Sailing Talk - Podcasts for the Racing Sailor

Sailing Talk Podcast #6: Ian Walker reveals the pressures of being a skipper in the Volvo Ocean Race

2009-05-12T20:29:00.001+01:00

This is the latest of a weekly series of Sailing Talk podcasts, where professional sailing journos from the UK, Justin Chisholm and Andy Rice, share their views on the latest happenings in the racing world.

Here's the link to iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=53638217&id=311511291

Any comments welcome.

Justin Chisholm, www.OffshoreRules.com
Andy Rice, www.SailJuice.com

Sailing Talk Podcast #5: Chris Larson talks J/24 Worlds and credit crunch issues in Pro Sailing

2009-05-05T15:46:00.000+01:00

This is the latest of a new series of Sailing Talk podcasts, where professional sailing journos from the UK, Justin Chisholm and Andy Rice, share their views on the latest happenings in the racing world.

Here's the link to iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=53638217&id=311511291

Any comments welcome.

Justin Chisholm, www.OffshoreRules.com
Andy Rice, www.SailJuice.com

Sailing Talk Podcast #4: Chris Nicholson looking to get back on Puma Racing in the Volvo Ocean Race

2009-04-29T15:41:00.000+01:00

Sailing Talk Podcast #3: Melges 32 Racing, and Richard Estaugh's big funeral gathering

2009-04-22T17:13:00.002+01:00

© Carlo Borlenghi

This is the latest of a new series of Sailing Talk podcasts, where professional sailing journos from the UK, Justin Chisholm and Andy Rice, share their views on the latest happenings in the racing world.

Here's the link to iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=53638217&id=311511291

Any comments welcome.

Justin Chisholm, www.OffshoreRules.com
Andy Rice, www.SailJuice.com

Sailing Talk Podcast #2: New kids dominate Olympic sailing in Palma, and the sad death of dinghy champion Richard Estaugh

2009-04-16T13:33:00.000+01:00

This is the second of a new series of Sailing Talk podcasts, where professional sailing journos from the UK, Justin Chisholm and Andy Rice, share their views on the latest happenings in the racing world.

Here's the link to iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=53638217&id=311511291

Any comments welcome.

Justin Chisholm, www.OffshoreRules.com
Andy Rice, www.SailJuice.com

Sailing Talk Podcast #1: America's Cup ruling, Volvo Race in Rio, Princess Sofia Trophy News

2009-04-06T19:02:00.013+01:00

This is the first of a new series of Sailing Talk podcasts, where professional sailing journos from the UK, Justin Chisholm and Andy Rice, share their views on the latest happenings in the racing world.

It's about 25 minutes long, no fluff, lots of insight and opinion, and well worth downloading to your Ipod. But then we would say that, wouldn't we!

Here's the link to iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=53638217&id=311511291

We hope you enjoy it. Any comments welcome.

Justin Chisholm, www.OffshoreRules.com
Andy Rice, www.SailJuice.com

2008-11-25T11:03:00.003Z

You might be looking for SailJuice.com!

Welcome to my OLD Blog!

Chances are you found this site via a search engine such as Google, as this blog still seems to be doing well in the search rankings.

We've actually moved house, so try heading for www.SailJuice.com instead, where you'll see our new website.

Our blog is now at: SailJuiceBlog.com

Regards

Andy Rice, Editor, www.SailJuice.com

P.S. To see if you think SailJuice can make you a better sailor (and we guarantee it will!), have a look here: SailJuice Benefits Page

2007-12-21T11:24:00.000Z

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

The best blogging techniques.
How to get traffic to your blog.
How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

2007-12-20T11:26:00.000Z

“If something goes wrong, women still think about it a week later. For men, it's easy to go to the bar, get a beer and get over it. It's done. Women have more emotions and they can spend a long time thinking about it….”

Phewww! Imagine saying that about the fairer sex. We blokes would be hung, drawn and quartered for uttering such blasphemies. But it wasn’t me, guv! It was Marcelien de Koning, three-time 470 World Champion (that's her on the right, with crew Lobke Berkhout), who lays out her “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” theories in my latest SailingTalk Xpress interview.

Click here to sign up and read the full interview. In the past few months we’ve profiled many of the best sailors in the world, including Darren Bundock, Howie Hamlin, Simon Daubney and Stevie Morrison.

Marcelien, by the way, is heavily engaged in the politics of Olympic sailing too. As if full-time Olympic campaigning wasn't enough for a girl to do, Marcelien also chairs the recently formed ISAF Athletes Commission, so she has been paying close attention to the fall-out from the Olympic Events vote in Estoril in early November.

She wants to see greater athlete representation on the ISAF Council. Currently there are no current athletes on the 40-person committee, something Marcelien hopes will change very soon.

But this interview is not about politics. It’s about team work. Actually, when you think about it, maybe team work is a form of politics! Funnily enough, when I called Marcelien she was making her way from the Netherlands to Germany for a weekend out in sub-zero conditions with Lobke and their coach, with the prospect of sleeping in a tent.

The idea, apparently, is to toughen the girls up. Whether or not the coach still had his job at the end of the weekend, I haven't found out.

Click here to sign up and read the full interview.

2007-11-29T11:31:00.000Z

Carolijn Brouwer found time from her busy Tornado training schedule in Sydney to write to SailJuice with her views on what happened two weeks ago in Estoril. You could read the frustration between the lines of what Laser Radial sailor Laura Baldwin wrote a few days ago. Here, Carolijn is much more explicit with her feelings. By the way, a quick reminder that Carolijn finished runner-up in the Tornado World Championships this year, showing the men the way round the track in the manliest of weather conditions. So this is a girl who knows what she’s talking about.

