America’s Cup Defender reveals its secret cat in Switzerland. Matthew Sheahan was there
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
Valencia Sailing was not part of the media invited by Alinghi to have a sneak preview of their giant catamaran and as a result we cannot report on the yacht the Defender will use in the 33rd America’s Cup.
Alinghi’s giant catamaran. Phot copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Alinghi
Alinghi’s giant catamaran. Phot copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Alinghi
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
On Friday the Daily Sail got to see the new monster catamaran in her tent at Villeneuve
Original post by Bruce and software by Elliott Back
Highlights from the 5th day of Match Cup Sweden. Marstrand, 3 July 2009. Video copyright World Match Racing Tour
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
[Source: Mirsky Racing Team] MRT faced the inform Frenchman Sebastien Col who battled his way through the repechage to scrape through to the quarter finals in a best of 5 series.
With an extra two days sailing under their belts, the French Match Racing Team came out firing in the first race to win the prestart and defend on the one sided course to sail to victory.
MRT attacked hard but could not force an error on the current world number one team who brought their A-game today.
The following two races were a similar story with the French Match Racing Team gaining the right hand side of the course and essentially the race.
“They simply sailed better than us today, the start was crucial and Seb and his guys had the edge on us. We always knew it would be difficult to go out and race someone who had made it through the repechage round. It’s a pretty big high for them to make it through such a tough round, but again all credit to the French Match Racing Team who are definite title contenders”, said MRT’s Torvar Mirsky.
Despite the disappointment of not making the semi finals, MRT dominated the celebrity fleet race where they won both races by a considerable distance which entertained the large crowds of Swedish holiday makers who made their way down to watch the racing.
The afternoon saw MRT face the local Berntsson Sailing Team in the all important 5th-8th sail off. With World Match Racing Tour points at stake MRT found their rhythm to inflict a penalty on the Swedes in the prestart then sail comfortably in the fading sea breeze.
Next on the radar was Victory Challenge skipper and recent Match Cup Sweden Hall of Fame inductee, Magnus Holmberg. A close race saw MRT lead for the first lap before Holmberg showed his expertise when he managed to position himself inside MRT at the final top mark and defend down the final run to leave MRT with 6th place.
“We are happy with where we are at at this stage of the year. We are developing as a team and always improving. We are all really hungry to win so when we dont, it hurts, but its just more motivation to keep on going”, said Bowman Graeme Spence.
At the half way stage of the World Match Racing Tour MRT are still in a very strong position to take out the title.
With a two month break before the next event, in Saint Moritz, Switzerland the team will use the time off from the World Tour to persue other sailing projects both as a team, with owners and individually.
For more information regarding the team’s itinerary in the months of July and August you can email each team member individually for a copy of their sailing CV and calendar
Helm - Torvar Mirsky - torvar@mirskyracingteam.com
Main/Tactics - Kyle Langford - kyle@mirskyracingteam.com
Trimmer - Kinley Fowler - kinley@mirskyracingteam.com
Trim/Pit - Tudur Owen - tudur@mirskyracingteam.com
Bowman - Graeme Spence - graeme@mirskyracingteam.com
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
[Source: World Match Racing Tour] Quarter final day at Match Cup Sweden, stage 5 of the 2009 World Match Racing Tour brought an early westerly breeze that built throughout the competition. The racing started a little after 10am and by midday the crowds were out in force enjoying the sun and sailing.
An on-form Torvar Mirsky (AUS) took on a resurgent Sebastien Col (FRA). With the extra sailing Sebastien Col has seen this week and a tough repechage he clearly had more fight in him that the young Australian and took only three matches to dispatch him to the 5-8 competition and elevate himself to his first Tour semi of the year.
Local hero Magnus Holmberg (FRA) was paired with Damien Iehl (FRA). Holmberg, still looking for his first victory at Match Cup Sweden looked very confident going out to race and pressed Iehl hard but a slippery Iehl found a slight edge and eased his way to a 3-0 victory dashing Holmberg’s hopes of a coveted win.
The all French duel between Mathieu Richard (FRA) and Philippe Presti (FRA) promised much with Presti gunning hard for his fellow French Team mate. Richard however show amazing control and superior strategy loosing dropping only one match to Presti when Presti managed to gain the right hand advantage. With a final score line of 3-1 and with both Ian William’s and Adam Minoprio out of the Tour points at this event Richard is now in a position to leap to the top of the Tour leaderboard, third or better will secure that.
