Sailing News

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tall Ships Races

UK - The Tall Ships Race are sailing into Norway after sailing the North Sea with sailors on 70 classic sailing Tall Ships and yachts. This Tall Ships Race sailed from Liverpool to Maloy Norway.

Tall Ship RaceThe Tall Ships Races are races for sail training Tall Ships (sailing ships). Between 1973 and 2003 they were sponsored by Cutty Sark and called “The Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ Races“. They are currently supported by the city, province and port of Antwerp. The races are held annually in European waters and consists of two racing legs of several hundred nautical miles, and a “cruise in company” between the legs.

The phrase Tall Ship was coined to describe the participating ships. Participating vessels are manned by a largely cadet or trainee crew who are partaking in sail training, 50 percent of which must be aged between 15 and 25 and do not need any previous experience. Thus, Tall Ship does not describe a specific type of sailing vessel, but rather a monohull sailing vessel of at least 9.4 metres that is conducting sail training and education under sail voyages. Participating ships range from yachts to the large square-rigged sail training ships run by charities, schools and navies of many countries.

The Tall Ships’ Races are held every summer in European waters. Each year between 70 and 100 vessels from 15-20 countries, crewed by some 5-6,000 young people from over 30 countries worldwide, take part in this unique event that combines four days of activities in each port with racing or cruising-in-company between ports. During the race series the young crews get the chance to gain experience by sailing with their contemporaries from other countries while facing the physical and emotional challenges that only the ocean can provide.

A ‘Tall Ship‘ is not necessarily one of the glamorous square-riggers. Entry is open to any monohull sailing vessel of more than 9.14m waterline length, provided that at least 50 percent of the crew are aged between 15 and 25 years and that the vessel meets Sail Training International’s safety equipment requirements.


Tall Ship



Race One Start in Liverpool UK - 11 days
Måløy, Norway


Cruise in Company - five days
Bergen, Norway

Sat 9 August - Tue 12 August
Race Two - eight days
Den Helder, Netherlands Wed 20 August - Sat 23 August


Read more about the Tall Ship Race | digg story


Tall Ship

Monday, July 21, 2008

Sailing at 30 Knots

Sailing at 30 Knots

Read more about the Singlehanded Transpac

Are the Olympics ready for sailing?

Qingdao China Ready for Olympics?

Looks like the algae is mostly clear from the sailing area in Qingdao and is ready for the Olympic sailing events.
Sailing Olympics

But some of the sailors from the US sailing team report that they are still fighting the algae. Read the story by Sarah Mergenthaler here: Sailing at the Olympics

Sarah and her teammate Amanda are sailing off to meet the President at the White house, before sailing back to China for the Olympics.

Sailing across the pond on Bostik

Phil Paxton, Alexia Barrier and Yann Clavier have arrived safe and sound in the North Cove Marina on the Hudson River, onboard the yacht Bostik. They entered the Ambrose Channel today at 10:00 am local time after 15 days 30 minutes across the Atlantic Ocean. Bostik left Cherbourg in France on Sunday July 6th in force 6-7 winds. Those difficult conditions, with head winds and a rough sea, were very hard on the crew with three successive depressions in a row during the beginning of the course of 3.100 nautical miles.

Bostik averaged 9.97 knots across the Atlantic. Bostik will head back home towards Cherbourg in France on Wednesday July 30th.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Olympic Sailing Teams - Beijing Olympics


2008 Olympics - Olympic Sailing

Sailors from 62 nations will take to the world's greatest sporting stage this August as they battle on the Yellow Sea at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Sailing Competition. Confirmation of national places has been received by the International Sailing Federation, along with provisional entry lists detailing the athletes who will compete across the eleven events of the Olympic Sailing Competition.

Entries range from multiple medalists looking to expand their entry in Olympic sailing history to new faces aiming to demonstrate their talent on the world's greatest sporting stage.

Amongst the 62 nations, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates enter athletes to the sailing events of the Olympic Games for the first time.

