Sydney Hobart
Shockwave, The Reichel/Pugh designed 90-footer owned by Neville Crichton, is already the line honors favorite for the Sydney Hobart Ocean Race.
Shockwave has been undergoing some final fit-out work in Sydney after racing at Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island last August, where she took line honors in every race of the Big Boat Division and won two races on corrected time.
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has received the first application to enter the 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, from Infinity III (ex-Brindabella), a Farr 65 owned by Martin James. This year’s race will be the first for Infinity III since she was among the many retirements from the storm-swept 1998 race.
The CYCA expects a flood of entries over the next few weeks for the 630-mile ocean race, which starts from Sydney Harbour on December 26.
http:// www.cyca.com.au/
International Masters Regatta
Once sailed in J/24s, the International Masters Regatta at St. Francis YC was a workout for its “mature” participants, racing along San Francisco’s City Front. Then five years ago regatta organizer Don Trask shifted the event to J/105s, the popular 35-foot, moderate-displacement sportboat and raised the age limit for skippers to 60 years (45 for crews). Racing is still a workout, but the Bay winds are generally under 20 knots by early October, and this year–the 24th running of the Masters–was no exception with winds over three days ranging from 14 to 18 knots. Repeating as champion in this year’s 12-boat fleet was Dr. John Jennings, the three-time Mallory Trophy winner and two-time Prince of Wales winner from St. Petersburg, Fla. Bruce Munro, a St. Francis YC past commodore and former winner of the Masters, finished second, followed by Keith Musto, the British medalist and Melges 24 sailor well known for his sailing clothing.
Other luminaries included Lowell North (7th), Dave Irish (4th), and Bruce Kirby (8th).–John Burnham
Pictures and results at http://www.stfyc.com
Men’s Sailing Championship
On Sept. 29, after the top men’s sailing teams spent three days racing in US SAILING’s U.S. Men’s Sailing Championship, Area A Skipper Charles Quigley (Winthrop, MA) and his crew David Bryan (Charlestown, MA), Leo Fallon (Marblehead, MA), and Bill Hooper (Newbury, MA) were awarded the Clifford D. Mallory Cup. The event was held at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club (Corona del Mar, CA) and sailors were chosen through a series of ladder events across the country.
Area D Skipper David Bolyard (Mandeville, LA), with crew Benz Faget (Metairie, LA), Thomas Baker (New Orleans, LA), and Brock Schmidt (New Orleans, LA) took second place, finishing with 31 points, just three shy of the winners score. Skipper Pete Sauer (Kalispell, MT) and crew Mike Blair (Kalispell, MT), Tim Sauer (Billings, MT), and Kaci Yachechak (Kalisp, MT), from US SAILING Area H-E finished a distant third, with 56 points. http://www.ussailing.org/mallory/2002/Results.asp
One Ton Cup
The 12 entries in the 2002 One Ton Cup are being measured today and will begin racing on Oct. 9 in the waters off St. Tropez, France, in Corel 45s. The entry list may be small but the talent level is high.
Two English teams: Wolf, owned by Glynn Williams, and Lion, Tony Canning; Cavale Bleue, (owner: Michel Duquenne), with Thierry Peponnet at helm, Olympic medallist and double One Ton Cup winner, who recently won the multi-hull grand prix in Fecamp with Jean-Luc Nelias on Belgacom; Atalanti X, Georges Andreadis, 2001 winner of the One Ton Cup; Groovederci, sailed by an American team with Deneen Demourkas at helm and Chris Larson on tactics. This team is training for the Farr 40 Worlds in Nassau (Bahamas) in November. K-Challenge, a French syndicate that has announced plans to sail in the America’s Cup in 2006, will field 2 boats, one helmed by Dawn Riley, the other by Nicolas Charbonnier.
Past winners of this prestigious event include: William Vanderbilt, Ted Turner, Willy Illbruck, and more recently Paul Cayard and Russell Coutts.
www.onetoncup.com
Star Europeans
Fredrik Loof and crew Andres Ekstrom are leading the Star Europeans, which began Oct. 6 in Genoa, Italy. 1995 and 2000 World Champion and three-time Olympic medallist Mark Reynolds sailing with Austin Sperry came in ninth and recent World Champions, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell failed to finish the first race of the championship.
65 boats from 22 nations, are entered in the event. For a full report, see http://www.yci.it
Around Alone Leg 1
Kojiro Shiraishi and Alan Paris are trapped in a large high pressure area and haven’t completed Leg 1 of the Around Alone race. Shiraishi, under 20 miles from the finish at last report will most likely finish today, which is good news as he’s reported what could be a serious keel problem. Paris is a little over 50 miles behind Shiraishi.
http://www.aroundalone.com
