A gray, almost windless day greeted competitors in the UBS Challenge in Newport, R.I., Sunday, the second day of a sailing championship designed to pit the top amateur sailors in the U.S. against pro teams from America’s Cup challengers and other top-flight professional sailors in a match-racing format. Andy Lovell, of New Orleans, has gone undefeated in the first two round robins and is in good shape heading into today’s semi-finals. The top three finishers will go on to face the pros in the UBS Challenge Finals, July 31- Aug. 4. www.ubs-ubschallenge.com/
To see who the top-ranked racers are, see the latest match racing rankings at the ISAF website, http://sailing.org/
Bob Adams, an American solo sailor who has been trying to drum up sponsorship dollars to compete in the 2002-2003 Around Alone and other singlehanded events, has pulled the plug on his program, citing lack of corporate support. This is the second time that Adams has been forced to sideline his 40-footer, built for the last Vendee Globe in the former Soviet Union.
American singlehanded sailors are forced to work much harder for support than their European counterparts, and sadly, are often left by the wayside. Adams is the latest of a group that includes even race-winning skippers such as J.P. Mouligne. Read Adams “obituary” at www.sailalone.com and you can sense some of the frustration that Adams has suffered.
Canadian sailor John Dennis successfully completed his mandatory rollover test on his Open 50 Ascensia at Cove Haven Yacht Yard in Barrington, R.I. last Friday. The test, which was expected to take one hour, took four and a half. Dennis, a diabetic sponsored by the Bayer corporation, is entered in the Around Alone. http://www.boldstatement.tv/bold_statement.cfm
Singlehanded hopeful Nick Moloney has completed his first voyage aboard his Finot-designed Open 50 OC1 (the ex-Cray Valley and has begun prepping the boat for his first event, the Route De Rhum, in November. Moloney will undertake his first solo, a 1,000-mile qualifier for the Route de Rhum, soon after a sponsorship appearance at Cowes Week.
Despite his being part of the very well-known Offshore Challenge team with Ellen MacArthur, and his participation in the Jules Verne as the lone non-Frenchman aboard the record-holder, Orange, Moloney is still looking for a title sponsor for his campaign. To see a rare sight, an Open 50 that doesn’t look like a billboard yet, see www.nickmoloney.com.
Oakland, Calif. native Bruce Schwab and his Wylie-designed Open 60 Ocean Planet are in Newport, R.I. prepping for the start of the Around Alone. Schwab is still desperately short of sponsorship support for his campaign despite a groundswell of support from individual contrubutors. See http://sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=1117 for an interview with Schwab.
Brad Read, of Newport, R.I. has won his second J/24 World championship, held last week in Kingston, Ontario. Read, who last won the Worlds in 2000, sailed with crew Randy Borges, Moose McClintock, Paul Grenaver, and Will Jeffers. It was a good showing for Newport’s Fleet 50, with the top three places going to Fleet members. See www.j24can.com/worlds/ for full results.
Light air and two days cancelled for no wind were the hallmarks of the Yngling Worlds, held in n Lake Lucerne, Brunnen, Switzerland last week. Claus Hoj Jensen, of Denmark won the Open class, and Spain’s Monica Azon, took the Women’s division. Americans Courtenay Dey, Linda Wennerstrom, and Angela Windy placed 6th in the Open and Betsy Allison, Lee Icyda, and Suzy Leech placed third in the Women’s Division. www.yngling-worlds.ch
Team Stars and Stripes has announced that they will ship the damaged USA-77 to Auckland at the beginning of August as planned, and will repair the ACC 80-footer in Auckland.
Following the sinking and recovery of USA-77 last week, rumors of heavy damage as a result of the boat striking the bottom abound. In photographs taken by Rich Roberts and displayed on the yachtracing.com website, a vertical crack in the hull abeam of the mast can be seen.
“Its too early to tell how much damage the boat has suffered,” said Dennis Conner on July 24. “Well have more detailed information tomorrow when it is daylight and we can fully survey the extent of the damage.” The team may well have the detailed information now, but are keeping mum. www.stars-stripes.com/
When Marblehead sailor Bruce Dyson went up to collect the Leonard Munn Fowle Trophy Sunday evening, one of two overall trophies awarded at the conclusion of the Sailing World NOOD at Marblehead Race Week, it wasn’t the first time. Dyson captured an overall trophy at this 113-year-old event in both 1999 and 2001. But this year, the New England skipper was granted overall honors for a unique reason. http://sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=113
Andrew Campbell, 18, of San Diego, won the gold medal in the Laser fleet at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF Youth World Championship, hosted by Lunenberg YC in Nova Scotia, Canada. Campbell locked up his first place position before the last race was completed. He chose not to compete in his last race, and even with a DNC on his scorecard, his final score of 37 points was 14 points lower than that of his nearest competitor, Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic,
of Croatia.
Paige Railey, 15, of Clearwater, Fla., took home the bronze medal in the girls Byte fleet with a final score of 42 points.
On the 29er course, both the boys team of Alex Bernal and Tedd White, both 16, of Santa Barbara, Calif., and the girls team of Molly Carapiet, 18, and Mallory McCollum, 16, of Belvedere, Calif., finished fourth in their respective fleets.
Boardsailor Philip Muller, 16, of Fort Pierce, Fla., finished 17th in the
boy’s Mistral fleet. Ericka Kofkin, 16, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., finished 12th in the girl’s Mistral fleet.
https://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=1121
