SailingXperience.com Sailing News

Great spring sailing in the Solent

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:40:11 +0100

Competitors in the 170-strong entry list enjoyed a perfect start to Warsash Sailing Club's Spring Series with glorious sunshine and a steady breeze on Sunday, 14 March.

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Emirates And Mascalzone Power On In Auckland

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:40:00 +0100

Emirates Team New Zealand and Mascalzone Latino both scored wins to solidify their top billing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland, whilst Artemis battled to a hard-fought win over TEAMORIGIN.
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Laser 4000 Newcomers' Trophy

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:26:22 +0100

New for 2010 national circuit
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Team building...Auckland style

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:06:00 +0100

Packed with protest flags, incidents and flogging sails at three marks of a four-leg course, this close-fought duel went ultimately to Artemis and her helmsman Terry Hutchinson on a series of umpire calls.

Asked to explain all that happened, Cayard simply said: “We should have had to pay for that (team building), but luckily the Brits paid for it for us!”

Britain’s skipper Ben Ainslie had attempted to gybe across the Artemis bow coming into the finish, Cayard said. “But it gave us an opportunity to come in and start a bit of a war with them. Terry did a great job managing the war. And then we had a bit on down there with the kite and everybody just got into it and somehow we got the win!”

The race was one of seven packed into a long, incident-filled day of racing on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour that that passed without breakdown, or damage to boats, sails or sailors. There was shifty breeze all day from 14 to 20 knots and ranging from the south to the southwest and Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio and his team miraculously squeezed in seven matches to complete the Round Robin.

Fortunes changed as TEAMORIGIN lost two races while Artemis won two. Gavin Brady, the Kiwi skipper of Mascalzone Latino Audi was also on a roll, winning two races, including one against his Italian competition Azzurra.

The racing completed the round robin, leaving Emirates Team New Zealand as the top seed, with a 6-1 record, Italy’s Mascalzone Latino Audi Team is second with 5-2. Tomorrow the pairings for the first elimination round are: 4th seed Azzurra vs. 5th seed Artemis; 3rd seed All4One vs. 6th seed TEAMORIGIN; 2nd seed Mascalzone Latino Audi Team vs. 7th seed ALEPH; 1st seed Emirates Team New Zealand vs. 8th seed Synergy.

Artemis starred in the snapshot highlight of the day as their veteran Kiwi mid-bowman David Brooke was swept overboard by a flogging jib sheet but never even got his feet wet. As the sheet hit him in the back, Brooke grabbed it and swung out over the water to be grabbed by his crewmates on the return swing.

Race One: Emirates Team New Zealand def. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 01:00 – Before the start, ETNZ’s Barker set up to the right of Karol Jablonski, on the Russian boat as they came up to the line on starboard but it was Jablonski who was bow out, and the Russians led as ETNZ tacked away. The breeze was 17 knots but shifty. Synergy, on port, led at the first cross, and pushed the Kiwis back to the right. The Russian boat led for the first two thirds of the leg but then Jablonski was slow to cover. Synergy sagged off on a big shift and the Kiwis were out of jail. Barker led around all marks, by as much as 1:53 at the second weather mark.

Race Two: Azzurra def. ALEPH, 01:39 – Bertrand Pacé steering the French boat ALEPH bailed out after an initial dialup and was chased by Francesco Bruni of Italy’s Azzurra team. They came back to the line with ALEPH trailing. A victory here would keep the Italians in contention for the second seed. Bruni went for the pin end at speed while Pacé tacked away to the right. The Italian skipper covered up the first leg in puffy, shifty 10-15 knot conditions but Pacé tenaciously kept it close, rounding the top mark just 12 seconds behind. ALEPH failed to make any inroads on the run and then lost a full minute on the second beat as light, puffy conditions favoured the boat on the left side.

Race Three: Artemis def. All4One, 00:22 – Sweden’s Artemis, with Paul Cayard as skipper and Terry Hutchinson on the wheel, seized control at the start, coming off the pin end into a big right-hand shift that boosted them to an early four boat length lead. The German/French boat All4One rounded the top mark four lengths astern but closed on the spinnaker run only lost ground getting the chute down and the jib up. Helmsman Sébastien Col sailed a good second beat and then made substantial gains on Artemis when favored by another big shift on the run to the finish but trailed by 22 seconds.

