Around Alone
Sunday morning at 0350 GMT, Simone Bianchetti, skipper of the Open 60 Tiscali informed his shore-team that he had dismasted. When the mast broke, Bianchetti was inside, the boat was running southwest at 16 to 20 knots and the weather conditions were rapidly worsening.
Bianchetti was not harmed in the accident and is sailing under jury rig to La Coruna in Northern Spain, 90 miles from the point where he dismasted. Bianchetti will join Class 2 competitor John Dennis and his Bayer Ascensia in La Coruna. Dennis, as did the rest of Class 2, decided to head for port rather than endure a strong storm in the eastern Atlantic. The other Class 2 competitors are waiting it out in Bayona, a large sheltered bay in Galicia, northwest Spain.
Bianchetti was lying in 6th place in Class 1 during Leg 2 of the Around Alone race from Brixham, England to Cape Town, South Africa when the dismasting happened. He had left the French port of Brest, France at 23:45 UTC on Friday 18th October after spending three days fixing his faulty autopilot systems. Thats why Bianchetti was impacted by the storm and close to the slower Class 2 entrants.
Bernard Stamm leads the Class 1 sailors, who are all well south of the storm Monday morning, and sailing in light breezes. As of the latest position report, Emma Richards is in second place, 145 miles behind Stamm. Unfortunately, big breeze and bad sea conditions are still pounding the ports where the Class 2 competitors are hunkered down. For full details, see http://www.aroundalone.com
US SAILING Annual Meeting
Held in Marina del Rey over the last four days, the national governing body’s annual meeting was highlighted by a balanced-budget proposal, plans for a new newsletter, and more inter-active discussion than allowed by the normal meeting formats.
President Dave Rosekrans initiated a series of breakout sessions for all attendees to discuss strategic priorities, and Rules Committee chair Dick Rose led a packed forum on current usage of alternative penalties and protest arbitration and mediation. One of the top priorities discussed in the former sessions was a newsletter that will begin in 2003 on a three-times-a-year basis as a supplement to the single page that appears in Sailing World 10 times a year. This was one of a few significant extra expense items OKed in a balanced-budget proposal that first-year executive director Nick Craw brought to the board of directors. The budget also includes aggressive revenue goals for sponsorship and a new insurance program that contributes significantly to the organizations bottom line. The latter was approved after several challenging questions were posed regarding the cost to members of the policy premiums and the legality of the compensation arrangement for US SAILING (http://www.ussailing.org/events/meet02fall/report_day2.htm).–John Burnham
International Masters Regatta
The racing began on Friday, and after all of our practice, we still botched two or three maneuvers and sailed a poor first race. On reflection, it all boiled down to another “P” word–pressure. It’s one thing to practice hard and work out all of the kinks; it’s another to remember to do it all exactly the same way when you approach the weather mark on port tack, duck another boat, and then slam into a tack.–John Burnham
Sailing World editor John Burnham trimmed headsails for Dave Irish on a J/105 at the International Masters Regatta on San Francisco Bay recently. See the complete story at https://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=1436
Moloney Ready for Route de Rhum
Moloney and his Open 50 will leave the Offshore Challenges base in Cowes for the start of the Route de Rhum in St. Malo, France early this week after the storm that’s effecting the Around Alone fleet blows through. “This is a big depression about 2000 miles wide right now; it’s a monster, almost as wide as the North Atlantic,” said Moloney. “It will bring some strong winds so we’ve decided to hang here until the worst goes through before heading to Cherbourg.”
Moloney’s Open 50 is the Finot-designed ex-Cray Valley, which won its class in the last Around Alone. Nine monohulls are entered in Class 2 and Nick will face some tough opposition. In 1998 Ellen MacArthur won the Class II monohull division on board her Open 50 “Kingfisher”. Sixty entries in total are now confirmed to start including 72-year-old Canadian Mike Birch who won the first Route du Rhum in 1978 and has competed in every edition since.
