines going head to head. Awesome.

.. the stat we all want to know is how much was spent on R&D?

I wish

I had known that

I needed to use tags to place paras

...and couldn't edit the comment once posted

:(

Following James' Article and Ian's comments Just a cursory glance at Yacht Sponsorship's analysis of the AC 33 numbers (www.yachtsponsorship.com) confirms that AC coverage is tiny in terms of global sports media. Whatever tiny revenue streams might accrue from AC33 media are insignificant against the cost of a boat and a campaign. But clearly brand name exposure gave some value to BMW and Ellison eventually included Sun, Sparc and Solaris on the BOR sail. But would a truly commercial sponsor have paid a sum that was significant in terms of the cost of participation in AC33? Frankly, I doubt it. Has AC33 really been a news event? A search of BBC News/Sport online reveals a great deal more coverage of 2002/3 than of 2007/10. And when it comes to news coverage of poor behaviour Tiger Woods' indiscretions win hands down in the news stakes by comparison with the tribulations of SNG/GGYC in the NY courts or even on the committee boat... Ian is correct to point out that under the terms of the Deed of Gift it's "to the victor go the spoils" and historically this has always been a match for the super-wealthy. As James speculates "We suspect that the original vision for the America’s Cup was along the hugely elitist lines of the 33rd..." But is that either a viable or appropriate basis for the sport's premier event in the 21c? The risk in forming a board of representatives is that they may be unable to agree and decisions result in choices which are least bad rather than best. The question we ought to be asking is what should be the goals of the America's Cup for the next and future matches? And who should decide them? If the defender is in sole charge of defining those goals it is likely that the premier goal will be retaining the Auld Mug. Ellison and Coutts have already emphasised fairness and that there will be independent management of "all the competitive aspects of the regatta, all the on the water, racing, race officials, umpires, jury, organisers for on shore organisation of the regatta" and the "power" of the mutual consent clause. However Bertarelli is today questioning whether Club Nautico di Roma is a stooge. Haven't we been here before? The goals will define the strategies that will be adopted for the next and future ACs. So what other goals should there be? Cost reduction, spectacle, technology, media value and reputation might all lead to goal definitions. But they can't all be delivered. As interested bystanders the best we can do is to raise the visibility of public debate of the issues Whilst I was thrilled by the 33 regatta and the site of those flying machines showing what apparent wind sailing can be made to do I also do care that there is a viable future for the Cup. We live in interesting times.

That's not the Manly Ferry. its either the Royal or the Regal which are charted as the spectator ferry by the Australian 18 footers League.

Historically it was all a one way street running the Defender's way. They could set rules and venue and decide procedures. Alinghi's efforts, even post AC32, were relatively benign within that context. So there is nothing within the Deed of Gift preventing a Defender profiting, in every way, from venue choice or anything else associated with the running of the next event. (The Deed does say something about "friendly competition" but I guess we are all ignoring that with respect to AC33...) If the question is a moral one, rather than a procedural / rules question, then perhaps there is a case for keeping any financial gain in the hands of an independent "America's Cup Race Organisation". But I am not sure I really care either way. To the victor go the spoils, after all. The real question is the one you allude to in the article, James: Between the two extremes of a newsworthy "battle of the billionaires" and a news-dull but sportingly-just "racing boat series", where should AC 34 be placed? We might wish for a level playing field, with a range of competing national syndicates, vying for the right to a fair race with the Defender, with minimal legal wrangling to mar proceedings. But then would any news orgnisations cover it? And if there was no news coverage where would teams get their sponsorship money? Of course with no sponsorship we would be back to the Billionaires Ball; which I guess is what the AC has always been about. So maybe we sailors should stop grumbling about the details, enjoy what we can of the racing and the technology, and hope there are enough egotistical super-wealthy people around to take this circus forward for future generations?

Should the defender benefit financially from the America's Cup being held in the venue of their choice? Discuss...