In total 400 athletes will compete at the Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao, including four of the gold medal winning teams from Athens, who return to defend their titles.

The British Women's Keelboat team also features two of the three crew who won the gold medal in 2004, whilst a further three gold medalists from Athens will compete in different events to those in which they triumphed four years ago.

All the competing athletes will face a new challenge in Qingdao with the introduction of the new Medal Race format for all 11 events.

Following an initial opening series held over five days of racing, the top ten crews will progress to a final Medal Race where points scores are doubled and the 2008 Olympic Champions will be decided.

The confirmation of a place at the Olympic Games is the culmination of four years dedication to pursuing a sporting dream.

Over 2,500 sailors competed at ten qualification regattas across Europe, Oceania and North America to secure their nation a place at the Games, before battling against their national rivals for selection to the team of their National Olympic Committee.

Amongst the sailors who have realized the first part of their Olympic dream are 14 athletes who have received support through the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship Programme.

Great Britain has topped the sailing medal tally at the past two Games and leading their charge again this year will be triple Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie. Ainslie won his first Olympic gold medal in the Laser dinghy in 2000, before switching to the larger Finn to win gold again in Athens four years ago. He will start as a hot favourite to defend that title in the Heavyweight Dinghy event in Qingdao.

The experienced Austrian team of Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher are also aiming for a third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the Multihull event, sailed in the Tornado. Spain's Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez are another of the champions from Athens and will compete again in the high performance 49er dinghy to defend their title in the Skiff event.

Completing the quartet of defending champions is Faustine Merret of France, although this year the Women's Windsurfer event will be contested on the newly designed RS:X board.

Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb of Great Britain also both won gold in 2004 in the Women's Keelboat event along with helm Shirley Robertson. However, the team parted ways after Athens and Ayton took over at the back of the boat to be joined again by Webb and new team mate Pippa Wilson.

Competing in the tactically challenging Yngling keelboat, this crew will be competing against two other gold medal winners from Athens: at the helm of the Norwegian Yngling, Siren Sundby, who won gold in the single-handed Europe dinghy in Athens; and Sofia Bekatorou helming the Greek Yngling, a gold medallist in the two-person 470 four years ago.

The final gold medallist from Athens competing in Qingdao is the great Brazilian sailor Robert Scheidt. After winning two gold and one silver medal along with eight World Championship titles in the one person Laser dinghy, Scheidt has teamed up with Bruno Prada and switched to the Men's Keelboat event in the Star boat.

Other famous Olympians on their way to Qingdao are Barbara Kendall of New Zealand, a triple Olympic medallist in the Women's Windsurfing event and a member of the IOC Athletes' Commission. Competing against her will be her great rival and another three-time Olympic medallist, Alessandra Senseni of Italy.

At the forefront of the challenge from the host nation China will be Athens silver medallists Jian Yin in the Women's Windsurfer event. The young but highly talent Lijia Xu also starts amongst the favorites in the Women's One Person Dinghy event sailed in the Laser Radial.




Beijing 2008 - Olympic Sailing Entry List



Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial

28 entries confirmed, 28 athletes
Argentina - Cecilia CARRANZA
Australia - Sarah BLANCK
Belarus - Tatiana DROZDOVSKAYA
Belgium - Evi VAN ACKER
Canada - Lisa ROSS
Croatia - Mateja PETRONIJEVIC
Finland - Tuula TENKANEN
France - Sarah STEYAERT
Germany - Petra NIEMANN
Great Britain - Penny CLARK
Greece - Eftychia MANTZARAKI
Ireland - Ciara PEELO
Israel - Nufar EDELMAN
Italy - Larissa NEVIEROV
Lithuania - Gintare VOLUNGEVICIUTE
Mexico - Tania ELIAS CALLES
New Zealand - Jo ALEH
Norway - Cathrine GJERPEN
Paraguay - Florencia CERUTTI
Peru - Paloma SCHMIDT
Poland - Katarzyna SZOTYNSKA
PR China - Xu LIJIA
Russia - Anastasia CHERNOVA
Singapore - Man Yi LO
Spain - Susana ROMERO
Sweden - Karin SODERSTROM
Switzerland - Nathalie BRUGGER
USA - Anna TUNNICLIFFE
Netherlands - entry unconfirmed



