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Stamm Nears Newport

Bobst Group-Armor Lux Less Than 500 Miles from Finish

Grand Prix Sailor is a 13-year-old racing news publication of Sailing World Magazine (http://https://www.sailingworld.com/).AROUND ALONEGrand Prix Sailor correspondents saw crew gear emblazoned with “Bobst Group-Armor Lux” this morning outside a greasy spoon in Newport, which means the Around Alone fleet leader can’t be too far away now. As of 9:00 a.m. Monday, Bernard Stamm and his Open 60 Bobst Group-Armor Lux were 464 miles from Newport. “The weather for the next few days is anything but settled,” says race scribe Brian Hancock on the AA website. “But at this point it looks likely that he will arrive during daylight hours on Wednesday.” “At night, it’s on with the warm gear, as there’s a cold feel to the air,” writes Stamm in his latest press release. “Tomorrow evening, it will start to really get cold. There’s really a huge difference between the Bermuda high-pressure zone, the Gulf Stream current, which I’ll be leaving behind, and the Labrador current, which comes right down. That’s why, even if Newport isn’t that far to the north, they sometimes have incredible snowstorms, and that’s also why the weather can be so complicated in this area. In half a day, I’ll lose between 10 and 15 degrees. You were praying for the cold and now, you’ve got it…”Thanks to a long winter and a wet spring, and the fact that it’s only April, there are very few boats in the water in Newport to welcome race finishers and carry. If someone in the area has a powerboat in the water or ready to go in and wants to help out, call race organizers at 401-841-8862. http://www.aroundalone.com For those who are in Newport, there’ll be an Ocean Planet Bluegrass Jam at Christie’s of Newport on Wednesday, May 14 at 8 p.m. Around Alone sailor (and bluegrass fan) Bruce Schwab will be there with guitar in hand.GARY JOBSON“Yesterday I was diagnosed with lymphoma,” wrote Gary Jobson, in an email sent to many dozens of friends and associates last Thursday. Jobson, the well-known ESPN commentator and Editor at Large for Sailing World, Cruising World, and a regular contributor to Grand Prix Sailor added, “I will be receiving chemotherapy for the next six to eight months to battle back from this disease. I am going to be in a quiet period now for the next ten days. Apparently the treatments are hard.”Gary called us this morning to approve an upcoming Sailing World article and admitted that he felt pretty weak and had had a tough weekend after his chemotherapy. “But it’ll be good for you,” he said. “Even though I can’t get out and speak, I can write.”It’s a measure of how random life can be that someone who’s given so much of himself to an important cause–in this case as chair for 11 years of the national Leukemia Cup regatta series to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society–gets diagnosed with one of the diseases he’s been helping to fight. We join with sailors everywhere in wishing Gary a speedy recovery.For those unfamiliar with lymphoma, and other blood cancers, spend a few minutes at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/hm_lls, and the Lymphoma Research Foundation, http://www.lymphoma.orgCANADA’S CUPThe Canada’s Cup may well be the least-known important regatta in North America. Named for a boat, rather than the country, much the same as the America’s Cup, it’s a match race format event that’s lately been held approximately every other year for the past 20 years. The inaugural race was held for a trophy donated by the City of Toledo in support of a challenge by the Lincoln Park Club of Chicago to the Royal Canadian Yacht Club of Toronto. The 1896 series resulted in the yacht Canada winning two out of the three races. Bayview YC in Detroit, Mich. re-initiated the series in 1972, with a successful challenge by the IOR Two Ton Dynamite, skippered by E. Lloyd Ecclestone. Since then, the Cup has been held sporadically and has shuttled back and forth between the Royal Canadian YC and Bayview YC. It was easy to miss the last Canada’s Cup, as hard-fought as it was, because the event was in mid-stride when terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, D.C. in September of 2001. Bob Hughes’ Farr 40 Heartbreaker represented Bayview YC, sailed against Defiant, helmed by Terry McLaughlin and representing the Royal Canadian YC. The American team lost 5 races to 7.This year, unable to field an entry, the Bayview YC resigned as the Challenger of Record and transferred the right to challenge to Hughes and his Heartbreaker team, who will