90 % of this article is completely uninteresting. The stats we all are looking for are hard facts on average speed, sailed distance and VMG for each leg. Then we could have something useful when analysing the differences between the boats. /Eivind

I well remember the fascination with which I read the 40kt Sailboat decades ago. In fact I still have in the attic a model proa which was to have an inclined rig based on Smith's ideas. So I was very interested in what Paul was attempting in Namibia. As Paul says Smith was a visionary who was able to explain his ideas to people like myself of modest maths abilities! David Bains

First visit to the new site this evening and liking it already. Great job. I reckon the interactive approach will be a huge success.

 Much as I admire skippers like Joyon and Coville and Cammas it must be true that a tired singlehander is more likely to come to grief in a big multi.

We know that skippers on the Vendee Globe report knockdowns from which they recover, this would be "game over" in a multi.

I'm not sure I really see the point of really large boats being singlehanded, it's almost a pointless macho display.

And singlehanding unnecessarily limits the number of sailors that could be taking part, two handed has always made more sense to me.

Having said that I think Francis Joyon is the greatest offshore sailor. His singlehanded RTW time will stand for a long time imho.

Design does of course play a part, I think the Irens designs are inherently safer.

David Bains

 

It is almost incredible that G3 can exceed the speed of OBMW while coping with offshore waves. Let's hope the floats can stand the hammering from the foils this time round. David Bains

 I am alone in thinking this was a bit of a mismatch!?

OBMW was wider with a spaceage wing and a truly brilliant helmsman keeping the giant tri one one hull for hours.

Nearly 40yrs of racing trimaran development made the Alinghi cat  look slow, despite the speeds being attained by both boats! 

Do we have any idea what boats will contest AC34?

No doubt I'll get used to the new site!

David Bains

 

 

I can't see it being such a far fetched idea with Vincenzo Onorato (Mascalzone Latino, 3 time Farr 40 World Champ and COR) and Torben Tornquist (Artemist, Medcup and TP World Champions 2007) involved in the Cup...Larry better brush up on his driving skills! 

Awesome that Sam is getting involved again in the Figaro class again. But reading this article it seems to me that the state of British sponsor compared to that of the French.... Who knows maybe Bernard Matthews will start a sponsorship deal with some up and coming British stars? Surely Tesco, Sainsburys or M&S could get into sailing with a varied sailing sponsorship campaign?

Thanks guys and girls. We're doing our best and there's still a lot of tweaking - some major, some minor - to do. Thanks for bearing with us. More carbon - I entirely agree 774922!

Great stuff, well done for keeping it fresh and for having the nuts to go with the new business model. I wish you all the best with it...

Thanks for a new much better site! I would love more content on yacht design, the cool stuff, like canting keels, foils and canards, wing masts (or sails as BMWO calls it), carbon fibre anything, PBO etc. etc. The two AC multis must be reasure troves in this area. Go a little deeper into it as you have done on occasion earler.

I think the whole site looks great. As our American cousins would say "nice job!"

I think the whole site looks great. As our American cousins would say "nice job!"

The small grey font is awful. I need a magnifying glass to read it. I miss the fish icon the gave printout in larger type without ads. Black can be read much faster than grey!! and bigger faster than small!

Now that Russell has everything as he wants it, I wonder if will go as smoothly as he thinks....

New site looks good but can you throw some more coal on the boiler, the new server seems to be a bit... slow. Just teething problems I guess!

James, I think the site will take a couple of days of getting use to, but first impression are that its looking great. I also think the idea of User Generated content will be awesome as well. Great work guys, keep it up! Chriswah

My what a super article

And while Harold Bennett may be the supposed independent PRO, in fact he is being managed by the Societe Nautique de Geneve...who's yacht of course is Alinghi 5

We have since heard from Brad Butterworth that while the wind at 60m and sea state limits may have been thrown, the event is only 'insured' to take place in winds of up to 15 knots (at 60m, so 12-13)