Route de Rhum 2002 Details
Start: Saturday, November 9, from St Malo, France, to Pointe a Pitré, Guadeloupe
Distance: 3540 miles
Number of entries (multihulls and monohulls): 60
Race started: 1978 and runs every 4 years
Website: http://www.routedurhum.org/
Jesper Radich Wins Bermuda Gold Cup
In a thrilling Final Round of the Bermuda Gold Cup, Denmark’s Jesper Radich defeated countryman Jes Gram-Hansen before a large spectator crowd on Hamilton Harbour, becoming the first Scandinavian to claim the King Edward VII Cup of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC). Radich and his crew of Christian Plinius, Peter Poulsen, and Andres Kristensen sailed to a victory worth $20,000 and points on the Swedish Match Tour. He is now ranked No. 2 behind Gram-Hansen after four of the nine events. “We try to work as a team,” said Radich. “We do a lot of racing against Jes and without him I don’t think I would have gotten to here.”
In the Petit-Final Round, Bermudian Peter Bromby defeated world match racing champion Karol Jablonski in two straight races in the first-to-two series. “It was the same secret weve used all week,” said Bromby. “Timing and boatspeed.” Next up for the three-time IOD champion is his Star campaign for the 2004 Olympic Games for which he has already qualified Bermuda.
Overall results:
1. Jesper Radich/Team Radich (Denmark)
2. Jes Gram-Hansen/ Team Victory Lane (Denmark)
3. Peter Bromby/Team ACE (Bermuda)
4. Karol Jablonski/Team MK Café (Poland)
5. Mikael Lindqvist (Sweden)
6. Paula Lewin/Team ACE (Bermuda)
7. Mattias Rahm /Team Stena Bulk (Sweden)
8. Staffan Lindberg/Team Musto (Finland)
Sailing World’s College Rankings
Harvard jumps from third to first to reclaim the top spot in the coed rankings while the St. Mary’s Seahawks move from fourth to first in the women’s rankings. But it was the West Coast district that made the most news. Hawaii moved from 18th to fourth in the coed rankings while UC Santa Barbara led five previously unranked schools into the women’s top 15. https://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=1425
Dynayacht & Reichel-Pugh Offer CBTF License
DynaYacht Inc. of San Diego California announced that under it’s exclusive association with the Reichel-Pugh Yacht Design firm, it will make available licenses to use its patented Canting Ballast Twin Foil (CBTF) technology. DynaYacht will also provide design assistance for installation of CBTF on a full range of yachts based on its twelve years of experience developing, and perfecting the technology. www.reichel-pugh.com
Multitools
Whether it’s worn on your belt or kept on deck, a multitool is an invaluable part of your racing kit. Don’t believe us? Ask the crew of Moonshine, a Dogpatch 26 that was dismasted during the 2002 Pacific Cup. Unable to use the top section of their broken spar as a jury-rigged mast because of the jagged break on the base, doublehanders Robert Ward and Mike Robinson used the saw blade on a Leatherman tool to cut away the spiky shards of carbon fiber. In a matter of hours, the jury rig was up, a kite was set, and the duo was back on track to Hawaii.–Tony Bessinger
See the complete Multitool article by Tony Bessinger at https://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=1349
Swan American Regatta 2003
Nautor’s Swan has announced that the 2003 Swan American Regatta will be held from July 27 to August 2 and will be hosted by the New York Yacht Club in Newport, Rhode Island. This is the second time that the New York Yacht Club has hosted the biennial event.
http://www.swanregattas.com
St. Thomas Rolex
The St. Thomas Yacht Club’s International Rolex Regatta will celebrate its 30th year in March 2003. Racing dates for the annual three-day event are Friday, March 28 through Sunday, March 30th, scheduling it well ahead of its traditional Easter weekend slot, which falls in late April.
Professional Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio will run the races. Reggio, from Essex, Conn., is the Principal Race Officer at the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series in New Zealand. Chief Judge will be Arthur “Tuna” Wullschleger of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., who has done so at the St Thomas Rolex regatta for 21 years, and is known as one of sailings top international judges. http://www.rolexcupregatta.com.
