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Tybee 500, Swedish Match Tour Toscana Elba Cup Begin Today

Light Winds Forecast for Start of Tybee 500

Grand Prix Sailor is a 13-year-old racing news publication of Sailing World Magazine (http://https://www.sailingworld.com/).TYBEE 500The cancellation of the Worrell 1000 in April left a group of hard-core beach cat racers in the unfortunate position of being all kitted up with no place to go. Luckily, there’s an outlet for all that pent-up energy. The Tybee 500, a 526.1-mile, six-leg race that begins off Islamorada in South Florida today, and ends on the beach at Tybee Island, Ga. Twenty-seven teams are entered, including the winners of the last two Worrell 1000s, Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston.The Tybee 500 is open to 18 to 20-foot long production catamarans, and the entry list includes teams sailing with Inter 20s, Hobie 20s. Nacra 6.0s, and a Javelin II. All of the leg starts are LeMans-style, with the exception of Monday’s off Islamorada, where, as the website www.catsailor.com explains, “There is simply no beach.”The forecast for the waters off South Florida for the first few days of racing calls for a ridge of high pressure through Wednesday. The fleet should be dealing with light southeasterlies most of the way up the Florida coastline. To follow the racing, check http://www.catsailor.com, which will be providing images, updates, and coverage of each start.HIGH SCHOOL SAILING-MALLORY TROPHYThe East Coast took a step toward ending the Pacific Coast district’s dominance of high school sailing, placing a team on the Mallory Trophy podium for the first time in five years. But the PCISA still claimed high school sailing’s doublehanded, two-division fleet racing championship, adding second and fourth for good measure. San Diego’s Point Loma HS dominated the regatta, winning A division by 34 points and B division by 28. The final point difference between Point Loma and second place University of San Diego HS was a stunning 86 points. Toms River HS South, led by A division skipper and team founder Reed Johnson, was third, just 4 points out of second. Newport Harbor HS and St. George’s School rounded out the top five. As impressive a performance as this was by the West Coast schools, it was actually a notch below what they’d done the previous four years, when they claimed first through fourth in the 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 Mallory Regattas.The regatta was hosted by Dartmouth College, utilizing its fleet of 20 Club Juniors. Saturday featured sunny skies and a 10- to 18-knot northerly. An 8- to 15-knot southeasterly breeze showed up for Sunday’s racing. Fourteen races were sailed in each division.Members of the winning Point Loma team included Adam Roberts, Graham Biehl, Erik Oberg, Parker Shinn, Melanie Roberts, Bryan Rigby, and D. Richards.Results (Team, A Division Score, B Division Score, total)1. Point Loma HS, 57, 56, 113; 2, Univ. of San Diego HS, 106, 93, 199; 3, Toms River HS South, 119, 84, 203, 4. Newport Harbor HS, 108, 114, 222; 5. St. George’s School, 91, 134, 225; 6, Tabor Academy, 116, 136, 252; 7, Jesuit HS, 145, 114, 259; 8, Corona Del Mar HS, 123, 153, 276; 9. Monsignor Donovan HS, 166, 124, 290; 10. Marin Catholic, 140, 158, 298. For complete results: www.highschoolsailingusa.org/Nationals%20Results/03MalloryResults.htmMATCH RACING FOR THE BIG MONEYOn the island of Elba, once the training ground for the Prada and Mascalzone Latino AC challenges, competitors on the Swedish Match Grand-Prix Sailing Tour are gearing up for the start of the 2003 Toscana Elba Cup today. The event’s purse is 206,500 Euros (US$239,414.11), with 77,500 ($89,859.10) going to the overall winner. Twelve teams will be racing the IMX 40s this week, including Jes Gram-Hansen, of Denmark and his Team Victory Lane. Gram-Hansen is the tour leader. Looking to displace him is his countryman Jesper Radich, James Spithill, third on the tour rankings, Chris Law, of England, Ed Baird’s Team Musto, Karol Jablonski, of Poland, Magnus Holmberg, of Sweden, Andy Beadsworth, of England, and Luc Pillot and Sebastien Destramau, both of France. Paolo Cian is the only Italian on the roster.In today’s first flight Beadsworth squares off against James Spithill, Holmberg lines up against Radich and Sebastien Destramau, takes on Gram-Hansen. Race organizers anticipate completing five flights today. The second half of the draw will race on Tuesday, with the top four from each group advancing to Wednesday’s quarterfinal