Race Four: Mascalzone Latino Audi def. TEAMORIGIN, 00:06 – A mano-a-mano confrontation 1 min 40 sec before the start, with both boats stalled and backing down on port, ended badly for Ben Ainslie and Britain’s TEAMORIGIN when Gavin Brady, and ML Audi were green-flagged on a British protest call. Brady sailed away to start on starboard at the committee end while Ainslie trailed, three boat lengths in his wake. The Kiwi skipper of the Italian boat opened a 32 second lead at the top mark but Ainslie kept the pressure on, whittling the margin down at every mark, and closing at the end until they were overlapped. This was the closest race of the regatta.

Race Five: Artemis def. TEAMORIGIN – TEAMORIGIN copped an initial penalty at the leeward mark, and cleared it, then got a flag against Artemis when Ainslie, on starboard, got inside the Swedish boat as it came into the top mark on port. On the run Ainslie led bow to stern but Hutchinson was on TEAMORIGIN’s port quarter and an attempt by Ainslie to gybe for the finish saw Artemis rounding up as she turned to keep clear and two flags against the British plus a red, signaling an immediate penalty turn. Game over.

Race Six: Mascalzone Latino Audi def. Azzurra, 00:13 – In the battle of the Italian contenders, Gavin Brady, at the helm of ML Audi, hooked Azzurra on starboard before the start, forcing Francesco Bruni to split away on port. Racing was very even. Azzurra did a long board out to the port layline and led at the top mark by five seconds. Brady went on the attack on the run and a flurry of protests were green-flagged before he gybed away on port to sail through Bruni’s lee and round the bottom gate ahead. Bruni kept it close but the next two legs were Brady’s.

Race Seven: All4One def. Synergy Russian Sailing Team – The German/French boat helmed by Frenchman Sébastien Col went into this race with the opportunity of a third seeding if they won and a sixth if they lost to the Russian boat skippered by Karol Jablonski. They earned a third seed, leading at every mark and winning by six boat lengths as the evening light faded on the Waitemata.

Provisional leaderboard after Flight Seven:

1. Emirates Team New Zealand, 6-1, 6 pts
2. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, 5-2, 5 pts
=3. All4One, 4-3, 4 pts
=3. Azzurra, 4-3, 4 pts
=3. Artemis, 4-3, 4 pts
6. TEAMORIGIN, 3-4, 3 pts
7. ALEPH Sailing Team, 2-5, 1 pts *
8. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 0-7, 0 pts

* Penalty point deducted

LIVE Sport Sailing 103.0 FM is featuring all-day live coverage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. On television, during the seven days of the round robin, TVNZ is carrying nightly reports on its sports news. From March 16, during the elimination rounds, TVNZ will feature nightly half-hour reports. For the finals on 20th and 21st March there will be live coverage of the racing from noon to 4:00pm.

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Team building...Auckland style

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:06:00 +0100

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Legenadary race between ARTEMIS vs TEAMORIGIN

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:45:00 +0100

It was a picture perfect start, with ARTEMIS to windward and the British team to leeward. It was clear that ARTEMIS wanted the right hand side but at the first cross, TEAMORIGIN was bow forward. By the time the teams reached the windward mark ARTEMIS had a narrow one boat length lead and a clean bear away set.

On the downwind, TEAMORIGIN was always close but the Swedish team kept the air clear to maintain the lead on the downwind leg, stretching the lead out to 84m. With the full tide running, just before the leeward mark the Brits managed to overrun ARTEMIS’ stern and incurred a penalty. Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy took advantage of the situation and swiftly tacked to executed their penalty turns while ARTEMIS headed to the other gate. As the teams headed back upwind, they were never far apart as ARTEMIS kept to the right side of the course. At the windward mark ARTEMIS had a slight shift and TEAMORIGIN were able to block the Swedes from rounding the mark, move ahead and this meant another penalty for the Swedish team.

