Sailing News

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Junk Raft Sails from California to Hawaii

Dr. Marcus Eriksen, Joel Paschal and friends created a Junk Raft out of 15,000 recycled bottles, an old Cessna 310 airplane, and other assorted junk. The two men then set off to sail from California to Hawaii.

Sound crazy? Well, they made it!

The Junk Raft has finished sailing from California to Hawaii!

Junk Raft sailed all the way across the Pacific ocean from Long Beach California to Honolulu Hawaii to bring attention to ocean pollution. The Junk Raft arrived in Hawaii at the Ala Wai Canal yesterday!

Read more

Junk Raft

Read More about the Junk Raft:

Across the Pacific on a Pile of Garbage

Junk Raft Completes Voyage to Hawaii

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Pirates in the Mediterranean

The mega-yacht Tiara has been robbed by armed pirates off the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean sea.

These types of pirate attacks on yachts are all to common off the coasts of Africa and in the Far East, but are lucky rather rare in Europe. Until this pirate attack happened on Sunday, there had been no notable piracy attacks on yachts for several years in the Mediterranean.

Read the full story: Pirate Attack in Europe

Pirates on Yacht in the Mediterranean

Pirates on Yacht in the Mediterranean

Corsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and is located west of Italy, southeast of France, and north of the island of Sardinia.

Corsica is considered one of the 26 régions of France, although strictly speaking Corsica is designated as a “territorial collectivity” by law. As a territorial collectivity, it enjoys greater powers than other French régions, but for the most part its status is quite similar. Corsica is referred to as a “région” in common speech, and is almost always listed among the other régions of France. Although the island is separated from the continental mainland by the Ligurian Sea and is much closer to the Italian than to the French mainland, politically Corsica is considered part of Metropolitan France.

Read more about the Pirates of the Mediterranean

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Olympic Sailing

The sailing competitions for the Olympics are taking place in Qingdao, China, near the Qingdao International Marina. Below is a photo of the Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao China where the Olympics are being held for the 2008 Olympic sailing events.

Sailing venue for the Olympics


The Olympic sailing events consist of four classes for men, four for women, and three mixed classes that are open to both men and women. Since the 2004 Olympic Games, three events will be competed on new equipment. The Neil Pryde RS:X has been selected to replace the Mistral for both Men's and Women's sailboard, and the Laser Radial will replace the Europe as the Women's single-handed dinghy.

Races in all events are a sailed in a fleet racing format of ten regular series races (fifteen for the 49er), followed by a Medal Race. The contestants race around the course in a group, and each boat earns a score equal to its finishing position. The nine (thirteen for the 49er) best scores for each boat are summed up for the regular series of races.

The Medal Races are limited to the ten boats with the best overall scores in each event, and are scored double points based on finish position. The Olympic sailing medals in each event are decided based on the overall total points.


READ MORE ABOUT SAILING AT THE OLYMPICS:

Olympics Sailing RSS Feed OLYMPIC SAILING RSS FEED

The Yngling Girls Sailing to Gold at Olympics

The ultimate sailor chicks - The Yngling Girls (aka: Three Blondes in a Boat) of Great Britain have won the sailing gold medal in the Yngling class at the 2008 Olympics in China!

The Yngling Girls take a Olympic gold medal in sailing

Sailing off Qingdao in the medal race in 11-16 knots of wind. With the current ripping downwind and pressure running high, the Yngling Olympic sailing team from Great Britain sailed to glory and won their gold medals.


The USA Yngling sailing team got to compete in the medal race, but tacked short of the windward mark layline and hit the mark on both laps of the race. They were flagged for kinetics just at the finish and had to do a penalty, finally finishing in tenth. They had made comebacks after each penalty but overall encountered too many obstacles to rescue the race. This team had high hopes for a medal, but ended the event in seventh overall out of fifteen Ynglings.

Check out more Olympic sailing news about the Yngling:

  1. Yngling Class
  2. Yngling Class Sailboats
  3. Sailing at the 2008 Olympics - Yngling Race Results
  4. Yngling Medals at the Olympic - Great Britain takes the Gold

Read More about the Yngling medal race here: Olympic Sailing Yngling Medals - Great Britain takes the Gold



Monday, August 11, 2008

Photos from the Olympics

Performing in front of sailboats at the Olympics
Olympic Sailboats by Candy Tan

Olympic Sailboats by Candy Tan

2008 Summer Olympics

Canadas Olympic Sailing Team

Canada's Olympic Sailing Team

Olympic Sailing on the Laser Tom Slingsby

Tom Slingsby is the top Laser sailor in the world, and is now sailing in the Beijing Olympics.

Tom Slingsby

Tom was born on September 5, 1984, and is a Laser sailor from the Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia. Tom is the 2007 world champion in the Laser Radial class and ranked number one in the Laser event going into the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Tom had a promising tennis career ahead but found sailing more to his liking and cut tennis out at 15. Living by the water on the Central Coast of NSW, Tom Slingsby is from a sailing family and first remembers sailing competitively at eight “I’ve looked up to many people along the way. Robert Scheidt, because he’s a great sailor and keeps proving everyone wrong and Michael Blackburn because he’s improved my sailing, I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”

Happy to finish school with the blessing of his parents, Tom opted to sail full time and coaches for pocket money when time provides.

Tom Slingsby scored his first major win at the 2000 Laser Radial Nationals and lots more followed. But Tom lifted his game another notch in 2005 with Laser Olympic class wins at Hyeres and the Holland Regatta.

However disappointment followed. The year was spent working towards a best result at the Worlds for which he was ranked a top three favourite. But on arrival in Brazil a wrong medical diagnoses by local doctors left him sidelined. Tom Slingsby watched as Robert Scheidt won yet another title and Brendan Casey his then rival for the Aussie Olympic place finished sixth.
Now is Tom’s chance to prove he is truly the best in the world!

Check out this is a great interview with Tom Slingsby of the 2008 Australian Olympic Team hours before he races in his first Olympic Games: Sailor in the Spotlight Interview - Tom Slingsby



Sunday, August 3, 2008

Cowes Week

Dark storm clouds made for a dramatic backdrop on the Solent at Cowes Week, where almost 1000 sailing boats took to the race course on the first day of racing!
Read the full story about the King of Cowes


iShares Cup Extreme 40s at Cowes Week. Boats bite the dust!

iShares Cup at Skandia Cowes Week by Rick Tomlinson

iShares Cup at Skandia Cowes Week by Tomlinson


The iShares Extreme 40s where racing in the iShares Cup at Skandia Cowes Week on Saturday off the beach in Cowes at Cowes Week on the island of Wight in the United Kingdom. The wind kicked up to over 22 knots, which proved way too much for the Extreme 40 catamarans.

Between race two and three, the iShares Cup fleet was hit by a terrible squall pitchpoling Team Aqua on her nose. Frank Cammas on BMW Oracle retired after the fourth race when his front beam broke following a collision with sailing team BT.

Read the full story here about Cowes Week - Crash and Capsizes for iShares Cup