The biggest match of the day taking five matches to decide was the Gilmour vs Berntsson head to head. The crowd were clearly rooting for Berntsson who represents the host club GKSS but many here in Marstrand see six time winner Gilmour as a second son. Gilmour took the first match after loading Berntsson with penalties galore throughout the race. Berntsson wasn’t rattled and took the next two matches returning the penalty favours to Gilmour in both races. An under pressure Gilmour is a dangerous Gilmour and he came out blazing in match four, pinning a penalty on Berntsson and sailing away to set up the deciding match. It started well for the Swede with Gilmour picking up a pre-start penalty for tacking too close to Berntsson right at the start mark. Gilmour battled back and by the top of the first beat he was right on Berntsson’s tail. Gilmour positioned himself to windward of Berntsson on starboard tack but then dived around Berntsson’s stern as Berntsson luffed. The resulting contact between Gilmour’s spinnaker and the backstay of Berntsson resulted in a penalty to Berntsson offsetting Gilmour’s start line transgression. With the power of starboard tack now with Gilmour he was fast to capitalize and lead Berntsson around the leeward mark. A dummy tack at the mark didn’t bring any joy to Berntsson and Gilmour defended the right hand side of the course leading the rest of the race to knockout Sweden’s last hope.
In reference to the penalty he was given a disappointed Berntsson said “We did everything to avoid contact, but I feel that the umpires made the wrong call. If he had been dominating me would be one thing, but he didn’t. We sailed aggressively, fast and tactically well all day. But we made a last mistake to go into the gibe with Gillie.”
A relieved Gilmour said “On every level Johnie was better today, so we had to sail a bit ugly, and force him to a mistake. He did a fine, fine job and should be very proud. But of course, we decided to choose to meet Berntsson since his experience on the tour is fairly limited. This time it turned out in our favour.”
In the first half of the 5-8 Competition Torvar Mirsky took on Johnie Berntsson and won. Magnus Holmberg took out Philippe Presti to head for the 5th place race. Victory gave Magnus 5th place and Mirsky 6th. In the other playoff Berntsson took 7th leaving Presti with 8th.
Quarter Final Results
Sebastien Col (FRA) v Torvar Mirsky (AUS) 3-0
Damien Iehl (FRA) v Magnus Holmberg (SWE) 3-0
Peter Gilmour (AUS) v Johnie Berntsson 3-2
Mathieu Richard (FRA) v Philippe Presti (FRA) 3-1
5-8 Competition
5th – Magnus Homlberg (SWE) Victory Challenge
6th – Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
7th – Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
8th – Philippe Presti (FRA) French Match Racing Team
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
[Source: iShares Cup] Coming into Round 2 of the iShares Cup, one could be forgiven for expecting the French teams to excel on their ‘home’ waters but the pre-event form hasn’t gone quite as planned. It was Oman Sail’s Masirah that stole the thunder today on the open waters of Hyères, posting four bullets out of six races leaving them at the top of the Day 1 leaderboard with 55 points. It was Frenchman Loick Peyron who had the best day out of the French contingent, helming Oman Sail’s Renaissance into third overall, and Franck Cammas, back at the helm of Groupama, climbed into 4th place. The sea breeze built to a steady 13-14 knots by race 3, the action ratcheted up a notch or two and BT skipper, Nick Moloney, summed it up - “it was very aggressive out on the race course today”. BT filled the 2nd place on the leaderboard by consistently posting 3rd or 4th places, and a final win put a big smile on the face of Mitch Booth, co-creator of the Extreme 40 Class, who had to replace an injured Darren Bundock at the 11th hour.