"Dear Andy

I was gutted after the ISAF meeting in Estoril. I felt empty, confused and especially useless. I am a member of the Events Committee but at this moment I truly don’t really know what I’m doing there and whether it has any meaning.

Of course I’m very disappointed ISAF kicked out the Multihull and is taking a huge step backwards in sailing by not including the High Performance dinghy for Women. They are too scared to take a possible risk and move forward.

But most of all, I am disappointed about the Events selection procedure. The members of the Events Committee have been chosen by their MNAs because they are the so called experts in the issues/areas that involve Events, including Olympic Games and Olympic Event Selection.

The normal procedure is that the voting on respective issues that involve Events is done on our Committee and we then put them forward as a recommendation to Council. Council usually accepts our recommendation.

This time however they just chucked it out the window and started all over again. So, what are we actually doing there as an Events Committee if our expertise is not being used anyway?

This is really disappointing and to be honest I don’t understand what ISAF is doing. It’s frustrating being part of it, and having the feeling that you are completely useless. It’s not about the sailors, it’s about the blazers. So many people have told me already, don’t try and understand, it’s a waste of time. And I still keep thinking I can make a difference in there.

The past week I have been on the verge of resigning from the Committee. But that would be giving up. We need more active sailors on the committees, not less.

I have a very straightforward, simple and symmetric opinion of how easily we can have only ten events for sailing in the Olympics and still cover the whole range that our beautiful sport has to offer:

* Singlehanded Men/Women
* Doublehanded Men/Women (High Performance)
* Multihull Men/ Women
* Windsurfer Men/Women
* Keelboat Men/Women (matchracing)

It doesn’t have to be difficult, it can be easy.

And regarding the Women's situation. This might sound a little contradictory with what I just wrote above, but it’s just a matter of time. I am more in favour of 6:4 than 5:5. If you look at any Olympic sport out there at the moment there are more men than women.

I wonder whether we will find enough women to fill all the Olympic classes if we go 50:50. And I’m afraid if we do, this might bring the women’s level in sailing down, and that is the last thing we want.

So an easy solution to this would be consider the Open events. Not all the events have to be open but I definetely think some events CAN and should be open. There are many people that think the Tornado is not suitable as an Open Event discipline.

I think I’m the living proof that that is not entirely true.

But I can live with that because in my eyes there are more disciplines out there that are equally and maybe more suitable for men and women. We are talking Multihull here, not Tornado. So the F18 or any other catamaran class could be more suitable for men and women.

Or take for example the 470. The boys now (especially due to the conditions in Qingdao) but normally as well, the boys have to be very light and skinny to suit a 470. A mixed combination could be the perfect solution for this problem. And also here it has been proven in the past that it is possible (1984 Olympics with Cathy Foster and Pete Newlands).

And with this approach, you can solve the whole situation by keeping the wide diversity, still cover all the ranges in sport, keep all the sailors happy and most important of all not put our sport in danger of losing its Olympic status!

Which is exactly what is happening now by removing the Multihull and not introducing the High Performance.

Regards,

Carolijn"

2007-04-05T18:32:00.000+01:00

This blog has moved to a new address, SailJuiceBlog.com

You might want to take a peek at my first post there, it's causing quite a stir...

Here's an excerpt:

"Olympic sailing is at a critical juncture. The IOC has handed ISAF the task of whittling down the existing 11 categories that will be represented at Qingdao 2008, down to just 10 for Weymouth 2012. A game of musical chairs then.

An almighty blood bath, more likely. Have no doubt that this November in Estoril, Portugal, there will be more backstabbing going on than when Julius Caesar unwittingly strolled into the Roman Senate for the last time."

Read on for the rest...

2007-03-27T20:04:00.000+01:00

Clone Wars

Just arrived in Valencia, and went out for a look at the America's Cup boats training. Even though the wind was only blowing about 12 to 14 knots, there were some big, sloppy waves left over from the strong winds the night before. It looked like very wet work for the bowmen as they stood on the bows going into some practice pre-starts.

All in, there were 16 boats that I counted out there today: two Alinghis, two Luna Rossas, two BMW Oracles, two Mascalzones, and two Emirates Team New Zealands, all going through private in-house training sessions; and doing some friendly races against each other were: +39 v Germany, Desafio v Victory, and Areva v Shosholoza.

This is one of the last days of training for the teams before Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13 kicks off next week. We watched +39 and Germany roll off the line, the Italians claiming the pin while the Germans split to the right. When they came back together after about half a mile of sailing, Iain Percy's team were comfortably ahead of Jesper Bank's crew. Very hard to draw any conclusions from where we were, but that sort of gain had to be down mainly to better wind rather than any inherent boatspeed advantage. Encouraging nevertheless for the underpractised +39 crew.

Victory and Desafio had a very aggressive pre-start, with the Spanish coming off the pin and the Swedes taking the committee boat end on port tack. They then proceeded into a tight duel up the beat and we didn't hang around long enough to see which team succeeded in exerting an advantage.

It's also pretty hard to tell which boat is which among some of the teams. There were two NZL-92s out there for the Kiwis, and two ITA-99s engaged in some private Mascalzone match racing. But it was great to see the boats chugging along in some good wind and waves. Let's hope Valencia can surprise with some more wind and wave action for the coming weeks and months.

2007-02-25T19:28:00.000Z

A Laser dinghy for fatties?