Men’s One Person Dinghy - Laser

42 entries confirmed, 42 athletes
Argentina - Julio ALSOGARAY
Australia - Tom SLINGSBY
Austria - Andreas GERITZER
Barbados - Gregory DOUGLAS
Brazil - Bruno FONTES
Canada - Mike LEIGH
Chile - Matias DEL SOLAR GOLDSMITH
Croatia - Luka RADELIC
Cyprus - Pavlos KONTIDES
Czech Republic - Martin TRCKA
Denmark - Anders NYHOLM
Dominican Republic - Raul AGUAYO
Estonia - Deniss KARPAK
Finland - Pierre Angelo COLLURA
France - Jean Baptiste BERNAZ
Great Britain - Paul GOODISON
Greece - Evangelos CHIMONAS
Guatemala - Juan I MAEGLI
Hungary - Zsombor BERECZ
Italy - Diego ROMERO
Japan - Yoichi LIJIMA
Korea - Jeemin HA
Luxembourg - Marc SCHMIT
Malaysia - Kevin LIM LEONG KEAT
New Zealand - Andrew MURDOCH
Norway - Kristian RUTH
Poland - Maciej GRABOWSKI
Portugal - Gustavo LIMA
PR China - Shen SHENG
Russia - Igor LISOVENKO
Seychelles - Allan JULIE
Singapore - Seng Leong KOH
Slovenia - Vasilij ZBOGAR
Spain - Javier HERNANDES
Sweden - Rasmus MYRGREN
Switzerland - Christoph BOTTONI
Turkey - Kemal MUSLUBAS
United Arab Emirates - Mohammed ADIL KHALID
Uruguay - Alejandro FOGLIA
USA - Andrew CAMPBELL
US Virgin Islands - Thomas BARROWS LLL
Venezuela - Jose Miguel RUIZ
Netherlands - entry unconfirmed



Men’s Two Person Dinghy - 470

29 entries confirmed, 58 athletes
Argentina - Javier CONTE and Juan DE LA FUENTE
Australia - Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE
Austria - Matthias SCHMID and Florian REICHSTADTER
Belarus - Sergei DESUKEVICH and Pavel LOGUNOV
Brazil - Fabio PILLAR and Samuel ALBRECHT
Canada - Stephen LOCAS and Oliver BONE
Croatia - Sime FANTELA and Igor MARENIC
Finland - Niklas LINDGREN and Heikki ELOMAA
France - Nicolas CHARBONNIER and Olivier BAUSSET
Great Britain - Nick ROGERS and Joe GLANFIELD
Greece - Andreas KOSMATOPOULOS and Andreas PAPADOPOULOS
Ireland - Gerald OWENS and Philip LAWTON
Israel - Gideon KLIGER and Ehud GAL
Italy - Gabrio ZANDONA and Andres TRANI
Japan - Tetsuya MATSUNAGA and Taro UENO
Korea - Cheul YOON and Hyeongtae KIM
Netherlands - Sven COSTER and Kalle COSTER
New Zealand - Carl EVANS and Peter BURLING
Poland - Patryk PIASECKI and Kacper ZIEMINSKI
Portugal - Álvaro MARINHO and Miguel NUNES
PR China - Wang WEIDONG and Deng DAOKUN
Russia - Michael SHEREMETIEV and Maxim SHEREMETIEV
Singapore - Yuan Zhen XU and Seng Kiat Terence KOH
Slovenia - Karlo HMELJAK and Mitja NEVECNY
Spain - Onan BARREIROS and Aaron SARMIENTO
Sweden - Anton DAHLBERG and Sebastian OSTLING
Switzerland - Tobias ETTER and Felix STEIGER
Turkey - Deniz CINAR and Ates CINAR
USA - Stuart MCNAY and Graham BIEHL