rounds. http://www.swedishmatchtour.com.PUTTING THE “O” IN ORMAYesterday, the 60-foot tris of the Offshore Racing Multihull Association set off from Cherbourg, France, for the Challenge Mondial Assistance Race, a 2,734-miler down the Atlantic Coast, bound for the finish in Rimini, Italy, in the Med. Last night, the 12 teams were “pebble hopping” along the coast and are now well offshore, but this morning the race has its first retirement-Thomas Coville’s Sodebo.According to race organizers, the titanium shaft of the jack that controls the rake of the solent (foresail) broke at deck level this morning. “The boat was going flat out last night and after heading the fleet it feels like treason,” Coville told race headquarters in a radio interview. “It was while sailing tack for tack with Belgacom that Sodebo suffered the damage, a problem that could well have caused the dismasting of the trimaran. The mast is currently held up by the trinquette stay and the halyard gennaker to make up for the breakage of this principal stay. I’m surprised, as there was no strain on the broken piece at all. It must be a question of fatigue. It’s a miracle that we didn’t lose the mast but without a solent, things could be very complicated.”Today’s 1200 GMT position report has Lalou Roucayrol’s Banque Populaire, of France, tearing south, leading the fleet, and averaging 16 knots with a .5-mile lead over Jean-Luc Nelias and the crew of Belgacom, of Belgium. For photos from the start and updated reports from the boats, http://www.challenge-mondialassistance.com/uk/FROM, AROUND, AND BACK TO BERMUDAAlan Paris, of Bermuda, skipper of the Open 40 BTC Velocity finish his Around Alone adventure yesterday after 202d,11h,9m52s. Paris becomes the first Bermudian to achieve a solo circumnavigation and takes fifth place overall in Class 2.”My most beautiful moment was rounding Cape Horn,” Paris told reporters at post-finish press conference in Newport, R.I. “It felt like I was in a place I shouldn’t be, it was frightening and stunning at the same time. If you’ve been down there you’ll know…”The last remaining skipper on the racecourse is Derek Hatfield on Spirit of Canada, who is currently enjoying a fast passage in the Trades, but is nearing the Doldrums. http://www.aroundalone.comWILSON TROPHYTeam racing’s most storied trophy was claimed by the New Forest Pirates over the weekend. Sailing as GBR 2 in the February’s ISAF World Championships in Auckland, the team was precluded from competing in the final four because GBR 1 had a better overall record and the regatta rules stated only one team per country could make the semifinals. This time around, however, no such rule applied-four British and four American teams made the quarterfinal round-and the New Forest Pirates won the Wilson Trophy for the second straight year. The team they beat 3-0 in the finals was none other than the reigning ISAF World Champions, the American Whishbone team. www.wksc.org.ukJ/24 NORTH AMERICANSThe J/24 North Americans begins May 12 in the Mexican town of Valle de Bravo, about three hours outside of Mexico City. This will mark the first time the event has been held in Mexico and will give Mexican J/24 sailors a chance to introduce fellow racers to one of the best-kept secrets in Mexico. The lake that the racers will be sailing on was formed as part of a hydroelectric project in 1946. Since then, the surrounding area has become a vacation getaway for people who live in Mexico City and the hotbed of Mexico’s J/24 fleet. For results, see http://www.j24mex.com/j242003/home.html2003 ARC This year’s Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) will boast the highest level of entries yet, say organizers after closing the entry list at 225 last week. The rally, which starts from the Canary Islands on Nov. 23, 2003 and finishes in St.Lucia, has had over 200 entries for the past five years. Originally intended as a safe way for small cruisers and those unfamiliar with Atlantic crossings to get to the Caribbean by sailing in company with others, the ARC has grown to become a full-blown “event.” Boats participating in this year’s rally will include a racing class with two Volvo 60s, a Sydney 60, and four Farr 65s, as well as Team GBR head Peter Harrison’s new 115-foot cruising ketch, and team Mascalzone Latino owner Vincenzo Onarato’s Swan 65.The 2,700-mile passage will take most of the yachts between 18 and 21 days. You can follow the action at: http://www.worldcruising.com/arcGrand 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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