represent Hughes’ home club, the Macatawa Bay YC in Macatawa, Mich. “The Royal Canadian YC is now finalizing naming the Macatawa Bay YC as Challenger of Record,” says Hughes. “We are committed to trying to hold challenger trials for all comers. If no trials are held Heartbreaker will work up through its own intensive match racing training program and go to Toronto Sept. 27 as the American Challenger and bring the Cup back to Lake Michigan for the first time in nearly 100 years.”The defender of the Canada’s Cup will be chosen at the Canada’s Cup Defender Trials beginning June 13. We’ll be following that and Team Heartbreaker‘s quest for the Cup this summer and will keep you up to speed on this event.JACKS SLAY GIANTS Roy Disney’s 77-foot Reichel/Pugh-designed Pyewacket regained it’s Newport to Ensenada Race record, sailing the 125-mile course in 10h:44m:54s and beating the brand-new Alan Andrews 77 Alchemy, built for Mary and Richard Compton, by seven and-a-half minutes. The new 77-footer led for most of the race, but an early jibe by the Pyewacket crew paid off and gave them monohull line honor and the record.But the fast pace of the sleds wasn’t enough to beat the overall winner of the 461-boat strong Tommy Bahama Newport Ensenada Race, the Cal 25 Valkyrie, skippered by Don Albright, commodore of the South Shore YC in Newport Beach. And Pyewacket didn’t take line honors either. That honor went to the 52-foot catamaran Afterburner, skippered by Bill Gibbs, which finished in 9h:40m:21s.www.nosa.org.PETER JOHNSONThe World Sailing Speed Record Council has solved a lot of barroom arguments since it became the sole authority for the ratification of ocean records in 1989. Credit for that is largely due to Sir Peter Johnson, who retired as chairman of the Council because of ill health at the WSSR General Meeting held April 26. Johnson had been vice chairman since 1989, and Chairman since 2000.If you’ve never been to the World Sailing Speed Record Council website, it’s worth the visit. http://www.sailspeedrecords.comBACARDI INVITATIONAL **High winds cancelled the first scheduled day of sailing in Royal Bermuda YC’s Bacardi Invitational Race Week. With gusts topping 30 knots, the committee decided to wait a day to get started and not risk serious damage or injury this early in the event.”It’s a beautiful but windy day here in Bermuda.” commented RBYC Commodore Les Crane on Sunday. “I’m sailing on an Etchells in this regatta, and we would have had some great sailing out on Great Sound, but something somewhere would have broken. The fellows on the IODs would have risked almost certain breakdowns, too; and we are all sailing nearly all of the boats in these classes on the island. We don’t have any good replacement boats should one break a mast or a boom.”Racing now starts at 1100hrs on Monday. The scheduled spare day Wednesday will be used to make up racing missed on Sunday. RBYC Race Week concludes on Friday 2nd May. –Talbot Wilsonhttp://www.rbyc.bm/regattas/IRW2003/index.aspBOATU.S. SANTA MARIA CUP**Five of the world’s top-10 ranked women sailors are among the competitors set to duel May 28-31 in the match race series, the BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup, hosted by Eastport YC. Sponsored by Boat Owners Association of the United States, this year’s BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup takes on added significance as a dress rehearsal for the 2004 Women’s World Match Race Championship, which will be held in lieu of the Cup in 2004. Those accepting invitations to race include: Marie Bjorling #1 (Sweden); Marie Fauré #4 (France); Giulia Conti #6 (Italy); Klaartje Zuiderbaan #7 (Netherlands); defending World Woman’s Match Race Champion Liz Baylis #8 (USA). Others accepting include 1997 Cup winner Betsy Alison #11 (USA); Deborah Willits #17 (USA); Paula Lewin # 26 (Bermuda) and Carol Cronin #34 (USA). Björling won the 2002 BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup.Starting Wednesday morning May 28 and finishing with the final matches on Saturday, May 31, racers compete with crews of three on J/22s in a series of round robin duels. Race updates will be posted at http://www.santamariacup.org and http://www.BoatUS.com/women.Grand Prix Sailor is compiled by the editors of Sailing World magazine. If you’d like to subscribe, see http://https://www.sailingworld.com/ Contributing Editors: Tony Bessinger (tony.bessinger@sailingworld.com), Dave Reed (dave.reed@sailingworld.com), Stuart Streuli (stuart.streuli@sailingworld.com), John Burnham (john.burnham@sailingworld.com)

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