Women’s Two Person Dinghy - 470

19 entries confirmed, 38 athletes
Argentina - Fernanda SESTO and Consuelo MONSGUR
Australia - Elise RECHICHI and Tess PARKINSON
Austria - Sylvia VOGL and Carolina FLATSCHER
Brazil - Oliveira FERNANDA and Isabel SWAN
Czech Republic - Lenka SMIDOVA and Lenka MRZILKOVA
France - Ingrid PETITJEAN and Gwendolyn LEMAITRE
Germany - Stefanie ROTHWEILER and Vivien KUSSATZ
Great Britain - Christina BASSADONE and Saskia CLARK
Israel - Nike KORNECKI and Vered BOUSKILA
Italy - Giulia CONTI and Giovanna MICOL
Japan - Ai KONDO and Naoko KAMATA
Netherlands - Marcelien DE KONING and Lobke BERKHOUT
PR China - Wen YIMEI and Yu CHUNYAN
Singapore - Liying TOH and Hui Min Deborah ONG
Slovenia - Vesna DEKLEVA PAOLI and Klara MAUCEC
Spain - Natalia VIA-DUFRESNE and Laia TUTZO
Sweden - Therese TORGERSSON and Vendela SANTEN
Switzerland - Emmanuelle ROL and Anne-Sophie THILO
USA - Amanda CLARK and Sarah MERGENTHALER



Men’s Keeboat - Star
16 entries confirmed, 32 athletes
Australia - Iain MURRAY and Andrew PALFREY
Austria - Hans SPITZAUER and Hans-Christian NEHAMMER
Brazil - Robert SCHEIDT and Bruno PRADA
Croatia - Marin Jr LOVOROVIC and Sinisa MIKULICIC
France - Xavier ROHART and Pascal RAMBEAU
Germany - Marc-Aurel PICKEL and Ingo BORKOWSKI
Great Britain - Iain PERCY and Andrew SIMPSON
Ireland - Peter O'LEARY and Stephen MILNE
Italy - Diego NEGRI and Luigi VIALE
New Zealand - Hamish PEPPER and Carl WILLIAMS
Poland - Mateusz KUSZNIEREWICZ and Dominik ZYCKI
Portugal - Afonso DOMINGOS and Bernardo SANTOS
PR China - Li HONGQUAN and Wang HE
Sweden - Frederik LOOF and Anders EKSTROM
Switzerland - Flavio MARAZZI and Enrico DEMARIA
USA - John DANE III and Austin SPERRY



Women’s Keelboat - Yngling

15 entries confirmed, 45 athletes
Australia - Krystal WEIR, Karyn GOJNICH and Angela FARRELL
Canada - Jennifer PROVAN, Martha HENDERSON and Katie ABBOTT
Finland - Silja LEHTINEN, Maria KLEMETZ and Livia VARESMAA
France - Anne LE HELLEY, Catharine LEPESANT and Julie GERECHT
Germany - Urike SCHUMANN, Ute HOPFER and Julia BLECK
Great Britain - Sarah AYTON, Sarah WEBB and Pippa WILSON
Greece - Sofia BEKATOROU, Sofia PAPADOPOULOU and Virginia KRAVARIOTI
Italy - Calligaris CHIARA, Francesca SCOGNAMILLO and Giulia PIGNOLO
Netherlands - Mandy MULDER, Annemieke BES and Merel WITTEVEEN
Norway - Siren SUNDBY, Alexandra KOEFOED and Lise Birgitte FREDRIKSEN
PR China - Song XIAQUN, Yu YANLI and Li XIAONI
Russia - Ekaterina SKUDINA, Diana KRUTSKIKH and Natalia IVANOVA
South Africa - Dominique PROVOYEUR, Penny ALISON and Kim REW
Spain - Monica AZON, Sandra AZON and Graciela PISONERO
USA - Sally BARKOW, Carrie HOWE and Debbie CAPOZZI