Does the Rooster 8.1 have a future as the Laser for the 'larger sailor'? Clearly Laser champion Steve Cockerill thinks so, because his company Rooster Sailing has just finished developing a new souped-up rig for the standard Laser dinghy. Taking the basic Laser, Cockerill has added a taller lower mast section which, combined with the existing top section, supports a Dacron/Mylar radial-cut sail measuring 8.1 square metres. This compares with the 7.06 square metres of a standard Laser rig, and Cockerill is pitching the Rooster 8.1 at sailors weighing around 90kg, as opposed to the 80kg or thereabouts for the standard rig.

Cockerill appears to have put a lot of thought into the design of the bigger sail, and it should last a good deal longer than the lo-tech and overpriced sail that comes with the standard Laser. According to Cockerill: "The Rooster 8.1 sail is constructed with long life and performance in mind. In addition to 4oz Dacron cloth in the main body, the leech is constructed of Mylar, as this is where the highest loads occur. This means that permanent leech stretch is reduced to almost zero. Leech flutter in between battens is eliminated. The bi-radial construction contributes to increased cloth stability and so making the sail easier to control its power. The large window also helps with visibility when racing. Mainsheet loads are slightly less than the Standard rig, and vang loads are slightly higher. The rig is more like a Jaguar than a Porsche, which means you get a steady power delivery upwind. Its downwind performance is amazing once you are past the beam and planing is easy in most conditions. Rudder loads are reduced too."

It will be interesting to see what reaction Cockerill gets from the market. It will be competing against a few well-established rivals in the British sailing scene, such as the Olympic Finn and the Phantom singlehander. But the Rooster 8.1 is a very economic solution for any Laser sailor that feels a bit porky for the Standard rig; £350 buys you a sail with battens and the special lower mast section, which is a few quid less than the cost of a standard Laser sail (RRP £389). You also get free membership of the fledgling Rooster 8.1 Class Association, and Cockerill says a racing circuit and even a National Championships is on the way. He plans to officially launch the class this coming weekend (3/4 March 2007) at the Dinghy Sailing Show in London, although he has already taken 15 advance orders for the new rigs.

Click here for further information from RoosterSailing.com

2007-02-21T23:37:00.000Z

Two little Cherubs

One class that has everything to gain and nothing to lose from this April's trial for a new women's Olympic skiff is the Cherub. With two of the five entries being based on the Cherub development class - the Daemon and the GT60 - the global profile of this exciting but little-known 12-footer will never be higher. Not only that, but even if these two entries don't get selected, there will now be a choice of two very well sorted, off-the-shelf packages available for potential Cherub owners. At the moment the Cherub class attracts the keen DIY enthusiasts, the garden shed tinkerers who don't mind getting elbow deep in epoxy and carbon dust. In the cash-rich time-poor world of the 21st century, the idea of building or repairing your own home-build contraption just doesn't appeal to most of us. Come what may in Hyeres this April, at least these two boats will offer an easier way into the Cherub fleet for those who just want to go sailing. And what if one of these two boats does win selection? Well, the Cherub could become sailing's answer to Olympic beach volleyball!

2007-02-18T23:54:00.000Z

Five entries for women's Olympic skiff trials

Five boats will line up for the Women's High Performance Dinghy Evaluation Event this April in the south of France, to determine which boat will go forwards for selection as a new Olympic class. The 29erXX, RS800, Cherub Daemon, Carbonology GT60 and International 14 have all submitted their entries to the Evaluation Event, which will be held in Hyères, France from 16-19 April 2007.

This looks like a strong field of potential Olympic skiffs, and couldn’t come at a better time, as the Yngling shows serious signs of failure as a viable Olympic women’s keelboat. Only last week, top Yngling sailor Carol Cronin announced her retirement from Olympic campaigning after the Miami Rolex Olympic Classes Regatta. She wrote, “We just finished our 2007 US Sailing Team qualifiers. Sixteen teams from around the world came to Miami, and jockeying for a front row start or an inside overlap with this elite group showed us how much the world level has climbed since last summer's Yngling Worlds.

“After a lot of thought and discussion, we have decided to end our Olympic campaign effective immediately. Only two US teams competed in the ranking regattas: Team Cronin and Team Seven (Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe, and Debbie Capozzi). Our retirement means Team Seven will represent the US at the 2008 Olympics in Qingdao, China.” So, the Olympic trials for the USA are over before they have even begun because there aren’t two teams with the sufficient resources or interest to go to the Games in China. This is not a developing nation we are talking about, it’s the USA, probably the biggest keelboat sailing nation in the world! If they can’t muster more than one team for the Olympics, what hope for the rest of us?

While disappointing in one sense, the Yngling’s fall from grace (if indeed it ever ascended to grace) should make life easier for ISAF this November at the Federation’s Annual Conference in Athens. The International Olympic Committee has decreed that sailing must reduce the Olympic disciplines from 11 in China to 10 for the London 2012 Games.
The Yngling’s departure should be a no-brainer, with its place being taken by the new women’s skiff. Then it is a matter of deciding which of the remaining classes is to get the chop, and that is where the debate becomes a whole lot more difficult. That’s a discussion we’ll save for another day!

2007-02-16T09:30:00.000Z

F18 Worlds debut for Volvo Race winner

The Basilica sponsored crew of Robert and Peter Greenhalgh is in final preparations for the 2007 F18 World Titles in Australia, the first to be held outside of Europe. This year’s F18 Worlds, which take place between 17th and 25th February in Yeppoon, Queensland, will kick off Basilica’s season of cat sailing and will be the Greenhalgh brothers’ first time competing in the F18 Class. The pair will be looking to perfect their catamaran racing skills ahead of the Extreme 40 racing series and iShares Cup later in the year.