The Swedish team kept perspective and the pressure on as they roared down the final leg of the course. With TEAMORIGIN out in front and ARTEMIS a penalty owing, the stakes were high. Then on the final stretch Hutchinson seamlessly maneuvered ARTEMIS off the stern wake of TEAMORIGIN and the teams gybed simultaneously, the Brits onto port and ARTEMIS into a strong leeward position. There was plenty of drama as the British team fouled the Swedes and the umpires issued two sequential penalties which translated into a win for ARTEMIS.

Commenting on the race, Helmsman Terry Hutchinson said: “We battled the whole way round, had the lead, lost the lead and got it back again. It was a full team effort. Win or lose, it was a very good team building race because we came back into them, we never quit, we just kept battling along.”

It was a valuable point for ARTEMIS and meant a three way tie for third place at the end of Round Robin 1. Tomorrow, ARTEMIS will race AZZURRA in the first race of Elimination Series.

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Legenadary race between ARTEMIS vs TEAMORIGIN

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:45:00 +0100

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Recap Race 3 - ARTEMIS vs ALL4ONE

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:44:00 +0100

In Race 3, ARTEMIS lined up against Franco-German team ALL4ONE skippered by Jochen Schumann. Coming in from the port side, ARTEMIS led ALL4ONE into the first of two dialups for what was to be an uncontested start with ALL4ONE heading out to the left from the pin end of the line while ARTEMIS’ Helmsman Terry Hutchinson had a clear start in the middle of the line. ARTEMIS picked up the first right hand shift immediately off the line and powered ahead of ALL4ONE to win the first cross. It was a smooth tack set at the top mark and ARTEMIS led by 24 seconds into a busy downwind leg with mast man David ‘Brookie’ Brooke (NZL) being swept over the side on one of the many gybes. Quite amazingly, the seasoned Kiwi held on to the jib sheets and swung back onboard without missing a beat.

On the second upwind leg, ARTMEMIS stretched out their lead to 37 seconds at the top mark before heading downwind to the finish. Then a big shift off the North shore on the final downwind leg meant that both teams could lay the finish line and ARTEMIS finished 22 seconds ahead of ALL4ONE.

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Recap Race 3 - ARTEMIS vs ALL4ONE

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:44:00 +0100

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Cayard Reports from Auckland - Louis Vuitton Trophy

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:29:00 +0100

We had a great day today on Artemis. Things really went our way and it was very satisfying. First, we had a good tussle against ALL4ONE. We had the left off the line and tacked soon there after. We got good pressure from the left and were ahead at the first cross. From there we just worked the shifts, and there were plenty of them today, to stretch out to a 5 length lead. We were fairly comfortable at the last windward mark and then down the final run the wind almost died for us and shift 80 degrees. We almost lost the race on this wierdness but managed to hang on for the win.

Our second match of the day, ranks right up there with some of the all time races I have had in 20 years of racing in this class of boat. Neither boat was ever more than 50 meters ahead, there were 4 or 5 lead changes and 3 penalties. Near the end of the first run, the Brits got too close to us and got a penalty. But we sailed them past the gate and they were able to get the penalty erased by tacking to get back to the mark. The second windward leg was a real battle with them slightly ahead at the outset and us overhauling them by having better current out to the right. Then right at the top mark, I made a bad tactical error and this allowed TeamOrigin to get a penalty on us and the lead. Terry and the guys did a nice job down the run to keep it close and we even got a bit of help from the Brits who were a bit greedy. We got overlapped with them near the finish and they fouled us and got a double penalty as it was race determining.

The best thing about that race wasn’t that we won. The best part was the experience that we shared as a team. There were so many situations, most we handled well, a few we made errors on, but we can learn more from that race than a week of training on our own.

There were 6 other matches out there today and plenty of action. Team New Zealand won their only race and the other team that did well in the end was Mascalzone Latino who finished the round second.

We ended up in the three way ties for third but ALL4ONE had beaten Mascalzone Latino in the round so that moved them to third and we lost to Azzurra so that put them in fourth and us in 5th.

Scores after the round robin:

TNZ 6 wins

Mascalzone Latino 5 wins

All4One, Azzurra, and Artemis on 4 wins

Origin on 3 wins

Aleph 1 win

Synergy with 0.