Multihull - Tornado
15 entries confirmed, 30 athletes
Argentina - Santiago LANGE and Carlos ESPINOLA
Australia - Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY
Austria - Roman HAGARA and Hans Peter STEINACHER
Belgium - Carolijn BROUWER and Sebastien GODEFROID
Canada - Oskar JOHANNSON and Kevin STITTLE
France - Xavier REVIL and Christophe ESPAGNON
Germany - Johannes POLGAR and Florian SPALTEHOLZ
Great Britain - Leigh MCMILLAN and Will HOWDEN
Greece - Iordanis PASCHALIDES and Konstantinos TRIGONIS
Italy - Francesco MARCOLINI and Edoardo BIANCHI
Netherlands - Mitch BOOTH and Pim NIEUWENHUIS
PR China - Chen XIUKE and Luo YOUJIA
Spain - Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ
Ukraine - Pavlo KALYNCHEV and Andriy SHAFRANYUK
USA - John LOVELL and Charles OGLETREE



Skiff - 49er

19 entries confirmed, 38 athletes
Australia - Nathan OUTTERIDGE and Ben AUSTIN
Austria - Nico DELLE-KARTH and Nikolaus RESCH AUTNR1
Brazil - Andre FONSECA and Rodrigo DUARTE
Canada - Gordon COOK and Ben REMOCKER
Croatia - Pavle KOSTOV and Peter CUPAC
Denmark - Jonas WARRER and Martin KIRKETERPDENMK3
France - Emmanuel DYEN and Yann ROCHERIEUX
Germany - Jan-Peter PECKOLT and Hannes PECKOLT
Great Britain - Stevie MORRISON and Ben RHODES
Italy - Piero SIBELLO and Gianfranco SIBELLO
Japan - Akira ISHIBASHI and Yukio MAKINO
Norway - Christopher GUNDERSEN and Frode BOVIM
Poland - Marcin CZAJKOWSKI and Krzysztof KIERKOWSKI
Portugal - Jorge LIMA and Francisco ANDRADE
PR China - Li FEI and Hu XIANQIANGE
Spain - Iker MARTINEZ and Xabier FERNANDEZ
Sweden - Jonas LINDBERG and Kalle TORLEN
Ukraine - Rodion LUKA and Georgiy LEONCHUK
USA - Timothy WADLOW and Christopher RAST



Heavyweight Dinghy - Finn
25 entries confirmed, 25 athletes
Australia - Anthony NOSSITER
Brazil - Eduardo COUTO
Canada - Chris COOK
Croatia - Ivan KLJAKOVIC GASPIC
Cyprus - Haris PAPADOPOULOS
Czech Republic - Michael MAIER
Denmark - Jonas HOEGH-CHRISTENSEN
Finland - Tapio NIRKKO
France - Guillaume FLORENT
Great Britain - Ben AINSLIE
Greece - Emilios PAPATHANASIOU
India - Nachhatar Singh JOHAL
Ireland - Timothy GOODBODY
Italy - Giorgio POGGI
Netherlands - Pieter-Jan POSTMA
New Zealand - Dan SLATER
Norway - Peer MOBERG
Poland - Rafal SZUKIEL
PR China - Zhang PENG
Russia - Eduard SKORNIAKOV
Slovenia - Gasper VINCENC
Spain - Rafael TRUJILLO
Sweden - Daniel BIRGMARK
Turkey - Ali Kemal TUFEKCI
USA - Zachary RAILEY