Former ABN AMRO helmsman and Volvo Ocean Race winner Robert Greenhalgh and his brother Peter will be using the days running up to the F18 racing, to get to grips with their Basilica-sponsored Capricorn Catamaran and the racing conditions along the central Queensland coast. The competition is set to be tough, with over 15 different nations and up to 160 boats taking part, the Greenhalghs will be looking for a top 20 finish.

2007-02-14T13:43:00.000Z

Rumours in Valencia

The rumour mill in Valencia is in full swing, with less than two months to go before Louis Vuitton Act 13 kicks off. Is there any substance to the rumour that Areva has been getting the better of Luna Rossa in some informal racing sessions? And what price will Areva pay for breaking the rules when they got hold of photos of Luna Rossa when the Italians were training in private? Will it be a financial or points penalty for the French? And bowsprits - are they in or out? Last year BMW ORACLE turned up with a bowspritted USA-87. This year USA-98 has none, while other teams have arrived in Valencia WITH bowsprits! Who's right, who's wrong? The fun has certainly begun.

2007-02-13T10:55:00.000Z

$2m says you should learn how to sail cats!

With Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard announcing details of their new World Sailing League, there's never been a better time to be a catamaran sailor. With the prospect of 12 teams each of 10 sailors, travelling the world to contest a grand prix racing circuit with $2 million for the winner, it seems like a good time to brush up on your cat sailing skills. Or learn some if you don't have any!

2007-02-11T12:15:00.000Z

Victory punch-up in Dubai

While Victory Challenge's new boat SWE-96 has arrived in Valencia to be readied for battle in the Louis Vuitton Cup this summer, the Swedes have been out in Dubai knocking 10 bells out of each other in the old workhorses SWE-63 and SWE-73. British veteran Chris Law has been Magnus Holmberg's sparring partner, and so fierce was the duelling that they knocked the transom off one boat! I bet the shore crew thanked the sailors for that one!

2007-02-10T11:39:00.000Z

Larson and Spaulding win twice

For a team doing a part-time Olympic campaign in the highly-demanding 49er skiff class, Americans Morgan Larson and Pete Spaulding are doing pretty well. After winning a nailbiter of a Medal Race at Miami Rolex OCR Regatta, they just edged out the British team Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes for Gold. And to prove it was no fluke the Larson/Spaulding duo dominated the follow-on regatta, the North American Championships, winning with a race to spare. Not bad for a helmsman that is full-time training with the Swedish America's Cup campaign Victory Challenge in Valencia and Dubai, and not bad for a crew who is completing his studies at Purdue University, Indiana...

2007-02-09T11:00:00.000Z

Paige Railey overdoes the kinetics in Miami

Paige Railey is one of the hot prospects for Gold in the Olympics next year, but only if she can curb her kinetic instincts. At the Miami Rolex Olympic Classes Regatta recently she fell foul of the three-strikes-and-you're-out rule in Racing Rule 42, which governs kinetic movements in sailing. She was thrown out of the regatta after the jury penalised her a third time. Railey is going to have to learn to sail within the limits of the rules (as perceived by the umpires). But at the same time this is a ridiculous and draconian measure for a relatively trivial infringement. By all means throw a competitor out of a race on the third infringement, but throw them out of the regatta? That's a little bit excessive, methinks...

2007-01-29T16:59:00.000Z

Vrolijk to design Mean Machine

Mean Machine has announced that Rolf Vrolijk (right in photo) is to design the team’s Volvo Open 70 for the next Volvo Ocean Race. With Ericsson having already snapped up Juan Kouyoumdjian in an exclusive deal, and with Farr Yacht Design bound to make a strong return for 2008/09, the next race is shaping up to be the most competitive offshore design contest witnessed for some time. Add to that the uncertainties of a new course that takes the race fleet to uncharted waters in the Far East (in V.O.R. terms at least) and the design challenge will be fascinating. This is what the Mean Machine press release had to say today.

Mean Machine have officially announced that Rolf Vrolijk and his team are to design the Mean Machine Volvo Open 70 which will race in the round the world Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009.
Mean Machine is the second official entry in this edition of the race, and yet again, they’ve chosen to trust in Vrolijk and his talented design team, to capture the spirit of sailing excellence that characterises what has become a global sailing platform over the last few years, spanning many different projects and classes.

The fact that Vrolijk has been named as the man to bring the Mean Machine VO 70 to life is no coincidence. One can look back as far as 20 years to see that a considerable number of the team’s successes have had the Vrolijk touch.

These two decades of teamwork have borne a healthy list of successes, which are all down to the special chemistry that comes from putting talent such as Mean Machine, Vrolijk and Peter de Ridder (left in photo) together. It’s a unique and special formula that few can enjoy.

Rolf Vrolijk explains the Mean Machine relationship: “It’s built on a long term relationship of trust between Peter De Ridder, the team and I. We’ve done several projects together and they have been very successful. We have also always worked as a team with the sailors and the feedback in both directions has worked very well for us. I think I can say that my relationship with Peter is very much like a friendship and over the years we have got to know each other very well.”

Echoing these words, Peter de Ridder explains that the special working relationship really has yielded a recipe for success: “I have had a very good and longstanding relationship with Rolf, since the mid-eighties. We work very well together and we both only need a few words to make ourselves clear to each other. Each time, the design process has become even more of a dialogue, which has ultimately meant that we’ve always built the boat with the exact characteristics we were aiming for. Also Rolf and Fietje Judel and all their staff are very easy to approach and to share ideas with.”

