Advertisement

Sailing World Weekly – 12 December 2005

Olympic Changes, Radial Worlds, Melges 24 Worlds, Fountaine Pajot, and more.

George Peet’s Volvo Baptism ABN AMRO’s 25-year-old trimmer George Peet, a Michigan native, says the opening night of the Volvo Ocean Race is one he’ll never forget. For both ABN AMRO boats-One and Two-the windy reaching conditions of Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race could not possibly been more favorable for their wide, powerful Juan Kouyoumdjian designs. After 19 days and more than 6,400 miles sailed, they were first and second into Cape Town, their boats comparatively “intact.” ABN One-under Mike Sanderson-strolled in with a 547-mile 24-hour record and ABN Two-under Sebastien Josse-a close-follow up with 538. There was hardly a day, said Sanderson, were they did anything less than 400 miles. It was an awesome performance by Sanderson and his crew, who clearly put many hours of preparation to good use, but the standout-award for the leg has to go to the “amateur” effort of ABN Two. Sure they have the advantage of hand-me-down development from the varsity team, but what they did with it is nothing short of astounding. A day after they pulled into Cape Town, we tracked down George Peet, the 25-year-old Detroit native and trimmer, to hear how it all went down. From our December 2005 issue. http://sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=40264&typeID=400&catID=587 U.S. Sailors Place Well At Laser Worlds FORTALEZA, Brazil (10 December 2005) – American Paige Railey is the new Laser Radial World Champion, cruising to victory in Fortaleza, Brazil with a race to spare. The 18 year old American completes an incredible first year on the ISAF Graded circuit, adding the World title to the European and ISAF Youth Worlds crowns, winning six out of the eight events she entered and topping the ISAF World Sailing Rankings. In the Open Championship Eduardo Couto gave the home fans a Brazilian victory to celebrate. American Anna Tunnicliffe took third in Women’s division and compatriot Brad Funk placed second in the Open division. http://www.2005laserworlds.com.br/ Melges 24 Worlds KEY LARGO, Florida (11 December 2005) – Seadon Wijsen (USA) won the three-race Pre-Worlds at the Corum Melges 24 World Championship in Key Largo, Florida, USA, but some of the Championship favorites put in ominous performances, despite not competing in all three races. Luna Rossa skipper and ISAF Match Racing World Champion James Spithill won in Key Largo back in November at the Carloan.com Melges 24 King’s Day Regatta/ Atlantic Coast Championship and won the first race of the Pre-Worlds before sitting out the next two. Second in race one was reining World Champion Philippe Ligot (FRA) with Italian Gabrio Zandona at the helm of European Champions Joe Fly finishing third. While both these teams sat out race two, Ligot came back in the final race to score a bullet. One hundred teams from nine countries have entered the Worlds, where racing proper gets underway on December 11th. http://www.2005corumm24worlds.com/ Rolex Farr 40 Trophy SYDNEY, Australia (11 December 2005) – After a patchy first day of the Rolex Farr 40 Trophy Series, Cydon skippered by Australian Leon Christianakis, has bounced back with an emphatic display of sailing on day two, with two wins and a third place, earning the coveted Boat of the Day award. However whilst Sunday may have belonged to Cydon, the Rolex Trophy looks to be Europe bound, with Italian Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino opening a substantial lead over his rivals in the overall pointscore. http://www.regattanews.com/event.asp?id=123 Volvo Race Update: Black Pearl Arrives in Cape Town Since 14 November, work on the Black Pearl has been non stop save for about four days to transport the boat to Cape Town. The repairs we had to make were extensive and subsequently, last Saturday, our designers have recommended additional reinforcements in the keel ram support structure, which have added to the list. Additional to these larger repairs, we had our own list of typical work like continuing to waterproof the boat, fine tuning the workings of the galley, improving the reliability of the instruments, reducing friction in sheaves, etc. www.volvooceanrace.com Don’t Get Tied Up By The String Rule Dick Rose explains that some of the trickiest rules are the ones that set the requirements for sailing the course. The problem in writing these rules is that they must work for the myriad course configurations that are used, for the many different methods that race committees use to signal the course, and for the variety of sailing instructions that describe courses and the procedures for signaling them. From our September 2002 issue. http://sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=201256&typeID=402&catID=595&exclude=

Advertisement
Advertisement