Men’s Windsurfer - RS:X

35 entries confirmed, 35 athletes
Argentina - Mariano REUTEMANN
Belarus - Mikalai ZHUKAVETS
Brazil - Ricardo SANTOS
Chinese Taipei - Chang HAO
Canada - Zac PLAVSIC
Colombia - Santiago GRILLO
Croatia - Luka MRATOVIC
Cyprus - Andreas CARIOLOU
Denmark - Jonas KAELSDO POULSEN
Estonia - Johannes AHUN
France - Julien BONTEMPS
Great Britain - Nick DEMPSEY
Greece - Nikolas KAKLAMANAKIS
Hong Kong - King Yiin CHAN
Hungary - Aron GADORFALVI
Indonesia - Oka SULAKSANA
Israel - Shahar ZUBARI
Italy - Fabian HEIDEGGER
Japan - Makoto TOMIZAWA
Korea - Taehoon LEE
Mexico - David MIER Y TERAN
Netherlands - Casper BOUMAN
New Zealand - Tom ASHLEY
Poland - Przemyslaw MIARCZYNSKI
Portugal - João RODRIGUES
PR China - Wang AICHEN
Russia - Alexey TOKOREV
Slovak Republic - Patrik POLLAK
Spain - Ivan PASTOR
Switzerland - Richard STAUFFACHER
Thailand - Ek BOONSAWAD
Turkey - Ertugrul ICINGIR
Ukraine - Maksym OBEREMKO
USA - Benjamin BARGER
Venezuela - Carlos FLORES


Women’s Windsurfer - RS:X
27 entries confirmed, 27 athletes
Argentina - Florencia GUTIERREZ
Australia - Jessica CRISP
Brazil - Patricia FREITAS
Bulgaria - Irina KONSTANTINOVA-BONTEMPS
Canada - Nikola GIRKE
Cyprus - Gavriela HADJIDAMIANOU
Denmark - Bettina HONORE
Finland - Tuuli PETAJA
France - Faustine MERRET
Great Britain - Bryony SHAW
Greece - Frai ATHINA
Hong Kong - Wai Kei CHAN
Hungary - Diane DETRE
Israel - Maayan DAVIDOVICH
Italy - Alessandra SENSINI
Japan - Yasuko KOSUGE
Mexico - Demita VEGA DELILLE
New Zealand - Barbara KENDALL
Norway - Jannicke STÅLSTRØM
Poland - Zofia KLEPACKA
PR China - Yin JIAN
Russia - Tatiana BAZUK
Spain - Marina ALABAU
Thailand - Napalai TANSAI
Turkey - Sedef KOKTENTURK
Ukraine - Olha MASLIVETS
USA - Nancy RIOS


Sailing at the Olympics by Sport the Library/Jeff Crow

Boat out of its depth


Oops!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Singlehanded transpac solo ocean sailing to Hawaii

Singlehanded Transpac - Sailing from San Francisco to Hawaii ALONE!

The Singlehanded Transpac race from San Francisco to Kauai is no ordinary ocean sailing race. No corporate sponsors, a pile of low-budget boats, and a non-competitive group of ocean racers around are now sailing on their 2400 mile journey from San Francisco California to Kauai Hawaii.

The smallest sailboat in the Singlehanded Transpac is a Cal 20 sailboat named Black Feathers and the biggest is an open 60 yacht named Dogbark. Current Singlehanded Transpac record holder for a monohull sailboat is the Open 60 “Wild Thing” (10 days, 22 hours, 53 minutes) sailed by Ray Thayer. The current Singlehanded Transpac multihull record is held by the late Steve Fossett on the ORMA 60 foot trimaran “Lakota” (7 days, 22 hours, 38 minutes).

Singlehanded transpac

This is the 30 year anniversary of the first Singlehanded Transpac held back in 1978. The TransPac started on July 12 from the Corinthian Yacht Club in San Francisco Bay, and finishes at beautiful Hanalei Bay in Kauai from ‘The Tree’ on the beach.


Read more about the Singlehanded Transpac


Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Ellen MacArthur turns 32

Happy Birthday Ellen MacArthur!

Ellen MacArthur born July 8,1976

World famous sailor Ellen MacArthur, is an english woman from Derbyshire, now based in the famous sailing grounds of Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. Ellen MacArthur is best known as a solo long-distance sailor who can race against the best of men. On February 7th 2005 Ellen broke the world record for the fastest solo sailing circumnavigation of the globe, a feat which made her famous. Francis Joyon, the Frenchman who had held the record before MacArthur, recovered the record again early this year.