Tomorrow Artemis takes on Azzurra in the first match of the knockout series. It is a bit complicated but essentially, the two lowest ranked loosers….ie, the two lowest ranked teams (coming out of the round robin) that lose tomorrow, are eliminated. The two highest ranked winners in tomorrow’s races will move directly to the semi finals and the 4 in the middle race a 2 out of 3 series in which the winners move onto the semi finals.

I know you probably cant understand this but I haven’t figured out how to explain it yet.

For complete results or for live streaming of the racing and other features go to www.louisvuittontrophy.com orhttp://artemisracing.com/pages/lvtv

Paul

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Cayard Reports from Auckland - Louis Vuitton Trophy

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:29:00 +0100

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Lasers at Stokes Bay

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:19:42 +0100

First Spring qualifier
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Koh Samui's festival of sailing & fun

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:07:59 +0100

Racing off Chaweng Beach in June
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St David's Day Regatta

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:03:12 +0100

Frosty morning at Chelmarsh
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Video: Tom Ehman brings the America's Cup back to New Zealand

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:01:03 +0100

Tom Ehman brings the America's Cup back to New Zealand. Auckland, 16 March 2010. Video copyright TV New Zealand

Published by Valencia Sailing via SailingXperience

48th Hamble Warming Pan

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:55:44 +0100

Fireflys, National 12s, Foxers and Merlins
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Emirates Team NZ leads LV Trophy Auckland regatta, Mascalzone now second

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:46:46 +0100

[Source: Louis Vuitton Trophy] "That was a good team building exercise!" With those words Paul Cayard, skipper of the Swedish boat Artemis summed up their Louis Vuitton Trophy race today with Britain's TEAMORIGIN, one that was more akin to a bar brawl.

Packed with protest flags, incidents and flogging sails at three marks of a four-leg course, this close-fought duel went ultimately to Artemis and her helmsman Terry Hutchinson on a series of umpire calls.

Asked to explain all that happened, Cayard simply said: “We should have had to pay for that (team building), but luckily the Brits paid for it for us!”

Britain’s skipper Ben Ainslie had attempted to gybe across the Artemis bow coming into the finish, Cayard said. “But it gave us an opportunity to come in and start a bit of a war with them. Terry did a great job managing the war. And then we had a bit on down there with the kite and everybody just got into it and somehow we got the win!”

The race was one of seven packed into a long, incident-filled day of racing on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour that that passed without breakdown, or damage to boats, sails or sailors. There was shifty breeze all day from 14 to 20 knots and ranging from the south to the southwest and Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio and his team miraculously squeezed in seven matches to complete the Round Robin.

Fortunes changed as TEAMORIGIN lost two races while Artemis won two. Gavin Brady, the Kiwi skipper of Mascalzone Latino Audi was also on a roll, winning two races, including one against his Italian competition Azzurra.

The racing completed the round robin, leaving Emirates Team New Zealand as the top seed, with a 6-1 record, Italy’s Mascalzone Latino Audi Team is second with 5-2. Tomorrow the pairings for the first elimination round are: 4th seed Azzurra vs. 5th seed Artemis; 3rd seed All4One vs. 6th seed TEAMORIGIN; 2nd seed Mascalzone Latino Audi Team vs. 7th seed ALEPH; 1st seed Emirates Team New Zealand vs. 8th seed Synergy.

Artemis starred in the snapshot highlight of the day as their veteran Kiwi mid-bowman David Brooke was swept overboard by a flogging jib sheet but never even got his feet wet. As the sheet hit him in the back, Brooke grabbed it and swung out over the water to be grabbed by his crewmates on the return swing.

Race One: Emirates Team New Zealand def. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 01:00 – Before the start, ETNZ’s Barker set up to the right of Karol Jablonski, on the Russian boat as they came up to the line on starboard but it was Jablonski who was bow out, and the Russians led as ETNZ tacked away. The breeze was 17 knots but shifty. Synergy, on port, led at the first cross, and pushed the Kiwis back to the right. The Russian boat led for the first two thirds of the leg but then Jablonski was slow to cover. Synergy sagged off on a big shift and the Kiwis were out of jail. Barker led around all marks, by as much as 1:53 at the second weather mark.