Highlights from the opening day of iShares Cup Hyères-TPM. Hyères, 3 July 2009. Video copyright iShares Cup
In Detail:
The sailors knew that the Hyères event would present a different scenario to the light winds of Venice. For starters, there is open water, although the short courses were kept well within visibility of the public, then there is the ‘sea breeze’ that builds throughout the afternoon as the land mass heats up. So with the conditions very different from Round 1 in Venice, the game has taken on a different complexion. iShares Cup Event Director, Gilles Chiorri: “By race 3 we saw a big wind shift and a lot more pressure so lots of speed and action on the course with the hulls flying all the time. The game is quite open – Round 1 winners Gitana won some and lost some but it was the two Oman Sail boats that were the strongest today. The courses are short so half of the game is 1 minute before the start and 1 minute after, then you just rely on the difficulties of the others to get back in the game. There were quite a few penalties today – 6 or 7 – the racing is quite aggressive.”
Oman Sail Masirah, skippered by Pete Cumming (centre) and helmed by Olympic medallist Chris Draper (right) lead Round 2 of the iShares Cup after Day 1. Hyères, 3 July 2009. Photo copyright Thierry Martinez
After six races, Oman Sail’s Masirah had monopolised the finish line and now lead with 55 points, only 1 point ahead of BT (46 points) and Oman Sail Renaissance (45 points). Chris Draper helm of Oman Sail’s Masirah: “It was a good day – we had a nice rhythm going and we just kept it going. We made sure we had a back-up plan if we didn’t get a good start – that happened a couple of times and that served us well. Great effort from the team, really good teamwork and we had our Oman compatriot Khamis [Al-Anbouri] onboard – he seems to be our lucky charm!”
Loick Peyron: “It was a glorious day, with ideal conditions on the water… and the boys (editor’s note: the Masirah crew) have really played it well. They were very clever on the starts, and generally they sailed better than everyone else, no doubt about that, hats off! As far as we’re concerned, I was looking for consistency and put my brains to work quite intensely. There was plenty going on to keep us entertained, and I’m very pleased with our team spirit.”
Groupama raced more consistently and claimed 4th place (38 points) but only one point separates them from BMW ORACLE (37 points) as James Spithill and his crew - despite winning the first race - then posted an 8th and 10th which proved their undoing.
Oman Sail Masirah, skippered by Pete Cumming (centre) and helmed by Olympic medallist Chris Draper (right) lead Round 2 of the iShares Cup after Day 1. Hyères, 3 July 2009. Photo copyright Thierry Martinez
There have been a few crew changes for Round 2 due to the other commitments of some of the ‘regulars’ within four teams. Aboard Gitana Extreme, Dutch offshore specialist Simeon Tienpont has been momentarily ‘lent’ by BMW Oracle to replace Hervé Cunnigham. Extreme 40 class co-creator Mitch Booth stands in for an injured Darren Bundock as BT skipper Nick Moloney explained: “Darren has been very difficult to replace but we have managed to replace an 11-times World Champion with a 10-times World Champion – a stroke of luck on our part!” On Holmatro, Australian Anthony Nossiter steps in to replace Gerd Habermüller on the bow - Anthony lists ’rounding Cape Horn nude’ as one of his three major achievements! Finally, Gilberto Nobili steps aboard iShares in replacement of trimmer Jonathan MacBeth.
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
It could be considered an irony, but exactly 2 years after being accepted by Alinghi as Challenger of Record fro the 33rd America’s Cup, the now-defunct Desafío makes its first appearance as Iberdorla Team.
Spain’s main in-shore racing team is taking part in the Trofeo Reina, organized by Valencia’s yacht club, with two different boats, a GP42 and a Platu 25. The GP42 yacht, crewed by the usual sailing team, raced for the first time today. Given the absence of any other GP42 yacht in the regatta there wasn’t a separate class but the green boat sailed with another 5 boats in a Spanish IRC derivative.
Iberdrola Team make their first appearance after Desafío was dissolved. Valencia, 3 July 2009. Photo copyright Nico Martinez
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
17-year-old solo sailor Mike is due in Panama next week - just 1000 miles from the finish
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back
Time flies. It was exactly 2 years ago that Alinghi won the 32nd America’s Cup here in Valencia and, rightly so, all sailors and fans started a fun-blasted joyful celebration. If only they knew what tremendous blunder their lawyers were about to commit by accepting a paper yacht club as Challenger of Record for the 33rd America’s Cup. Eight days later, BMW Oracle issued a challenge and on the 20th of July they started their legal action in the NY State Supreme Court. The rest is history.
Alinghi wins the 32nd America’s Cup. Valencia, 3 July 2007. Video copyright Alinghi
Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back