It all began back in 1985 with the very first Mean Machine (former Rubin), a Judel/Vrolijk One Tonner that Peter de Ridder took to the 1986 One Ton Cup in Mallorca. The boat finished in sixth place overall out of a fleet of thirty-five, and that was with a 100% amateur crew.

Following this success the Mean Machine fleet continued to grow, mainly under the watchful eye of the Judel/Vrolijk team . This saw brand new additions to the fleet, as succesful as the ILC 40 Mean Machine and the TP 52, which Peter de Ridder, along with Ray Davies and Dirk de Ridder sailed to victory in 2006 to take the most coveted of Mediterranean titles, the Breitling MedCup 2006.

Now there’s another design challenge on the drawing board, as Vrolijk, his team, Peter de Ridder and Mean Machine prepare to build a new piece of team history together. A compact expert team has been brought together which boasts names such as Judel/Vrolijk & co engineering gmbh in charge of design and the design team coordination, Dirk Kramers & Steve Koopman SDK on structural engineering, and Michael Richelsen overlooking CFD/VPP and tank testing support.

The 2008/09 Volvo Ocean Race will bring this Dutch dream-team together yet again. Peter de Ridder knows they’ve made the right choices: “Rolf is a very talented and gifted designer who is still very much engaged with and committed to the projects he’s running. With such a talented designer with such a good team of people around him such as Dirk Kramers and Michel Richelsen, I don’t see any reason at all why we can’t go on to build a potential winner”.

Meanwhile, Rolf is very hopeful about this latest challenge: “This is a great challenge for our design team. We have been involved in several round the world projects in the past with a great deal of success such as Philips Innovator, Equity and Law, Brunel Synergy, and Bank von Bremen. This is the most professional approach I’ve seen so far and that’s what’s so attractive to us. It’s clear to us that without an outstanding sailing team and expert organization you are never going to win this race.”

For more information on the team, click here www.mean-machine.nl

2006-11-01T20:08:00.000Z

Shattered shades

With the Rolex Middle Sea Race done and dusted, today's new task was to get up to speed with the Velux 5 Oceans round-the-world race and write some stories for the website. Spoke to Mike Golding on the satellite phone this morning, who was sporting some devil's horns that his son Soren had put on board for Hallowe'en. Didn't make contact with Alex Thomson but was amused to read his update from the boat. Alex managed to jam in two crafty product placement plugs in the space of a couple of sentences:

“I managed to fall on my favourite BOSS sunglasses last night so will have to commit them to the bin and break out a new pair. They were useful yesterday as a windscreen in the pouring rain but this morning the sun will come up and the eyes need their shades. The weather ahead looks light for a time and after that we will see some much awaited trade winds, downwind champagne sailing, Mumm of course...”

Keep your eyes peeled for more Hollywood-style below-the-line promotional tactics between now and Fremantle. To read more stories from the race, go to www.velux5oceans.com

2006-10-31T19:32:00.000Z

Malta rocks!
Just got back from Malta, covering the Rolex Middle Sea Race. What a fantastic place. Not much wind for the race - at least not until the big boats had finished, and then it started blowing a beautiful Force 4. Still, entries were at a record 68 and people seem to want to come back for more. I flew in the helicopter with legend photographer Carlo Borlenghi and legend-in-his-own-lunchtime cameraman Matt Conner and watched Alfa Romeo tearing through the fleet at a phenomenal rate (the smaller boats started first). The ability to make your wind - eg 5 knots boatspeed in 2 knots true wind - is pretty useful when the breeze is in short supply, but it wasn't enough to break Zephyrus IV's course record set in 2000. It's incredible the record has stood so long in the face of such massive advances in technology, but even SuperMaxis need a good breeze to get them really motoring. As it turned out, the 30 to 40-footers got the best of the breeze long after the Maxi crews had jetted home. Let's hope the big boats come back next year, and that they are rewarded with better breeze. Commodore Georges Bonello duPuis and his crew at Royal Malta Yacht Club do a great job and the event deserves to get even bigger. If you want to read my press releases from the event, go to www.regattanews.com

2006-09-14T23:40:00.000+01:00

"It's sailing Jim, but not as we know it..."

Yesterday I spoke to Chris Draper, who has just won the 49er Gold medal at the Olympic Test Regatta in Qingdao. Chris was still out in China having done a bit of coaching for the British 470 team at the World Championships 50 miles up the road from Qingdao. Apparently the wind was great! The Olympics should have been there maybe, but no use crying over spilt milk. The Games is in Qingdao and a big part of who wins medals in 2008 is who accepts it for what it is. When tidal strength often exceeds wind strength, we can't exactly look forward to the most thrilling of TV spectacles, but the results from the recent Test Regatta at least show that even in these wacky conditions the cream still rises to the top. I was interviewing Chris for an article I've just written for the forthcoming issue of Seahorse Magazine. The one thing I didn't mention from our conversation was Chris's view of China after spending a month living there, with his nostrils full of burnt-coal grime and pollution. Chris's analysis of the place: "It's minging!"

2006-09-10T00:43:00.000+01:00

Mascalzone Latino breezes to a long cherished victory

Vincenzo Onorato has finally won the Rolex Farr 40 World Championships, a title that has consistently eluded him since he first took part in 1999. The first three days of the regatta were light wind affairs, but with the sea breeze blowing up to 18 knots today, Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino team turned in a masterful performance.