Race Two: Azzurra def. ALEPH, 01:39 – Bertrand Pacé steering the French boat ALEPH bailed out after an initial dialup and was chased by Francesco Bruni of Italy’s Azzurra team. They came back to the line with ALEPH trailing. A victory here would keep the Italians in contention for the second seed. Bruni went for the pin end at speed while Pacé tacked away to the right. The Italian skipper covered up the first leg in puffy, shifty 10-15 knot conditions but Pacé tenaciously kept it close, rounding the top mark just 12 seconds behind. ALEPH failed to make any inroads on the run and then lost a full minute on the second beat as light, puffy conditions favoured the boat on the left side.

Race Three: Artemis def. All4One, 00:22 – Sweden’s Artemis, with Paul Cayard as skipper and Terry Hutchinson on the wheel, seized control at the start, coming off the pin end into a big right-hand shift that boosted them to an early four boat length lead. The German/French boat All4One rounded the top mark four lengths astern but closed on the spinnaker run only lost ground getting the chute down and the jib up. Helmsman Sébastien Col sailed a good second beat and then made substantial gains on Artemis when favored by another big shift on the run to the finish but trailed by 22 seconds.

Race Four: Mascalzone Latino Audi def. TEAMORIGIN, 00:06 - A mano-a-mano confrontation 1 min 40 sec before the start, with both boats stalled and backing down on port, ended badly for Ben Ainslie and Britain’s TEAMORIGIN when Gavin Brady, and ML Audi were green-flagged on a British protest call. Brady sailed away to start on starboard at the committee end while Ainslie trailed, three boat lengths in his wake. The Kiwi skipper of the Italian boat opened a 32 second lead at the top mark but Ainslie kept the pressure on, whittling the margin down at every mark, and closing at the end until they were overlapped. This was the closest race of the regatta.

Race Five: Artemis def. TEAMORIGIN – TEAMORIGIN copped an initial penalty at the leeward mark, and cleared it, then got a flag against Artemis when Ainslie, on starboard, got inside the Swedish boat as it came into the top mark on port. On the run Ainslie led bow to stern but Hutchinson was on TEAMORIGIN’s port quarter and an attempt by Ainslie to gybe for the finish saw Artemis rounding up as she turned to keep clear and two flags against the British plus a red, signaling an immediate penalty turn. Game over.

Race Six: Mascalzone Latino Audi def. Azzurra, 00:13 - In the battle of the Italian contenders, Gavin Brady, at the helm of ML Audi, hooked Azzurra on starboard before the start, forcing Francesco Bruni to split away on port. Racing was very even. Azzurra did a long board out to the port layline and led at the top mark by five seconds. Brady went on the attack on the run and a flurry of protests were green-flagged before he gybed away on port to sail through Bruni’s lee and round the bottom gate ahead. Bruni kept it close but the next two legs were Brady’s.

Race Seven: All4One def. Synergy Russian Sailing Team – The German/French boat helmed by Frenchman Sébastien Col went into this race with the opportunity of a third seeding if they won and a sixth if they lost to the Russian boat skippered by Karol Jablonski. They earned a third seed, leading at every mark and winning by six boat lengths as the evening light faded on the Waitemata.

Provisional leaderboard after Flight Seven:
1. Emirates Team New Zealand, 6-1, 6 pts
2. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, 5-2, 5 pts
=3. All4One, 4-3, 4 pts
=3. Azzurra, 4-3, 4 pts
=3. Artemis, 4-3, 4 pts
6. TEAMORIGIN, 3-4, 3 pts
7. ALEPH Sailing Team, 2-5, 1 pts *
8. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 0-7, 0 pts

* Penalty point deducted

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Radials at Stokes Bay

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:36:32 +0100

122 helms for first qualifier of 2010
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Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland day 8

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:24:14 +0100

Double defeat for TEAMORIGIN
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LV Trophy Day 8: Penalties Galore

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:40:00 +0100

A cracking albeit long day’s racing, the competition just gets hotter. Matthew Sheahan reports

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