Ellen MacArthur

Ellen MacArthur first came to general prominence in 2001 when she came second in the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world sailing race in the boat Kingfisher.

In 2003 she skippered a round-the-world record attempt for a crewed yacht in Kingfisher 2 (a catamaran formerly owned by Steve Fossett and known as ´Orange`), but this attempt failed when the boat broke a mast in the Southern Ocean.



Ellen MacArthur began her attempt to break the solo record for sailing non-stop around the world in November of 2004. During her circumnavigation, she set records for the fastest solo voyage to the equator, past the Cape of Good Hope, past Cape Horn and back to the equator again. Ellen crossed the finishing line on February 7th 2005 beating the old record set by Francis Joyon of France by 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes, 49 seconds.

Upon Ellen’s return to England in February of 2005, it was announced that she was to be made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire becoming, it is believed, the youngest ever recipient of this honor. Ellen MacArthur was also made an honorary Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Naval Reserve on the same day.

Ellen is now heading up BT Team Ellen, a three-person sailing team which includes Australian Nick Moloney and Frenchman Sébastian Josse.



Ellen MacArthur Records

In June 2000, Ellen MacArthur sailed the monohull Kingfisher from Plymouth, UK to Newport, Rhode Island, USA in 14 days, 23 hours, 11 minutes. This is the current record for a single-handed monohull east-to-west passage, and also the record for a single-handed woman in any vessel.

MacArthur’s second place in the 2000-2001 edition of the Vendée Globe, with a time of 94 days, 4 hours and 25 minutes, is the world record for a single-handed, non-stop, monohull circumnavigation by a woman.

In June 2004, Ellen MacArthur sailed her trimaran B&Q/Castorama from Ambrose Light, Lower New York Bay, USA to Lizard Point, Cornwall, UK in 7 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes. This set a new world record for a transatlantic crossing by women, beating the previous crewed record as well as the singlehanded version.

In 2005, Ellen MacArthur beat Francis Joyon’s existing world record for a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation. MacArthur in the trimaran B&Q/Castorama sailed 27,354 nautical miles (50,660 km) at an average speed of 15.9 knots.[6] Her time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds beat Joyon’s then world record time by 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes and 49 seconds. On the 23 November 2007 Joyon set off in IDEC II in an attempt to beat MacArthur’s current world record for a single handed circumnavigation. He achieved this on January 20th 2008 in 57 days, 13 hours 34 minutes and 6 seconds.



read more about Ellen MacArthur




Friday, July 4, 2008

Newport Bermuda Race

Newport

Newport Bermuda Race

Sailing Race

Rhode Island, US - The Newport Bermuda Race sailed out of Newport Rhode Island with sailboats ranging from 100′ mega-yachts to family sailboats.

The Newport Bermuda Race is organized by the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. The race is handicapped with ORR (Offshore Racing Rule) and IRC. The course was from Newport to Bermuda with a first warning gun firing on Friday, June 20, 2008.

The Sail boats sailed from Newport all the way to Bermuda in the Newport Bermuda Race. The maxi yacht Speedboat crossed the line in Bermuda first, then came the boat Rambler.

Following the Newport Bermuda Race, Speedboat will head north and the crew will be on standby for the right weather window to scream across the Pond and try to break the Trans-Atlantic sailing record.

Read more about the Newport Bermuda Race

Round the Island Race

Sailing a yacht around the island of wight in the Round the Island Race (RTI).

Yachts sailing around the island of Wight in the Round the Island Race (RTI).

Sailing round the island of Wight in the Round the Island Race (RTI). Yachts in the UK.

Algae at the Olympics, Olympic sailing course littered with algae.

Workers in China try to remove an algae bloom that has choked up the coastline of Qingdao, the host city of sailing events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, in China. Olympic sailing course.

2008 Summer Olympics: The Olympic sailors on the Olympic sailing teams arrive to find the sailing courses in Qingdao China littered with disgusting stinking green algae.


Read more about the algae on the Olympic sailing course