In the first race, Eivind Astrup sailed Norwegian Steam to his second win of the week, although the greater threat to Onorato’s overnight lead was Opus One, with German owner Wolfgang Stolz snatching a 3^rd compared with Mascalzone’s 6^th. In the next race it was Evolution’s turn to take the lead, with Richard Perini finally showing some of the form that earned him the world title in Sydney last year. However, another regatta underperformer - in the form of Steve Howe’s Warpath - stole the lead to win the race from Evolution, although of greater interest to the front runners was Mascalzone Latino incurring a 720-degree penalty turn at the first windward mark.

That could have been Onorato’s championship lost right there, but the determined Neapolitan grabbed back 12 places on the next downwind leg and recovered to 13^th by the end of the race. Meanwhile Opus One had sailed another solid race and Stolz’s 7^th place moved him to within three points of Mascalzone Latino.

Onorato refused to be ruffled by the 720 penalty. He said the key to winning this week was to “be cool, be concentrated”. He praised tactician Russell Coutts for keeping the crew calm and focussed: “Even if things went wrong, I was not upset. Before the last race, Russell told me, ‘This is the time to win race.’ I said, ‘Can we?’ And he said, ‘Of course!’ And we won the race.”

Indeed they did, with Mascalzone Latino launching off the middle of the start line in clear air, leading around the windward mark and dominating the final race from start to finish. Going into that race, Barking Mad was still in contention despite a lacklustre 13,9 from the earlier heats. At the windward mark Jim Richardson rounded second behind Onorato, and while the local Newport sailor knew that his chance of victory was slipping away, he was at least looking good for second overall.

Things changed dramatically down the final run to the finish. The wind softened and shifted right at the same time. The boats that gybed early profited from the sudden change in conditions, while Barking Mad was left stranded on one side. The American team dropped from 2^nd to 12^th in one leg. Meanwhile Australian boat Ichi Ban slipped down the right side of the run to finish 6^th and claim the runner-up spot in the championship. “That final leg was indicative of our whole regatta,” said Barking Mad tactician Terry Hutchinson. “Obviously there was a shift there and I missed it. We sailed into a light spot, and the fleet sailed by. We didn’t quite have it today, didn’t quite have it the whole regatta. We battled the entire week. But it just makes you appreciate how hard winning is.” Barking Mad finished third overall.

Another boat that got left stranded on the final run was Opus One, who just missed out on the podium. Wolfgang Stolz commented: “The last run was a bitter disappointment, dropping 15 places, running out of breeze. But we’re very pleased to have got a top 10 result this week.” The German crew finished fourth overall.

Ichi Ban’s owner Matt Allen was delighted to have grabbed second overall. “We’re ecstatic, it’s a great result. Vincenzo, Russell and the guys did a great job and never really opened the door for anyone. They sailed a great regatta and they deserved to win.”

Vincenzo Onorato has won many championships before, but for him this victory is the sweetest of all. “I have won four world championships as a helmsman, in IMS racing and in the Mumm 30, but this is the best. Sometimes I have won when I didn’t deserve it, but this time we deserved to win. The Farr 40 is the best offshore boat in the world, she’s beautiful, she’s like a nice blonde. This is the best time of my life.”

2006-09-09T03:20:00.000+01:00

Mascalzone clings on to the lead

It wasn’t even as though they had a spectacular day, but Vincenzo Onorato’s team on Mascalzone Latino found themselves having increased their lead in the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship. Mainsheet trimmer Adrian Stead commented: “The first race was very good, scoring a third. The second and third races we were mid-line and going right - with the left paying - so they were recovery races. Last race we did a pretty awesome recovery on the first beat to come back from 27^th to 11^th, although we didn’t convert it, coming in 15^th. There were plenty of snakes and ladders out there, and we did OK, probably fourth best boat of the day, and we extended on Barking Mad.”

Jim Richardson’s local team clung on to second overall with scores of 7,24,6. While Mascalzone and Barking Mad retained their places on the leaderboard from the night before, behind them all sorts of place changing was going on. Biggest beneficiary from today’s three light-wind races on Rhode Island Sound was Cannonball, with Dario Ferrari posting an incredible set of scores – 5,5,3 – to leap 11 places up the rankings to fourth overall. The Italian owner was bubbling over with excitement. “I have just decided to give up sailing, because after today I will never repeat anything like that. This proved what a fantastic class the Farr 40 is. It shows that anyone can win in this fleet."

For the rest of my story, go to the official Rolex sailing website

2006-09-09T02:57:00.000+01:00

Mascalzone Latino moves to the top

Light and shifting winds brought massive changes to the leaderboard on day two of the Rolex Farr 40 World Championships. Mascalzone Latino put together the best scores for the day, coming 4^th in the next. That was enough to put Vincenzo Onorato’s team at the top of the scoreboard, 4 points ahead of a similarly consistent Barking Mad. Flash Gordon suffered a difficult day after making bad starts off the line, although Helmut Jahn’s two victories the previous day are sufficient to keep him in third overall.

Russell Coutts, the tactician on board Mascalzone Latino, explained the thin line between success and failure in this hard-fought 38-boat fleet. “Today we had some breaks, some good starts, and if you can get off the line cleanly it puts you in the top 15, and from there it’s a battle. We didn’t make any big mistakes, whereas yesterday I didn’t manage that second race very well. I allowed myself to get pinned out to the left and we rounded fourth last. In a fleet this size you just can’t afford to get pinned out to the wrong side.”

For more on this story, click on the official Rolex website

2006-09-07T16:46:00.000+01:00

Flash Gordon on fire at Rolex Farr 40 Worlds

Helmut Jahn has been racing Farr 40s for eight years but he has never shown the sort of form that he is displaying this week in Newport, Rhode Island. It seems that the past year and a half he's got serious about campaigning this toughest of keelboat classes, signing up up-and-coming sailor Mike Ivey as tactician and Ed Adams as coach.

Here's an excerpt from a piece I wrote for the event:

Flash Gordon was firing on all cylinders today while other leading lights stalled out during a tricky opening day at the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in Newport, Rhode Island. The formula for Flash Gordon’s success includes world-renowned architect Helmut Jahn (Chicago, Ill.) steering his Flash Gordon upwind, then handing over to his son Evan downwind. An unorthodox approach, but one that did them no harm in the light south-westerly breeze that blew across Rhode Island Sound.

In the first race of the day, Flash Gordon got a nice start off the pin end of the line, in good company with leading contenders such as 2004 World Champion and winner of last week’s Pre-Worlds, Jim Richardson (Newport, R.I./Boston, Mass.) on Barking Mad. However, where Barking Mad tacked off to protect the middle of the course, Flash Gordon kept on going, rounding the first mark narrowly ahead of Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino (Portoferrio, Italy). Barking Mad dropped to around 10th when tactician Terry Hutchinson’s conservative strategy failed to pay off.

To read more, listen to some audio interviews and see Daniel Forster's great photos, click on this link: http://www.regattanews.com/event.asp?id=138

2006-05-19T20:20:00.000+01:00

Big Four flop in the fleet racing

Alinghi might be leading the fleet racing of the Louis Vuitton Act 11 of the America’s Cup, but generally this was a tough day for the Big Four. BMW Oracle’s approach to the start line of the first race was incredibly late. USA-87 was the last to get on to starboard tack for the final approach and so Chris Dickson never gave himself a chance of a clear air start.

+39 Challenge, on the other hand, did exactly what they needed to in a slow boat, and booked the pin end of the line where Iain Percy could accelerate and put the bow down. Rounding the first mark in third place was a sensational result for the Italian team in the oldest boat on the race course.

Another Italian team, Luna Rossa, led for the first half of the beat but ITA-86 seemed to fall out of phase with the shifts – if indeed there was a phase to the shifts. Francesco Bruni, who works the traveller on the boat, later explained that because of the sloppy waves the team decided not to send a man up the rig. The waves were out of all proportion to the six-knot breeze, and it was hard to keep boats moving. Bruni said: “To reduce the pitching of the boat we decided not to send anyone up the mast. We missed a big shift to the right and arrived at the top mark with a bunch of boats. We tried a risky tack and we thought we were alright, but the umpires judged that we tacked too close and gave us a penalty.”

So having rounded the mark in 8^th, after the penalty the Italians dropped to 10^th and they never recovered from there. BMW Oracle rounded in 4^th but could make nothing of it, dropping to 9^th by the finish. Alinghi climbed from 9^th to a not particularly inspiring 6^th at the end. Of the big teams, only the Kiwis made anything of that first race, although even they were pipped at the post for 3^rd place by +39, of all teams.

So who did do well? Victory Challenge, who led around the first mark after hooking into a good right-hand shift. Perhaps it was the inspiration of multiple Olympic medallist, Lord Sebastian Coe, who was riding as 18^th man on the Swedish boat. Whatever it was, Magnus Holmberg’s team were on fire, winning by over a minute and a half from another surprise package, Mascalzone Latino.

The second race ran a little more to form but not by much. This time it was Alinghi’s turn to dominate, BMW Oracle again nowhere to be seen. It was the first time the Americans were racing with their jumperless rig, and people were wondering if that was the problem. But it really wasn’t a day for assessing speed. Today was about plain good sailing, and what today revealed is that every team has talented seat-of-the-pants sailors in their midsts. Light and fluky is not the most thrilling spectacle, but it certainly shakes up the pack nicely.

2006-05-17T18:04:00.000+01:00

BMW strolls the last race

As expected it was a pretty one-sided affair in the re-match that was called off earlier in the week, between BMW Oracle and +39 Challenge. But as +39’s tactician, Ian Walker, commented yesterday, “We’re certainly not going to learn anything sitting in a coffee bar with hangovers.” So they went sailing with hangovers instead. But Iain Percy and his gang did as well as they could in a dog of an old boat, winning a marginal advantage at the start but unable to do anything with it. ITA-59 is just plain slow below 10 knots wind, and today’s race barely saw more than 6 knots.

I spoke to Percy afterwards, and asked if he had even seen a glimmer of hope of beating BMW ORACLE today. “No,” he said, matter of factly. “If we were racing in 15 knots, yes, but in that wind? No. I don’t want to make the mistake – which I did against Alinghi - of doing something radical. That’s not the way to learn. Where are you in a year’s time? You’ve got to take your weather calls, pick your right side, then you one-tack up and make the cross - normally. Of course you’re not going to do that when you’re 3/10s of a knot slower, but we got to sail BMW Oracle today. You still learn from that.“

Even BMW Oracle’s tactician Bertrand Pacé reckoned they got something out of the one-sided encounter. “We are learning each time we go on the water. It’s quite hard to understand what’s going on with the wind here. We try to learn with the weather team.” While the weather remains difficult to fathom, there is a quiet confidence about the team when talking about USA-87. Pacé said: “This boat is tacking quite well, and I think this boat is quicker in the light and quicker in the heavy. It’s not much, maybe two boatlengths faster in a beat, but it’s quite enough to stay there when you have a bad shift, and make a good gain when you get a good shift.”

Two boatlengths in this game is an awful lot. And when you combine that with the boat’s ability to snap through the tacks, it’s a potent combination. But how much speed has the team sacrificed for that manoeuvrability, or can you really have the best of both worlds? Pacé doesn’t think so. “Everything is a trade-off. To get this boat we have probably compromised the speed but that’s what we needed to do for this racing. It’s hard to know the answer yet.”

2006-05-16T20:06:00.000+01:00

Alinghi still holding the aces

BMW Oracle’s victory in Louis Vuitton Act 10 proves that America’s Cup racing is not always won on pure speed. Pundits around Valencia have been marvelling at the ability of USA-87 to turn through an incredibly tight turning circle – a valuable trait not only for pre-start manoeuvring but for executing the killer move that Chris Dickson pulled on the Italians aboard Luna Rossa.

After the young (but older than his years) James Spithill won the better start and bounced Dickson off to the right just seconds after the gun fired, Luna Rossa seized control of the match in the early stages. Things were always nip and tuck between these two brand new Version 5 hulls, but Spithill still appeared to be holding the upper hand as he approached the windward mark on starboard tack. Dickson went to duck (the first and only dip of the regatta) the transom of ITA-86 and Spithill bore away accordingly, looking to make life as difficult as possible for Dickson.

But USA-87 dipped the Italian stern and almost immediately Dickson span the wheel into a tack. Now having dipped a transom and then immediately rounded up the other way into a tack, you might have thought the Italians would have enough pace on to be able to tack onto port and squeeze across the Americans to lead round the windward mark. Clearly that’s what Spithill was thinking because he held on to the very end before both boats luffed to avoid a collision. It was a clear penalty, and from there the Italians faced an uphill struggle that they never overcame. Act 10 went to Larry Ellison, who steered his own boat across the finish line.

Mainsheet trimmer Jonathan McKee defended Spithill’s error of judgement when talking to the media after racing. “If we didn’t get across them, it was unlikely we were going to win the race. There wasn’t any other very appetising option, really.” But he did concede that USA-87 has some impressive qualities. “They do seem pretty good tacking. Whether it’s their technique, or their sails or something else - I’m not in a very good position to speculate on that.”

As for straightline boatspeed, observers thought the Kiwis’ new boat looked pretty tasty, while USA-87 and ITA-86 appeared to struggle at times. But no one really knows what subtle games are being played out there. Without actually saying it, Chris Dickson hinted in a press conference at the beginning of the week that they might not be revealing their full hand. Sandbagging is definitely on the agenda at this stage. At times, USA-87 has looked quite ordinary and at others quite extraordinary. A few people round the media centre certainly believe Dickson is holding back.

Alinghi’s fourth-place finish doesn’t sound great, but the challengers remain concerned about Swiss potential. SUI-75 is still a good boat, as McKee pointed out. “She’s not slow, and they still have two new boats to come, so they’re not in a bad position, but for sure the gap has been closed. That’s good news for all of us and probably good news for the event too.”

Terry Hutchinson was less optimistic. “You have to wonder what they have sitting in that shed over there. They were at least half a generation ahead of everyone in 2005, so if they make another generation jump, they’ll be another half-generation ahead of where the challengers are now. They’re obviously very good at what they do, so I think we all have our work cut out. We need to press on it for the next year.”

Vasco Vascotto, skipper of Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia, was most forthright of all. He belittled the design efforts of the big challengers. “Alinghi continues to be the benchmark. This means that the strongest teams have already thrown away a new boat just to get to where Alinghi was. This is good news for the smaller teams that will only build one boat.”

2006-05-15T21:00:00.000+01:00

A chink in the armour

It took until the dying gasps of the 2005 season before Alinghi yielded a match race to another team. Then on that very last day of match racing in Sicily, the invincible Defender lost boat races, one to K-Challenge and the other to BMW Oracle. Apart from that, 31 out of 33 victories was an ominous display from the Swiss, suggesting they could hold on to the Cup beyond 2007.

It took just two days of the 2006 season before Alinghi fell to another team. Yes, the team are still using the boat from last year, SUI-75, but their moments of weakness have come from lapses of concentration at the starts. Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team last year was a team that could barely get out of its own way, let along anyone else’s. With a number of disputes between the team and some key personnel, internal political struggle looked set to overwhelm the Italian campaign. And so when the red boat ITA-77 squared up to SUI-75 in the pre-start, few expected anything other than a walkover for the Defender.

But it seems that some of the firings and hirings in Mascalzone have done the team some good. There have been some key additions to the Mascalzone afterguard, among them the young Danish match racing duo, helmsman Jes Gram-Hansen and tactician Rasmus Kostner. These two have sailed together for years on the World Match Race Tour and have been looking for a way into the Cup scene. Having been given their break with Mascalzone the Danish friends are making the most of the opportunity. Where Alinghi was a couple of heartbeats late to the line, Jes Gram-Hansen took ITA-77 across the line on the B of BANG.

In times past, you could have relied on Mascalzone tripping over their own shoe laces while Alinghi cruised serenely by. And helmsman Ed Baird did indeed find a way past the Italians before the top of the first leg. But ITA 77 was close enough and fast enough to overtake the Swiss on the first downwind run, and the match was back on. Eventually SUI-75 brought her superior upwind boatspeed to bear once more, and the Swiss held off Mascalzone by less than a boatlength. A faster boat would have given Mascalzone the win they deserved.

2006-05-15T20:51:00.000+01:00

As a travelling sailing journalist, I get to speak to the world's greatest sailors on a regular basis, so this blog is an insight into the world of grand prix yachting. In the past year I've reported on Olympic events, America's Cup Acts and offshore classics like the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race and the Volvo Ocean Race. Keep on coming back to the Sailing Talk blog for my latest comments.